Animal Welfare Act cases

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

The USDA Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service on February 19
amended a 1998 complaint against the
Coulston Foundation, of Alamogordo,
New Mexico, for alleged violations of the
Animal Welfare Act to address “grave concerns
regarding the circumstances under
which several chimps recently died,” USDA
undersecretary for regulatory programs
Michael V. Dunn told media. The amended
complaint claims the Coulston Foundation
failed to establish and maintain a program of
adequate veterinary care, and did not make
itself aware of known side effects of veterinary
drugs. Despite a record of repeated
AWA violations resulting in chimp fatalities,
dating at least to 1995, and an allegedly high
rate of veterinary staff turnover, the Air
Force in August 1998 awarded the Coulston
Foundation permanent custody of 111 former
members of the NASA space chimp colony.

Thirty-one other former space chimps are to
go to the San Antonio-area sanctuary
Primarily Primates, which has already
received ten, contingent on Primarily
Primates raising funds adequate to complete
housing for them all before an August 1999
deadline.
Nine southern Oregonians who
formed the biggest and most active alleged
pet theft ring smashed in at least five years
were on February 16 convicted in federal
court of various related charges. Among
them were three members of one family from
Azalea, Oregon. Betty Gayle Davis, 49,
and her husband Bobby Ray Davis, 50,
drew six and four months of house arrest,
respectively, for conspiracy to violate the
Animal Welfare Act. Mrs. Davis was also
ordered to pay restitution to the B r e n t w o o d
Bio-Medical Research Institute in Los
Angeles for expenses the institute incurred in
returning allegedly stolen animals to their
owners. The Davis’ son, Bobby Ray Davis,
32, got 10 days in jail, a $250 fine, and 18
months on probation for alleged theft of a
companion animal. To be sentenced on April
12 for alleged theft of pets are Jerry Ellis
Simpson, 42, and Erika Ann Rust, 25, of
Roseburg; James Daniel Simpson, 33, and
Shannon Danette Simpson, 26, of Myrtle
Creek; and George Dean Marlow, 40, and
Brenda Leigh Van Heck, 32, of Winston.
They allegedly obtained animals both by
grab-and-run theft and by answering free-togood-home
ads.