AZA zoos move to halt suspect animal sales ––and access to information about them

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

SAN JOSE, Calif.––Responding to
a four-part probe of commerce involving former
zoo animals, published in February 1999
by San Jose Mercury-News reporter Linda
Goldston, the American Zoo Association has
halted member zoos’ dealings with the Little
Ponderosa Animal Farm and Auction in
Illinois, Goldston reported on May 28.
The AZA has also begun requiring a
review of animal transfer records as a condition
of accreditation renewal.
“However,” Goldston wrote, “officials
involved with the system for recording
surplus animal dispositions are refusing to
make updates of the information available to
the public,” and International Species
Information System executive director Nathan
R. Flesness demanded unsuccessfully that the
Mercury-News remove from its web site an
analysis of the ISIS animal transfer data during
the years 1982-1988.

REVIEW: The Life of Birds

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

The Life of Birds
Five-volume video series
hosted by David Attenborough
BBC production, distributed by
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
10 hours. $89.98.

Two hours of The Life of Birds cover the
evolution of flight, three examine avian diet, one
focuses on communication, single hours look at
mating, nesting, and parenting, and the last hour
discusses adaptation to hostile environments.
The cinematography may be matched,
but is unlikely to ever be exceeded for drama and
variety, in part because The Life of Birds includes
many rare looks at species seldom seen, native to
the most remote corners of the world, and perhaps
soon to vanish, victims of habitat loss. As the press
materials boast, Attenborough’s crews took ultraslow-motion,
night vision, and micro-mini cameras
to 42 nations, flying 250,000 miles to capture
the most memorable possible shots of more than
300 species, at total cost of $12 million.

Meat-chomping “Chickenman” convicted of assault

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

OTTAWA––Eric Wolf, 26, of Ottawa,
who spent a week in a mock battery cage in 1997
as part of a performance art expose of poultry farming,
was convicted on June 18 of kicking and
punching his former girlfriend Rhonda Major.
Major spent much of the week-long
demonstration in October/November 1997 alongside
the cage, shared by Pamela Meldrum, then
27. Wolf and Meldrum were chosen by artist and
film maker Rob Thompson from among 80 people
who auditioned for the chance to win $2,500 by
enduring the entire week in the cage, which was
placed in a downtown Ottawa storefront. They
were allowed to eat only a vegetarian mush similar
to chicken feed, and were not permitted to have
books, radio, or television.

LEGAL PRECEDENTS

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

A June 23 U.S. Supreme
Court ruling in an unrelated case that
states hold sovereign immunity against
suits filed by individuals under federal
law in state courts appears to reverse, by
implication, a verdict favorable to animals
rendered by the Mississippi State
Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.
Overturning a 1997 ruling by
the Chancery Court of Oktibbeha
County, the Mississippi Supreme Court
and Court of Appeals on April 22 reinstated
a case filed by In Defense of
A n i m a l s and the National Greyhound
Adoption Network, seeking custody of
12 ex-racing greyhounds who were
acquired by Mississippi State Univers
i t y from the Greenetrack raceway in
Eutaw, Alabama. IDA and NGAN held
that the deal violated the federal Animal
Welfare Act. The USDA Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service reportedly
cited MSU for neglecting Animal
Welfare Act recordkeeping requirements.

Hard times for Queen of the Desert

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

CASSELBERRY, Florida––Cat Fanciers Association
board members conferred on June 30 to discuss penalties
they might impose against Sheila Gitlin Dye, 52, breeder of
Queen of the Desert, the brown tabby exotic who was the 1997
CFA “Best kitten.”
Casselberry Animal Control supervisor Vicky
Hilburn and staff, with local police, on May 18 removed
Queen of the Desert and 13 other cats from Dye’s allegedly
feces-and-trash-filled home. Three dead cats were reportedly
found among the debris. Dye was charged with cruelty.
CFA president Don Williams, of Ocala, Florida,
told Orlando Sentinel reporter Doris Bloodworth that he knew
Dye as a fastidious housekeeper who pampered her pets.
Williams’ daughter lived with Dye circa 1992, while attending
the University of Central Florida, Bloodworth wrote.

COURT CALENDAR

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

Dog-related
Federal judge David Down of
Portage County, Wisconsin, on June 2
reduced to $300,000 an April jury award of
$940,000 to county dog warden Beverly
Kirkhart as an alleged victim of gender discrimination
when she was rejected for permanent
appointment to the post in 1994––after
she had been a member of the dog warden’s
staff on an interim basis since 1984, and had
been acting dog warden for about six months.
A man, Jon S. Barber, was hired instead, at
$3.00 more per hour. Kirkhart was then fired
in 1996, because of purported physical disabilities.
Kirkhart returned to work as dog warden
on May 17. Barber was offered a job in another
county department.

Ex-HSUS VP Wills cops a plea

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

Former Humane Society of the
U.S. vice president for investigations David
Wills, 46, of Dickerson, Maryland, on June
16 pleaded guilty to one count of embezzling
$18,900 from HSUS between 1990 and mid-
1995; agreed to pay restitution of $67,800 to
HSUS; and accepted a six-month jail sentence,
reportedly to be imposed after judicial
review on August 5. HSUS and the State of
Maryland agreeed to drop six other counts of
embezzlement, alleging thefts of $84,128.

MALAYSIA SHIFTS FOCUS FROM PIGS

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

SARIKEI, Malaysia––Pigs are
still killed almost daily as mop-up work
against the deadly Nipah virus continues, but
by the hundreds now instead of the thousands.
Few pigs remain in Malaysia.
More than a million were massacred from
mid-March to mid-May, putting about 1,800
farms out of production, impoverishing an
estimated 300,000 Malaysians whose income
came from the export-oriented pork industry.

Wild Animal Orphanage gets ex-lab monkeys –– and $12,000 USDA fine

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

SAN ANTONIO––The USDA Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service on May 24 announced it had filed
10 charges of violating the Animal Welfare Act against Wild
Animal Orphanage, of San Antonio, Texas–– nine days after
the case was disclosed by San Antonio Express-News staff
writer Russell Gold, and more than two months after the
USDA on March 10 proposed a $12,000 fine and a 90-day
suspension of the WAO exhibitors’ license.
On April 10, WAO founder Carol Azvestas asked
USDA-APHIS to reconsider the penalties, but she told Gold
she would not spend sanctuary money on legal fees to fight
them in court.
The four most serious charges pertained to the
deaths in air transit of two tigers and a puma that Azvestas
accepted from the defunct Walk In The Wild Zoo of
Spokane, Washington, when it went out of business in
August 1996. One puma survived the eight-hour flight.

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