Ivory politics killing elephants

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

GENEVA, DUBAI––Dubai customs
officers on October 9 reportedly confiscated
41 containers holding nearly two tons of
elephant tusk ivory. Dubai airport customs
director Bouti Zafri did not disclose either the
origin or the destination of the ivory.
The seizure was believed to be the
biggest worldwide in at least 10 years. It
might have tipped opinion among the signers
of the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species in favor of reimposing the
total ban on international ivory trafficking
adopted in 1989––but the balance had already
tipped the other way.
Identified by The Namibian, of
Windhoek, as “one of Namibia’s main players
in the campaign to allow the sale of ivory
stockpiles,” Malan Lindeque in September
became CITES head of scientific coordination.

Sharpe’s shelter survives shake

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

TAIPEI, Taiwan –The Taipei
Abandoned Animal Rescue Foundation
escaped serious harm in the September 20
pre-dawn earthquake that killed at least 2,101
people, injuring 8,700 and leaving at least
153 missing, presumed dead.
“The kennels and the dogs are faring
fine,” TAARF founder Mina Sharpe told
ANIMAL PEOPLE on September 22. “I’ve
taken care of the dogs in the dark for two
days. The kennel has no natural light, so
we’re relying on two flashlights to get things
done. The dogs are a bit more hyper than
usual, but other than that, all is okay. We
have a lot of shelves stacked high and precariously,
yet nothing fell,” despite the first
shock of 7.6 on the Richter scale and aftershocks
as strong as 6.8.

Buffy chimp goes home

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe––Buffy, 15, a Zaireborn
chimpanzee who was smuggled into Zimbabwe as an
infant, arrived on September 20 at the Chimfunshi Wildlife
Orphanage in northern Zambia, five miles from Zaire.
“About 10 years ago Harare Lion and Cheetah Park
owner Viv Bristow paid $10,000 for her and a male chimp
named James,” Bulawayo Branch SPCA national coordinator
Meryl Harrison told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “They were kept in
a small enclosure where James was chained to the wall.
Bristow’s son tried to ‘train’ James with an electric cattle prod.
James became very aggressive.”

Cruelty conviction spotlights “dropoffs”

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

MEDINA, Ohio; RUTHERFORD
COUNTY, Tennessee––Dale and
Cheryl Brainard, of Lorain County, Ohio,
were on September 27 each fined the maximum
$750 and ordered to perform 50
hours of community service for leaving
their starving and ill Great Dane in a dropoff
pen outside the Medina County Animal
Shelter on the subfreezing night of
February 25. The dog died six days later.
The Brainards testified that they did not
see leaflets warning that animals should
not be left after hours in cold weather.
The Medina abandonment case
oddly enough provoked none of the international
outrage associated for more than a
year with the mere existence of similar
animal drop-off facilities at Murfreesboro
and Smyrna, in Rutherford County,
Tennessee.

SHELTERING

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

Michael Arms, 51, was in September

named executive director of the Helen
Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe,
California. The shelter adopted out just 600 animals
last year on a $3 million budget. Arms
pledged immediate improvement. As shelter
director for the North Shore Animal League,
1976-1997, Arms increased adoptions from 4,000
a year––which was already the highest total for
any shelter in the U.S.––to a peak of 44,000 in the
early 1990s. Arms previously spent 10 years with
the American SPCA in New York City.
Exposes by Corpus Christi CallerTimes
reporter Jennifer Stump, citing the ANIMAL
PEOPLE finding that Corpus Christi has
one of the highest rates of shelter killing of any
U.S. city, at 44.4 per 1,000 human residents,
brought an anonymous grant of $30,000 in late
September. Gulf Coast Humane Society president
Denny Bales told Stump the money might be
enough, added to the present budget, to save
3,000 additional animals.

ACTIVISTS CHANGE THE GUARD ON PUGET SOUND

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

SEATTLE, VANCOUVER––T h e
Sea Shepherds are coming, Bear Watch is
gone, and no one is saying yet what may
become of the Sea Defense Alliance [SeDnA].
Maintaining a vigil off Neah Bay
against Makah tribe whaling for much of the
past two years, and anticipating further confrontations
with the Makah, the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society expects to soon open a
permanent headquarters at Friday Harbor, on
San Juan Island.
The Sea Shepherd fleet operated
from Friday Harbor throughout spring 1999,
but berthed at Seattle during the summer. Sea
Shepherd vessels have been continuously stationed
on Puget Sound since 1996, after many
years of frequent visits, and the Sea Shepherds
have had personnel continuously in the area
since 1995, when the Makah first announced
their intent to resume whaling.

Maneka keeps ministry for animals

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

NEW DELHI––As always prominently
including animal protection on her
platform as an independent candidate,
Maneka Gandhi on October 3 won election
for the fourth time in 10 years as Member of
Parliament for Pilibhit District, Uttar
Pradesh, India.
Defeating her only opponent by a
margin of more than two to one, Maneka is
among the most securely seated members of
the ruling coalition, headed by the Hindu
nationalist Baratiya Janata Party. The BJP
and allied parties won 297 of the 543 seats in
the Indian Parliament, substantially increasing
the strength of the second successive BJPled
government since the end in early 1998 of
nearly 49 years of rule by the Congress Party,
whose seats decreased to just 134.

Cox wins rights claim vs. Friends of Animals

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

WASHINGTON D.C.––The D.C.
Department of Human Rights and Local Business
Development on September 17 told complainant
Carroll Cox and respondent Friends of Animals that
it has found probable cause to believe that FoA violated
the D.C. Human Rights Act of 1977 when it
fired Cox in August 1999.
A former special investigator for the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Cox was hired by
FoA in April 1997 to work on wildlife issues. He
was relocated from his own office in Hawaii to the
FoA branch office in Washington D.C. in June 1997
––and was fired by FoA president Priscilla Feral
just seven weeks later, despite apparently outstanding
performance, acknowledged in her memos.

People

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

Jeanne Daniels, of Houston,
owner of the TarryTown Center
shopping plaza in Austin, recently
ired the 400-member West Austin
Neighborhood Group by requiring
as part of new leases that tenants not
sell animal products. Gourmet
supermarket owner Harvey Tack
relocated rather than stop selling
meat. The other tenants with leases
up for renewal are reportedly moving
to comply––but two of the three
restaurants at the plaza have a year
left under their old leases.

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