Month: October 2000

Hindi isn’t eavesdropper, Kane County judge rules

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

CHICAGO––Judge James T. Boyle of the
Circuit Court of Kane County, Illinois, on September 6
acquitted SHARK founder Steve Hindi of alleged felony
eavesdropping. Hindi was charged in a case drawing
widespread attention from civil libertarians for having
taped the July 1999 refusal of St. Charles County police
to lay cruelty charges against participants in the Kane
County Fair rodeo––in a public place, and making no
effort to conceal that he was recording the discussion.
The verdict came two weeks after Hindi and
SHARK videotaped extensive use of electroshock, tailraking,
and other techniques which appeared to violate
National High School Rodeo Association rules during the
NHSRA Finals in Springfield, Illinois.
The NHSRA Finals were co-hosted by the
Illinois Department of Agriculture, which also has jurisdiction
over Illinois anti-cruelty law enforcement.

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Court Calendar

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

A Florida jury on August 18
found that WTVT Fox 13 in Tampa illegally
fired reporter Jane Akre i n
November 1997, after nine months of
forcing rewrites of an expose of human
health issues raised by the use of bovine
growth hormone to stimulate greater milk
production by dairy cows. The jury
agreed that Fox 13 had other reasons to
fire Akre’s husband, Steve Wilson, who
worked with her, and acted as his own
attorney to save money. At that, the couple
sold their home to pay the costs of
fighting Fox––after declining “a six-figure
cash offer from the station manager,” said
Wilson, to drop their objections to reporting
the story as BGH maker M o n s a n t o
I n c . wanted it to be reported.

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LETTERS [Oct 2000]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

Who are we?
I have been a subscriber
for many years, but because of my
own rescue efforts and enormous vet
bills I can only subscribe and not
contribute at this time. Thank you
for your efforts on behalf of creatures
large and small, for your interesting
newspaper, your excellent
editorials, and your Watchdog
exposes.
If I have missed it, I
would love to read a bio on Merritt
Clifton and Kim Bartlett (are they
married?), and, of course, the artist
Wolf Clifton—the heroes with such
extraordinary energy, intelligence,
and compassion behind such a publishing
endeavor. Heartfelt thanks to
each of them.

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Editorial: The advantages of being seen

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

From Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent Paul Salopek came word on August
6 that brothers Antonio and Luis Faceira of Angola are working with Wouter van Hoven of
the University of Pretoria Center for Wildlife Management in South Africa to restore
wildlife to the 3.5-million-acre Quicama National Park, near the capital city of Luanda.
Each a military general in the regime headed since 1979 by President Jose Eduardo
Santos, the Faceira brothers have fought Jona Savimbi and his UNITA insurgency for 25
years. Altogether, counting the last years of Portuguese rule, Angola has been almost continuously
at war since 1961.
Both sides have reputedly ravaged wildlife––for meat, target practice, and
money. Salopek mentioned reports of government officials strafing antelope from helicopters.
Craig Van Note, executive director of the World Wildlife Fund trade-monitoring
subsidiary TRAFFIC, in 1988 accused UNITA of killing as many as 100,000 elephants
over the preceding 12 years, in order to trade ivory for arms with the former apartheid government
of South Africa.

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McDonald’s to laying hens: “You deserve a break next year.”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

OAK BROOK, Ill.––McDonald’s
Restaurants on August 22 ordered its 27 egg
suppliers to stop starving hens for five to 21
days at the end of their first laying cycle.
Starvation forces hens to molt, normally
within 10 to 14 days, and triggers a
second laying cycle among those who survive
the enforced famine.
After the second laying cycle, the
hens reach the state of skeletal mineral depletion
referred to in the industry as “spent,”
and are killed.
Forced molts, practiced by an estimated
90% of U.S. egg producers, are
increasingly associated with bacterial infections
among hens, which are sometimes
passed to humans. The tendency of egg producers
to try to prevent the infections with
prophylactic antibiotic dosage is believed to
have stimulated the recent rapid evolution of
antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including strains
of campylobacter and salmonella that sicken
thousands of humans per year.

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Joe Lieberman brings a pro-animal record to the U.S. Presidential race

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

WASHINGTON, D. C.––If animal
advocates ever tip the balance in a U.S. Presidential
election, November 2000 could be it.
In a race in which the candidates previously
were distinguished mostly by the
weight of their negatives, the Democratic nomination
of Senator Joseph Lieberman of
Connecticut as Vice Presidential running mate
to Presidential candidate Albert Gore placed on
the ballot the holder one of the best pro-animal
voting records in the present Congress––among
the best ever.
During Lieberman’s current term of
office he has favored 22 of the 25 animal protection
bills that came to a vote, or 88%, and
did not take a position on two of the other three.
Lieberman conflicted with the animal protection
community only in opposing a 1995
amendment to an appropriation bill which
would have axed two space shuttle missions
that included animal research.

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ANIMAL OBITS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

Vigga, 23, a female orca whale captured
off Iceland in 1980, resident at Six Flags
Marine World in Vallejo, California, since
November 1991, died on August 14, reportedly
from a heart ailment. Vigga was the last
orca at Marine World; her longtime companion
Yaka died in October 1997.

Maria, 19, an Atlantic bottlenose
dolphin captured near Sarasota, Florida, and
brought to the West Edmonton Mall in 1985,
died at the mall on August 9. Three other dolphins
remain at the mall, but none will be
replaced when they die, said mall spokesperson
Travis Reynolds.

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HUMAN OBITUARIES

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

Usha Mehta, teacher-in-residence
at the Manibhavan Gandhi Memorial Trust in
Gandhi’s former Mumbai home, died on
August 11. Wrote her longtime friend Geeta
Mehta, “Her warmth of love and friendship
were not limited to humans. As a vegetarian
throughout her life, she had a compassionate
heart for animals, wild or domesticated,”
evident in a brief meeting with A N I M A L
PEOPLE at the Gandhi Memorial Trust during
December 1997. Among the last survivors
of Gandhi’s close associates, Mehta in
1942 organized children to help seek Indian
independence from Britain, and helped operate
the underground Indian National
Congress radio station. Recalled Geeta
Mehta, “Eventually she was arrested and sentenced
to four years imprisonment, during
which she was tortured so much that she permanently
lost her appetite for food.” She
went on to become head of the political science
department at the University of Bombay,
joining the Manibhavan Gandhi Memorial
Trust fulltime upon her retirement.

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BOOKS: Animal Rescue: The Best Job There Is

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

Animal Rescue: The Best Job There Is
by Susan E. Goodman
Simon & Schuster (1230 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10020), 2000. 48 pages, hardcover. $15.00

The generation who grew
up to form and lavishly fund the
animal rights movement first
encountered World Society for the
Protection of Animals international
programs director John Walsh in
1964, via L i f e magazine, the
Weekly Reader, and documentaries
shown in movie theatres between
the features. Animal lovers followed
the efforts of Walsh and a
handful of other intrepid rescuers as
they saved nearly 10,000 animals
who were stranded by rising water
behind a new dam in Suriname.
Many didn’t survive relocation,
biologists learned later.

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