Bush rolls back animal and habitat protection

March 1, 2001 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:
WASHINGTON D.C.–Rolling back animal and habitat protection, especially last-minute actions of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, was a top priority for new President George W. Bush during his first month in office.

Immediately after inauguration Bush ordered the Federal Register to delay listing new regulations until after they are reviewed by his Cabinet. Listing in the Federal Register is the final stage of a regulation taking effect. The Bush order included the January 17 creation of six new national monuments, by executive order of Clinton, who created 17 new monuments in all during his term, covering 5.6 million acres.

BOOKS: Animal Revolution

March 1, 2001 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:
Animal Revolution by Richard Ryder
Berg Publishers (c/o NYU Press, 70 Washington Sq. South, New York, NY 10012), 2000. 325 pages; paperback. $19.50.

Twenty years after the first edition of Animal Revolution reconnected the then-young animal rights movement with the preceding several centuries of humane crusading, Richard Ryder has produced an update. New chapters cover the past two decades, plus ante-cedents which now seem to warrant further discussion.

AHA Hollywood office hit by L.A. Times

March 1, 2001 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:

LOS ANGELES–Los Angeles Times staff writers Ralph Frammolino and James Bates charged on February 9 that the Hollywood office of the American Humane Association is “slow to criticize animal mistreatment, yet quick to defend the studios it is supposed to police.” The AHA has monitored unionized Hollywood screen productions since 1939, by contract with the Screen Actors Guild.

Frammolino and Bates cited four purported key examples of AHA failings. Two involved alleged abuse off-set, beyond the reach of the Screen Actors Guild contract. One involved a film called Simpatico which used the AHA seal of approval without authorization. The last was a severe injury suffered by one of about 400 horses used in 1998 on the set of The 13th Warrior, filmed in British Columbia.

Reviews: Varmints and Killing Coyote

March 1, 2001 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:

Varmints and Killing Coyote
Produced & directed by Doug Hawes-Davis, High Plains Films
(P.O. Box 906, Missoula, MT 59807; telephone 406-543-6726; fax 406-728-9432;
e-mail <dhd@wildrockies.org>; <www.wildrockies.org>),
1998, 2000. 83 and 81 minutes; $35 each.
Targeted by the U.S. government in 1930 for total extermination, as scapegoats for the Dustbowl and collapsing wool prices, prairie dogs and coyotes might have taught underground and nocturnal survival tactics to the Viet Cong. Certainly the concept of “body count” as measure of military success seems to have evolved from the scorekeeping of prairie dog shoots and coyote killing contests. Before the U.S. took on prairie dogs and coyotes, with their uncanny ability to occupy land while remaining hidden, wars were measured in terms of territory held.

Hunters try to get ’em young

March 1, 2001 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:

ALBANY, JUNEAU– Sixteen juveniles have used hunting weapons, primarily, to kill 27 people and wound 50 in 14 school shooting incidents since 1995, but state legislatures from New York to Alaska are still trying to put more guns in children’s hands.

Twelve-year-olds have been allowed to hunt “small game” with light-caliber weapons in New York since 1992, but first-time hunting license sales have since fallen by 29%. Governor George Pataki is therefore backing two budget bills, A-2000 and S-1148, which would cut the minimum age for deer and bear hunting from 16 to 14. Deer and bear hunters typically use rifles and ammunition which can kill at a range of up to two miles.

PETA pays to help fix animals, image

March 1, 2001 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:
NORFOLK, Va.–People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, under fire for killing homeless animals and knocking no-kill shelters, is co-sponsoring a mobile neutering clinic to serve the Hampton Roads district of Virginia. The other major sponsor is the no-kill Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, of Kanab, Utah.

To debut on March 1, the mobile clinic will be staffed and run by the Houston-based Spay-Neuter Assistance Program. PETA has agreed to fund three SNAP mobile clinics during the next three years, while Best Friends agreed to help fund the first, SNAP founder Sean Hawkins told ANIMAL PEOPLE. Hawkins acknowledged that PETA and Best Friends are not
likely partners.

Herro of Las Vegas takes new role

March 1, 2001 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001.

LAS VEGAS–Mary Herro, who started the Animal Foundation in 1988, opened a $3.5 million new shelter on February 8, and retired from personally directing shelter operations to focus on running the Las Vegas pet licensing program. Herro told ANIMAL PEOPLE almost exactly one year earlier that this would be the next phase of her quest to make Las Vegas a no-kill city.

The first phase was opening the Animal Foundation high-volume neutering clinic, now the model for others around the world. The second phase was wresting the Las Vegas animal control contract away from Dewey Animal Care, a for-profit firm which still does animal control for Clark County and North Las Vegas. That was in 1995. Already the fast-growing Las Vegas human and owned pet populations are about 25% higher, and the Las Vegas and Clark County totals of animals killed have correspondingly continued to edge up.

S.F. ignores live markets law, says Mills

March 1, 2001 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:
SAN FRANCISCO–Mini-mal humane standards governing the sale of live animals as food now supposed to be law in California are not enforced in San Francisco, Action for Animals coordinator Eric Mills charged in a February 12 open letter to the S.F. Board of Supervisors. The live market standards were set by AB 2479, introduced by now-state senator Sheila Kuehl, who was then in the state assembly. The new law took effect on January 1.

Wrote Mills, “Last week I visited four markets in Chinatown. I saw turtles and frogs stacked atop one another without either food or water, crushing those on the bottom. I saw live fish out of water gasping for breath, and dead and dying fish and crustaceans crammed into dirty aquaria. The Kuehl bill bans these inhumane practices. In two markets I saw Florida softshell turtles, a species not allowed in the markets, but which I see on a regular basis.

The British beat

March 1, 2001 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:
The British beat

“The Linda McCartney cycling team has been disbanded by founder Julian Clark, who is to answer seven counts of deception of ‘a sporting nature,'” Reuters reported on January 25. “McCartney Foods ended their three-year sponsorship of the all-vegetarian team last year,” Reuters added, “but allowed Clark to use their name and logo to help attract new backers.” The disbanding left 19 riders from 10 nations stranded in London, unpaid and responsibile for their own expenses.

Police in Hampshire, U.K., have reportedly arrested four unidentified suspects after a two-year undercover probe of a scam in which “hundreds” of horses were given by their owners to bogus “retirement” farms, often with donations for the horses’ care, and were then sold to slaughter. Although the horses were reportedly killed to make dog food, the scam flourished in the wake of the BSE/CJD disease scare, which caused much of Europe to stop eating British beef.

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