Survivors of Farallon de Medinilla shelling get a break–& wise-users get judicial blast

April 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.– Judge Emmit Sullivan of the U.S. District
Court for the D.C. Circuit on March 13 ruled that the U.S. Navy and
Department of Defense are violating the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty
Act by using the island of Farallon de Medinilla in the northern
Marianas for bombing and gunnery practice.
The island is nesting habitat for at least two dozen
protected bird species, including great frigatebirds, masked
boobies, and endangered Micronesian megapodes. Admitting that birds
are often killed, the Navy applied for an incidental take permit from
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1996. The Fish and Wildlife
Service refused to issue the permit. Then the Navy claimed no permit
was needed.

New lions for Kabul

April 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2002:

BEIJING–The Badaling Wildlife Park, of Beijing, announced
on March 19 that in May it will donate two handreared lions, Zhuang
Zhuang and Canny, to the Kabul Zoo, to replace Marjan, the
one-eyed lion who died on January 26, and his mate, killed in the
1993 grenade attack that injured Marjan. Abdul Basir Hotak, Afghan
interim government charge d-affaires in Beijing, accepted the gift
in person.
The Badaling Wildlife Park, with 84 lions at present, was
formerly notorious for feeding live calves to lions to thrill
visitors. Chinese President Jiang Zemin banned the practice in
August 1999, at request of French activist Brigitte Bardot, but
live feeding is believed to continue at some other Chinese wildlife
parks.

Fundraising & the Kabul Zoo

April 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2002:

As anticipated, the March 2002 ANIMAL PEOPLE investigative
feature “Plight of Kabul Zoo brings dubious fundraising claims”
brought prompt response from Brian Werner, founder of Tiger Missing
Link and cofounder of Great Cats In Crisis, and Bruce Eberle, the
fundraiser who produced an appeal soliciting funds on behalf of Great
Cats In Crisis, purportedly to aid Marjan, the Kabul Zoo lion who
was already dead two weeks before the appeal reached any of the
ANIMAL PEOPLE readers who brought it to our attention.

LETTERS [April 2002]

April 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2002:

The right stuff
Bonny Shah of Ahimsa wrote to us that the readers of Animal
People have mailed to her a lot of t- shirts and other stuff which
has reached her by carton loads! Last December she helped us run a
stall at the Cricket Club grounds here, and we collected 10,000
rupees by selling all sorts of things donated by your readers. All
the money went towards purchaing essential medicines for our street
dogs. May God bless you and your readers!
–Rita Vazirani
People For Animals ( Mumbai )
130, Sindhi Society
Mumbai 400 071, India
<v_rita@vsnl.com>

Letters

State legislative roundup

April 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2002:

Anti-cruelty bills

INDIANAPOLIS–Indiana Governor Frank O’Bannon in mid-March
signed into law bills enabling felony cruelty prosecutions and
criminalizing possession of animal fighting paraphernalia, annonced
American SPCA Midwest representative for government affairs Ledy Van
Kavage.
Bills to introduce felony cruelty penalties were still alive
in Alaska and Kentucky as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, while law
enforcement officers joined humane advocates in Fort Smith,
Arkansas, on February 25 to announce a petition drive by Citizens
for a Humane Arkansas to put a proposed felony cruelty bill on the
2002 state ballot. Citizens for a Humane Arkansas must gather 75,000
voter signatures in favor of the bill by June 30.

Wildlife Federation holds huge killing contest

April 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2002:

SASKATOON, WASHINGTON D.C.–From April 1, when fools
reputedly follow groundhogs out of winter hiding, until June 23,
the Saskatoon Wildlife Federation is sponsoring reputedly the biggest
wildlife killing contest in Canadian history.
More animals are expected to be massacred in the Ken Turcot
Memorial Gopher Derby than in the Atlantic Canada offshore seal
hunt–which has a quota this year of 275,000 harp seals and 10,000
hooded seals.

The Pope is asked to help save sea turtles

April 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2002:

LOS ANGELES, HONG KONG –The Sea Turtle Conservation Network
of the Californias on March 13, 2002 appealed to Pope John Paul II
to clarify to Roman Catholics that sea turtles are not “fish,” and
should not be poached and eaten at Lent.
Mexican poachers alone kill as many as 5,000 endangered sea
turtles a year during Lent, Wildcoast founder Serge Dedina said at a
Los Angeles press conference, out of an estimated annual toll of
35,000 turtles poached. Seconding Dedina was Homero Aridjis,
founder of the Mexican environmental protection organization Grupo de
100.

Animal Protection Institute fires snow monkey sanctuary founder

April 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2002:

DILLEY, Texas–Friends of Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary
founding director Lou Griffin, 54, are urging her to seek legal
recourse after Animal Protection Institute executive director Alan
Berger abruptly fired her in a March 5, 2002 telephone conversation
and follow-up e-mail, without stating any cause.
Berger was scheduled to visit the sanctuary on March 28, a
3,000-mile round-trip from the API head office in Sacramento,
apparently to try to extinguish what may be the hottest controversy
to involve API since founder Belton Mouras was ousted in 1985 and
went on to found United Animal Nations with several other former API
staff.

African wildlife seeks new ways of survival

April 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2002:

HARARE, KAMPALA, CAPE TOWN, NAIROBI–Competing for prey
and dens with larger and stronger African lions and hyenas, stealthy
leopards, speedy cheetahs, and faster-breeding jackals. African
wild dogs may never have been very numerous.
Now they are critically endangered over much of their range,
and their range is shrinking, between human development and natural
disasters like the January 17, 2002 eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in
the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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