Day: April 1, 2004

Wildlife institute loses funding for chief

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

DEHRA DUN, India–The Wildlife Institute of India, formed
by the government of India in 1982 to train wildlife managers and
field biologists, and designated the South/Southeast Asia regional
training center for UNESCO staff, “has been without a fulltime
director for so long that the post has been deemed abolished” under a
federal law meant to prevent agencies from collecting funding for
“ghost” positions, the Times of India reported in January 2004.
The institute has been leaderless for nearly two years, the
Times of India indicated, because of internal conflict, including a
court case among faculty members over “the rules of consultancy money
sharing.”

U.S. Senate Nature Conservancy probe continues

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

WASHINGTON D.C.– The U.S. Senate Finance Committee on March
3 “asked The Nature Conservancy to submit information about land
transactions, program fees and profits, tax advice offered by
attorneys and accounts, and salaries paid to contractors,”
Associated Press reported. “The letter unveiled a prong of the
committee’s broad investigation into donations of land, art, drugs,
automobiles, and other gifts,” Associated press continued. “It
also asks the organization to prove it followed the rules that let
nonprofit organizations and charities avoid taxation.”
In November 2003 Washington Post writers Joe Stephens and
David B. Ottaway reported that U.S. Senate Finance Committee had
become “particularly interested in the ‘valuation of land donations
and the conservation-buyer program,'” according to committee chair
Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).
“The Senate inquiry began,” Stephens and Ottaway continued,
“after a Post series in May 2003 detailed how the charity had sold
scenic properties to its state trustees, who reaped large tax
breaks. Other stories disclosed that the charity engaged in
multi-million-dollar business deals with companies and their
executives while they sat on the charity’s governing board and
advisory council. The Conservancy responded by banning a range of
practices.”

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Olson heads Morris Animal Foundation

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

ENGLEWOOD, Colorado–The Morris Animal Found-ation on March
17 announced that Patricia N. Olson, DVM, will succeed Robert
Hilsenroth, DVM, as executive director.
Olson joins the Morris Animal Foundation after six years as
director of canine health and training for Guide Dogs for the Blind,
Inc., following previous appointments at the American Humane
Association, the University of Minnesota, Colorado State
University, Cornell University, the International Air Transport
Association, and a stint as U.S. Senate Congressional Fellow for the
American Veterinary Medical Association.
Hilsenroth, who succeeded founder Mark Morris, DVM, is
retiring after 12 years.
One of the first small animal specialist vets in the U.S.,
starting practice in New Jersey in 1925, Morris in 1933 cofounded
and was elected first president of the American Animal Hospital
Assoc-iation. Twenty-eight years later, in 1961-1962, Morris
served as AVMA president.
In between, Morris developed the first health specialty pet
foods sold in the U.S., sold the formulas to the Hill Packing
Company in 1948, and used the proceeds to set up the Buddy
Foundation, to fund animal health research. The Buddy Foundation
became the Morris Foundation in 1956.

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Marineland of Canada sues Niagara Action for Animals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

St. Catherines, Ontario– Niagara Action for Animals has
appealed for financial help in defending against a lawsuit brought
against it by Marineland of Canada.
Opened in 1961, Marineland of Canada was the first
oceanarium residence of Keiko, the orca star of the Free Willy!
films. Captured off Iceland in 1979, Keiko lived at Marineland of
Canada for approximately two years before he was sold to El Reino
Aventura in Mexico City, where the first of the Free Willy! films
was made in 1993. Keiko died in a Norwegian fjord in December 2003
after an only partially successful return to the wild.
The Niagara Action for Animals web site and published
references to the group indicate that it is chiefly involved in
sterilizing dogs and cats.
Niagara Action for Animals has been involved in protests
against Marineland of Canada for approximately 10 years, coordinator
Daniel K. Wilson said, but the ANIMAL PEOPLE files indicate that it
neither started the protests nor was particularly prominent in
leading them until 2001.

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Arizona, New Jersey, and Alaska governors & wildlife

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

TUCSON, TRENTON, FAIRBANKS–Arizona Governor Jane
Napo-litano asked the Arizona Game & Fish Department to stop hunting
four pumas in Sabino Canyon, near Tucson, even after the department
agreed to live-trap instead of kill them, refused to authorize use
of a National Guard helicopter to help in the hunt, and told media
that she might ask the legislature to authorize her to hire and fire
the Game & Fish Department head, to make the agency more
accountable. Currently the head answers only to the five-member Game
& Fish Commission. Naming one member per year, newly elected
Arizona governors are in the last year of their first term before
they have named the majority.
Two weeks after closing Sabino Canyon on March 9, 2004
because the pumas purportedly posed a threat to hikers, the Game &
Fish Department had yet to bag a puma, but nabbed convicted Animal
Liberation Front arsonist Rod Coronado and Esquire writer John H.
Richardson for allegedly trespassing in the canyon while the hunt was
underway.
New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey, via environmental
commissioner Bradley M. Campbell, meanwhile asked the New Jersey
Fish & Game Council to refrain from authorizing another bear hunt,
after 328 bears were killed in the first New Jersey bear hunt since
1970. Wildlife officials had estimated that there were 3,200 bears
in New Jersey. Further study found that there are fewer than 1,500.

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Humane education materials from South Africa

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

Animals In Religion: Our relationship with animals in a Multi-Faith Society
Shopping with CARE: A Classroom Guide to Ethical Consumerism
New Words for a New World * We Care About Cats * We Care About Dogs
Goosie’s Story * Heroes & Lionhearts — all from The Humane
Education Trust:
P.O. Box 825, Somerset West, 7129, South Africa;
27-21-852-8160; <avoice@yebo.co.za>; <www.animal-voice.org>.

Long before South African education minister Kader Asmal
endorsed the addition of humane education to the national curriculum,
beginning this year, Louise Van Der Merwe formed the Humane
Education Trust and began developing materials in hope of such an
eventuality.
The South African introduction of humane education is much too young
yet to begin to assess outcomes, or even which materials will gain
the most classroom favor. The All-Africa Humane Education Summit
hosted by Van Der Merwe in Cape Town in September 2003 was only the
beginning of the in-service training that will be necessary to
inspire and enable South African teachers to fulfill the new mandate.

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EU adopts transport limit

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

BRUSSELS–The European Parliament on March 30, 2004 endorsed
a nine-hour limit on how long animals may be trucked en route to
slaughter.
“It is now up to the Agriculture Council,” now headed by
Ireland, “to finalize the regulation,” said the Eurogroup for
Animal Welfare in a prepared statement.
The nine-hour recommendation was introduced in July 2003 with
the backing of Eurogroup, a consortium representing numerous leading
animal welfare organizations.
“Compassion in World Farming welcomes today’s vote,”
commented CIWF president Joyce D’Silva. “However CIWF still has
grave concerns about the exclusion of animals destined for further
fattening from this limit and the lack of provision for these animals
to rest off the vehicle.”
The nine-hour limit was approved three weeks after the
European Parliament on March 9 voted 287-194 to include animal
welfare considerations in proposed improvements to the European Union
food safety standards.

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BOOKS: The Ivory Markets of East Asia

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

The Ivory Markets of East Asia by Esmond Martin & Daniel Stiles
Save the Elephants (POB 54667, Nairobi, Kenya), 2003. 112 pages,
paperback.

A week-long meeting of the 50th Standing Committee for the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species concluded on
March 19, 2004 in Geneva, Switzerland, without authorizing South
Africa, Namibia and Botswana to sell 60 tons of stockpiled elephant
ivory.
CITES in November 2002 approved the sales in principle, but
required that the ivory not actually go to the auction block before
May 2004, and not then unless a control system called Monitoring the
Illegal Killing of Elephants could be shown to be working properly.
The goal of MIKE is to prevent elephant poaching by identifying and
intercepting sales of ivory other than from the authorized stocks.
Uganda, Ethiopia, Mali, Cameroon, Tunisia and Ghana joined
Kenya in successfully resisting pressure from South Africa, Namibia,
and Botswana to allow the sales. Among the many Kenyans who had a
distinguished part in the successful outcome for elephants were
Esmond Martin and Daniel Stiles. Martin has been investigating
illegal wildlife trafficking in Kenya and Tanzania for nearly 40
years. The Ivory Markets of East Asia is at least his fifth book
about the rhino horn and elephant ivory traffic. Stiles’ relevant
experience spans more than 30 years.

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L.A. city animal control chief Greenwalt retires

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

LOS ANGELES–Mayor James K. Hahn on March 2 announced that
Los Angeles Animal Services general manager Jerry Greenwalt, 63, a
33-year city employee, is to retire on April 12.
Greenwalt had headed L.A. Animal Services since October 2001.
During his tenure, coinciding with the tenure of Los Angeles County
Animal Services chief Marcia Mayeda, Los Angeles city and county
dropped their rate of shelter dog and cat killing to just 8.7 per
1,000 residents, by far the lowest since L.A. records have been kept
and about 40% better than the California and U.S. norms.
Since June 2003, however, wrote Los Angeles Times staff
writer Jessica Garrison, the Animal Defense League “waged a
relentless, bitter campaign against Greenwalt that included
demonstrations at his home, City Hall, local animal shelters, and
Hahn’s home.”
Greenwalt previously was interim director of the Los Angeles Zoo.
SPCA/LA president Madeleine Bernstein was named to head a
committee to seek Greenwalt’s successor.

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