Animal Fighting, 1997-2003

April 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

Dogfighting
Year 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Headline busts 11 24 54 66 75 48 48
Related drugs/homicide 3 9 13 12 16 12 5
People involved 76 136 237 297 282 306 426
Dogs seized 95 365 791 896 869 428 549
Felony convictions 1 2 7 25 18 14 35

Cockfighting
Year 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Headline busts 10 15 18 19 35 32 32
Related drugs/homicide 0 6 6 3 5 6 5
People involved 350 498 389 874 1508 497 458
Birds seized 725 763 1023 876 7995 3390 4113
Felony convictions 0 0 3 9 0 1 8

Data collected by ANIMAL PEOPLE on dogfighting and
cockfighting arrests during the past seven years offers hope that the
boom in animal fighting of the past two decades may have crested–but
only just barely, and only in response to increasingly effective law
enforcement. The trends indicate a leveling off at somewhat less
than the peak volume of activity, yet still a very high volume
compared to the pre-peak years.

REVIEWS: A World of Butterflies

April 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

A World of Butterflies
by Brian Cassie, with photos by Kjell Sandved
and extended preface by Robert Michael Pyle
Bulfinch Press (c/o Times Warner Book Group,
1275 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020), 2004.
420 pages, hardcover. $22.50.

A World of Butterflies is an odd hybrid of field guide and
coffee table book, pocket-sized and consisting chiefly of
illustrations, but having the feel of being something to be paged
through indoors, not a quick reference to be packed along on hikes.
It comes with a dust-jacket, sure to be shredded on any field
expedition, and locating any particular butterfly seen on the wing
without already knowing the name of it will be slow going, since the
specimens are not grouped in any manner lending itself to quick
reference.
The girdled silk moth and the giant silk moth appear next to
each other, for example, with some superficial logic, but since
they live on different continents and look nothing alike, there is
little risk of them being confused in observation. What they have
most in common is frequently meeting their demise in boiling water,
the most common method of separating their silken cocoons from the
insect larvae within. Waiting until the larvae have hatched and left
is perfectly possible, but few producers exercise that much
patience, because few buyers insist that they must.

Human obituaries

April 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

Shelby Dow, 56, died on December 24, 2003 in Teaneck, New
Jersey, of a coronary occlusion. Starting as a sheriff’s deputy in
Salt Lake County, Utah, Dow transferred to animal control and in
1978 became animal control director. “Shelby and I worked together
when the National Animal Control Association was getting organized,
and collaborated on a 1981 research study of why people relinquish
animals to shelters,” recalled longtime friend Phil Arkow. After a
stint as vice president of NACA, Dow spent two years with the
American Humane Association. “In 1985, he was recruited as vice
president of the American SPCA in New York City,” the Salt Lake
City Deseret News recalled. “There he oversaw operations in all five
boroughs.” Dow eventually left employment in animal welfare, but his
“commitment to animals continued until his death,” the Deseret News
continued. “He was a consultant to Psychologists for the Ethical
Treat-ment of Animals, and had just organized Animal PAC,” to
promote pro-animal condidates. “His family will continue Animal PAC
in his memory,” the Deseret News said.

Obituaries

2 charities, 1 name: National Humane Society, Care For The Wild, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund

April 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

National Humane Society

The Council of Better Business Bureaus Wise Giving Alliance
has advised donors and news media that “Despite written requests in
the past year, the National Humane Society has not provided current
information about its finances, programs, and governance. The BBB
Wise Giving Alliance reports on national charities and determines if
they meet 23 voluntary standards on matters such as charity finances,
appeals, and governance. Without the requested information, it
cannot verify if the charity meets these standards.”
The National Humane Society discussed by the Wise Giving
Alliance was incorporated in Boca Raton, Florida, in 1998 by four
people including brothers Glenn and Randy Kassal, plus Barbara May
and Lillie Gara. IRS Form 990 filings do not indicate any subsequent
changes in board composition. This National Humane Society raises
funds primarily by raffling luxury cars. It has used an address in
Newark, Delaware since 1999.
Earlier, Glenn and Randy Kassal were prominently involved in
a Boca Raton-based entity called American Animal Protection Charities
Inc.

North America

REVIEWS: Prosecuting Animal Cruelty & Illegal Animal Fighting

April 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

Prosecuting Animal Cruelty & Illegal Animal Fighting
AIM Reality Training video
featuring Captain Ken “Beau” Beauregard & Dena Mangiamele, DVM.
(POB 26593, Los Angeles, CA 90026; 213-413-6428;
<help@realitytraining.com>; <www.realitytraining.com>), 2004.
Two hours. Available on DVD disk or in VHS format. Free to law
enforcement agencies and bona fide humane organizations.

The Sheriff’s Department in Newton County, Alabama, during
the last week of January 2004 apprehended 120 suspects in connection
with a dogfight in Covington. This one raid resulted in more arrests
than all dogfighting raids around the U.S. combined did as recently
as 1997.
The Sheriff’s Department in Indian River County, Florida,
during the last week of February 2004 seized 1,500 gamecocks: more
than the total number seized nationally in any year for which
statistics are available prior to 2001.
In the first week of March 2004, Sporting Dog Journal
publisher James Fricchione, 34, was convicted in Goshen, New York,
of six felonies and five misdemeanors for allegedly promoting
dogfights.

Conservationists seek to bring back banned Compound 1080 poison

April 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

KATHU, South Africa; SACRAMENTO, Califonia–Thirty-two
years after then-U.S. President Richard Nixon outraged ranchers by
partially banning sodium monofluoroacetate to protect wildlife, a
year before signing the Endangered Species Act, some leading
conservation groups are aligned with ranchers worldwide to expand the
use of the poison, better known as Compound 1080.
The conservationist arguments are that nothing else is as
effective in killing “invasive” species, and no other poison is as
easily used to kill only those predators who actually attack
livestock.
“The Poison Working Group of the Endangered Wildlife Trust,
the National Wool-growers Association, and Cape Wools have over the
last three years combined to try to legalize and promote the use of
this poison in South Africa, to exterminate or control black-backed
jackals and caracals,” charged Kalahari Raptor Centre co-director
Chris Mercer in a March 2004 position paper. Compound 1080 is to be
applied to baits hung one meter above the ground, Mercer said.
“The theory is that only the larger jackal [and caracal] could reach this bait, and that the smaller Cape fox and bat-eared
fox could not,” Mercer continued. “Working daily with small
mammals,” including experience with jackals, caracals, and both
fox species, “we know that the poisoned baits will be easily reached
by all of them. The foxes will jump for them, and striped polecats,
meerkats, and mongooses will climb to get them. The Endangered
Wildlife Trust war on our wildlife will wipe out our small mammals.

Why You Should Vote in November

April 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

Why You Should Vote in November
by Julie E. Lewin
President, National Institute for Animal Advocacy
President and Lobbyist, Animal Advocacy Connecticut

How painful the presidential campaign is! Again our noses
are publicly rubbed in our political irrelevance. John Kerry, now
the Democratic nominee, found time in his frantic primary campaign
schedule to “hunt,” for all of five minutes, posturing to win votes
from hunters.
Vice President Dick Cheney and Chief Supreme Court Justice
Antony Scalia soon afterward participated in a bird-killing spree.
News media questioned not their thrill-killing, but rather the
impropriety of such ex parte contact between a judge and a litigant
in a pending case.
As in other election years, some animal advocates angrily
contemplate sitting out the presidential election as a mute form of
protest. That would be self-indulgent. Of course we should vote.

“Must look at reality if we are to help pit bulls”

April 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

Thanks for addressing the need to address the burgeoning pit
bull terrier problem realistically. Trying to perpetuate the myth
that pit bull terriers are “just another dog” is not only naive, but
is a buy-in to the dog fighters’ agenda.
Organized fighters have historically openly paid attorneys
and lobbyists to assure that only generic “dangerous dog” legislation
is passed. That way no one interferes with their breed-specific
“sport,” and they continue to exploit pit bulls as their victims.
It is untrue that other breeds would automatically take the
place of pit bulls in dogfighting. No other breed has the “gameness”
and blind loyalty of the pit bull. No other breed will drag his
bloody body on three broken legs across a ring to continue combat.
No other breed will continue to try to attack when his face is
completely ripped down to the dental structure or his entrails are
falling from his belly.
No other breed has the stoicism that will keep him from
biting a human in the pit when his flesh is hanging from its body,
and he is screaming in agony.

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