Organizations
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1997:
Humane Society of the U.S. wildlife trade
program director Teresa Telecki, quoted from the
December Utne Reader: “We want to help people rise
from poverty, but not through trophy hunting. We’d
rather see them earning money from cottage industries
such as fish farming and shoemaking.” Along with
overlooking that fish feel pain, too, Telecki failed to
note the role of offshore fish farming in promoting the
killing of seals and sea lions, the frequent massacre of
fish-eating birds at fish farms of all sorts, and habitat
damage by aquaculture ranging from the destruction of
coastal mangrove swamps in Southeast Asia to the pollution
of inland waterways almost everywhere inland
that fish farming has caught on. Telecki also didn’t
stipulate nonleather shoemaking.
Talks continue in the dispute between a faction
aligned with PETA and a faction aligned with the
Fund for Animals over control of the New England
Anti-Vivisection Society. PETA and The Fund jointly
took over NEAVS in 1988, but split over the succession
last year after Fund founder and president
Cleveland Amory retired from his parallel capacity as
NEAVS president. The trial date for crossfiled lawsuits
in the case was recently delayed to February 27.
The British group Respect for Animals,
formerly called Lynx, has announced it will spend up
to $50,000 fielding bogus candidates in the next
Parliamentary election under a yet-to-be-chosen party
name intended to divide the Conservative vote, so as to
help the opposition Labor Party win. The Labor Party,
recipient of $2.5 million from a political action committee
formed by International Fund for Animal
Welfare CEO Brian Davies, has pledged a free vote
on the abolition of fox hunting. The use of bogus candidates
to mislead voters in close elections has become
common in Britain, and is the subject of public discussion
about changing the laws governing ballot listings.
Maureen Koplow has terminated Advance,
the “Activists of Delaware Valley Animal Network
Calendar of Events. “I’ve tried to cram everything into
each issue, but there’s always something new coming
in by mail, e-mail, or phone,” she says. “My fingers
ache, my eyes burn, and my head throbs. I’ve loved
doing this, but after eight years it’s time to stop.”
In Defense of Animals has reportedly hired
J.P. Goodwin, founder of the Coalition Against the
Fur Trade, as a field organizer.
Former California activist Ellen Bring,
now living in North Carolina, has formed The Factory
Farming Economic Conversion Project, “whose
goals,” she writes, “include the conversion of factory
farms to cruelty-free sustainable uses and an end to animal
slaughter.” Her first project is opposing the construction
of a $5.5 million slaughterhouse on the North
Carolina State University campus. The plant is to be
used to teach slaughter management. Address Bring at
POB 51412, Durham, NC 27717.
Earth 2000 National founder Danny Seo on
January 7 disbanded the organization, which he founded
at age 12 on Earth Day 1989, due to “financial difficulties
and lack of youth leadership.” At peak in 1996,
Seo said, Earth 2000 had 10,000 members.
The Justice for Animals Fund o f f e r s
Tabling Tips, an activist primer, apparently free for
SASE from 20145 Van Aken Blvd., #24, Shaker
Heights, OH 44122.
Ken Rait, 33, has stepped down after six
years heading the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
to become conservation director for the Oregon
Natural Resources Council. Replacing Rait at
SUWA is staff attorney Scott Groene, 39. Both have
had leading roles in the poltical and legal battles over
habitat that have accompanied the designation of the
new Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument.
Wise-use wiseguys
A Clear View 4.2, published by the Clearinghouse on Environmental Advocacy and Research, is a special issue investigating the “Assault on Environmental Education,” as the editors term a wise-use wiseguy backlash against environmental curriculums, including teaching about endangered species. The publication may be obtained from 1718 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20009; 202-667-6982; fax 202-232-2592; e-mail >>clear@ewg.org<<, or may be downloaded from the World Wide Web at >>http://www.ewg.org<<.
Phyllis Carlson, four-term treasurer of the North American Wild Sheep Foundation, on January 21 was elected president of the organization, the first female to hold the post. Carlson, of Apple Valley, Minnesota, says she has hunted and trapped for more than 30 years.
