Greenwich Village vivisection and dog export hoaxes rattle humane community
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:
NEW YORK, N.Y.––Two appar-
ent hoaxes in two weeks rattled the humane
community during late spring. Both orginated
out of New York City’s Greenwich Village, a
longtime hotbed of pranks executed in the
name of performance art. The first, advertised
in The Village Voice, was a purported pro-
vivisection group called American Vivisection
Defense, with a 92¢-a-minute 900 number set
up on April 29. The organization––AVID for
short––claimed to be soliciting donations of
unwanted pets for use in biomedical research.
It had no connection whatever with AVID
Microchip, of Norco, California, which
received a barrage of outraged calls and in
short order threatened to sue the purported
prankster, Winfield Scott Stanley III, of 304
Newberry Street in Cambridge, Mass-
achusetts. Both the name and the address are
believed to be fictitious. Callers to the 900
number heard a long diatribe promoting fur
and veal, as well as biomedical research.
Stanley told the Boston Globe that he hoped to
collect 5,000 dogs, 10,000 cats, and 20,000
rabbits at six New England drop-off sites.
Responded Debra Cavalier, presi-
dent of the Massachusetts Society for Medical
Research, “They can do what they want with
their veal recipes and fur coats, but please
leave biomedical research out of it. We have
enough problems.” The USDA said Stanley’s
operation had no permit to deal in animals for
laboratory research.
AVID Microchip’s threat of lawsuit
apparently ended that gag––but on May 17
dozens of humane societies and some indivi-
dual animal rights activists received a mailing
from a “Kim Yung Soo,” allegedly president
of “Kea So Joo, Inc.,” offering to buy dogs
for export to dogmeat dealers in Southeast
Asia. The letter claimed the firm was already
doing business with shelters in three states.
Though written in pigeon English, it displayed
perfect spelling and a broad vocabulary. The
listed telephone number was a recording, imi-
tative of the recording radio personality Rush
Limbaugh uses to introduce animal rights-
related items, of a woman with a heavy accent
reading from a prepared script with barking
dogs in the background. The address was a
Greenwich Village maildrop.
ANIMAL PEOPLE is investigating
the possibility that the hoaxes are related to
advertisements for a purported canine brothel
in Greenwich Village that created a stir in
1990.
