Author: Archivist

Five pilot whales regain freedom off Florida

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

MIAMI–The Florida Keys Marine Mammal Rescue Team on August
10 returned five pilot whales to the edge of the continental shelf,
12 miles offshore, where they frequently swim and feed. The four
adult female pilot whales and one yearling male were among a pod of
28 who became stranded on April 28. Eight died, six were
euthanized, and nine eventually were able to swim away, Florida
Keys Marine Mammal Rescue Team director Becky Arnold told Associated
Press. Approximately 1,000 volunteers helped to nurse back to health
the five who were judged capable of recovering in temporary
captivity. Tracking tags will allow researchers to follow them by
satellite for about eight months.

Speaking up for donkeys in Jordan

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

AMMAN, Jordan–Formerly abused and abandoned donkeys
Tinklet, Pushball, and Barney don’t actually speak, but like
Balaam’s ass, who testified nearby, and is remembered in the holy
literature of Judasim, Christianity, and Islam, they do their part
to teach humans decency toward their species.
Chris Larter of the British-based Society for Protecting
Animals Abroad (SPANA), recently sent ANIMAL PEOPLE an update on
their doings, complete with press clippings.
“Jordan SPANA director Dr. Ghazi Mustafa is at present very
busy getting ready to open a new education center in September,”
wrote Larter.
Situated at the Hassanieh School for Girls in Um Quseir, the
center will teach animal care and ecological principles to members of
115 animal care clubs established in Jordanian schools with the
cooperation of the Ministry of Education.
“Our target audience are students from 9 to 13,” Mustafa
told Natasha Twal of the Jordan Times.

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Wildlife Court Calendar

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

U.S. District Judge for the D.C. Circuit Gladys Kessler on
July 31 rejected a Fund for Animals lawsuit challenging the authority
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue import permits for
Argali sheep trophies imported from Mongolia, Tajikistan, and
Kyrgyzstan. The Fund argued that hunting the Argali put the species
in peril. Responded Kessler, in granting a motion for summary
judgement solicited by Safari Club International on behalf of USFWS
and the Department of the Interior, “Because U.S. hunters generally
pay the highest prices for hunting permits issued by the Tajikistan
government, the absence of legal U.S. hunting substantially
decreased the permit revenues received by the Tajikistan government.
Because permit revenues were used in part for conservation and to
‘convince the local population not to poach,’ the decreased revenues
actually resulted in increasing the amount of poaching in the
region.” In short, Kessler reaffirmed the paradigm prevailing in
wildlife law since the Middle Ages that because hunters fund wildlife
management, wildlife management should favor hunting.

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Judge imposes settlement of fundraiser Eberle’s libel suit, ANIMAL PEOPLE corrects error made by a source and two items never in the newspaper nor on our web site

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2003:

FAIRFAX,  Virginia–Imposing the
“Correction & Statement of Regret” published
directly below,  Fairfax County Circuit Judge
Stanley Paul Klein on May 29,  2003 ended a
lawsuit brought against ANIMAL PEOPLE in July
2002 by direct mail fundraiser Bruce Eberle and
his firm Fund Raising Strategies.
Obtaining several specific corrections
and clarifications that ANIMAL PEOPLE had already
made,  to the extent that available information
allowed,  Eberle and FRS received no retractions
of main coverage,  no damages or costs,  no
admission of their allegations of libel and
tortious interference in business relationships,
and–in tacit recognition that Eberle and one of
his major clients contributed to whatever errors
were made through their own inaccurate
remarks–no apology.

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LETTERS [July/Aug 2003]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  July/August 2003:

Stress,  distancing,  vivisection,  and A primate’s memoir

Reading your review of Robert M.
Sapolsky’s A Primate’s Memoir:  A
Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life among the
Baboons in the June 2003 edition of ANIMAL
PEOPLE,  I was reminded of an all-day conference
I attended years ago on the physical and
psychological effects of stress.
The only speaker was Robert Sapolsky,  a
lively,  humorous,  and engaging man who spent
the morning describing the many and varied ways
that stress is experienced,  the painful nature
of the experience,  and the personal toll that
stress had taken on people’s lives,  including
his own.
Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon,
after the audience had been charmed and seduced
by Sapolsky’s warmth and wit,  he announced to
this group of caretakers–nurses,  psychologists,
and social workers such as myself–“I am a
vivisector.”

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Eberle says he had nothing to do with MIA “skeleton in closet”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  July/August 2003:

Responding to the June 2003 ANIMAL PEOPLE
article “Judge imposes settlement of fundraiser
Eberle’s libel suit,”  Bruce Eberle of Fund
Raising Strategies Inc. both telephoned and wrote
in reference to four paragraphs quoted and
paraphrased from a Los Angeles Times exposé of
the activities of his former client Jack Bailey.
The complete exposé,  by Los Angeles
Times staff writer Scott Harris,  was originally
published on August 7,  1991,  and is accessible
at <www.latimes.com>.
Stated Eberle,  “Neither my company nor I
had anything whatsoever to do with a fund appeal
[discussed by Harris] that referred to Jack
Bailey bringing back a partial skeleton of a
supposed American POW.  If such a fund appeal
was,  in fact,  mailed,  my company and/or myself
did not create it,   mail it,  or have anything
to do with it.”

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Getting biodiversity backward

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  July/August 2003:

CANBERRA,  Australia–At least 1,595 Australian native plants
and animals are at risk of extinction,  2,900 regional ecosystems are
imperiled,  and the leading threats come from land clearing,  sheep
and cattle grazing,  drought,  and fires,  says a recently published
national Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment.  Predation and
competition with native species by introduced species ranked as a
lesser threat in most parts of Australia.
Principally authored by ecologist Paul Sattler,  the
assessment was commissioned by the national government.  It was
presented to Parliament in late April 2003.
What,  three months later,  is Australia doing about the findings?

*  The Cooperative Research Centre for Pet Control has
applied for permission to send a genetically engineered mouse herpes
virus into field trials–in effect,  to begin yet another
introduction of a non-native species.
The Cooperative Research Centre “aims to spread the virus throughout
the exotic mouse population,”  reported the Brisbane Courier-Mail,
noting that mouse plagues annually “cost the nation’s grain farmers
about $150 million.”

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Editorial: Shelter killing & regional values

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  July/August 2003:

On page 17 of this edition ANIMAL PEOPLE presents our tenth
annual casualty count in the 131-year-old battle by humane societies
against dog and cat overpopulation.
For the first 100 years after the Women’s Humane Society of
Philadelphia became the first U.S. humane organization to take an
animal control contract,  there was no visible progress.  Even after
the numbers of dogs and cats killed in U.S. shelters and pounds began
to fall in the early 1970s,  there was little recognition of
improvement.  The numbers everywhere were still higher than almost
anyone could bear to study in any kind of depth.
As recently as 1993,  the American Humane Association,
Humane Society of the U.S.,  and PETA still erroneously asserted that
the shelter killing toll was going up.

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British fox hunting ban is near

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  July/August 2003:

LONDON–The British House of Commons on July 9,  2003 voted
317-145 in favor of a national ban on fox hunting,  a week after
voting 363-154 to enact a total ban instead of a compromise that
would allow some hunting to continue for predator control.
The votes brought close to fulfillment the 1997 election
promise of Prime Minister Tony Blair to ban fox hunting if the Labour
Party won the Parliamentary majority.  Blair and Labour have led the
government ever since,  but have put other matters ahead of the
proposed hunting ban,  while anti-hunting private members’ bills have
cleared the Commons only to die in the House of Lords.
The Hunting Bill,  now presented with the full support of the
Blair government,  is scheduled for second reading by the Lords on
September 17,  followed by detailed review in October.  The Lords,
who hold their seats by heredity rather than election,  can amend and
delay legislation.  The anti-fox hunting Commons majority,  however,
has become strong enough to override the Lords.

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