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Editorial: White hats and black hats

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley executive director Vicki Crosetti has for a
year now endured a nightmare of harassment, just for doing her job.
Until mid-1996, Crosetti was best known as an early leader in borrowing adoption
techniques from the North Shore Animal League, including opening a downtown adoption center
that displays animals more attractively and conveniently than the aging HSTV shelter, and
sending adoptable puppies for whom there was no local demand to the North Shore adoption
center on Long Island. Adopting through satellite facilities and transporting animals to meet
demand in lieu of killing are fast becoming standard procedure, but just five years ago were so
controversial that some conventional shelter operators derisively accused Crosetti of trying to
turn HSTV into a “no-kill,” meaning either an overcrowded, diseased animal collection, or a
“turnaway,” which would not help problem animals.
It is thus ironic that Crosetti is now routinely sizzled by Knoxville tabloids and talk
shows as a purportedly needle-happy animal killer hellbent on an anti-no-kill vendetta, and has
been sued for euthanizing animals whom she as a veterinary technician believed to have little or
no chance of being recoverable within the limits of HSTV resources.

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Secrets of the Forbidden Island

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

NIIHAU, Hawaii––Conflict of
interest questions raised by the recent designation
of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback
Whale National Marine Sanctuary may go
well beyond the competing mandates of different
government agencies. The well-connected
heirs of Eliza Sinclair and their designated
agents could potentially make millions
of dollars through the lease or sale of the
island of Niihau to the U.S. Navy for inclusion
in the Pacific Missile Range––after
keeping it out of both the whale sanctuary
and, earlier, the Northwestern Hawaiian
Islands National Wildlife Refuge, which
includes all the islands north of Niihau.

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CITES BEATING LEAVES ANIMAL PROTECTION GROUPS TO REGROUP

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

HARARE––The 10-year global ivory
trafficking ban fell on June 19, as Zimbabwe,
Botswana, and Namibia won approval from the
1997 Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species triennial in Harare,
Zimbabwe, to sell 59 tons of elephant ivory to
Japan in early 1999, after 18 months of refinement
of safeguards supposed to prevent the sale
from providing cover to ivory poachers.
The sale, involving about a third of
the ivory stockpiled by the three southern
African nations, is the first legal crack in the
ban, imposed by CITES in 1989. The ban
braked the collapse of the African elephant population
from 1.3 million circa 1980 to just
600,000 a decade later.

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Suit vs. BLM horse program keeps an ace for wild jacks

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

RENO––Suing the Bureau of Land
Management on June 19 for alleged maladministration
of the 1971 Wild and Free-Roaming
Horse and Burro Act, the Fund for Animals
and Animal Protection Institute dropped at the
last minute a much discussed request for an
injunction to halt BLM wild horse and burro
roundups pending program reform.
As filed, Fund attorney Howard
Crystal told ANIMAL PEOPLE, “The pending
motion before Judge Howard McKibben
strictly concerns the matter on which Judge
McKibben ruled [in favor of the Fund and
A P I ] ten years ago––the adoption program.
Plaintiffs are requesting that the Court modify
its longstanding permanent injunction against
the BLM to require the agency to affirmatively
inquire into the intentions of adopters, rather
than continuing to implement a policy which
one Justice Department attorney refers to as
‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ In addition,” Crystal
said, “plaintiffs are seeking other changes in
the adoption program to help ensure that adopted
animals end up in the hands of people who
intend to care for them, rather than sell them.”

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OBITUARIES

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

Bebe, 40, reputedly the last of the
original Flipper TV series dolphins, died
May 1 at the Miami Seaquarium, where she
was born in 1956, one year after the facility
opened. But in fact, said Flipper series trainer
Ric O’Barry, Bebe was not among the
seven dolphins who actually performed in the
series, aired 1964-1967. She was, however,
the last dolphin left from the group who were
at the Seaquarium during the filming. “We
used her mother,” O’Barry said, “and certainly
Bebe was always around, but she
wasn’t one of the performers.” Her star performing
days came later. “Bebe was an outgoing
tough old lady,” said Dolphin Freedom
Foundation president Russ Rector, who
worked with her during the 1970s and was
highly critical of the Seaquarium for permitting
her to become pregnant last year, bearing
her eighth calf in November 1996. “She
was a wonderful animal,” said current
Seaquarium director of training Robert Rose.

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BOOKS: The Cornell Book of Cats

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

The Cornell Book of Cats
A Comprehensive and Authoritative Medical Reference
for Every Cat and Kitten, Second Edition
by the Faculty, Staff, and Associates,
Cornell Feline Health Center, Cornell University
Villard Books (201 East 50th St., New York, NY 10022), 1997.
508 pages, hardback, $35.00.

Inasmuch as our feline population
just dipped below 20 for the first time in five
years, and many of our cats are here because
various health conditions made them otherwise
unadoptable, we were able to give The
Cornell Book of Cats a thorough reference
check almost immediately on receipt. It
passed every test: it offers the most thorough,
up-to-date discussion of feline health problems
yet added to our sagging bookshelf, and
though sturdily bound to withstand daily use in
shelters and veterinary clinics, will no doubt
eventually be thumbed to tatters. If it saves
even one unnecessary veterinary visit, it will
pay for itself. If you keep cats, get it.

BOOKS: Wild Neighbors: The Humane Approach to Living with Wildlife

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

Wild Neighbors
The Humane Approach to Living with Wildlife
Humane Society of the U.S.
Edited by John Hadidian, Guy R. Hodge, and John W. Grandy
Fulcrum Publishing (350 Indiana St., Suite 350, Golden, CO 80401-5093), 1997.
254 pages, paperback, $16.95.

Some ANIMAL PEOPLE readers
may think we never say anything good about
the Humane Society of the U.S., but these
should not include those who have called
about nuisance wildlife problems. For at least
a decade, we’ve been recommending the
HSUS Pocket Guide To The Humane Control
of Wildlife in Cities and Towns, edited by
Guy Hodge, as the most useful, practical
deed HSUS ever did for hands-on animal rescuers.
Besides being the most thorough yet
succinct manual around on humane response
to a porcupine nubbling a front step, a raccoon
in a chimney, an opossum in a basement,
squirrels in an attic, or deer nibbling a
garden, it was easy to stuff into a pocket and
take out on call.

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BOOKS: Disposable Animals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

Disposable Animals:
Ending the Tragedy of Throwaway Pets
by Craig Brestrup
Camino Bay Books (POB 1945, Leander, TX 78646-1945), 1997.
220 pages, paperback, $14.95.

In February 1994, after 20 years in mental health
work, Craig Brestrup became executive director of the
Progressive Animal Welfare Society in Lynnwood,
Washington. Like Richard Avanzino, who 18 years earlier
became executive director of the San Francisco SPCA with a
background as a pharmacist and attorney, Brestrup was
shocked to find himself in a milieu where life itself was
devalued in the name of humane ideals. Like psychologist
Alan Beck, 15 years earlier, Brestrup discovered that the
culture of animal shelters often centers on dispensing death.
As in elite military units, efficient killers enjoy the highest
prestige; becoming a killer is the universal rite of passage.

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Choosing between tanks and The Nature Conservancy

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

Lethal as bombs and guns are, noman’s-land
designated for military training is
often the last refuge for wildlife, because sporadic
warfare disrupts habitat less than either
peaceful development or recreational hunting
and fishing, which inherently disturb the food
web. But wildlife use of no-man’s-land often
brings another kind of conflict, in the courts,
when the shooting starts.

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