Twiss again, like she did in Mississippi

June 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

HARRISON, Arkansas––The already tangled case of alleged
exotic cat collector Catherine Graham Twiss, 48, twisted again on May
15 when Boone County sheriff’s deputy Jim Clement found 10 big cats in
tiny cages without food or water at Twiss’ rented home in Hill Top,
Gaither Mountain. A dead leopard was found in the same cage as a starving
lion. Twiss was charged with 11 counts of cruelty to animals and
jailed for lack of a bond variously reported as either $2,500 or $25,000.
Twiss and her husband Lawrence Twiss were already involved in
the bankruptcy of an Arkansas tire store, and were facing cruelty charges
filed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by Doll Stanley-Branscum of In
Defense of Animals over the treatment of 46 lions, 21 tigers, six
lion/tiger hybrids, five pumas, five bears and a variety of other animals on
an 800-acre rented farm. Landowner Manuel Goforth ordered the animals
removed about a month later. IDA bid on the animals at the Twiss’ bankruptcy
proceeding, but was outbid by Jim Cook, of Oxford, Mississippi,
whom Stanley then offered to assist. Twiss meanwhile fled on May 5
with apparently as many of the big cats as she could pack into her vehicle.

Foreign zoos fight the budget crunch

June 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

MONTE CARLO, Monaco––
TV star Joanna Lumley led a May 8 protest
against conditions at the Animal Garden,
the private menagerie kept by Prince
Rainier of Monaco, which Born Free
Foundation president Virginia McKenna
describes as “a slum zoo stuck in the cliff
below the palace.”
According to John Gripper,
DVM, in a recent report to BFF, “tormented
and distressed” animals are kept in cages
far too small for their species. “The animals
are listless and showing stereotypical
behavior,” he wrote. “One monkey
chewed its own tail out of boredom,” and
at the time of Gripper’s visit, “had not been
treated. This suggests to me,” he continued,
“that vets are not regularly monitoring
the animals.”

BOOKS: Wildlife Conservation, Zoos, and Animal Protection: A Strategic Analysis

June 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

Wildlife Conservation, Zoos, and
Animal Protection: A Strategic Analysis
Center for Animals & Public Policy
(Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine,
200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, MA
01536), 1996. 254 pages, $30.00, paperback.

Wildlife Conservation, Zoos, and Animal
Protection: A Strategic Analysis, combines the proceedings
of the 1994 White Oak Conservation Center
conference by the same title with original commentary
by Center for Animals and Public Policy director
Andrew Rowan, wildlife expert Jennifer Lewis of the
Massachusetts SPCA, and John Robinson of the
Wildlife Conservation Society, formerly known as the
New York Zoological Society.

No monkey-business at STPO

June 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

DILLEY, Texas – – The
USDA Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service announced on May
10 that “Arashiyama West Primate
Center/South Texas Primate Observatory
director Lou Griffin and assistant
director Tracy Wyman, of Dilley,
Texas, agreed to surrender its registration
as a research facility” certified by
the Animal Welfare Act, and to
“cease engaging in activities that will
designate them as a covered dealer,
exhibitor, or research facility under
the Act, and, for Arashiyama and
Griffin, pay a combined civil penalty
of $15,000 which is suspended providing
no further violations of the Act.”

Bad news from zoos

June 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

A year and a half after tiger keeper
Trevor Smith, 32, was fatally mauled at the
Howletts Wild Animal Park in Canterbury, England,
main keeper Nick Marx on May 10 led the staff back
into the cages. A Bengal tiger named
Dodhwa ran to Marx and lay at his feet
for 15 minutes while he stroked her
head and talked to her. Owner John
Aspinall, 70, met a similar reception
the following day. After Smith’s
death, which came 15 years after a
female tiger named Zeya killed two
young keepers within a month and 11
years after an elephant killed another
keeper, Aspinall temporarily barred
his staff from entering the cages, and
the Canterbury city council made the
ban binding. However, an occupational
safety tribunal ruled in February
that the keepers may enter the cages in
pairs, and to Aspinall’s delight the
ruling was upheld on appeal in April.

Mismanagement alleged at Philly Zoo

June 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

PHILADELPHIA––Philadelphia Zoo
president Pete Hoskins remains on the job despite
multiple calls for his resignation.
Zoo vice chair Marsha Perelman, treasurer
Frank Reed, and investment subcommittee head
J. Barton Riley all resigned in early May, after which
Hoskins announced the $247,000 the Philadelphiabased
zoo consulting firm CLRdesign, which has reportedly
worked with 50 other zoos worldwide, to
help remedy longstanding problems.
Hoskins and other senior management have
taken multiple hits from probes of the Christmas Eve
fire that killed 23 endangered primates, but so far the
only staff fired have been security guards Joe Villaloz
and Edith Henry, sacked in January for allegedly
making 14 personal telephone calls instead of doing
their rounds during the first two and a half hours of
the blaze. The guards reportedly admitted faking log
entries to show that they visited the World of
Primates as required, when in fact they did not.

Oceanariums

June 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

Marine World Africa USA
was encouraged by the early progress
of bottlenose dolphin calves born to
Sadie, 16, on April 29, and Stormy,
21, on May 13. Sadie is the only
adult female dolphin at the park who
hasn’t previously raised a calf successfully,
but after two weeks she seemed
to be doing well, after a previous failure.
A third Marine World dolphin,
Terry, 35, was expected to give birth
just as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to
press. The father of each calf might be
either Bayou, 21, or Schooner, 20.
The Waikiki Aquarium, in
Hawaii, was unable to save a fivefoot
sand shark rescued from a tangle
of fishing net on April 24 by skin diver
Russ Brown. An autopsy indicated the
shark had probably eaten part of the
net as well as the fish she found in it.

The Buckshire 12 join Primarily Primates

June 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

SAN ANTONIO, Texas–– “We’re surprised
how well all of them adjusted to living in a
group situation,” says Primarily Primates corporate
secretary Stephen Rene Tello of the Buckshire 12.
The 12 chimpanzees, retired from research by the
Buckshire Corporation, arrived at Primarily Primates
on March 31.
“Before the move,” Tello explains,
“Buckshire began introducing them to each other in
pairs and then in groups,” which eased the transition.
The easy adaptation of the chimps to each
other was offset by some awkwardness about their new
facilities, which were designed taking into account the
behavior of the chimp colony already at Primarily
Primates––20 chimps, in four separate social groups,
who were rescued from a variety of abusive situations.

Mad cow disease

June 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

British domestic
beef sales on May 14 were
back to 94% of their premad
cow disease scare
level, and prices were at
92%, said the British Meat
and Livestock Commission.
The scare began on
March 27, when scientists
told Commons that bovine
encephalopathy (BSE) may
be related to a new strain of
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,
notable for afflicting young
victims; CJD had been
viewed as a disease of age.
In the interim, fish sales
rose 25%, while pork and
lamb sales were up 9%.
Beef consumption fell 28%
and prices fell 43%.

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