Bill Clinton kisses up to hunters

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C. – –
Fending off “vicious rumors that the
president is anti-hunting,” as one
White House official put it, Bill
Clinton on March 25 issued an executive
order recognizing hunters and
fishers as “first partners” in managing
the U.S. National Wildlife Refuges.
“Compatible hunting, fishing,
wildlife observation and photography,
and environmental education
and interpretation are especially recognized
in this Executive Order,”
Clinton said.

I was a fish killer by Steve Hindi

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

I first fished at age five, with my
brother Greg, who is one year younger.
Each of us caught a perch out of a lake in St.
Paul, Minnesota. Fascinated, we watched
the two perch swim around in a small bucket
until first one and then the other died. I don’t
remember what happened to their bodies, but
I know they were not large enough to eat.
Perch are plentiful, and easy to
hook, and are therefore considered to be a
good species for practice fishing.
Many members from both sides of
my family were fishers, as well as hunters,
trappers, and ranchers. A couple of dead
perch didn’t rate much concern. Like most
children, we learned what we were taught,
setting aside whatever qualms we may have
felt. Our mother raised us to care for cats and
dogs, and we regularly took in strays,
despite housing project rules which forbade
it. However, we were told that fish had no
feelings, and we killed them with abandon.

LETTERS [May 1996]

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

Working in China
I was interested in the letter
from David Usher about animal
fighting for entertainment at
Wonderland of Southwest China,
published in the April edition of
ANIMAL PEOPLE. As the Far
East Representative of the Born Free
Foundation (which includes
ZooCheck) this kind of problem is
very much in my remit. It is a vast
problem quite beyond our tiny
resources, but we do what we can.
We have several thrusts to
our policy:

Letters

Editorial: Peace talk

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

One of our cover stories this month deals with the ongoing process of strategic disengagement,
on both sides, from the 200-year-old battle over animal use in laboratory
research––not as a matter of either side abandoning goals, but as a matter of recognizing
that common goals may be achieved more readily if the conflict is less intense.
ANIMAL PEOPLE over the past year has advanced 10 suggestions for strategic
disengagement in a manner which would simultaneously meet the major practical demands
of the animal rights community and the major needs of biomedical research. They are based
largely on inclinations already evident among both activists and researchers.
ANIMAL PEOPLE does not pretend that these suggestions can resolve the
inescapable conflict over the rightness or wrongness of animal use per se. But they might
form a mutually acceptable protocol for progress.

Overkill in overdrive: Canada halts, then resumes seal massacre

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND––
The good news was that on April
12, a month early, the Canadian Department
of Fisheries and Oceans halted the bloodiest
seal massacre since 1983, claiming––
though few believed it––that the quota of a
quarter million harp seals had been filled.
The bad news was that on April 16
the DFO told the sealers that it had overcounted,
and to go kill another 60,000.
At that, Canadian Sealers Association
executive director Tina Fagan said her
members might ask for an additional quota of
37,000. Newfoundland fisheries minister
John Efford said the additional quota ought to
be 150,000.

Seeking the psychological well-being of primates

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

NEW YORK, N.Y.––Even before Congress in 1985 amended the Animal Welfare
Act to mandate that laboratories are responsible for the “psychological well-being” of nonhuman
primates used in research, Henry Spira may have known that resolving the long impasse
in the 200-year-old debate over the ethics of using animals in biomedical research would
come down to accommodating primate behavior.
No primatologist himself, Spira brought to animal advocacy a background including
a multinational childhood, waterfront union organizing, and 22 years of teaching English
in inner city schools. Throughout, Spira noticed that what most people want most in any
conflict is not the goal itself, but rather, not to lose.
Losing means losing stature in the troop. Loss of stature means loss of security.
Goal-oriented negotiating, Spira realized, means finding a way for both parties to gain
stature: to achieve important objectives without sacrificing principle.
Read more

Heroic dogs, and sometimes cats––WHAT MAKES THEM BRAVE?

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.––”A cat’s a better mother
than you are!” Rhett Butler exploded at Scarlet O’Hara in one of
the most memorable scenes of Gone With The Wind.
Cats are actually devoted mothers. On March 29 a
Brooklyn cat named Scarlet proved it, dashing five times into a
burning building despite severe burns to rescue each of her fourweek-old
kittens. Firefighter David Giannelli, a 17-year-veteran of
Ladder Company 175, saw Scarlet moving the kittens across the
street after getting them out of the fire and called the North Shore
Animal League. Now recovering at North Shore, they drew 700
adoption offers within hours of their plight becoming known.
The script-writers of the Lassie and Rin-Tin-Tin serials
would have had a hard time topping the heroic animal headlines
during the first quarter-plus of 1996. Sixteen times in 15 weeks,
mass media reported dogs and cats performing daring or unusual
altruistic deeds, on behalf of either humans or other animals.
The streak began on New Year’s Day, when a nameless
cat in Minneapolis alerted a sleeping child to smoke in time to save
her family from a house fire.

OBITUARIES

April 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

Dick Bromley, 75, a longtime
docent for the Bridgeport Zoo, died on
January 20 from complications of prostate
cancer at home in Monroe, Connecticut. A
self-employed consulting engineer, involved
in designing the Hubbel Space Telescope,
Bromley was active in many community
activities, but animals were from boyhood
his most enduring interest. Bromley and his
wife Priscilla, who survives him, were
active participants in the1991-1992 A N IMAL
PEOPLE feral cat rescue project, caring
for seven outdoor cats in addition to their
own five pet cats, four of whom were adopted
through the project. All of the cats remain
alive and well, and Mrs. Bromley continues
to attend them.

Obituaries

BOOKS: Simon & Schuster Children’s Guide to Birds

April 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

S i m o n & Schuster Childre n ’s
Guide to Birds, by Jinny
Johnson, with Dr. Malcolm
Ogilvie. Simon & Schuster (1230
Avenue of the Americas, New York,
NY 10020), 1996. 96 pages, illustrated,
$19.95 hardcover.

What gets children interested in
birdwatching––a dull class, a window, and
a bird outside, or a nice big book full of colorful
creatures called titmice and jackass
penguins? Maybe it’s both. Unfortunately,
pages the size of workbooks make this otherwise
excellent basic guide a bit difficult to
conceal, open, in a lap beneath a
desk––and it’s too big to take out into the
field in a pocket, too. But then, children
are more likely to do their early species
identification from indoors, anyway.

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