Author: Dylan Forest

Hunting & Trafficking

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

Chad McKittrick, 42, of Red
Lodge, Montana, was convicted by a jury
on October 25 of illegally killing one of the
15 wolves who were released into
Yellowstone National Park in February.
McKittrick shot the male wolf on April 24.
Song Ho Kim, of Vancouver,
British Columbia, was convicted November
16 on 11 counts of illegally trafficking in bear
parts. Convicted a month earlier of a similar
offense was K.H. Yong, also of Vancouver.
The two were nabbed in a crackdown apparently
begun after Peter Knights of the privately
funded Global Security Network photographed
bear parts for sale in 13 out of 20
traditional pharamacies in Vancouver’s
Chinatown.

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COURT CALENDAR

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

British High Court Justice
Richard Rougier ruled November 22 that a
pit bull terrier named Dempsey, subject of
three years of internationally publicized litigation,
need not be euthanized simply because a
friend of owner Dianne Fanneran allowed her
to run temporarily without a muzzle, violating
the Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991, which
banned pit bulls from Great Britain. Rougier
wrote that the Dangerous Dogs Act, “bears all
the hallmarks of an ill-thought-out piece of
legislation, no doubt drafted in response to a
pressure group.”

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Laboratory animal shorts

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

The European Patent Office on November 24 postponed an expected ruling on a
petition from Compassion in World Farming and 16 other animal welfare and religious groups,
asking it to reverse its 1992 decision that Harvard University and DuPont could be allowed to
patent Oncamouse, a strain of mouse genetically modified to be more vulnerable to human
forms of cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration is reportedly soon to release two reports
indicating that as result of overfeeding and lack of excercise, many laboratory rodents are
in such poor physical condition that toxicity tests involving them could yield seriously misleading
results. One strain of rat has doubled its average weight since 1970, according to
National Center for Toxicological Research scientist William Allaben, who calls them “Just
blobs of fat with legs.” Commenting on the survival rate of experimental control animals,
which at Merck Research Laboratories fell from 58% to 24% over the past 20 years, Merck
veterinary pathologist Kevin Keenan suggests that, “The most toxic substance we’ve tested in
our laboratory is the food.”

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Chimp traffic & AIDS rumors

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. – – An
early-November rumor reaching International
Primate Protection League president Shirley
McGreal indicates that for the first time a
chimpanzee has developed HIV, the human
form of AIDS, 10 years after experimental
infection at the Yerkes Regional Primate
Center in Atlanta. Previously, chimps have
only developed SIV, or simian AIDS.
“The chimp to date is not yet sick,”
McGreal said. “The possible finding at Yerkes
may explain some recent movement of chimps:
lots of possible drug contracts. Most chimps
used for AIDS research in the U.S. are captiveborn,
but we may see foreign drug companies
or nonprofits set up to serve U.S. firms, which
would get them access to chimps barred from
commercial trade byConvention on
International Trade in Endangered Species.”

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Marine mammals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

A dead humpback whale discovered off
San Francisco on November 3 and two more
found floating near the Farallon Islands o n
November 9 brought an early halt to the controversial
Scripps Institution of Oceanography experiment
in using low-frequency sound to measure ocean
temperature and, thereby, global warming. The
$35 million Accoustic Tomography of Ocean
Climate experiment wasn’t to begin until November
8, amid precautions to monitor the effect on marine
life including transmitter-equipped elephant seals, a
sonar assessment of krill movements, and four
whale-spotters in aircraft. However, the Scripps
team turned on the ATOC sonic equipment 13 times
in preliminary tests between October 28 and
November 4, violating the protocol reached earlier
with wildlife protection groups who sued to stop the
project, arguing that the sound waves would deafen
whales and seals. At deadline the National Marine
Fisheries Service was still trying to determine
whether ATOC had anything to do with the whale
deaths, which could also have been caused by a
toxic algal bloom reported circa Halloween by
recreational divers. Alarmed by the whale deaths,

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Lolita & Willy

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

MIAMI, Florida––Pressure on the embattled Miami
Seaquarium intensified on October 23 when Metro Dade building director
Carlos Bonzon gave management 45 days to come up with a plan to repair
Lolita the Killer Whale’s Stadium, the 25-year-old central attraction of the
facility. Plans for a $70 million expansion, including a new whale stadium,
are on hold due to a lawsuit filed by the nearby town of Key Biscayne.
“Lolita’s tank appears to be structurally sound,” the M i a m i
H e r a l d reported on November 25. However, “the grandstand has been
severely corroded by saltwater, and is held up by temporary beams.”
Bonzon’s order came a year after whale freedom advocate Ric
O’Barry introduced himself to the Dade County building inspection
department as “the former trainer of the Seaquarium’s original killer whale,
Hugo,” who died in 1980, and charged that the crumbling whale stadium
could be broken up by displacement as Lolita leaps.
The Seaquarium staff architect called O’Barry’s claim unfounded.

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When there is no shelter

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

A November 9 CNN expose of dog shooting at the Bullitt County Animal
Shelter in Sheperdsville, Kentucky, and a print edition simultaneously distributed by
Associated Press raised outrage almost everywhere but in rural Kentucky and adjacent
states, where dogs are shot every day, and modern shelters don’t exist. Thirtyfive
of the 120 counties in Kentucky and 20 of the 95 counties in Tennessee have no
animal shelter of any kind.
Explained Vicky Crosetti, executive director of the Knox County Humane
Society in Knoxville, Tennessee, “Most parts of those counties aren’t wired for
cable––people there didn’t even see the broadcast.”
“In one segment,” said America Online Pethost3, an animal control officer
by profession, “the man just kept grabbing puppies and shooting them. These were
not feral, sickly, nasty animals––they were very adoptable.”
“You can kill 50 dogs for a dollar,” said Bullitt County judge/executive
John Harper, compared with lethal injection costs of $4.42 per dog.

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Animal control & rescue

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

Legislation
The San Mateo County (California)
pet overpopulation ordinance is “a legislative
f a i l u r e , ” according to The Animal Council, an
association of dog and cat fanciers, in a newly
published “evaluation of statistics and reports.”
But the evidence is ambiguous. Countywide
euthanasia records going back to 1970 show dog
euthanasias peaking at 20,191 in 1971, declining
steadily to 1,298 in fiscal year 1990-1991, just
before the controversial San Mateo County ordinance
was adopted in March 1992. Since then,
dog euthanasias have continued to drop at approximately
the previous rate, to 1,111 in fiscal year
1993-1994. Cat euthanasias peaked in 1970, at
21,796; bottomed out at 4,697 in 1979; were
steady between 6,988 and 7,417 from 1985-1986
through 1991-1992; and since then have fallen to
5,134. Noting that 18 cities in San Mateo County
have not ratified the county ordinance, which
applies in unamended form only to the relatively
small unincorporated part of the county, the
report notes that, “Unincorporated cat euthanasias
in 1993-1994 were 46% greater than in 1990-
1991, the year prior to implementation” of the
ordinance, “compared to a 27% decrease countywide.”

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Moral ground

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

Writing for the Society of Animal Welfare
Administrators, Denver Dumb Friends League president
Robert Rohde on October 20 charged San Francisco SPCA
president Richard Avanzino with publishing “promotional
pronouncements” on behalf of the San Francisco Adoption
Pact “suggesting a higher moral ground, at the expense of
everyone else in the field.”
Under the Adoption Pact, the SF/SPCA has since
April 1994 accepted the duty of finding a home for every
animal received by the city animal control center who is
healthy or recoverable, and not vicious. Most aggrieving
Rohde was Avanzino’s remark that, “In most communities,
older animals or those not deemed ‘desireable’ are considered
‘unadoptable’ and placed in the ‘euthanize’ category.”

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