Author: Dylan Forest

LETTERS [November 1995]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

No-kill speech
Thank you for the transcript
of your speech to “No-Kills In
the Nineties,” held recently in
Phoenix. I have made copies of it
for the members of our Animal
Control Advisory Committee. Your
message helps people understand the
different missions of each animal
group. With that understanding, the
groups can find the common ground
to work together.
I believe every animal
shelter has an obligation to seek the
means to become a no-kill. We just
received a National Animal Control
Association award for our aggressive
adoption outreach, but just because
we have received a national award
doesn’t mean we can stop and pat
ourselves on the back. We still have
a long way to go, and we will not
stop until we get there.

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Editorial: Opportunities for humane education

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

News clips from readers provide our best index of public concern about current
events. Our regular clippers notice anything about animals, no matter how small and
buried, but when clips flood our desk from folks who don’t even read ANIMAL PEOPLE,
yet find out about us in their desperation to address an outrage, we know a groundswell of
concern can be channeled into positive action.
Four events in particular have lately brought tidal waves of clips, faxes, e-mail,
and telephone calls. One was the torture-killing of Duke the Dalmatian in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, by three Beavis-and-Butthead imitators. The second was the death of a pig
at a county fair in Tyler, Texas, when an adolescent pushed a hose down the animal’s
throat and turned on the water, hoping to achieve last-minute weight gain sufficient to win a
prize. The third case was the September 14 torture-killing of a quarterhorse named Mr.
Wilson Boy in a pasture near Silsbee, Texas. Ten boys and a girl, ages 8 to 14, chased the
horse into barbed wire, beat him to death, and bragged about it.

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Dolphin-safe tuna law erased by treaty

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

PANAMA CITY, Panama– – The
U.S. embargo against imports of tuna netted
“on dolphin” collapsed October 4 as the Bill
Clinton administration signed the Declaration
of Panama, a treaty which redefines “dolphin-safe”
from zero preventable dolphin
deaths to killing under 5,000 per year.
Accepted under pressure from the
anti-regulation Republican Congress and the
enforcement panels of the General Agreement
on Trade and Tariffs and the North American
Free Trade Agreement, the treaty is expected
to be quickly ratified by the Senate.

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A wild horse story

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.––The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act is perilously
close to becoming an unfunded mandate, due to Congressional budget cuts.
If that happens, the Bureau of Land Management will be forced to return to the
range more than 8,000 horses and burros now in adoption programs and sanctuaries––without
the money to protect them from snipers and horsemeat contractors.
Since 1970, the BLM has been responsible for keeping the wild horse and burro
population on federal land at a level acceptable to grazing lease holders, without killing horses
or burros, and without allowing anyone else to. In that time the wild horse population has
officially quadrupled, to circa 50,000. Citing private surveys, wild horse advocates say it’s
less than half that number.
Either way, western ranchers say it’s too many. About 3.2 million cattle compete
for water and forage within the equines’ habitat. Ranchers used to just round up wild horses
and burros for slaughter. Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable drew attention to that practice in
their last film, The Misfits (1961), which gave impetus to Nevada secretary Velma Johnson’s
then little noted efforts to protect wild equines. When the “Wild Horse Annie Act” finally
outlawed the slaughter roundups in 1970, it was nicknamed in Johnson’s honor.

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BOOKS: Think Like The Animal: Questions to Ask Before You Kill

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Think Like The Animal: Questions to
Ask Before You Kill, by Norm Phelps.
The Fund for Animals (200 West 57th St., New
York, NY 10019), 1995. 10 pages. Free in limited
quantities.

Back from combat in Vietnam, poet Doug
Rawlings has told high school students ever since,
“If they got you thinking about signing up just to kill
you some time, since nothing else is going down,
you better be getting ready to kill you some women
and children too, and you better be getting ready to
kill you some time doing time, doing some long
time locked up in their screams.” Think Like The
Animal effectively delivers the same message to
young men who might be thinking about proving
their manhood by taking up hunting, from the perspective
of a former hunter from a hunting family
who laid down his gun forever at age 15 circa 40
years ago. It might be best used by young women,
approaching young men they know one-on-one.

BOOKS: Congo

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Congo by Michael Crichton
Ballantine Books, N.Y., 1980, re-released with the film. 313 pages, paper, $6.99 U.S.; $7.99 Canadian.

It’s the late 1970s, and several rival groups of computer
businesses (portrayed as having the political ambitions, espionage
techniques, and arms of mini-nationhood) are feverishly competing
to be the first on site at the fabled Lost City of Zinj in the mysterious
depths of the African Congo River basin. Only at Zinj are
to be found the blue diamonds which will revolutionize computer
technology––and whoever finds the diamonds first finds the Bill
Gates-like riches of computerland.
However, the first expedition to Zinj was promptly
wiped out. Through hi-tech detective work and, finally, face-toface
combat, the diamond hunters discover that the gems of Zinj
are guarded by an anomalous race of grey gorilla.

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BOOKS: The Evil Side of a Racetrack

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

The Evil Side of a Racetrack
by Michael John Horak
Rainbow Books Inc. (POB 430, Highland City, FL 33846-0430), 1995. 515 pages, with photos. $30.00.

The Evil Side of a Racetrack is the autobiography of
Michael John Horak, a former harness racing owner, driver
and trainer, most heavily involved in the 1960s, when most
of his story takes place. But now, in 1995, the treatment of
racehorses hasn’t changed for the better. They are still
drugged and raced lame with alarming regularity.
Horak got into racing chiefly for the love of horses
and to be able to make a living with them. He tried to make a
difference by training his horses and those of clients in a cautious,
easy, drug-free manner. He did not believe in racing
an even slightly lame horse, no matter how well a drug
might mask the pain. He knew that drugs might work for a
while and perhaps a few more wins could be had, but in the
end the horse would break down in extreme pain.

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OBITUARIES

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Howard Elliott Winn, 69, died August 13 while gardening at his home in North
Kingstown, Rhode Island. Best known for pioneering acoustic research on whale songs,
Winn was author of more than 120 scientific papers altogether, pertaining to birds and fish as
well as marine mammals. “He was scientific director of the Cetacean and Turtle Assessment
Program,” remembered colleague Robert Kenney, “which was a landmark study in 1978-
1982 of the whales, dolphins, and sea turtles off the northeastern United States. Much of his
whale research over the last 15 years focused on the right whale, the most endangered whale
species. He was the lead investigator of the South Channel Ocean Productivity Experiment, a
large program which significantly advanced our understanding of right whale habitat requirements,and served as a member of the national right whale recovery team. In recent years he was conducting a continuing study of the ecology and behavior of coral reef fish in Belize, Central America.” Earning a B.A. in biology at Bowdoin College in 1948, and an M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, 1950 and 1955, Winn taught for 10 years at the
University of Maryland before joining the University of Rhode Island as professor of
oceanography in 1965. Winn served as president of the Animal Behavior Society in 1966.
He is survived by his wife, Susan Hammen-Winn, and four sons.
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BOOKS: Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations
edited by Carol J. Adams and Josephine Donovan
Duke University Press (Box 90660, Durham NC 27708-0660), 1995.
366 pages, $16.95 paper, $49.95 cloth.

This collection of 13 essays, discussing
exploitation and abuse of animals
and women from a feminist perspective,
makes for a challenging read. The
premise––that women and animals suffer
similar oppression, for much the same reasons––is
both valid and interesting. But
what the editors describe as a “multidisciplinary
approach” tends to be more scattershot,
uneasily blending discussions of literature,
semantics, sociology, ethics, ecology, etc.
One essayist even digs up an ancient squib
by Virginia Woolf.

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