Author: Dylan Forest

LETTERS [Jan/Feb 1995]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1995:

Moral idiocy
If this country had devot-
ed a thousandth of the media time it
has spent on O.J. Simpson and his
similarly good-for-nothing
mur-
dered wife on another issue, say the
crimes of an opportunistic Alaska
against its non-commercially valu-
able wildlife, something of real
value might have emerged. As it is,
let’s take heart that even an atom of
exposure was able to detonate an
uproar, and that it takes an almost
total blackout to keep ugly deeds
and traditions in place. I remain
convinced that it is the cultural and
media superstructure that dominates
our waking hours, built every inch
of the way on the system’s central
values, that should be blamed for
the state of moral idiocy in which
we dwell.
––Patrice Greanville
Westport, Connecticut

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WHO GETS THE MONEY? BUDGETS, ASSETS, FUNDRAISING, AND OVERHEAD

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

BUDGETS, ASSETS, FUNDRAISING, AND OVERHEAD

The major national animal and habitat protection
groups are listed below in alphabetical order, together with
selected other organizations of note. Each group is identified in
the second column by apparent focus and philosophy: Astands
for advocacy, C for conservation of habitat via acquisition, E
for education, H for support of hunting (either for “wildlife
management” or recreation), L for litigation, P for publica-
tion, R for animal rights, S for shelter and sanctuary mainte-
nance, V for focus on vivisection issues, and W for animal
welfare. The R and W designations are used only when an
organization seems to have made a point of being one or the
other. Although many groups are involved in multiple activi-
ties, space limits us to providing only four identifying letters.

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AGRICULTURE

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

Famine driven by drought is devastating the
Tarahumara tribe, of Chihuahua state, Mexico––a shy people
known for vegetarianism, endurance running, and such usually
good health that their language reportedly lacks a word for malnu-
trition. Their plight became known when health officials reported
in late October that Tarahumara women––who hadn’t eaten in
days––were carrying starving and dehydrated babies out of the
mountains to find help, walking up to five hours to reach a clinic.
At least 34 Tarahumara babies died at clinics during September
and October. The toll in remote villages is believed to be far high-
er. The crisis was apparently aggravated by ranchers whose cattle
drained local water sources before more than 100,000 head suc-
cumbed. Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari finally
promised food aid on October 27, but refused the appeal of
Chihuahua governor Francisco Barrios Terrazas, a member of the
opposition, for disaster relief funds. While the politicos dithered,
photographer Ismael Villalobos, 60, trucked tons of rice and
beans to the Tarahumara, gifts from a Mexico City women’s group.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

India on November 4 declared itself free of
plague, two months after a bubonic plague outbreak hit the
Beed district of Maharashtra state while pneumonic plague
broke out in the city of Surat. The last Beed case was
reported on October 2; the last Surat case was diagnosed
three weeks later. A bubonic plague outbreak possibly
related to the one in Beed raged on in Matabeleland
province, Zimbabwe, killing 21 people and afflicting more
than 200 by November 10. Dr. Lalit Dar and staff at the
India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi meanwhile
questioned whether the diseases in question really were
plague in a letter to The Lancet, a prestigious British med-
ical journal. They noted that while most of the victims had
plague-like symptoms, only 272 out of 6,000 reported cases
were unequivocally identified, and the death toll was unex-
pectedly low. “Even within families more than one case
was uncommon,” they wrote. “The diagnosis of plague
should definitely be confirmed by culture. Conditions that
need to be excluded are viral infections such as hantavirus
pulmonary syndrome, meliodisis and leptospirosis.” The
latter three diseases, like plague, are often spread by infect-
ed rodents and tend to follow flooding, which hit western
India just before the first plague cases occurred.

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LABORATORY ANIMAL NUMBERS: GOOD NEWS OR BAD? by Andrew Rowan

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

In March of this year, I reported that the number of
laboratory animals used annually had declined by up to 50%
in many European countries and also probably in the United
States. I based this conclusion on a variety of sources. In
Europe, Great Britain and the Netherlands have collected
data on laboratory animal numbers with reasonable diligence,
and their records are usually regarded as being reliable. In
both cases, laboratory animal use has fallen by approximate-
ly 50% since the mid-1970s. Switzerland also reports a 50%
decline between 1980 and 1990; the sources for this claim
are news reports in the scientific literature. Similarly,
France, Italy, Sweden, and Germany all report declining
use, although their records are incomplete and cover only a
few years in the 1980s and 1990s. Canada, via the Canadian
Council on Animal Care, also reports significant declines in
the use of the common laboratory mammals.

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LETTERS [Dec. 1994]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

S.F . Zoo responds to HSUS charges
I am writing to respond to reports
about the San Francisco Zoo regarding transac-
tions with alleged hunting ranches made by the
Humane Society of the U.S. and reported in
your October article, “Easy targets.”
The San Francisco Zoo is an accred-
ited institution that abides by the standards and
ethical policies set forth by the American Zoo
and Aquarium Association. In 1992 we adopt-
ed one of the most stringent transaction agree-
ments anywhere. Recipient institutions are
required to sign a disposition and acquisition
transaction agreement that prohibits the sale of
animals to auctions or hunting ranches or to
anyone who provides animals to either.

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Editorial: Where our money goes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

Our fifth annual report on “Who gets the money?” starts on page 11 of this issue.
Once again you may be shocked and dismayed to discover the extent to which the purported
“program expenses” of many of the biggest and best-known organizations are actually direct
mail costs written off as “public education.” Indeed, some such organizations have few if any
programs beyond direct mail. We view this as an abuse of public trust.
We stress accountability at ANIMAL PEOPLE––and we practice what we preach.
We don’t just tell you our “investigations department” is working on this or that: you see our
original investigative coverage of all the news about animal protection, ten times a year.
Like other animal protection charities, we exist through your concern and your gen-
erosity. Your generosity is critically important, because while your paid subscriptions and
advertising cover most of the cost of printing and mailing ANIMAL PEOPLE, your personal
gifts support our information-gathering. Your donations make possible our calls and faxes to
the people in the know––or who ought to be in the know––wherever animals need help. Often
it’s our call seeking information on your behalf that gets both authorities and animal advocacy
groups moving in response to situations that might otherwise be pushed aside.

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Dirty pool: (Part II of a two-part investigative series)

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

VANCOUVER, KANSAS CITY,
CHICAGO––Propaganda wins converts to
causes by reducing issues to good against evil,
forcing observers to take sides. Propaganda is
among the most effective tools of warfare;
but like warfare itself, it exacts a high price
from those who use it. Much as the dead
from either side don’t “win” a war, propagan-
dists for any cause often find themselves
obliged to wage wars they can’t afford simply
because they chose to use exaggerated
rhetoric in trying to win a simple reform. The
nature of propaganda is that in making broad
accusations of bad faith by the opponent, it
cuts off communication, making enmity out
of disagreement and mendacity out of misun-
derstanding.

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Friends of Animals saves elephants at CITES: YEARS OF AID TO AFRICAN ANTI-POACHING EFFORTS PAYS OFF

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

FORT LAUDERDALE––Facing 14 other African nations aligned as a block,
South Africa on November 15 withdrew a proposal to remove elephants from protection
under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
South Africa sought the downlisting in order to sell parts from elephants culled to
limit park populations. The funds, it claimed, would go to conservation. The most con-
tentious item on the agenda at the triennial two-week CITES conference, ended November
18, the downlisting was backed by Zimbabwe, Japan, Australia, the World Conservation
Union, the trophy hunting lobby, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service head Mollie Beattie,
striving to ingratiate herself with hunting groups which have privately lobbied for her ouster.
Officially, the U.S. and the European Union
were committed to abstain––leaving elephants
with few influential friends.

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