LETTERS [Sept. 1994]

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

Burned

On April 28, Jennifer O’Connor, the acting president of

Voice For All Animals, was walking a few blocks from her home

with one of her dogs. A truck driver pulling a tub of hot tar lost

control of his 1965-vintage truck, which had Mexican license

plates, and splashed Jennifer and the dog with the tar. Jennifer

received second and third degree burns over 36% of her body and

needed to be taken to the hospital. Even though she was in

tremendous pain, she would not allow the paramedics to take her

until she had made sure someone she trusted would take the dog to

her veterinarian. Realizing how expensive even a day in the hos-

pital can be, and despite her intense pain, Jennifer did not stay

overnight. Still, she had to go for painful and costly treatments

on a daily basis. Several weeks later, because the cost of the $300

treatments were getting out of reach, and against the better judge-

ment of the doctor, she started doing the treatments herself.

Jennifer will also need some skin grafts which she cannot afford.

Letters

Whale-meat and brain damage

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A comparison of the pilot whale

consumption of pregnant Faroese women

with amounts of methyl mercury found in

umbilical cords and maternal hair has

discovered that those who eat whale meat

often pass mercury to their fetuses at lev-

els which may cause brain damage.

Conducted by biochemists Christine

Dalgard, Philippe Grandjean, Poul

Jergensen, and Pal Weihe, of Odense

University, Denmark, the study was

published in the June/July 1994 issue of

Environmental Health Perspectives.

Ignoring the international ban on com-

mercial whaling, Faroe Islanders kill

circa 2,000 whales a year. The Faroes are

a Danish protectorate.

Did Japan quit killing hawksbill turtles to resume killing whales?

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

TOKYO, Japan––More than

three years after former U.S. president

George Bush warned Japan to quit dealing in

hawksbill sea turtles or face trade sanctions

under the Convention on International Trade

in Endangered Species, Japan on July 15

banned the import of the rare turtles and/or

their parts––after importing circa 30 tons of

hawksbill turtleshell during the first half of

1994 alone. The shells are used to make var-

ious ornamental sundries. The Bush warn-

ing, never followed up, was the first-ever

U.S. move to enforce CITES, although

Congress gave the President the authority to

do so in 1977. Japan is believed to have

imported parts of more than two million sea

turtles since 1971, according to Earth Island

Institute, including the shells of at least

234,000 hawksbills during the 1980s.

Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace take on Norwegian whalers; JAPAN IGNORES SANCTUARY; RUSSIA MAY FOLLOW

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

NORTH SEA, TOKYO–––As a

summer of intense whaling and anti-whaling

activity off Norway closed, Japan announced

on August 12 that it too would flout the

International Whaling Commission by taking

an “exception” to the Southern Ocean Whale

Sanctuary, created in May. A similar

announcement was expected from Russia.

While Norway for the second year

unilaterally set a commercial whaling quota,

breaking the IWC moratorium on commercial

whaling in effect since 1986, Japan formally

objected to the inclusion of minke whales as a

protected species within the newly created

sanctuary, which includes 80% of the known

minke whale habitat: all waters south of the

40th parallel except for a dip around South

America. The objection means Japan will

proceed with plans for a so-called scientific

hunt of 300 minke whales within the sanctu-

Summer flooding tested disaster prep in Georgia

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

MACON, Georgia––Tropical Storm Alberto killed 31 people during the second

week of July, washing out 9,000 homes, 1,700 roads, 600 bridges, and 100 dams across

southern Georgia. Animals suffered too, as 300,000 chickens drowned on just one farm near

Montezuma, while 83 dogs and cats died in the submerged Sumter County Humane Society

shelter, a short distance north at Americus. Of the dogs left inside, only the shelter mascot

survived, hiding in a storage closet that withstood the water. One cat also survived, who was

quickly adopted out and named “Miracle.” Six dogs kept outside escaped as the torrent

wrecked their cages.

The Georgia Wildlife Resources division expected a heavy impact upon rabbits,

rodents, foxes, and fawns, who were born late this year due to a lingering winter. Driving

Free Willy––or breed him? MORE AT RISK THAN MONEY IN OCEANARIUMS

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A surfacing fin whale probably didn’t inspire the

Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.––but she might

have. She rises from the trench between waves like a glisten-

ing black wall, low at first, easing up out of the water until

her fin breaks the horizon and she looms for a moment as big

in life as in symbol. Then she spouts, arches her back, and

slides out of sight. Her broad tail never breaks the surface.

Just 15 seconds with a wild whale, after a 330-mile

drive and a three-hour cruise, can unforgetably confirm the

mystique of whales. Add to that half an hour of observing the

dolphins who often surf the wakes of whale-watching vessels,

and it’s no surprise that whale-watching draws 1.5 million

people per year in New England alone, pumping $317 million

into the local economy. Globally, says the British-based

Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, whale-watching is

now worth more than whale-killing ever was––perhaps even

in Japan, the leading market worldwide for whale meat.

MARINE MAMMAL NOTES

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The U.S. Navy plans to shut down

14 of its 18 Sound Surveillance System

(Sosus) underwater listening posts, perma-

nently disabling much of a $16 billion network

of more than 1,000 microphones linked by

30,000 miles of seabed cables. The Sosus

budget has been cut from $335 million in fis-

cal year 1991 to just $60 million for fiscal year

1995; staffing is to drop from 2,500 in 1993 to

750 in 1996. Set up 40 years ago to monitor

Soviet submarines, the system was used in

1992-1993 to track whale migrations––and

proved sensitive enough to follow one blue

whale for 1,700 miles. Hoping to keep using

Sosus to help check compliance with interna-

tional fishing and whaling treaties, Commerce

Secretary Ron Brown on May 17 asked the

Defense Department to keep what remains of

Sosus intact, pending completion of a joint

study into retaining it via interdepartmental

cost-sharing. However, The New York Times

reported on June 12, a National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration internal memo

indicates NOAA is not willing to contribute to

the upkeep costs.

LETTERS [July/Aug 1994]

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Save the Whales!

Editor’s note: The producers of Free Willy! addressed

this letter to the White House. We thought it worth further notice.

This administration’s handling of the whaling issue in

particular, and animal rights and conservation issues in general,

is utterly scandalous. Russia is currently exporting hundreds of

tons of fresh whale meat to Japan illegally. Norway has been

caught exporting tons of frozen whale meat to Japan through

Korea illegally. And now, by refusing to sanction Norway for its

illegal commercial whaling, and by adopting the RMP, the U.S.

is officially climbing into bed with the whaling nations.

You may or may not be aware that at the end of our

movie Free Willy! we put up a 1-800-4-WHALES telephone line

and received over a million responses from people extremely

interested in getting information on how they could personally

help whales in the wild. We are currently producing a sequel, and

fully intend to do something along the same lines, with the poten-

tial of reaching millions more. Using the names we already have,

plus the new list, we will send out information about what is hap-

pening to our planet’s marine mammals, why it is happening, and

what can be done about it. We expect another huge response.

The fate of marine mammals may not be top priority on

the agenda of the administration right now, but the issue has an

excellent chance of building and becoming a nightmare closer to

re-election. As lifelong Democrats, we hate to say it, but marine

mammals, like many endangered species, fared much better

under the Republicans.

Letters

Endangered Species Act package includes wolves for Yellowstone

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

WASHINGTON D.C.––The Fish-

eries and Wildlife subcommittee of the U.S.

Senate Environment and Public Works

Committee opened discussion of reauthorizing

the Endangered Species Act on June 15 amid

a flurry of actions by the Clinton administra-

tion designed to mitigate objections to the

ESA from landowners while convincing envi-

ronmentalists that the key goals of the act will

not be yielded for political advantage.

Most notably, Interior Secretary

Bruce Babbitt announced June 14 that effec-

tive upon publication of new ESA regulations

in the Federal Register, it will institute peer

review of species listing and recovery deci-

sions by panels of three independent scien-

tists; produce multispecies listings and recov-

ery plans for species sharing the same ecosys-

tem, to expedite the regulatory process; pub-

lish land use guidelines spelling out what is

and isn’t allowed in the habitat of each new

species listed; and most symbolically impor-

tant, add landowners and business representa-

tives to endangered species recovery planning

teams. The latter comes close to building into

the listing process the cost/benefit analysis

that the George Bush administration argued

should be part of endangered species decision-

making back when the ESA first came up for

renewal in 1992.

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