BOOKS: Sterling references

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

The Reptile and Amphibian Keeper’s
Dictionary, by David C. Wareham. 1993. 193 pages,
hardcover, $24.95 ($34.95 in Canada).
Dolphins & Porpoises: A World-wide
Guide, by Jean-Pierre Sylvestre. 1994. 160 pages,
hardcover, $19.95 ($25.95 in Canada).
The Greenpeace Book of Coral Reefs, by
Susan Wells & Nick Hanna. 1992, 160 pages, hard-
cover, $35.00.
All from Sterling Publishing Co. (387 Park
Ave. South, New York, NY 10016-8810).

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BOOKS FOR THE MEATOUT

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

Meat: A Natural Symbol. By Nick Fiddes,
Routledge Inc. (29 West 35th St, New York NY
10001), 1991, 261 pages, paperback, $15.95. ISBN
0-415-08929-8.
Former caterer Nick Fiddes, now a social
anthropologist, has had lots of experience with social
responses to food. He has found meat especially rich in
social significance. Like many other writers, he recog-
nizes its potential as a symbol of social, economic and
sexual dominance. But most of all, he believes, meat
subconsciously represents the human conquest of nature.

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Diet & Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

MILK PRODUCED WITH RBST GOES ON SALE
Milk produced through the use of recombinant
(genetically enginneered) bovine somatotropin growth hor-
m o n e went on sale to the general public for the first time on
February 4, a month after a review of the scientific literature
on the production stimulant by the White House Office of
Management and Budget concluded that, “There is no evi-
dence that rBST poses a health threat to humans or animals.”
The Pure Food Campaign led anti-rBST protests in at least nine
cities. The drug boosts milk production per cow and extends
the time a cow can be milked between the births of calves. It is
bitterly opposed by many dairy farmers because in reducing the
number of cows needed to meet the demand for milk, it will
put some farmers out of business. Consumer advocates are
concerned that despite government assurances, residues may
get into milk, producing such effects as earlier puberty and
greater breast development in young women––and perhaps
stimulating hormonally triggered cancers. Concerned about
boycott pressure, the Food and Drug Administration warned
dairy producers and distributors that they can identify milk as
being produced without the use of rBST if they can prove it,
but cannot say simply “rBST-free,” since milk produced with
rBST is also technically rBST-free. They must also state on a
label that, “No significant difference has been shown between
milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows.”

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AGRICULTURE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

MAJOR RATITE BANKRUPTCY IN FLORIDA
The collapse of the ratite speculation boom pre-
dicted in the January/February ANIMAL PEOPLE cover fea-
ture may have begun with the mid-January bankruptcy of U.S.
Ostrich and Junction Financial Corporation, of Hallandale,
Florida. The related firms claimed assets of $933,000, includ-
ing ostriches bought for $381,000, while owing $3.9 million to
1,350 investors in 47 states, Canada, and Jamaica. One
investor reportedly lost $274,000. The Securities Exchange
Corporation responded by suing U.S. Ostrich and Junction
Financial principals Marcia Josowitz and Stephen Tashman for
allegedly selling more than $3 million in unregistered securities
in the form of investment contracts, billed as general partner-
ships. The SEC also charged Josowitz and Tashman with
draining corporate funds to make loans to themselves and pay
themselves inflated salaries. Josowitz and Tashman apparently
got into ostriches after promoting a 900 telephone number ser-
vice, office supplies, vacation travel, and water purifiers.

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ANIMAL WELFARE ACT ENFORCEMENT

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

Matthew Block and Worldwide
Primates, of Miami, Florida, were fined $16,000
on January 27 for failure to provide primates with
adequate food, water, ventilation, and sanitation.
Block is under sentence for his role in arranging a
multinational 1990 orangutan smuggling deal,
exposed by the International Primate Protection
League and known as the “Bangkok Six” case.
The USDA has filed stiffer charges
against Class B animal dealer Jerry Vance, of
Europa, Mississippi. Charged in September with
improper recordkeeping, after the TV news program
Eye to Eye with Connie Chung documented the dis-
covery of several missing pets at his facility, Vance
is now accused of improper dog identification, fail-
ing to provide veterinary care, and failing to provide
adequate shelter.

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Biomedical research

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

A 13-member panel appointed
by the National Research Council’s
Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources
is presently revising the NRC Guide for the
Care and Use of Laborary Animals the
standard reference upon which Animal
Welfare Act regulations tend to be based.
The revision is expected to profoundly influ-
ence the shape of forthcoming new regula-
tions on the housing and care of dogs and
nonhuman primates, which have been the
subject of intense lobbying and repeated
court battles ever since an amendment to the
AWA mandating improved dog and primate
care was passed by Congress sans enforce-
ment regulations in 1985. If the NRC stan-
dards are stricter than those mandated by the
AWA regulations, those of the NRC will
nonetheless prevail in any research funded
by the National Institutes of Health. “The
current committee represents only scientists
and academicians, and includes no represen-
tation from the animal protection movement
nor from the public,” objects F. Barbara
Orlans, Ph.D., who as author of In The
Name of Science: Issues in Animal
Experimentation, is both a prominent
researcher and a leading humane advocate.

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Horses

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

The Ochoa brothers, reputedly
the world’s leading cocaine traffickers after
the death of Pablo Escobar in a shootout with
Colombian police late last year, reputedly
launder their income through their father’s
horse breeding business. Fabio Ochoa
Restrepo’s herd of 1,200 horses is reportedly
worth $25 million. The Escobar family also
breeds horses, but the value of their stock fell
shortly before Pablo Escobar was killed,
when rivals castrated a stud worth $1 million.

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Was it a rescue––or a theft?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

WADSWORTH, Ohio– The
samoyed/chow paced the dark garage. A
broken chain, wired together, cut into his
neck. He suffered from heartworms. His
overgrown toenails curled downward, and
his fur was matted with feces. Feeding and
watering were irregular. His mother had
died the year before in that same garage.
Brian Gilligan, 36, felt com-
pelled to act. Frustrated with “weak state
laws that humane officers must follow,” he
says, he took the dog in January 1993.
Veterinary records document the
dog’s condition. His “overall appearance
was poor because of neglect,” according to
Larry Markley, DVM, who performed an
examination and provided treatment.

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COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

Humane Enforcement
The toughest cruelty sentence ever
issued in Vermont went to Donald Bliss, of
Barre, on a December 14 plea bargain. Bliss
admitted to keeping a starving Belgian mare staked
outside for most of the winter of 1992-1993. He
drew a year in jail with immediate probation, a
suspended fine of $2,000, was ordered to donate
$1,000 to the Central Vermont Humane Society,
and was obliged to pay the town of Barre $1,100
for boarding the mare until she was adopted by
Anne Cole Butler, of Orange.

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