Author: Dylan Forest

Editorial: Culture is no excuse for cruelty

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

It is with further disgust that we note the opobrium cast upon Afro-American nov-
elist Alice Walker, a distinguished defender of animals, abused women, and children, for
attacking ritual female genital mutilation in her new books Possessing The Secret of Joy and
Warrior Marks. From 85 to 114 million women alive today, mostly black African
Muslims, have suffered the excision of all or part of their clitoris and labia minor in a rite
performed by elder women, without anesthetic or antiseptics, when girls of their culture
reach adolescence. Millions more suffer this procedure each year. Many die of resultant
infection. The purpose of the abuse is to make young women marriageable in a genuinely
patriarchal society by insuring virginity at marriage and chastity thereafter through making
sexual intercourse painful or uninteresting.

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Editorial: Reclaim the cause from the terrorists

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

One cannot make peace by waging war––a truth that should seem self-evident.
The cause of animal protection is essentially the cause of peace, extended to all sentient
beings: of preventing suffering through preventing violence. As conscientious and consid-
erate people, we should all understand by now that one cannot prevent suffering by causing
suffering, nor can one prevent violence by causing violence. That much should be obvious
to anyone who has ever either held or beheld a cruelly wounded and frightened victim of
anyone’s violence, animal or human. Pain and fear know no bounds of age, sex, species,
or ideology.

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THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY MEET LISA

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana– –
Legislation In Support of Animals recently
gave the New Iberia City and Parish Council
until January 1 to make a firm commitment
to reforming their pound––or else.
“We have reached the limit of our
patience,” said mild-mannered LISA
founder and executive director Jeff Dorson,
sounding a lot more like Clint Eastwood than
he looks.
The ultimatim brought a three-part
expose of pound conditions in the local
newspaper. On December 10, New Iberia
reached an amicable agreement with LISA to
better separate animals in the pound, house
fewer per cage, provide fiberglas resting
boards, clean the cages more often, hire an
answering service to handle off-hours emer-
gency calls, and promote adoptions through
the New Iberia Humane Society.

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Alaska and the Yukon: The silence of the wolves

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

FAIRBANKS, Alaska, and WHITEHORSE, the Yukon––At least 63 of the
wolves the world sought to save in Alaskan wildlife management unit 20-A, south of
Fairbanks, have been killed by airborne state trappers––and that may be almost all the
wolves who lived there, a fraction of the number state officials claim have ravaged moose
and caribou to the extent that sport hunting in the area has been suspended since 1991.
A comparable massacre has resumed in the Yukon Territory, Canada, where
officials last winter killed only 61 of a quota of 150 wolves in the beginning of a five-year
push to cut the estimated wolf population of the Kluane-Aishihik region near the Kluane
National Park and World Heritage Site by 85%. As in Alaska, the Yukon killing is pur-
portedly part of a “caribou enhancement” program, and also as in Alaska, independent
experts believe the official quota is several times higher than the actual wolf population of
the sector. The Kluane-Aishihik caribou herd has crashed and other Yukon herds have lev-

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BOOKS: Echosystem: Poems & Poem Cycles

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

Echosystem: Poems & Poem Cycles, by James Strecker. Mini Mocho
Press (Jackson Stn., POB 57424, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8P 4X2), 1993, 94
pages, paperback.
In this eclectic collection of jazz
poems, romantic poems, socially relevant
and commemorative poems, James
Strecker frequently considers the plight of
animals in a world dominated by humans.
These, too, reflect a diversity of approach.
Vivisection and the Cat, for example, is a
jazz riff with a blues beat. Like the more
classically structured Thoughts on Reading
and Writing, it dwells on the unspeakable
and offers little hope of redemption.

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BOOKS: Animals, Politics and Morality

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

Animals, Politics and Morality, by Robert
Garner. Manchester University Press (Room 400, 175
Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010), 1993. 258 pages,
$59.95 hardcover or $24.95 paperback.
“That humans exploit animals is indisputable,”
Robert Garner writes in Animals, Politics and Morality.
“Of greater import is the extent to which this exploitation is
justified.”
Outlining the general historical evolution of
human attitudes toward use of animals, Garner explores in
depth the issues surrounding the use of animals in agricul-
ture and biomedical research, the need for zoos and other
artificially maintained sanctuaries, and the tendency of peo-
ple to view wildlife differently from domesticated species.

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BOOKS: Where The Money Is: A Fund Raiser’s Guide To The Rich

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

Where The Money Is: A Fund Raiser’s Guide To The
Rich (2nd edition), by Helen Bergen. BioGuide Press (POB
16702, Alexandria, VA 22302), 1993, 257 pages, $29.95.
Two items in this issue of ANIMAL PEOPLE indicate the
value of attracting wealthy benefactors: a $4.1 million bequest received
by the Fund for Animals, more than the Fund’s total worth just a few
years ago, and the death of Doris Duke, who left more than $1.2 billion
to charity. Helen Bergen underscores the point repeatedly in Where The
Money Is by citing similar examples, noting that a third of the funds
raised in the typical campaign come from the 10 to 15 biggest gifts. Her
volume is dense with hints on donor research and development. Her
investigative methods are sound (familiar to reporters as well as fundrais-
ers), but they are time-consuming, her text is oriented toward education-
al charities, and there’s little here pertaining to the peculiarities of
fundraising for humane work, one of which is that most big bequests
apparently come not from the wealthy, but rather from people of ordinary
means who have no children and have long relied upon animals for com-
panionship. Humane groups will probably raise more money by develop-
ing means of providing longterm quality care for pets left behind than by
pursuing the rich, no matter how aggressively and astutely.
––M.C.

BOOKS: The Human Nature of Birds

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

The Human Nature of Birds, by Theodore
Xenophon Barber. St. Martins Press (175 Fifth Ave,
New York, NY 10010), 1993, 226 pages, hardcover
$19.95 US, $26.95 in Canada.
What if we all woke up one day to discover the world
around us filled with alien intelligences? Theodore X. Barber
has, and he wants this revelation to become commonplace.
Young children and so-called primitive cultures take
for granted that all creatures on earth share the same fears and
desires, that we are all intelligent in our own way––at least
they do until convinced otherwise by self-styled authorities. In
The Human Nature of Birds, Barber attempts to reverse our
beliefs by examining our “closest wild neighbors, the birds.”
From a lifetime’s experience in psychological research and six
years’ study of birds in nature and in the scientific literature,
he concludes that, “not only are birds able to think simple
thoughts but they are fundamentally as aware, intelligent,
mindful, emotional and individualistic as ordinary people.”

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