WILDLIFE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Babbitt moves on endangered species
Newly appointed Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt lost no time
demonstrating a new approach to endan-
gered species protection. As President Bill
Clinton scheduled a Forest Summit for
April 2, in hopes of resolving the long
impasse over northern spotted owl habitat
and old growth logging in the Pacific
Northwest, Babbitt on March 13 appointed
noted conservation biologists Thomas
Lovejoy of the Smithsonian Institution and
Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical
Garden to set up a national biological sur-
vey, which will map animal and plant habi-
tat much as the U.S. Geological Survey
maps topographical features. The habitat
map will be the first step toward reorienting
Endangered Species Act enforcement to
focus upon critical ecosystems, instead of
trying to save species on a slow, costly
case-by-case basis.

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ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Legislation In Support of
Animals has awarded the St. Tammany
Humane Society a “platinum” star for being
the top shelter in Lousiana three years in a
row. The Louisiana SPCA won LISA’s gold
star this year; Ouachita Animal Control of
West Monroe and the no-kill Morehouse
Humane Society each earned a silver star;
and Slidell Animal Control received a bronze
star. The award winners include both public
and private facilities, with some of the
biggest and smallest budgets in the state. A
golden heart award went to two anonymous
sheriff’s deputies who arrested a pair of men
they caught torturing a mouse by dunking her
repeatedly in a beer glass, and threw the
book at them. The black star for worst shel-
ter of the year went to the Leesville Animal
Shelter. “The shelter is actually clean and by
most appearances, well run,” LISA execu-

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WSPA battles bear-baiting

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

The World Society for the
Protection of Animals asks that letters
protesting bear-baiting be sent to the
Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,
2315 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington,
DC 20008-2802. Videotapes recently
obtained by WSPCA staff show how, as a
WSPCA press release explains, “the trained
bear is led to the center of a field and tied by
a 15-foot-rope to a peg in the ground. At the
judge’s signal, two dogs are unleashed to
attack. If the dogs can grasp the bear’s nose
in their teeth and flatten the bear in three min-

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Elvis manager Tom Parker made first fortune from animal shelter

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

TAMPA, Florida––While playing
Elvis Presley’s longtime manager Colonel
Tom Parker in the recent NBC made-for-TV
movie Elvis & the Colonel, actor Beau
Bridges mentioned to Canadian Press TV
writer Wendy McCann that Parker was “one
of the first people to come up with the con-
cept of a pet cemetery,” as a fundraiser for
an animal shelter he ran in Tampa, Florida.
Since every tabloid needs an occa-
sional Elvis story, even once removed, we
jumped right on it. And it’s as true as any
story involving either the King or the
Colonel; truer than most.

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Dog and exotic pet bite statistics

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

In our January/February issue, we published Saginaw County Animal Control
division head Mark Wachner’s advice that pit bull terriers trained to fight should be eutha-
nized rather than being put up for adoption, along with Ohio animal health technician
Donna Robb’s account of how a young pit bull she rescued and had apparently successfully
socialized went berserk on Christmas Eve, breaking down a locked door dividing two parts
of her house to kill two cats and a rabbit. We published a letter defending pit bulls in our
March issue, and responded that while some people may be more successful than others in
handling pit bulls (or any kind of dangerous animal), this does not mean we should
encourage anyone to keep any kind of high risk animal as a pet. This brought a barrage of
letters and calls from pit bull fanciers, who swear it’s all a matter of training, that pit bulls
are no more dangerous than any other dog.

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Fundraising tactic

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Animal shelters and advocacy groups might consider
emulating an Iowa State University College of Veterinary
Medicine fundraising tactic, Iowa Veterinary Teaching Hospital
chief of staff Dr. Ronald Grier recently told The Chronicle of
Philanthropy. The vet school encourages alumni to send small
memorial gifts after pets in their care die or are euthanized––and
to send along each pet keepers’ name and address. The pet keepers
then receive personalized sympathy cards from the school’s
Companion Animal Fund, notifying them of the veterinarians’
gifts, along with brochures describing how donations to the fund
buy equipment to help save animal lives. Although the cards and
brochures do not directly ask for money, many recipients respond
with gifts. The participating veterinarians build good will, and
the vet school collects about $35,000 a year in donations.

Religion & Animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

The General Association of Davidian
Seventh Day Adventists, a 500-member vege-
tarian sect active in New York, California, and
South Carolina, wish to make known that they
have nothing whatever to do with the Branch
Davidians, who have been involved in an armed
standoff with police and the FBI since February
28 at their compound near Waco, Texas.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Ohio Veterinary Medical Board member George Wenning, DVM, resigned March 11 under pressure
for having called filing horses’ teeth “nigger work” during a board meeting. The governor’s office ordered another
member, Tom Liggett, DVM, to take a one-day course on cultural diversity at his own expense––and made the
annual course mandatory for all 400 members of state boards and commissions. Liggett reportedly routinely
inquired as to whether applicants for veterinary licenses were “Americans.” The situation came to light when for-
mer board president Linda Randall, DVM, an Afro-American, told media that her private complaints to Governor
George Voinovich had gone unanswered for six months.

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Woofs and growls…

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Freedom of speech cases
A lawsuit filed February 9 by U.S.
Surgical Corporation alleges the firm was defamed
in remarks made to reporters by Fund for Animals
Connecticut representative Julie Lewin and Fund pres-
ident Cleveland Amory, who are codefendents, along
with the Fund itself. Lewin sued U.S. Surgical for
defamation in 1991. Lewin’s suit, still pending,
alleges her reputation suffered when operatives of the
private security firm Perceptions International, hired
by U.S. Surgical, recruited Fran Trutt (who had little
previous involvement in activism) to join in protests
against the firm’s use of dogs in surgical staple
demonstrations; gave her the money to buy four pipe
bombs; and drove her to the U.S. Surgical corporate
headquarters in November 1988, where she was
arrested just after placing one of the bombs in the
parking lot. Lewin’s suit and a similar suit filed by
Friends of Animals allege the bombing plot was
arranged to discredit the protesters by association.
While a countersuit of some sort against Lewin is only
conventional legal strategy on the part of U.S.
Surgical, this suit is unusual in that it alleges the
defamation occurred through major news media, in
regular news coverage, without also alleging libel on
the part of the media––which include the most influen-
tial newspapers in Connecticut.
A libel suit filed by the McDonald’s restau-
rant chain against British environmentalists Helen
Steel and David Morris is tentatively scheduled for
trial in October, according to the March 1 issue of
Corporate Crime Reporter. Circa Earth Day, 1990,
Steel and Morris distributed leaflets critical of
McDonald’s food, hiring practices, and alleged sale of
beef raised on former rainforest. At about the same
time Steel and Morris were sued, McDonald’s also
sued a TV station, a major newspaper, two labor
organizations, and a theatrical company, all in
Britain, for issuing similar criticisms. All the others
apologized to McDonald’s and settled out of court.
Former journalist Rik Scarce, now a grad-
uate student at Washington State University, was
jailed March 10 for refusing to testify to a federal
grand jury probing the Animal Liberation Front.
Scarce is author of Eco-Warriors: Understanding the
Radical Environmental Movement, a 1990 book that
includes the most definitive history to date of the ALF,
the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Earth First!,
and a variety of other direct action groups. The grand jury wants to
question Scarce about his knowledge of Rod Coronado, in particu-
lar, a former Sea Shepherd crew member who is believed to have
organized a raid on a Washington State University animal laboratory
in August 1991, while staying at Scarce’s house. Another of
Coronado’s former housemates, Jonathan Paul, was jailed last
December for refusing to testify to the grand jury. Paul and Scarce
could remain in jail until the end of the grand jury empanelment,
next December. Coronado himself has evaded both the FBI and
Canadian police since May 1992. He is considered the top suspect
in a string of fur farm arsons and laboratory break-ins perpetrated
during the past two years on both sides of the international border.
The NRA today
The National Rifle Association took an embarrassing
defeat March 15 when the Republican-controlled New Jersey Senate
voted unanimously with 26 abstentions not to overturn the state’s
three-year-old ban on semi-automatic assault rifles. The NRA heav-
ily backed Republicans last November, attempting to isolate
Democratic governor Jim Florio, who in June 1991 vetoed a previ-
ous attempt to overturn the ban. Another bill to repeal the ban
cleared the New Jersey House in February, but was opposed by
many leading Republicans, including former governor Thomas
Kean and Senate president Donald DiFrancesco, who pledged to
donate $10,000 the NRA gave him to aid any legislators the organi-
zation tries to defeat.
Meanwhile, NRA director of federal affairs David
Gibbons resigned March 11 after he was identified as the source of
false rumors circulated to U.S. Senate Republican aides that
Attorney General Janet Reno, then awaiting confirmation, had been
stopped for drunk driving but not charged. Reno is an outspoken
advocate of gun control.
Despite the bad publicty, the NRA has grown from 2.5
million members to three million during the past 18 months, mainly
via hook-and-bullet magazine ads that play up the alleged threat to
hunting posed by hunter harrassment protests, and spotlight the
NRA role in securing hunter harrassment legislation––including in
New Jersey, where Florio signed a hunter harrassment bill into law
on the eve of legislative action on the assault rifle ban.
Short items
Connecticut governor Lowell Weicker Jr. has refused to
disclose what compensation he receives, if any, from Americans
for Medical Progress, a vivsection support group set up by U.S.
 Surgical. Weicker is among the AMP directors. Tax records show

that in 1991 AMP spent more than $50,000 on unexplained “legisla-
tive activities” and consulting fees, and paid $13,000 in directors’
fees and staff salaries.
1993 budget figures for pro-vivisection activity given by
the January 25 issue of The Scientist include $225,000 for Putting
People First (nearly quadruple its 1991 budget); $225,000 for the
North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research; $200,000 for
the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research; $181,000 for dis-
tribution of National Institutes of Mental Health pro-vivisection
materials aimed at children; and $400,000-plus for the Coalition for
Animals and Animal Research, divided among 40 regional chapters.
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