Merry old England

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

The Royal SPCA in April honored Josie Russell, 12, sole survivor of a hammer assault several years ago that killed her mother and sister, for keeping a five-day vigil over three sheep who were trapped on a ledge at a slate quarry last October near her home in Caernarfon, North Wales. Russell and her friend H a z e l M c W h i r t e r spotted the sheep, and her father Shaun Russell was eventually persuaded to call the RSPCA. Rescuing the sheep from the 100- foot-high ledge in slings took about five hours.

The pro-foxhunting Countryside A l l i a n c e embarrassed the Royal SPCA in early May by hiring away former RSPCA London branch development officer Angela Egan––who reportedly brought with her memos purportedly from senior RSPCA executives, ordering her to delay processing membership applications from people who also belong to the Countryside Alliance and/or Countryside Welfare for Animals Group. The Royal SPCA has been fighting attempted hostile takeovers led by foxhunters for about four years.

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FIGHTING U-BOAT FOR ENDANGERED SEA TURTLES LANDS VISAKHA SPCA FOUNDER IN HOT WATER

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

VISAKHAPATNAM, India– – A brave commander and two soldiers defending women and children huddled on a beach against invasion by submarine is the stuff of action movies.

But soft-spoken Visakha SPCA founder Pradeep Kumar Nath, of Visakhapatnam, India, is trying to defend endangered olive ridley sea turtle females and their hatchlings from the navy of his own nation. His weapon of last resort, after all efforts at gentle persuasion failed, was to seek a High Court writ protecting the Visakhapatnam beach against Indian Navy incursion.

Now Nath himself and two Visakha SPCA employees are formally charged with criminally handling wildlife, falsifying evidence, and attempted extortion.

Rumors accuse them of worse.

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Opposition builds to dog-and-cat eating

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

WELLINGTON, BERN, BANGKOK, TEL AVIV, BEIJING, SEOUL– – Calling Korean dog meat eaters “sadists” and “ghouls” because of the beatings and burnings to which they are subjected to increase the levels of adrenaline in their flesh, New Zealand First political party leader Winston Peters suggested on May 14 that dog exports to Korea and other nations where dogs are eaten should be banned.

Present animal export regulations, Peters warned, “do not totally guarantee the safety of the animal and its ultimate fate.”

Peters cited reports from Switzerland and elsewhere that dog breeders in Korea and China are seeking St. Bernards as breeding stock for meat production. The Swiss office of the International Fund for Animal Welfare on March 31 led a demonstration in Bern, the capitol of Switzerland, demanding a ban on dog exports to China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Korea, and the Philippines.

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PEOPLE & DEEDS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

The Sea Shepherd Conservation S o c i e t y has added longtime S t u d e n t Conservation Association e x e c u t i v e Valerie J. Shand as chief operating officer, and former National Science Foundation Antarctic expeditions technician M i k e Gallagher as facilities director.

David Brower, 87, a member of the Sierra Club since 1933, resigned from the board for at least the third time in May, over frustration with moderate policies. Brower was first executive director of the Sierra Club, but was fired in 1969 after conflicting with the board, and went on to found Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters, and Earth Island Institute, typically moving on after similar board conflicts. He was elected to the Sierra Club board in 1983, 1986, 1995, and 1998, but has rarely completed a term of office.

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Veggie bust

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

The Winnipeg Vegetarian Association on May 14 solicited donations toward the cost of a bronze bust of vegetarian advocate Howard Lyman. Sculpted by K a t h y Lazzareschi, of Oroville, California, the bust is to be presented to Lyman at the W o r l d Vegetarian Congress in Toronto this July.

A few days earlier, the A n i m a l Rights 2000 conference hosted in Washington D.C. by the Farm Animal Reform Movement is to induct five people whose identities are undisclosed into a newly created “Animal Rights Hall of Fame.”

Of more pragmatic interest, the Sabina Fund, named by FARM founder Alex Hershaft in honor of his late mother, is offering grants of $500-$2,000 “for grassroots projects promoting a plant-based diet and exposing the devastating impacts of animal agriculture.” Hershaft said that the next Sabina Fund application deadline will be November 15, adding that “FARM welcomes applications from groups outside the USA.” Application forms and further details are online at .

Meanwhile, instead of endorsing a meatless diet, the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies has reportedly endorsed a national meat labeling program based on the “Freedom Food” program managed by the Royal SPCA of Britain. “The certification reassures consumers that the meat they purchase is from an animal raised in the most humane and ethical manner possible,” wrote Gina Tell of the Calgary Herald.

People Energetically Teasing Abusers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

As encore to its brief “Got beer?” c a m p a i g n parodying the National Dairy Council’s “Got milk?” ads, PETA placed a parody ad asking “Got zits?” in the May 31 edition of the student newspaper at Central High School in Brookfield, Illinois. The ad argued milk can aggravate acne. High school papers in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, California, and Vermont refused the ad, said PETA campaign coordinator Bruce Friedrich.

Irritating cowpokes too, PETA asked Wyoming governor Jim Geringer to remove from the state’s license plates the bucking rodeo horse which has been the state symbol since 1936.

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25% of top U.S. charities say they get something for nothing

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

 

WASHINGTON D.C.––More than 25% of the U.S. charities which collectively rake in more than 90% of all donated dollars are declaring expeditures of zero on fundraising, revealed the Chronicle of Philanthropy in a May 18 cover feature.

A Chronicle of Philanthropy analysis of Internal Revenue Service data for tax year 1996 “found that more than one fourth of the 4,889 nonprofit organizations that received $500,000 or more in gifts from private sources reported spending nothing on fundraising,” the authors stated. Their findings were affirmed by the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy.

Examining IRS Form 990 filings from tax years 1997 and 1998, the Urban Institute found that between 25% and 35% of charities with at least $500,000 in contributions from private sources declared that they had spent nothing on fundraising.

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PREDATORS’ MEAT AND USDA POISON

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Opposing environmental priorities as well as the long-running conflict between wildlife advocates and ranchers are again on the line in Congress.

Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) and Charles Bass (R-New Hampshire) announced in mid-May that they would seek an ammendment to the Agriculture Appropriations bill for fiscal 2001 which would cap the USDA Wildlife Services budget at $28.7 million.

This would eliminate subsidized predator control for ranchers, consisting chiefly of killing coyotes, but would not interfere with killing wildlife under contract from other government agencies––for instance, to protect airports, endangered species, and golf greens on public land.

DeFazio and Bass sought a cut of $10 million from the Wildlife Services budget in 1998, when their bill was approved on first reading, 229-193. The vote was reversed the next day, however, after a night of frantic lobbying by Wildlife Services senior staff and representatives of the livestock industry. It stood little chance of passage by the U.S. Senate in any event, where members friendly to western ranchers chair all the key committees it would have to clear.

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Endangered “invasives” killed

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

CAPE TOWN, MELBOURNE––With rare Himalayan tahrs and grey-headed flying fox bats already under fire at Table Mountain and being trapped and killed in Fern Gully of the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Domestic Animal Rescue Association of Cape Town, South Africa, and the Victorian Scientific Advisory Committee in Melbourne, Australia, were seeking last-ditch means of pursuing injunctions to stop the killing as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press.

Each massacre raised the issue of an endangered species in native habitat being seen as invasive elsewhere, despite showing no hint of expanding beyond a narrow range.

Descended from two escaped zoo specimens, the tahrs thrived on Table Mountain after native klipspringers were poached out. They proved so much better at evading human hunters that though the herd, once up to 600, has been reduced to between 70 and 100, they have eluded extermination by Cape Nature Conservation since 1976. CNC believes it must kill all the tahrs before it can successfully reintroduce klipspringers–– who reportedly have already been reintroduced unsuccessfully several times.

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