Calgary Humane tries to avoid getting Stampeded

September 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

CALGARY––Does the Calgary Humane
Society have what it takes to take on animal abuse in
the Canadian film industry?
The American Humane Association is betting
it does––in part from the experience Calgary
Humane has in co-existing with the Calgary
Stampede, the world’s most famous rodeo.
Data gathered by Vermont veterinarian and
former rodeo performer turned anti-rodeo activist
Peggy Larson shows that at least 12 horses have been
killed during Stampede chuckwagon races just since
1990, with horse fatalities occurring in seven of the
ten years. On July 9 this year, chuckwagon racer Bill
McEwen, 59, suffered fatal injuries in a crash that
also killed a horse and injured another racer, Ron
David. McEwen’s son Larry, driving another chuckwagon,
got a 20-second penalty for allegedly causing
the crash––and the show went on.

PETA makes animal testing Albert Gore’s albatross

September 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

WASHINGTON D.C.––People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals served
notice in July that Vice President Albert
Gore’s support of the Environmental
Protection Agency’s High Production Volume
Challenge chemical safety testing program will
be an issue in the 2000 presidential campaign––whether
he likes it or not.
In early July, PETA opened an
office in Manchester, New Hampshire, the
city where the most voters will cast ballots in
the first 2000 primary election. Covering the
windows with posters linking Gore to animal
testing, PETA was accused of violating the
office lease by property manager Patrick
Vatalaro, who had the posters removed.

GUEST COLUMN: Treat your colleagues as you would a cocker spaniel by Kate Myers

September 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

In California, a board
member resigns from the local
SPCA and influences a major donor
to withdraw support. A splinter
group forms in the community. This
brings a media war, culminating in a
criminal investigation and a lawsuit.
In New Mexico, a citizen
brings cruelty charges against the
local animal control agency, after
witnessing alleged improper and
inhumane animal handling. Again,
the media is involved and, again,
litigation ensues.

A Mickey Mouse take on Africa: AND WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT?

September 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

TOWN, HARARE, KAMPALA,
KILGALI, MAPUTO, NAIROBI– – T h e
defining attraction at Walt Disney’s Wild
Animal Kingdom is a 20-minute Mickey
Mouse version of an African photo safari.
Canvas-topped four-wheel drive
trucks haul guests on a jolting, twisting,
splashing drive through fake savannah and
jungle so seemingly real that many ask how
Disney moved the 400-year-old baobab
trees––or are they also native to Florida?
The fake baobabs stand among
more than 100,000 real African and Asian
trees which were either transplanted or grown
at the site, along with examples of 1,800
species of moss, ferns, and perennials, and
350 kinds of grass, each specific to the needs
of particular creatures.

WATCHING THE HORSES

September 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

HOLLYWOOD, Calif,––To know
whether the animals in a film or TV production
have been treated humanely, insiders say,
watch the horses.
Horses are not only the most commonly
used animal actors and props, they are
also easily replaced unless specially trained,
cost more to board than to buy, and are legally
classed as livestock, exempted from most animal
protection laws. Thus horses are the most
vulnerable species on most animal-using sets.
Watching the horses, ANIMAL
PEOPLE reader Mary Chipman, of Hazelwood,
Missouri, was alarmed in midsummer
by scenes from The Mummy and Joan of Arc.
Both, Chipman wrote, “featured
many horses who were yanked around and
made to fall during battle scenes. Some of it
could have been computer-enhanced, but there
is no doubt in my mind that quite a few horses
had a harrowing experience. Has there been a
resurgence in film cruelty?”

Hard times for Queen of the Desert

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

CASSELBERRY, Florida––Cat Fanciers Association
board members conferred on June 30 to discuss penalties
they might impose against Sheila Gitlin Dye, 52, breeder of
Queen of the Desert, the brown tabby exotic who was the 1997
CFA “Best kitten.”
Casselberry Animal Control supervisor Vicky
Hilburn and staff, with local police, on May 18 removed
Queen of the Desert and 13 other cats from Dye’s allegedly
feces-and-trash-filled home. Three dead cats were reportedly
found among the debris. Dye was charged with cruelty.
CFA president Don Williams, of Ocala, Florida,
told Orlando Sentinel reporter Doris Bloodworth that he knew
Dye as a fastidious housekeeper who pampered her pets.
Williams’ daughter lived with Dye circa 1992, while attending
the University of Central Florida, Bloodworth wrote.

COURT CALENDAR

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

Dog-related
Federal judge David Down of
Portage County, Wisconsin, on June 2
reduced to $300,000 an April jury award of
$940,000 to county dog warden Beverly
Kirkhart as an alleged victim of gender discrimination
when she was rejected for permanent
appointment to the post in 1994––after
she had been a member of the dog warden’s
staff on an interim basis since 1984, and had
been acting dog warden for about six months.
A man, Jon S. Barber, was hired instead, at
$3.00 more per hour. Kirkhart was then fired
in 1996, because of purported physical disabilities.
Kirkhart returned to work as dog warden
on May 17. Barber was offered a job in another
county department.

Ex-HSUS VP Wills cops a plea

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

Former Humane Society of the
U.S. vice president for investigations David
Wills, 46, of Dickerson, Maryland, on June
16 pleaded guilty to one count of embezzling
$18,900 from HSUS between 1990 and mid-
1995; agreed to pay restitution of $67,800 to
HSUS; and accepted a six-month jail sentence,
reportedly to be imposed after judicial
review on August 5. HSUS and the State of
Maryland agreeed to drop six other counts of
embezzlement, alleging thefts of $84,128.

Wild Animal Orphanage gets ex-lab monkeys –– and $12,000 USDA fine

July 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

SAN ANTONIO––The USDA Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service on May 24 announced it had filed
10 charges of violating the Animal Welfare Act against Wild
Animal Orphanage, of San Antonio, Texas–– nine days after
the case was disclosed by San Antonio Express-News staff
writer Russell Gold, and more than two months after the
USDA on March 10 proposed a $12,000 fine and a 90-day
suspension of the WAO exhibitors’ license.
On April 10, WAO founder Carol Azvestas asked
USDA-APHIS to reconsider the penalties, but she told Gold
she would not spend sanctuary money on legal fees to fight
them in court.
The four most serious charges pertained to the
deaths in air transit of two tigers and a puma that Azvestas
accepted from the defunct Walk In The Wild Zoo of
Spokane, Washington, when it went out of business in
August 1996. One puma survived the eight-hour flight.

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