Extremism in Vancouver

September 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

VANCOUVER, B.C.––Turning 40, the Van-couver
Aquarium celebrated by granting free admission to anyone
born in 1956 for a week in June, just after alienating
supporters in the animal protection community with a
17,000-piece mailing denouncing “animal rights extremists.”
The mailing was to rally opposition to a referendum
proposal, which may be on the November city ballot,
that would ban keeping whales in Stanley Park, where the
aquarium is located. Despite offending some otherwise sympathetic
recipients, the mailing succeeded, inundating the
Vancouver Parks Board with 6,000 petition signatures,
2,000 preprinted postcards, and over 100 letters of support.

Humane enforcement

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

The Coulston Foundation announ-
ced June 20 that it will pay the USDA a civil
penalty of $20,000 and make $20,000 in
improvements to the Primate Biomedial
Research Center Laboratory, which it manages
at Holloman Air Force Base in New
Mexico, to settle charges resulting from the
1993 overheating deaths of three chimpanzees.
Arnim John Kudinow of Lake
Oswego, Oregon, in June drew 112 years in
prison for ramming a police car with his pickup,
throwing a knife at police, and killing a
Dutch Malinois police dog named Ronnie with
a septic bite to the nose––for which Kudinow
also was ordered to pay $595 and serve two
years on probation if he ever gets out.

Marine mammals

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Small whales
The Sacramento Bee warned in
June that the vaquita whale is “on the verge
of extinction, a victim of commercial gill net
fishing” in the Sea of Cortez, and that the
reserve set up to protect the vaquita may be “a
sanctuary in name only.” The vaquita is a
small toothed whale, a class not protected by
the International Whaling Commission.
Romanian Institute for Marine
Research scientist Alexandru Bologna says
only 10,000 dolphins remain in the heavily
polluted Black Sea, down from 70,000 in
1970, and one million in 1950, when the former
Communist regime began “economic capitalization
of dolphins,” i.e. slaughter.

Greenpeace gets wet

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

LUXEMBOURG––Major conservation
groups have historically been quiet
about fishing––and Greenpeace, founded on
oceanic campaigning, is no exception.
The world’s second-largest environmental
group, trailing only the World
Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace withdrew from
active opposition to sealing in Atlantic
Canada in 1986, even before seals were
blamed for crashing cod stocks. The
Greenpeace campaign against toxic pollution
in the St. Lawrence River was promoted in
part as an effort to improve fishing.

Electioneering

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

The Farm Animal Reform Movement’s Compassion
Campaign ‘96 seeks volunteers to help gather position statements
on animal issues from candidates and delegates at the Republican
Convention, August 10-16 in San Diego, and the Democratic
Convention, August 26-29 in Chicago. Info: 1-888-ASK-FARM.

Action for Animals asks animal activists to back the reelection
bid of Oklahoma senator Lewis Long, whose bill to ban
horse-tripping and bear-wrestling and stiffen the law against
spousal abuse was signed into law by state governor Frank
Keating on May 20. Address Long at POB 888, Glenpool, OK
74033.

Groups win reversals

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Farm Sanctuary on June 13 won a New York
Appellate Division reversal of rulings by the Town of
Orange Board of Assessment Review and the Schuyler
County Supreme Court, which held that running a facility
incorporated for “the benevolent care of abandoned and maltreated
animals” is not a charitable purpose entitling the organization
to a property tax exemption. Such exemptions, they
contended, are limited to projects benefitting people, human
kind, or the community. The unanimous Appellate verdict
drew upon Matter of Hamilton, 1946, which upheld the will
of a woman who left her home and $400,000 in trust “for the
care, comfort, and benefit of dumb animals.” The court in
that case cited “the common view that the care and comfort
of animals are generally beneficial to mankind.”

Animal control & rescue

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Midwest
The legislative committee of Willard, Ohio, consisting
of councillors Bob Owens and Larry Jacobs, on July
3 introduced a policy allowing residents to borrow traps from
the police and dispose of stray cats at their own expense.
Objected councillor Tod Shininger, “If Joe Citizen doesn’t
have the will or the heart to destroy a cat, he’s going to move
it from one side of the city to the other, or take it out in the
country and dump it.” He noted that few residents would pay
a veterinarian to humanely euthanize a stray cat, and that
accidental killing of pet cats could touch off “a neighborhood
fight like you won’t believe.” Added mayor Stan Ware,
“We better get a cat warden.”
Second-year police officer Jeffrey “Mike” Crall,
of Beloit, Wisconsin––back on the job a month after being
stabbed while breaking up a bar fight––on June 26 performed
a daring rescue of a 14-year-old German shepherd/collie mix
caught in Rock River floodwaters. Crall “is our kind of guy,”
says Humane Society of Rock County executive director
Chris Konetski. The dehydrated, emaciated dog was reunited
with his owner, who recognized him on TV.

Intelligence

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

A Food Research Association
survey reported in the May 29 edition of
New Scientist that “conscientious consumers”
fall into three categories, of
whom only vegetarians boycotting animal
products tend to sustain boycotts over
time. The second category includes people
who think about ethical issues, but
mainly shop by price; the third is people
who worry about issues but rarely change
their actual shopping behavior.

ALF RAIDS KILL ANIMALS

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Animal Liberation Front actions
reportedly caused the deaths at least 3,000
animals in the first half of 1996, including
2,000 pregnant mink who were roadkilled
or starved about six months before they
would have been pelted, after 3,000 were
released from the L.W. Bennett & Sons fur
farm near East Bloomfield, New York, on
April 4. Late snow cut their already slim
chances of finding adequate wild prey.
According to the Memphis-based
Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, which
claims to speak for the ALF, “more than
11,000 animals have been freed during the
past 10 months,” but except for the New
York action, most––almost all mink––were
recaptured on or near the fur farms.

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