If you’re ever in Japan, drink tea; by Steve Sipman

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

On a cold gray December day in 1978 the late

Dexter Cate and I walked along the Ginza in downtown

Tokyo looking for a cheap cup of coffee and a warm place to

sit and think up a way to stop the dolphin kills at Iki Island.

The day before, I was at home in Honolulu, stuffing my

tropical collection of cold weather clothes into my backpack,

glad to escape the responsibilities of being a notorious dol-

phin-napper. I had been hired by John Perry as a whale saver

in a small traveling show, and we planned to do some pub-

licity stunts on the Ginza the next day.

Dex and I talked about sonic deterrents, to move

the dolphins away from Iki, but I was skeptical. Dex had

been working with the government, Japanese scientists,

local and international environmental groups, the fishing

unions, and the press, trying to develop a climate of opinion

against killing cetaceans and to find some alternative to satis-

fy the fishers. I leaned more toward direct action. Perhaps it

would be better, I thought, if we moved the fishermen.

MONEY TALK

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

“By significantly expanding the scale and

scope of their groups’ activities” during the past decade,

“the directors of environmental organizations hoped to

capitalize on Americans’ increasing demands for environ-

mental quality,” say Christopher Boerner and Jennifer

Chilton Kallery of the Center for the Study of American

Business at Washington University in St. Louis, in a new

report entitled Restructuring Environmental Big Business.

“Unfortunately, as many U.S. corporations have discov-

ered, expansion away from an organization’s core compe-

tency often has numerous disadvantages,” including inten-

sified competition for donor dollars and loss of concentra-

tion on achieving key goals. Examples of groups in trou-

ble include Greenpeace , down to 3.5 million members

from a peak 4.8 million; the Sierra Club, down from

630,000 members to 500,000; the Wilderness Society,

down from 400,000 members to 275,000; the National

Audubon Society, which posted a deficit of $1.7 million

in 1993; and the National Wildlife Federation, which

has been reducing staff since 1992. Humane societies and

animal rights groups have not been hit as hard, partly

because most have remained more closely focused.

However, Boerner and Chilton Kallery note that groups

“employing highly emotional and often misleading cam-

paigns,” including “apocalyptic prophecies,” have suf-

fered significant erosion of public trust.

Success in San Francisco: No-kill animal control

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

SAN FRANCISCO––If San Francisco SPCA ethical stud-

ies coordinator Pam Rockwell hadn’t supported her January 5 report

to president Richard Avanzino with three pages of graphs and statis-

tics, it might have been mistaken by outside readers for a work of

utopian fiction.

“Every adoptable dog and cat in San Francisco’s shelters

found a loving new home in 1994,” Rockwell stated. “Older cats

and dogs, blind animals, deaf animals, animals missing limbs or

otherwise disfigured––as long as they were healthy and of reasonably

good temperament, these dogs and cats were all adoptable. Each

was and is guaranteed a new home under the Adoption Pact,” which

the SFSPCA negotiated with the San Francisco Animal Care and

Control department just a year ago. “Since this group of animals

would be considered unadoptable and be euthanized in most shelters,

the fact that in San Francisco all these animals were saved would

appear to be an unprecedented achievement.”

Political intelligence and other oxymorons

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

The Green Scissors Coalition,

led by Jill Lancelot of the National

Taxpayers Union Foundation and Ralph

DeGennaro of Friends of the Earth, has

recommended to Congress a series of bud-

get cutbacks that would trim $33 billion

from the federal budget over the next

decade-plus with benefits for wildlife

habitat. The cuts aren’t likely to be made,

however, as they include irrigation subsi-

dies to big landowners in Republican-

dominated southern California and would

require significant amendment of the

Mining Law of 1872, any changes to

which have been fought by the wise-use

lobby. The law allows mining firms to

buy mineral rights to federal land for

under $5.00 an acre, while paying no roy-

alties on the proceeds of what they extract.

Activists

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

The Sea Shepherd Conservation

Society urgently seeks volunteer crew to

mount a voyage in protest of resumed

large-scale sealing in Atlantic Canada.

Get details from 310-301-7325 or fax 310-

574-3161.

Several anonymous Internet

p o s t i n g s in late January claimed a Sea

Shepherd vessel had collided with the

Norwegian destroyer King Olaf Gustav near

Valdheim Island. “The Sea Shepherd

Conservation Society has not been involved

in any such accident, nor do we have a ship

anywhere near the area described,”

responded Sea Shepherd Internet representa-

tive Nick Voth.

Activists & Organizations

FARM campaign backfires

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

“In September and October,” The Farm Animal Reform Movement recently told members,

FARM conducted a massive letters-to-the-editor writing campaign that published over 100

letters on five topics in 60 of the nation’s largest newspapers.

We estimate that this brief campaign alone has reached between two and five million

readers, some more than once, raising substantially public awareness of the destruc-

tive impact of animal agriculture.”

That claim raised the awareness of Robert G. Zimbelman, executive vice

president of the American Society of Animal Science, who soon informed newspaper

editors across the U.S. that someone using the name “Tom Oliver” and a variety of

apparently bogus addresses had published letters following the FARM format in 22

newspapers between December 5 and February 5.

Horses

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Washington governor Mike

Lowry intervened with an emergency order on

January 24 while the state legislature rushed

through special legislation to allow animal res-

cuer Carlene Whitesell and sons Israel, 12,

and Benjamin, 8, of Paterson, to keep a pony

named Blaze. After postmaster Beth Allen

found the pony wandering along a railroad

track on December 30, she and the Whitesells

captured him, searched unsuccessfully for the

owner, then called the state brand inspector––

who moved to seize and auction the pony in

compliance with a state law governing the

roundup of unclaimed cattle. Authorities now

believe the pony was abandoned deliberately.

Cull cruelty on camera

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

CHICAGO – –Steve Hindi and Chicago

Animal Rights Coalition colleagues used remote-con-

trolled miniature night-vision cameras in January to

get rare video footage––aired by many local TV sta-

tions––of DuPage County Forest Preserve staff catch-

ing deer in rocket nets and killing them with a captive-

bolt gun.

“One animal was seen jumping as the net

was fired, only to fall on her back. Another deer was

dragged by three others in a net as they tried to escape.

Her head was pulled under her body. Still another

deer suffered for at least 35 minutes,” Hindi said.

Shown the video on January 18, the DuPage

commissioners voted 11-10 to suspend the rocket-net-

ting. But on February 7 they allowed it to resume “for

research,” with the deer thus caught to be radio-col-

lared. Only deer injured by the rocket-netting would

be dispatched with the captive bold gun. Culling con-

tinues via sharpshooting.

Hunting

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Robert “Buzz” Barry, 64, assis-

tant executive director of the Sportsmen’s

Alliance of Maine, told reporters on January

21 that he’s giving up hunting mammals after

40 years because of second thoughts he’s had

since a TV debate with an anti-hunter in

November; because his anti-abortion convic-

tions have caused him to review his attitudes

toward the sanctity of life; and most of all

because of the pain and fear he’s seen in the

eyes of animals he’s killed. He asserted, how-

ever, that he isn’t an “anti,” and said he hadn’t

yet decided if he’ll quit shooting birds.

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