Category: Activists & Organizations

Dirty pool (Part I of a two-part investigative series)

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

ORLANDO, NEW YORK CITY,
MYSTIC––Activists don’t believe anything
they hear from the “aquaprison industry.”
Oceanarium people don’t trust activists to
know truth when they see it. And small won-
der on either side, given the pitch of the pro-
paganda for and against keeping marine mam-
mals in captivity.
This debate differs from the equally
bitter conflicts over hunting, trapping, meat-
eating, and the use of animals in biomedical
research. Knowingly or not, the antagonists
in the oceanarium debate express smilar
visions of what oceanariums should be––and
issue many of the same criticisms of what
they are. They agree that saving marine
mammals is among the urgent moral and eco-
logical priorities of our time. Their only sub-
stantive disagreements concern the morality
of capturing marine mammals from the wild,
a practice now largely but not totally history,
and the ethics of putting them on display.

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Out of the flooding and into the fire in Houston

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

HOUSTON––Flood rescue in
southeastern Texas from Houston to
Beaumont was expected to become oil spill
rescue in late October along a 24-mile
stretch of the San Jacinto River and possibly
in marshes flanking the Houston Ship Canal.
As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press,
Texaco crews were still trying to stop leaks
in a pipeline containing 2.1 million gallons
of crude oil between valve stations––the last
of five major pipelines that broke under the
floodwaters. Two gasoline lines burst
together on October 20 and erupted into
flames, injuring 69 people and nearly incin-
erating a Houston SPCA rescue team
including Nick Gilman, disaster coordinator
for the American Humane Association.

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Animal control & rescue

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

China Daily said October 18 that
Beijing dog licensing fees are to be set at
about $700 per year, triple the average
income of city residents; dogs will be
allowed outside only at night, on leashes;
excrement must be promptly removed; and
dogs will be banned from public places. The
12 million Beijing dwellers now keep about
190,000 dogs, who bit 21,117 people during
the first six months of this year. Since 1988,
89 Beijing residents have died of rabies con-
tracted via dog bites, sparking several dog
extermination drives. Rabies vaccination is
rare in China due to chronic vaccine scarcity.

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MARINE LIFE

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Russian prime minister Victor
Chernomyrdin on October 7 signed approval
of the International Whaling Commission
agreement, reached last May, to establish a
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary including
most waters below the 40th parallel south lati-
tude. Just amonth earlier his administration
formally objected to the sanctuary––the cre-
ation of which Russia supported at the IWC
meeting, against heavy pressure from Japan
and Norway. Because Russia objected in 1982
to the IWC-established international moratori-
um on commercial whaling, the objection to
the sanctuary meant that under IWC rules
Russia would have been uniquely entitled to
kill whales in Antarctic waters, exempt from
retaliatory trade sanctions. The turnabout came
two days after the Russian coastguard sank a
Japanese trawler near the disputed island of
Shikotan, and six days before a Russian mili-
tary airplane fired on a Norwegian trawler
which allegedly intruded upon a military exer-
cise in Arctic waters.

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Woofs & growls

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The October 6 edition of the Congressional
Record revealed that the Doris Day Animal League and
the Humane Society of the U.S. lined up with the
National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America
in opposition to S. 349, the Lobbying Disclosure Act of
1994, which was eventually killed by filibuster.
If the American SPCA thought it could
avoid protesters by holding its September 27 annual
meeting in Burbank, California, instead of New York
City, it got a surprise, as members of the New York-
based Henry Bergh Coalition followed the board west
and staged a 20-minute demonstration, joined by repre-
sentatives of several west coast groups. The effort drew
the attention of the Los Angeles Times to the adminis-
trative irregularities that have erupted into headlines in
New York throughout the past year, as the ASPCA
moves to turn over animal control duties to New York
City by January 1, 1995.

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Wiseguys don’t faze Watson

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

MARINA DEL REY, Calif.– –Kathleen Marquardt, chair of
the anti-animal rights group Putting People First, debuted October 3 as
host of Grassroots Radio, a daily two-hour talk show on the Talk America
Network, carried 4-6 p.m. EST. First-week guests, a who’s who of wise-
use wiseguys, included biomedical researcher Adrian Morrison, predator
restoration foe Troy Mader of Abundant Wildlife, and Ron Arnold, self-
designated founder of the “wise use” movement, whose funding reputedly
comes largely from Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church.
The second week, Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society debated George Blichtfield of the pro-whaling High
North Alliance, whom he was to have debated on July 6 while en route to
protest whaling off the northern coast of Norway. That debate was can-
celled when the Norwegian patrol boat Andennes rammed Watson’s ves-
sel, the Whales Forever. “He asked me if it was true that I’d said some
day we will be able to communicate with whales and will regret what
we’ve done to them,” Watson chuckled. “I said ‘Yes. What’s your point,
George?’ He said, ‘That’s stupid,’ and then just lost it. Marquardt
seemed pretty timid––she hardly said a thing.”

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Hunting

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The hook-and-bullet lobby is out to get
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Mollie
Beattie, the first nonhunter ever to hold the post,
Dennis Jensen reported October 1 in Vermont Sunday
Magazine––but few of the lobbyists he interviewed
dared identity themselves. “There’s the good-old-boy
network out there,” said former Vermont Fish and
Wildlife Department commissioner Steve Wright.
“And the fact that she is a woman. Many of these
guys have never worked with a woman in a powerful
position and just don’t know how.”
Legislation for Animal Welfare asked
members to help re-elect Ohio state senator Roy Ray,
targeted for defeat by the gun lobby over his opposi-
tion to opening a dove season. Dove-hunting propo-
nents, says Defenders of the Dove Campaign coordi-
nator Ritchie Laymon, “plan to bring their bill up on
the floor of the Senate after the November elections,”
as uncommitted representatives, “once safely back in
office, can vote for the interests of the wealthy hunt-
ing lobby and against the wishes of most Ohioans.”

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TONY LARUSSA SAYS IT AIN’T SO

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

CONCORD, California––”Yes, that is actually me in the Wendy’s
commercial,” Tony LaRussa admits. “But yes, my family and I are every bit as
involved in vegetarian eating as always. I blame myself more than anyone else
for participating in a commercial that encourages eating meat!”
The commercial in question promotes Wendy’s new chicken, bacon,
and Swiss cheese sandwich. It first aired in early October, while LaRussa and
family were touring abroad, causing thousands of viewers familiar with Tony
and Elaine LaRussa’s record on vegetarianism and animal protection to wonder
if they’d been misled. In the commercial, an unidentified coach hangs up the
bullpen telephone, turns to LaRussa, and says “Marinara.”

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From Trouble to good faith: A chat with Dale Schwindaman, top cop for the Animal Welfare Act

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Dale Schwindaman called
to talk about Trouble.
As USDA Deputy Administrator for Regulatory
Enforcement and Animal Care, Schwindaman is the top cop
at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service––the exec-
utive responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act. On
the beat since the act was passed in 1966, Schwindaman
took charge two years ago with strong concerns about long-
standing problems that hadn’t been effectively addressed,
determination to do something about it, and a few ideas
about doing it by speaking softly while carrying a big stick.
Pet theft in particular bothered him. Schwindaman
spent much of his time from 1966 until 1981 trying to nab
the “random source” animal dealers who fence stolen dogs
and cats to laboratories. In those days he didn’t have the
laws, the budget, or the political backing to succeed. After
moving to the USDA veterinary branch for a decade, how-
ever, Schwindaman returned to APHIS just as the Pet Theft
Act of 1990 took effect, enabling the USDA to crack down
on dealers who can’t document the origin of the animals they
sell––whether or not the animals are traced to theft.

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