COURT CALENDAR

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Crimes Against Humans

Odd jobs man Joseph Bales,

33, and Helene LeMay, 31, a mail-

order vegetarian diet consultant, were

charged April 19 with illegally disposing

of their 10-week-old infant’s remains in

the woods near Eastman, Quebec, a

short drive from their St. Romain home,

and then filing a false kidnapping report

in New York City to cover up for the

baby’s death. Their story fell apart within

hours. An autopsy seemed to confirm

their story that the baby died of natural

causes, as there were no evident signs of

abuse or malnutrition. They did not

report the death, they said, because they

feared they would be charged with abuse,

after having been accused last year of

abusing a mentally retarded foster child.

Spectacles

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Florida attorney general Bob

Butterworth on May 6 ruled that so-

called hog-dog rodeos violate the state

animal cruelty law. The rodeos pit dogs

against hogs in an enclosed arena. The

dog who corners a hog fastest is the win-

ner. Videos of dogs biting pigs’ snouts,

ears, and legs have been widely broadcast

in recent weeks, as members of United

Bay Pens Association, a hog-dog rodeo

front group, have defended the events as

“good clean family fun,” and Hardee

County sheriff Rickey Dick has refused to

arrest either organizers or participants.

State attorney Joseph D’Alessandro

promised on May 13 that no one would be

arrested if the rodeos cease, but a UBPA

spokesman said they would continue until

arrests were made.

Agricultural veterinary medicine

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The trade journal Beef Today and the

Colorado Cattlemen’s Association have urged the beef

industry to join animal protection groups in urging the

USDA to abolish face-branding cattle imported from

Mexico. The cattle are painfully face-branded––and cows

are spayed without anesthesia––as part of an anti-bovine

tuberculosis program. Of 438 cases of bovine TB found in

1993, 427 were in cattle of Mexican origin. Exposed in an

ongoing series of newspaper ads by the Coalition for Non-

Violent Food, face-branding was also discussed recently by

the Animal Welfare Committee of the AVMA. AVMA

policy presently supports face-branding, but related pro-

posed policy amendments are up for review by the AVMA

executive board.

Hartz Mountain ignites a powder keg

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

HARRISON, New Jersey––The Hartz Mountain

Corporation on May 6 lit a powder keg by donating 10 cases

each of Blockade flea and tick repellent to numerous animal

shelters. Blockade hasn’t been controversial recently, but

some shelter staff recalled the history of the product and

responded by not only rejecting the gift, but also setting up

a telephone tree to warn other shelters.

The initial furor erupted in 1987, when Blockade

was introduced. Within a year it was blamed for 366 pet

deaths, 2,700 pet injuries, and 56 “alleged unsubstantiated

human injuries,” according to a letter Hartz Mountain sent

the EPA in December 1987, when it took Blockade off the

market for further testing.

Wildlife

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Hope rose for the endangered

Florida panther in late May when volunteers

from the Coryi Foundation discovered a car-

cass, a single pawprint, and clumps of fur on

the grill of a car that struck an unknown animal

in the St. Johns and Kissimmee River water-

sheds––far outside the Big Cypress Swamp

area of Lake Okeechobee, which was previ-

ously the panther’s only known habitat.

A coalition of U.S. environmental

groups has petitioned the U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service to add koalas to the endan-

gered species list. The koala population of

eastern Australia has fallen lately due to habi-

tat loss, caused by the combination of devel-

opment, logging, wildfires, and drought.

Laboratories

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Residents of Cranberry and

Hampton Township, Pennsylvania, got a

close-up view of the realities of vivisection on

May 7 when the tailgate of a truck taking 2.5

tons of dead rats from Zivic-Miller Laboratories

to a landfill broke twice, littering two streets

with rat remains. Zivic-Miller, of Zelienople, a

Pittsburgh suburb, sells rats to research institu-

tions. The dead rats were unsold surplus, owner

Bill Zivic told Associated Press.

1990 University of Minnesota animal

intake records obtained by the Animal Rights

Coalition under the Minnesota Data Practices

Act indicate that the university purchased for

research use at least 139 of 248 dogs who were

individually identified in a 1992 USDA com-

plaint filed against Class B animal dealers Julian

and Anita Toney, of Lamoni, Iowa, for failing

to keep records on animal acquisitions. The

USDA charges, now four years old, are still

pending, while the Toneys remain the primary

suppliers of dogs to the university––which has

been suspected of using stolen dogs ever since

the late Lucille Moses traced dog thefts through

local suppliers to UM in the early 1960s.

Woofs and growls

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Wise-use wiseguys

Frederick Goodwin, former director of the National

Institute of Mental Health, announced in late March that he would soon

be setting up a Center of Science, Medicine, and Human Values at

Georgetown University, to promote vivisection. The announcement was

premature: on May 5, Georgetown University executive vice president

Dr. Patrick A. Heelan, S.J., stated in a letter to inquiring faculty members,

“Please know that Dr. Goodwin is not coming to join the faculty.” No fur-

ther explanation was given.

U.S. Surgical Corporation chairman Leon Hirsch took a 97%

pay cut last year, as USSC stock crashed. His wife, Turi Josefsen, took

almost as steep a cut. Still, Hirsch drew $1.59 million, while Josefsen got

$941,117, enough to enable them to keep supporting anti-animal protec-

tion including the Americans for Medical Progress Research Foundation,

Educators for Responsible Science, and Connecticut United for Research

Excellence––all funded mainly by U.S. Surgical itself.

ON LIFE, LIBERTY AND PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS FOR WILDLIFE IN CONFINEMENT

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

by John Lukas

Director, White Oak Conservation Center, Yulee, Florida

This guest column is adapted from a cage-rattling

presentation Mr. Lukas delivered to the recent White Oak con –

ference on zoos and animal protection, hosted by the Howard

Gilman Foundation.

Happiness is not a term zoo administrators and oth-

ers who hold wildlife in confinement like to use. Many of us

were trained to think of “happiness” as a human interpreta-

tion, linked with anthropomorphizing animals, and therefore

problematic when much of what we do is oriented toward try-

ing to get animals to behave in the manner appropriate to their

own species. Nonetheless, I use the term “happiness,”

because even if we have trouble suitably defining it, I believe

we cannot avoid having to think about it as an essential com-

ponent of animal well-being.

Greenwich Village vivisection and dog export hoaxes rattle humane community

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

NEW YORK, N.Y.––Two appar-

ent hoaxes in two weeks rattled the humane

community during late spring. Both orginated

out of New York City’s Greenwich Village, a

longtime hotbed of pranks executed in the

name of performance art. The first, advertised

in The Village Voice, was a purported pro-

vivisection group called American Vivisection

Defense, with a 92¢-a-minute 900 number set

up on April 29. The organization––AVID for

short––claimed to be soliciting donations of

unwanted pets for use in biomedical research.

It had no connection whatever with AVID

Microchip, of Norco, California, which

received a barrage of outraged calls and in

short order threatened to sue the purported

prankster, Winfield Scott Stanley III, of 304

Newberry Street in Cambridge, Mass-

achusetts. Both the name and the address are

believed to be fictitious. Callers to the 900

number heard a long diatribe promoting fur

and veal, as well as biomedical research.

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