CHILDREN & ANIMALS

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

“Higher levels of childhood pet keeping

were related to more positive attitudes toward

pet animals and greater concerns about the wel-

fare of non-pet animals and humans,”

researchers J.S. Paul and James Serpell discovered

in a recent survey of 385 British university students,

published by the Universities Federation for Animal

Welfare (8 Hamilton Close, South Mimms, Potters

Bart, Herts EN6 3QD, United Kingdom). Serpell,

author of In The Company of Animals, now holds

the Marie Moore Chair for Humane Ethics and

Animal Welfare at the University of Pennsylvania.

MARINE MAMMAL NOTES

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The Marine Mammal Protection Act was

reauthorized on schedule on April 29, including loop-

holes to let hunters to import polar bear trophies and to

allow the killing of seals and sea lions who eat threat-

ened fish runs at locks and fish ladders. Other provi-

sions include a total ban on intentionally shooting

marine mammals who interfere with fishing, and a pro-

gram to cut accidental kills during fishing to near zero

over the next seven years.

The Liberal Party of Canada convention on

May 15 overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling

for the resumption of offshore seal hunting, halted in

1983 after two decades of international protest. The

Liberals form the Parliamentary majority. Claiming

“the concerns of animal rights lobby groups should not

be put before the concerns of the people of

Newfoundland and Labrador,” the resolution claims

sealing is needed to create jobs because the fishing

industry has collapsed––making no mention that the col-

lapse was caused by overfishing condoned in the name

of job creation by a succession of both Liberal and

Progressive-Conservative governments.

BRIAN DAVIES FOUNDATION INVESTED IN VIVISECTION

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

LONDON, England––At deadline ANIMAL

PEOPLE was still awaiting International Fund for Animal

Welfare founder Brian Davies’ response to allegations by the

British Broadcasting Corporation expose series Public Eye

that as much as 39% of the Brian Davies Foundation stock

portfolio may be invested with firms that either do vivisection

or are under boycott by other major animal and habitat pro-

tection groups. ANIMAL PEOPLE had, however, received

IFAW’s apparently accidental fax transmission of our request

for comment with four handwritten notes scrawled across it

by at least three different people, discussing how to respond.

The Brian Davies Foundation is a holding corpora-

tion affiliated with IFAW, the sole purpose of which appears

to be managing investments.

IFAW, now under fire for announcing it would not

oppose a plan that could lead to the resumption of commer-

cial whaling (see page one), was just two months ago riding

the crest of outrage over the Canadian sale of 50,000 seal

penises to the Asian aphrodisiac trade––which full-page ads

placed by IFAW in leading Canadian newspapers accurately

linked to child prostitution in Southeast Asia. The issue was

and may still be the hottest for Davies and IFAW since 1983,

when Canada suspended the offshore slaughter of infant harp

seals (though the land-based phase of the killing continues).

Save the whales! DID CLINTON SELL OUT WHALES TO SELL MISSILES?

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico––The world will

know by the time you read this whether U.S. president Bill

Clinton sold out whales to sell $625 million worth of missiles to

Norway. As ANIMAL PEOPLEwent to press, Greenpeace and

the World Wildlife Fund, goaded by Friends of Animals, were

applying last-minute leverage to head off the apparent

sellout––including joint protest on May 17 in front of the White

House, a WWF first, while Clinton and vice president Albert

Gore met with Norwegian prime minister Gro Brundtland inside.

The proposed creation of an Antarctic whale refuge and

the resumption of commercial whaling head the agenda for the

46th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission

(IWC), commencing on May 23. As every year since 1982,

when the IWC decreed the moratorium on commercial whaling in

effect since 1986, Japan and Norway will push to break the

moratorium. As last year, Japan and Norway will also fight the

creation of the sanctuary, seeking the help of Antigua-and-

Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent-and-

the-Grenadines, four tiny Caribbean nations heavily dependent

upon Japanese foreign aid, whose votes were decisive in 1993.

Who needs low-cost neutering? PART ONE OF A NEW NATIONAL STUDY

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

PORT WASHINGTON, New York––Low-cost neutering doubles the number of

poor people who get their pets fixed––and cuts animal shelter intakes in half.

Any doubts that either shelter administrators or veterinarians may have about the

efficacy of low-cost neutering should be laid to rest by the results of a new national study car-

ried out over the past six months by ANIMAL PEOPLE, under sponsorship of the North

Shore Animal League. The first part of the study, investigating the impact of low-cost neu-

tering on pet overpopulation, is published here. The second part, a comprehensive review of

veterinary experience, will appear in our July/August issue––including veterinarians’ ideas

about how to improve low-cost neutering pro-

grams to get even better results and resolve

grievances that often hamper programs.

Editorial: What’s wrong with “sustainable use”?

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

U.S. World Wildlife Fund president Kathryn Fuller didn’t just rattle the Clinton

administration with her May 12 declaration of opposition to any “first step toward the

resumption of commercial whaling.” More significant was her statement that, “Even if

commercial whaling could be sustainable, it cannot be justified,” a welcome marked depar-

ture from 35 years of WWF policy, which essentially has endorsed any use of wildlife that

even promised to be sustainable.

The most influential of all animal and habitat protection groups internationally,

WWF has been problematic since 1961, when founder Sir Peter Scott, a trophy hunter,

recruited the leadership elite from among fellow hunters who feared that African indepen-

dence would lead to the rapid loss of target species. The elite included longtime WWF

International president Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands, who escaped punishment for

allegedly overshooting bird quotas in Italy in the early 1970s to resign, finally, in 1987,

after being implicated in a Dutch bribery scandal. Bernhard was succeeded by another of

the founding elite, Prince Philip, long the honorary head of the British chapter. One of the

world’s most prolific tiger-killers when tigers were abundant, Philip showed his allegiance

to conservation ethics that Christmas by leading his sons Charles, Andrew, and Edward in

killing 10,000 pigeons, 7,000 pheasants, 300 partridges, and several hundred ducks,

geese, and rabbits––all captive-raised––in a six-week vacation bloodbath. This slightly

exceeded Philip’s previous record of 15,500 captive birds killed during a five-week spree.

WILDLIFE

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Fourteen years after being

declared an endangered species and 11

years after being pronounced extinct, the

Palos Verdes blue butterfly has been resdi-

covered. University of California geography

professor Rudi Mattoni, believed to be the

last person to see the butterfly before it pur-

portedly vanished, recognized it again on a

mid-March insect collecting visit to the U.S.

Navy’s Defense Fuel Supply Point in San

Pedro. The site is protected as critical habi-

tat for the also endangered California gnat-

catcher, a small songbird.

Sex and animal protection

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Chances are, most of the people who attended the seminar on “Differences

between men and women” at the American Humane Association’s annual training confer-

ence last fall wondered what this had to do with animal protection. Presenter Judy Lang

asked the same question––after delineating the many behavioral differences found by recent

l research. By then the audience was bursting with examples of specific situations where a

better understanding of sex differences might significantly help.

One difference of note, applicable to both humane education and anti-cruelty

enforcement, is the disparate degree to which men and women recognize personal feelings.

As Lang pointed out, women have a much stronger neurolink between their brain hemi-

spheres, which results in greater capacity for connecting thought with emotion. Thus

women are less likely to blindly react. Some research suggests women are less likely to

abuse children and animals in part because they are more likely to recognize their own anger

and frustration before it emerges in hostile behavior, and are therefore quicker to use empa-

thy as a brake upon negative feelings. Men commit both violent crimes and suicide far

more often; women are far more likely to seek psychological help. Lang stressed that the

physiological difference is a matter of degrees, not of absolutes, and should not be consid-

ered a handicap or an excuse for inhumane behavior: men can and must be taught to

“count to a thousand” before reacting. What is important is recognizing that men often need

to be taught a mode of responding that for women may be inuitive.

Editorial: The cause of the homeless

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

The ink wasn’t even dry on the New York Times edition of April 4 when we

received our first outraged call from a dog rescuer. A full-page advertisement placed by the

Coalition for the Homeless showed a forlorn-looking dog at the top. “According to statis-

tics,” the caption read, “his chances of finding a home are 70%.” Below, the photo

expanded to include the homeless woman sitting beside the dog. “Now they’re next to

zero,” said the caption. “Some might say the homeless are treated like dogs. But actually,

a homeless dog is better off than a homeless person. Over 100,000 people bedded down on

New York City’s streets and in shelters last year. But only 2,000 homeless single adults

ended up in homes of their own.”

The statistics cited are accurate, but out of context. As we pointed out to the

Coalition for the Homeless on behalf of our upset readers, the 30% of New York City stray

dogs who don’t find a home within a week to 10 days of pickup are euthanized at one of the

American SPCA shelters. The numbers of stray dogs euthanized are falling much faster

than the number of homeless people on the streets, but the ASPCA still killed 16,760 dogs

in 1991, the most recent year for which we have complete statistics, plus 22,595 cats,

whose chance of adoption ran around 20%.

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