PETA wins Berosini reversal

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

RENO, Nevada––The Nevada Supreme Court

on January 27 emphatically reversed the $4.2 million libel

verdict won by orangutan trainer Bobby Berosini in

August 1990 against People for the Ethical Treatment of

Animals, PETA director of investigations Jeanne Roush,

the Performing Animal Welfare Society, PAWS execu-

tive director Pat Derby, and dancer Ottavio Gesmundo.

Berosini contended that a videotape Gesmundo

secretly recorded backstage was false and defamatory.

The videotape was given to mass media by PETA, while

Derby commented upon it for Entertainment Tonight.

However, in a strongly worded 32-page opinion, the

four judges who reviewed the case concluded unanimous-

ly that, “The videotape is not false because it is an accu-

rate portrayal of the manner in which Berosini disciplined

his animals backstage before performances. The video-

tape is not defamatory because Berosini and his witnesses

take the position that the shaking, punching, and beating

that appear on the tape are necessary, appropriate and

justified for the training, discipline, and control of show

animals. If Berosini did not think that the tape showed

him doing anything wrong or disgraceful,” the decision

continued, “he should not be heard to complain that the

defendants defamed him merely by showing the tape.”

Leakey quits

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

NAIROBI––Accused of

corruption, racism, and misman-

agement by 23 influential cabinet

ministers eager to exploit wildlife

and habitat, renowned paleontolo-

gist Richard Leakey resigned

January 14 after five years as head

of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Leakey’s vigorous attack

on corruption and defense of

endangered species brought more

than $150 million in aid to Kenya.

Animals lose friends in D.C.

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Bureau of Land Management chief

James Baca resigned February 3 rather than be kicked upstairs by Interior

Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who had offered to make him his deputy assis-

tant. Baca was unpopular with ranchers and miners due to his demand for

tougher environmental controls on use of the 270 million acres of BLM

land, and for reform of leasing agreements to gain market value returns

from grazing leases and mining claims. Ranchers also recall that Baca

threw the USDA’s Animal Damage Control agency out of New Mexico in

1992 for failing to inspect traps at least once every 24 hours, to reduce

animal suffering and harm to endangered speces.

Babbitt said he remained “deeply committed to getting grazing

rules worked out and also to getting reforms of the mining law of 1872

enacted,” but ousted Baca because they have “different approaches to

management style and consensus building.”

Marine mammals

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

S. 1636, the present Marine

Mammal Protection Act reauthorization

bill, has cleared the Senate Commerce

Committee and at deadline was expected to be

passed any day by the full Senate, with House

ratification likely in April. The Humane

Society of the U.S. has asked members to

write Congress opposing S. 1636 because it

“has no provisions for effective enforcement,”

and “would allow the accidental killing of

endangered species (currently prohibited) and

the intentional shooting of seals and sea lions

solely to protect fish commercially caught or

raised.” HSUS seeks amendments that will

“ensure that marine mammal mortality in com-

mercial fishing operations reaches insignifi-

cant levels approaching zero, mandate specif-

ic punitive consequences if kill reduction goals

are not met on schedule, prohibit the capture

of wild whales or dolphins for public display,

prohibit swim-with-the-dolphin programs and

petting pools, prohibit public feeding of both

captive and wild marine mammals, prohibit

the issuance of permits to kill endangered

species in commercial fisheries,” and “prohib-

it the intentional killing of seals and sea lions

solely to protect fishing gear, catch, or net

pens.” The Animal Welfare Institute has

issued a similar appeal for action.

Guest column: Reject, isolate, abandon undisciplined ALF

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

by Paul Watson

Captain, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Much controversy has been gener-

ated over the last few years by the Animal

Liberation Front and most recently by the

attacks on the fur departments of major

department stores in Chicago. The ALF has

been condemned for terrorism and has made

itself a primary target for investigation by

the FBI. It is only a matter of time until

some serious arrests are made and perhaps it

is only a matter of time until the now

unblemished record of the animal and con-

servation movements is irreparably tar-

nished.

To date, there has not been a sin-

gle human being injured or slain by an ani-

mal rights, animal welfare, or conservation

movement person or organization. Perhaps

it is inevitable that such a thing will some

day happen, but I believe that we should do

everything in our power to keep that day far

into the future. Our strength lies in our

morality and in the ethical advantage of

remaining steadfast in our respect for life.

All life must always be of paramount con-

cern.

Guest Opinion: In defense of the Animal Liberation Front

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

by Gary Francione

Rutgers Animal Rights Law Clinic

The January/February ANIMAL PEOPLE edi-

torial condemned the Animal Liberation Front for planting

nine firebombs in four Chicago department stores.

Although I agree completely that the cause of animal

rights is or should be a movement of peace and nonvio-

lence, and that the use of firebombs or any other action

that threatens human or nonhuman life is morally unac-

ceptable and inimical to the philosophy of animal rights, I

am concerned that ANIMAL PEOPLE’s broad condem-

nation of the ALF focused attention on the wrong topic.

First, while the condemnation did except the

clandestine information-gathering in support of Animal

Welfare Act enforcement that characterized many early

actions, it otherwise lumped together all ALF activities.

For the first decade the ALF was active in the United

States, it generally rejected any action that jeopardized

human or animal life and safety, and confined its activi-

ties to removing animals from laboratories or farms, and

on occasion, to destroying equipment used to exploit ani-

mals. The first arson attributed to ALF in the U.S. did not

occur until 1986, and there were few others before 1991.

Editorial: Wanted: vets on wheels at combat pay

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

Just over two years ago ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim Bartlett disregarded

warnings that she was taking her life in her hands and took an experimental neuter/release

project into inner city Bridgeport, Connecticut––the city with the highest per capita murder

rate and greatest rate of drug-related violence of any in North America. Among the burned-

out, abandoned shells of factories and tenements where families lived six or eight people to

a room on welfare, Kim found a community who for the most part already knew about pet

overpopulation, were worried about the homeless animals they fed at their doorsteps, and

were readily receptive to her help in obtaining neutering and vaccination. Bridgeport had

and probably still has a high density of feral cats not primarily because anyone was ignorant

or indifferent, nor because even the poorest of the poor were unwilling to pay for neutering

their pets––albeit that most couldn’t afford to pay anything close to the going veterinary

rates. On the contrary, Kim was welcomed as “the cat lady” where even police feared to

walk. Children ran up and down the shabby side streets knocking on doors, asking neigh-

bors to bring out their animals. Elderly women without even a warm coat and third genera-

tion welfare mothers produced tattered and painstakingly preserved ten-dollar bills to make

the most generous contribution they could to assist the effort. The nun whose tiny convent

school was among the last outposts of hope in the inner city gave Kim her full support.

Sea Shepherd sinks another pirate whaler: ACTED TO ENFORCE INTERNATIONAL LAW, WATSON SAYS

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

GRESSVIK, Norway––Responding to the slaughter of 296 minke whales last

summer, in contravention of international agreement, the Sea Shepherd Conservation

Society sunk the pirate whaler Senet during the predawn hours of January 24.

The S e n e t was one of 28 vessels that took part in Norway’s first commercial

whale hunt since the International Whaling Commission declared a moratorium on com-

mercial whaling in 1986. The Senet crew killed five of the 160 whales massacred under

Norway’s unilaterally declared commercial quota, while 12 other vessels killed an addi-

tional 136 whales in the name of scientific research. Mostly sold to Japan, the whale meat

brought the whalers about $12.5 million. The Norwegian government reputedly spent near-

BOOKS: Humane Innovations And Alternatives & Between the Species

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Humane Innovations And Alternatives,

Volume Seven, published by Psychologists for the

Ethical Treatment of Animals (Box 1297, Washington

Grove, MD 20880-1297.) 547 pages, paperback, $20.

Between The Species, Volume 9, #2, published

by the Schweitzer Center of the San Francisco Bay

Institute/Congress of Culture (POB 254, Berkeley, CA

94701.) 120 pages, paperback, $5.00.

Some day soon, Humane Innovations And

Alternatives must decide whether it wants to be a serious

journal or the Gong Show of animal protection literature.

The 14-member editorial board includes plenty of doctor-

ates from a variety of disciplines, and plenty of worthwhile

material appears in this thick annual, as well, but scientific

probes of fine points in toxicology appear alongside infor-

mal essays on “How I run my animal shelter,” and “The

most unforgetable chicken I ever met.” Even if every item

genuinely deserves print somewhere, few researchers will

ever find the scientific articles, while most of the audience

for shelter how-to and unforgetable chicken stories isn’t like-

ly to be drawn to a publication that calls itself a journal.

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