Horses

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

New York City entered 1994

with no regulations protecting carriage

horses, after outgoing mayor David

Dinkins vetoed a bill on December 29 that

would have amended the 1989 Carriage

Horse Protection Act to allow horsedrawn

carriages to operate in city traffic except

during the rush hours, when they will be

restricted to Central Park, and to extend

the workday for carriage horses from eight

hours to nine. Carriages had been restrict-

ed to Central Park all day and barred from

operating during rush hours. Introduced

by councillor Noach Dear, the bill was

approved by the New York City Council on

December 21, 29-17, which was consid-

ered a close vote. The Carriage Horse

Action Committee had sought reauthoriza-

tion of the 1989 act, supported by the the-

atre industry and other groups concerned

that the carriages discourage business by

slowing down traffic, plus a faction that

claims the carriage horse trade is a “green

card factory” for Irish immigrants, who

dominate the workforce of drivers and

grooms. There are now 396 licensed car-

riage drivers, up from 266 in 1991, but

there are only 140 horses and 68 carriages

actually out on the job. The CHAC, head-

ed by Peggy Parker, may now seek a total

ban on horsedrawn vehicles in Manhattan.

FUR

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Encouraged by the reopening of

Bloomingdale’s Maximilian fur salon in

New York on November 29, the fur trade

still claims sales are up after a five-year

slump, projecting 1993 retail receipts of

$1.2 billion––but once again hard numbers

tell a different story. As of Christmas,

advertised retail fur prices were still plung-

ing to new lows in inflation-adjusted dollars.

Mink coats, furs priced at $5,000 or more,

and the overall average fur price were all

down 25% from the previous record lows

reached in 1992, The total volume of fur

advertising was down 17%, despite promi-

nent early fall cooperative promotional

efforts. Further indications of falling

demand include the 1993 mink and fox pro-

duction figures published in Fur Age

Dog sledding

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

The United Coalition of Animal

Rights Volunteers is asking animal protec-

tion groups to endorse “Six Humane

Treatment Rules” for the annual Iditarod

dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome pro-

posed by UCARV founder John Suter, who ran

poodle teams in the Iditarod until they were

barred in 1992, following incidents that caused

death or injury to poodles in three consecutive

years. Suter’s proposed “humane rules” include

an “Equal Run/Equal Rest” rule that would

penalize racers who drive their dogs at a slower

pace by obliging them to take longer breaks,

and a “Drop a Dog, Rest the Team” rule that

would penalize drivers who leave injured dogs

at checkpoints rather than forcing them to con-

tinue in harness. Despite the likelihood that

Suter’s rules would cause more harm to dogs

rather than less, they are already backed by the

International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Sea life

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Foiled when a crew from the Shedd Aquarium in

Chicago caught three Pacific whitesided dolphins on

November 27, protesters who hoped to disrupt the capture

effort instead spent the next month keeping the dolphins’ hold-

ing pen at the Kettenburg Marine wharf in San Diego under

around-the-clock surveillance. Steve Hindi of the Chicago

Animal Rights Coalition took video that he claimed shows dol-

phins swimming “in a bathtub ring of their own excrement,”

which a Shedd spokesperson claimed was salt added to the

water to simulate the chemistry of the ocean. The video also

showed “frenzied Shedd officials erecting a barrier to obscure

the traumatized dolphins from view,” Hindi said, and enabled

members of the Whale Rescue Team to identify “a steady

stream of visitors,” including Tim Hauser, who reputedly cap-

tures marine mammals for many aquariums, and a number of

Navy personnel, whose presence was unexplained. The Navy

has applied, however, to do underwater weapons testing in one

area where the dolphins might have been caught, the Outer-Sea

Test Range. Designated in 1946, the range lies seaward of the

Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. The proposed test-

ing will involve “incidental” deaths and injuries to any marine

mammals who happen to be near test explosions, and is

opposed by many of the same groups that opposed the dolphin

captures, as well as the usually conservative National Audubon

Society. As Christmas approached, the Shedd team was hold-

ing daily “desensitizing drills,” preparing the dolphins for trans-

port by raising and lowering them in a cargo sling.

COURT CALENDAR

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Activism

“The Animal Liberation Front planted nine incen-

diary devices in four Chicago department stores which sell

fur,” media were told in a November 28 fax communique.

“The incendiaries were designed to start a small fire which

would in turn set off the stores’ sprinkler systems and cause

water damage. This action signals the start of a new, more

intense campaign of economic sabotage.” Five of the fire-

bombs went off November 28 and 29, doing minor damage at

Marshall Field, Carson and Saks. Three more were removed

by police and FBI agents. The ninth apparently never turned

up. Copies of a British ALF manual describing how to make

firebombs arrived in the mailboxes of numerous animal protec-

tion groups during the next few days, postmarked Palatine,

Illinois––a Chicago suburb. The incident gave furriers a con-

siderable volume of media time in which to denounce the anti-

fur movement generally.

Wildlife

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Maine wildlife officials have

confirmed that wounds on the carcass of a

bobcat who was killed in a fight with a much

larger cat may have been made by an eastern

cougar. The fight was witnessed by hunter

Anthony Fuscaldo. Officially extinct in

Maine since 1938, and in the rest of New

England and eastern Canada much earlier,

the eastern cougar was restored to the list of

living species last year when tracks and scat

were found in New Brunswick, shortly after

a farmer shot one in western Quebec.

Sightings continued throughout the decades

of supposed extinction, but most turned out

to involve bobcats, lynxes, the occasional

extra-large housecat, and some tame exotic

cats who were released by their keepers after

growing too big to handle safely.

Animal Control & Rescue

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

The value of publicity was

underscored in Cleveland, Ohio,

after county humane officer Tony

Brand rescued a pair of starving dogs

from a rooftop on December 11.

Notice of the rescue in the Cleveland

Plain Dealer brought nearly 100 calls

to the Cuyahoga County Kennel from

would-be adopters, of whom more

than 20 took dogs––five times the

usual adoption rate. Adoptions also

rose at other local shelters.

Canadian SPCA retiring deficit, but not critics

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada– – Parti–

sans disagree vehemently over how far the Canadian

SPCA (a..k.a. the Montreal SPCA) has gotten in

resolving the economic and administrative problems

reported here last March––no surprise, given the

decade of turmoil surrounding Canada’s oldest humane

society. Founded in 1869, the CSPCA handles animal

control for most of the greater Montreal area.

According to public relations officer Johanna

Dupras, “a new management and accounting team has

restructured accounting procedures and reorganized

shelter operations, with the result that the deficit has

been halved over the past year. The objective is to

break even by December 1994.”

American SPCA busts itself

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

NEW YORK CITY– –The New York Post revealed

December 31 that American SPCA chief of law enforcement

Herman Cohen cited the organization on October 24 for cruelty

to animals because a state-of-the-art shelter, opened in April

1992, was a “disaster area.” Cohen was subsequently suspend-

ed for undisclosed reasons, and the cruelty charge, turned over

to the Manhattan district attorney for prosecution, was not

made public.

Inadequate conditions mentioned in Cohen’s com-

plaint included insufficient heating, lack of proper ventilation,

a leaky ceiling, a cracked floor, and cages with an inoperable

automatic flushing system. Repair costs are estimated at

$400,000. Local activists Elizabeth Forel and Patty Adjamine

described essentially the same defects within days after the $5

million shelter debuted. The ASPCA has reportedly been hop-

ing to sell or lease the shelter to New York City when it turns

over animal control duties to the city next November.

The case is to be heard January 25.

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