Animal Spectacles

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

The Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, pledged to end mule-diving exhibitions
on its famed Steel Pier on August 15. Models in bathing suits rode full-sized horses through 40-foot jumps into tank of sea water at the Steel Pier from 1929 until 1978, when the pier was closed. Reopened this year, the Steel Pier featured Tim Rivers’ World’s Only Diving Mules, a riderless touring act from Citra, Florida, but met heavy protest when Rivers’ mule, two miniature horses, and a dog all appeared reluctant to jump from a 30-foot height.

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COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Activism
A federal grand jury in Grand
Rapids, Michigan, on July 16 indicted fugi-
tive activist Rodney Allen Coronado, 27, on
five felony counts including arson, pertaining
to a 1992 firebombing that gutted the
Michigan State University mink ranching labo-
ratory. The fire also destroyed the files of an
MSU staffer who was developing alternatives
to the use of animals in biomedical research.
Coronado, who has acknowledged involve-
ment in other direct actions including scuttling
two Icelandic whaling vessels, was reportedly
last seen in Oregon in early November 1992.
He is also sought for questioning by grand
juries probing arsons at animal research facili-
ties in Oregon, Washington, and Louisiana,
and by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in
connection with laboratory vandalism at the
University of Edmonton, in Alberta.

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Hunting & Fishing

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

“We just don’t believe that

public safety is our responsibility,”

Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen direc-
tor Robert Crook told a recent Connecticut
legislative hearing on whether hunting
license fees should be raised to support hir-
ing more wardens. The CCS is backed by
the National Rifle Association.
The Texas chapter of the NRA
is up in arms over a U.S. Forest Service
proposal to limit target shooting to the
safest 500 acres of the 20,309-acre Lyndon
Johnson National Grasslands. Incidents
involving use of firearms have increased
from 286 in fiscal 1990 to 510 in 1993.
The Coalition to Ban Pigeon
Shoots will protest this Labor Day outside
a private shoot at the prestigious
Powderbourne Gun Club in East
Greenville, Pennsylvania, rather than at
the simultaneous public shoot in Hegins.

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FUR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

“The American Veterinary
Medical Association considers the steel-
jaw leghold trap to be inhumane,” accord-
ing to a single-sentence policy statement
issued in mid-July, culminating years of lob-
bying by George Clements of the
Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing
Animals. The AVMA had long been reluc-
tant to oppose trapping because many mem-
bers wish to avoid being associated with ani-
mal rights militancy. At that, the words
“steel-jaw” were reportedly added under
pressure from the National Trappers
Association, which feared that the statement
might otherwise be taken to include padded
leghold traps and foot snares. This could
have been devastating to the fur industry
push to get padded leghold traps, snares,

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Los Angeles and New Jersey will stay in neutering business

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

The pioneering Los Angeles and New Jersey
discount neutering programs, in financial trouble a few
months ago, are back up to speed, top officials have
assured ANIMAL PEOPLE.
“As you noted in your June edition, City of Los
Angeles general manager Elza Lee wrote, “the city did
indeed close its low-cost neutering clinics due to a budget
crisis. But I am pleased to inform you that we have insti-
tuted another program to take its place. The Department
of Animal Regulation, with assistance from many com-
munity humane groups, is now issuing vouchers valued
up to $28 toward the sterilization of pet cats or dogs. Pet
owners who receive a voucher are referred to a participat-
ing private practice veterinarian, who will accept the
voucher as payment in full or as partial payment toward a
reduced fee surgery. Another program which is new for
us is the pre-release sterilization of dogs and cats adopted
from our animal care centers.” All six centers were “on
line with this project,” Lee said, by July 5.

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Animal Control & Rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Animal shelters, public or private, must hold
animals at least five days including a Saturday before
releasing them to Class B dealers or researchers, under an
amendment to Animal Welfare Act enforcement regulations
that took effect August 23. Written certification that the
holding period has been met must accompany each animal.
The Bronx SPCA, recently incorporated by
American SPCA officers Stephen Zawistowski, Eugene
Underwood, and Harold Finkelstein, exists “to make sure
we would have consistent law enforcement authority” with-
in the whole of New York City, Zawistowski told ANI-
MAL PEOPLE. The ASPCA was incorporated before the
Bronx was, and therefore the charter granted to the ASPCA
by the state of New York does not specifically authorize it
as the sole animal protection law enforcement agency for
the Bronx, as it does for the other New York City boroughs.

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WOOFS AND GROWLS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

The Better Business Bureau has announced that the National
Anti-Vivisection Society fails to meet requirements that “an
organization provide on request an annual report containing
information on governance (such as a roster of the board of directors) and
financial activities (such as total income and a break-
down of expenses); that its financial statements present
adequate information to serve as a basis for informed
decisions; and that it substantiate on request its applica-
tion of funds, in accordance with donor expectations,
to the programs and activities described in solicita-
tions.” Exposes by ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt
Clifton recently documented the generous compensation
NAVS provides to president Peggy Cunniff and other
members of her family, who dominate the NAVS board
and payroll. NAVS told BBB that it “has changed its
accounting and auditing methods to meet the standards
for fiscal year 1993,” but recent forced resignations,
dismissals, and staff transfers have left the Cunniffs
more firmly in control than ever.

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Hot water in the North Atlantic

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Canada––Paul
Watson’s homecoming to Atlantic Canada in July and early
August may have been the most bizarre event yet of his long
career in protest. Raised in a New Brunswick fishing vil-
lage, Watson has been reviled throughout the four Maritime
provinces since 1977, when as a Greenpeace representative
he sprayed green paint on baby harp seals to protect them
from hunters. Subsequent anti-sealing expeditions after
Watson founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in
1980 have confirmed his bad reputation among those who
live by what they kill in the sea––but many Atlantic
Canadians are applauding Watson now for his July 28 attack
on a Cuban trawler, the Rio Las Casas.

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