Layoffs at NEAVS

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

BOSTON, Massachusetts––Financially drained, the New England Anti-

Vivisection Society laid off all but two of its staff August 24 at a reportedly stormy meeting

of the board of directors. According to former executive director Rebecca Taksel, who lost

her job at the meeting apparently because she resisted dismissing senior employees, “There

have been layoffs, and I was one of them. No, I resigned. NEAVS has been running at a

deficit for quite some time, and this was the board’s solution. NEAVS has been cut back to

just two projects, the education office and the legislative office.” Taksel declined to go into

detail.

BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Validation of non-animal tests gains momentum

Significant progress in validating non-animal toxicity tests was announced

during the summer by both the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to

Animal Testing and the Scandinavian Society of Cell Toxicology’s four-year-old

Multicenter Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity Tests program, headquartered in

Sweden. Validation is the process of establishing how test results relate to human health.

The Johns Hopkins team published a “Framework for the Validation and Implementation

of In Vitro Toxicity Tests” simultaneously in four leading scientific journals, hoping to

speed researcher interest, while the Swedish team, somewhat ahead of Johns Hopkins,

now has 90 European in vitro toxicologists working on a variety of tests of their own

design, measuring the toxicity of 50 chemicals with well-known effects on humans.

“Relevance remains the key problem,” John Frazier of the Johns Hopkins team

said. “It was clear from the beginning that the ill-defined nature of the ‘gold standard’ we

are trying to measure with an in vitro test––human toxicity––was going to be difficult.

It’s a moving target. Nobody has come up with a definitive solution.”

Editorial: Make sure you’re covered

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

On August 18, U.S. president Bill Clinton announced his design for an employer-

financed national health plan, intended to extend coverage to all Americans––not just those

who can afford it. To avoid increasing the cost of hiring so much that struggling firms

might cut jobs rather than pay the mandatory premiums, the Clinton plan would collect pre-

miums on a sliding scale. Small businesses, including charities, might be able to cover

their workers for as little as 3.5% of payroll expenditure.

MIDWEST FLOOD RESCUE EFFORT: Forty days, forty nights, and still the rain kept pouring

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

MISSISSIPPI BASIN––Two

months of record rainfall that brought

record flooding in nine midwestern states

probably displaced more animals than

any high waters in North America since

the glaciers melted. Of the 791 counties

in the nine states, 421 were declared fed-

eral disaster areas. Clean-up and repairs

are expected to cost more than $13 bil-

lion. But animal rescuers didn’t dwell on

the immensity of the big picture. They

just pitched in however they could, wher-

ever they were, with whatever they could

scrounge by way of equipment and sup-

plies.

Civil war within rescue groups: Primarily Primates and Colorado Horse Rescue

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

by Merritt Clifton and Marcia King

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS; GOLDEN and ARVADA, COLORADO––Bitterly

contested transitions of leadership may be finalized this month at Primarily Primates and

Colorado Horse Rescue. On September 13, Texas assistant attorney general John Vinson is

scheduled to ask the 224th Judicial District Court in San Antonio to remove Primarily Primates

founder and longtime animal caretaker Wallace Swett from any position of authority within the

Marine Mammals

July 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

The U.S. Navy on May 27 flew five dolphins

from a base on San Diego Bay to the Disney World Epcot

Center “Living Seas” pavillion in Orlando, Florida––with-

out getting prior permission from the National Marine

Fisheries Service, and in apparent contravention of lan-

guage in the current appropriation for the Navy dolphin pro-

gram, which provides “no less than $500,000 only to devel-

op training procedures which will allow mammals which are

no longer required for this project to be released back into

their natural habitat. The confreres prohibit the release of

these mammals to any alternative captive environment.”

The dolphins were moved from San Diego––on a five-year-

loan to Disney/Epcot––to make room for between 40 and 55

dolphins who are being relocated from a base in Hawaii.

Disney/Epcot plans to use the dolphins for captive breeding.

Peggy Larson, DVM and Doctor -of-Law: Committed, compassionate, qualified to castrate or sue

July 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

BURLINGTON, VERMONT––Among the

heroes and heroines of animal protection are ex-vivisectors

turned animal rights advocate, veterinarians who do low-

cost neutering, whistleblowers who challenge the meat

industry, articulate writers and speakers, and attorneys who

secure better humane enforcement.

Tough, skeptical, and able to debate any subject

she addresses, Peggy Larson is all the above and more. Her

37 years of professional research, activism, and advocacy

began with two years of neurophysiologic experiments on

cats at the University of Minnesota in 1956-1957, as one of

the first women to break into an overwhelmingly male-dom-

inated field. This work, she recalls, “was horrible. Succinyl

choline was commonly used at that time, which paralyzes

the cat but does not anesthetize him.”

COURT CALENDAR

July 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Undercover probe nabs Wisconsin dog dealer; local judge lets him go

Circuit judge Donald Poppy, of

Calumet County, Wisconsin, on June 14

dismissed a felony cruelty charge against

USDA-licensed Class B animal dealer

Ervin Stebane, 72, for tying, shooting,

and disemboweling a dog he sold as meat.

Poppy claimed Wisconsin law allows peo-

ple to kill their own dogs in a humane man-

ner, called the slaughter humane, and

added, “If the legislature intended for peo-

ple not to kill dogs as food, the legislature

should pass such a law.”

Did AmEx renege on “no fur” pledge to Roddick?

July 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Did or did not American Express pledge to drop fur from

its catalogs, to secure an endorsement from Body Shop skin and

hair care products founder Anita Roddick?

Catching flak for appearing in AmEx television commer-

cials while the firm is under boycott by PETA and other groups,

Roddick issued a written statement on April 15 asserting that,

“Before agreeing to do the commercial, I had a meeting with

American Express where I was assured that the current catalog

would be the last one to include fur.” Receiving Roddick’s state-

ment directly from The Body Shop, ANIMAL PEOPLE pub-

lished it in May.

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