Freedom of speech

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

Janet Fontenot, new editor of The Southern
Utah Spectrum, a newspaper circulating 50,000 copies
daily, recently dropped a weekly column by Lester Wood
of Citizens for Humane Animal Treatment, and according to
Wood, “initiated a policy of censorship against environmen-
talists, refusing to print letters to the editor with a pro-ecolo-
gy viewpoint.” In place of Wood’s column, Fontenot is now
publishing a column called “Maverick Country,” which
Wood describes as “a rabid anti-ecology column.” Other
Utah journalists essentially confirm Wood’s account, noting
that Fontenot has praised cattleman Met Johnson as
“Legislator of the Year.” Johnson is among the members of
the Utah legislature who have advanced open seasons and
legal jacklighting of skunks, raccoons, and red foxes, plus
a 20% increase in the sale of puma permits, in the erroneous
belief that killing predators will make more game available
on depleted rangeland. The state wildlife agency and even
some hunting groups are against the proposals.

But it was a great appeal

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

A firm called In Vitro International enlisted the aid of
the Doris Day Animal League and the Animal Welfare Institute in
late April as it awaited a ruling from the U.S. Department of
Transportation as to whether a non-animal test it developed to mea-
sure chemical corrosivity could be used as a substitute for the tradi-
tional skin burn test on rabbits. Literature apparently originating
with IVI, reprinted verbatim by AWI and colorfully amplified by
DDAL, suggested that “tens of thousands of rabbits” would be sub-
jected to the painful skin burn tests this summer so that U.S. chemi-
cal manufacturers could comply with a voluntary international
labeling standard recommended by the United Nations and ratified
by DOT, to take effect on October 1.

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Diet & Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

The USDA on May 5 announced
that it will begin requiring labels on raw
meat and poultry to include cooking and
handling instructions, explaining how to
prevent health hazards such as the growth of
E:coli bacteria, which in January and
December killed four children who had just
eaten undercooked hamburgers. The label-
ing rules are to be formally proposed by
August 15. The new requirement comes in
settlement of a lawsuit brought by Beyond
Beef and the parents of one of the January
victims. U.S. trade representative Mickey
Kantor meanwhile denied in a series of press
releases and public statements that such
strengthened food labeling laws could be
overturned under that General Agreement on
Trade and Tariffs and/or the North American
Free Trade Agreement, as alleged obstacles
to international commerce. Last year, the
two agreements were invoked to overturn the
use of U.S. dolphin protection legislation to
exclude imports of tuna netted “on dolphin,”
at considerable cost in dolphin lives.

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Euthanasias down–– but by how much? ANIMAL PEOPLE PROJECTS ANNUAL TOLL OF CIRCA 6 MILLION

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado––A new
estimate of euthanasia rates produced by Phil Arkow of the
Humane Society of Pike’s Peak indicates the pet overpopu-
lation problem may be only half as bad as the most opti-
mistic previous projections. Factoring in additional infor-
mation apparently unknown to Arkow, ANIMAL PEO-
PLE extrapolates a current annual euthanasia rate of about
six million dogs and cats per year––half again higher than
Arkow’s figures, but still significantly lower than older
estimates, which ranged as high as 20 million per year 20
years ago, and have gradually fallen to below 10 million.

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Guidelines for cat rescue by Carter Luke

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

EDITOR’S NOTE: Carter Luke, vice president of the Massachusetts SPCA humane services division, submitted the following guidelines as “a quickly drafted summary of my thoughts about things to consider” in cat rescue. “The MSPCA is not necessarily endorsing nor are we practicing neuter/release,” he continued, “but we are trying to provide guidance for humane approaches using any kind of strategy.”
The solution to the issue of unsocialized or feral
cats is often clouded with issues related to responding to the
presence of these cats. Clearly though, the bulk of our
efforts should be directed to preventing these situations from
occurring in the first place. All agencies involved in animal
protection should first and foremost be promoting responsi-
ble cat ownership, particularly focusing on matters relating
to sterilization, the wearing of identification, veterinary
care, and keeping cats safe at home, i.e. controlled.
Before doing anything

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Guest Column: Let veterinarians do the job

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

by Lewis R. Plumb
Excellent shelter statistics for
Harris County, Texas (Houston metropoli-
tan area) were reported in the April issue of
ANIMAL PEOPLE. But while much
detail and comment was included, further
analysis is possible.
The Harris County area, with six
animal control and/or sheltering operations
active, has an estimated pet population of
1.28 million. About 8.5% of these will
arrive at a shelter each year, with 82.4% of
arrivals being killed for population control
purposes. At an average cost of $50 per
euthanized animal (the cost to catch, keep,
kill, and dispose of the carcass), the total
population control cost is $4.5 million a
year. With an average dog or cat litter size
of six, there is a need for an additional
16,000 spays per year to eliminate surplus
births. These must be effective spays,
meaning spays that would not otherwise be
done, on animals who have a very high
probability of breeding if not done.

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Editorial: The quest for accuracy

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

The New York Times is justly reputed as one of the most conscientious of newspa-
pers––because it runs a daily “Corrections” box, because it publishes lots of letters in
response to articles, and because editorial opinions, commentaries, and news analyses are
clearly labeled. Even at that, it sometimes badly goofs. A decade ago the Times reassigned
a distinguished investigative reporter and all but recanted his expose of how government
troops in El Salvador massacred 791 people, most of them children, because the editors
believed a U.S. State Department denial that any such thing ever happened.
Just the same, when the bones and the truth were exposed last fall, the Times
promptly admitted the horrible mistake––on page one.
And that’s why the Times can be trusted.

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Editorial: Pet overpopulation: it’s win or lose now

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

The latest shelter statistics, presented on page twelve of this issue, suggest that at
present about four million cats per year are euthanized for population control––about two-
thirds of the total number of animals euthanized because they have no homes.
The significance of this number is not only that it is low indeed compared to the
best estimates of feline euthanasia published only a couple of years ago, and almost unbe-
lievably low compared to the estimates of 15 years ago. Records of kitten survival in both
private homes and feral colonies indicate that only about half of the kittens who are born
live long enough to be weaned. Only about half of the kittens who survive that long reach
sexual maturity, so that no more than 25% of all the cats born eventually join the breeding
population, even without neutering. Further, according to data ANIMAL PEOPLE col-
lected and published in 1992, while conducting the cat rescue project described in our lead
feature for this month, only about half of all feral mothers live long enough to bear more
than one litter, and only half of those live long enough to bear more than three litters. Our
cat rescue records indicate that only one feral mother in a hundred lives longer than three
years, so four to five litters appears to be the normal outside limit to feral reproduction.

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No dolphins in Denver! ACTIVIST CAMPAIGN SUCCEEDS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993

DENVER, Colo.––An astute
media campaign including extensive
advertising in local newspapers and the
April back cover ad in ANIMAL PEO-
PLE paid off big for Animal Rights
Mobilization! on May 13 when the pro-
moters of the proposed Colorado’s Ocean
Journey aquarium dropped plans to
include captive dolphins. It was appar-
ently the first time any major aquarium in
planning anywhere cancelled a marine
mammal exhibit under pressure from an
animal rights group.

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