A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003:
Chronology of humane progress
(Part 1 of two parts: from Moses to Walt Disney)
by Merritt Clifton
1300 B.C. — Hebrew law as proclaimed by
Moses includes provisions for humane slaughter
and care of work animals.
740 B.C. — Rise of Isaiah, the most
prominent of the Hebrew vegetarian prophets, and
the prophet who most emphasized opposition to
animal sacrifice.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003:
More Than A Meal:
The Turkey in History,
Myth, Ritual, and Reality
by Karen Davis, Ph.D.
Lantern Books (One Union Square West,
Suite 201, New York, NY 10003), 2001.
192 pages, paperback. $20.00
This review appears on the same page as the conclusion of the
first installment of my “Chronology of Humane Progress,” an attempt
to put into context the major ideas and events that over the past
3,300 years have often falteringly coalesced into the global animal
protection cause of today.
The second installment ends with the major events of 1998, to give
current and recent developments at least five years to settle before
trying to decide what really made a difference and what was just part
of the flow.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:
For The Love Of Wildlife
by Chris Mercer & Beverly Pervan
Kalahari Raptor Centre (P.O. Box 1386, Kathu, 8446 Northern Cape,
South Africa), 2000. 252 pages, hardcover.
For current ordering info, e-mail to <enquiries@bookpro.co.za>.
Chris Mercer and Beverly Pervan educated themselves about
wildlife sanctuary management, before making the Kalahari Raptor
Centre their fulltime “retirement” pursuit, by closely observing the
operations of the Harnas Lion Farm in Namibia.
Not everything was done there as it should have been done.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:
SAN FRANCISCO–Earth Island Institute and six other
environmental and animal protection groups on February 12 applied for
a federal injunction against a December 31 rule change by the
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration which would allow U.S.
firms to market tuna netted “on dolphin” as “dolphin-safe,” if no
dolphins are known to have been killed during the netting.
The injunction application takes the “dolphin-safe” issue
back into the same court where chief judge Thelton Henderson in May
1990 banned imports of yellowfin tuna from Mexico, Venezuela, and
Vanuatu, under a set of 1988 amendments to the 1972 Marine Mammal
Protection Act, and in January 1992 invoked the same law to ban $266
million worth of tuna imports from 30 nations.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:
Washington, D.C.–The fiscally troubled American Humane
Association on February 20 cut loose Farm Animal Services, which had
been the first major new program started under AHA auspices since it
began supervising the screen industry in 1940.
While Farm Animal Services may continue to certify products
from animals raised according to standards it has developed for
dairy, poultry, and egg producers, FAS vice president Gini Barrett
said, it is discontinuing the Free Farmed logo program that it
started in partnership with the AHA.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:
KHARKOV, Ukraine–Humane educators have been wondering ever
since Massachusetts SPCA founder George Angell introduced the first
humane curriculum more than 100 years ago whether the results of
their teaching can be effectively measured.
Olga Ivanova Tolstova, founding chair of the Bioethics
Centre at the Kharkov Zoological & Veterinary Academy in the Ukraine,
believes she and her fellow faculty members have developed evidence
that encouraging students to think about the ethics of animal use
makes a profound difference.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:
DENVER–Underground coal fires beneath Kalimantan province,
Indonesia, could exterminate the island’s orangutans and sun bears,
Indonesian Ministry of Energy coalfield fire project chief Alfred
Whitehouse and East Georgia College professor Glenn Stracher told the
American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference
in Denver on February 15, 2003.
Of the 20,000 remaining wild orangutans, about 15,000 live
in Kalimantan, Wbitehouse and Stracher said. Already imperiled by
habitat loss due to logging and slash-and-burn agriculture,
orangutans have now lost about half of Kutain National Park due to
underground fires and lethal smoke, according to Whitehouse and
Stracher.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:
CONTRA COSTA, Calif.– David Stegman, executive director of
Tony LaRussa’s Animal Rescue Foundation since May 1997, resigned for
undisclosed reasons on January 17, 2003.
Stegman ended a six-year career as a major league outfielder
playing for LaRussa with the Chicago White Sox in 1983-1984. His
successor at ARF has not yet been named.
LaRussa and Stegman in 1999 contracted with Maddie’s Fund,
of Alameda, California, for ARF to become the lead agency in
administering a planned five-year program to take Contra Costa County
to no-kill animal control. It was to have been the first of many
such programs sponsored by Maddie’s Fund–but ARF withdrew after
failing to meet some of the first-year goals.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:
CHICAGO–“Ever heard of the Outdoor Life Network? I
haven’t,” SHARK founder and longtime anti-rodeo campaigner Steve
Hindi e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE at deadline. “Nevertheless, that is
where most of the televised rodeos for the 2003 Professional Rodeo
Cowboys Association season will be aired. The love affair between
the ESPN and the PRCA seems to be over.
“We don’t know the sordid details of the apparent breakup,”
Hindi added, “but we have some clues. A few weeks ago, I was
called by a producer for an ESPN show called ‘Outside the Lines.’
This program, I was told, delves behind hype and headlines in
examining sports issues. Incredibly, ‘Outside the Lines’ was
interested in looking at rodeo. I told the producer that if ‘Outside
the Lines’ did a story on rodeos, ESPN would never be able to air
another rodeo, as the truth would be known and admitted to by the
network. The producer said he wanted to go forward nonetheless.