Category: Activists & Organizations

Recovery from misuse of funds takes years

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.; SEVIERVILLE, Tenn.–Catching alleged
misuse of funds by trusted executives can be difficult. Recovering
from the damage may be harder still, the recent experiences of tbe
Santa Cruz SPCA and Sevier County Humane Society seem to
illustrate–while some of the people involved with each organization
maintain that their major problem all along has just been unfriendly
news coverage.
Serving an affluent and picturesque California coastal
community, the Santa Cruz SPCA is just a long but pleasant commute
from either the Silicon Valley–the Santa Clara Valley on maps –or
San Francisco.

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Is Osama stealing milk from elephant babies?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

NAIROBI, Kenya–Checks sent directly to the David Sheldrick
Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi National Park, Kenya,
have recently been diverted, prompting founder Daphne Sheldrick to
remind donors to route their support via the trust office at 158
Newbattle Abbey Crescent, Eskbank, Midlothian EH22 3LR, Scotland,
U.K.
“On July 8 of this year,” one donor told ANIMAL PEOPLE, “I
wrote a check for $50 to the Sheldrick Trust, which I proceeded to
send to the Nairobi address. My bank returned the check to me
altered to list the amount as $4,000, credited to the Arab Bank in
Deira, Dubai. Unfortunately I had enough in my checking account to
honor the amount, but the bank is repairing the damage and I won’t
be charged for it.”

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Hard times close two more shelters

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

 

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.; ARLING-TON, Wa.–Critter Crater, of
Flagstaff, Arizona, and Sheltering Arms, of Arlington,
Washington, closed on August 10 and August 18, respectively. Both
evolved out of the failures of previous shelters, and both made
promising starts but were casualties of the ongoing economic shakeout
that began with the late 2000 collapse of high tech stocks.
Critter Crater emerged from the dissolution of the
long-struggling Valley Dale Animal Haven in Sedona. Hired from
upstate New York in 1993 to try to save Valley Dale, former
executive director Christine French and shelter manager Bill DeRitter
at last gave up in 1997 and joined several volunteers and donors in
starting over at a new site. But the group soon split. French and
DeRitter returned to upstate New York, to manage the Ulster County
SPCA. Critter Crater meanwhile had at least two other management
teams during the next four years.
Sheltering Arms lasted just two years in a city-owned
facility made available after the North Snohomish County Animal
Shelter closed in 2000. Much praised by local activists and news
media, Sheltering Arms lacked the budget to hire staff and
ultimately could not find enough volunteers to stay open. The Humane
Society at Happypaw Farms, also of Arlington, is reportedly
interested in taking over the building.

Nevada, Hong Kong shelter planners learn to see like dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nevada– The Pet Network of North Lake
Tahoe had a lot to show off on August 25, as host of the 2002
Conference on Homeless Animal Management and Policy shelter tour,
beginning with the two-year-old shelter itself.
The talking points–except for one –were neatly set forth on
fact sheets inside a folder given to each of the 25 CHAMP visitors.
The point omitted, the most remarkable of all, is that
approximately 250 residents of Incline Village and nearby communities
volunteer for the Pet Network, contributing 400 to 600 service hours
per month.

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Free Willy/Keiko swims to Norway

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

OSLO–Swimming up to 100 miles a day with pods of 40 to 80
wild orcas, spending 41 consecutive days at sea, Keiko in August
2002 seemed to be a free whale at last –or so said the Humane
Society of the U.S., which took over his care in June 2002, about
six months after the top funder of the former Free Willy/Keiko
Foundation quit the project.
Then Keiko on September 1 swam into Skaalvik Fjord, Norway,
250 miles northwest of Oslo.
“The orca surprised and delighted Norwegians, who petted and
swam with him, and climbed on his back,” reported Doug Mellgren of
Associated Press.

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HSUS takes over Genesis Awards

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

 

HOLLYWOOD–Seeking since 1954 to challenge the pre-eminence
of the American Humane Association in monitoring the U.S. film
industry under union contracts which date to 1939, the Humane
Society of the U.S. on August 27, 2002 gained a prominent and
influential Hollywood presence by absorbing the financially
struggling Ark Trust, coordinators of the 17-year-old Genesis Awards
program to honor animal advocacy in the mass media.
The Ark Trust, whose losses since 1995 significantly
exceeded remaining assets, will now be known as the HSUS Hollywood
office. The Genesis Awards will continue to be produced and directed
by actress Gretchen Wyler, who began the program in 1985 as a
project of the Fund for Animals, and then took it independent in
1990.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Wyler told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
“This will give the Genesis Awards the operating funds they
need, and allow Gretchen to focus on encouraging media attention to
animal issues,” said former Ark Trust executive director Vernon
Weir, now executive director of the American Sanctuary Association.

PETA fights for First Amendment rights

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

SALT LAKE CITY, WASHINGTON D.C.–People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals on August 7, 2002 won rulings that supporters’
First Amendment rights to freedom of expression were violated in both
Taylorsville, Utah, in 1999, and in Washington D.C. earlier in
2002.
In Taylorsville, police stopped a series of protests against
the display of a McDonald’s Restaurants banner on the flagpole at
Eisenhower Junior High School, in recognition of McDonald’s
donations to school activities. PETA sued, but in June 2001 U.S.
District Judge Dee Benson ruled that the police action was in accord
with state law. That ruling was overturned by the 10th Circuit Court
of Appeals, which found that the law Benson cited is inapplicable.
The appellate court said that PETA may sue for financial damages,
but may not seek to overturn the law itself because, “There is no
credible threat of prosecution under the statute for any future
protests at Eisenhower.”

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Farm animals in court

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

Hogs in court

The U.S. 8th Circuit of Appeals ruled in St. Louis on August
14 that Bell Farms Inc. lacks standing to challenge the 1999
revocation of a land lease which would have allowed Bell to build one
of the world’s largest factory hog farms on the Rosebud Sioux
Reservation in South Dakota. The new ruling confirmed an April 2002
verdict by the same court. Bell on August 15 said it will petition
next to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Humane Farming Association and
local activists have been fighting the Bell project at Rosebud since
1998.

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Refuge for former dancing bears allows Bulgaria to enforce bear protection law

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

BELITSA, Bulgaria–Nine years after Bulgaria first tried to
ban training and exhibiting so-called dancing bears, bears are still
shuffling in chains to music on street corners. But the show is
almost over, officials say, because new legislation adopted in July
2002 substantially reinforces the 1993 law –and, as important, the
not-quite-two-year-old Belitsa Dancing Bear Park in the woodland
reserves of the Rila mountains at last gives police a place to take
bears they confiscate.
Like many other animal protection laws hastily adopted within
the former Eastern Bloc after the collapse of Communism, the
original law protecting bears went unenforced because there was no
way to make it work.

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