BOOKS: Magical Animals

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:

Magical Animals
by Beatrice Wiltshire
Illustrated by Di von Maltitz
BW Publications (P.O. Box 17727, Bainsvlei 9338, Bloemfontein,
South Africa), 2006. 71 pages, paperback. $11.00 (U.S.)

South African activist Beatrice Wiltshire for many years
campaigned against the shocking animal experiments carried out by the
apartheid war machine at the Roodeplaat Research Lab in Pretoria,
which, she recently explained to ANIMAL PEOPLE, “was a front for
the South African Defense Force’s Chemical and Biological Warfare
experimental program.” Some of the former staff operated a nearby
lab called Biocon, Wiltshire recalled, and, she said, “Roodeplaat
seemed to have close links with a mysterious French laboratory in the
bush, close to the Hoedspruit military base.” Wiltshire publishes
the South Africans for the Abolition of Vivisection newsletter,
called The Snout.

Did poachers really kill Lucy, the sign language chimp?

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
ANIMAL PEOPLE in June 2006 published a
review of Hurt Go Happy, a novel by Ginny Rorby,
said to be based on the true story of Lucy, a
chimp who was taught American sign language and
was later sent to the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation
Trust in Gambia. The review stated as fact that
“Lucy was killed by poachers in 1987.” The truth
is that we have no idea how she died. Illness,
a fall, snake bite, or even lightning strike are
all more likely causes of her death than being
killed by poachers.
Dale Peterson in Chimp Travels was almost
certainly paraphrasing Janis Carter, who was
greatly responsible for putting Lucy through her
rehabilitation ordeal, when he wrote of Lucy
that “Šher hands and feet [were] brutally severed
and her skin simply stripped offŠ” He certainly
quotes Carter in “ŠWe can only speculate that
Lucy was killed–probably shot–and skinned…”
Carol Jahme’s Beauty and the Beast states
as fact that Lucy “was killed and skinned by
fishermen.”

Case against Primarily Primates tossed out, but president Wally Swett resigns under fire

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

SAN ANTONIO–Bexar County Civil District Court Judge Andy
Mireles on September 8, 2006 ruled that former Ohio State University
chimp caretakers Klaree Boose and Stephany Harris, along with
California veterinarian Mel Richardson, lacked standing to pursue a
PETA-backed lawsuit against the Primarily Primates sanctuary.
Named as co-plaintiffs and also denied standing were seven surviving
chimpanzees and two capuchin monkeys from the research colony
formerly kept by OSU psychology professor Sally Boysen. OSU retired
the colony to Primarily Primates in February 2006, with an endowment
of $324,000 for their quarters and upkeep, over the objections of
Boysen and PETA.

SHAC leaders sentenced in Britain & New Jersey

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
LONDON, TRENTON–Five alleged
instigators of property damage and threats
directed at facilities, business partners, and
employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences in
mid-September 2006 drew prison terms ranging from
three to six years.
Northampton Crown Court Judge Ian
Alexander on September 20 sentenced molecular
biologist Joseph Harris, 26, to three years as
the first person convicted under a new British
law against economic sabotage.
“Harris, of Bursledon, Hampshire, broke
into premises in Nottingham, Bicester and
Northampton,” summarized Nicola Woolcock of the
London Times, “where he slashed tires, flooded
offices, and poured glue into locks. He caused
more than £25,000 in damage.” Harris apparently
began the attacks in a futile bid to keep a
girlfriend who left him, the court was told,
because of animal experiments he did in
connection with pancreatic cancer research.

Primarily Primates will fight trustee’s recommendation that Ohio State University chimps should be sent to Chimp Haven

September 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

SAN ANTONIO–Primarily Primates president Wally Swett on
August 17, 2006 told news media that the sanctuary will fight the
recommendation of court-appointed trustee Charles Jackson III that
seven chimpanzees formerly used by Ohio State University researcer
Sally Boysen should be transferred to Chimp Haven, of Shreveport,
Louisiana.
“We’ll fight to the death to keep them from being moved,
especially to Chimp Haven,” Swett told Mike Lafferty of the Columbus
Dispatch.

Jackson County stops selling pound animals to labs

September 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

JACKSON, Michigan–Two less Michigan county animal shelters
are selling animals to laboratory suppliers, as result of mid-August
2006 policy change.
Gladwin County became involved in the practice only three
weeks before the Jackson County commissioners voted 10-1 on June 18
to stop selling animals to longtime purchaser Fred Hodgins of Hodgins
Kennels in Howell. Anticipating the Jackson vote, Hodgins
approached Gladwin County Animal Shelter director Ron Taylor. Taylor
reportedly favored selling dogs to Hodgins if they would otherwise be
killed at the shelter.
On June 27 the Gladwin County commissioners voted 6-1 to
authorize Taylor to sell dogs to Hodgins. Hodgins bought two dogs on
August 1, just as local activist Cindy Krycian and Humane Education
And Legislation PAC founder Eileen Liska disclosed the arrangement to
the public through telephone calls and e-mails. Their efforts were
amplified internationally by Marietta Nealey Sprott of Heart of
Michigan Rescue.

Lab dog dealer C.C. Baird is sentenced

July 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

LITTLE ROCK–Former laboratory dog and cat suppliers Chester
Clinton “C.C.” Baird Jr. and his wife Patsy Baird, both 59, were on
July 14 sentenced for multiple violations of the federal Animal
Welfare Act. U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes gave C.C. Baird three
years on probation including six months of home detention, and fined
him $7,500. Holmes gave Patsy Baird two years on probation, and
fined her $2,000.
The Bairds and two of their five daughters in August 2005
paid $262,700 in fines to settle civil charges against them,
forfeited $ 200,000 cash from “ill-gotten gains,” paid more than
$40,000 in restitution to animal welfare groups that rehabilitated
and placed 215 dogs and 145 cats seized from the Bairds in 2003 and
2005 USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service raids, and turned
over their home, land, and kennel, worth about $1.3 million, to
the USDA.

BOOKS: Hurt Go Happy

July 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby

Tom Doherty Associates (175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010), 2006.
267 pages, hardcover. $17.95

“I called all over trying to find a place, but there are
hundreds of chimps in need of a place to go, and they were especially
uninterested in a chimp who can’t be housed with other chimps.”
This is the age-old problem of keeping baby “wild” animals as
pets: what to do when they grow older and stronger, and can no
longer live with humans in their homes.
Hurt Go Happy is the story of such a chimp. Although
fiction, the novel is based on the true story of an ill-fated chimp
named Lucy, who was raised as a human child in Oklahoma, as part of
a language experiment. Rehabilitated and returned to the wild in
1977, as one of Gambia-based sanctuarian Janis Carter’s early
projects, Lucy was killed by poachers in 1987.

Poll shows loss on testing

June 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

LONDON–“The proportion of people approving of animal testing
in medical research is at an all-time high. More than three quarters
believe that the more extreme elements among animal rights activists
deserve to be called terrorists,” wrote Anthony King of The Daily
Telegraph on May 29, 2006.
Agreed Daily Telegraph home affairs editor Philip Johnston,
“Campaigns such as intimidating scientists and threatening
shareholders in pharmaceutical companies appear to have backfired
badly.”
King and Johnston based their analysis on a May 2006 YouGov
poll of 2,102 British adults, sponsored by The Daily Telegraph.

« 1 … 7 8 9 10 11 … 39 »