THE DOG MEAT SOUP HOAX

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

NEW YORK, N.Y.––As Joey Skaggs wrote
in his letter of confession, “On Monday, May 16, 1994,
artist and socio-political satirist Joey Skaggs mailed over
1,500 letters to dog shelters around the country announc-
ing that his company Kea So Joo, Inc. (which translates
into Dog Meat Soup, Inc., in Korean) was seeking to
purchase dogs at 10¢ per pound to be consumed by
Asians as food. The response was overwhelming. Calls
were received from people willing to sell dogs (most
likely attempts at entrapment); from people outraged at
the concept of eating dogs; from people who were out-
right hostile and racist; and from people who threatened
to kill the proprietor of this business as well as other
Asians indiscriminately. Representatives of various gov-
ernmental and animal rights organizations including the
American SPCA were pressured to do something…
American and Korean media were called to arms.”

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Greenwich Village vivisection and dog export hoaxes rattle humane community

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

NEW YORK, N.Y.––Two appar-
ent hoaxes in two weeks rattled the humane
community during late spring. Both orginated
out of New York City’s Greenwich Village, a
longtime hotbed of pranks executed in the
name of performance art. The first, advertised
in The Village Voice, was a purported pro-
vivisection group called American Vivisection
Defense, with a 92¢-a-minute 900 number set
up on April 29. The organization––AVID for
short––claimed to be soliciting donations of
unwanted pets for use in biomedical research.
It had no connection whatever with AVID
Microchip, of Norco, California, which
received a barrage of outraged calls and in
short order threatened to sue the purported
prankster, Winfield Scott Stanley III, of 304
Newberry Street in Cambridge, Mass-
achusetts. Both the name and the address are
believed to be fictitious. Callers to the 900
number heard a long diatribe promoting fur
and veal, as well as biomedical research.

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The shelter is an art gallery

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

OAKLAND, California–
Joining a national trend toward airy,
attractive buildings intended to compete
for traffic with shopping mall pet shops,
the Oakland SPCA on March 22
unveiled an extensively remodeled shel-
ter and the PeopleSoft Adoption and
Education Center, named for the
Walnut Creek software firm that provid-
ed $500,000 of the $1.9 million cost.
“The facility contains a central
atrium-style public area featuring adop-
tion areas for dogs and cats, educational
displays by exhibit designer Jane
Glickman, classrooms, an extensive
resource library, and original art works
by famed designer Laurel Burch depict-
ing the special relationships possible
between people and animals,” said
spokesperson Beverly Scottland.

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SPECTACLES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Bill Petersen, county commission
chair in Glades County, Florida, is leading
an effort to ban “hog dog rodeos,” in which
dogs are set upon semi-feral pigs in enclosed
arenas. The winner is the owner whose dog
brings down a pig the fastest. Held in Glades,
Highlands, and Hardee counties, “hog dog
rodeos” are popular with hunters, says pro-
moter Roger Vickery.
The World Society for the
Protection of Animals seeks letters protest-
ing the Jaripeo rodeo, held each February 23
in San Matias, El Salvador, in which a clown
bites a calf’s tongue and pulls it back as far as
he can stretch it. Address Lic. Carlos
Hilermann, Presidente, Inst. Salvadoreno de
Turismo, Calle Ruben Dario 619, San
Salvador, El Salvador.

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BOOKS: Echosystem: Poems & Poem Cycles

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

Echosystem: Poems & Poem Cycles, by James Strecker. Mini Mocho
Press (Jackson Stn., POB 57424, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8P 4X2), 1993, 94
pages, paperback.
In this eclectic collection of jazz
poems, romantic poems, socially relevant
and commemorative poems, James
Strecker frequently considers the plight of
animals in a world dominated by humans.
These, too, reflect a diversity of approach.
Vivisection and the Cat, for example, is a
jazz riff with a blues beat. Like the more
classically structured Thoughts on Reading
and Writing, it dwells on the unspeakable
and offers little hope of redemption.

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