Russia objects; MAY IGNORE WHALE SANCTUARY WITH IMPUNITY

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

MOSCOW, Russia– – Already

holding a formal objection to the global whal-

ing moratorium decreed by the International

Whaling Commission in 1986, Russia on

September 13 filed an objection to the May

creation of the Southern Ocean Whale

Sanctuary as well––meaning that under IWC

rules, Russia not only may kill whales com-

mercially without fear of trade sanctions, but

also may kill whales below the 40th parallel,

where about 80% of the world’s surviving

baleen whales spend up to 80% of their time.

Intended to protect whales in

Antarctic waters, the sanctuary was in effect

won by the U.S. delegation at cost of conced-

ing the passage of a Revised Management

Plan for setting commercial whaling quotas.

Zoo & aquarium notes

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

The Granby Zoo, in Granby, Quebec, will

begin building a new monkey house next spring, to

open in 1997. In 1989, as described in the April 1994

issue of ANIMAL PEOPLE, zoo director Pierre Cartier

demolished the old substandard monkey house and sent

all the monkeys to other institutions––even though they

were the zoo’s most popular exhibits––to oust the “old

zoo” atmosphere and clientele. The move worked;

while the peanut-tossers vanished, overall attendance

quadrupled. After three years with no primates on exhib-

it, the zoo brought back a family of macaques and

returned its aged silverback gorilla to display last year.

Killing for the hell of it

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A federal anti-hunter harassment statute

tucked into the Crime Bill is likely to stay there––and

pass––as the Clinton administration strives to get

around National Rifle Association opposition to the

Crime Bill as a whole, which would ban 19 types of

assault rifle. The NRA on August 10 claimed credit

for temporarily defeating the Crime Bill on a proce-

dural vote in the House of Representatives.

The Senate version of the California

Desert Protection Act, passed in April, would cre-

ate an East Mojave National Park between the Joshua

Tree and Death Valley National Monuments, which

are to be upgraded to National Park status––meaning

a ban on hunting. However, in a move of symbolic

import to the NRA, the House version passed on July

27 downgrades East Mojave to the status of a

National Preserve, to allow hunting. National Park

Service director Roger Kennedy pointed out that

because preserves require more staff than parks, the

House version will cost $500,000 more per year to

run. Since hunters kill an average of only 26 deer and

five bighorn sheep per year in East Mojave, Kennedy

said, this amounts to “a subsidy of $20,000 per deer.”

A House/Senate conference committee must reconcile

the conflicting versions before the bill goes back to

both the Senate and House for final passage.

Circuses & spectacles

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

Cesar, a runaway circus sea lion, was

recaptured on July 22 while napping on a parked

car, ending a four-day chase in Lake Maggiore,

Switzerland, during which activists demanded that

he be allowed to live in the lake. Cesar’s brother

Otto escaped with him, but was caught earlier––and

recaught after escaping again.

The Atlantic City SPCA said August 9

that it was satisfied with improvements the Great

Moscow Circus had made to animal holding condi-

tions at the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel, and would not

file cruelty charges. An exercise cage for the bears,

built at the insistence of Eileen Liska of the

Michigan Humane Society during the Moscow

Circus tour of 1988-1989, was reclaimed from stor-

age in Canada, and was to travel with the circus

throughout the rest of the current tour. The Taj

Mahal shows were continuously picketed by the

New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance.

AGRICULTURE

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

The central event at the American Humane Association annual confer-

ence, Sept. 28-Oct. 1, is to be an already controversial “Livestock forum,” at which

four university livestock experts, often critical of industry norms, are to outline for

humane officers “which current farming practices are acceptable, which can be chal-

lenged, and how” under existing laws, and “which desperately need to be changed.”

Claiming the speakers are too close to the livestock industry, representatives of the

Humane Farming Association, Humane Society of the U.S., and Fund for Animals

have offered themselves as speakers instead. Responded Adele Douglass of AHA,

who set up the forum, “This session is not to talk about ideals; it’s to inform people

about what’s being done now, why it’s being done that way, and what kind of farm-

related cases a humane officer can hope to prosecute successfully under today’s laws.”

ANIMAL HEALTH

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

No face-branding halt yet despite what mass media reported

July 7 media reports that the USDA would no longer require face-branding of steers import-

ed from Mexico were incorrect. Such an announcement was expected, but was apparently delayed by

the White House to get input on the rules change from the National Cattlemen’s Association. The

USDA did amend the import rules for Mexican heifers, who now must be given a local anesthetic

prior to spaying, and are rump-branded. The steers are branded to help inspectors backtrack cattle car-

rying bovine tuberculosis; the heifers are spayed to prevent the transmission of brucellosis.

Did Japan quit killing hawksbill turtles to resume killing whales?

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

TOKYO, Japan––More than

three years after former U.S. president

George Bush warned Japan to quit dealing in

hawksbill sea turtles or face trade sanctions

under the Convention on International Trade

in Endangered Species, Japan on July 15

banned the import of the rare turtles and/or

their parts––after importing circa 30 tons of

hawksbill turtleshell during the first half of

1994 alone. The shells are used to make var-

ious ornamental sundries. The Bush warn-

ing, never followed up, was the first-ever

U.S. move to enforce CITES, although

Congress gave the President the authority to

do so in 1977. Japan is believed to have

imported parts of more than two million sea

turtles since 1971, according to Earth Island

Institute, including the shells of at least

234,000 hawksbills during the 1980s.

Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace take on Norwegian whalers; JAPAN IGNORES SANCTUARY; RUSSIA MAY FOLLOW

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

NORTH SEA, TOKYO–––As a

summer of intense whaling and anti-whaling

activity off Norway closed, Japan announced

on August 12 that it too would flout the

International Whaling Commission by taking

an “exception” to the Southern Ocean Whale

Sanctuary, created in May. A similar

announcement was expected from Russia.

While Norway for the second year

unilaterally set a commercial whaling quota,

breaking the IWC moratorium on commercial

whaling in effect since 1986, Japan formally

objected to the inclusion of minke whales as a

protected species within the newly created

sanctuary, which includes 80% of the known

minke whale habitat: all waters south of the

40th parallel except for a dip around South

America. The objection means Japan will

proceed with plans for a so-called scientific

hunt of 300 minke whales within the sanctu-

THE DOG MEAT SOUP HOAX

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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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