Spectacles

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Bullfights and rodeos have been banned i n

Sao Paulo, Brazil, scene of more than 100 such events in

1993. The ban took effect in May.

Trying to slow the pace of the Iditarod dog

sled race from Anchorage to Nome, the Iditarod Trail

Committee has eliminated five food dropoff points, to

require mushers to pack heavier loads, and has cut the

maximum number of dogs in a team from 20 to 16. To

make up for sponsorship losses, the entry fee has been

increased from $500 to $1,750.

Diet & Health

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

A 10-month study published in the

June issue of Cancer Causes and Control, the

journal of the Harvard School of Public Health,

found that children who eat more than 12 hot dogs

a month whose fathers have a history of similar

consumption have nine times the normal risk of

leukemia. The study compared 232 leukemia

patients under age 10 with a similar group of

leukemia-free children. Wrote Dr. John Peters,

who led the University of Southern California

study team, “These findings, if correct, suggest

that reduced consumption of hot dogs could

reduce leukemia risks, especially in those con-

suming the most. Until further studies are com-

pleted and this issue becomes clearer, it may be

prudent for parents to consider reducing consump-

tion of hot dogs for themselves and their children

where consumption frequencies are high.” About

2,600 children a year get leukemia; 72% survive.

Horses

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Responding to an appeal from Brigitte Bardot,

Belgian interior minister Louis Tobback on June 13 banned the

controversial Krombeke trap-horse race––as well as any demon-

strations that might be held to gloat over the victory. Held on

slippery cobblestone streets, the race resulted in frequent injuries

to horses and drivers. Tobback, who said he’d always dreamed

of getting a letter from Bardot, last year banned a similar race at

nearby Sint-Eloois-Winkel.

Six-time Canadian Olympic equestrian Ian Millar,

of Perth, Ontario, on May 30 announced the retirement of Big

Ben, the 18-year-old Belgian he rode in three Olympics. Ben,

whom Millar began jumping in 1983, was the first North

American show jumper to win more than $1.5 million, achieving

40 grand prix victories; led Canada to the 1987 Pan American

Games gold medal; and won back-to-back World Cups.

Captive wildlife

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The Audubon Institute in

Algiers, Louisiana, broke ground June 1 for

the $15 million Audubon Center for

Research of Endangered Species, a high-

tech laboratory intended to complement the

adjacent Freeport-McMoran Audubon

Species Survival Center. The next planned

Audubon facility, an insectarium to be built

in the French Quarter of New Orleans, is

getting a mixed reception from future neigh-

bors, but appears certain to be approved by

municipal authorities, in part because it is

expected to attract 600,000 visitors per year.

Singapore on May 23 opened

Night Safari, a $38 million state-of-the-

art zoo for nocturnal species. The facility

has already achieved successful breeding of

18 of the 43 resident species, including the

russet-coated Asian wild dog, the fishing

cat, the Malaysian tapir, and the striped

hyena. The zoo took seven years to build.

Wildlife

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Media accounts widely misrepresented

an alleged disparity between $21,000 donated to

help the orphaned cub of the mountain lion who

killed California runner Barbara Schoener in May,

and the $9,000 donated to help Schoener’s children.

In fact, $15,000 of the amount “given” to the cub

came from the Folsom County Zoo’s dedicated

building fund for creating a mountain lion exhibit,

which the cub will occupy. An attempt by hunters to

use the fatal attack as pretext to reverse a hunting

moratorium imposed in 1971 and made permanent

by the passage of the 1990 Mountain Lion Initiative

was rebuffed June 14 by committees of both the

California state senate and assembly. In Montana,

meanwhile, the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks

Commission delayed until August a decision on

whether to deliberately cause a mountain lion popu-

lation crash by raising the kill quota from 436 to 479,

of whom at least 328 would have to be females.

Animal control & rescue

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Effective June 28, use of

live animals as prizes in drawings,

lotteries, contests, sweepstakes,

and carnival games is illegal in

Pennsylvania. The law exempts fish,

as well as domestic animals given

away in connection with state-spon-

sored or sanctioned agricultural and

vocational programs. The Pennsyl-

vania Legislative Animal Network

and state representative Jerry Nailer

had pursued the new law since 1989.

Michigan adopted a

felony cruelty law in late April.

The new law eliminates the old

requirement that an animal be owned

for abuse to be punished, which left

homeless animals unprotected, and

weighs offenses in terms of mali-

ciousness rather than in terms of

property damage. The maximum

penalty is now four years in jail and

a $5,000 fine per offense.

Birds

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Hard-pressed sturgeon, sharks, and

rays got a break courtesy of the birds in May when

the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge

closed a popular fishing road to protect the nests of

threatened snowy plovers. Killed mainly for kicks,

not eating, the sturgeon, sharks, and rays are less

protected than the plovers but perhaps in greater

jeopardy of extinction because of their rapid deple-

tion and slow reproductive rate.

Oregon State University professor

Morrie Craig has received an award from the

American Racing Pigeon Union for developing a

way to test guano to detect the use of performance-

altering drugs. Doping has lately become a prob-

lem in pigeon racing, as the top prizes in interna-

tional competition have soared above $200,000.

Agricultural veterinary medicine

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The trade journal Beef Today and the

Colorado Cattlemen’s Association have urged the beef

industry to join animal protection groups in urging the

USDA to abolish face-branding cattle imported from

Mexico. The cattle are painfully face-branded––and cows

are spayed without anesthesia––as part of an anti-bovine

tuberculosis program. Of 438 cases of bovine TB found in

1993, 427 were in cattle of Mexican origin. Exposed in an

ongoing series of newspaper ads by the Coalition for Non-

Violent Food, face-branding was also discussed recently by

the Animal Welfare Committee of the AVMA. AVMA

policy presently supports face-branding, but related pro-

posed policy amendments are up for review by the AVMA

executive board.

AGRICULTURE

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The USDA on April 26 announced yet another pro-

posal to raise grazing fees on federal land. This version would

boost the base fee to $3.96 per head-month by 1997, but would

provide incentive discounts for ranchers who undertake various

forms of conservation and/or rangeland improvement.

Comments will be reviewed until July 28. An Environmental

Protection Agency impact study published May 18 estimated that

current management practices would bring a 3% decline over the

next 20 years in stream quality in the affected habitat, while the

proposed changes would bring a 27% improvement.

A National Agricultural Statistics Service survey of

the 10 largest corn-producing states, which raise 80% of the total

U.S. corn crop, reports that less than 1% is lost to wildlife. The

average loss per acre is 0.66 bushels. Of the 35.4 million bushels

eaten by wild animals, deer eat 13.9 million, while birds eat 9.6

million. The 1993 crop came to 5.14 billion bushels in all.

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