Diet & Health

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

The Council for Agricultural

Science and Technology reported March 21

that advances in farming methods and the

growing popularity of vegetarianism could

mean a 30% decrease in the amount of land

used for food crops during the next 50 years

even as the global human population doubles.

The 64-page CAST study, commissioned by

the Program for the Human Environment at

Rockefeller University, was authored by

Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station

agronomist Paul Waggoner, who explained

that the calories and protein produced on pre-

sent cropland are already sufficient to feed 10

billion vegetarians, rather than the five to six

billion people who now eat a diet including

varying amounts of meat.

AGRICULTURE

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on

March 17 announced his third proposal in

less than a year to increase grazing fees on

federal land and prevent soil erosion of over-

grazed leases in 17 western states. Expected

to take effect later this year, the new propos-

al does not require Congressional approval.

It would double the grazing fee to $3.96 per

animal unit, and set different environmental

standards from state to state within a frame-

work of national principles. The proposal

was immediately attacked by both ranchers

and environmentalists.

American Breeders Service of

DeForest, Wisconsin, now sells cattle

semen and embryos “that carry a predicted

twinning value of at least 40% for bulls and

30% for cows,” according to the USDA,

which developed the method. The idea is to

cut production costs by getting more births

per pregnancy, but the gains may be offset

by increased birthing injuries to cows,

which are the leading cause of downers.

Endangered ocean species

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Russian whaling commissioner

Alexei Yablokov on February 21 confirmed

that Soviet whalers for decades killed far

more whales than they reported to the

International Whaling Commission. For

instance, he said, in the 1960s one ship reported

killing 152 humpbacked whales and 156 blue

whales, but actually killed 7,207 humpbacks,

1,433 blue whales, and 717 right whales, a

species protected by the IWC since 1946.

Another ship killed 1,568 humpbacks and 1,200

right whales during the winter of 1961-1962,

but reported none of the right whales while the

USSR said its entire fleet killed only 270 hump-

backs all year. Two years later the same ship

killed 530 blue whales; the USSR said the fleet

total was just 74. The revelations mean IWC

estimates of whale numbers may be far too high.

Sealing and child sex trade

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

TORONTO, Ontario––The International Fund for Animal Welfare drew

headlines across Canada on March 7 with graphic newspaper ads depicting the penis

bone of a seal and decrying Canadian support of the slaughter of at least 50,000 seals

off the Atlantic coast, allegedly to supply penis bones to the Asian aphrodisiac trade.

As IFAW pointed out, that trade is closely associated with the forced recruitment of

children to staff brothels in Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, and elsewhere, which

cater to the belief that sex with a virgin can rejuvenate an aging man’s potency. More

than 400,000 children are currently victimized, The New York Times Magazine of

January 16 reported, many of whom contract AIDS and other serious diseases.

As many as 150,000 seals may be killed to get 50,000 penis bones, since

much of the hunting is done from small boats by men with rifles, the sexes of seals are

not obvious, and as even seal hunt defender George Wenzel has acknowledged, as

many as two out of each three shot seals who get off of ice floes into water sink before

they can be gaffed aboard a power boat. Canada contends that the penis bones are a

byproduct of hunting for meat, pelts, and seal oil, which sell for about $20 per seal;

the penis bones go for $130 apiece.

Children & Animals: NABT MOVES TOWARD STRONGER SUPPORT OF CLASSROOM DISSECTION

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

WASHINGTON D.C.––The National Association of Biology Teachers has withdrawn its monograph The

Responsible Use of Animals in Biology Classrooms “due to ethical concerns about some of its classroom exercises and about

the unequal representation of animal rights and biomedical research groups in the resource list,” according to the

February/March 1994 edition of National Science Teachers Association Reports. NABT executive director Patricia

COURT CALENDAR

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Wildlife and habitat

The U.S. Court of Appeals in

Washington D.C. on March 11 upset jurispru-

dence concerning endangered species protec-

tion by ruling in a case pertaining to timber rights

and spotted owl protection in the Pacific

Northwest that the government lacks authority to

protect wildlife habitat on private land. The U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service said that pending further

clarification of the ruling, perhaps by the U.S.

Supreme Court, it would make no policy changes.

The March 11 ruling directly contradicts the out-

standing precedent in such situations, established

by the Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals in San

Francisco.

Will Clinton earn stripes on tiger boycott?

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

GENEVA, Switzerland– – The

Standing Committee of the Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species

met March 21-25 to decide whether to call a

global boycott of exports from Taiwan and

China to protest their role in wildlife poach-

ing and smuggling. Chinese and Taiwanese

demand for aphrodisiacs and other traditional

wildlife-based medicines is the source of

much and perhaps most of the money in the

illegal wildlife traffic.

ANIMAL HEALTH

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Epidemiology

New York and Rhode Island

health officials said February 24 that a mys-

terious hantavirus caused the January 20

death of Rhode Island School of Design stu-

dent David Rosenberg, 22, who may have

become infected via rodent droppings while

sweeping out a warehouse in Queens. The

case is among the first known human cases in

the U.S. that apparently does not involve deer

mice. Four days earlier, the Centers for

Disease Control confirmed that the hantavirus

afflicts Florida cotton rats, and announced

the death of three Kansans from suspected

hantavirus infections. Of the 60 known U.S.

human victims, 27 have died; 23 have

recovered after suffering debilitating illness.

Animal Control & Rescue

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

International

Police in the East City dis-

trict of Beijing, China, beat 351 dogs

to death during the second week of

February. “Our policy is to annihilate

them,” said district deputy chief of pub-

lic security Li Wenrui. Some other dis-

trict police bureaus spared smaller pure-

breds––if their owners could find homes

for them outside the city. Still others

killed dogs by strangulation, electrocu-

tion, and dragging them behind jeeps.

Press releases said the dogs were taken

to a shelter run by the Public Security

Ministry, but Jan Wong of the Toronto

Globe and Mail’s China Bureau reported

there is no such place. The Communist

government banned dogs as a nuisance

and a waste of food when it came to

power in 1949. Dogs have been hunted

out and killed every few years since

1951. Despite the killing, stepped up

since 1986, an estimated 100,000 dogs

inhabit Beijing, where a black market

dog can cost as much as many workers’

annual income. Foreigners and others

who can get dogs licensed and vaccinat-

ed may keep them––but rabies vaccine is

so scarce that the disease has killed as

many as 60,000 Chinese since 1980,

and most license applications are denied.

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