COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

Dog Crimes
The Cuyahoga County, Ohio
grand jury on April 23 indicted Jeffrey
Mann, 36, for murder, alleging that he
ordered his pit bull terrier to fatally maul his
common-law wife, Angela Kaplan, 28, on
September 2, 1992. The indictment came
as result of an eight-month probe by
Cleveland homicide detective Michaelene
Taliano, and extensive observation of the
dog’s nature by animal behaviorist Karen
Arnoff. Taliano suspected the attack was a
murder, not an accident, because the dog
bit Kaplan more than 100 times, but never
around the neck and throat, the usual sites
of fatal bite wounds. Mann pleaded inno-
cent and was freed on $25,000 bail.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Ohio Veterinary Medical Board member George Wenning, DVM, resigned March 11 under pressure
for having called filing horses’ teeth “nigger work” during a board meeting. The governor’s office ordered another
member, Tom Liggett, DVM, to take a one-day course on cultural diversity at his own expense––and made the
annual course mandatory for all 400 members of state boards and commissions. Liggett reportedly routinely
inquired as to whether applicants for veterinary licenses were “Americans.” The situation came to light when for-
mer board president Linda Randall, DVM, an Afro-American, told media that her private complaints to Governor
George Voinovich had gone unanswered for six months.

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Wildlife

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill contin-
ues to kill Alaskan wildlife, researchers revealed
February 5 at a symposium hosted by the
University of Alaska and the American Fisheries
Society. Among the victims are 14 orcas, who dis-
appeared and are presumed dead; 300,000 murres,
a bird species that hasn’t nested successfully since
the spill; and sea otters and ducks, who are still
being poisoned by mussels who in turn have been
poisoned by oil.
Zimbabwe is trying to raise $2 million
to spend on culling 5,000 elephants from a nation-
al herd officially estimated at 80,000.

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Fur

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service has proposed to take red, western
gray, and eastern gray kangaroos off the
threatened species list, which would mean
their pelts could be imported in greater
numbers. Protected since 1974, the
Australian kangaroos now number about
18 million, up from 10 million in 1984,
and are killed for pelts at the rate of about
5.2 million a year. Public comments will
be received until March 22. Address
Office of Public Affairs, USFWS, Dept.
of the Interior, Washington, DC 20240.

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Wildlife

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1992:

The World Wildlife Fund and
the National Wildlife Federation on
November 13 asked Interior Secretary
Manuel Lujan to impose trade sanctions on
China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Yemen
for permitting traffic in rhinocerous horns.
The wild black rhino population has plunged
from 65,000 to 2,000 since 1970.
The California condor who was
found dead October 8 suffered kidney fail-
ure from drinking antifreeze, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service has determined. The
condor was one of the first two to be
released into the wild after an intensive cap-
tive breeding program. Sixty-two California
condors remain in captivity, six of whom
are scheduled for release this month.

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DOGS & CATS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

* Wildlife officer Ric Nattrass of the Queensland (Australia) National Parks
and Wildlife Service has concluded that, “Based on data collected by wildlife staff
at the Moggill Centre (in Brisbane), there is no evidence to date that the domestic
cat is a major threat to the long term survival of the city’s native fauna. From a
purely conservation point of view, neither the numbers nor the species taken by cats
are cause for alarm when compared with the losses to urbanization, industrializa-
tion, motor traffic, and the creation of the horse paddock.” Nattrass’ report is
based on the experience of a single metropolitan area, as critics are quick to note,
and flies in the face of conventional belief; but it is worth pointing out that the only
other major study of domestic cat predation to date, by John Lawton and Peter
Churcher, was also based on the experience of a single location, a village in thesub-
urbs of London, England, and also concluded that while cats kill significant num-
bers of animals, the overwhelming majority are common mice, voles, and birds
(principally sparrows).

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Agriculture

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

October 2 was the 10th anniver-
sary of World Farm Animals Day, declared
in 1983 by the Farm Animal Reform
Movement to coincide with Gandhi’s birthday
and World Vegetarian Day. Major commemo-
rations were scheduled in New York, the
Washington D.C. metropolitan area, Iowa,
Florida, California, and Hawaii.
The contribution of cattle to global
warming has significantly increased over the
past three years, along with the world cattle
population, International Union of Air
Pollution Prevention Associations director
general John Langston warned the 800-mem-
ber group in early September.

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Hunting news

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

Arizonans will vote November 3
on a referendum measure to ban
trapping, portrayed by the National Rifle
Assn. and National Trappers Assn. as an
attempt to ban all hunting and fishing as
well. The initiative is sponsored, however,
by Arizonans for Safety and Humanity on
Public Lands, whose initial board of direc-
tors included a hunter and a gun dealer. The
group declined funding from the Humane
Society of the U.S. to avoid confusing the
issues.

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