SPECTACLES

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

The film Free Willy, the Paul

McCartney song Looking for Changes

and episodes of the TV comedies T h e

Simpsons and Dinosaurs took the top hon-

ors at the Genesis Awards ceremony March

12. Presented by the Ark Trust, the

Genesis Awards honor entertainment and

reportage that furthers awareness of animal

protection. The Simpsons, a surprise

choice, was recognized for an episode in

which underachiever Bart Simpson and his

sister Lisa disrupt a rattlesnake roundup.

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.

Hunting & Fishing

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

A bill to ban pigeon shoots includ-

ing the notorious Labor Day shoot in Hegins

fell three votes short of clearing the

Pennsylvania state house on March 8––and

actually drew a majority of the votes cast, 99-

93. However, 103 votes would have been

required to pass the bill from the 202-member

house to the state senate. Though the bill

would almost certainly have failed in the sen-

ate, where 38 of the 48 members have ‘A’ rat-

ings from the National Rifle Association, the

vote was a marked advance from 1989, when

the house defeated a similar bill, 126-66.

The Colorado house finance com-

mittee on February 16 killed as contrary to the

expressed intent of the electorate a bill that

would have reauthorized spring bear hunting

and hunting bears with hounds and bait––all of

which were banned by referendum in 1992.

Coyote-killing “like calling a girl”

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

GILLETTE, Wyoming––Coyote, fox,

and rabbit-killing contests and bounty programs

popped up around the west in midwinter––in

response, organizers said, to a year-old moratori-

um on coyote-killing by the federal Animal

Damage Control Program, won through a lawsuit

filed by the Humane Society of the U.S. Ranchers

argued that nonlethal coyote control hasn’t worked,

citing an American Sheep Industry Association

report that coyotes in Wyoming and Colorado have

learned to run sheep dogs to exhaustion, attack

them in packs, and split up so that some can divert

the dogs while others kill sheep. They claimed huge

livestock losses to an alleged overpopulation of coy-

otes and foxes, although killing contest participants

averaged only two dead coyotes and one dead fox

per 18 days of hunting. ASIA and other ranch lob-

bies are trying to lift the ADC moratorium––along

with a ban on the use of spring-fired traps called M-

44s that shoot poison into coyotes’ mouths. The

traps are banned to protect eagles, who likewise

may snatch the bait with fatal consequences.

SPECTACLES

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

A group of Ecuadoran school children

in late January donated their allowances, sold toys,

and performed on street corners to raise funds to

feed polar bears, elephants, seals, and horses aban-

doned in Quito by the Circus of Czars, from St.

Petersburg, Russia. The circus manager vanished

with the receipts from a successful tour, leaving the

human performers stranded, as creditors seized

their equipment. As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to

press, help was reportedly en route from business

leaders and environmental groups.

HUNTING

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

Despite the scarcity of ducks,

Ohio taxpayers are shelling out $40,000

to elevate Clark Road in Franklin

Township so that wildlife officials can

open dams on nearby Killbuck Creek

without flooding it, which in turn will

bring ducks closer to the road for the

convenience of hunters.

John Paul Self, 18, of

Grovetown, Georgia, was in critical

condition October 19 after Johnnie L.

Sinns, 18, shot him in the back of the

head as both allegedly tried to poach the

same deer from beside their pickup

truck. Sinns and a third alleged poacher,

Paul Albert Johnson, 17, were charged

with six misdemeanors including hunt-

ing under the influence of marijuana.

Johnson was also charged with posses-

sion of marijuana, while Sinns was

charged with felony misuse of a firearm.

Animal Spectacles

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

The Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, pledged to end mule-diving exhibitions

on its famed Steel Pier on August 15. Models in bathing suits rode full-sized horses through 40-foot jumps into a tank of sea water at the Steel Pier from 1929 until 1978, when the pier was closed. Reopened this year, the Steel Pier featured Tim Rivers’ World’s Only Diving Mules, a riderless touring act from Citra, Florida, but met heavy protest when Rivers’ mule, two miniature horses, and a dog all appeared reluctant to jump from a 30-foot height.

COURT CALENDAR

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Activism

A federal grand jury in Grand

Rapids, Michigan, on July 16 indicted fugi-

tive activist Rodney Allen Coronado, 27, on

five felony counts including arson, pertaining

to a 1992 firebombing that gutted the

Michigan State University mink ranching labo-

ratory. The fire also destroyed the files of an

MSU staffer who was developing alternatives

to the use of animals in biomedical research.

Coronado, who has acknowledged involve-

ment in other direct actions including scuttling

two Icelandic whaling vessels, was reportedly

last seen in Oregon in early November 1992.

He is also sought for questioning by grand

juries probing arsons at animal research facili-

ties in Oregon, Washington, and Louisiana,

and by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in

connection with laboratory vandalism at the

University of Edmonton, in Alberta.

Hunting & Fishing

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

“We just don’t believe that

public safety is our responsibility,”

Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen direc-

tor Robert Crook told a recent Connecticut

legislative hearing on whether hunting

license fees should be raised to support hir-

ing more wardens. The CCS is backed by

the National Rifle Association.

The Texas chapter of the NRA

is up in arms over a U.S. Forest Service

proposal to limit target shooting to the

safest 500 acres of the 20,309-acre Lyndon

Johnson National Grasslands. Incidents

involving use of firearms have increased

from 286 in fiscal 1990 to 510 in 1993.

The Coalition to Ban Pigeon

Shoots will protest this Labor Day outside

a private shoot at the prestigious

Powderbourne Gun Club in East

Greenville, Pennsylvania, rather than at

the simultaneous public shoot in Hegins.

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