Category: Campaigns

Activism

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

The Louisiana-based Coalition to
Abolish the Fur Trade said on January 22 that
it had received an Animal Liberation Front communique
claiming credit for the release four
days earlier of 200 to 400 mink from a fur farm
owned by Robert Zimbal, of Sheboygan,
Wisconsin. The release came three days after
the release on their own recognizance of 17 of
22 anti-fur activists who had refused to pay bail
and had gone on a three-day hunger strike, following
their January 13 arrest for trespassing at
a CAFT-led protest against the International
Mink Show in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Two
juveniles were released immediately and three
arrestees posted bail. Hitting fur farms in
British Columbia, Washington, Minnesota,
and Tennessee, the ALF claims to have
released 6,800 mink, 30 foxes, and a coyote in
six raids since October 1995, as well as spraypainting
$75,000 worth of furs at the Valley
River Center Mall in Eugene, Oregon, on Fur
Free Friday. Virtually all the released mink
were quickly recovered. The other releases
haven’t been acknowledged in fur trade media.

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Call for uniform cruelty-free standards

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C.––The
National Consumers League and the
Massachusetts SPCA have asked U.S.
Commissioner of Food and Drugs David
Kessler to follow the lead of the European
Community in requiring that “any reference
to testing on animals” in product
labeling or advertising “state clearly
whether the tests carried out involved the
finished product and/or its ingredients.”
Consumer surveys done for the
NCL and MSPCA found that while 63%
of women prefer to buy cruelty-free health
and beauty aid products, many are confused
by the six different types of “cruelty-free”
claims in common use, many of
which conceal certain kinds of animal
testing. Lists of cruelty-free companies
circulated by animal protection groups are
rarely up-to-date and accurate. The NCL
and MSPCA said 90% of women would
favor a uniform cruelty-free standard.

The Wright stuff

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

REND LAKE, Illinois– – Chicago
Animal Rights Coalition president Steve
Hindi, a licensed pilot, on December 16 startled
the Illinois Department of Natural
Resources, hunters culling deer at the Renn
Lake Wildlife Refuge, and fellow protesters
by soaring up in a paraglider to videotape the
action from above––as deer fled from the
sound of the aircraft, away from the hunters.
“This is going to change everything,”
Hindi told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “Air
power revolutionized warfare, and it’s going
to revolutionize protest. No longer can the
DNR and the hunters hide anything from us.”

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ANTI-HUNTING ACTIVISM

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

The Alaska Board of Game
on October 27 cancelled plans to promote
bear hunting at the McNeil
River Falls sanctuary, known for
keeping close, peaceable relations
between humans and bears. Earlier,
Friends of McNeil River asked antihunters
to enter the lottery for permits to
kill bears at the sanctuary––and the antihunters
won all but two of the permits.
Fund for Animals representative
Michael Chiado writes,
“Citizens United for Bears has started
gathering signatures for a Michigan
state ballot initiative to eliminate the
hunting of bears with bait and dogs.
The signature collection period will last
180 days. Lots of help is needed!” To
help, call 517-337-3040, or write to
POB 1393, Lansing, MI 48826.

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High-Tech Activism

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

High-Tech Activism
The high cost of losing vs. the economics of victory
by Steve Hindi
president, Chicago Animal Rights Coalition

In 1992, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage
County, Illinois targeted thousands of “surplus” deer for
slaughter by sharpshooting and by rocket-netting followed by
captive bolt dispatch. While we opposed killing healthy deer
by either method, sharpshooting at least theoretically offered
the possibility of instant death. Rocket-netting was an entirely
different matter.
Rocket-nets are explosive devices that literally blast
a heavy net over groups of deer drawn to a baited site. People
who live nearby often call rocket nets “howitzers,” as their
roar can be heard for miles. The stress to the victims cannot
be overestimated, as the explosives detonate just a few feet
from the victims as they feed. Rocket-netting also causes a
high incidence of unintended injury, as frightened deer hurt
themselves trying to escape.

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Watson gets 30 days

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND––
A jury on October 9 found Captain
Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society innocent of endangering the lives of
the crews of the Cuban trawler Rio Las Casas
and his own vessel, the Cleveland Amory,
during a high seas encounter on July 28, 1993,
but convicted him of simple mischief for
enabling members of OrcaForce to throw noxious
buteric acid from the Cleveland Amory to
the desk of the Rio Las Casas. Watson was
thus cleared of counts that could have brought
him a double life sentence, but drew a felony
conviction, a fine of $35, 30 days in prison in
addition to the six days he served after his
arrest, and most significant, a “prior”––his
first in 22 years of frontline activism––in the
event he should again be arrested.

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Fur notes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

Depressed global fur markets have reportedly kept a large percentage
of Russian pelt production on the domestic market, bringing a
domestic fur boom. Russian fur exports dropped last year from $62 million
in 1992 and $64 million in 1993, to just $30 million worth in 1994.
IBAMA. the Brazilian wildlife protection agency, intercepted
an average of 26,000 poached pelts per year on Amazon tributaries, 1975-
1979, but just 184 in 1992 and none this year, says enforcement chief Jose
Leland Barroso, whose staff boards and inspects 1,300 boats a month.
FoA sent a rubber backbone to John Kennedy Jr., publisher of
the fashion magazine George, after he vetoed publication of the same antifur
ad, “How fur looks before the gassing, clubbing, and electrocution,” that
appeared in the October ANIMAL PEOPLE. “We have to wonder why
compassion for animals is too controversial for a magazine which features
cigarette ads, Cindy Crawford in male drag, and an article on Madonna as
president,” wrote FoA president Priscilla Feral. “While this backbone is
only made of rubber, we thought it would be better than none at all.”

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Fur

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Minneapolis furrier Robert
Zicari recently told Fur Age Weekly read-
ers that he’s trying to get licensing rights
from Walt Disney to promote fur goods bear-
ing the image of Snow White, and “Their
response was not altogether negative. We
have a chance if we put the cost up front.”
Linking Disney to fur would be an unlikely
coup; the 1959 Disney film 101 Dalmatians,
about Cruella DeVil’s attempt to make a
dog-fur coat, preceded a fur sales crash, and
the 1991 re-release of the film in home video
format also coincided with a skid. More is
ahead: Walt Disney Pictures on May 9 hired
Stephen Herek to direct a live edition of 101
Dalmatians, to be produced by John Hughes
and Ricardo Mestres, probably starring
Glenn Close as Cruella. Filming begins in
October. Thank Walt Disney Co. for its his-
torical role in promoting kindness toward
animals and urge it keep high standards at
500 Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521.

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The Cult of Animal Celebrity by Captain Paul Watson

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Within the animal protection movement, there are
two types of animals: those with individual names and those
without. The movement is accordingly split between advo-
cates for animals with names, and advocates for all the rest.
Free Keiko, free Lolita, free Corky, free Hondo.
These are wonderful and appealing ideals––but not all captive
cetaceans can or should be freed. Not all facilities holding
marine animals are the enemy. And the huge sums raised to
free a few individuals could be more positively directed
toward ending the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of
nameless whales, dolphins, and seals on the world’s oceans.
The amount of money raised for the cause of freeing
marine mammals with names may exceed $45 million a year,
from the thousands raised to aid local seals and dolphins in
distress to the $14 million estimated cost of someday, maybe,
freeing Keiko, the orca star of the film Free Willy!

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