ANIMAL HEALTH

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

British link veal and brain damage

Rejected by most veterinary authorities, the hypothesis

advanced by Cornell veterinary student Michael Greger via Farm

Sanctuary that there may be a link between bovine spongiform

encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease gained slightly

more weight on October 7 when the United Kingdom CJD

Surveillance Unit reported that, “A study of the eating habits of

people with CJD showed some statistical associations with the eat-

ing of various meat products, particularly veal.” Veal calves are

fed milk replacers which contain processed slaughterhouse offal,

and therefore could sometimes contain the remains of animals who

had either BSE or scrapie, a similar disease found in sheep. CJD

appears some years after infection, and like BSE, leads to paraly-

sis, blindness, dementia, and death. An ongoing BSE epidemic,

now waning, has hit more than 130,000 cattle in Britain since

1986. CJD is comparatively rare, killing 40-50 Britons a year.

Out of the flooding and into the fire in Houston

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

HOUSTON––Flood rescue in

southeastern Texas from Houston to

Beaumont was expected to become oil spill

rescue in late October along a 24-mile

stretch of the San Jacinto River and possibly

in marshes flanking the Houston Ship Canal.

As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press,

Texaco crews were still trying to stop leaks

in a pipeline containing 2.1 million gallons

of crude oil between valve stations––the last

of five major pipelines that broke under the

floodwaters. Two gasoline lines burst

together on October 20 and erupted into

flames, injuring 69 people and nearly incin-

erating a Houston SPCA rescue team

including Nick Gilman, disaster coordinator

for the American Humane Association.

Animal control & rescue

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

China Daily said October 18 that

Beijing dog licensing fees are to be set at

about $700 per year, triple the average

income of city residents; dogs will be

allowed outside only at night, on leashes;

excrement must be promptly removed; and

dogs will be banned from public places. The

12 million Beijing dwellers now keep about

190,000 dogs, who bit 21,117 people during

the first six months of this year. Since 1988,

89 Beijing residents have died of rabies con-

tracted via dog bites, sparking several dog

extermination drives. Rabies vaccination is

rare in China due to chronic vaccine scarcity.

Plague! INDIA, AFRICA CONFRONT THE ULTIMATE ANIMAL CONTROL NIGHTMARE; Tight urban budgets gave rat-catching and trash collection a low priority

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

SURAT, India––Inadequate animal control service was largely responsible, authorities say, for the most deadly

outbreak of plague worldwide in 28 years at Surat, India. More than 400,000 residents fled the city as the outbreak became

known, creating risk the disease would spread to nearby communities, including Bombay, 160 miles to the north.

Remembering plague outbreaks that killed thousands during the 1940s and 1950s, 950 million Indians feared the worst.

Quarantines, inexpensive prophylactic tetracycline treatments, and fast information-sharing by electronic mail were

From Trouble to good faith: A chat with Dale Schwindaman, top cop for the Animal Welfare Act

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Dale Schwindaman called

to talk about Trouble.

As USDA Deputy Administrator for Regulatory

Enforcement and Animal Care, Schwindaman is the top cop

at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service––the exec-

utive responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act. On

the beat since the act was passed in 1966, Schwindaman

took charge two years ago with strong concerns about long-

standing problems that hadn’t been effectively addressed,

determination to do something about it, and a few ideas

about doing it by speaking softly while carrying a big stick.

Pet theft in particular bothered him. Schwindaman

spent much of his time from 1966 until 1981 trying to nab

the “random source” animal dealers who fence stolen dogs

and cats to laboratories. In those days he didn’t have the

laws, the budget, or the political backing to succeed. After

moving to the USDA veterinary branch for a decade, how-

ever, Schwindaman returned to APHIS just as the Pet Theft

Act of 1990 took effect, enabling the USDA to crack down

on dealers who can’t document the origin of the animals they

sell––whether or not the animals are traced to theft.

BOOKS: The Tribe of Tiger: Cats and their Culture

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

The Tribe of Tiger: Cats and

their Culture, by Elizabeth Marsh-

all Thomas, Simon & Schuster (1230 Ave.

of the Americas, New York NY 10020),

1994, 240 pages, hardcover $20.00.

From the author of The Hidden Life

of Dogs comes a new volume revealing the

social life of cats. This book too displays

Thomas’s uncanny ability to observe a

species and to describe the unique ways its

members act among themselves, without

humanizing them in the least. Raised in a

family of anthropologists, Thomas recalls her

first experiences with larger members of the

cat tribe in the Kalahari desert of South

Africa. Obviously her discoveries there of

the potential for cat/human relationships pro-

foundly influenced her work.

BOOKS: Operation Pet Rescue: Survivors of the Oakland, California Firestorm

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

Operation Pet Rescue: Survivors of the

Oakland, California Firestorm, by Gregory

N. Zampolis. J.N. Townsend Publishing (12

Greenleaf Drive, Exeter, NH 03833), 1994. 170

pages. $21.00 hardback.

This was a book I couldn’t put down! It held per-

sonal associations for me, a resident of Berkeley––adjoining

Oakland––during the 1991 fire and aftermath it describes.

Berkeley too sustained major fire losses. I was there as well

for the fire of 1970, which also razed many homes, fueled by

dry eucalyptus, and heard many times of my mother-in-law’s

flight, on foot, firstborn in a perambulator, from the 1923

fire that threatened to annihilate town and campus. Moreover,

as I read, a forest fire raged a little over a hour’s drive away

from me in Washington state.

CHILDREN & ANIMALS

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

Jeanne McVey of the Sea Wolf

Alliance was the only animal protection repre-

sentative at the mid-September International

Conference on Population and Development

meeting in Cairo, Egypt. “I am working quite

well with the environmentalists,” McVey

faxed ANIMAL PEOPLE on September 9.

“This is the occasion for minimizing our dif-

ferences with other groups and countries.” A

precedent for animal protection as well as for

women’s rights was reached when the confer-

ees agreed to oppose female genital mutilation

in their final report. From 85 million to 115

million women worldwide have been genitally

maimed, mostly in Africa, by procedures

intended to promote chastity by inhibiting sex-

ual pleasure. About two million adolescent

women a year still suffer genital mutilation,

according to the World Health Organization.

The importance of the ICPD statement to ani-

mal defenders is that a world governmental

body has now agreed that at least in this

instance, neither culture nor custom is an

acceptable excuse for cruelty.

COURT CALENDAR

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

Animal Welfare Act

In recent Animal Welfare Act

enforcement cases, the USDA on August

29 fined James Joseph Hickey of

Albany, Oregon, $10,000 and suspended

his Class B dealer’s permit for 10 years for

a variety of offenses dating to 1990,

including the purchase of 46 random

source dogs and cats from unlicensed deal-

er Jerry R. Branton, who did not raise the

animals himself and therefore did not qual-

ify as a legal seller. The fine was the sec-

ond of $10,000 levied against Hickey’s

business in the past five years. David W.

Lance, of Just Quality Pets in Philadel-

phia, Pennsylvania, has been fined

$10,000 for selling at least 138 animals

without the proper permits. William,

Carmen, and Bonnie Winey of Winey

Farms in Deloit, Iowa, lost their Class B

animal dealers’ license for multiple health,

sanitation, and recordkeeping violations.

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