COURT CALENDAR

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Crimes Against Humans

Odd jobs man Joseph Bales,

33, and Helene LeMay, 31, a mail-

order vegetarian diet consultant, were

charged April 19 with illegally disposing

of their 10-week-old infant’s remains in

the woods near Eastman, Quebec, a

short drive from their St. Romain home,

and then filing a false kidnapping report

in New York City to cover up for the

baby’s death. Their story fell apart within

hours. An autopsy seemed to confirm

their story that the baby died of natural

causes, as there were no evident signs of

abuse or malnutrition. They did not

report the death, they said, because they

feared they would be charged with abuse,

after having been accused last year of

abusing a mentally retarded foster child.

AGRICULTURE

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The USDA on April 26 announced yet another pro-

posal to raise grazing fees on federal land. This version would

boost the base fee to $3.96 per head-month by 1997, but would

provide incentive discounts for ranchers who undertake various

forms of conservation and/or rangeland improvement.

Comments will be reviewed until July 28. An Environmental

Protection Agency impact study published May 18 estimated that

current management practices would bring a 3% decline over the

next 20 years in stream quality in the affected habitat, while the

proposed changes would bring a 27% improvement.

A National Agricultural Statistics Service survey of

the 10 largest corn-producing states, which raise 80% of the total

U.S. corn crop, reports that less than 1% is lost to wildlife. The

average loss per acre is 0.66 bushels. Of the 35.4 million bushels

eaten by wild animals, deer eat 13.9 million, while birds eat 9.6

million. The 1993 crop came to 5.14 billion bushels in all.

RWANDAN GORILLAS LIVE–– LAKE VICTORIA MIGHT NOT

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

VOLCANO NATIONAL PARK, Rwanda–– As of May

14, the mountain gorillas made famous by the late Dian Fossey were

unharmed by Rwandan civil strife, said Jose Kalpers, coordinator of

the International Gorilla Conservation Program.

The IGCP is sponsored by the African Wildlife

Foundation, the Fauna & Flora Preservation Society, and the World

Wildlife Fund.

Kalpers and the rest of the staff at Karasoke, Fossey’s for-

mer headquarters, were evacuated to Kenya shortly after the

Rwandan fighting broke out on April 6. Uganda closed Mgahinga

National Park on May 2, fearing fighting would spill over from the

Volcano National Park area of Rwanda––but it didn’t. By mid-May,

Kalpers said, he was able to visit Zaire, closer to Karasoke than his

temporary headquarters in Nairobi. From Zaire, Kalpers funded

resumed patrols by Rwandan and Zairean park wardens.

WILDLIFE

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Fourteen years after being

declared an endangered species and 11

years after being pronounced extinct, the

Palos Verdes blue butterfly has been resdi-

covered. University of California geography

professor Rudi Mattoni, believed to be the

last person to see the butterfly before it pur-

portedly vanished, recognized it again on a

mid-March insect collecting visit to the U.S.

Navy’s Defense Fuel Supply Point in San

Pedro. The site is protected as critical habi-

tat for the also endangered California gnat-

catcher, a small songbird.

Birds

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Virtually insuring the mass destruction of spar-

rows, who provide much of China’s insect control, Beijing

Weekend magazine on April 1 published the assertion of profes-

sor Chen Wenbo of the Beijing Drum Tower Hospital of

Traditional Chinese Medicine that eating six sparrows and 15

grams of Chinese wolfberries per day for three months can cure

male sterility. The professor, 57, claimed to have cured

30,000 patients with a diet of sparrows over the past 13 years:

86% of their wives became pregnant. Since 1991 the price of

sparrows at the bird market outside the hospital has reportedly

doubled from three U.S. cents apiece to six.

Siberian cranes failed to arrive this winter at

Keolado National Park, near Bharatpur, India, for the first

time in 30 years. Only six were seen in Iran, and none in

Pakistan, marking the virtual extinction of the western flock,

which numbered 200 about 30 years ago. About 2,900 Siberian

cranes survive in the eastern flock, wintering in eastern China.

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

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

The General Agreement on Trade

and Tariffs will increase the amount of pork

the U.S. can export to Europe to 624,000 met-

ric tons by 1999, six times the 1991 volume.

Drawn by relatively weak U.S. pollution

laws, European hog producers are rushing to

set up U.S. branches, including the Pig

Improvement Co., of Great Britain, the

world’s largest hog breeder, which hopes to

raise 100,000 hogs per year at a site near

Hennessy, Oklahoma. The facility will gen-

erate as much sewage as a town of 170,000

people. A Danish firm is reportedly planning

an even bigger operation: a 600,000-hog con-

finement farm to be sited in Alaska, where

there are virtually no laws pertaining to farm-

related pollution because farming ventures

there have historically failed.

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.

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.

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