From bunkers to bat caves by Doug Reed

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

NEWINGTON, N.H. –– The weapons storage

area lies brooding at the core of the Great Bay National

Wildlife Refuge, surrounded by an eight-foot-high chain

link fence capped with barbed wire and razor wire. Thirty

concrete block buildings, 250 power poles, miles of wire,

and 15 weapons storage bunkers––fortified cement crypts

covered with earth and grass––crowd the site with silence.

Clustered at the far end of the 62-acre storage

area, the bunkers are empty of the missiles and explosives

stored there for the past 30 years. The double steel doors

are six inches thick and weigh five tons each. A heavy-

duty hydraulic jack opens one door, and visitors, mostly

members of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire,

wander into the dark. Jim Halpin, the manager of this new

refuge, explains that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is

exploring the bunkers’ potential as bat caves. It’s an ironic

exchange of wildlife for arms: bats for bombs.

The price of conversion

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

MADISON, Indiana –– The

pros and cons of converting no-man’s land

into wildlife refuges are nowhere more evi-

dent than at the 57,600-acre Jefferson

Proving Ground. Since 1941, Army per-

sonnel have fired more than 23 million

artillery, mortar, and tank rounds at

Jefferson, including 1.4 million dud

rounds that may still go off at any minute.

The Army wants to close Jefferson, to

save $7 million a year. But the closure

will cost southern Indiana at least 410

civilian jobs. Virtually the only alternative

use for the site would be as a wildlife

refuge, which would require the least

amount of clean-up. But even removing

enough unexploded ordinance to make

Jefferson minimally safe for refuge person-

nel could run as high as $550 million.

Despite all the shooting, the

edges of Jefferson are still forested, while

the firing ranges, carpeted with wildflow-

ers, attract birds and butterflies. Whether

or not Jefferson is formally designated a

wldlife refuge, chances are it will be

increasingly important to wildlife as the

human presence diminishes.

Wildlife in no-man’s-land: Are war zones safer than refuges?

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

When the Persian Gulf War erupted in February

1991, ecologists shuddered at the probable fate of the wet-

lands at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

The region, where Kuwait meets Iraq, is among the world’s

busiest corridors for migratory birds––both songbirds and

waterfowl, coming and going from Europe, Africa, Asia,

and the Indian subcontinent. The bird populations were

already in trouble. Intensive sheep-grazing had desertified

thousands of acres of vegetation. Oil-rich Kuwaiti

thrillseekers compounded the damage with reckless use of

offroad vehicles and contests to see who could shotgun the

most birds, without regard for either endangered species or

bag limits.

Wildlife

March 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.

Marine Mammals

March 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

“EAT WHALES,” SAYS JAPAN

TOKYO, Japan –– The Japan Fisheries Agency and

25 Japanese fishing organizations on January 29 launched an

aggressive media campaign urging Japanese citizens to eat more

whale meat. The goal is to generate pressure on the International

Whaling Commission to rescind the six-year-old global ban on

whaling at its annual meeting in May, to be held in Kyoto.

The blitz includes radio and television spots touting

whale meat as a cure for asthma and acne, and distribution of

100,000 comic books depicting the history of the Japanese whal-

ing industry. The history is likely to be inaccurate: contrary to

the industry claim that whaling is part of Japanese cultural tradi-

tion, historian Fujiwara Eiji documented in 1989 that Japanese

commercial whaling actually began in 1909, when a man named

Oka Juro brought the concept and techniques from Norway. His

activity was so detested by traditional fishers that some of them

burned his facilities in 1911.

BOOKS: Your Heart Your Planet

December 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1992:

Your Heart Your Planet. B y

Harvey Diamond. Hay House (501

Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica,

CA 90406). 1990. 238 pages. $7.95

paperback.

Harvey Diamond, founder of

the Fit for Life Foundation, builds upon

his previous experience in health and

physical fitness to demonstrate that ani-

mal products are not only unhealthy for

humans, but are also unhealthy for the

entire biosphere.

Vivisection

December 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1992:

The winter 1992/1993 edition of

National Boycott News, a well-reputed

annual directory of boycotts, includes

detailed coverage of the ongoing boycott of

Carme Inc., a cruelty-free cosmetics manu-

facturer acquired by International Research

and Development Corp. in 1989. The boy-

cott, called but not recently promoted by

PETA, might be forgotten by now except

that attorneys for IRDC, a major animal-

testing laboratory, have threatened numer-

ous protesters and media who have covered

the situation with lawsuits––including

National Boycott News, when the editors

offered them the opportunity to respond to

various allegations made by boycott litera-

ture. IRDC did sue two cruelty-free dis-

tributors who dropped the Carme product

line. The case was settled out of court by

the firms’ insurance companies.

Agriculture

December 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1992:

“If the livestock industry demonstrates good

faith toward animal advocacy, it should suffer little eco-

nomic impact from increased regulation to enhance animal

contentment,” Ohio State University agricultural economists

Carl Zulauf and Matthew Krause recently told Feedstuffs

readers. Zulauf and Krause assumed that consumers would

be willing to pay marginally higher prices for animal prod-

ucts to be assured that they were not obtained by cruel meth-

ods. Some individual farmers would be hurt by obligatory

changes of method, they said, but others would prosper,

and the overall net effect would be nil. Much of the cost of

replacing equipment and facilities would be absorbed into

the ongoing cost of upkeep. Zulauf and Krause did not con-

sider the possibility that consumers might continue to move

toward vegetarianism at the unprecedented pace of the past

decade––a trend that could encourage many farmers to

abandon animal production.

Election Roundup: ANIMALS WIN! Apparent Gains at Every Level

December 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1992:

WASHINGTON D.C. –– Outgoing U.S. president George Bush bought a hunting

license on Election Day. Both U.S. president elect Bill Clinton and vice president elect Albert

Gore claimed to be hunters during the election campaign––but they went jogging. Whether they

actually hunt or not, indications are that the next four years should be politically much more

favorable toward animal and habitat protection than the preceding twelve years. Neither Clinton,

a reputed wild turkey hunter, nor Gore, a one-time deer hunter, has ever been known to shoot

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