Cetaceans

November 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

South Australia on September 25
proclaimed the Great Australian Bight Marine
National Park. The long discussed park will
bar fishing and mineral exploration during the
six months of each year when the waters are
used by about 60 rare southern right whales.
Federal judge Douglas P.
Woodlock on September 26 ruled that
Massachusetts is breaking the Endangered
Species Act and other federal law in issuing
permits to fishers who use equipment known
to kill highly endangered right whales.
Woodlock ordered the state to develop a right
whale protection plan by December 16.
Hearings on how to protect right whales from
fishing gear were already underway, but
Massachusetts attorney general Scott
Harshburger immediately appealed on behalf
of the state’s 1,686 lobster trappers, likely to
be the fishers most affected. A federal appellate
court upheld Woodlock’s verdict on
October 17. Max Strahan, of Greenworld,
who filed the suit against Massachusetts,
pledged to next pursue a similar case in Maine.

Tortoise Trust boycotts Sweden

November 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

LONDON––The London-based
Tortoise Trust on October 27 called for a global
boycott of Swedish goods, seeking to force the
resignation of Swedish agriculture officials
Annika Ahnberg and Karin Cerenius over the
treatment of 1,000 Horsfield’s tortoises, who
were seized 10 days earlier from Syrian citizen
Amro Hassan at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm
because he had no import permit. The tortoises
were allegedly held for a week without heat,
food, or drinking water, then frozen to death
because they were said to be too sick to live.
“Neither the Swedish Herpetological
Society nor other reptile consultants in Sweden
were advised of the seizure or asked how to handle
the tortoises,” Tortoise Trust spokespersons
Andy Highfield and Jill Martin objected.

BSE bought and sold

November 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

DUBLIN––While the British cattle industry
as a whole is in economic distress due to the loss of
markets caused by the BSE scare, Irish Times agricultural
correspondent Sean MacConnell reported on
October 14 that, “A gang of con men from Northern
Ireland is offering farmers in the Irish Republic a substance
which the men claim will induce BSE in cattle
for sums of over £5,000. Some farmers in financial
difficulty seek diseased animals to claim the very generous
BSE compensation paid by the state,”
McConnell explained.
A week later, McConnell published an official
denial by the Irish Department of Agriculture of a
report in another paper about a similar scheme, then
added, “The emphatic denial conceals a number of
concerns its staff have about levels of compensation
paid to farmers who produce diseased animals. Unlike
in the U.K., where only the infected animal is
destroyed, in the Republic all animals in a herd where
a case has been detected are destroyed. The farmer is
paid the market value of all the animals in the herd.”

PANDA-MONIUM & RHINO LOANS

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

SAN DIEGO––Shi-Shi, a 16-yearold
male panda bear, and his prospective mate
Bai Yun, age 5, are in quarantine at the San
Diego Zoo. The first pandas in the U.S. since
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt suspended
panda loans in December 1993, they arrived
September 10, and are to go on exhibit in late
October or early November. They are to
remain in San Diego for up to 12 years.
The zoo has already spent $2.5 on
facilities and arrangements to obtain the bears,
and is to pay China an annual royalty of $1
million for the privilege of keeping them.
They are expected to be the biggest public
attractions in the history of the San Diego
Zoological Society.

It’s all happening at the zoo

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

Convincing the American Zoo Association that it
has rectified the many problems noted by media, the public,
the USDA, and AZA itself over the past decade, the Los
Angeles Zoo on September 17 won reaccreditation, 18 months
after getting a “shape up or else” order. Changes have included
hiring Manuel A. Mollinedo as director, removing the zoo
from administration by the Los Angeles City Parks
Department, winning voter approval of a $23 million bond
issue, and breaking ground for a $4.5 million new chimpanzee
habitat. The zoo’s 14 chimps are to get a waterfall, along with
climbing trees and a triple-tiered shelter.

PRIMATES IN RESEARCH

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

Jan Moor-Jankowski, MD, founder and for 30 years
director of the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery
in Primates at New York University, and Louis Dinetz, former
LEMSIP assistant director, on August 13 sued seeking $20 million
damages from NYU and the USDA for allegedly covering up
“scientific misconduct and fraud” and violating federal whistleblower
protection laws, by terminating them both last year and
turning LEMSIP over to primate dealer Frederick Coulston, after
Moor-Jankowski went public with allegations of negligent care in
the primate laboratory of NYU addiction researcher Ron Wood.
The allegations were upheld; NYU was ordered to pay a
$450,000 civil penalty for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
However, while USDA investigators reported that NYU had illegally
retaliated against Moor-Jankowski by shutting down LEMSIP,
other USDA officials rejected his administrative complaint,
forcing him to court to seek redress. Moor-Jankowski is represented
by Philp Byler, who also represented him in his landmark
1991 libel case victory over the Austrian pharmaceutical firm
Immuno AG, which had sued him for publishing a letter by
International Primate Protection League president Shirley
McGreal, in his capacity as editor of the Journal of Primatology.

IFAW ups the ante: Election contribution could change animal protection politics

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

LONDON––Challenging blood sports pound-for-pound and upping the ante, International Fund for
Animal Welfare founder and president Brian Davies donated one million pounds sterling to the British Labour Party
on September 1 via the Political Animal Lobby, an officially independent organization equivalent to U.S. political
action committees, claiming 50,000 active supporters.
Davies said he made the gift because the Labour Party has declared that if it wins the upcoming
Parliamentary election, it will permit a free vote in the House of Commons on a bill to ban hunting with
hounds––which in Britain means fox hunting.
“After careful analysis of response and positions,” Davies
stated, “it was determined that Labour, at the moment, offers the best
across-the-board deal for animals. Naturally we would consider a similar
donation to the Conservative Party if it adopted an equally robust
position.”

Marine mammals

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Small whales
The Sacramento Bee warned in
June that the vaquita whale is “on the verge
of extinction, a victim of commercial gill net
fishing” in the Sea of Cortez, and that the
reserve set up to protect the vaquita may be “a
sanctuary in name only.” The vaquita is a
small toothed whale, a class not protected by
the International Whaling Commission.
Romanian Institute for Marine
Research scientist Alexandru Bologna says
only 10,000 dolphins remain in the heavily
polluted Black Sea, down from 70,000 in
1970, and one million in 1950, when the former
Communist regime began “economic capitalization
of dolphins,” i.e. slaughter.

Greenpeace gets wet

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

LUXEMBOURG––Major conservation
groups have historically been quiet
about fishing––and Greenpeace, founded on
oceanic campaigning, is no exception.
The world’s second-largest environmental
group, trailing only the World
Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace withdrew from
active opposition to sealing in Atlantic
Canada in 1986, even before seals were
blamed for crashing cod stocks. The
Greenpeace campaign against toxic pollution
in the St. Lawrence River was promoted in
part as an effort to improve fishing.

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