News from zoos

January 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Improvements
Four months after giving the Los
Angeles Zoo one year to make improvements
necessary to keep accreditation,
American Zoo and Aquarium Association
representive Stephen McCusker credits interim
zoo administrator Manuel Mollinedo, 49,
with accomplishing many of the goals. “He’s
worked miracles,” adds Los Angeles city
council member Rita Walters, a member of
the Ad Hoc Committee on Zoo Improvement,
indicating that Mollinedo could soon be
given the top zoo job on a permanent basis.
A longtime Parks and Recreation official,
Mollinedo took the interim post with no
background in either zoo management or veterinary
science. His hand was strengthened
by a recent report to the Ad Hoc Committee
by Los Angeles chief legislative analyst Ron
Deaton and chief administrative officer Keith
Comrie, who argued that the zoo should
become an independent branch of the city
government, with greater authority over the
Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, the
private fundraising organization that runs the
zoo concessions. Zoo attendance has fallen
since 1990, while the concessions lost
money in both 1993 and 1994.

Vealers under scrutiny in Europe, too

January 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

BRUSSELS––Concerned about the
use of illegal growth hormones in livestock
generally, and increasingly aware, as well,
of animal welfare issues, the European
Union moved recently to address both issues.
EU Farm Commissioner Franz
Fischler on November 29 convened a threeday
conference to review the EU rules on the
use of illegal meat growth hormones. On the
one hand, there is strong sentiment for maintaining
stiff standards and cracking down on
a “hormone Mafia” whose activity last year
included the assassination on the job of
Belgian animal health inspector Karrel Van
Knoppen.

COURT CALENDAR

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

British High Court Justice
Richard Rougier ruled November 22 that a
pit bull terrier named Dempsey, subject of
three years of internationally publicized litigation,
need not be euthanized simply because a
friend of owner Dianne Fanneran allowed her
to run temporarily without a muzzle, violating
the Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991, which
banned pit bulls from Great Britain. Rougier
wrote that the Dangerous Dogs Act, “bears all
the hallmarks of an ill-thought-out piece of
legislation, no doubt drafted in response to a
pressure group.”

Laboratory animal shorts

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

The European Patent Office on November 24 postponed an expected ruling on a
petition from Compassion in World Farming and 16 other animal welfare and religious groups,
asking it to reverse its 1992 decision that Harvard University and DuPont could be allowed to
patent Oncamouse, a strain of mouse genetically modified to be more vulnerable to human
forms of cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration is reportedly soon to release two reports
indicating that as result of overfeeding and lack of excercise, many laboratory rodents are
in such poor physical condition that toxicity tests involving them could yield seriously misleading
results. One strain of rat has doubled its average weight since 1970, according to
National Center for Toxicological Research scientist William Allaben, who calls them “Just
blobs of fat with legs.” Commenting on the survival rate of experimental control animals,
which at Merck Research Laboratories fell from 58% to 24% over the past 20 years, Merck
veterinary pathologist Kevin Keenan suggests that, “The most toxic substance we’ve tested in
our laboratory is the food.”

Animal control & rescue

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

Legislation
The San Mateo County (California)
pet overpopulation ordinance is “a legislative
f a i l u r e , ” according to The Animal Council, an
association of dog and cat fanciers, in a newly
published “evaluation of statistics and reports.”
But the evidence is ambiguous. Countywide
euthanasia records going back to 1970 show dog
euthanasias peaking at 20,191 in 1971, declining
steadily to 1,298 in fiscal year 1990-1991, just
before the controversial San Mateo County ordinance
was adopted in March 1992. Since then,
dog euthanasias have continued to drop at approximately
the previous rate, to 1,111 in fiscal year
1993-1994. Cat euthanasias peaked in 1970, at
21,796; bottomed out at 4,697 in 1979; were
steady between 6,988 and 7,417 from 1985-1986
through 1991-1992; and since then have fallen to
5,134. Noting that 18 cities in San Mateo County
have not ratified the county ordinance, which
applies in unamended form only to the relatively
small unincorporated part of the county, the
report notes that, “Unincorporated cat euthanasias
in 1993-1994 were 46% greater than in 1990-
1991, the year prior to implementation” of the
ordinance, “compared to a 27% decrease countywide.”

ANTI-HUNTING ACTIVISM

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.

FUR

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

The European Union Commission on November 22
announced yet another postponement of the European Union
ban on imports of furs that may have been caught by leghold
trapping. The ban, originally to take effect on January 1, 1995,
is vigorously opposed on behalf of the fur trade by the U.S. and
Canadian governments. EU officials were reportedly moved by
visits from Canadian Native Americans, who claimed the ban
would harm their people without mentioning that Native trappers
account for less than 5% of Canadian trapped pelts and less than
1% of total North American trapped pelts. Great Britain broke
with the rest of the EU, moving to impose the ban unilaterally.
The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility
for releasing 2,400 mink from the Dargatz farm in Chilliwack,
British Columbia, on October 23, and 4,000 mink from the
Rippin farm in Aldergrove, B.C., on November 14. Most were
quickly recaptured, but at deadline about 140 remained at large
in Chilliwack and about 600 in Aldergrove. Canadian wildlife
officials predicted that some, at least, might survive the winter.
The Canadian Mink Breeders Association posted a reward of
$50,000 for the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Fur notes

November 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.”

European trapped fur import ban closer––maybe

November 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

DENVER – –The likelihood Europe
will finally implement a 1991 ban on the
import of U.S. and Canadian trapped fur––if
only as a gesture––increased October 2 when
International Standards Organization technical
committee on trap standards chair Neal
Jotham, of Canada, acknowledged that,
“There is no possibility of reaching a consensus”
on what constitutes a “humane” trap.
The ISO concession enables the
enforcement of European Council Regulation
32254/91, adopted five years ago as an ultimatim
to the fur industry to either end cruel
trapping or cease the import of trapped fur.
Under the regulation, use of leghold traps
will simultaneously be banned throughout the
EC nations, effective on January 1, 1996.
As much as 70% of all fur trapped
in the U.S. is exported to Europe. Thus the
import ban, if it sticks, could cripple the
already declining trapping industry.

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