Category: Europe

ANIMAL HEALTH

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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.

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Performing animals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus is reportedly close to
purchasing a 200-acre site northeast of Polk City, Florida, as a retirement colony for 50
elephants and possibly several lions and tigers who were retired from performing with the
retirement of longtime trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams in 1991. Ringling already owns a
35-acre animal retirement site elsewhere in Levy County. In other Ringling news, the
circus is splitting two new touring units off from the two that visit 95 U.S. cities a
year––one to tour South America, the other to tour Asia. The new units will be the first
Ringling shows to perform under tents since 1956, when the U.S. units turned to indoor
arenas.
The 1,100-mile Iditarod sled dog race lost yet another major sponsor on
September 25 when Timberland, a primary backer since 1987, announced it would cease
annual funding of about $390,000 because the association didn’t “translate well” to many
customers. Iams pulled out on September 13.

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Horses

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:
Premarin maker on defensive
BRANDON, Manitoba––Wyeth-Ayerst is
worried about consumer response to the disclosure by
the Farm Animal Concerns Trust and ANIMAL
PEOPLE in early 1993 that its top-selling drug, the
estrogen supplement Premarin, comes from pregnant
mares’ urine, or PMU; that the great majority of the
75,000-plus foals born to the mares each year are sold
to slaughter; and that vegetable-based alternatives are
readily available. Premarin is now under boycott by
most major animal protection groups.
Wyeth-Ayerst now answers letters of protest
with copies of a report entitled Care and Management
of Horses at PMU Production Facilities, by consul-
tant Shauna Spurlock, DVM, who argues that the
ranchers, “place their foals as they always have. The
type of foals produced run the gambit from purebred
thoroughbred foals intended for the race track, to
quarter horse foals destined for the show ring, to draft
foals that may be used for light recreational work.

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AGRICULTURE

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Agriculture secretary Mike Espy
resigned on October 4, effective December 31,
amid allegations that while moving to more closely
regulate red meat sanitation, he improperly
accepted gifts and favors from Tyson Foods, of
Arkansas, the biggest U.S. poultry producer.
Grazing on public lands, reports the
National Wildlife Federation, has contributed to
the decline of at least 346 species of fish, birds,
and mammals that are either officially endangered
or have been nominated for endangered status.
USDA researcher Robert Wall predicts
that a way to make cows’ milk simulate the health
benefits of breastfeeding will be developed soon by
inserting human genes into cows. The first obsta-
cle will be finding a way to create a transgenic cow
for less than the present cost of $300,000 per head.

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Wildlife & people

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

An Indian logging elephant named Bir Bahadur
staged a sit-down strike in February after his handler was
replaced, blocking a local official’s motorcade for hours.
Outraged, the official ordered him shot, as “mad.” However,
Bir Bahadur then broke his fetters and fled into the forest, tak-
ing two female elephants with him. He’s been at large ever
since. Maneka Gandhi, daughter-in-law of the late prime min-
ister Indira Gandhi, is now seeking a pardon for him.
Indonesian forestry minister Djamaluddin
Suryohadikusumo says elephants whose habitat has been
taken for farming should be trained to work, not be killed.
“People must be ready to accept them as part of our economic
life,” he said October 12. However, he has dispatched a hit
team to kill Crest, a bull elephant who has killed 13 people
since 1986 and has escaped three times after being shot with
tranquilizer darts.

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MARINE LIFE

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Russian prime minister Victor
Chernomyrdin on October 7 signed approval
of the International Whaling Commission
agreement, reached last May, to establish a
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary including
most waters below the 40th parallel south lati-
tude. Just amonth earlier his administration
formally objected to the sanctuary––the cre-
ation of which Russia supported at the IWC
meeting, against heavy pressure from Japan
and Norway. Because Russia objected in 1982
to the IWC-established international moratori-
um on commercial whaling, the objection to
the sanctuary meant that under IWC rules
Russia would have been uniquely entitled to
kill whales in Antarctic waters, exempt from
retaliatory trade sanctions. The turnabout came
two days after the Russian coastguard sank a
Japanese trawler near the disputed island of
Shikotan, and six days before a Russian mili-
tary airplane fired on a Norwegian trawler
which allegedly intruded upon a military exer-
cise in Arctic waters.

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Hunting

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The hook-and-bullet lobby is out to get
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Mollie
Beattie, the first nonhunter ever to hold the post,
Dennis Jensen reported October 1 in Vermont Sunday
Magazine––but few of the lobbyists he interviewed
dared identity themselves. “There’s the good-old-boy
network out there,” said former Vermont Fish and
Wildlife Department commissioner Steve Wright.
“And the fact that she is a woman. Many of these
guys have never worked with a woman in a powerful
position and just don’t know how.”
Legislation for Animal Welfare asked
members to help re-elect Ohio state senator Roy Ray,
targeted for defeat by the gun lobby over his opposi-
tion to opening a dove season. Dove-hunting propo-
nents, says Defenders of the Dove Campaign coordi-
nator Ritchie Laymon, “plan to bring their bill up on
the floor of the Senate after the November elections,”
as uncommitted representatives, “once safely back in
office, can vote for the interests of the wealthy hunt-
ing lobby and against the wishes of most Ohioans.”

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Religion & Animals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

Native Americans are flocking to
Dave and Valerie Heider’s bison ranch in
southern Wisconsin to see the first albino
bison born in more than a century. Sioux leg-
end holds that long ago during a famine a beau-
tiful young woman brought them a sacred pipe,
taught them to use it, and told them how to hunt
and use bison. Promising to return, she walked
away and became a white bison. The albino
mutation was believed lost when the bison were
driven near extinction late in the 19th century.

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COURT CALENDAR

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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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