ANIMAL HEALTH

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Zoonosis

The politics of rabies took a twist

on April 1 when in all seriousness Patricia

Munoz, public health director for

Washington County, New York, told the

county public health committee that she need-

ed an infectious disease control nurse on her

staff to handle the growing rabies-related

caseload. The Washington County public

health department handled about 500 more

cases of all types during the first three months

of 1994, including 16 cases of possible expo-

sure to rabid animals. Munoz got the com-

mittee to recommend the hiring, then dis-

closed that the nurse would also handle

hepatitis and salmonella cases, both of which

are far more numerous.

Laboratories

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

The American Association for the

Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care

put the animal care program at the Davis cam-

pus of the University of California on proba-

tion for six months in mid-April, stating that

the lack of a centralized system for enforcing

care standards has led to uneven and some-

times inadequate care, including cages that are

too small and dirty, and rat infestations of

holding facilities.

Nuisance wildlife: swans as goose control

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Nuisance wildlife control

experts in the upper midwest

report that mute swans may be the

best brake on the proliferation of

giant nonmigratory Canada geese.

Wildlife agencies in Atlantic coast

states from Rhode Island to Georgia

have practiced aggressive mute swan

“control” via egg-addling for about a

decade, after mute swan sightings

during the annual National Audubon

Society Christmas bird counts dou-

bled. Not noting that the number of

people out counting birds had also

doubled, the agencies warned that

the Atlantic coast was on the verge

of a mute swan population explo-

sion, 150 years after they were first

imported from England; blamed

swans for causing the decline of

heavily hunted migratory waterfowl;

Woofs and growls

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Animals and wildlife get

7% of the charity dollar in Britain,

4% in Canada, 2% in Spain, and

just 1% each in France and the

U.S., says a new study by the

Charities Aid Foundation––but the

figures aren’t directly comparable,

since medical care is primarily a

government reponsibility in the other

nations but remains heavily subsi-

dized by charity in the U.S.

SPECTACLES

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Bill Petersen, county commission

chair in Glades County, Florida, is leading

an effort to ban “hog dog rodeos,” in which

dogs are set upon semi-feral pigs in enclosed

arenas. The winner is the owner whose dog

brings down a pig the fastest. Held in Glades,

Highlands, and Hardee counties, “hog dog

rodeos” are popular with hunters, says pro-

moter Roger Vickery.

The World Society for the

Protection of Animals seeks letters protest-

ing the Jaripeo rodeo, held each February 23

in San Matias, El Salvador, in which a clown

bites a calf’s tongue and pulls it back as far as

he can stretch it. Address Lic. Carlos

Hilermann, Presidente, Inst. Salvadoreno de

Turismo, Calle Ruben Dario 619, San

Salvador, El Salvador.

Endangered ocean species

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Russian whaling commissioner

Alexei Yablokov on February 21 confirmed

that Soviet whalers for decades killed far

more whales than they reported to the

International Whaling Commission. For

instance, he said, in the 1960s one ship reported

killing 152 humpbacked whales and 156 blue

whales, but actually killed 7,207 humpbacks,

1,433 blue whales, and 717 right whales, a

species protected by the IWC since 1946.

Another ship killed 1,568 humpbacks and 1,200

right whales during the winter of 1961-1962,

but reported none of the right whales while the

USSR said its entire fleet killed only 270 hump-

backs all year. Two years later the same ship

killed 530 blue whales; the USSR said the fleet

total was just 74. The revelations mean IWC

estimates of whale numbers may be far too high.

Birds

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

The Clinton administration on

February 23 unveiled a management plan

for 24 million acres of public land in the

Pacific Northwest that cuts the rate of log-

ging to 20% of the pace in the 1980s. Most

of the 5.3 million acres of old growth on the

public lands will be off limits, to protect

spotted owls and more than 1,000 other old

growth-dependent species. Although the

plan will make permanent the layoffs of

about 9,500 forest products workers, it is

expected to be what The New York Times

called “the final blueprint” for settling the

spotted owl crisis. Studies of the impact of

logging on spotted owls go on; critics of owl

protection may enjoy the March 13 disclo-

sure that the Seattle Center for Wildlife

Conservation is getting $107,000 from the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to check spot-

ted owl guano from logging areas for hor-

monal signs of stress.

Fur

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Canadian environment minister Sheila Copps,

whose gracelessness earned her the nickname “Leader of

the rat pack” during her years as a Parliamentary back-

bencher, disrupted a meeting of top environmental offi-

cials from the seven major Western industrialized nations

on March 12 by denouncing the European Community ban

on seal pelt imports, the pending EC ban on imports of

pelts trapped by cruel methods, and opposition to the cur-

rent Canadian seal hunt. Copps claimed an alleged popula-

tion explosion of seals is causing the collapse of the

Atlantic Canada fishing industry, despite strong biological

evidence that seals do not eat many fish of the most com-

mercially valued species.

Hunting & Fishing

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

A bill to ban pigeon shoots includ-

ing the notorious Labor Day shoot in Hegins

fell three votes short of clearing the

Pennsylvania state house on March 8––and

actually drew a majority of the votes cast, 99-

93. However, 103 votes would have been

required to pass the bill from the 202-member

house to the state senate. Though the bill

would almost certainly have failed in the sen-

ate, where 38 of the 48 members have ‘A’ rat-

ings from the National Rifle Association, the

vote was a marked advance from 1989, when

the house defeated a similar bill, 126-66.

The Colorado house finance com-

mittee on February 16 killed as contrary to the

expressed intent of the electorate a bill that

would have reauthorized spring bear hunting

and hunting bears with hounds and bait––all of

which were banned by referendum in 1992.

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