Roddick tells AmEx to shed fur

May 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1993:

WEST SUSSEX, U.K.––Seeking

to build a progressive image, American

Express recently began airing television com-

mercials featuring British cruelty-free person-

al care products entrepreneur Anita Roddick,

whose Body Shop logo has become synony-

mous with conscientious capitalism. The

commercials describe how Roddick roams the

world in search of products whose ingredients

can be harvested from whole and healthy nat-

ural environments, such as the Amazonian

rainforest. It’s great publicity for The Body

Shop as well as for AmEx––and it came at a

price beyond dollars.

HUNTING

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

The Federation of Ontario

Naturalists reports that 95% of spring bear

hunters in the province are Americans, from

states that ban spring bear hunting. In 1991,

Ontario spring bear hunters killed 6,760 bears,

9% of the estimated provincial population. A

third of the bears were females. Only 30% of

cubs who lose their mothers live to age one.

“All too many Alaska hunters are

lazy, ill-mannered, beer-guzzling, belly-

scratching fat boys, or girls,” Anchorage

Daily News outdoors editor Craig Medred

opined recently, “who want nothing more

than to ride around on their favorite piece of

high-powered machinery until they find some-

thing to shoot full of holes with their high-

powered rifle.” Medred also attacked the

Fur

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Preliminary data indicates U.S.

trapping license sales fell to 147,000 dur-

ing the winter of 1992-1993, down from

191,000 in 1991-1992; 230,000 in 1990-

1991; and 338,000 in 1987-1988, when

U.S. trappers sold 19 million pelts. This

past winter they sold just 2.5 million.

Trapping was a $10 million a

year industry in Louisiana during the

early 1980s, but is now earning only $1

million a year. Trying to revive the boom,

state Department of Wildlife and

Fisheries biologist Greg Linscombe

recently told Newsweek that damage to

bayous caused by Hurricane Andrew was

actually the fault of allegedly overpopu-

lating nutria. Nutria are muskrat-like

South American aquatic mammals

brought to Louisiana by fur farmers about

70 years ago––and are a favorite food of

alligators. The Louisiana Department of

Wildlife and Fisheries, removes 75,000

alligator eggs a year from the bayous to

stock alligator farms.

Zoos & Aquariums

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

The World Society for the Protection of Animals recently liberated Flipper, the

last captive dolphin in Brazil, near where he was captured in 1982. Before the release,

Flipper was reaquainted with life in the ocean under the supervision of Ric O’Barry of the

Dolphin Project––who also trained his namesake, the star of the Flipper TV program. Brazil

banned keeping marine mammals in captivity in 1991. The Brazilian Flipper spent the past

two years in solitude at an abandoned amusement park near Sao Paulo, and was kept alive

by the local fire department, who used their pumper truck to change his water after the filtra-

tion system in his tank deteriorated beyond repair.

Colorado’s Ocean Journey, the proposed aquarium to be built in Denver,

recently tried to head off protest by claiming it would include “only third generation captive-

born dolphins.” Pointed out David Brower, president of Earth Island Institute, “There are

no third-generation captive-born dolphins anywhere.” The Coors Brewing Company recent-

ly retreated from the dolphin controversy. According to a prepared statement issued

February 15, “Contrary to rumors and recent advertisements, Coors does not ‘want to bring

dolphins to Denver.’ Our support of this project is not focused on, nor dependent on,

cetaceans.”

Religion & Animals

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

The General Association of Davidian

Seventh Day Adventists, a 500-member vege-

tarian sect active in New York, California, and

South Carolina, wish to make known that they

have nothing whatever to do with the Branch

Davidians, who have been involved in an armed

standoff with police and the FBI since February

28 at their compound near Waco, Texas.

ANIMAL HEALTH

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Ohio Veterinary Medical Board member George Wenning, DVM, resigned March 11 under pressure

for having called filing horses’ teeth “nigger work” during a board meeting. The governor’s office ordered another

member, Tom Liggett, DVM, to take a one-day course on cultural diversity at his own expense––and made the

annual course mandatory for all 400 members of state boards and commissions. Liggett reportedly routinely

inquired as to whether applicants for veterinary licenses were “Americans.” The situation came to light when for-

mer board president Linda Randall, DVM, an Afro-American, told media that her private complaints to Governor

George Voinovich had gone unanswered for six months.

HORSES

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of

Appeals is to rule soon on whether the

National Park Service can remove about 20

feral horses from the Ozark National Scenic

Riverways park, 150 miles southwest of St.

Louis, Missouri. The horses are feral

descendents of a herd released during the

Great Depression. A three-judge panel is to

decide whether they are protected by the

same laws as western mustangs––whose

own protection is currently in dispute.

More than 60,000 Americans

needed emergency treatment for head

injuries suffered while riding horses in

1991, reports the Johns Hopkins Injury

Prevention Center. Children under 15 were

the most frequent victims. The center rec-

ommends that riders wear helmets.

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.

Fur

March 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service has proposed to take red, western

gray, and eastern gray kangaroos off the

threatened species list, which would mean

their pelts could be imported in greater

numbers. Protected since 1974, the

Australian kangaroos now number about

18 million, up from 10 million in 1984,

and are killed for pelts at the rate of about

5.2 million a year. Public comments will

be received until March 22. Address

Office of Public Affairs, USFWS, Dept.

of the Interior, Washington, DC 20240.

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