Fund tries to save bison, mountain goats

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, the Fund

for Animals was scrambling to prevent the shooting of

from 80 to 150 bison who had wandered from Yellowstone

National Park into the Gallatin National Forest, north of

West Yellowstone, Montana. Montana state veterinarian

Clarence Siroky said state wardens would try to chase the

bison back into Yellowstone with helicopters, but would

shoot them to prevent the spread of brucellosis, a disease

causing stillbirths in cattle, if that tactic failed. Although

there is no evidence that bison can transmit brucellosis to

other species of cattle under natural conditions, and only a

small portion of the Yellowstone herd is believed to be

infected, Montana officials shot 420 bison who left the

park during the winter.

Agriculture

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Twelve activists were arrested and

two hurt at Brightlingsea, England, on

April 18, as they failed to halt the export of

1,200 sheep to Belgium, following an April 12

ruling by the High Court that local authorities

had no right to ban live animal exports. The

ruling undid export bans won through a winter

of protest at all major British cattle ports.

Australia’s effort to resume sheep

sales to Saudi Arabia after a four-year hiatus

hit a snag on May 8 when Saudi inspectors

diverted the first cargo of 75,000 sheep to

Jordan because they didn’t think the sheep

were healthy enough to be unloaded at Jeddah.

A second ship carrying 30,000 sheep changed

destinations voluntarily. Australia sold up to

3.5 million sheep a year to Saudi Arabia before

1991, when the frequent arrival of diseased

sheep caused the Saudis to cut off the trade.

WARRANTS TIE PROVIMI VEAL, LAMB TO ILLEGAL DRUGS

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

MILWAUKEE––Newly unsealed

search warrants executed in September 1994

by U.S. Customs Service special agent Steve

Sutherland allege the closest links yet

between the Provimi Veal Corporation, of

Waukesha, Wisconsin, the largest distribu-

tor of milk-fed veal and lamb in the U.S.,

and the illegal use of clenbuterol, a banned

steroid. The drug speeds the growth of calves

and lambs––but humans who eat clenbuterol-

tainted meat may suffer an accelerated heart

rate, muscle tremors, headaches, dizziness,

nausea, fever, and chills.

According to the warrants, copies

of which were obtained by Humane Farming

Association investigator Gail Eisenitz, the

clenbuterol traffic directly involved Aat

Groenvelt, who founded Provimi in 1962,

introduced the use of the veal crate to North

America, and was also instrumental in pro-

moting the popularity of “milk-fed spring

lamb,” essentially the meat of lambs raised

like veal calves.

High Court undoes transport victories

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

LONDON––The British High Court on April 12

reignited the five-month controversy over the export of live-

stock to European veal finishers and slaughterhouses with a

ruling that Dover, Plymouth, and Coventry had no jurisdic-

tion to ban live animal transport through their docks and air-

ports. The High Court rapped the civic authorities for acting

out of “narrow self-interest” in a “surrender to mob rule.”

The ruling undoes at a stroke the major gain from a

struggle backed by up to 92% of the public, according to

independent polls.

Anti-live export demonstrations commenced in

December 1994 after the European Union failed to adopt

rules of humane transport, and erupted into rioting at several

sites when, blockaded at ports, cattle exporters turned to fly-

ing animals to market. The conflict claimed six human lives:

two British livestock handlers and three Algerian crew mem-

bers aboard a chartered Air Algerie Boeing 737 that crashed

December 21 while returning from a night run to the

Netherlands, plus demonstrator Jill Phipps, 31, who was

crushed beneath a cattle truck on February 1, leaving behind

a nine-year-old son and a private animal sanctuary. Violence

continued into April on both sides, as the Animal Liberation

Front and pro-live export goons hit back and forth at each

other with vandalism and beatings.

Religion

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

The Miami county courthouse

maintenance staff has created a “Voodoo

Squad” to pick up the dead chickens, goats,

and other relics of Santeria sacrifice found

there each morning, remnants of Caribbean

immigrants’ attempts to influence justice.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 1993

that municipalities may not ban Santeria, but

they may enforce nondiscriminatory restric-

tions on it for reasons of health, sanitation,

and prevention of cruelty to animals.

The Rabbi Mayer Krucfeld,

assistant director of supervision for Star K

Kosher Certification, of Baltimore, recently

spent two days in La Jara, Colorado,

explaining how to start a kosher slaughter-

house to about 50 potential investors.

Currently the westernmost kosher slaughter-

house in the U.S. is Empire Meats, of Iowa.

Agriculture

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

Academy Award-winning actress

Whoopi Goldberg has agreed to appear in a

Friends of Animals ad campaign publicizing

horse slaughter. In 1994 U.S. slaughterhouses

killed 348,000 horses; another 28,612 U.S.-

born horses were killed in Canada. Most were

young “surplus” from speculative breeding.

A South African Airways flight

from London to Johannesburg with more

than 300 people and 72 prize breeding pigs

aboard returned to England for an emergency

landing on April 6 when, as a spokesperson

put it, “The collective heat and methane that

the pigs gave off in the cargo hold caused the

alarms to activate.” Fifteen pigs suffocated

when automatic fire extinguishers filled the

hold with halon gas.

CLENBUTEROL SCANDALS STILL SURFACING

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

SAN FRANCISCO––Five months

after Humane Farming Association investiga-

tor Gail Eisenitz disclosed through the

December 1994 edition of ANIMAL PEO-

P L E a year-long series of USDA, U.S.

Customs Service, and Food and Drug

Administration raids on veal industry facilities

in at least five states, seeking an illegal live-

stock growth stimulant called clenbuterol,

related scandals continue to surface.

Hard to detect, until the recent

development of a test that finds traces in a

slaughtered animal’s retinas, clenbuterol

residues in meat can be lethal to humans.

Among the newly revealed cases:

• Clenbuterol was found in a black-

faced lamb exhibited by Brian Wade Johnson,

22, of Gotebo, Oklahoma, who was named

the Future Farmer Association’s American

Star Farmer of 1994 even as ANIMAL PEO-

P L E went to press with Eisenitz’s findings.

The lamb was Grand Champion at the North

American International Livestock Expo, held

last November in Louisville, Kentucky.

Animal health

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

Fifteen thousand cattle have

died so far in Tanzania from an outbreak

of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia––

and it could spread to Zambia, Malawi,

and the rest of southern Africa, United

Nations Food and Agriculture Organiza-

tion animal health officer Peter Roeder

warned on March 29. “Cattle movements

from Uganda and Kenya, sometimes as

result of civil strife, have already caused

major outbreaks in Zaire and Rwanda,” he

said.

Canine distemper is on the

wane in Serengeti National Park, says

Melody Roelke-Parker, chief veterinarian

for Tanzania National Parks––after it

killed 80% of the now rebounding lion

population.

AGRICULTURE, DIET, & HEALTH

April 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Polls of children and teens done by

the National Live Stock & Meat Board’s

“Youth Initiative Task Force” found in 1992

and 1993 that 50% were concerned about the

fat and cholesterol in beef, 37% were con-

cerned about the fat and cholesterol in pork,

and 16% were concerned about the fat and

cholesterol in chicken––but only 4% saw cru-

elty in beef production, 3% saw cruelty in

pork production, and 2% saw cruelty in poul-

try production. Just 1% saw ecological harm

in eating beef; none saw ecological harm in

eating pork and poultry. A follow-up survey

is scheduled for this year.

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