COURT CALENDAR

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Collector cases

A 32-year-old man from Barrie,

Ontario, drew five years in prison on October 5

for three counts of sexual abuse and one of

obstructing justice, while his female companion,

33, drew two years for obstructing justice. In

November 1991 the pair locked the woman’s four

girls and a boy in a feces-filled basement for 18

months, along with 19 cats and four dogs, after

police visited the home to question the man about

allegedly anally raping the two oldest girls, then

nine and 10. The children were discovered, res-

cued, and placed in foster care in April 1993.

ANIMAL HEALTH

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.

Horses

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.

Out of the flooding and into the fire in Houston

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

HOUSTON––Flood rescue in

southeastern Texas from Houston to

Beaumont was expected to become oil spill

rescue in late October along a 24-mile

stretch of the San Jacinto River and possibly

in marshes flanking the Houston Ship Canal.

As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press,

Texaco crews were still trying to stop leaks

in a pipeline containing 2.1 million gallons

of crude oil between valve stations––the last

of five major pipelines that broke under the

floodwaters. Two gasoline lines burst

together on October 20 and erupted into

flames, injuring 69 people and nearly incin-

erating a Houston SPCA rescue team

including Nick Gilman, disaster coordinator

for the American Humane Association.

AGRICULTURE

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.

Fur

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

While the fur trade for the third year in

a row touts a comeback, facts and figures again

tell a different story. “For the first time in 50

years,” the Ritz Thrift Shop advertised in October,

“the Ritz is offering new designer furs,” apparently

clearing unsold stock from other furriers.

A burst of auction fever last winter

boosted the average mink pelt price from $20.49 in

Toronto on December 14 to $29.91 at Copenhagen

the next day, sparking even faster bidding at sever-

al other auctions, but by the season-ending auction

in Finland the average had fallen back to $20.50.

Even then, a third of the pelts offered didn’t sell,

perhaps because furriers had already bought half

again more pelts than they’ve sold in garments dur-

ing any of the past five winters, at an overall aver-

age of $30.13. To break even, retailers will have to

sell more fur this winter than they have since 1989-

1990, for 35% more money than they got last win-

ter: an average mink coat price of $3,200. In

October, the average was closer to $2,500.

COURT CALENDAR

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.

ANIMAL HEALTH

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

The European Union has granted Zimbabwe $3.4 million to fight hoof-and-

mouth disease––on condition that farmers be charged for veterinary care now given free.

Anthrax, the worst drought on record, and bovine tuberculosis transmitted by

dairy cattle have together cut the Cape Buffalo population of Kruger National Park in South

Africa from 30,000 to 14,000 in just two years.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is probing a cluster of genetic defects in rap-

tors, blackbirds, and robins from the Rogue Valley region of Oregon, reported by Dave

Siddon of the Wildlife Images rehabilitation center. Similar defects found in birds around the

Great Lakes have been traced to organochlorines, a chemical family which includes dioxin,

PCBs, and the pesticide DDT, which devastated raptors until a U.S. ban took effect in 1973.

AGRICULTURE: California downer bill may ratify neglect of hurt cattle

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

SACRAMENTO, California––California governor Pete Wilson on September 16

signed SB 692, the California Downed Animal Protection Act, passed by the legislature on

August 26. Endorsed by Farm Sanctuary, the Doris Day Animal League, and the Association

of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, SB 692 was fought by the Humane Farming Association

and Friends of Animals, who charge that amendments made to win the support of the Farm

Bureau Federation mean the new law only ratifies the present treatment of injured and ill cattle.

Of most concern to HFA and FoA is clause 599f.(b), which originally mandated that,

“No slaughterhouse, stockyard, auction, market agency, dealer or hauler shall hold a nonam-

bulatory animal without immediately humanely euthanizing the animal.” As amended, 599f.(b)

deletes haulers from the list, enabling cattle truckers to continue to accept downers for trans-

port. Further, instead of requiring that downers be immediately euthanized, which precludes

slaughtering them for human consumption, the bill now requires only that “immediate action”

must be taken “to humanely euthanize the animal or remove the animal from the premises.”

« 1 … 58 59 60 61 62 … 69 »