Horses

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Jean R. Strothenke, town jus-

tice for Schroon, New York, on April

20 fined horse hauler David A. Carper, of

Frank Carper & Sons, $11,100 for ille-

gally taking 40 horses to slaughter in a

double-decked trailer, lacking individual

stalls and insulation. He was caught on

January 27, en route from New Jersey to

Canada, when the truck broke down in a

snowstorm. The fine was by far the

toughest since New York adopted legisla-

tion to cover horse transport in 1980.

Agricultural veterinary medicine

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The trade journal Beef Today and the

Colorado Cattlemen’s Association have urged the beef

industry to join animal protection groups in urging the

USDA to abolish face-branding cattle imported from

Mexico. The cattle are painfully face-branded––and cows

are spayed without anesthesia––as part of an anti-bovine

tuberculosis program. Of 438 cases of bovine TB found in

1993, 427 were in cattle of Mexican origin. Exposed in an

ongoing series of newspaper ads by the Coalition for Non-

Violent Food, face-branding was also discussed recently by

the Animal Welfare Committee of the AVMA. AVMA

policy presently supports face-branding, but related pro-

posed policy amendments are up for review by the AVMA

executive board.

AVMA says mad cow disease won’t hurt public

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

SCHAUMBERG, Illinois––University of San

Francisco researchers led by Dr. Stanley Pruisiner reported

on April 22 that they have discovered how disease-carrying

agents called prions replicate, a key step toward finding a

way to fight scrapie, a fatal brain disease of sheep and

goats, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), bet-

ter known as “mad cow disease.” More than 100,000

British cattle have been destroyed due to BSE since 1986,

while isolated cases have appeared in seven other nations.

The spring 1994 Farm Sanctuary newsletter

meanwhile asserted that “At least two British dairy farmers

whose cows had BSE, and who had been drinking milk

from their herds, died from CJD, the human counterpart to

mad cow disease…There is evidence to suggest that BSE

has existed in the United States for some time. In 1985,

several thousand mink at a Wisconsin fur farm died of

transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) which was

caused by their diet, primarily ‘downer’ cows. Research

done in the U.S.,” Farm Sanctuary continued, “has linked

BSE with the use of ‘downer’ cows… Scientists are now

concerned that the disease currently referred to by the U.S.

meat and dairy industries as ‘downer cow syndrome’ could

actually be BSE.”

AGRICULTURE

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The USDA on April 26 announced yet another pro-

posal to raise grazing fees on federal land. This version would

boost the base fee to $3.96 per head-month by 1997, but would

provide incentive discounts for ranchers who undertake various

forms of conservation and/or rangeland improvement.

Comments will be reviewed until July 28. An Environmental

Protection Agency impact study published May 18 estimated that

current management practices would bring a 3% decline over the

next 20 years in stream quality in the affected habitat, while the

proposed changes would bring a 27% improvement.

A National Agricultural Statistics Service survey of

the 10 largest corn-producing states, which raise 80% of the total

U.S. corn crop, reports that less than 1% is lost to wildlife. The

average loss per acre is 0.66 bushels. Of the 35.4 million bushels

eaten by wild animals, deer eat 13.9 million, while birds eat 9.6

million. The 1993 crop came to 5.14 billion bushels in all.

Horses

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Wyeth-Ayerst spent $9.2 million to push the estro-

gen supplement Premarin in 1992, according to Advertising

Age, while Ciba-Geigy spent $4.7 million promoting Estrace,

the leading rival product. Both drugs are sold to treat symp-

toms of menopause. Premarin is based on urine from pregnant

mares, who spend winters strapped to collection apparatus

under conditions similar to those of dairy cattle. More than

80% of the foals are sold to the horsemeat trade. Estrace is by

contrast a synthetic product. The estrogen supplement market

is expected to grow fast: only 7.4 million women take them

now, of an estimated potential U.S. market of 26.2 million.

The American SPCA, a leading foe of the New

York City carriage horse trade, now has its own carriage,

a replica of the horsedrawn ambulance it used in rescue work

circa 1895, built by former board member LeRoy Swindell.

The carriage is to debut at the Steuben Day Parade in October .

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.

Evidence escapes

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

HARTVILLE, Ohio––The Sharon

Woods deer saga took another twist on March

25 when 74 of the 76 whitetailed deer in cus-

tody of elk breeder Robin Rodabaugh disap-

peared after someone cut the fence. The deer

were the last of 286 whom Rodabaugh and 10

volunteers removed from heavily overpopulated

Sharon Woods Metro Park, on the outskirts of

Columbus, during December and January.

Rodabaugh said three witnesses provided infor-

mation linking the fence-cutting to an alleged

“known poacher,” who apparently wanted the

deer to get out where he could shoot them.

COURT CALENDAR

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Crimes Against Humans

Larry Gibson, 33, ex-deputy

sheriff for Douglas County, Oregon,

was arrested April 14 in Townsend,

Montana, for the alleged murder of his

two-year-old son Tommy on March 18,

1991. Gibson claimed he was jogging

when the boy disappeared, while his wife

was indoors; their daughter, then four,

said strangers drove off with him.

Unconvinced, investigators theorized in

May 1991 that Gibson shot his son by

accident while killing a neighbor’s cat

near the time of the disappearance.

Gibson’s wife, daughter, and another

son born since then recently left

him––whereupon the daughter, now

seven, told police she actually saw

Gibson strike Tommy, then stuff him

into a garbage bag.

Diet & Health

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

The Council for Agricultural

Science and Technology reported March 21

that advances in farming methods and the

growing popularity of vegetarianism could

mean a 30% decrease in the amount of land

used for food crops during the next 50 years

even as the global human population doubles.

The 64-page CAST study, commissioned by

the Program for the Human Environment at

Rockefeller University, was authored by

Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station

agronomist Paul Waggoner, who explained

that the calories and protein produced on pre-

sent cropland are already sufficient to feed 10

billion vegetarians, rather than the five to six

billion people who now eat a diet including

varying amounts of meat.

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