COURT CALENDAR

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

Humane Enforcement

The toughest cruelty sentence ever

issued in Vermont went to Donald Bliss, of

Barre, on a December 14 plea bargain. Bliss

admitted to keeping a starving Belgian mare staked

outside for most of the winter of 1992-1993. He

drew a year in jail with immediate probation, a

suspended fine of $2,000, was ordered to donate

$1,000 to the Central Vermont Humane Society,

and was obliged to pay the town of Barre $1,100

for boarding the mare until she was adopted by

Anne Cole Butler, of Orange.

Fur

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

While the ISO moved to accept

padded leghold traps as “humane,” a

Massachusetts judge ruled they are not on

December 27, 1993, overturning a 1989 rul-

ing by the state Division of Fisheries and

Wildlife that padded traps were not banned by

the state law that banned steel-jawed leghold

traps in 1974. “It is apparent from the opera-

tion of the Woodstream ‘soft-catch’ trap,”

Suffolk Superior Court judge Patrick King

wrote, “that it will cause injury to many ani-

mals.”

ANIMAL HEALTH

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

Rabies update

New Hampshire state veterinarian

Clifford McGinniss warned January

15––after a rabid kitten was found in a

Merrimack College dormitory––that feral cats

must be exterminated to protect Hampton

Beach visitors. Disagreeing, Hampton Beach

is pursung a $24,000 cat control plan combin-

ing catch-and-kill with selective neuter/

release. The plan is also opposed by New

Hampshire SPCA executive director Bonnie

Roberts, who told the Boston Globe that the

feral cats “are going to tangle with rabid ani-

mals and spread the disease.” In fact, rabies

vaccination is a prerequisite of the Hampton

Beach plan, and of all properly managed

neuter/release programs. There are no reports

on record of any cat in any recognized

neuter/release program anywhere ever con-

tracting rabies, while several neuter/release

programs including one coordinated in 1991-

1992 by ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim

Bartlett have been credited by public safety

officials with creating an immunized barrier

between rabid wildlife and family pets.

OSTRICH AND EMU SPECULATORS: Will they get rich quick or just get the bird?

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

DALLAS, Texas––More than 115,000 giant flightless

birds––ratites––roam North American pastures, including 80,000

ostrichs, 35,000 emus, and the occasional rhea. Ratite numbers

have doubled since last year and quadrupled since 1991. At the

present rate of breeding, stoked by speculation, the ratite popula-

tion could double again this year, and perhaps next year, too.

But many of those “pastures” are little more than back yards.

There is as yet no significant market for ratites other than specula-

tion in breeding stock. When no one else wants to cash in insur-

ance policies, mortgage property, and drain life savings to buy

ratites at spectacularly inflated prices, the pyramid of breeders,

dealers, franchisers, and support service vendors will col-

lapse––maybe not this year, but almost certainly soon.

LEFTY DUCKS AND CHICKENS OF THE WORLD UNITE!

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Lefty’s Place, by Lewis G. Nierman. Kindness

Publications (1859 N. Pine Island Rd., #135, Plantation,

FL 33322), 1993. 32 pages, hardcover, $18.95.

Nature’s Chicken, by Dr. Nigel Burroughs.

Distributed by United Poultry Concerns (POB 59367,

Potomac, MD 20859). 36 pages, paperback, $5.95.

Neither battery-caged chickens nor the feral

Muscovy ducks of Florida have many human friends. As

with bears and whales, children may be among the first and

most ardent to take up their cause. Certainly Lewis

Neirman and Nigel Burroughs hope so. Neirman approach-

es his young audience with a lavishly produced picture-

book, aimed at grades 2-5, which has a reasonable chance

of getting into school libraries as a friendly introduction not

only to Muscovy ducks but also to the broader subjects of

wildlife rehabilitation and coping with disability. Lefty‘s

Place actually begins with a family’s adoption of Lefty’s

mother, Keppy, Lefty, the runt of her ducklings, suffers a

severe foot injury. The daughter of the family, Rebecca,

rehabilitates him to the extent that he can be rehabilitated,

then makes him a pet. Most children will enjoy the story;

those who are themselves recovering from illness or injury

may particularly take heart from it.

COURT CALENDAR

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Activism

“The Animal Liberation Front planted nine incen-

diary devices in four Chicago department stores which sell

fur,” media were told in a November 28 fax communique.

“The incendiaries were designed to start a small fire which

would in turn set off the stores’ sprinkler systems and cause

water damage. This action signals the start of a new, more

intense campaign of economic sabotage.” Five of the fire-

bombs went off November 28 and 29, doing minor damage at

Marshall Field, Carson and Saks. Three more were removed

by police and FBI agents. The ninth apparently never turned

up. Copies of a British ALF manual describing how to make

firebombs arrived in the mailboxes of numerous animal protec-

tion groups during the next few days, postmarked Palatine,

Illinois––a Chicago suburb. The incident gave furriers a con-

siderable volume of media time in which to denounce the anti-

fur movement generally.

AGRICULTURE

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

World meat production is up from

177.2 million tons in 1990 to 184.2 tons in

1993, says the Intergovernmental Group on

Meat, an industry task force. Cattle produc-

tion slid from 54.3 million tons to 52.8, but

pork is up from 69.7 million tons to 73.8, and

poultry is up from 39.9 million tons to 44.2.

Total production in developed nations fell

from 104.2 million tons to 100.6, due mostly

to declines in the former USSR, but produc-

tion in developing nations jumped from 73

million tons to 83.6 million––an expenditure

of soil and water resources many of them can-

not afford to make.

ANIMAL HEALTH

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

The Farm Bureau, Cattleman’s Association, and

Eastern Milk Producers Cooperative are backing a New York

state bill to let farmers vaccinate their own cattle against rabies,

as is allowed in 36 other states including the adjoining states of

Vermont and Pennsylvania. The bill is opposed by the New York

Veterinary Medical Society. The farm groups claim it would help

curb rabies by cutting vaccination costs. The veterinarians

respond that vaccinations improperly done provide no protection.

The tick-borne disease tularemia has reappeared in

southeastern Pennsylvania, a decade after causing two human

fatalities in the same area. The disease usually hits rabbits,

killing them within four hours; both the Pennsylvania victims had

just killed and dressed rabbits. Tularemia can also kill dogs and

cats who have contact with infected rabbits.

Biomedical research, teaching, and testing

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

The report in our November issue

that a George Washington University team

had cloned human embryos was in error,

based on an erroneous article in The New York

Times. What the researchers actually did was

achieve artificial embryonic cell division,

which creates the possibility of conceiving

twins via in vitro fertilization.

Veterinarian/astronaut Dr. Martin

Fettman on October 30 performed the first

dissections in space, assisted by Dr. Rhea

Seddon, aboard the space shuttle Columbia.

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