AGRICULTURE

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

The USDA on November 5

approved the sale of milk produced with the

use of a genetically engineered bovine

growth hormone, bovine somatotropin,

effective when a Congressionally imposed

moratorium expires February 3. In the interim,

the anti-genetic engineering Foundation on

Economic Trends and small dairy farmers are

trying to form a national boycott of dairies that

buy milk from BST users. The potential

impact of BST is indirectly illustrated by newly

released statistics showing California is the top

dairy state in the US., with only 2,000 farms

and 1.2 million cows, compared with 29,000

farms and 1.5 million cows for Wisconsin, the

runner-up. Most Wisconsin farms are family-

run; most California production comes from

mega-scale factory farms, whose cows may

never go outdoors or taste fresh grass. BST is

expected to tilt farm economics further in favor

of the factory farmers.

COURT CALENDAR

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

Crimes against wildlife

Hong Kong authorities confiscat-

ed $20,000 worth of rhinoceros horn in a

series of late October raids on apothecaries,

following leads provided by the London-based

Environmental Investigation Agency. But the

raids may have come too late to save rhinos in

the wild, as fewer than six remain in protect-

ed areas of Zimbabwe, according to wildlife

veterinarian Dr. Michael Kock, who could

find only two in a two-week aerial search.

There were 3,000 when Zimbabwe achieved

native sovereignty in 1980. Kock sawed the

horns off about 300 rhinos a year ago, trying

to make them worthless to poachers, but dis-

covered that even the nub left behind after

dehorning will fetch $2,400 U.S. Kock says

he has evidence that the Asian poaching car-

tels are actively trying to “kill every rhino,”

because, “If they eliminate the rhino, the value

of the horn will skyrocket. They can sit on a

stockpile for 10 years; they know there is

always going to be a market.”

ANIMAL HEALTH

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

A mystery hantavirus that killed 26 peopleear-

lier this year could spread across the U.S., the November 5

issue of Science warned. The Pulmonary Syndrome

Hantavirus, as it is now called, PSH for short, was traced

to deer mice after killing 19 people near the junction of

Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado––and deer

mice range over most of North America. Cases have now

been confirmed as far north as Montana and the Dakotas,

as far west as coastal California, and as far east as

Louisiana. The southwestern outbreak may have occurred

as result of heavy rains in early 1992 that produced a

bumper crop of pinon nuts and grasshoppers, both staple

foods for deer mice, whose population exploded. The

Centers for Disease Control suspects the outbreak was

detected only because so many cases appeared at once.

Disaster plan works: Wildfire!

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

LOS ANGELES, California––Southern California participants in the American

Humane Association’s mid-October disaster preparedness seminar had barely stepped off the

planes taking them home from Baltimore when their lessons were put to the test. Twenty-five

wildfires in 14 days, 19 of them arsons, roared through canyons in seven contiguous counties.

The disaster hot spot seemed to shift with the dry Santa Ana winds––from Escondido,

overlooking San Diego, to Malibu, northwest of Los Angeles. Each blaze seemed more men-

acing than the last, until the climactic fire swept down Topanga Canyon from Calabasas,

forked, and incinerated two separate coastal neighborhoods. Eighteen thousand acres of

FUR IS STILL DEAD: Industry numbers confirm collapse, despite claims

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

Daniel A, the successor to the bankrupt Antonovich fur chain, itself declared bank-

ruptcy in early October. The high-profile collapse, on the heels of a previous collapse, under-scored the continuing crash of the fur trade. Despite the Fur Information Council of America claim that retail fur sales rose to $1.1 billion last year, ending a four-year decline, other data newly released by the fur trade itself confirms the ANIMAL PEOPLE projection based on gar-ment and pelt prices that sales actually fell to between $648 and $750 million. Evans Inc., annu-ally accounting for about 10% of U.S. fur sales, sold $107 million worth of goods––but trim items with minimal fur content accounted for $30.4 million of it. The fur trade claimed mink pelt prices were up 30%, but Wisconsin, accounting for nearly 25% of U.S. mink production, recorded a 16% drop in sales and a 13% drop in revenue, indicating only a marginal price rise. The number of U.S. fur garment wholesalers also fell, from 2,200 at the start of 1992 to just 1,500 going into this winter. Finally, a study of the fur trade done by Southwick Associates for the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies confirms the accuracy of the ANI-MAL PEOPLE model of fur trade economics, coming within 11% of the ANIMAL PEOPLE projections in 17 of 18 major categories of information. The only wider variance is in the esti-mates of retail jobs produced: Southwick found four times as many by counting all employees of retailers who sell fur, instead of counting only those who actually work in fur sales. The ANI-MAL PEOPLE model was developed in early1988 by editor Merritt Clifton, under contract with the Humane Society of the U.S., and has been used to produce yearly estimates of fur trade eco-nomic data ever since. The Southwick Associates model is based on 1990 statistics obtained directly from the fur trade and state wildlife departments.

AGRICULTURE

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

A House/Senate conference com-

mittee agreed October 7 to raise the grazing

fee on federal land from $1.86 per animal unit

month to $3.45 over the next three years, and

to increase government supervision of ranching

activities on leased federal land. The higher

fee––still far lower than the going rate for leas-

ing privately owned grazing land––is expected

to sharply reduce the number of cattle and

sheep on the range in 16 western states. Final

approval of the grazing bill is pending.

October 16, both the House and the Senate

voted to eliminate $500 million in subsidies to

the slumping sheep industry. Wool and lamb

prices have fallen to record lows in each of the

past three years. The American Sheep Industry

Association predicted 25% to 30% of U.S.

sheep ranches would go out of business.

COURT CALENDAR

October 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

Editor’s note: The people grouped under the heading “Animal Collectors,”

below, call themselves animal rescuers. The others, purportedly, sought to make

money. In each case, however, regardless of alleged motive, the pathology and cir –

cumstances of the perpetrators seems to be the same. As humane investigator Lewis R.

Plumb of the Promotion of Animal Welfare Society in Paradise, California wrote about

a case he and his wife prosecuted, “When two people are living in a mobile home with

hundreds of dogs, with feces all over the floors and even on the bed, when in one small

container a mother poodle nurses two dead puppies who have been left in the cage,

when three dead puppies are in the freezer next to a frozen turkey and some ice cream,

then you get the idea that it just maybe is not so much criminality as insanity. How

should these people be humanely dealt with? As it is now, each felony cruelty count

under California law carries a maximum penalty of one year is prison, a maximum fine

DIET & HEALTH

October 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

The Clinton administration has

proposed ending the conflict of interest

between the regulatory and promotional

functions of the USDA with respect to the

meat and poultry industry by transfering the

Food Safety and Inspection Service to the

Food and Drug Administration. The FDA

staff of 1,000 now inspects 53,000 non-

meat food producers, drug manufacturers,

and makers of medical equipment, while

the USDA employs 9,000 people to inspect

6,100 meat and poultry processors.

Coincidentally, tainted meat that passes

inspection causes an estimated 9,000

human deaths per year and 6.5 million ill-

nesses. The National Cattlemen’s Associa-

tion, American Meat Institute, and

National Broiler Council oppose the plan.

Agriculture

October 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

Twenty-two percent of New York’s 11,800 dairy farms now milk

their cows three times a day, up from 15% in 1991, according to the Cornell

University Department of Animal Science. The New York dairy cow population

is down to 749,000, from 928,000 a decade ago, and the number of dairy farms is

down from 18,000, but the remainder produced a record 11.6 billion pounds of

milk. Largely because of thrice daily milkings, average milk production per cow

is up 20%, to 15,463 pounds (roughly equal to the national average). Because

thrice daily milkings wear cows out faster, farmers who have gone to that sched-

ule cull their herds more often. Dairy farming accounts for $1.5 billion of New

York’s $2.9 billion-a-year agricultural industry.

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