AGRICULTURE

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.

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COURT CALENDAR

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.”

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ANIMAL HEALTH

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.

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Disaster plan works: Wildfire!

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

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

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.

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AGRICULTURE

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.

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COURT CALENDAR

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

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DIET & HEALTH

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.

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Agriculture

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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