Makah don’t get quota: SEA SHEPHERDS FIND REPUBLICAN FRIENDS

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

ABERDEEN, Scotland– – Striking
another surprise blow for whales, this time
through Congressional politics, the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society on June 26
sunk Japanese and Norwegian hopes for
expanded legal whaling––at least for this year.
Eighteen years after Captain Paul
Watson established the Sea Shepherds’ reputation
as what he calls “good pirates” by ramming
the outlaw Portuguese whaler Sierra, 14
years after the International Whaling
Commission declared a global moratorium on
commercial whaling, the ban held at the 48th
annual meeting of the IWC, as under pressure
from the House Resources Committee the U.S.
delegation on June 26 withdrew an application
to allow members of the Makah tribe, of Neah
Bay, Washington, to kill five grey whales.

Crimes against wildlife

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

June 12, 1996 was a day to
remember in the international fight against
wildlife traffickers:
• In Chicago, bird smuggler
Tony Silva, 36, was jailed pending sentencing,
after prosecutors Sergio Acosta a n d
Jay Tharp argued that he was likely to jump
bail. Silva, who ran a wild-caught bird
smuggling ring while posing as an outspoken
foe of the wild-caught bird traffic, in January
pleaded guilty to reduced charges of conspiracy
and tax evasion, but on May 17 sought
unsuccessfully to withdraw the plea, after
former Playboy Mansion animal keeper
Theodora Swanson, 36, in April drew a
lighter sentence for conviction on contested
charges than her confederates got after copping
pleas.

Ghosties, goblins, and bumping off whales in the night

June 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

ABERDEEN, Scotland– – The
June 24-28 annual meeting of the
International Whaling Commission might
appropriately open with the ancient Scots
prayer, “God keep us from ghosties and goblins
and things that go ‘bump’ in the night.”
Resurrecting the ghost of whaling
from longboats last done more than 70 years
ago, the Makah tribe of the outermost tip of
the Olympic peninsula in Washington will bid
to claim a subsistance quota on grey whales
and become the first legal whalers along the
Pacific coast of the U.S. mainland since the
whaling station at Point Richmond,
California closed more than 20 years ago.
The Makah will be supported, for reasons
pertaining to political correctness, by Greenpeace
and the U.S. government––and Japan,
whose whaling industry has cultivated a close
relationship with Makah minister of fisheries
Daniel Green.

U.S. subsidizing Makah whaling

November 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

SEATTLE––The U.S. government is spending
$7 million to underwrite the Washington-based Makah
Tribe in killing whales next summer, charges Captain Paul
Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Watson cites grants, subsidies, and interest-free
loans to help build a marina big enough to serve whaling
vessels, provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Forest Service, Department of Commerce, USDA, Office
of Native American Programs, and Washington State
Department of Parks and Recreation.
“The Corps of Engineers signed the Project
Cooperative Agreement with the Makah on May 2, 1995,”
Watson told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “On May 5, the
Makah informed the U.S. government that they would
resume whaling, for commercial reasons under the guise
of aboriginal whaling, without regulation under
International Whaling Commission rules. It is clear that
the Makah intend for the U.S. government to fund the
facilities for landing and processing whales. The federal
agencies are proceeding with no information on the
impending whaling operation other than the tribal
announcement of their intent and treaty right to kill grey
whales.”

Life on the farm isn’t very laid back

October 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Gandhi’s birthday, October 2, marks the 13th observance
of World Day for Farm Animals, declared in 1982 by the
Farm Animal Reform Movement. Unfortunately, despite steadily
increasing humane concern for farm animals, not much has
happened in the past 13 years to actually improve farm animals’
lives. There have been some victories, for example the abolition
of face-branding of imported cattle won in late 1994 by the
Coalition for Non-Violent Food, but factory farming has only
become more dominant in poultry and hog production.
Slaughtered in the U.S. each year are 7.2 billion chickens,
277 million turkeys, 88.5 million hogs, and 1.5 million
veal calves, more than 99% of whom never see the outdoors
except through slats in the sides of the truck that takes them to
their doom. The annual toll also includes 33 million cattle and
5.8 million sheep and lambs. Increasing numbers of dairy cattle
and so-called “milk-fed spring lamb,” raised in the equivalent of
veal crates, also never go outside.

Indo-Canadian low-cost vets accuse British Columbia Vet Med Association of discrimination

July 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1995:

VANCOUVER––Alleging that they have been targeted for doing

low-cost dog and cat sterilizations, 18 Indo-Canadian veterinarians, 16 of

them members of the British Columbia Veterinary Medical Association, are

pursuing discrimination claims against BCVMA registrar Valerie Osborne.

Led by Atlas Animal Hospital owner Hakam Bhullar, the vets

have registered a lawsuit with the British Columbia Supreme Court, seek-

ing to remove Osborne from office, and have petitioned the British

Columbia Human Rights Tribunal requesting that an unusually strict lan-

guage proficiency test required by the BCVMA be repealed.

Osborne and other BCVMA representatives have said little on the

record about the Indo-Canadian veterinarians’ complaints, except to deny

that the intent of the language proficiency test is discriminatory.

Under Osborne, Bhullar told Richard Chu of the Vancouver Sun,

the BCVMA requires vets to score 92% on a standard test of spoken

English. Lawyers, medical doctors, dentists, nurses, and firefighters are

required to score only 83%, Bhullar said.

CHILDREN & ANIMALS

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

University of New Hampshire soci-

ologist David Finkelhor reported in the

October issue of Pediatrics that a telephone

survey of 2,000 children aged 10-16 had dis-

covered 15.6% were assault victims within the

previous year, triple the 5.2% reported by the

1991 National Crime Survey; 0.5% had been

raped, five times higher than the NCS esti-

mate of 0.1%; and 75% of the attacks were by

other youths, including 41% of the sexual

assaults. From 30% to 40% of the victims had

never reported the assaults, Finkelhor said.

Ohio data confirms hunting/child abuse link STRONGER THAN LINK TO RURAL POVERTY

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

TOLEDO, Ohio––The number of hunters in a county more accurately predicts the

level of child abuse than either population density or median income, according to a new

study of Ohio state statistics––and the findings apply to all four standard categories of abuse,

including physical violence, neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional maltreatment.

Overall, Ohio counties with more than the median number of hunters per 100,000

residents have 51% more reported child abuse, including 15% more physical violence, 82%

more neglect, 33% more sexual abuse, and 14% more emotional maltreatment.

Rural location and poverty are the two traditional predictors of child abuse––but by

Animal rights meet civil rights by Jacquie Lewis

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Animal rights activists peacefully exer-

cising their First Amendment Rights don’t expect

to be kidnapped, physically abused, held cap-

tive, and arrested for battery––but it happened to

Susan Koenker on February 15, 1992.

Susan, along with other participants in

a PETA-sponsored event, was explaining to

prospective buyers at a General Motors auto

show that GM was then the only car maker in the

world performing crash tests on animals. The

show was at McCormick Place, a sprawling con-

vention center and part of city property, on

Chicago’s lakefront.

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