Dolphin-safe tuna law erased by treaty

November 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

PANAMA CITY, Panama– – The
U.S. embargo against imports of tuna netted
“on dolphin” collapsed October 4 as the Bill
Clinton administration signed the Declaration
of Panama, a treaty which redefines “dolphin-safe”
from zero preventable dolphin
deaths to killing under 5,000 per year.
Accepted under pressure from the
anti-regulation Republican Congress and the
enforcement panels of the General Agreement
on Trade and Tariffs and the North American
Free Trade Agreement, the treaty is expected
to be quickly ratified by the Senate.

Animal health

October 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Mongolian authorities on August 24 quarantined 50 people in
Mankhan county, Hovd province, after a 17-year-old trapper contracted
bubonic plague while skinning marmots.
Plague broke out simultaneously on a state farm near Bryansk,
Russia, near the Belarus border, killing 400 pigs but no people.
Nature’s Recipe in July recalled and destroyed several thousand
tons of dry dog food that caused dogs to vomit because of contamination
from a wheat fungus called deoxynivalenol, vomatoxin for short,
which appears after wet growing seasons. It isn’t lethal to either dogs or
humans, just not pleasant to have.

Tapirs in trouble

September 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

“The insatiable human appetite for meat and

animal products is devouring the mountain tapir’s pre-

cious Andean home,” writes wildlife ecologist Craig

Downer, “even within Sangay National Park,

Ecuador, a UNESCO World Heritage area. In my six

years there, my study area has gone from lightly to

grievously invaded by cattle. Fires set by vaqueros

have substantially reduced the cloud forests, the

tapirs’ most essential habitat. Hunters have killed at

least 50 tapirs within the park, including four of the

seven I have radio-collared. As a member of the

International Union for the Conservation of Nature

Species survival commission, I am presently prepar-

ing an action plan for the rescue of this species.”

RABIES UPDATE

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

A rabid raccoon bit Samantha

Sorochinski, age 2, on May 5 in West Milford,

New York, prompting New York, New Jersey,

and Connecticut authorities to remind the public that

the mid-Atlantic raccoon rabies pandemic, which

crested three to four years ago, has not gone away.

Peruvian Health Ministry staff on May

8 began a 40-day drive to poison an estimated

90,000 stray dogs in Lima, the national capitol, to

reduce the risk of rabies.

Agriculture

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Twelve activists were arrested and

two hurt at Brightlingsea, England, on

April 18, as they failed to halt the export of

1,200 sheep to Belgium, following an April 12

ruling by the High Court that local authorities

had no right to ban live animal exports. The

ruling undid export bans won through a winter

of protest at all major British cattle ports.

Australia’s effort to resume sheep

sales to Saudi Arabia after a four-year hiatus

hit a snag on May 8 when Saudi inspectors

diverted the first cargo of 75,000 sheep to

Jordan because they didn’t think the sheep

were healthy enough to be unloaded at Jeddah.

A second ship carrying 30,000 sheep changed

destinations voluntarily. Australia sold up to

3.5 million sheep a year to Saudi Arabia before

1991, when the frequent arrival of diseased

sheep caused the Saudis to cut off the trade.

MARINE MAMMALS

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

Seal hunt

Canada on April 11 denied an allegation by the

International Fund for Animal Welfare that the Shanghai

Fisheries Corporation and a sealing industry delegation from

the Magdalen Islands of Quebec met the day before in Hong

Kong to sign a deal to increase the export of seal penises to

China. “Because it’s penises, people laugh,” said IFAW

spokesperson Marion Jenkins, “but the Chinese medicine

market has been responsible for the near extinction of the

tiger and the rhino.” Despite the lack of other apparent

viable markets, the seal slaughter shifted from the

Magdalens to Newfoundland in mid-April, encouraged by a

quota of 186,000 and a federal bounty of 20¢ per pound on

seal carcasses landed. Newfoundland fisheries minister Bud

Hulan claims the Atlantic Canada seal population is circa

eight million, and that the seals are contributing to the

decline of cod, recently pronounced “commercially extinct.”

However, current research by Thomas Woodley and David

Lavigne, of the International Marine Mammal Association,

indicates there are no more than 3.5 million harp seals, prob-

ably fewer; 400,000 hooded seals; and 142,000 grey seals,

the only species whose numbers are increasing. Cod make

up only about 1% of the seals’ diet.

Agriculture

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

Academy Award-winning actress

Whoopi Goldberg has agreed to appear in a

Friends of Animals ad campaign publicizing

horse slaughter. In 1994 U.S. slaughterhouses

killed 348,000 horses; another 28,612 U.S.-

born horses were killed in Canada. Most were

young “surplus” from speculative breeding.

A South African Airways flight

from London to Johannesburg with more

than 300 people and 72 prize breeding pigs

aboard returned to England for an emergency

landing on April 6 when, as a spokesperson

put it, “The collective heat and methane that

the pigs gave off in the cargo hold caused the

alarms to activate.” Fifteen pigs suffocated

when automatic fire extinguishers filled the

hold with halon gas.

ANIMALS IN LABORATORIES

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

Chimpanzee expert Dr. Jane Goodall, Henry Spira of

Animal Rights International, Holly Hazard of the Doris Day Animal

League, and Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society of the U.S. are to

speak at the 1995 National Association for Biomedical Research con-

ference on May 1, in a forum moderated by Franklin Loew, dean of

the Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine. The forum was organized,

NABR said, when “Prompted by her open letter calling for public

forums on the use of animals in research and education, NABR asked

Dr. Goodall to address some of the complex ethical questions and other

issues she raised.” Wrote Goodall, at the urging of ANIMAL PEO-

PLE subscriber Walter Miale, “Animal experiments are conducted for

reasons such as advancing knowledge and curing disease. But treating

our fellow creatures as we do, on the scale we do, raises critical ques-

tions. Failure to examine them honestly is a failure of our own humani-

ty. Many areas of discussion do not resolve neatly into black and

white,” she added. “Learning from and reasoning with those who do

not share our views is one way we grow.” Miale, an independent envi-

ronmental researcher who lives in Philipsburg, Quebec, has worked to

start dialogue among activists and scientists since 1989.

San Juan to St. Louis

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

ST. LOUIS––”If I was a lost, sick, hungry stray

cat or dog,” says Pet Search volunteer Judith Riddell

Messimer, “Alice Dodge is the face I’d most want to see.”

The 100-odd cats and two dozen dogs in Dodge’s

care at any given time might agree. Messimer was so con-

vinced just from her experience in adopting one kitten that

she traded in an economical Ford Escort for “an $18,000

Jeep PetTaxi,” as she recalls, to be of maximum use in

“spending my Sundays shuttling animals from rural Missouri

to St. Louis and interviewing potential owners.”

But 11 years ago, Dodge couldn’t even stand to

see her own face in the mirror.

“Alice’s son was killed when the vehicle she was

driving was hit broadside,” Messimer explains. “Kenny,

who was five, had removed his seatbelt to climb over the

seat. The impact threw open the passenger door, and Kenny

fell out. His head injuries killed him, but not before Alice

had to see him struggling to survive for days in the hospital.

The guilt and grief nearly killed her.”

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