TREASON CHARGE FOR DOLPHIN VIDEO

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

CORAL GABLES, Florida––Aldemaro Romero is alive and well as an Adjunct

Associate Professor at the University of Miami. That annoys the Venezuelan government.

Officially, he’s wanted for treason. Unofficially, some authorities would rather have his tor-

tured corpse in a ditch, along with that of his colleague Ignacio Agudo, a fellow academic

and president of Fundacetacea (The Whale Fund), who has been dodging dragnets in

Venezuela for more than a year now.

Said Ramon Martinez, governor of Sucre state, to Wall Street Journal reporter Jose

de Cordoba, “If it were up to me, I’d have them shot.”

Their alleged crime was videotaping a fishing crew in February 1993 during the acts

of harpooning a dolphin, then hacking her apart alive for use as bait.

“The remains of 13 other dolphins were found on the beach,” states Romero. “The

crew said on tape that they kill dolphins for shark bait. They also provided information about

the number of dolphins they kill per month, and where they get the harpoons.”

Birds

April 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

The National Audubon Society plans to use the alleged

mid-February poisoning of more than 40,000 waterfowl at Silva

Reservoir, Mexico, as a test of the strength of the North American

Commission on Environmental Cooperation, set up as part of the

North American Free Trade Agreement to monitor international pollu-

tion problems but not yet asked to rule on a case. The Mexican

National Water Commission blames the deaths on pesticide runoff.

Other sources blame chromium escaping from tanneries nearby, set

up to take advantage of the U.S. market opened by NAFTA.

Eagle deaths since November 1994 due to an unknown

toxin now total 27 in Arkansas, where the toxin causes brain damage,

and nine in Wisconsin, where liver damage is more common. Fifteen

eagles found dead in Wisconsin circa April, 1994, are believed to

have been deliberately poisoned, possibly by feather merchants.

MARINE MAMMALS

April 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

The clock is apparently running out on the sea

lion/steelhead conflict in Puget Sound, in favor of sea lions

who were caught, caged, and sentenced to death in February

under 1994 revisions to the Marine Mammal Protection Act,

for menacing the last steelhead from the endangered Lake

Washington winter run as they approached Ballard Locks. A

variety of nonlethal methods have failed to deter the sea lions,

but a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society proposal to relocate

them to San Francisco Bay and a publicity-grabbing cage

occupation by Ben White of Friends of Animals apparently

bought them time until the salmon run was over. Forthcoming

amendments to the Endangered Species Act are expected to

relieve authorities of the duty to save the last fish of particular

runs when the species as a whole is not endangered.

A female orca calf, stillborn at the Vancouver

Aquarium on March 8, died from blood loss due to a pre-

maturely ruptured umbilicus. “A calf experiencing this kind

of catastrophic event would be doomed whether in an aquari-

um or in the wild,” said consulting veterinarian David Huff.

The calf was the third the Vancouver Aquarium has lost, with

none surviving longer than 97 days. The death came five days

after an infant orca died at the Kamogawa Sea World (no rela-

tion to the U.S. Sea World chain) in Japan. The losses, along

with that of another infant orca at Sea World San Antonio on

December 28, renewed protest against trying to breed orcas in

captivity. However, noted MARMAM online bulletin board

host Robin Baird, “A large proportion of the killer whale

calves who have not survived have been from two particular

mothers, both at aquaria which have not had a single surviving

calf.” Orca calves born at U.S. Sea World facilities by contrast

have a better survival rate than wildborn counterparts.

Tales from the cryptozoologists

April 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Freelance writer Peter Zahler and math teacher Chantal Dietemann, of

Watertown, New York, recently rediscovered the woolly flying squirrel in the Sai Valley of

northern Pakistan. Presumed extinct, the two-foot-long squirrel, with a two-foot tail, was last

seen in 1924. Although Zhaler and Dietemann actually recovered partial specimens of the

squirrel from around the nests of eagle owls last summer, they delayed the announcement until

March, to obtain scientific confirmation of their findings.

Australian zoology student Elizabeth Sinclair recently captured a pair of Gilbert’s

rabbit kangaroos in a live trap set for short-tailed kangaroos, according to the March edition of

Geo magazine. Considered extinct for more than a century, Gilbert’s rabbit kangaroos were last

seen alive in 1869. A radio transmitter was strapped to the male, who was then released. The

female, who had young in her pouch, remains in captivity.

Religion & Animals

April 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

The 83-member Union Hill Cumber-

land Presbyterian Church, of Limestone County,

Georgia, raised $2,500 by hosting the February 18

Bigfoot Hollow Coonhunt. “It’s reaching the young

people with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus,” said the

Reverend Charles Hood, oblivious that Jesus never

in any way endorsed killing for sport.

Losing popularity to the Catholic

Church, the only major nongovernmental institu-

tion in Cuba, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has

reportedly encouraged a revival of Santeria,

because, as Newsweek recently put it, “It has no

institutions to rival the state.” However, livestock

for Santerian sacrifice are in short supply.

Birds

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Pennsylvania Game Commission ornithologist Dan

Brauning has a simple explanation for the increasing abundance

and diversity of bird species around Philadelphia: “Human toler-

ance of wildlife is changing. People aren’t shooting things like

they were 50 years ago. Wild turkeys [for example] would not sur-

vive if kids in the suburbs all had pellet guns.”

Talking Talons Youth Leadership, formed by

Albuquerque raptor rehabilitator and retired school nurse Wendy

Aeschliman, teaches teenagers to do public presentations on civic

and environmental issues, using the birds in her permanent care to

illustrate their various points. According to Modern Maturity,

“Last year approximately 80 young educators appeared before

105,000 people,” tutored by about 50 adult volunteers.

ZOONOSIS UPDATE

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

A technical advisory committee set

up by the Indian government announced

February 7 that data review had confirmed

that a major disease outbreak in the city of

Surat last September was indeed pneumonic

plague, as first diagnosed, even though it did

not spread as fast or kill as many people as past

outbreaks have. A slightly earlier outbreak of a

disease reported as bubonic plague in

Maharashtra state is still under study. Both

forms of plague may be spread by rodent infes-

tation.

Yevgeny Belyaev, head of Russia’s

Epidemics and Sanitary Control State

Committee, told media February 8 that stray

dogs had become a serious threat to public

health in the Chechnyan war zone. He said the

chance that the dogs might spread cholera was

the greatest concern.

Coast Guard

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Responding to reports that the

U.S. Coast Guard shoots the pets of

refugees picked up in the Caribbean,

USCG public affairs chief Captain E.J.

Blanchard writes, “We make every effort

to provide for the safety of life at sea,

including animals. However, the rescue

of human life remains our foremost prior-

ity. In July and August the USCG res-

cued over 56,000 Haitians and Cubans

from flimsy overloaded boats, rafts, and

inner tubes. An unknown number of ani-

mals were also rescued. Our most diffi-

cult moments came during the early days

of the Cuban exodus. On one day alone,

over 3,300 people on 600 different rafts

were rescued. Some of our 110-foot cut-

ters had over 400 boat people each on

their decks. Our commanding officers

were making life-and-death decisions on

a minute-by-minute basis. Unfortunately,

Willy may be freed

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

MEXICO CITY––Keiko, the orca star of the 1993 film

Free Willy!, will be relocated to a new facility under construction at

the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport by November, Free Willy-

Keiko Foundation president David Phillips announced on February

6––and this time, after many false alarms, the deal was confirmed by

Oscar Porter, general director of Keiko’s present home at the Nuevo

Reino Aventura amusement park in Mexico City.

Keiko, believed to be about 16, will be accompanied by

some of the Nuevo Reino Aventura staff, Porter said, praising him

for having “developed a very special sensitivity, intuiting and perceiv-

ing people. Keiko is very affectionate,” Porter continued, “especially

toward children, ‘showering’ them constantly with his outstanding

jumps. He is so intelligent that he has been able to learn more than 54

different routines.”

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