MEXICAN PET THIEVES SUPPLY U.S. SCHOOLS

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

MEXICALI, Mexico––The World

Society for the Protection of Animals on March

25 announced it had exposed a major Mexican

pet theft ring, operating for at least eight years.

The ring is organized by several American resi-

dents of Mexico. Bunchers pay children $1.00

apiece to catch cats, who are trucked in lots of

30 to 40 to Mexicali, where they are drowned

about 10 at a time in water barrels, preserved

with formaldehyde, and hauled to a location in

Sinaloa state, where they are sold for $7.00

each. From Sinaloa, they are trucked to U.S.

customers.

SPECTACLES

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Bill Petersen, county commission

chair in Glades County, Florida, is leading

an effort to ban “hog dog rodeos,” in which

dogs are set upon semi-feral pigs in enclosed

arenas. The winner is the owner whose dog

brings down a pig the fastest. Held in Glades,

Highlands, and Hardee counties, “hog dog

rodeos” are popular with hunters, says pro-

moter Roger Vickery.

The World Society for the

Protection of Animals seeks letters protest-

ing the Jaripeo rodeo, held each February 23

in San Matias, El Salvador, in which a clown

bites a calf’s tongue and pulls it back as far as

he can stretch it. Address Lic. Carlos

Hilermann, Presidente, Inst. Salvadoreno de

Turismo, Calle Ruben Dario 619, San

Salvador, El Salvador.

AGRICULTURE

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

The General Agreement on Trade

and Tariffs will increase the amount of pork

the U.S. can export to Europe to 624,000 met-

ric tons by 1999, six times the 1991 volume.

Drawn by relatively weak U.S. pollution

laws, European hog producers are rushing to

set up U.S. branches, including the Pig

Improvement Co., of Great Britain, the

world’s largest hog breeder, which hopes to

raise 100,000 hogs per year at a site near

Hennessy, Oklahoma. The facility will gen-

erate as much sewage as a town of 170,000

people. A Danish firm is reportedly planning

an even bigger operation: a 600,000-hog con-

finement farm to be sited in Alaska, where

there are virtually no laws pertaining to farm-

related pollution because farming ventures

there have historically failed.

Endangered ocean species

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Russian whaling commissioner

Alexei Yablokov on February 21 confirmed

that Soviet whalers for decades killed far

more whales than they reported to the

International Whaling Commission. For

instance, he said, in the 1960s one ship reported

killing 152 humpbacked whales and 156 blue

whales, but actually killed 7,207 humpbacks,

1,433 blue whales, and 717 right whales, a

species protected by the IWC since 1946.

Another ship killed 1,568 humpbacks and 1,200

right whales during the winter of 1961-1962,

but reported none of the right whales while the

USSR said its entire fleet killed only 270 hump-

backs all year. Two years later the same ship

killed 530 blue whales; the USSR said the fleet

total was just 74. The revelations mean IWC

estimates of whale numbers may be far too high.

SPECTACLES

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

The film Free Willy, the Paul

McCartney song Looking for Changes

and episodes of the TV comedies T h e

Simpsons and Dinosaurs took the top hon-

ors at the Genesis Awards ceremony March

12. Presented by the Ark Trust, the

Genesis Awards honor entertainment and

reportage that furthers awareness of animal

protection. The Simpsons, a surprise

choice, was recognized for an episode in

which underachiever Bart Simpson and his

sister Lisa disrupt a rattlesnake roundup.

Horses

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

The Ochoa brothers, reputedly

the world’s leading cocaine traffickers after

the death of Pablo Escobar in a shootout with

Colombian police late last year, reputedly

launder their income through their father’s

horse breeding business. Fabio Ochoa

Restrepo’s herd of 1,200 horses is reportedly

worth $25 million. The Escobar family also

breeds horses, but the value of their stock fell

shortly before Pablo Escobar was killed,

when rivals castrated a stud worth $1 million.

Poachers

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

California wardens on

January 28 broke up the Ace

Hunting Club, a bear poaching ring

allegedly run by William Jim Taek

Lee, 35. Trophy hunters paid Lee

$1,500 apiece to be guided to bears;

Lee then sold bear parts both local-

ly and to Korea. The operation

reportedly killed 30 bears and net-

ted $600,000 In a parallel but

apparently unrelated case, t h e

Pennsylvania Game Commission

five days later charged Tae-Ukand

Elaine S. Kang of Coatesville,

Pennsylvania, with illegally traf-

ficking in bear galls.

SPECTACLES

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

A group of Ecuadoran school children

in late January donated their allowances, sold toys,

and performed on street corners to raise funds to

feed polar bears, elephants, seals, and horses aban-

doned in Quito by the Circus of Czars, from St.

Petersburg, Russia. The circus manager vanished

with the receipts from a successful tour, leaving the

human performers stranded, as creditors seized

their equipment. As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to

press, help was reportedly en route from business

leaders and environmental groups.

Marine mammals

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

S. 1636, the present Marine

Mammal Protection Act reauthorization

bill, has cleared the Senate Commerce

Committee and at deadline was expected to be

passed any day by the full Senate, with House

ratification likely in April. The Humane

Society of the U.S. has asked members to

write Congress opposing S. 1636 because it

“has no provisions for effective enforcement,”

and “would allow the accidental killing of

endangered species (currently prohibited) and

the intentional shooting of seals and sea lions

solely to protect fish commercially caught or

raised.” HSUS seeks amendments that will

“ensure that marine mammal mortality in com-

mercial fishing operations reaches insignifi-

cant levels approaching zero, mandate specif-

ic punitive consequences if kill reduction goals

are not met on schedule, prohibit the capture

of wild whales or dolphins for public display,

prohibit swim-with-the-dolphin programs and

petting pools, prohibit public feeding of both

captive and wild marine mammals, prohibit

the issuance of permits to kill endangered

species in commercial fisheries,” and “prohib-

it the intentional killing of seals and sea lions

solely to protect fishing gear, catch, or net

pens.” The Animal Welfare Institute has

issued a similar appeal for action.

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