Invisible Fence Co. sued

June 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

Rottweiler attack victim Joey Jacobs,
14, and his mother, Kathy Carroll, of Chester
Township, Ohio, alleged in a mid-May filing that
t h e Invisible Fence Company, of Malvern,
Pennsyvlania, improperly withheld information
about a similar case during settlement negotiations
after they sued Invisible Fence over Jacobs’ injuries
in 1996. Jacobs, then age 9, on December 29,
1993 saved two younger friends’ lives, losing both
of his own ears, by holding off an aggressive
Rottweiler belonging to neighbor Ursula Baroni,
after the dog charged through an Invisible Fence to
get them. They settled for an amount believed to be
less than $20,000, with no punitive damages,
unaware that Invisible Fence had paid $390,000 ten
years earlier to settle a similar case in Philadelphia.
Invisible Fence advertising warns that the product
should not be used to contain dangerous dogs

Wildlife lawsuits

June 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office
said on May 13 that it intends to appeal an April 6
World Trade Organization tribunal verdict that the
U.S. broke international trade rules by barring the
import of shrimp netted without the use of Turtle
Excluder Devices (TEDS). The import ban was
protested by India, Malaysia, Pakistan, and
Thailand. On May 1, just five weeks after Thai sea
turtle conservationist Manop Kidsarng warned that
the Phuket Island turtle population was in desperate
trouble due to fishing and poaching, the U.S. certified
that Thailand and 38 other nations have adequate
turtle protections in place, and that Thai
shrimp therefore can now be imported.

ALF member disappears

June 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

SALT LAKE CITY– –Douglas Joshua
Ellerman, 19, who pleaded guilty in February to
three of 16 felony charges filed against him re the
March 1997 pipebombing of the Fur Breeders
Agricultural Cooperative building and trucks at
Sandy, Utah, has reportedly not been seen since
April 30. Ellerman was to appear in court on May 6
to receive a sentencing date.
“In a plea bargain designed to spare him
from a possible life sentence,” wrote Joe Costanzo
of the Deseret News, “Ellerman agreed to cooperate
with investigators who are working to identify others
involved in the bombing. Prosecutors were prepared
to recommend that Ellerman receive less than
the minimum five-year sentence. But word of his
cooperation reached members of the Animal
Liberation Front, who [according to family members] apparently scared Ellerman into flight.”

COURT CALENDAR

June 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

Humane enforcement

The Suffolk County SPCA
on May 3 arrested Thomas Capriola,
27, of Islip Terrace, New York, after
learning from an informant that he produced
so-called “squish” videos under
the business name Foot Fetish Films.
“He has girls wear high heel shoes and
crush mice, rats, guinea pigs, lizards,
and turtles. Either the girls do it, or he
dresses as a girl himself and does it. He
advertises for models. They just don’t
realize what is involved until they get
there,” SC/SPCA detective A d a m
G r o s s told Tom Demoretcky of N e w
York Newsday. Raiding Capriola’s
home, police and the SC/SPCA investigators
reportedly confiscated 36 videotapes,
a small amount of marijuana,
eight weapons, and 10 white mice. U.S.
humane investigators and Scotland Yard
had been investigating Internet distribution
of “squish” videos allegedly sold by
Capriola and one Jeff Vilencia, of
Squish Productions in California, for
approximately one year. Royal SPCA
inspector Martin Daly recently told
Cassandra Brown of the London
Sunday Telegraph that the video purchasers
have frequently also turned out
to be buyers of child pornography.

Talking to our ancestors

June 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., WOODSIDE,
Calif.––Eight thousand America
OnLine members on April 28 flooded Koko
the “talking” gorilla with more than 13,000
questions, in the first-ever public interview
of an animal of another species.
Actually “speaking” through a special
computer with a symbolic keyboard,
Koko answered about a dozen inquiries in 45
minutes. Monitored by reporters, who
packed the kitchen of the Gorilla Foundation
headquarters in Woodside, California,
Koko’s longtime teacher/translator Penny
Patterson converted typed text into sign language,
then summarized Koko’s responses
and e-mailed them out.
Koko talked about apple juice, her
favorite foods, her pet cats, her dreams, and
her personal aspirations. Nobody asked how
she’d like to become “bush meat,” the
African euphemism for poached primate.

Editorial: Crime and counseling

June 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

Pending before the California legislature as ANIMAL PEOPLE goes to press is
SB1991, a bill “to require counseling as a condition of probation for any person who is convicted
of killing, maiming or abusing an animal.”
Introduced by state senator Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), SB1991 was
drafted by the Doris Day Animal League, and is endorsed by the Humane Society of the U.S.,
the Animal Protection Institute, and the Fund for Animals, among many other organizations.
SB1991 sounds good, on paper. If enacted, it will no doubt be ballyhooed in mailings
by all who support it as a “victory,” to be emulated in other states.
But Political Animals founder Sherry DeBoer sees SB1991 as at least potentially
“the most destructive piece of anti-animal legislation ever to move in California.”

Cuckoo bills & the ESA

June 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

TUCSON––They used to call it The
Tombstone Territory.
Now it’s potential critical habitat for
yellow-billed cuckoos, who could become the
next target of ideological gunslingers hellbent
on blowing away the Endangered Species Act.
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit on
May 5 announced that 29 recovered species
including the bald eagle, Columbia whitetailed
deer, grey wolf, and peregrine falcon will be
delisted over the next two years––just in time,
cynics noted, for the next U.S. Presidential
election, when Babbitt if he survives present
poltical controversies might like to be making a
run for the White House.

Teach the children well

May 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

JONESBORO, Arkansas– – Why
did Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden,
11, on March 24 steal seven pistols and three
rifles, set off a fire alarm at Westside Middle
School, and as the children ran out, kill classmates
Natalie Brooks, Britthney Varner,
Stephanie Johnson, and Paige Ann Herring,
plus teacher Shannon Wright?
Probably for the same reason a powerful
politician might think he can get away
with repeated self-exposure and other acts of
uninvited sexual aggression against female subordinates:
each alleged offender learned early,
when an older man he admired gave him a gun,
that normal rules don’t apply to hunters.

Will the shelling stop?

May 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

SAN FRANCISCO––If you think
people who torture animals for alleged “cultural”
motive are as addicted to their deeds as
those who torture just for kicks, and that they
will therefore break any bargain, the Joint
Statement of Principles and Guidelines subscribed
to on March 31 by the San Francisco
SPCA and Representatives of San Francisco’s
Live Animal Markets may strike you as a
cruel and just slightly early April Fool.
You may side with the activists
now burning up the Internet with assertions
that SF/SPCA president Richard Avanzino is
the biggest fool of all, for agreeing––d e
f a c t o––to self-policing to eliminate six types
of animal abuse recognized by both the
SF/SPCA and the live marketers.

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