A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:
Lethal as bombs and guns are, noman’s-land
designated for military training is
often the last refuge for wildlife, because sporadic
warfare disrupts habitat less than either
peaceful development or recreational hunting
and fishing, which inherently disturb the food
web. But wildlife use of no-man’s-land often
brings another kind of conflict, in the courts,
when the shooting starts.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:
AMSTERDAM––Judge Van der Pijl of the
Haarlem District Court in the Netherlands on May 26 rejected
Norway’s April 18 request to extradite Captain Paul
Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society,
to face charges of alleged “reckless navigation” and “illegal
entry into Norwegian waters” during a July 1994 clash with
the Norwegian patrol ship Andennes during which the
Andennes rammed Watson’s vessel, the Whales Forever.
Watson remained at the Lelystad prison pending a
ruling on a further charge of allegedly sending a false distress
signal. A ruling is due by June 10.
“Even if he’s found guilty of that charge,” Sea
Shepherd international director of operations Lisa Distefano
said, “the public will be reminded that Norwegian commandos
dropped four depth charges, fired on our boat with cannon,
and sheared the bow off our ship by ramming us.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:
TACOMA, Washington––Accusing the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service of mismanaging the endangered Columbia whitetailed
deer to the verge of extinction at the southern Washington
refuge created for the species 34 years ago, Friends of Animals and
the Predator Defense Institute on May 27 sued Interior Secretary
Bruce Babbitt, the Interior Department, and Julia Butler Hansen
National Wildlife Refuge manager James Hidy in the U.S. District
Court for the Ninth Circuit.
Friends of Animals, of Darien, Connecticut, has more
than 100,000 members nationwide, and partners with the Interior
Department in projects including wolf reintroduction and protection
of African elephants from poaching. The Oregon-based Predator
Defense Institute, involved in wildlife policy review, is best
known for exposing allegedly misrepresented Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife reports of puma activity.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:
The late April trials of U.S. activists Steve
Hindi and Ben White for alleged assault and resisting
arrest at a September 1, 1996 protest outside Marineland
of Niagara, Ontario, ended with split verdicts. All
charges against Hindi were dropped; White was fined $500.
Hindi, founder of the Chicago Animal Rights Coalition,
hoped to present video evidence to a jury a month later in
Wauconda, Illinois, on behalf of CHARC member Greg
Campbell, that police captain Frank Winans faked an
alleged assault against him by Campbell during a protest
against last year’s Wauconda Rodeo. The same video,
made by a freelance news team, earlier cleared CHARC
member Chris Grushas of allegedly obstructing justice.
However, the judge strictly limited the video the court
could see, and Campbell was convicted of two misdemeanors.
Hindi said an appeal is likely. Mike Durschmidt,
not a CHARC member but a frequent participant in CHARC
protests, is meanwhile contesting his arrest for disrupting a
children’s sheep-riding event at the same rodeo on grounds
of necessity. Vermont neutering specialist Peggy Larsen,
D V M, also an attorney and former rodeo performer, is
scheduled to testify at a June 23 trial that the cruelty to the
sheep outweighed the charges.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:
Animal shelters are exempted from a new
Arizona law that makes pet stores financially liable
for veterinary costs if they sell sick dogs and cats. One
side effect of the bill, which resembles legislation
already in effect in many other states, will be to
encourage more pet stores to emulate the PetsMart
Luv-A-Pet program, which allows humane societies to
do adoptions through store facilities. The 300–plusstore
PetsMart chain, based in Phoenix, may cumulatively
place more animals now than any other organization,
but is not beloved of all humane societies: a
brochure on Spaying and Neutering distributed by the
in-house VetsSmart clinics, forwarded to A N I M A L
PEOPLE by Animal Issues Movement co-director
Phyllis M. Daugherty, of Los Angeles, seemingly
encourages breeding with a passage reading, “Many
people who welcome the birth of puppies or kittens
believe the experience and the comitment involved are
among the most rewarding experiences of their entire
lives. Being a ‘grandparent’ to a bunch of new pets
can be fun for everyone in your family––and highly
educational for your children.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:
PHOENIX––The Arizona State
Veterinary Medical Review Board “does not
adequately discipline veterinarians,” dismissing
more than 90% of the complaints it
received in three of the past four years, the
Arizona Office of the Attorney General reported
on April 28, following up a 1995 “sunset
review” by the Joint Legislative Audit
Committee, which determines whether or not
state-established organizations should continue
past their original mandate.
“Veterinary consultants retained by
the Auditor General reviewed complaints from
fiscal year 1996,” the Office of the Attorney
General’s report continued, “and found that as
many as one out of every six complaints dismissed
should have resulted in some discipline.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1997:
A bill to repeal the “dolphin-safe” tuna import standard
cleared the House Resources Committee, 28-13, on April
16. A full House vote is expected in May, with the best chance
of stopping the bill a threat of fillibuster by Senator Barbara
Boxer (D-California), who co-sponsored the 1990 standard as a
then-House member.
The “dolphin death bill” is favored by both the Clinton
administration and leading Republicans, who are concerned that
the “dolphin-safe” law may violate the General Agreement on
Trade and Tariffs and the North American Free Trade
Agreement, as preliminary rulings have held, thereby opening
the U.S. to World Trade Organization penalties. Under GATT
and NAFTA, nations may regulate the substance of imports,
but not the means by which they are made.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1997:
WASHINGTON D.C.––U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler on March 27 ordered
the Fish and Widlife Service to reconsider a 1994 decision against listing the Canadian lynx
as an endangered species.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service has consistently ignored the analysis of its expert
biologists,” Kessler wrote. The decision against listing, she continued, depended upon
“glaringly faulty premises,” including the contention that the lynx still occupies much of its
historical range, despite “overwhlming evidence that the lynx has been entirely eliminated
from 17 states,” leaving some only in Maine, Montana, Idaho, and Washington.
Sought by the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, and 11
other groups, the proposed listing of the lynx was opposed by hunters and trappers––in part
because a listing would refute their longtime assertion that no species has become endangered.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1997:
LONDON––British environment
secretary John Gummer on February 1 proposed
the addition of 33 species to the
Wildlife and Countryside Act, the British
equivalent to the ESA, including the basking
shark, stag beetle, water vole, pool
frog, clearwing moth, and pearl mussel,
and recommended delisting only one, the
vipers bugloss moth, which he said is now
out of danger. The basking shark, endangered
by the Asiatic shark fin soup trade,
would become the first shark protected by
British law. The water vole, having a leading
part in the classic British children’s story
The Wind In The Willows, is the “warm
fuzzy” creature on the list, expected to lead
public opinion toward protection of all.
The stag beetle, according to the
Joint Nature Committee, advising Gummer,
is jeopardized by “the increasing trade in
this species, especially on mainland Europe
but also in Britain.” The source of the
demand is that, “Occasionally it is used for
dissection to demonstrate the insect structure
in educational establishments.”