Herps & alleged perps

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

Third World cruelty prosecutions are almost
unheard of, and prosecutions for cruelty to reptiles are rare
everywhere, but Zimbabwe SPCA manager Merryl Harrison
vowed September 18 to bring Harare Snake Park crocodile
keeper Smart Bester to justice and save the 79-year-old male
croc who finally bit his arm off, six years after the SPCA
began receiving complaints about Bester jabbing the croc
with a stick to make him snap his jaws and lash his tail.
A three-year U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
probe of imports of endangered snakes and tortoises from
Madagascar on August 22 brought 16-count indictments
against alleged traffickers Frank Lehmeyer, Wolfgang Kloe,
Olaf Strohmann, and Roland Werner, all of Germany; Rick
Truant, of Canada; and Simon Harris, of South Africa.

Bad day in the Rockies

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

DENVER––Colorado state veterinarians had a bad
day on August 20, as in El Paso County district judge Thomas
Kane thwarted a bid by Keith Roehr, DVM, to permanently
close the Colorado Animal Refuge, while in Boulder, Rocky
Mountain Animal Defense filed a cruelty complaint against
John Maulsby, DVM, chief of the state Department of
Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Protection.
After five days of testimony, Kane ruled that
Colorado Animal Refuge founder Mary Port and staff have
made a good faith effort to comply with state laws, giving
them until January 1 to finish construction of 20 to 25 more
pens, in addition to the 45 already built; provide shade to the
pens; improve the refuge plumbing; provide heated winter
accommodations; and build a perimeter fence––mostly stipulations
that she earlier failed to meet at the former refuge site in
Elbert County. Port moved to El Paso County in January after
almost a year of battling fix-or-vacate orders in Elbert County.

Religion & animals

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

Santerian priest Rigoberto Zamora, 59, of
Miami––whose credentials are disputed by some other prominent
Santerians––on July 30 accepted a plea bargain in settlement
of four counts of cruelty filed against him for animal sacrifices
performed to celebrate the 1993 Supreme Court ruling
that although the conditions of such sacrifice may be regulated,
forbidding animal sacrifice itself violates the constitutional
guarantee of freedom of religion. “During the two-hour ceremony
before TV cameras,” Raju Cebium of Associated Press
reported, “Zamora killed five roosters, three goats, two hens,
two pigeons, two guinea hens, and a lamb. Zamora switched
knives midway through the slaughter of one goat, ripped the
head off a pigeon, and slammed a guinea hen against the floor.”
Pleading no contest to one cruelty count, and pledging to
appeal, Zamora was sentenced by Dade County judge Victoria
Sigler to do 400 hours of community service at a Catholic home
for the aged. Objected Zamora, “To send me to a center run by
the Catholic Church,” which regards Santeria as heresy, “is to
violate my freedom of religion, and to force me to do hard
labor is an assault on my health.” Zamora said he is a diabetic,
and has heart disease.

HUMANE ENFORCEMENT

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

The San Francisco Commission of Animal
Control and Welfare on September 13 postponed any action
on the treatment of live turtles, frogs, birds, and other animals
sold as food until October 17. A year-long San Francisco
SPCA push for more stringent enforcement of anti-cruelty laws
in Chinatown markets burst into the public in August when the
SF/SPCA was simultaneously attacked by Chinatown market
owners for alleged cultural imperialism and by Fund for
Animals representative Virginia Handley, who asked members
to tell SF/SPCA president Richard Avanzino that “his job is to
protect animals, not animal abusers” because Avanzino told
the San Francisco Chronicle that a ban on home slaughter
advanced by the Fund, Action for Animals, and In Defense of
Animals after the controversy began would probably be unenforceable.

It’s all happening at the zoo

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

Convincing the American Zoo Association that it
has rectified the many problems noted by media, the public,
the USDA, and AZA itself over the past decade, the Los
Angeles Zoo on September 17 won reaccreditation, 18 months
after getting a “shape up or else” order. Changes have included
hiring Manuel A. Mollinedo as director, removing the zoo
from administration by the Los Angeles City Parks
Department, winning voter approval of a $23 million bond
issue, and breaking ground for a $4.5 million new chimpanzee
habitat. The zoo’s 14 chimps are to get a waterfall, along with
climbing trees and a triple-tiered shelter.

PRIMATES IN RESEARCH

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

Jan Moor-Jankowski, MD, founder and for 30 years
director of the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery
in Primates at New York University, and Louis Dinetz, former
LEMSIP assistant director, on August 13 sued seeking $20 million
damages from NYU and the USDA for allegedly covering up
“scientific misconduct and fraud” and violating federal whistleblower
protection laws, by terminating them both last year and
turning LEMSIP over to primate dealer Frederick Coulston, after
Moor-Jankowski went public with allegations of negligent care in
the primate laboratory of NYU addiction researcher Ron Wood.
The allegations were upheld; NYU was ordered to pay a
$450,000 civil penalty for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
However, while USDA investigators reported that NYU had illegally
retaliated against Moor-Jankowski by shutting down LEMSIP,
other USDA officials rejected his administrative complaint,
forcing him to court to seek redress. Moor-Jankowski is represented
by Philp Byler, who also represented him in his landmark
1991 libel case victory over the Austrian pharmaceutical firm
Immuno AG, which had sued him for publishing a letter by
International Primate Protection League president Shirley
McGreal, in his capacity as editor of the Journal of Primatology.

A tough week for the North Shore Animal League

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.––The
North Shore Animal League was named in late July
along with 78 for-profit firms in a Federal Trade
Commission lawsuit filed on behalf of the Connecticut
attorney general’s office, alleging violations of
direct mail sweepstakes laws, and was simultaneously
rapped by the Council of Better Business Bureaus
Philanthropic Advisory Service for failing to meet the
CBBB requirement that “Soliciting organizations’
financial statements shall present adequate information
to serve as a basis for informed decisions.”
Neither matter is as serious as it sounds,
North Shore president John Stevenson told ANIMAL
PEOPLE. North Shore was wrongly included in the
FTC lawsuit, Stevenson said; as a nonprofit, North
Shore isn’t covered by the same law as the other
defendants, and holds a legal opinion issued by the
Connecticut attorney general’s office just two years
ago agreeing that North Shore sweepstakes mailings
comply with the applicable law.

Wise-use wiseguys

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

Yet another parody “PETA” World
Wide Web page popped up in September, easily
downloaded accidentally by users seeking the
actual PETA site. This one came from an
anonymous party claiming to be People for the
Economical Torture of Animals, possibly
inspired by People for Eating Tasty Animals,
which surfaced earlier.
Gene Coan, senior advisor to
Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope,
promised prompt legal action on September 17,
after someone using a post office box in Cape
Canaveral, Florida, “spammed” an e-mail pitch
under the assumed screen name >>SierraClub@
GNN.com (Sierra Club)<< to thousands of
America OnLine subscribers, requesting $3.00
for “a list of legal brothels in your zip code and
surrounding zip codes.”

Whales

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

Norwegian government marine mammal management
advisor Lars Wallxe will advise increasing the unilaterally
declared Norwegian minke whaling quota from 425, the current
level, to circa 800-900, the newspaper Nordlands Framtid
reported on September 11. Norway is the only nation that currently
assigns itself a commercial whaling quota, but Iceland is
reportedly considering doing likewise.
Continuing to ignore the Norwegian violation of the
International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial
whaling, U.S. IWC commissioner James Baker on September
12 formally protested the killing of two critically endangered
bowhead whales under a native subsistence quota unilaterally
assigned by Canada. U.S. aboriginals are allowed to kill 204
bowheads under a 1995 IWC quota running until 1998.

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