Groups win reversals

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Farm Sanctuary on June 13 won a New York
Appellate Division reversal of rulings by the Town of
Orange Board of Assessment Review and the Schuyler
County Supreme Court, which held that running a facility
incorporated for “the benevolent care of abandoned and maltreated
animals” is not a charitable purpose entitling the organization
to a property tax exemption. Such exemptions, they
contended, are limited to projects benefitting people, human
kind, or the community. The unanimous Appellate verdict
drew upon Matter of Hamilton, 1946, which upheld the will
of a woman who left her home and $400,000 in trust “for the
care, comfort, and benefit of dumb animals.” The court in
that case cited “the common view that the care and comfort
of animals are generally beneficial to mankind.”

New USDA dog and cat regs announced

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C. – – The
USDA on July 3 proposed to amend
Animal Welfare Act regulations for the
care of dogs and cats to disallow tethering
as a primary means of holding
dogs; require that air temperatures in
dog and cat housing be kept below 90
degrees Fahrenheit; and require coated
wire flooring in dog and cat cages.
The proposed rules, applicable to
breeders and dealers involved in interstate
commerce, are a weaker version
of proposals advanced by 110 members
of the House of Representatives
and three Senators in a letter to
Agriculture Secretary Daniel Glickman
circulated for signatures in June 1995.

Down on the farm

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

WELLINGTON, N.Z.––Farm animals
have no right to freedom from discomfort, disease,
injury, or pain, say the Federated Farmers of New
Zealand.
Expecting the Animal Welfare Advisory
Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture to soon publish
a proposed code governing the treatment of farm
animals, the Federated Farmers’ annual conference on
June 16 moved quickly to undo a 1988 endorsement
of “five freedoms” for farm animals propounded by
the Farm Animal Welfare Council of Britain.

ACTIVISTS IN ACTION

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

The trial of Mary Constantine and
Bobbi Rhud of Minnetonkans Against Animal
Cruelty for allegedly interfering in a deer cull by
videotaping it ended June 24 with a hung jury.
Constantine and Rhud were arrested in an apparent
ambush on February 19, along with Steve Hindi,
president of the Chicago Animal Rights Coalition,
after retrieving hidden cameras and returning to
Hindi’s van. Minnetonka police spent several days
checking out Hindi’s electronic equipment before
returning it all to him, under court order, with rundown
batteries. All charges against Hindi were
dropped just before the trial. Hindi attended anyway,
as a defense witness. “The police really
helped,” he said. “One cop described the layout of
the ‘getaway’ van––even the back seats, quite an
accomplishment, since there weren’t any. Police
photographs proved that. The police were caught in
so many lies that the prosecutior repeatedly apologized
to the jury for their ‘mistaken’ testimony in his
final argument. The jury was apparently hung
because one juror, a bow hunter, was bent on conviction
from the beginning, telling other jurors he
‘wasn’t particularly concerned’ that the cops lied.”

Reptiles

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Herp traffic
The 72 Malagasy ploughshare tortoises
stolen from a captive breeding project at
the Amphijoroa Forest Park in Madagascar in
May have turned up “for sale in Prague,”
reports Allen Salzberg of the New York Turtle
and Tortoise Society. But due to corrupt
authorities, herpetologists “have little hope of
getting them or the people selling them,”
Salzberg adds. The Austrian Chelonical
Society warned in June that any members who
buy any of the stolen tortoises will be expelled.
German customs officials on July
8 announced the arrest of a 32-year-old man
caught at Augsburg with 328 tortoises
“stacked up like plates” in his luggage. The
man, who may get up to five years in prison,
reportedly “admitted selling around 3,000 rare
and protected tortoises since 1991,” either
caught or bought cheaply in Serbia.

Crimes against wildlife

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

June 12, 1996 was a day to
remember in the international fight against
wildlife traffickers:
• In Chicago, bird smuggler
Tony Silva, 36, was jailed pending sentencing,
after prosecutors Sergio Acosta a n d
Jay Tharp argued that he was likely to jump
bail. Silva, who ran a wild-caught bird
smuggling ring while posing as an outspoken
foe of the wild-caught bird traffic, in January
pleaded guilty to reduced charges of conspiracy
and tax evasion, but on May 17 sought
unsuccessfully to withdraw the plea, after
former Playboy Mansion animal keeper
Theodora Swanson, 36, in April drew a
lighter sentence for conviction on contested
charges than her confederates got after copping
pleas.

COURT CALENDAR

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Pet theft
The Oregon Court of Appeals o n
May 18 overturned a $100,000 defamation
award to former laboratory animal supplier
James Joseph Hickey, issued by a Linn
County Circuit Court jury in July 1994 against
his godmother Merthal Settlemier, over
remarks she made to the ABC television program
2 0 / 2 0 in a 1990 episode about pet theft
called “Pet Bandits.” Hickey lost a similar suit
against ABC, heard in federal court. The
appellate court ruled that Hickey, as a public
figure, had the burden of proving that Settlemier’s
claim that his animal care was “inhumane”
was false, and that he “presented no
evidence that the conditions defendant
described did not exist on the day she visited.”

Vegan fired for not pushing meat

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

COSTA MESA, California––Bus
driver Bruce Anderson, 38, an ethical vegan
for two years and a five-year employee of the
Orange County Transportation Authority,
was ordered off his bus in mid-route on June
4 and fired from his $16.60-an-hour job on
June 7 for refusing to hand out coupons to
riders good for free hamburgers at Carl’s Jr.
restaurants.
“I told them that I don’t eat dead
cows and no one else needs to, either,”
Anderson recounted to Los Angeles Times
reporter David Haldane. “I told them that I
wouldn’t support Carl’s Jr. in slaughtering
cows. I’m paid to drive a bus, not sit there
and hand out coupons for something I don’t
believe in.”

Dogged pursuit

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

HOPKINTON, Mass.––Louise Coleman, founding
director of Greyhound Friends, is the only alleged dog
thief ever honored with the Peace Abbey’s Courage of
Conscience award, accepted from the multi-faith vegetarian
organization at a commemorative ceremony in Sherborn,
Massachusetts, on February 16.
But Coleman and friends may also be the only
alleged dog thieves who ever did the deed in front of television
cameras, with the full cooperation of law-and-order.
Six months later, related crossfiled lawsuits are
still before the Superior Court in Montreal, Quebec, and
may be far from trial. Dog breeder Richard Valiquette, of
Ste. Sophie, Quebec, contends eight of his dogs were taken
illegally last December 19 by Coleman, Greyhound Friends
volunteer Fred Fontaine, and Linda Miranda of the Frontier
Animal Society, located in Beebe, Quebec.

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