Voting to kill Flipper

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C.––“The attempt to gut the Marine
Mammal Protection Act [by repealing dolphin-safe tuna import standards,
as reported on page one of the November 1995 ANIMAL PEOPLE],
backed by the Clinton/Gore Administration, the wise-use movement, and
a handful of conservation groups, is floundering on Capitol Hill,” Craig
Van Nolte of the Monitor conservation, environmental, and animal welfare
consortium told member organization lobbyists on November 14.
“Senator Ted Stevens and Don Young, the two Alaska
Republicans who are pushing the legislation, are finding virtually no
backers. As one key Congressional staffer observed, ‘Who wants to be
seen voting to kill Flipper?’ Sources report that major political and financial
supporters of the Administration are denouncing the dolphin sell-out
in written and face-to-face communications with both President Bill
Clinton and Vice President Albert Gore. White House political operatives
on the West Coast are warning that the scheme could poison political support
in next year’s election. The White House has opened a major backchannel
operation with Stevens and Young in recent months,” Van Nolte
continued, “in an effort to save the Commerce Department and to gut the
MMPA. The two powerful Alaskans are actively helping block the killCommerce
legislation being pushed by radical House Republicans;

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Setting the floor for horse haulers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON, D.C.––Just days
ago S1283/HR2433, the Safe Commercial
Transportation of Horses for Slaughter Act of
1995, was rated the one humane bill with a
chance to clear the present Congress.
Introduced by Senator Mitch
McConnell (Kentucky) and Representative
Bill Goodling (Pennsylvania), both members
of the Republican majority, S1283/HR2433
was jointly endorsed by the leading horse
industry group, the American Horse Council;
the American Horse Protection Association;
the Humane Society of the United States; the
American Association of Equine
Practitioners; the American Humane
Association; and the American SPCA.

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Alleged sportsmen

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court
ruled 6-0 on September 27 that hunting is
not a constitutionally protected right. Two
duck hunters cited for exceeding bag limits
had contended that the Pennsylvania Game
Commission unconstitutionally links prosecutorial
and judicial functions in the appeals
process for accused game law violators.
Judge Wilhelm Hart of Hardin
County Municipal Court in Ohio ruled
recently that since religion does not compel
the Amish to hunt deer, the Ohio requirement
that hunters must wear blaze orange does not
violate the Amish taboo against wearing
bright colors. Brothers Samuel and Joas
Bontrager of Kenton, Ohio, held that their
faith exempted them from wearing orange.

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Humane enforcement

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

Alan Roberts, 29, of
Westminster, California, was on October
16 aquitted of a cruelty charge for beating an
eight-month-old Akita/chow mix to death with
a baseball bat last July, an hour after the freeroaming
dog mauled his 19-month-old son
Andrew in a Huntington Beach parking lot as
the boy waited for his mother, Stacy Morton,
32, to unlock the family car. The jury deliberated
for three hours. Andrew, who had done
modeling work, required 60 stiches, plastic
surgery, and psychological counseling. The
dog’s owner, April Wyld, 28, leashed the
dog to a nearby fence afterward, and again left
him unattended. Wyld, charged with negligence,
has rallied Orange County People for
Animals in her support. ANIMAL PEOPLE
has received no response to inquiries as to why
animal control didn’t impound the dog for
rabies observation in the hour between the
attack on Andrew and Alan Roberts’ return to
the scene after rushing Andrew to a hospital.

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Watson gets 30 days

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND––
A jury on October 9 found Captain
Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society innocent of endangering the lives of
the crews of the Cuban trawler Rio Las Casas
and his own vessel, the Cleveland Amory,
during a high seas encounter on July 28, 1993,
but convicted him of simple mischief for
enabling members of OrcaForce to throw noxious
buteric acid from the Cleveland Amory to
the desk of the Rio Las Casas. Watson was
thus cleared of counts that could have brought
him a double life sentence, but drew a felony
conviction, a fine of $35, 30 days in prison in
addition to the six days he served after his
arrest, and most significant, a “prior”––his
first in 22 years of frontline activism––in the
event he should again be arrested.

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COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

Collector suits plague humane groups
LOS ANGELES––The July 3,
1993 seizure of nearly 100 animals from
alleged Los Angeles animal collectors Wayne
and Barbara Chronister continues to have
ramifications, as the Chronisters on July 30
of this year sued the Humane Task Force, the
Pet Assistance Foundation, Last Chance for
Animals, and 13 individual rescuers for purportedly
defaming them and illegally depriving
them of property.
At least one defendant, realtor
Carole Ellis, promptly countersued for
defamation and libel.

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Coloradans seek trap ban initiative

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

DENVER––Colorado People Allied With
Wildlife will on Febuary 1, 1996 begin seeking the
54,000 signatures needed to put an anti-trapping, snaring,
and wildlife poisoning initative on the 1996 state
ballot. A Colorado State University survey commissioned
by the Colorado Division of Wildlife found earlier
this year that 61% of the electorate would favor
such a ban, with 28% opposed and 11% undecided.
Addresss CPAW c/o Robert Angell, 702 S. Corona
St., Denver, CO 80209; 303-722-3966.
“The decision to try a ballot initiative was
made after all other avenues were exhausted,” said
Angell in an October 9 appeal. “In 1990 an anti-trapping
bill was shredded in the state senate natural
resources committee. Last year a bill to appoint
wildlife commissioners in a different manner and to
reorganize and reorient the activities of CDOW met a
similar fate in the state senate agriculture committee.

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European trapped fur import ban closer––maybe

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

DENVER – –The likelihood Europe
will finally implement a 1991 ban on the
import of U.S. and Canadian trapped fur––if
only as a gesture––increased October 2 when
International Standards Organization technical
committee on trap standards chair Neal
Jotham, of Canada, acknowledged that,
“There is no possibility of reaching a consensus”
on what constitutes a “humane” trap.
The ISO concession enables the
enforcement of European Council Regulation
32254/91, adopted five years ago as an ultimatim
to the fur industry to either end cruel
trapping or cease the import of trapped fur.
Under the regulation, use of leghold traps
will simultaneously be banned throughout the
EC nations, effective on January 1, 1996.
As much as 70% of all fur trapped
in the U.S. is exported to Europe. Thus the
import ban, if it sticks, could cripple the
already declining trapping industry.

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Hunting predators

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

California governor Pete Wilson on
October 17 signed a bill to put the state ban on
puma hunting back before the voters. The state
legislature halted puma hunting in 1972, when the
puma population was estimated at 2,400. An initiative
approved by voters in 1990 made the halt “permanent,”
except when pumas threaten people or
livestock. Hunting groups claim the puma population
is now up to 6,000, and have amplified reports
of puma sightings over the past few years, especially
since two women were killed in separate
attacks during 1994.

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