MORE MONKEY BUSINESS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

ACE Hardware monkeys
A spider monkey, a crab-eating macaque,
and three capuchins who for many years were kept in
solitary confinement as mascots of the five Buikema’s
Ace Hardware stores in Chicago’s western suburbs
were delivered to Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation
on September 2 as result of a year-long campaign led
by Deb Leahy and Joe Taksel of Illinois Animal
Action, with final negotiations handled by Bill
Dollinger of Friends of Animals. The effort gained
momentum after one monkey developed an ear infection
and eventually tore part of the ear off, leading to
USDA citations of the franchise owner for failing to
provide adequate veterinary care. A mix-up between
IAA and FoA resulted in IAA arranging to send the
monkeys to WRR while FoA, unaware of that deal,
asked Wally Swett of Primarily Primates to take them.

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Wolves

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

The Denver-based Mountain States Legal
Foundation, a leading wise-use group, on September 7
sued the U.S. government for $500 on behalf of rancher
Eugene Hassey, 74, of Lemhi County, Idaho, who claims
the sum in compensation for a calf he says was killed in
January by a wolf released as part of the Yellowstone/central
Idaho wolf restoration project. An unknown party shot the
wolf as she ate the carcass. Defenders of Wildlife was initially
prepared to pay Hussey out of a fund that since 1987
has paid about 20 Michigan, Montana, and Minnesota
ranchers a total of circa $17,000 for alleged wolf predation
losses––but a federal autopsy found the calf died during
birth, and the wolf only scavenged her remains. Hassey
claimed at a March 29 Congressional hearing that he was
abused by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents Tom Riley,
Steve Magone, and Paul Weyland when they tried to execute
a warrant to search his property for evidence in the wolf
shooting. Idaho attorney general Alan Lance compared
them to “the secret police or the Keystone Kops.” But a transcript
of a tape recording the agents made during the incident,
released September 13, revealed that they remained
calm and professional while Hassey cursed them and threw
rocks at them until sheriff Brett Barsalou arrived and ordered
them to leave.

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Editorial: The sounds of silence

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

At least a third of the ANIMAL PEOPLE readership is actively involved in animal
protection law enforcement, as animal control officers, conservation officers, humane
society legal counsels, cruelty investigators, and so forth––and we’d bet at least a third of
them are at this very moment frustrated by an animal abuse or neglect case, or a poaching
case, or some other investigation that could result in a successful prosecution or civil suit if
known witnesses would just step forward.
Journalists work to a similar standard. We’re not actually prosecuting cases or filing
lawsuits seeking enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act or Endangered Species Act,
but we do have to consider courtroom rules of evidence in connection with everything we
print. Contrary to the common misassumptions of nonsubscribing callers, who often expect
us to publish their side of an issue and no other, based on hearsay, and keep their own
names out of it, we don’t publish unverified allegation; we always try to get every side of
controversial stories; we work hard to be fair, as a matter of personal and occupational
pride; and we must at all times be cognisant of the consequences of libel, not just as a matter
of law but out of our own sense of responsibility.

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Michigan stats confirm hunting, child abuse link

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

LANSING––Michigan children are nearly three times as likely to be neglected and
are twice as likely to be physically abused or sexually assaulted if they live in a county with
either an above average or above median rate of hunting participation.
Michigan sells two times more hunting licenses per capita as upstate New York, a
closely comparable region, but has seven times the rate of successfully prosecuted child
abuse, and twice as high a rate of sexual assault on children.
Michigan and New York, exclusive of New York City, have similar per capita
income ($20,453 for Michigan, $20,124 for upstate New York), unemployment rates (7.0%
for Michigan, 7.7% for upstate New York), and population density (164 people per square
mile for Michigan, 228 people per square mile for upstate New York).

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BOOKS: Breaking the Cycles of Violence

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

Breaking the Cycles of Violence
Guidebook and video to crosstrain child and animal protection personnel.
Latham Foundation (Latham Plaza Bldg., Clement & Schiller, Alameda, CA 94501),
1995. Text: 63 pages. Video: 28 minutes. $29.75/kit; $10.95/extra texts.
Early on June 17, Santiago
Sanguillen, 32, of Los Angeles, a 260-
pound weightlifter, severely beat his wife,
in front of her 14-year-old daughter. Waving
a loaded gun, Sanguillen then battered the
daughter’s puppy to death. On July 25, after
a three-day jury trial, Sanguillen was sen-
tenced. Perhaps because the case was moni-
tored by local humane activists, Sanguillen
drew 270 days, of a maximum 365, for
killing the puppy––but for abusing and terror-
izing the women, got just 90 days.
“We have become accustomed to
small victories,” observer Bill Dyer said.
Many such cases aren’t even prosecuted.

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COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:
Humane Enforcement
The USDA on July 14 announced penalties levied
against five Class B animal dealers and one exhibitor f o r
multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Pat Hoctor,
of Terre Haute, Indiana, drew a $7,500 fine and 40-day
license suspension; Ronald DeBruin, of Prairie City, Iowa,
drew a fine of $5,000 and a 30-day license suspension; David
Kanagy of Readsville, Pennsylvania, drew a fine of $6,000
and a 60-day license suspension; Clyde and Goldie Rogers
of Rogers TLC Kennel in Gassville, Arkansas, drew a
$25,000 suspended fine and a 6-month license suspension;

Larry Roney of Cougar Acrews in Naubinway, Michigan,
drew a fine of $2,000 and lost his license for five years; and
Kelly Young, of Katt Chez Enterprises in Las Vegas,
Nevada, drew a fine of $8,000 and lost her license for 30 days.
Paul Nemeth, former mayor of Bethlehem
Township, Pennsylvania, was charged on August 2 with
shooting one of 11-year-old Jeanine Chiaffarino’s two
Samoyed puppies––in front of the girl––for purportedly bark-
ing too much in anticipation of her supper. The puppy who
was barking was not the puppy Nemeth killed.
Convicted in late June of cruelly neglecting 237
r a b b i t s, 200 of whom were euthanized upon discovery last
March, San Diego “Bunny Lady” Janice Taylor walked with
five years on probation, during which she may not own ani-
mals while Animal Control may search her premises without a
warrant to ensure compliance.
Rabbit and fighting cock breeders Richard and
Carol Beckwith and their daughter Lori Clay, of Scotts
Valley, Califonia, still denying any wrongdoing, drew 300
hours of community service apiece on August 2 for allowing
Clay’s three daughters, ages 7, 3, and 2, to live amid filth,
dead animals, and rodent infestation at the Beckwiths’ San
Jose farm. They were also barred from again keeping animals.
Forty counts of negligent cruelty filed in July
against cat breeder and vet tech Laura Duffy, 37, of La
Honda, California, as result of an April 29 raid, may become
a court test of the controversial San Mateo County animal con-
trol ordinance, friends told ANIMAL PEOPLE. Five people
who knew Duffy said that while she is no spiffy housekeeper,
her animals are well cared-for, and the April 29 conditions
were caused by two weeks of heavy rain that flooded her prop-
erty and mired her horses––whose plight first brought Animal
Control to investigate. There was contrastingly no controversy
over the June 29 seizure of 16 Persian cats from Pleasanton
breeder Linda Johnston, 47, who allegedly kept them in
“filthy and inhumane conditions,” nor over the order given to
Ann Mitchell of Monte Sereno to get rid of 78 cats, who took
over her 2-story home while she lived in a trailer in the yard.

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Fields hit for alleged Love & Care fraud

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

COVINGTON COUNTY, Alabama––A six-
year probe by the Alabama office of the attorney general,
assisted by ANIMAL PEOPLE, on June 26 brought
counts of fraud, deceit, and deceptive trade practices
against the no-kill shelter Love And Care for God’s
Animalife Inc., Ann P. Fields a.k.a. Ann Lagunas a.k.a.
Marjorie Jacobs a.k.a. Rebecca Garcia, her former husband
Jerry Fields, and her apparently much younger current hus-
band, Victor Lagunas.
Suing on behalf of three named creditors plus
“numerous contributors,” the complaint seeks to dissolve
Love And Care and turn the shelter facility, near
Andalusia, Alabama, over to a properly constituted non-
profit board of directors.

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New York didn’t reinstitute pound seizure

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

ALBANY, N.Y––Frantic online postings from vari-
ous activists who wanted New York governor George Pataki to
veto state bills A8002 and S3869B, together with a follow-up
posting by James Corrigan of Animal Rights America, “con-
gratulating” the American SPCA on their passage, produced a
fast-spreading rumor in mid-August that New York, at instiga-
tion of the ASPCA, had backhandedly repealed a 1977 ban on
the sale of shelter animals to biomedical research.
The rumor struck a nerve, especially among antivivi-
sectionists old enough to remember that the ASPCA supported
the institution of pound seizure, the mandatory sale of animals
to research, in the 1940s, and fought the 1977 law. A8002
pertained to the use of animals in endotracheal intubation train-
ing, further alarming those who recalled that the ASPCA
allowed cats who were anesthetized for neutering to be used in
such training until 1990, when executives and the board were
advised by counsel that this could constitute a violation of the
1977 law. Subsequently, in 1992, the ASPCA sought retroac-
tive legalization of the intubation training.

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RELIGION & ANIMALS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

Self-styled Santerian priest Rigoberto
Zamora, 58, was charged July 18 with four counts
of felony cruelty for killing 11 birds, three goats, and
a lamb in his Miami Beach apartment on June 26,
1993. Zamora, whose priestly credentials are chal-
lenged by other Santerians, staged the slaughter to
celebrate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling two weeks ear-
lier that bans on animal sacrifice per se violate the
First Amendment right to freedom of religion. The
court left intact anti-cruelty statutes, which may
affect where and how sacrifices are made, without
prohibiting them outright.
Afflicted with an inflamed stomach,
Shin, a 10-year-old Himalayan snow leopard who
lives at the San Francisco Zoo, hadn’t eaten in two
weeks as of June 10, when she was visited by 11
Tibetan monks from Gyuto Tantric University in
Tenzin Gang, India. The monks performed a five-
minute puja for her––a healing chant. Reported Jorge
Aquino of Religion News Service, who photographed
the event, “As the monks began their blessing, Shin
came down from her 15-foot perch and sat down to
face the monks. She watched and listened, apparent-
ly transfixed.” Shortly after the chant ceased, she
resumed eating her regular rations.

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