COURT CALENDAR

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Humane enforcement

Superior Court judge William Patrick on May 3

sent poodle breeder Charlotte Spiegel, 56, of Oroville,

California, to Chowchilla state prison for a 90-day pre-sentenc-

ing evaluation. A jury on March 15 convicted Spiegel of abus-

ing 350 dogs seized in two 1993 raids and later forfeited to the

Northwest SPCA. Patrick also ordered Spiegel to forfeit 57

dogs seized in later raids, and made her liable for up to

$260,000 in restitution to the SPCA for holding the dogs.

The Ottawa Shores Humane Society is in reported

financial distress after the scheduled May 16 trial of accused

animal collectors Earl Postema, 65, and his daughter Karen

Zalsman, 38, was postponed to mid-July because they fired

their attorney. OSHS volunteers in late March removed 72

goats, eight horses, and eight rabbits from their farm in Nunica,

Michigan. Four dead goats were found in a manure-choked

barn, and a dead colt was found in a field. Postema was reput-

edly involved with the Michigan militia, a private paramilitary

force whose events Oklahoma City bombing suspect Tim

McVeigh at times attended.

BOMB SUSPECT MCVEIGH WAS A HUNTER

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

OKLAHOMA CITY––Tim McVeigh, charged

with the April 19 Oklahoma City truck bombing that killed 168

people, was a hunter––and his alleged accomplice, Steven

Garrett Colbern, arrested on May 12 in Oatman, Arizona,

was reputedly a hunter, a reptile breeder, and may have been

involved in animal-based biomedical research.

McVeigh defended hunting in a letter published on

March 10, 1992 in the Lockport (N.Y.) Union-Sun & Journal.

Contrasting hunting with slaughtering, McVeigh wrote that

he’d seen cattle killed with chainsaws and machetes, without

prestunning, methods not legal in U.S. slaughterhouses within

his lifetime but perhaps practiced by survivalist associates.

Children & Animals

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Iqbal Masih, 12, of Murdike, Pakistan, was

shot dead on Easter Sunday by a man he and his relatives

Liaqat Masih and Faryab Masih caught allegedly raping a

donkey, police say. As the circumstances were not imme-

diately disclosed, media linked the murder to carpet mag-

nates whose child labor practices Iqbal Masih disclosed to

an international conference in Sweden last November. A

member of Pakistan’s Christian minority, Masih was sold

by his parents to a carpet factory at age four, where he

worked until age 10, often shackled to a loom. Foreign

carpet orders reportedly plummeted by $10 million in the

three weeks after Masih’s murder. “The $10 million is

only an immediate loss,” said Imran Malik, vice chair of

the Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters

Association. “Irreparable damage is done when Western

consumers think Pakistani carpets stand for a child’s blood

and slavery.” Despite the outcry, also affecting carpet

exports from India and Bangladesh, Indian commerce min-

ister P. Chidambaram expressed satisfaction on May 8 that

the newly created World Trade Organization is unlikely to

address either child labor or environmental issues.

WILDLIFE

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

The National Parks Board of South

Africa announced May 10 that, “To maintain

for as long as possible the option of translocat-

ing family groups of elephants,” only 300 will

be killed this year instead of 600 as biologists rec-

ommended. “The breeding herds will mainly be

culled in areas where the greatest damage has been

done to trees,” the NPB added. “Of special con-

cern is the declining baobob population,” in

Kruger National Park, which has about 8,000 ele-

phants in an area the size of Israel. The elephants,

including 70 bulls, are to be shot from helicopters.

Tranquilizer darts will no longer be used before-

hand because this appears to increase rather than

decrease the stress to the elephants, who afterward

are immobile but fully conscious.

ESA update

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C. ––Senators

Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), with co-sponsors

Bennett Johnston (D-La.), and Richard Shelby

(R-Ala.), on May 9 introduced the first of three

expected Republican drafts of a revised

Endangered Species Act. Largely authored by

timber industry lobbyists, the Gorton bill would

end the federal obligation to try to save all

endangered species. Instead the Secretary of the

Interior would be allowed to rule that a species

should go extinct. The bill would also lump

together captive and wild animals in counting

populations, meaning for instance that hatchery-

bred salmon, with little ability to survive in the

ocean, would count toward meeting the conser-

vation goals of endangered runs. In addition, the

bill would virtually preclude the designation of

protected critical habitat, and require taxpayers

to cover costs of routine corporate compliance.

PETA, Romero court updates

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

The Nevada Supreme Court has

withdrawn their January 27, 1994 reversal

of the $4.2 million libel verdict won by

orangutan trainer Bobby Berosini in August

1990 against PETA, PETA director of inves-

tigations Jeanne Rouch, the Performing

Animal Welfare Society, PAWS executive

director Pat Derby, and dancer Ottavio

Gesmundo. An FBI probe of alleged conflicts

of interest in other Nevada cases found that

8th Judicial District Judge Jack Lehman is an

advisor to the Animal Foundation of Nevada,

a Las Vegas low-cost neutering organization.

Lehman was appointed by Governor Bob

Miller to serve on the three-judge panel that

heard the PETA appeal of the Berosini ver-

dict, after Chief Justice Robert Rose with-

drew and two other justices were occupied

Hunting

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Johnie Young, treasurer of a group trying to repeal the

ban on bear and cougar hunting with dogs approved by Oregon

voters last November, pleaded no contest in November 1990, along

with his wife Diana, to poaching bears and trafficking in bear paws

and gall bladders. State police records indicate Young killed 32 black

bears, including cubs, between April 1987 and June 1989––along

with three cougars and a bobcat. A police undercover video showed

Young leading several hunting parties who used dogs to tree bears,

shot the bears out of the trees, and allowed the dogs to maul the bears

after they fell.

Agriculture

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Twelve activists were arrested and

two hurt at Brightlingsea, England, on

April 18, as they failed to halt the export of

1,200 sheep to Belgium, following an April 12

ruling by the High Court that local authorities

had no right to ban live animal exports. The

ruling undid export bans won through a winter

of protest at all major British cattle ports.

Australia’s effort to resume sheep

sales to Saudi Arabia after a four-year hiatus

hit a snag on May 8 when Saudi inspectors

diverted the first cargo of 75,000 sheep to

Jordan because they didn’t think the sheep

were healthy enough to be unloaded at Jeddah.

A second ship carrying 30,000 sheep changed

destinations voluntarily. Australia sold up to

3.5 million sheep a year to Saudi Arabia before

1991, when the frequent arrival of diseased

sheep caused the Saudis to cut off the trade.

WARRANTS TIE PROVIMI VEAL, LAMB TO ILLEGAL DRUGS

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

MILWAUKEE––Newly unsealed

search warrants executed in September 1994

by U.S. Customs Service special agent Steve

Sutherland allege the closest links yet

between the Provimi Veal Corporation, of

Waukesha, Wisconsin, the largest distribu-

tor of milk-fed veal and lamb in the U.S.,

and the illegal use of clenbuterol, a banned

steroid. The drug speeds the growth of calves

and lambs––but humans who eat clenbuterol-

tainted meat may suffer an accelerated heart

rate, muscle tremors, headaches, dizziness,

nausea, fever, and chills.

According to the warrants, copies

of which were obtained by Humane Farming

Association investigator Gail Eisenitz, the

clenbuterol traffic directly involved Aat

Groenvelt, who founded Provimi in 1962,

introduced the use of the veal crate to North

America, and was also instrumental in pro-

moting the popularity of “milk-fed spring

lamb,” essentially the meat of lambs raised

like veal calves.

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