MARINE LIFE

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

Earth Island Institute and

Public Citizen on September 14 sued

the Commerce Department, alleging

non-enforcement of the requirement

that Gulf of Mexico shrimpers use tur-

tle excluders to keep endangered sea

turtles from getting caught in their

nets. The Commerce Dept. says the

excluders cut shrimp catches by 5%;

the Texas Shrimp Association says it’s

more like 20%. Irate shrimpers are

blamed for killing more than 270 tur-

tles whose mutilated remains have

been found since March. The National

Marine Fisheries Service has posted a

$10,000 reward for information bring-

ing the arrest of the culprits.

Russia objects; MAY IGNORE WHALE SANCTUARY WITH IMPUNITY

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

MOSCOW, Russia– – Already

holding a formal objection to the global whal-

ing moratorium decreed by the International

Whaling Commission in 1986, Russia on

September 13 filed an objection to the May

creation of the Southern Ocean Whale

Sanctuary as well––meaning that under IWC

rules, Russia not only may kill whales com-

mercially without fear of trade sanctions, but

also may kill whales below the 40th parallel,

where about 80% of the world’s surviving

baleen whales spend up to 80% of their time.

Intended to protect whales in

Antarctic waters, the sanctuary was in effect

won by the U.S. delegation at cost of conced-

ing the passage of a Revised Management

Plan for setting commercial whaling quotas.

COURT CALENDAR

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

Activism

Forty-two activists who were

arrested at the 1992 Hegins Labor Day

pigeon shoot on July 15 sued 16 employ-

ees and officials of Schuykill County,

Pennsylvania, who allegedly subjected

them to illegal strip-searches. The plain-

tiffs include PETA cofounders Alex

Pacheco and Ingrid Newkirk, who claims

male guards were able to see her nude

through an open door. The suit parallels

one filed by nine female activists who won

a similar case after the 1991 Hegins shoot.

U.S. judge Franklin S, Van Antwerpen

ruled last September in that case that the

Schuykill county strip-searching policy

was unconstitutional.

Killing for the hell of it

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A federal anti-hunter harassment statute

tucked into the Crime Bill is likely to stay there––and

pass––as the Clinton administration strives to get

around National Rifle Association opposition to the

Crime Bill as a whole, which would ban 19 types of

assault rifle. The NRA on August 10 claimed credit

for temporarily defeating the Crime Bill on a proce-

dural vote in the House of Representatives.

The Senate version of the California

Desert Protection Act, passed in April, would cre-

ate an East Mojave National Park between the Joshua

Tree and Death Valley National Monuments, which

are to be upgraded to National Park status––meaning

a ban on hunting. However, in a move of symbolic

import to the NRA, the House version passed on July

27 downgrades East Mojave to the status of a

National Preserve, to allow hunting. National Park

Service director Roger Kennedy pointed out that

because preserves require more staff than parks, the

House version will cost $500,000 more per year to

run. Since hunters kill an average of only 26 deer and

five bighorn sheep per year in East Mojave, Kennedy

said, this amounts to “a subsidy of $20,000 per deer.”

A House/Senate conference committee must reconcile

the conflicting versions before the bill goes back to

both the Senate and House for final passage.

Animals in laboratories

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

The American Medical Association has honored Louisiana State

University researchers Michael Carey and Betty Jean Oseid (his wife) for their

“defiant and unflinching stand against animal rights extremists.” Carey spent $2.1

million shooting more than 700 cats in the head until a General Accounting Office

probe found the work dubious, influencing the U.S. Army to halt funding in

1989. A stint as a combat surgeon in the Persian Gulf War revamped his image,

Mike Wallace of CBS 60 Minutes whitewashed the cat-shooting, blaming animal

rights activists rather than the GAO for

the Army decision, and Carey has

been on the stump seeking renewed

funding ever since.

Horse notes

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A legal parallel to the White

Sands situation came to light on the

Yakima Reservation, at Toppemish,

Washington, and the Warm Springs

Reservation near Madras, Oregon,

after horse enthusiast Sheila Herron

traced several injured horses she found

in a horsemeat dealer’s feedlot at Yelm,

Washington, back to annual roundups

authorized by the tribal councils.

Yakima councillors told Herron they

were “weeding out the crippled and

old,” but most of the horses at the feed-

lot were healthy, Herron said, and

some were foals. A Warm Springs

councillor said the Madras horses are

privately owned. “I was certainly

unaware,” Herron told ANIMAL PEO-

P L E, “that only mustangs and burros

from BLM or Forest Service lands are

protected by federal law. Mustangs and

burros from Park Service, Indian, mil-

itary or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

lands have no protection from being

rounded up and sold for slaughter.”

AGRICULTURE

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

The central event at the American Humane Association annual confer-

ence, Sept. 28-Oct. 1, is to be an already controversial “Livestock forum,” at which

four university livestock experts, often critical of industry norms, are to outline for

humane officers “which current farming practices are acceptable, which can be chal-

lenged, and how” under existing laws, and “which desperately need to be changed.”

Claiming the speakers are too close to the livestock industry, representatives of the

Humane Farming Association, Humane Society of the U.S., and Fund for Animals

have offered themselves as speakers instead. Responded Adele Douglass of AHA,

who set up the forum, “This session is not to talk about ideals; it’s to inform people

about what’s being done now, why it’s being done that way, and what kind of farm-

related cases a humane officer can hope to prosecute successfully under today’s laws.”

Animal control & rescue notes

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

Five months after the California

cities of Cupertino, Campbell, Los Gatos,

Saratoga, and Monte Sereno contracted

with a Campbell animal hospital for pound

service, instead of the Humane Society of

Santa Clara Valley, about one resident in

five who finds a stray still takes it to the

wrong place. The errors may erode the sav-

ings the cities hoped to gain by the switch.

The Harbor Animal Shelter in

San Pedro, California, estimates that 75%

of the animals it has received this

year––three or four a day––were left by

Navy families being transferred due to the

closure of the Long Beach Naval Air

Station. A parallel situation has developed

at the Wuensdorf barracks in Germany,

closed in August. Russian troops going

home left circa 150 cats behind, now fed by

volunteer Wilhelm Schrader, whose fund-

ing comes mainly out of his own pocket.

Alleged horse killers charged with murder

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

CHICAGO––Illinois and federal

authorities probing a scheme to kill race and show

horses for insurance money say they have cracked

a series of the most sensational unsolved crimes in

Chicago history. Richard Bailey, 62, described

as a gigolo who cheated lonely widows out of hun-

dreds of thousands of dollars, was charged July 27

in connection with the 1977 disappearance of

Helen Vorhees Brach, the Brach candy heiress

whose will founded the Brach Foundation, a

major source of funding for animal-related chari-

ties. August 12, stable owner Kenneth Hansen, a

Bailey associate, was charged with the October

1955 kidnap-rape-murders of Robert Peterson, 14,

and brothers John and Anton Schluessler, ages 13

and 11, whose deaths, some sociologists say,

changed the attitudes of America toward hitchhik-

ing and supervision of children, and reinforced

homophobia for a generation of parents.

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