Wildlife

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Media accounts widely misrepresented

an alleged disparity between $21,000 donated to

help the orphaned cub of the mountain lion who

killed California runner Barbara Schoener in May,

and the $9,000 donated to help Schoener’s children.

In fact, $15,000 of the amount “given” to the cub

came from the Folsom County Zoo’s dedicated

building fund for creating a mountain lion exhibit,

which the cub will occupy. An attempt by hunters to

use the fatal attack as pretext to reverse a hunting

moratorium imposed in 1971 and made permanent

by the passage of the 1990 Mountain Lion Initiative

was rebuffed June 14 by committees of both the

California state senate and assembly. In Montana,

meanwhile, the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks

Commission delayed until August a decision on

whether to deliberately cause a mountain lion popu-

lation crash by raising the kill quota from 436 to 479,

of whom at least 328 would have to be females.

ANIMAL HEALTH

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Zoonosis

Tests by the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit have

concluded that the only sure way to prevent allergic reactions

to cats is “to remove the cat from the home,” Dr. Charles

Klucka recently told the American Academy of Allergy and

Immunology. “The next best thing is keeping the cat out of

the bedroom,” while the cat owner takes allergy drugs or

shots. Bathing cats in distilled water, applying a topical

spray 60 times per week, and giving them low-dose tranquil-

izers, all touted as antiallergen treatments, did not reduce the

dander of the 24 cats included in the Ford Hospital study.

Ten thousand volunteers in Connecticut, New

Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin are field-

testing a Lyme disease vaccine developed by Connaught

Laboratories, following up on a 1992-1993 test that included

300 people. Preliminary data published in the June 8 edition

of the Journal of the American Medical Association showed

that levels of Lyme antibodies increased fourfold in 23 of 24

volunteers who participated in a limited test in Albuquerque,

none of whom suffered serious side effects. A rival firm,

SmithKline Beecham PLC, is reportedly also close to testing

a vaccine for Lyme disease, which afflicts about 10,000

Americans a year, and has been found in 44 of the 50 states.

Woofs and growls

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy (not!)

U.S. Surgical Corporation chairman Leon Hirsch, 67, was

sued on June 16 by his former housekeeper, Gizella Biro, 40, for alleged-

ly keeping her in virtual sexual slavery from November 1989 until May of

this year. Hirsch is noted in animal protection circles for funding pro-vivi-

section groups and for having purportedly set up an alleged assassination

attempt on himself in 1988 to discredit antivivisectionists. Biro’s husband

of 20 years, former U.S. Surgical groundskeeper Denis Sebastian, made

similar allegations to acquaintances during his divorce from Biro in 1990,

while Biro formally charged Sebastian with sexual abuse. According to

Biro, a Romanian immigrant who lived next door to Hirsch in a million-

dollar mansion that Hirsch provided, and drove cars furnished by Hirsch,

she was forced abouty once a week to have non-consensual sex with Hirsch

and sometimes his wife, U.S. Surgical executive vice president Turi

Josefson, as well as with other women. Biro further alleged that Hirsch

sexually asaulted her two daughters, whose education Hirsch paid for,

along with her friend and fellow former housekeeper, Eva Kale, whom

Biro invited to join the staff. Kale is reportedly preparing a similar suit.

Biro is asking $21 million to drop her charges, all of which Hirsch denies.

Animal control & rescue

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Consistent with previous studies done in

Portland and Minneapolis, which have found that

German shepherds make up about 14% of the canine popu-

lation but do about 27% of the biting, a Denver study of

178 first-time biters and 178 nonbiters issued June 9 by the

Centers for Disease Control found that German shepherds,

chows, and collies were the dogs most likely to attack; the

least likely were golden retrievers and poodles. Only one

pit bull terrier, a nonbiter, was included in the sample.

Despite the frequency of German shepherd bites, which

may reflect their frequent use as sentries, the ANIMAL

PEOPLE log of dog attacks causing death or serious injury

indicates that German shepherds are responsible for under

2% of the attacks in those categories, while pit bulls,

Rottweilers, and wolf hybrids together account for 79% of

the deaths and 92% of the maimings.

What “humane trap” standards share with military intelligence

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

The International Standards

Organization technical panel appointed to

define the “humane” trapping standards that

must be met by nations exporting furs into the

European Community met in Ottawa in mid-

February to ratify proposals that World

Society for the Protection of Animals cam-

paigns director Wim de Kok fears “will possi-

bly circumvent the hardfought regulation that

prohibits the use of the leghold trap in the EC

and the import of fur from countries that do

not have such a ban. Under the new General

Agreement on Trade and Tariffs,” de Kok

continued, “the ISO is the regulating body on

standardization. Many countries may be

forced to accept low animal welfare standards

or to allow the import of fur from countries

that do not ban leghold traps. Under the ISO

standards, traps which drown their victims

would be considered humane,” although no

major veterinary organization or humane

group considers drowning a humane method

of either euthanizing or slaughtering animals.

Animal control & rescue

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Effective June 28, use of

live animals as prizes in drawings,

lotteries, contests, sweepstakes,

and carnival games is illegal in

Pennsylvania. The law exempts fish,

as well as domestic animals given

away in connection with state-spon-

sored or sanctioned agricultural and

vocational programs. The Pennsyl-

vania Legislative Animal Network

and state representative Jerry Nailer

had pursued the new law since 1989.

Michigan adopted a

felony cruelty law in late April.

The new law eliminates the old

requirement that an animal be owned

for abuse to be punished, which left

homeless animals unprotected, and

weighs offenses in terms of mali-

ciousness rather than in terms of

property damage. The maximum

penalty is now four years in jail and

a $5,000 fine per offense.

Killing wildlife for fun & profit

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Austrian scientist Dr. Martin

Balluch, now at Cambridge University,

reportedly may be deported from Britain

because he opposes fox hunting. Letters of

protest may be sent to the Right Honorable

Michael Howard, Home Secretary, Home

Office, 50 Queen Anne’s Gate, London

SW1H 9AT, United Kingdom.

The winter of 1993-1994 was

among the harshest on record, forcing deer

to yard up sooner and stay yarded longer––but

early field reports indicate that few deer

starved despite hunters’ claims of deer over-

population. Wild turkeys were hard-hit, how-

eve––and may decline, warns National Wild

Turkey Federation representative Tom Baptie

of Castleton, Vermont, because undigested

grain from cow manure is a staple of their

winter diet, but anti-pollution laws now

restrict where and when manure can be spread.

COURT CALENDAR

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Crimes Against Humans

Odd jobs man Joseph Bales,

33, and Helene LeMay, 31, a mail-

order vegetarian diet consultant, were

charged April 19 with illegally disposing

of their 10-week-old infant’s remains in

the woods near Eastman, Quebec, a

short drive from their St. Romain home,

and then filing a false kidnapping report

in New York City to cover up for the

baby’s death. Their story fell apart within

hours. An autopsy seemed to confirm

their story that the baby died of natural

causes, as there were no evident signs of

abuse or malnutrition. They did not

report the death, they said, because they

feared they would be charged with abuse,

after having been accused last year of

abusing a mentally retarded foster child.

Gorilla case was frame-up ––McGreal

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

MIAMI, Florida––Victor Bernal, 57,

director of zoos and parks for Mexico state,

Mexico, was convicted on May 18 of trying to

bootleg a gorilla from Florida who was actually a

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent in disguise.

Bernal paid $97,500 for the “gorilla,” in one of

two stings set up by convicted primate trafficker

Matthew Block of Worldwide Primates as part of

an attempted plea bargain. The other sting

nabbed alleged bird’s egg smuggler Clement

Solano.

Bernal is to be sentenced on July 18. In

the most recent similar case, a Texas exotic bird

dealer who was convicted of smuggling parrots

was on April 28 fined $10,000 and sentenced to

five years in prison.

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