Editorial: The cause of the homeless

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

The ink wasn’t even dry on the New York Times edition of April 4 when we

received our first outraged call from a dog rescuer. A full-page advertisement placed by the

Coalition for the Homeless showed a forlorn-looking dog at the top. “According to statis-

tics,” the caption read, “his chances of finding a home are 70%.” Below, the photo

expanded to include the homeless woman sitting beside the dog. “Now they’re next to

zero,” said the caption. “Some might say the homeless are treated like dogs. But actually,

a homeless dog is better off than a homeless person. Over 100,000 people bedded down on

New York City’s streets and in shelters last year. But only 2,000 homeless single adults

ended up in homes of their own.”

The statistics cited are accurate, but out of context. As we pointed out to the

Coalition for the Homeless on behalf of our upset readers, the 30% of New York City stray

dogs who don’t find a home within a week to 10 days of pickup are euthanized at one of the

American SPCA shelters. The numbers of stray dogs euthanized are falling much faster

than the number of homeless people on the streets, but the ASPCA still killed 16,760 dogs

in 1991, the most recent year for which we have complete statistics, plus 22,595 cats,

whose chance of adoption ran around 20%.

San Francisco adopts no-kill animal control: WILL DECLARING VICTORY WIN THE WAR?

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

SAN FRANCISCO, California––Euthanasia for animal population control offi-

cially ended in San Francisco effective April 1. Taking San Francisco SPCA president

Richard Avanzino up on a challenge issued last October, the city Department of Animal Care

and Control has agreed it will no longer euthanize any dog or cat who meets Avanzino’s

“adoptable” and “treatable” criteria. The SFSPCA has agreed to accept, treat, and place all

such animals. The agreement is expected to cut by two-thirds the number of euthanasias per-

formed by the city shelter: 5,379 in 1993, already by far the smallest number of euthanasias

relative to human population of any major urban animal control district.

Birds

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Virtually insuring the mass destruction of spar-

rows, who provide much of China’s insect control, Beijing

Weekend magazine on April 1 published the assertion of profes-

sor Chen Wenbo of the Beijing Drum Tower Hospital of

Traditional Chinese Medicine that eating six sparrows and 15

grams of Chinese wolfberries per day for three months can cure

male sterility. The professor, 57, claimed to have cured

30,000 patients with a diet of sparrows over the past 13 years:

86% of their wives became pregnant. Since 1991 the price of

sparrows at the bird market outside the hospital has reportedly

doubled from three U.S. cents apiece to six.

Siberian cranes failed to arrive this winter at

Keolado National Park, near Bharatpur, India, for the first

time in 30 years. Only six were seen in Iran, and none in

Pakistan, marking the virtual extinction of the western flock,

which numbered 200 about 30 years ago. About 2,900 Siberian

cranes survive in the eastern flock, wintering in eastern China.

Alaska mandates predator control: CONCERNED ABOUT KILLER RATS

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

JUNEAU, Alaska––Alaska gov-

ernor Walter Hickel on April 15 signed into

law a bill that forces the Alaska Board of

Game and Department of Fish and Game to

kill predators before either reducing bag

limits or curtailing hunting seasons to pro-

tect game populations. The new law for-

malizes as state policy the approach taken

in Game Management Unit 20-A, where

131 wolves were massacred this past win-

ter so that human hunters could shoot more

moose and caribou. It also takes the deci-

sion-making authority away from the

Board of Game, which hunting interests

feared might be too susceptible to pressure

from environmentalists and animal rights

groups––much to the surprise of the envi-

ronmentalists and animal rights groups who

have tried to deal with the Board of Game

over the wolf issue since November 1992.

Said Alaska senate majority

leader Robin Taylor, “You don’t manage

game by sitting back and saying you wish

the wolf wouldn’t eat the caribou. It’s like

shooting rats in a dump. They’re a predator

you have to control.”

Ex-tourism head vindicated as Alaska loses suit vs. FoA

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

SEATTLE, Washington– – Why

was Connell Murray fired as Director of

Alaska tourism?

“I don’t know and I didn’t ask,”

Murray told ANIMAL PEOPLE on April

11, from his boat in Puget Sound, “because I

didn’t much care. I was retired when I was

appointed by the governor, I said I’d stay for

two years, I was there for two years and

three months, and I’m retired again.”

Murray was dismissed effective

January 1, while on a trip to Asia, shortly

after he testified in a deposition that the

tourism boycott called by Friends of Animals

in November 1992 to protest the Alaska

Board of Game’s plan to kill wolves south-

west of Fairbanks had not demonstrably done

any economic harm. The boycott was lifted

when the wolf-killing plan was suspended in

late December 1992, and not reimposed until

after the Board of Game adopted the current

wolf-killing strategy in late June 1993.

Alaska kills one wolf per 1,218 tries

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

FAIRBANKS, Alaska– – The

Alaska Department of Fish and Game on

April 7 ended the first phase of its wolf-

killing campaign in Game Management Unit

20-A, the sector southwest of Fairbanks.

State killers bagged 94 wolves, 80 in snares,

two in leghold traps, and 12 with rifles.

Private hunters and trappers killed 37 more.

The state declared the total of 131 met the

winter quota of 150.

The “predator management” pro-

gram, ostensibly undertaken to protect moose

and caribou, also killed by accident 12

moose, of 23 caught; two caribou, of eight

caught; six coyotes; 13 foxes; a protected

golden eagle; an endangered wolverine; and

a snowshoe hare. Two grizzly bears were

aught, but escaped alive. In all, 36% of

the victims were non-target species.

Animal control & rescue

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

A DISMAL TUNE FROM DOWN BY THE BANKS OF THE OHIO

MANSFIELD, Ohio––A recent

survey of Ohio county animal control depart-

ments done by neutering advocate Diana

Nolen found that 64% consider their shelters

to be overcrowded, 58% see parvovirus as

their greatest health problem (a disease associ-

ated with overcrowding), and only 27%

expect to be able to expand or improve their

facilities soon. Two-thirds of the departments

depend wholly upon dog licensing, fines, and

redemption fees for their income.

Nolen’s survey forms were returned

by the animal control departments in 33 of the

88 Ohio counties, containing 47% of the

human population. The findings indicate that

Ohio animal control agencies took in about

197,000 dogs and cats in 1993; euthanized

135,000, or 69%; adopted out 37,000 (19%);

and returned 25,000 (13%) to their owners.

Thirty percent reported declining intake and

euthanasia figures, 42% reported no change,

and 24% reported increases.

Evidence escapes

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

HARTVILLE, Ohio––The Sharon

Woods deer saga took another twist on March

25 when 74 of the 76 whitetailed deer in cus-

tody of elk breeder Robin Rodabaugh disap-

peared after someone cut the fence. The deer

were the last of 286 whom Rodabaugh and 10

volunteers removed from heavily overpopulated

Sharon Woods Metro Park, on the outskirts of

Columbus, during December and January.

Rodabaugh said three witnesses provided infor-

mation linking the fence-cutting to an alleged

“known poacher,” who apparently wanted the

deer to get out where he could shoot them.

COURT CALENDAR

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Crimes Against Humans

Larry Gibson, 33, ex-deputy

sheriff for Douglas County, Oregon,

was arrested April 14 in Townsend,

Montana, for the alleged murder of his

two-year-old son Tommy on March 18,

1991. Gibson claimed he was jogging

when the boy disappeared, while his wife

was indoors; their daughter, then four,

said strangers drove off with him.

Unconvinced, investigators theorized in

May 1991 that Gibson shot his son by

accident while killing a neighbor’s cat

near the time of the disappearance.

Gibson’s wife, daughter, and another

son born since then recently left

him––whereupon the daughter, now

seven, told police she actually saw

Gibson strike Tommy, then stuff him

into a garbage bag.

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