Marine mammals

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

S. 1636, the present Marine

Mammal Protection Act reauthorization

bill, has cleared the Senate Commerce

Committee and at deadline was expected to be

passed any day by the full Senate, with House

ratification likely in April. The Humane

Society of the U.S. has asked members to

write Congress opposing S. 1636 because it

“has no provisions for effective enforcement,”

and “would allow the accidental killing of

endangered species (currently prohibited) and

the intentional shooting of seals and sea lions

solely to protect fish commercially caught or

raised.” HSUS seeks amendments that will

“ensure that marine mammal mortality in com-

mercial fishing operations reaches insignifi-

cant levels approaching zero, mandate specif-

ic punitive consequences if kill reduction goals

are not met on schedule, prohibit the capture

of wild whales or dolphins for public display,

prohibit swim-with-the-dolphin programs and

petting pools, prohibit public feeding of both

captive and wild marine mammals, prohibit

the issuance of permits to kill endangered

species in commercial fisheries,” and “prohib-

it the intentional killing of seals and sea lions

solely to protect fishing gear, catch, or net

pens.” The Animal Welfare Institute has

issued a similar appeal for action.

Guest Opinion: In defense of the Animal Liberation Front

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

by Gary Francione

Rutgers Animal Rights Law Clinic

The January/February ANIMAL PEOPLE edi-

torial condemned the Animal Liberation Front for planting

nine firebombs in four Chicago department stores.

Although I agree completely that the cause of animal

rights is or should be a movement of peace and nonvio-

lence, and that the use of firebombs or any other action

that threatens human or nonhuman life is morally unac-

ceptable and inimical to the philosophy of animal rights, I

am concerned that ANIMAL PEOPLE’s broad condem-

nation of the ALF focused attention on the wrong topic.

First, while the condemnation did except the

clandestine information-gathering in support of Animal

Welfare Act enforcement that characterized many early

actions, it otherwise lumped together all ALF activities.

For the first decade the ALF was active in the United

States, it generally rejected any action that jeopardized

human or animal life and safety, and confined its activi-

ties to removing animals from laboratories or farms, and

on occasion, to destroying equipment used to exploit ani-

mals. The first arson attributed to ALF in the U.S. did not

occur until 1986, and there were few others before 1991.

Will Pennsylvania humane officers lose their badges?

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania––

Five bills before the Pennsylvania state legis-

lature, a court case pending in Ohio, and a

political fracas in Wisconsin together signal

that humane enforcement is no longer a

backwater of police work, easily left to ama-

teurs and the bottom of the court calendar.

It is almost certain that before 1994

is over, the structure of humane enforcement

in Pennsylvania will either be reinforced or

demolished, depending upon which mea-

sures from the competing bills best survive

the process of committee review and amend-

ment––and how one interprets the results. It

is possible that the Ohio court decision,

expected this summer (separate story, page

15), could spark a similar burst of legisla-

tive activity. In Wisconsin, rules governing

search warrants could be amended. In all

three states the humane community is wor-

ried because opponents are all but salivating

at the prospect of forcing “activist” anti-cru-

elty officers off the beat. Some of the pro-

posed Pennsylvania legislation would

exempt farmers from humane enforcement;

Sea Shepherd sinks another pirate whaler: ACTED TO ENFORCE INTERNATIONAL LAW, WATSON SAYS

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

GRESSVIK, Norway––Responding to the slaughter of 296 minke whales last

summer, in contravention of international agreement, the Sea Shepherd Conservation

Society sunk the pirate whaler Senet during the predawn hours of January 24.

The S e n e t was one of 28 vessels that took part in Norway’s first commercial

whale hunt since the International Whaling Commission declared a moratorium on com-

mercial whaling in 1986. The Senet crew killed five of the 160 whales massacred under

Norway’s unilaterally declared commercial quota, while 12 other vessels killed an addi-

tional 136 whales in the name of scientific research. Mostly sold to Japan, the whale meat

brought the whalers about $12.5 million. The Norwegian government reputedly spent near-

NEW YORK STATE STATISTICS SHOW LINK: Hunters and molesters

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

ALBANY, New York–-As a team of 165 volun-

teers shoved snow from the frozen forest floor near

Raquette Lake, where hunter Lewis Lent Jr. said he’d killed

and buried 12-year-old Sara Anne Wood last summer,

ANIMAL PEOPLEconfirmed through a county-by-county

comparative analysis of 1992 New York state hunting, trap-

ping, and crime statistics that children in upstate New York

counties with more than the average number of hunters per

capita are three times more likely to be sexually assaulted

than children in the notoriously crime-ridden Bronx district

of New York City. (Statistics begin on page 6.)

Lent, 43, of North Adams, Massachusetts, was

arrested January 7 after attempting to kidnap 12-year-old

Rebecca Savarese as she walked to school in nearby

Pittsfield. Within hours Lent became the primary suspect in

a string of at least eight kidnap/rape/murders of children in

Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, and in an

attempted kidnapping in Bennington, Vermont, only days

before his capture.

Biomedical research

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Despite a warning from senior radi-

ation biologist Dr. Joseph Hamilton that the

experiments had “a little of the Buchenwald

touch, “ the Atomic Energy Commission con-

ducted extensive radiation research on unwitting

human subjects from the mid-1940s into the

early 1970s, according to newly declassified

documents released in December by Energy

Secretary Hazel O’Leary, who battled her own

bureaucracy for nearly a year to obtain them. In

one experiment, 19 mentally retarded teenaged

boys at a state school in Fernald, Mass-

achusetts, were given radioactive milk with

their breakfast cereal from 1946 until 1956. In

Diet & Health

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Three new health studies rein-

force the arguments for vegetarianism

––especially for men who hope to remain

sexually active after the age of 40. A study

of Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry whose diet

consists mainly of tofu and rice, published in

the November edition of the British medical

journal The Lancet, suggested that tofu may

contain an ingredient that combats prostate

cancer. The study confirmed the findings of

an earlier study of U.S. Seventh Day

Adventists (more than half of whom are ethi-

cal vegetarians), which found that men who

eat a lot of legumes and fruits have a conspic-

uously low death rate from prostate cancer.

Prostate trouble is a leading cause of sexual

impotence––and the January 1994 issue of

The Journal of Urology includes the results of

the largest study of impotence ever. High

cholesterol consumption, heart disease, and

high blood pressure were confirmed as factors

frequently correlating with impotence; all are

closely associated with meat-eating.

PERFORMING WILDLIFE

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Elephant trainers Robert

“Smokey” Jones, Scott Riddle, and Heidi

Riddle raised eyebrows on December 22 by

announcing “A hands-on course in the humane

training and handling of captive elephants,” to

be taught at Riddle’s Elephant Breeding Farm

and Wildlife Sanctuary near Greenbriar,

Arkansas. A string of unusual elephant deaths

under Scott Riddle’s supervision over the past

15 years have brought repeated allegations of

mishandling, including two deaths resulting

from conflicts between elephants at the Los

Angeles Zoo in the early 1980s and one

ascribed to a stress-induced heart attack in

1986 at the Garden City Zoo in Garden City,

Kansas. Zoo officials in the latter case asked

the Kansas state police and the USDA to inves-

tigate the possibility that the heart attack was

brought on by an overdose of electric shock, as

at age 23 the elephant was still young, and had

been believed to be healthy. Riddle was

attempting to buy her for transport to a breed-

ing colony he wanted to start in Florida.

COURT CALENDAR

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Activism

“The Animal Liberation Front planted nine incen-

diary devices in four Chicago department stores which sell

fur,” media were told in a November 28 fax communique.

“The incendiaries were designed to start a small fire which

would in turn set off the stores’ sprinkler systems and cause

water damage. This action signals the start of a new, more

intense campaign of economic sabotage.” Five of the fire-

bombs went off November 28 and 29, doing minor damage at

Marshall Field, Carson and Saks. Three more were removed

by police and FBI agents. The ninth apparently never turned

up. Copies of a British ALF manual describing how to make

firebombs arrived in the mailboxes of numerous animal protec-

tion groups during the next few days, postmarked Palatine,

Illinois––a Chicago suburb. The incident gave furriers a con-

siderable volume of media time in which to denounce the anti-

fur movement generally.

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