Swett keeps Primarily Primates

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

SAN ANTONIO, Texas––Conclu-

ding that charges of mismanagement against

Primarily Primates founder and president

Wallace Swett were much less serious than he

had been led to believe, Texas assistant attor-

ney general John Vinson on November 16

dropped a petition to remove Swett from the

sanctuary in exchange for structural conces-

sions. To improve oversight, Swett is to

expand the present five-member board to

seven members, of whom four must live with-

in 100 miles of the San Antonio facility. In

addition, Primarily Primates will no longer be

a membership-controlled organization with

Swett as the sole voting member, which in

effect gave him veto power over the board.

COURT CALENDAR

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

Crimes against wildlife

Hong Kong authorities confiscat-

ed $20,000 worth of rhinoceros horn in a

series of late October raids on apothecaries,

following leads provided by the London-based

Environmental Investigation Agency. But the

raids may have come too late to save rhinos in

the wild, as fewer than six remain in protect-

ed areas of Zimbabwe, according to wildlife

veterinarian Dr. Michael Kock, who could

find only two in a two-week aerial search.

There were 3,000 when Zimbabwe achieved

native sovereignty in 1980. Kock sawed the

horns off about 300 rhinos a year ago, trying

to make them worthless to poachers, but dis-

covered that even the nub left behind after

dehorning will fetch $2,400 U.S. Kock says

he has evidence that the Asian poaching car-

tels are actively trying to “kill every rhino,”

because, “If they eliminate the rhino, the value

of the horn will skyrocket. They can sit on a

stockpile for 10 years; they know there is

always going to be a market.”

Zoos

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

World Society for the Protection of

Animals field officer Neil Trent flew to Tbilsi

in the former Soviet republic of Georgia on

November 26 in an emergency effort to save

starving animals in the city zoo––among them

two tigers, several lions, a polar bear, a leop-

ard, a wolf pack, and 25 birds of two species

(down in recent months from 1,000 birds of 40

species). The animals have reportedly received

only a third of their normal rations for months.

They were to be sent to the better-funded Baku

Zoo in Azerbaijan, but the deal was vetoed by

the Tbilsi mayor for reasons of regional pride,

according to anthropologist Mary Ellen

Chatwin, who called WSPA after other groups

declined to help. The Tbilsi Zoo used to draw

500,000-plus visitors a year, with a staff of

120. Attendance fell with the economy when

civil war broke out following the collapse of the

Soviet Union; some of the present staff of 60

are paid under 50ç a month. Worldwide, the

menageries of at least four major zoos have

starved in the last two years, all due to war.

Animal Control & Rescue

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

Wildlife biologist Carol

Crane, president of the Calvert

Animal Welfare League in St.

Leonard, Maryland, has published

a survey of shelter intake and

euthanasia rates in 21 of the 23

Maryland counties, which include

95% of the state population. Her

findings “further confirm new

national estimates that animal care

and control facilities are not han-

dling as many dogs and cats as was

thought previously,” according to

Phil Arkow of the Peggy Adams

Animal Rescue League in West

Palm Beach, Florida. Arkow and

Andrew Rowan of Tufts University

have recently published estimates

that population control euthanasias

of dogs and cats probably don’t

exceed six million a year––half the

Hunter harassment bill clears Senate

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

A last-minute deal between

Senate Judiciary Committee chair Joe

Biden (D-Del.) and senior minority mem-

ber Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) inserted a fed-

eral hunter harassment statute into the

anti-crime bill passed by the Senate, 95-

4, in mid-November. The amendment

states it is illegal for a person to

“obstruct, impede or otherwise interfere”

with hunting on federal land. It was nei-

ther mentioned nor voted upon during the

anti-crime bill debate, apparently pass-

ing unnoticed.

HUNTING

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

To fight deer overpopulation,

the Ohio Division of Wildlife intends to

seek legalized bowhunting in suburbs;

legalized Sunday gun hunting; a longer

deer season; increased deer quotas; hunt-

ing access to state parks; and the repeal of

suburban hunting bans. Until last year,

Division policy was to boost deer numbers

to create more targets.

The odds a hunter will kill a

person by accident are 279.5 times

greater than the odds a deer/car collision

will. A record 118 people were killed in

deer/car collisions last year, while 130

people were killed in hunting accidents––a

record low. But the 165 million drivers in

the U.S. drive an average of at least once

a day, while the 14 million hunters hunt

an average of 17 days apiece, according to

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Birds

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

The last four of the first

eight California condors to be

returned to the wild were recap-

tured November 9 for relocation

from the Sespe Condor Sanctuary

to the Los Padres National Forest,

far to the north. Three condors

released at Sespe since January

1992 were killed in collisions with

power lines, while a fourth was

poisoned by drinking antifreeze.

Racing Stockcar Assoc-

iates Inc. is attempting to build a

dirt racetrack in a former sand quar-

ry beneath Bake Oven Knob,

Pennsylvania, site of one of North

America’s longest maintained rap-

tor obervatories.

Marine mammals

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

The Japanese whaler Nisshin Maru sailed from

Yokosuka November 12 on a five-month “research” mission.

The vessel killed 330 whales last year, also for

“research”––but most of the whales’ meat was sold. Just two

days earlier, Swedish authorities intercepted 3.5 tons of whale

meat in an illegal air cargo shipment from Norway to South

Korea, apparently for resale to Japan. Norway killed 226

whales this year, including 157 under a self-assigned 160-

whale commercial quota, of which 56% were females and 69%

of those were pregnant. “These animals are larger than the

males and therefore produce more meat per catch,” explained

Chris Stroud of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

“That the Norwegians seem to be killing the elements responsi-

ble for the recovery of the population does not seem to be a

consideration. Their only thought is to maximize commercial

advantage.”

Diet & Health

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

Men who eat a lot of animal fat,

especially the fat from red meat, have more

than two and a half times the risk of develop-

ing prostate cancer than men who eat little or

none, a team of Harvard University and

Mayo Clinic researchers reported in the

October Journal of the National Cancer

Institute. The study investigated the eating

habits of 47,855 men. Over 165,000

American men develop prostate cancer each

year, often losing their sexual function in

consequence; 35,000 American men per year

die of prostate cancer.

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