Freedom at last for Ivan the gorilla?

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

TACOMA, Washington––Bankruptcy judge Philip Brandt ruled October 26 in

favor of a Chapter 11 reorganization plan presented by B&I Shopping Center minority owner

Mary Ann Borgert that includes selling the property and moving Ivan, a lowland gorilla who

has spent 29 years there in solitary confinement, to an appropriate zoo. The Columbus Zoo,

in Ohio, appears to be the most likely destination, having 18 gorillas already, including

potential mates for Ivan, but the National Zoo in Washington D.C., the Woodland Park Zoo

in Seattle, and the Atlanta Zoo, which rehabilitated a gorilla kept in solitary confinement

almost as long, are also possibilities. The Dallas Zoo, which reportedly tried to buy Ivan at

one point, no longer has a place for him. B&I principal owner Ron Irwin had always refused

cash offers because, he said, Ivan was “like family.” Ivan was imported nearly a decade

before the passage of the Endangered Species Act cut off private gorilla acquisiitons. The

Progressive Animal Welfare Society and the American Society of Zoological Parks and

Aquariums met October 23 to review contingency plans for Ivan’s hoped-for imminent

move––but Borgert said she wouldn’t make a relocation decision quickly.

COURT CALENDAR

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

Humane Enforcement

Concluding a three-year probe

begun in September 1990, the USDA in

October charged American Airlines w i t h

multiple violations of the Animal Welfare

Act. Seventy-one animals died aboard U.S.

domestic flights in 1990, the worst toll since

the USDA began monitoring air transport of

pets in 1976. Numerous airlines were

charged. 1992, however, was worse yet, as

50 puppies died aboard a single TWA flight

from Missouri to St. Louis. The puppies

were en route from breeders to pet shops.

Horses

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

Days End Farm Horse Rescue is

offering a cash reward for “any information

leading to the arrest and conviction of the

person responsible for the recent assault and

mutilation of horses in Maryland.” The

reward fund is named for Star, a mare who

was sexually assaulted and subjected to muti-

lation resembling an internal episiotomy in

Urbana on October 5. Similar attacks

occurred in the area on August 26 and

September 4; in Great Falls, Virginia, last

year; and have been baffling police in

England for a decade. The attacks may be

linked, as they seem to be done by someone

skilled at horse-handling, and there is con-

siderable traffic between the horse communi-

ties of England and the greater Washington

D.C. area. Days End Farm Horse Rescue

also seeks information about similar attacks

anywhere, at any time, by anyone, in an

effort to build a psychological profile of the

perpetrator. Send material to P.O. Box 157,

West Friendship, MD 21794.

Animal Control & Rescue

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

The Connecticut Humane Society,

long under fire from local no-kill groups for a

“high” euthanasia rate that is in fact better than

average for big shelters, has ceased accepting

animals from other shelters for euthanasia, and

is accepting animals for euthanasia from res-

cuers only by special arrangement. “I don’t

want to be in the business of euthanasia,” pres-

ident Richard Johnson told ANIMAL PEO-

PLE. “I want to do saving and adoption.”

CHS will now pay for neutering any animal

adopted by anyone from any municipal shelter

in Connecticut, Johnson said.

Birds

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

Cowbirds, native to the

midwest, invaded California 10 to 15

years ago and are now blamed for extir-

pating at least four threatened or endan-

gered songbirds from key parts of their

range. Female cowbirds indirectly kill

as many as 48 young songbirds apiece

per nesting season by laying their eggs

in songbirds’ nests. The songbird par-

ents then raise the fast-hatching cowbird

offspring ––who push the songbirds’

own eggs out before they hatch.

Songbird species such as the Bell’s

vireo, willow flycatcher, yellow-breast-

ed chat, and white crown sparrow are

believed capable of withstanding losses

of 10% of their eggs, but decline quick-

ly when the losses exceed 20%. Studies

of white crown sparrow nests in San

Francisco’s Golden Gate Park indicate

losses to cowbirds may exceed 50%.

Hopes for the eventual recovery of the

highly endangered Bell’s vireo were

raised this year when one or two pairs

reportedly nested along the Ventura

River, near Santa Barbara, for the first

time since 1908––but a lone Bell’s vireo

seen in Monterey County, a former

stronghold of the species, failed to find

a mate. Bell’s vireos apparently haven’t

nested successfully there since the cow-

birds arrived, circa 1983.

Biomedical research

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

A George Washington University

research team revealed October 25 in

Science that it recently cloned and

destroyed a number of human embryos,

which were available for experimental use

because they had genetic flaws. It was the

most advanced genetic engineering experi-

ment to date using human tissue. The

announcement came less than a month after

300 scientists gathered in England to discuss

xenography––animal-to-human organ trans-

plants–– made theoretically possible after a

century of failures by implanting human genes

into animals raised as donors, which would

give the organs a human configuration and

help to overcome tissue rejection.

Report to Congress on Animal Enterprise Terrorism

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

WASHINGTON D.C. – – The newly released Department of

Justice/USDA Report to Congress on Animal Enterprise Terrorism man-

dated by the Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1992 found that “The

FBI has categorized only a few animal rights-related incidents as acts of

domestic terrorism,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Sheila Anthony and

Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Eugene Branstool stated in presenting it.

Therefore, they explained, “for purposes of this report, the term

‘animal rights extremism’ includes all acts of destruction or disruption per-

petrated against animal enterprises or their employees.”

Thus widening the topic to include petty vandalism, the report

recorded 313 “animal rights-related incidents” from 1977 through June 30,

1993. None involved significant injury to either people or animals.

Among the incidents were 160 cases of petty vandalism, 77 thefts or

releases of animals, 29 personal threats, 26 cases of major vandalism, 21

arsons, 16 bomb threats, 14 fire bombs, nine bombing hoaxes, and three

actual bombing attempts. The report failed to note the role of security

agents hired by U.S. Surgical Corporation in encouraging, aiding, and

abetting Fran Trutt in the best known bombing case. Trutt, who had only

marginal involvement in animal rights, served a year in jail for placing a

pipe bomb in the U.S. Surgical parking lot in November 1988––paid for by

the operatives for U.S. Surgical, one of whom drove her to the site.

COURT CALENDAR

October 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

Editor’s note: The people grouped under the heading “Animal Collectors,”

below, call themselves animal rescuers. The others, purportedly, sought to make

money. In each case, however, regardless of alleged motive, the pathology and cir –

cumstances of the perpetrators seems to be the same. As humane investigator Lewis R.

Plumb of the Promotion of Animal Welfare Society in Paradise, California wrote about

a case he and his wife prosecuted, “When two people are living in a mobile home with

hundreds of dogs, with feces all over the floors and even on the bed, when in one small

container a mother poodle nurses two dead puppies who have been left in the cage,

when three dead puppies are in the freezer next to a frozen turkey and some ice cream,

then you get the idea that it just maybe is not so much criminality as insanity. How

should these people be humanely dealt with? As it is now, each felony cruelty count

under California law carries a maximum penalty of one year is prison, a maximum fine

Marine mammals

October 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

The Dolphin Alliance, of

Melbourne Beach, Florida, announced

September 22 that Bogie and Bacall, the

Ocean Reef Club dolphins, will be going

home to the Indian River Lagoon as soon

as they complete rehabilitation with former

“Flipper” trainer Ric O’Barry, who heads

the closely allied Dolphin Project.

Publicity surrounding the 1988 capture of

Bogie and Bacall influenced the National

Marine Fisheries Service to ban further dol-

phin captures for the benefit of facilities

not open to the public. When the Ocean

Reef Club was sold recently, it lost the

grandfather clause enabling it to keep

Bogie and Bacall.

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