From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2000:

Low-gloss shine

I work with Elizabeth Oliver at Animal Refuge Kansai (ARK), which will be 10 years old in 2000. Liz told me that she met you at the recent International Companion Animal Welfare Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria. I’ve meant to write to you for a long time. I teach high school English in Kobe and have been involved with ARK for four years now. I started reading ANIMAL PEOPLE t w o summers ago when your article about Mina Sharpe’s animal rescue work in Taiwan caught my eye. I’m ashamed to admit that I had seen ANIMAL PEOPLE stacked in Liz’s house many times, but had always before passed it up in favor of the more flashy PETA, RSPCA, and WSPA publications. What a mistake! It’s not often that people find their calling in life, but when they do, they shine, and ANIMAL PEOPLE shines. I cannot express how much gratitude I feel toward you for nurturing my animal welfare/rights/issue education, and for being a voice of reason.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1999:

Hens, calves
I really get something out
of every issue of ANIMAL PEOP
L E. The sincerity of B.J., the
October winner of the North Shore
Animal League’s Lewyt Award,
was quite moving. He has the character
of a human, and a learned
human at that. I wish him a very
long, good life.
I would like to see a little
more coverage of broilers, layers,
and veal calves.
––Miriam Cohen
Forest Hills, New York

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1999:

Translation
I am writing on behalf of
the staff here at the Khenifra Refuge
to request a French translation of
your newspaper. The staff here are
very keen to read it, but due to the
language problem find it very hard.
I hope this is possible.
––Harry Cormack
(Veterinary intern)
SPCA North Africa
Centre de l’Elevage
Khenifra, Morocco

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

Raccoon rabies
After the July 14 discovery
of the first Canadian case of the
mid-Atlantic raccoon rabies strain in
Nepean, Ontario, the Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources killed
all raccoons and skunks found within
five kilometres of any animal
found to have rabies. Ten kilometres
past this zone, all raccoons and
skunks are to be vaccinated and
released. A friend who lives within
the killing zone was horrified when
an MNR representative arrived on
her doorstop and told her that he
intended to kill all the animals on
her property. When my friend
objected to the killing and wanted
only the vaccinations, major problems
developed.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

Down Under
Thank you for your coverage
of the often cruel treatment of
wild introduced animals and native
animals in Australia and New
Zealand (“Chocolate bunnies threaten
down-under biosecurity”, ANIMAL
PEOPLE, May 1999). The
RCD saga is continuing. Those
such as myself who continue to
campaign to have RCD de-registered
as a biocontrol agent of rabbits
in Australia are extremely greatful
to publications such as ANIMAL
PEOPLE for alerting the rest
of the world to the shameful and
cruel behaviour of Australian
authorities in allowing RCD to be
legalised as a biological control
agent of the wild introduced rabbit
in Australia. As for New Zealand, it
is amazing that RCD live virus was
apparently approved by authorities
for sale by the bottle.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999:

Traditions
On May 17 the Makah
killed an innocent, trusting whale. I
hate the savages who threw the harpoon,
and their slimy white lawyers
––the ones who will get all the
money, while ordinary Native
Americans remain in poverty. But
the studs in the boats and their oily
accomplices are not the only ones
whose hands are bloody.
Every airy-fairy, smugly
right liberal socialist is directly
responsible for 30 years of supporting
the “superior spirituality of
natives” scam. It was so trendy,
you know. And so un-trendy to tell
the truth: that natives are just
humans, warts and all. They never
were superior in any way, at any
time. As among us, a few are vastly
better than the rest, but most are
either ordinary or worse. The superior
ones are almost all women who
have had the courage to tell the truth
about their dangerous male-dominated
society.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1999:

Bequests
I’m looking for information
on how animal welfare groups
use endowments and how they
decide how bequests will be allocated.
I’m a board member for a shelter
which places all bequests in its
endowment fund. We then have an
across-the-board unwritten policy
that only the income may be used
for operating costs, but that principal
may be used for capital costs.
Is this the common practice
among animal protection organizations?
If not, how do most such
organizations handle bequests and
endowments?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1999:

Shrinking stress
A few more words on the
stress endured by animal workers.
Animal helpers face both primary
traumatization, e.g. when attacked
by an irate animal hoarder or a dog,
and secondary traumatization, from
bearing witness to animal suffering.
Secondary traumatization has also
been called “compassion fatigue”
and “vicarious traumatization,” or
VT for short.
Both types of traumatization
can produce profound and toxic
changes in animal workers’ core
beliefs about themselves, others,
and life in general. Primary traumatization
needs to be treated, when it
occurs, as any other psychological
trauma. VT must be seen as an
inescapable occupational hazard.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

Critical mass
Your newspaper has singlehandedly
done more for animal
advocacy around the world by covering
issues that are avoided by others
because the topics are either too
intellectually demanding or too controversial
to handle. For instance,
your January/February 1999 editorial
on how to best deal with China is
probably the best position I have
read on the matter. And your expose
of the bloated compensation paid by
high-profile and powerful groups
likethe Humane Society of the U.S.
et al is courageous and important.
As a college professor for
30 years, I am quite impressed with
how you can do extensive research
on a shoestring budget. Imagine
how much money the HSUS
expended just in terms of travel junkets
to expose the China dog fur
issue, only for ANIMAL PEOPLE
to point out that Russia is still the
biggest exporter of dog fur. And
imagine how the sum of all the
bloated salaries of animal executives
could be used for spay/neuter programs
and no-kill animal sanctuaries.
Their self-aggrandizement is
unconscionable and demoralizing to
those who at the grassroot level
struggle every day to survive.
Your newspaper has done
a lot on behalf of sincere animal
people who see the urgent need to
build a critical mass toward the time
humanity will learn to share this
planet with nonhuman species.
––Ruben Santos Cuyugan
Lenoir, North Carolina
[Cuyugan is retired direc –
tor of the UNESCO project for
International Development of the
Social Sciences.]

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