Wildlife & people

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

An Indian logging elephant named Bir Bahadur

staged a sit-down strike in February after his handler was

replaced, blocking a local official’s motorcade for hours.

Outraged, the official ordered him shot, as “mad.” However,

Bir Bahadur then broke his fetters and fled into the forest, tak-

ing two female elephants with him. He’s been at large ever

since. Maneka Gandhi, daughter-in-law of the late prime min-

ister Indira Gandhi, is now seeking a pardon for him.

Indonesian forestry minister Djamaluddin

Suryohadikusumo says elephants whose habitat has been

taken for farming should be trained to work, not be killed.

“People must be ready to accept them as part of our economic

life,” he said October 12. However, he has dispatched a hit

team to kill Crest, a bull elephant who has killed 13 people

since 1986 and has escaped three times after being shot with

tranquilizer darts.

Plague! INDIA, AFRICA CONFRONT THE ULTIMATE ANIMAL CONTROL NIGHTMARE; Tight urban budgets gave rat-catching and trash collection a low priority

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

SURAT, India––Inadequate animal control service was largely responsible, authorities say, for the most deadly

outbreak of plague worldwide in 28 years at Surat, India. More than 400,000 residents fled the city as the outbreak became

known, creating risk the disease would spread to nearby communities, including Bombay, 160 miles to the north.

Remembering plague outbreaks that killed thousands during the 1940s and 1950s, 950 million Indians feared the worst.

Quarantines, inexpensive prophylactic tetracycline treatments, and fast information-sharing by electronic mail were

Research

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

World-renowned primatologist

Dr. Jan Moor-Jankowski quit the New

York University Medical School’s Animal

Care and Use Committee on August 16, in

protest of how the committee has handled

allegations of animal abuse involved with

addiction experiments on monkeys done by

fellow faculty member Dr. Ronald Wood.

Wood’s work was temporarily suspended

last spring, former NYU head veterinarian

Dr. Wendell Niemann resigned, and some

staff who purport to have been whistle-

blowers were dismissed, but the full cir-

cumstances have not been disclosed.

Dean Smith of the American

Anti-Vivisection Society has produced a

paragraph-by-paragraph critique of the

American Medical Association’s recent

white paper on Use of Animals in

Biomedical Research, available for $3.00

each from the AAVS at 801 Old York Rd,

Suite 204, Jenkintown, PA 19046-1685.

Get the AMA white paper from the AMA,

Dept. of Science & Medical Education,

515 N. State St., Chicago, IL 60610.

Diet & Health

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

“Jack Sprat is the only per-

son in the English lexicon to promote

vegetarianism,” claim Jeff and Dana

Dorson, who recently opened the first

of a projected chain of vegan fast food

restaurants called Jack Sprat’s

Vegetarian Grill in the French Quarter

of New Orleans. “We’re going to make

Sprat into a character in costume, have

him go around in public places, pass

out vegetables, and teach people how to

eat healthy,” the Dorsons continue.

“We hope to stage a national debate

with Ronald McDonald.” The Dorsons

have shown their ability to build a

strong organization via Legislation In

Support of Animals, now six years old,

with 1,200 members (profiled in the

January 1994 issue of ANIMAL PEO-

PLE). Their menu already gets raves

from New Orleans restaurant critics.

ANIMAL HEALTH

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

The European Union has granted Zimbabwe $3.4 million to fight hoof-and-

mouth disease––on condition that farmers be charged for veterinary care now given free.

Anthrax, the worst drought on record, and bovine tuberculosis transmitted by

dairy cattle have together cut the Cape Buffalo population of Kruger National Park in South

Africa from 30,000 to 14,000 in just two years.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is probing a cluster of genetic defects in rap-

tors, blackbirds, and robins from the Rogue Valley region of Oregon, reported by Dave

Siddon of the Wildlife Images rehabilitation center. Similar defects found in birds around the

Great Lakes have been traced to organochlorines, a chemical family which includes dioxin,

PCBs, and the pesticide DDT, which devastated raptors until a U.S. ban took effect in 1973.

Horse notes

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A legal parallel to the White

Sands situation came to light on the

Yakima Reservation, at Toppemish,

Washington, and the Warm Springs

Reservation near Madras, Oregon,

after horse enthusiast Sheila Herron

traced several injured horses she found

in a horsemeat dealer’s feedlot at Yelm,

Washington, back to annual roundups

authorized by the tribal councils.

Yakima councillors told Herron they

were “weeding out the crippled and

old,” but most of the horses at the feed-

lot were healthy, Herron said, and

some were foals. A Warm Springs

councillor said the Madras horses are

privately owned. “I was certainly

unaware,” Herron told ANIMAL PEO-

P L E, “that only mustangs and burros

from BLM or Forest Service lands are

protected by federal law. Mustangs and

burros from Park Service, Indian, mil-

itary or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

lands have no protection from being

rounded up and sold for slaughter.”

ANIMAL HEALTH

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

No face-branding halt yet despite what mass media reported

July 7 media reports that the USDA would no longer require face-branding of steers import-

ed from Mexico were incorrect. Such an announcement was expected, but was apparently delayed by

the White House to get input on the rules change from the National Cattlemen’s Association. The

USDA did amend the import rules for Mexican heifers, who now must be given a local anesthetic

prior to spaying, and are rump-branded. The steers are branded to help inspectors backtrack cattle car-

rying bovine tuberculosis; the heifers are spayed to prevent the transmission of brucellosis.

Whale-meat and brain damage

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A comparison of the pilot whale

consumption of pregnant Faroese women

with amounts of methyl mercury found in

umbilical cords and maternal hair has

discovered that those who eat whale meat

often pass mercury to their fetuses at lev-

els which may cause brain damage.

Conducted by biochemists Christine

Dalgard, Philippe Grandjean, Poul

Jergensen, and Pal Weihe, of Odense

University, Denmark, the study was

published in the June/July 1994 issue of

Environmental Health Perspectives.

Ignoring the international ban on com-

mercial whaling, Faroe Islanders kill

circa 2,000 whales a year. The Faroes are

a Danish protectorate.

MARINE MAMMAL NOTES

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The U.S. Navy plans to shut down

14 of its 18 Sound Surveillance System

(Sosus) underwater listening posts, perma-

nently disabling much of a $16 billion network

of more than 1,000 microphones linked by

30,000 miles of seabed cables. The Sosus

budget has been cut from $335 million in fis-

cal year 1991 to just $60 million for fiscal year

1995; staffing is to drop from 2,500 in 1993 to

750 in 1996. Set up 40 years ago to monitor

Soviet submarines, the system was used in

1992-1993 to track whale migrations––and

proved sensitive enough to follow one blue

whale for 1,700 miles. Hoping to keep using

Sosus to help check compliance with interna-

tional fishing and whaling treaties, Commerce

Secretary Ron Brown on May 17 asked the

Defense Department to keep what remains of

Sosus intact, pending completion of a joint

study into retaining it via interdepartmental

cost-sharing. However, The New York Times

reported on June 12, a National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration internal memo

indicates NOAA is not willing to contribute to

the upkeep costs.

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