Religion & Animals

April 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

The 83-member Union Hill Cumber-

land Presbyterian Church, of Limestone County,

Georgia, raised $2,500 by hosting the February 18

Bigfoot Hollow Coonhunt. “It’s reaching the young

people with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus,” said the

Reverend Charles Hood, oblivious that Jesus never

in any way endorsed killing for sport.

Losing popularity to the Catholic

Church, the only major nongovernmental institu-

tion in Cuba, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has

reportedly encouraged a revival of Santeria,

because, as Newsweek recently put it, “It has no

institutions to rival the state.” However, livestock

for Santerian sacrifice are in short supply.

PROGRESS IN ISRAEL

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Nina Natelson of Concern for

Helping Animals in Israel saw “a lot of

improvement” in animal care and control

arrangements this winter compared with

last winter, she told ANIMAL PEOPLE.

An experienced shelter manager,

South African emigre Glenda Ford, now

heads the Beresheva shelter, Natelson

said, and has cut the number of resident

dogs from 500 to 100, “which is still too

many for the facilities,” Natelson contin-

ued, “but it’s going in the right direction.”

Earlier the shelter fended off a takeover

bid from Benny Schesinger of Let The

Animals Live (see Court Calendar).

Hunting

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Robert “Buzz” Barry, 64, assis-

tant executive director of the Sportsmen’s

Alliance of Maine, told reporters on January

21 that he’s giving up hunting mammals after

40 years because of second thoughts he’s had

since a TV debate with an anti-hunter in

November; because his anti-abortion convic-

tions have caused him to review his attitudes

toward the sanctity of life; and most of all

because of the pain and fear he’s seen in the

eyes of animals he’s killed. He asserted, how-

ever, that he isn’t an “anti,” and said he hadn’t

yet decided if he’ll quit shooting birds.

CHILDREN & ANIMALS

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

University of New Hampshire soci-

ologist David Finkelhor reported in the

October issue of Pediatrics that a telephone

survey of 2,000 children aged 10-16 had dis-

covered 15.6% were assault victims within the

previous year, triple the 5.2% reported by the

1991 National Crime Survey; 0.5% had been

raped, five times higher than the NCS esti-

mate of 0.1%; and 75% of the attacks were by

other youths, including 41% of the sexual

assaults. From 30% to 40% of the victims had

never reported the assaults, Finkelhor said.

Birds

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Three years after spotted owl protection took

effect, Oregon is not economically wrecked but booming,

with its lowest unemployment rate in 30 years. The loss of

15,000 forest products jobs has been offset by the creation of

20,000 jobs in high technology. Of the displaced wood work-

ers who have been retrained at Lane Community College in

Springfield, 90% have new jobs, at an average hourly wage of

$9.02––only $1.00 less per hour than their old average, and

sure to rise as they gain seniority.

Oxford University zoologist Marion Petrie reported

on October 13 that a study of peafowl at the Whipsnade animal

park, north of London, found that the peacocks with the

largest fantails produced the biggest young––which may be

why the peahens are most attracted to those peacocks.

CHILDREN & ANIMALS

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

Jeanne McVey of the Sea Wolf

Alliance was the only animal protection repre-

sentative at the mid-September International

Conference on Population and Development

meeting in Cairo, Egypt. “I am working quite

well with the environmentalists,” McVey

faxed ANIMAL PEOPLE on September 9.

“This is the occasion for minimizing our dif-

ferences with other groups and countries.” A

precedent for animal protection as well as for

women’s rights was reached when the confer-

ees agreed to oppose female genital mutilation

in their final report. From 85 million to 115

million women worldwide have been genitally

maimed, mostly in Africa, by procedures

intended to promote chastity by inhibiting sex-

ual pleasure. About two million adolescent

women a year still suffer genital mutilation,

according to the World Health Organization.

The importance of the ICPD statement to ani-

mal defenders is that a world governmental

body has now agreed that at least in this

instance, neither culture nor custom is an

acceptable excuse for cruelty.

Kenya denies supplying Saudi canned hunts

October 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

NAIROBI, Kenya––The Kenya Wildlife Service

on September 9 denied a report that it had sold endangered

giraffes and zebras to canned hunts in Saudi Arabia. KWS

director David Western said Kenya did recently donate ani-

mals to the national zoos of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait,

however, including giraffes, zebras, ostriches, Thompson

gazelles, mongooses, porcupines, dikdiks, and exotic

birds. He said none of the animals are endangered in

Kenya. Western succeeded Richard Leakey as head of

KWS earlier this year. The service is often at odds with

political factions who wish to reintroduce trophy hunting,

now banned, to Kenya.

AGRICULTURE

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

The central event at the American Humane Association annual confer-

ence, Sept. 28-Oct. 1, is to be an already controversial “Livestock forum,” at which

four university livestock experts, often critical of industry norms, are to outline for

humane officers “which current farming practices are acceptable, which can be chal-

lenged, and how” under existing laws, and “which desperately need to be changed.”

Claiming the speakers are too close to the livestock industry, representatives of the

Humane Farming Association, Humane Society of the U.S., and Fund for Animals

have offered themselves as speakers instead. Responded Adele Douglass of AHA,

who set up the forum, “This session is not to talk about ideals; it’s to inform people

about what’s being done now, why it’s being done that way, and what kind of farm-

related cases a humane officer can hope to prosecute successfully under today’s laws.”

AGRICULTURE

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The USDA on April 26 announced yet another pro-

posal to raise grazing fees on federal land. This version would

boost the base fee to $3.96 per head-month by 1997, but would

provide incentive discounts for ranchers who undertake various

forms of conservation and/or rangeland improvement.

Comments will be reviewed until July 28. An Environmental

Protection Agency impact study published May 18 estimated that

current management practices would bring a 3% decline over the

next 20 years in stream quality in the affected habitat, while the

proposed changes would bring a 27% improvement.

A National Agricultural Statistics Service survey of

the 10 largest corn-producing states, which raise 80% of the total

U.S. corn crop, reports that less than 1% is lost to wildlife. The

average loss per acre is 0.66 bushels. Of the 35.4 million bushels

eaten by wild animals, deer eat 13.9 million, while birds eat 9.6

million. The 1993 crop came to 5.14 billion bushels in all.

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