Category: North America

Feral cat news

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2002:

Feral cats and dogs on U.S. Navy bases have just a year to
live, under a “Policy Letter Preventing Feral Cat and Dog
Populations on Navy Property” issued on January 10, 2002 by Admiral
Vern Clark, Chief of Naval Operations, says Alley Cat Allies
president Becky Robinson. “The policy expressly prohibits feeding
feral animals and/or implementing trap/neuter/return programs,” and
requires “humane capture and removal of all free roaming cats and
dogs” by January 1, 2003, said Robinson. Alley Cat Allies has been
using neuter/return to control feral cats at the Norfolk Naval
Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, under contract with the Navy.

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Chimp Haven or NIH holding facility?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2002:

SAN ANTONIO–A year after a heavily amended version of the
Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection Act was
rushed to passage in the final days of the 106th Congress and signed
into law by former U.S. President Bill Clinton almost as he walked
out the White House door, sanctuarians and antivivisectionists
remain deeply divided over just what it means and how to respond.
Almost all concerned are agreed that the CHIMP Act was
critically flawed by amendments allowing the National Institutes of
Health to retain ownership of chimps who are to be “retired” from lab
use, and to permit the NIH to yank them back into research use at
any time, along with any offspring born to them.

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Diving mule man in hot water

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

ST. LOUIS–Tim Rivers, 55, of Citra, Florida, notorious for the “Tim Rivers High Diving Mule Act” performed since 1957 at county fairs around the U.S., is among nine defendants named in federal indictments for allegedly illegally supplying 11 captive-raised tigers and leopards to canned hunts.

Indicted with Rivers for alleged conspiracy and Lacey Act violations were Lazy L Exotics owners Todd Lantz, 39, and Vicki Lantz, 40, of Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Freddy Wilmoth, 44, of Gentry, Arkansas, who is son of Wild Wilderness Drive Through Safari owner Ross Wilmoth; and Stoney Elam, 30, owner of the Power House Wildlife Sanctuary in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.

Named later were three Michigan men who allegedly bought some of the animals’ pelts: George F. Riley, 69, of Farmington Hills; Leonard Kruszewski, 40, of Milford; and William D. Foshee, 43, of Jackson. Issued earlier, the indictments were opened in November 2001. The Lacey Act bars taking, moving, or selling in violation of any U.S. law or treaty.

The nine defendants were indicted in a continuing investigation, said a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service press release. “In January 2001, Woody Thompson Jr.,” owner of the Willow Lake Sportsmen’s Club in Three Rivers, Michigan, “was sentenced to serve six months home detention and two years probation; fined $2,000; and ordered to pay $28,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Save the Tigers Fund,” the Fish and Wildlife Service release said.

The case resulted from a probe by the Fish and Wildlife Service and federal attorneys in Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan, who the release said, “uncovered a group of residents and small business owners who allegedly bought and killed exotic tigers, leopards, snow leopards, lions, mountain lions, cougars, mixed breed cats and black bears with the intention of introducing meat and skins into the animal parts trade.”

Rivers was accused of selling two leopards in 1998. Elam allegedly sold two tigers and three leopards. Todd Lantz was accused of buying four tigers from Freddy Wilmoth in 1998 and taking them to be shot at the 5H Ranch in Cape Girardeau. “Vicki Lantz prepared federal forms falsely stating that the transaction was a donation,” the press release said.

Jim Mason, now head of the Two Mauds Foundation in Mt. Vernon, Missouri, told ANIMAL PEOPLE that he had heard of the activities of Lazy L Exotics and the 5H Ranch “the first time I went to Cape Girardeau to investigate the wildlife traffic,” after editing the Animals’ Agenda magazine, 1981-1986.

Rivers took over the Diving Mule Act from his father, who reportedly founded it. In early years a monkey was often chained to the back of the mule, who was forced to dive into a tank of water from a ramp of varying height. In recent years the monkey was no longer seen.

Rivers fled town to evade cruelty charges against the Diving Mule Act in Babylon, N.Y., 1979 and 1991; Brockton, Mass., 1983; Jackson, Miss., 1988; Birmingham, Ala., 1990; and Lackawanna, N.Y., 2000. The Diving Mule Act was stopped by injunction in 1989 in Huntsville, Ala.; in 1994 in Chicago; and in 2001 in Green County, Tenn. In 1994, Brevard County, Fla., passed an emergency bylaw to bar the act from the county fair. In 1998 the Florida House
Agriculture Committe approved a bill to ban the Diving Mule Act, but the bill did not advance farther. In 1999 Rivers won dismissal of a cruelty case brought by Justice for Animals in North Carolina when the veterinarian who was to testify against him did not appear.

No Olympic medals for “cultural” cowpokes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

SALT LAKE CITY–The Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the forthcoming Winter Olympic Games was expected to drop the scheduled February 9-11 Command Performance Rodeo from the Cultural Olympiad at a January 3 meeting with rodeo foes. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association could still hold the rodeo, but without an official Olympic connection.

SLOC president Mitt Romney “suggested that if calf-roping is in, then SLOC is out,” Salt Lake City mayoral spokesperson Joshua Ewing told Brady Snyder of the Deseret News, “so we’re assuming that since calf-roping is still included, SLOC is out.” Confirmed Caroline Shaw, spokesperson for Romney, to Mike Gorrell of the Salt Lake Tribune, “Mitt is relatively insistent that calf-roping not be one of the events.”

Cultural Olympiad artistic director Raymond T. Grant on December 3 relayed to PRCA commissioner Steven J. Hatchell a request from Romney that calf roping be excluded, after Romney said at least three times after a November 29 meeting with rodeo opponents that calf roping might be dropped for being too violent. At the meeting, said Eric Mills of Action for Animals, “Grant was the main guy promoting the rodeo.” [Mention of Mills and Vancouver Humane Society representative Debra Probert was accidentally lost from the ANIMAL PEOPLE coverage of the meeting.]

According to Deseret News staff writer Snyder, Grant told the PRCA that, “Having engaged the animal rights activists, this engagement needs to produce some results. I recognize that the result might very well be the PRCA saying to me that what was suggested is not acceptable to the PRCA.” The PRCA reportedly responded that, “Since we have not been asked or given an ultimatum, our plan is to proceed as scheduled. We have a contract for the rodeo, and that includes calf roping.”

Pledged Steve Hindi of SHARK, “If the rodeo plans continue, the Olympics are in for a very rough run. The SHARK Tiger video truck is being readied for a rendezvous with the Olympic Torch Relay on January 4 in Illinois. From then on, the Tiger will relentlessly follow the Torch,” through a 31-stop itinerary, “and right into Salt Lake City. The Tiger will not be at the Olympic rodeo, but will instead patrol legitimate Olympic events, where it will be seen by far more people from around the world. Nevertheless, there will be protesters outside the rodeo grounds, and investigators inside to
report on whatever happens to the animals.”

PETA also planned to follow the Torch Run, and on January 1 put up a billboard opposing the rodeo in Salt Lake City .
Protests at the rodeo site, the Davis County FairPark in Farmington, Utah, were to be led by the Utah Animal Rights
Coalition. The Farmington city council withdrew and rewrote a draft anti-protest ordinance in early December on the advice of the American Civil Liberties Union, but will still require demonstrators to obtain permits 10 days in advance.

Hindi, Tony Moore of the Foundation Against Animal Cruelty in Europe, and Mathilde Mench of the German groups Initiative Anti-Corrida and Animal 2000 on Dec-ember 19 flew to Lausanne, Switzer-land, to meet with International Olympic Committee medical director Patrick Schamasch, M.D.Schamasch told them that even if the rodeo is held as part of the Cultural Olympiad, it will not be allowed to call the event an “Olympic competition” or give “Olympic medals” to the winners.”Schamasch declared that there will be no Olympic medals, real or imitation, given to the contestants,” Hindi affirmed. “That brings to an end any fantasy the rodeo people had about being Olympians.”

An obvious distinction between the Command Performance Rodeo and other Olympic-related events, pointed out Mills, is that “The rodeo cowboys are the only contestants competing for prize money–$140,000, according to the PRCA. Rodeo animals,” Mills continued, “are the only contestants forced to compete through the use of electric prods, bucking straps, spurs, ropes, tail-twisting, kicks, slaps, pain and fear.” Officially, the Olympic Command Performance Rodeo is not even offered as an athletic competition, despite the pretense of rodeo cowboys to athleticism. Instead it is to be repeated daily, February 9-11, as part of the Cultural Olympiad, which usually features music, dancing, and theatrical events considered representative of the host nation.

A rodeo was also part of the Cultural Olympiad at the 1988 Winter Olympics, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, but drew little protest because most animal activist groups knew nothing about it until after it was held. The frequent violent fate of rodeo animals was shown meanwhile at the National Rodeo Finals in Las Vegas on December 9 when a 14-year-old bucking horse named Great Plains suffered a broken back during a ride by William Pittman II of Florence, Mississippi.

In November, a mare was killed and a calf reportedly badly hurt at the American Royal Rodeo in Kansas City. According to the most recent available PRCA data, 38 animals were injured at 57 officially sanctioned rodeos in 1999–meaning that the PRCA itself admits that animals are injured at two-thirds of rodeos. Rodeo opponents believe the actual injury rate is far higher.

Rodeo cowboys too are often injured, and not just by falling off or being dragged by the animals they try to ride or rope. In Rockhampton, Aust-ralia, Central Queensland Fertility Clinic science director Simon Wal-ton has linked bull-riding and riding bucking horses to reduced sperm counts among contestants, though not to the point of inducing sterility.

University of New Mexico researcher Loren Ketai, meanwhile, has found that recreational horse riders suffer more head injuries than rodeo performers when bucked off an animal–but recreational riders are rarely trampled by the animal who bucked them, whereas rodeo performers are trampled twice as often as they hit their heads.

Mutes win big

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

WASHINGTON D.C.–A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on December 28 restored Migratory Bird Treaty Act protection to mute swans. Ruling for mute swan defender Joyce M. Hill, the appellate court reversed a district court verdict which would have allowed wildlife agencies to kill mute swans at will.

“Counsel for the Secretary [of the Interior] contended that the non-native character of the mute swan justified exclusion [from protection],” the appellate panel wrote. “However, no agency decision explains the definition of ‘native,’ whether the mute swan is native or non-native, and why the native or non-native character of a species is relevant under the statute and treaties. This is especially important, because Hill argues that other birds on the List of Migratory Birds are non-native under many common definitions.

“Government counsel also claimed that the mute swan’s destructive and aggressive nature support exclusion,” the panel added. “The Secretary points to nothing in the statute, treaties, or administrative record to support this conclusion. It is unclear how such a consideration could ever overcome a statutory requirement to the contrary.”

Wildlife agencies have sought to cull mute swans for nearly 20 years, as an alleged threat to the recovery of trumpeter swans, who were hunted almost to extinction. There are about 18,000 mute swans in the U.S., and around 25,000 trumpeters.

Most mute swans in the U.S. apparently descended from birds brought from Europe during the 19th century, but there is disputed fossil evidence that they inhabited the west coast before human settlement.

The Department of the Interior has not yet said if it will appeal the December 28 ruling. If the ruling stands, it could serve as a precedent to a challenge of the 1994 decision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to exclude nonmigratory giant Canada geese from MBTA protection, as allegedly not being part of the goose population that the 1916 legislation was meant to protect.

Great expectations and humane work

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

ATLANTA, HONOLULU, INDIANAPOLIS, ITHACA, LOS ANGELES, MIAMI, NEW YORK–“No healthy or treatable animal or feral cat has been killed in Tompkins County since June,” former San Francisco SPCA operations director Nathan Winograd announced on New Year’s Eve, after just under a year as head of the Tompkins County SPCA in
Ithaca, New York.

The Tompkins County rate of shelter killing, for all reasons combined, dropped to 3.9 dogs and cats per 1,000 human residents: less than 25% of the U.S. norm. The TC/SPCA had already cut shelter killing in Tompkins County by 50% in 10 years. In 2001 it achieved a further 50% cut, by boosting the percentage of pets sterilized before adoption from 10% to 100%; sterilizing 568 pets for low-income people; starting a feral cat aid program; increasing adoptions; markedly increasing use of volunteers; and expanding partnerships with local veterinarians and the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Captain Mark D. Jeter of the Miami-Dade Police Department is testing the same formula in Miami, Florida–hub of Dade County, once considered an impossible venue. A huge feral cat population gave birth three times a year, pet sterilization outreach to Spanish-speaking residents had barely been tried, and an entrenched old guard drove progressive shelter directors out of town, among them Rick Collord, now noted for reducing shelter killing in Vancouver, Washington, and Karen Medicus, now leading a promising drive to make Austin the first no-kill city in Texas.

Today, feral cat sterilization programs and multilingual outreach have cut the Miami kill rate to 9.3 per 1,000 human
residents–a 75% drop in 10 years. Jeter, put in charge of Miami Animal Services on October 1, 2001, a month later announced partnerships with the Humane Society of Greater Miami and local veterinarians, “and corporate sponsors,” to provide free sterilization for any local dog or cat.

As ever more communities show that the low shelter killing rates in San Francisco (2.6/1,000) and the whole state of New Hampshire (2.2) are not flukes, clamor for change is rising in cities that lag.

Los Angeles mayor James K. Hahn in October 2001 fired city Animal Services chief Dan Knapp, 46. During his 40-month tenure, Knapp introduced one of the highest licensing fees in the U.S. for unaltered dogs, won passage of a $154 million bond issue for shelter improvements, and doubled the city animal control budget, but the L.A. shelter killing rate of 14.4/1,000 remained static. Knapp in December became executive director of the Capital Area Humane Society in Columbus, Ohio, succeeding Jim Cunningham, who retired.

New York Center for Animal Care & Control chief Marilyn Blohm reportedly got a contract extension from former New York City mayor Rudolf Giuliani just before his December 31 exit. Hired in 1997, Blohm has had strained relations with other New York City shelters, and in December 2001 told nonsheltered rescuers that they will now be
charged $25 to $40 per animal they take from the CACC shelter to socialize, groom, train, and place. After 30 years of annually reduced shelter killing, the New York City rate has plateaued circa 5.5/1,000 since 1995, when the CACC took over animal control from the American SPCA.

The Atlanta Humane Society, Hawaii Humane Society, and Indianapolis Humane Society also opened 2002 under growing scrutiny. Led by some of the longest-tenured executive directors in humane work, in Bill Garrett, Pam Burns, and Marcia Spring, each does animal control for an affluent and fast-growing city; has unusually high reserves relative to operating budget; is known for “by-the-book” operation; has clashed with no-kill proponents; and has cut shelter killing less rapidly than the U.S. as a whole, with current per-1,000 killing rates of 21.0, 17.7, and 27.1, respectively.

Allegations of mismanagement by ex-staff of short tenure are also part of the uproar in Atlanta and Honolulu, while the
Indianapolis Humane Society inherited some of its problems after taking over the city pound in April 2001.

BLM slows horse captures under Fund pressure

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The Bureau of Land Manage-ment on December 19, 2001 agreed to suspend until May 2002 a plan to remove 40% more wild horses than the official “appropriate management level” from 11 sites on the western range.

The Fund for Animals and the Animal Legal Defense Fund in September 2001 jointly charged in a lawsuit against the BLM that, “The [removal] strategy violates the 1971 Wild and Free Ranging Horse and Burro Protection Act,” by allegedly failing to consider the environmental impact of the removals, and also allegedly failing to consider alternatives.

“In order to avoid an immediate court ruling on the part of the strategy whereby the BLM removes wild horses and burros to 40% below the official appropriate management level, the BLM agreed that it will not undertake such removals without first giving the plaintiffs significant advance notice, to ensure that the court can rule on the practice before it happens again,” said Fund for Animals vice president Mike Markarian.

BLM spokesperson Celia Boddington said that the 11 scheduled wild horse roundups would be held, but would capture only about 4,500 horses instead of the 7,500 originally targeted.

A final ruling on the Fund/ALDF case is due in early 2002, but not before January 20, when the captures are to begin. Altogether, the BLM wants to remove 21,000 of the estimated 48,000 wild horses left on federal rangeland in 10 western states. The temporary agreement came less than 10 days after Fund for Animals attorney Howard Crystal released to news media BLM reports documenting that at least 600 wild horses gathered in previous roundups since 1998 have been sold to slaughterhouses. The horses were adopted by private citizens, who by law were not allowed to
sell them until receiving legal title to them, issued one year after the adoption date.

“Forty wild horses adopted out by the BLM were sent to slaughter in the most recent six-month period covered by the records, four of them within four weeks of the owner receiving title,” summarized Robert Gehrke of Associated Press. “Two others were slaughtered within two months of being titled. However, the quick turnaround seems to be less frequent than it once was,” Gehrke wrote. “A BLM report covering March 1998 to September 1999 showed 186 horses were slaughtered within three months of being titled, a rate of nearly 10 per month.”

Responded Fund for Animals western office representative Andrea Lococo, via Deborah Frazier of the Denver Rocky Mountain News, “If you look at the legislative history, it is clear that Congress never intended for wild horses to be slaughtered.” Wild horses were once a mainstay of the U.S. horse slaughter industry, along with cast-off racehorses and saddle horses, while about half of the horses killed in Canada were foaled by the mares used to produced pregnant mare’s urine, the base material for the hormone supplement Premarin. As recently as 1990, U.S. slaughterhouses killed 315,000 horses, and Canadian slaughterhouses killed 235,000 more. France reportedly bought most of the meat, and Italy bought most of the hides.

The collapse of trade barriers between eastern Europe and the European Community in the early 1990s brought a glut of ex-workhorses into France and Italy at prices well below the cost of importing horsemeat and hides from North America, where the market collapsed. In 2000, U.S. slaughterhouses killed only 50,449 horses; Canadian slaughterhouses killed about 62,000.

Equine slaughter resurges

However, scares over mad cow disease and hoof-and-mouth disease scares sent demand soaring again in 2001. As the eastern European horse supply ran thin, killer-buyers began importing horses from South America. The average price paid for horses by U.S. killer-buyers rose 37% in three months, while in Canada killer-buyers paid 50% more. Botswana and Namibia began governmentally encouraging plans to slaughter donkeys for meat, and rumors flew in India about the alleged slaughter of donkeys for illegal export.

Although donkey meat would be rejected by many Europeans, it is often eaten in parts of Asia. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il in July and August 2001 shocked Russians by serving donkey meat mislabeled “heavenly cow” to local dignitaries who visited him at stops on an 11-day train visit to Moscow and back. Some reports claimed Kim Jong-Il brought live donkeys aboard the train to be sure of always having fresh meat.

In the U.S., it is unclear if higher prices are encouraging more adoptions of wild horses for speculation on resale to slaughter, or are just encouraging adoptors with problematic wild horses to sell them for slaughter while the selling is lucrative. Even at the present prices, giving a horse bought fodder for a year in anticipation of sale for horsemeat would not be profitable.

Alleged wild horse speculator Haven B. Hendricks was charged on December 7 with four counts of cruelty for allegedly leaving 24 horses to starve and suffer from exposure on land he owns in Cache County, Utah. Hendricks, a Utah State University associate professor of agriculture, reportedly told news media that he bought the two dozen horses at a BLM auction in southern Utah, and said, “They were really thin when I got them.” On December 16, Salt Lake City Deseret News staff writer Twila Van Leer reported that, “An internal review of the performance of USU associate professor Haven Hendricks has resulted in a recommendation that he be dismissed.”

Meet the Animal Sanctuary of the United States

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

SAN ANTONIO, Texas–New Texas legislation allowing counties to opt into a ban on keeping any of a long list of dangerous and exotic species is raining big cats and wolf hybrids on sanctuarians–and may force some sanctuaries to move or close, as well. Although the law also allows counties to regulate keeping the animals as an alternative to enforcing the outright ban, few are choosing the additional work and expense that regulation requires.

Wild Animal Orphanage founder and American Sanctuary Association president Carol Asvestas says the new law has added 40 animals to the 600 already under her care. But Asvestas also has a Texas-sized dream to counter the nightmare. Effective on January 1, 2002, her organization became the 10-division Animal Sanctuary of the U.S.

WAO, started in 1983, continues as the “permanent sanctuary for unwanted, abused, or neglected wild and exotic animals” it always has been, along with six existing satellite programs. The biggest satellite is the Primate Sanctuary of America, described as “a permanent sanctuary dedicated to the lifetime care of primates retired from research and the pet and entertainment industry,” and “the only bio-safety level 2 sanctuary in the U.S.” It is not open to the public because many of the 300 resident macaques, vervets, and capuchins were exposed to deadly diseases in laboratories, and/or could transmit endemic simian diseases to humans.

Chimp-Aid, nearby, houses chimpanzees formerly used in labs and entertainment. It is also closed to the public.
Cat Haven and the Feral Cat Rehab Center are no-kill facilities to assist domestic cats. Kids On The River is an
environmental and humane education program. The Humane Train, on the road since early 2001, provides
“humane transportation for animal rescues throughout the U.S.,” which Asvestas discovered was in short supply in 1996 while attempting to fly three big cats back to WAO, near San Antonio, from a defunct roadside zoo in western Washington state. Flying the animals required prolonged confinement in small cages. Heavy sedation
was needed–and a tiger and a puma died on the plane from apparent oversedation.

Fined by the USDA, Asvestas endured bad publicity that might have crushed some sanctuaries, although veterinary experts told ANIMAL PEOPLE that she really just had bad luck. Asvestas herself told ANIMAL PEOPLE that she would find and implement a way to move big cats and other problematic species in greater comfort, with less sedation and the ability to provide veterinary care as needed en route.

Formerly a registered nurse, in Britain, Asvestas may never have met a creature in need whom she didn’t try to help. Programs listed as “Under Development” include a wildlife care center, bird sanctuary, and horse sanctuary, each to look after species for whom the present facilities are inadequate. All of this will take a lot of money, Asvestas admits, but like her heroine Martine Colette, who founded the Wildlife Waystation sanctuary near Los Angeles in 1973, Asvestas believes that if she takes on a mission and gets started in the best way she sees, the necessary support will come.

Also like Colette, Asvestas has come through years of hard times with some bitter critics among other sanctuarians and a growing number of admirers. Some first noticed Asvestas in April 2000 when Wildlife Waystation was closed for nine months by the California Department of Fish and Game and was repeatedly bashed by the Los Angeles Times over allegations which mostly fell apart under scrutiny. When the flak was thickest, Asvestas stood up for the Waystation in media statements, risking getting hit herself.

“The International Fund for Animal Welfare to date has given us $244,000,” Asvestas told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “$175,000 was used to purchase 52 acres adjoining WAO’s 50 acres, giving us a total of 102 acres. The balance has been used for enclosure and transport costs,” in connection with the December 2001 evacuation of 23 lions and tigers from the so-called Gate Keepers Animal Sanctuary formerly run by Ken Alvarez near Rapid City, South Dakota. The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service seized the big cats after an investigation by the activist group Wild Cat Valley and the Humane Society of the Black Hills found them starving, diseased, in a three-week accumulation of feces, mud, and snow. Alvarez, said Asvestas, had “left for Mexico, leaving only $30 with the inexperienced ranch hands for food.”

An elaborate prospectus assembled to help attract further funding for ASUS doubles as an excellent primer on sanctuary management–by intent, because in Asvestas’ American Sanctuary Association role her job includes mentoring other sanctuarians, much as Colette mentored her. Another part of the work of both ASUS and the ASA, the
prospectus mentions, is dealing with “hundreds of facilities that call themselves sanctuaries or wildlife preserves,” like the Gate Keepers Animal Sanctuary, which “even acquire nonprofit status,” but “breed, sell, trade, and exploit these animals in deplorable, substandard facilities,” as Asvestas knows from having accepted the collections of many that eventually failed.

Currently Asvestas is preparing to receive 24 Bengal tigers from the Tigers Only Preservation Society in Jackson Township, New Jersey, as soon as the state Division of Fish & Wildlife completes seizure proceedings. Tigers Only founder Joan Byron-Marasek is apparently out of room to appeal, after contesting the seizure since January 1999. The case began when police shot an allegedly escaped tiger in a nearby residential neighborhood. Byron-Marasek denied
involvement, but genetic tests linked the tiger to her colony, begun in 1975 with five tigers she kept following a five-year stint as a trapeze artist for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife previously relied on Asvestas and ASA wildlife coordinator Sumner Matthes to accommodate lemurs, mandrills, jaguars, and two tigers left homeless by the 1997 closure of the Scotch Plains Zoo.

Heads down re: hauling regs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

District justice Rodney Hartman of New Holland, Pennsylvania, on December 14 accepted a “guilty” plea from
Sugarcreek Livestock Trucking Inc., of Sugarcreek, Pennsyl-vania, and fined the firm $1,683 for 31 alleged violations of the Pennsylvania Horse Transport Law. Hartman on November 20 fined New Holland Sales Stables Inc. $1,550 in connection with the same case.

In effect since August 25, 2001, the Pennsylvania Horse Transport Law prohibits hauling horses in doubledecked trucks. Built to haul cattle and hogs, who stand lower, doubledecked trucks force horses to ride in a painfully unnatural position. The law was allegedly broken on September 4. All charges against trucker Sawn White were dropped, after White testified against the other defendants.

Similar prosecutions will not be forthcoming at the federal level for at least five more years, under proposed final enforcement regulations for the five-year-old Commercial Transportation of Horses to Slaughter Act, announced by the USDA on December 7.

The Humane Farming Association and other critics of the act predicted when the act was passed that failure to build statutory standards into it would render it ineffective, but the American Horse Protection Association and American Humane Association argued that stronger standards could be won through the regulatory process than by lobbying Congress.

“Double-deck trailers will continue to be legal [for hauling horses] for another five years,” objected Christine Berry of the Equine Protection Network. “It will be legal to ship horses for 28 hours with no water, no food, and no rest. Full-term pregnant mares are to be sent to slaughter, as long as the owner/shipper does not believe the mare will foal during the trip. The owner/shipper, the very person who stands to lose money if a horse is not shipped, is in charge of determining whether a horse is fit to ship.

Penalties will be civil rather than criminal. In other words, law enforcement cannot enforce the act. Enforcement will be at the slaughterhouse, not at auctions or feedlots prior to loading. The language is performance-based instead of engineering-based. Performance-based language makes enforcement more difficult.” The final regulations are opposed by at least 10 major horse advocacy organizations and 12 national animal protection groups, including the AHA as well as the American SPCA, Fund for Animals, Humane Society of the U.S., and HFA.

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