Parakeet killer back in prison

July 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

ANCHORAGE––George William Adams,
38, alias William G. Adams and Skip Adams-Taylor,
on June 3 drew 40 months in prison from U.S. District
Judge James Singleton, in Anchorage, Alaska, for
being a felon in possession of a gun.
Convicted in 1980 of strangling a women he
met in a Washington D.C. disco and biting the head off
her parakeet because, he said, the bird’s chirping made
him nervous, Adams served 15 years, then skipped out
on parole, fled to Alaska, and became a clerk for the
Barrow office of the state Department of Corrections.
As part of his cover, apparently, he adopted a
guise as an animal rights activist––which led to his
arrest, wrote Lisa Demers of the Anchorage Daily
News, when “Barrow leaders complained to his bosses
that he may have used his state computer to protest an
Eskimo seal hunt.”

WALT DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM & OTHER ZOOS

July 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

A unique aspect of Walt Disney’s Animal
Kingdom, opened on April 22 in Lake Buena Vista,
Florida, is that it has taken high-risk geriatric animals
from older facilities, enabling some animals who have
long endured bare steel and cement to end their lives in
more congenial habitat. This hasn’t pleased the Animal
Rights Foundation of Florida, however, which fought
construction of the Animal Kingdom, and has repeatedly
demanded USDA probes of animal deaths there.
Among the 31 deaths between September 1997 and the
official opening, two Asian clawed otters––rarely
attracted to vegetable matter––ate the poisonous seeds
of ornamental loquats; four cheetah cubs ingested
antifreeze, apparently at a previous facility; two West
African crowned cranes were hit by vehicles; nine
gazelles, kudu, and antelopes died from various causes,
including injuries inflicted on each other in contesting
territory; a dik-dik died in surgery; a rhino died from
having ingested an 18-inch stick before arrival; a rhino
died under anesthesia for a veterinary exam; an elderly
hippo died in transit; another hippo died of infections
10 days after arrival from Europe; and some normally
short-lived naked mole rats, chinchilla rabbits, and
guinea pigs died. The death rate, about 4% of the
1,000-animal collection per year, is well below both
wild and zoo norms.

Wildlife management

July 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Accused of mismanagement resulting in a $17 million budgetary shortfall a n d
more than 100 layoffs from a staff of 1,600, Bert Shanks, 58, resigned on June 13 as director
of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, but will continue to collect his $96,000-ayear
salary until September 11. Shanks attributed the shortfall to erroneously expecting in July
1996 that fishing license sales would increase, even though a scarcity of fish had obliged cuts
in bag limits and fishing opportunities.
The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Committee on June 1 approved a 1999 fiscal
year state Wildlife Department budget of $25.4 million, $1 million less than in 1998 due to
declining hunting and fishing license sales revenue.

9th circuit tells feds to obey ESA

July 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

SAN FRANCISCO––The 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 24
that the federal Bureau of Reclamation must
obey both the Endangered Species Act and
California state species protection laws in
allocating water to Central Valley farmers,
even though so doing may put the bureau in
violation of 40-year-old water use contracts.
If the ruling survives an expected
appeal to the Supreme Court by the defendants,
it may be invoked to help compel
other federal agencies to conform to the ESA,
a frequent point of contention in cases
involving everything from fencing along the
U.S./Mexican border to the failure of the
National Marine Fisheries Service to inspect
shipments of shark fins passing through
Hawaiian airports en route from foreign fishing
vessels to markets in Japan.

NEAVS, HSUS embezzling, Center for Coastal Studies court cases

July 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Margaret
Hinkel on June 23 ratified a settlement of conflict among New
England Anti-Vivisection Society board factions aligned,
respectively, with PETA and the Fund for Animals, which
had paralyzed NEAVS for more than two years. Under the settlement,
Marian Probst of The Fund told ANIMAL PEOPLE,
“All members of the board resigned,” except president
Theo Capaldo, whose succession to office the PETA faction
allegedly illegally conspired to prevent. A new board was
elected by the NEAVS membership. Among the new board
members are longtime Massachusetts activist Annette Picket;
Holly Cheever, DVM; Boston judge Sarah Luick; and Spay
USA founder Esther Machler. Roberta Wright, executive
director for less than a year, who served at request of PETA
cofounder Ingrid Newkirk, resigned and is to be replaced.
Hinkle ruled on January 22, 1998, that the PETA faction under
direction of the other PETA cofounder, Alex Pacheco, had
attempted to take full control of NEAVS in order to continue
diverting NEAVS assets in support of “organizations with
which they were allied.” A PETA/Fund coalition had led
NEAVS since deposing the administration of probate judge
Robert Ford in 1988. Ford was in March 1989 convicted of
mismanaging NEAVS assets for personal gains.

More young men with guns go berserk; Illinois hunter harassment law struck down

July 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

EUGENE––Kipland P. Kinkel, 15,
was arraigned on June 16 in Eugene, Oregon,
on four counts of aggravated murder, 26
counts of attempted aggravated murder, six
counts of first-degree assault, 18 counts of
second degree assault, and unlawful possession
of a firearm.
Kinkel, who boasted often to classmates
of torturing and killing animals, was
arrested on May 20 at Thurston High School in
Springfield, a Eugene suburb, for alleged illegal
possession of a gun.
Released to custody of his parents,
who both taught at the school, Kinkel allegedly
shot both to death with hunting weapons the
following morning, then massacred classmates
in the school cafeteria.

Initiative efforts frustrated in Ohio, Oregon

July 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Save The Doves on June 9 submitted
almost 140,000 signatures to the Ohio
secretary of state’s office in support of a referendum
measure on the November 1998 ballot
which, if approved, would restore a state
ban on hunting mourning doves––but was
informed on June 30 that only 84,320 signatures
were valid. Save The Doves was given
another 10 days to collect the 16,073 additional
signatures needed to reach the minimum
of 100,393 required to go before the
voters. Ohio first banned dove hunting in
1917. The ban was repealed in 1975, was
restored in 1977, and was repealed again in
1995. If Save The Doves gets enough signatures,
the pro-dove hunting front Ohioans
for Wildlife Conservation has indicated that
it will attempt to legally challenge the petition
format. Ohioans for Wildlife
Conservation appears to have been organized
by the Columbus-based Wildlife Legislative
Fund of America, which initially formed in
response to a 1977 attempt to ban leghold
traps in Ohio via referendum, then expanded
into a national organization with support
from the National Rifle Association.

USDA Wildlife Services almost gets culled

July 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Wiley Coyote almost won a
round on June 23, as the House of Representatives voted 229 to
193 in favor of a bill introduced by Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon)
and Charles Bass (R-New Hampshire) to cut $10 million, the
cost of predator killing programs, from the fiscal 1999 USDA
Wildlife Services budget of $28.8 million––a cut four times
deeper than President Bill Clinton proposed in January.
The funding was almost certain to have been restored
in the Senate, where the 17 western states whose ranchers most
use Wildlife Services have proportionally far more clout, but
taking no chances, Wildlife Services senior staff and livestock
industry representatives lobbied through the night.
Congressional allies then demanded a revote on June 24, which
rescinded the cut, 232-192.
Despite losing an apparent landmark victory, predator
advocates remained encouraged at retaining 53 more votes
against Wildlife Services than ever before were mustered. The
previous high of 139 votes came in 1996, when Wildlife
Services was still called Animal Damage Control.
“We’ll keep at it,” pledged Tom Skeele, executive
director of the Predator Project, an activist group headquartered
in Bozeman, Montana.

DOGFIGHTING RAIDS LEAD TO DRUG BUSTS

July 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C.– –
RAS Kennels owner Glenson Rolston Isaac,
29, of Hillsborough, on June 10 became
the first person charged under a 1997 North
Carolina law making dogfighting a felony.
Sheriffs’ deputies and Orange
County animal control officers seized 45 pit
bull terriers from RAS Kennels one day
after Isaac and kennel workers Dwayne
Harrigan, 25, of Durham, and Kelvin A.
Brown, 27, of Miami, were arrested for
possession of an estimated $300,000 worth
of cocaine, found during investigation of a
complaint that the kennel had exceeded the
20-dog zoning limit.

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