COYOTE-GETTERS RESTRICTED IN UTAH

November 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

SALT LAKE CITY– –
Private animal control contractors
should not be allowed to use M-44
spring-loaded “coyote getters,” Utah
Department of Agriculture director of
plant industry Dick Wilson told the
Utah Wildlife Damage Prevention
Board on October 10. The devices
shoot deadly sodium cyanide into the
mouths of coyotes who tug at an
attached piece of bait.
Utah currently allows 33
USDA Wildlife Services trappers to
use M-44s, but the cost of supervising
private use to avoid accidentally
killing humans, pets, and livestock,
Wilson estimated, could run as high as
$20,000 per user per year.

Gains against pet overpopulation come as others seek basic services

November 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

SAN MATEO, Calif.––Two years after the
Homeless Cat Network and the Peninsula Humane Society
began formal cooperation, the homeless cat population of San
Mateo County is reportedly down by half.
So far, 111 volunteers are looking after 129 homeless
cat colonies. All cats have been neutered and vaccinated. Cats
who can be handled are removed from the colonies and adopted
out. The number of cats within the monitored colonies fell
from 1,215 in 1995 to just 658 after the 1997 kitten season,
while 540 cats were placed in homes.
The results mirror the earlier success of
neuter/release, vaccination, and adoption efforts coordinated
by the Stanford Cat Coalition, just to the south, and the San
Francisco SPCA, just to the north––and also replicates the
experience of individual cat rescuers across the U.S., surveyed
by ANIMAL PEOPLE in 1992 and 1995.

All but soap ads

November 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

DALLAS––Travis County judge Suzanne Covington
on October 14 ordered Texas Exotic Feline Foundation
cofounder Gene Reitnauer to leave her home on the sanctuary
grounds in Boyd, Texas within 30 days, and to have no further
contact with any of the animals there.
Reitnauer is to forfeit the house in partial payment of
almost $1.8 million in punitive damages and costs of prosecution
assessed against her by jury on September 20. The jury ruled
that Reitnauer, 48, “unjustly enriched” herself by spending
$323,000 on permanent improvements to her personal property,
including a swimming pool, and improperly used more than
$121,000 in donations to TEFF for personal purposes including
mortgage payments and income tax liens. Reitnauer held that all
improvements were for the benefit of the 64 big cats in her care.

COURT CALENDAR

November 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

Activism
Defended by attorney Richard Halpern, Mike
Durschmidt of Chicago on October 16 became one of the
few animal rights protesters ever to win aquittal with a
“necessity” defense, in which the defendant contends it was
necessary to break a law to prevent a greater harm from
occurring. A Lake County Circuit Court jury agreed that
Durschmidt was justified in lying down in the ring at the
1996 Wauconda Rodeo to prevent children from racing on
the backs of sheep, and was therefore not guilty of trespass,
but did convict Durschmidt of resisting arrest for not leaving
at police direction. Sentencing was deferred.
Acquitted by a lower court, Brigitte Bardot
was convicted on appeal on October 9 of inciting racial
hatred in a 1996 newspaper column for complaining of
alleged “foreign overpopulation” in France at the same time
she denounced lamb slaughter in connection with the E i d
a l – A d h a Islamic religious holidays as “torture” and “most
atrocious pagan sacrifice.” Bardot was fined $1,600 and
was ordered to pay a symbolic 20¢ to the Movement
Against Racism and for the Friendship of People, which
pursued her prosecution.

Shelter bashing

November 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

FAIRFIELD, Iowa––Chad Lamansky
and Dan Myers, each 18, are to be tried
November 4 on felony charges for allegedly
clubbing 16 cats to death in a March 7 raid on
the Noah’s Ark Animal Foundation. Seven
other cats were severely injured, among 75 on
the premises.
Lamansky and Myers could get 10-
year prison terms, in one of the first prosecutions
under an anti-animal facility break-in
law passed by the Iowa legislature to discourage
activist raids on factory farms and labs.
Noah’s Ark cofounder Laura Sikes
lives in a trailer on the property, but was
away on the night in question.

WAS A COUP ATTEMPTED AT AHA, OR WAS IT A RUMOR?

November 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

DENVER––American Humane
Association board members Charles Granoski
Jr., Harold Dates, and Judy Lang on October
16 and 17 all denied either knowing about or
being part of an alleged coup d’etat that ANIMAL
PEOPLE was told was in planning,
involving them at alleged instigation of Denver
Dumb Friends League executive director Bob
Rohde––who also denied knowing about it
Executives of four major humane
societies relayed tips about the alleged coup to
ANIMAL PEOPLE in mid-October––just
before the October 26 AHA annual meeting,
preceding the AHA conference in Philadelphia.

Big Muddy murk

November 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

NEW ORLEANS––Mule carriage
driver Milton “Patch” Oliney, 58, of
New Orleans, was charged September 31
with second degree murder for allegedly
knifing George Languirand, 51, in a French
Quarter dispute over how Oliney bitted his
mule. Co-workers said Languirand apparently
intervened after an unidentified
woman hurt the mule, who reportedly suffered
a three-inch cut. Others said the
woman accused Patch of bitting the mule
painfully, and tried to refit the bit herself.
In January 1997 the Louisiana
SPCA reportedly cited the stable for which
Oliney drives––one of two that serve French
Quarter tourists––for alleged unsanitary conditions
and improperly harnessing.

AV protest in a union suit

November 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

BOSTON––New England AntiVivisection
staff, upset by the resignations
due to alleged stress of five colleagues since
mid-April, recently petitioned the National
Labor Relations Board stating their wish to
form a union, which requires the stated
interest of 30% of the work force; obtained
authorization to vote on whether to unionize;
voted to proceed, despite reported opposition
from the NEAVS board, and are now
the first unionized staff in animal protection
advocacy, under the title Workers for
Animal Rights. Electing Karl Gossot shop
steward, the union was at deadline drafting
a list of issues to be discussed in negotiating
a collective contract.

PROCTER & GAMBLE UPS THE ANTE

November 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

CINCINNATI––Embarrassed in
June when PETA disclosed allegedly abusive
conditions at Huntingdon Life Sciences, an
animal testing subcontractor, Procter &
Gamble at its October 14 annual shareholders
meeting announced that the American
College of Laboratory Animal Medicine is to
develop a sensitivity training program for all
animal handlers and researchers at either
P&G laboratories or subcontracting labs;
announced it has committed $900,000 to the
San Diego Supercomputer Center Biology
Network of Modeling Efforts toward the cost
of developing a mathematical model of the
human heart, which could accurately predict
biological responses to new drug compounds,
plus another $100,000 for related research to
replace animal-based toxicological testing;

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