“Bring wolves, not guns,” Dicks tells Park Service

March 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1997:

OLYMPIC NATIONAL
PARK––Norm Dicks (D-Washington)
has killed National Park Service
efforts to exterminate supposedly
non-native mountain goats in
Olympic National Park.
“In recent months, the
park’s plan to shoot the goats drew
the ire of so many of Dicks’ West
Sound constituents,” wrote Seattle
Times outdoor columnist Ron Judd,
“that he launched a mini-investigation.
His finding: The park was, at
best, being disingenuous about
alleged ‘damage’ from goats. At
worst, it was lying. Dicks, who
says he is supported by the rest of
Washington’s delegation, recently
called park officials to his office and
made a subtle suggestion: Bag the
goat shoot, or I’ll bag it for you.”

COURT CALENDAR

March 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1997:

Defenders of Wildlife on February 5 dropped a lawsuit against
the U.S. Air Force, a month after the Air Force quit low-level flights,
bombing, strafing, and rocketing at the South Tactical Air Command Range
in the Sonoran desert––a critical habitat for the endangered Sonoran pronghorn.
The Air Force also agreed to check for pronghorns before rocketing or
bombing another nearby range. Only about 100 Sonoran pronghorns remain
in the U.S. Small herds also roam an adjacent Mexican biosphere reserve.
Also in the region, but not the immediate vicinity, are the Sonora tiger salamander,
the Canelo Hills ladies tresses orchid, and the Huachuca water
umbel, a floating plant, all added to the Endangered Species List on
January 6. The resolution of Defenders v. Air Force may have implications
for Navy bombing of Farallon de Medinilla (see page 17).

Insurer settles in FoA vs. U.S. Surgical

March 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1997:

NEW YORK––Federal judge Stephen
Eginton on January 23 dismissed a U.S. Surgical
Corporation lawsuit pending against Friends of Animals
since 1990.
“FoA will now appeal the 1993 dismissal of
its own claims,” said FoA attorney Herman Kaufman,
“which arose from the alleged wiretapping of the FoA
office in 1988-1989, and from the use of [fringe
activist] Fran Trutt to stage a so-called ‘assassination’
attempt against [U.S. Surgical president] Leon Hirsch.”
Trutt was arrested in November 1988 while
placing a pipe bomb in the U.S. Surgical parking lot.
She was given the money to buy the bomb and driven to
the site by Marc Mead, an employee of Perceptions
International, a security firm hired by U.S. Surgical.
Trutt and Mead were introduced by another Perceptions
operative, Mary Lou Sappone, who met and befriended
Trutt in April 1988. Earlier, Sappone tried to interest at
least two other people in bombing Hirsch and/or U.S.
Surgical, but was rebuffed and not taken seriously.

CANADA KILLS SEALS FOR CHRISTMAS

March 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1997:

OTTAWA––Canadian fisheries minister
Fred Mifflin on Christmas Eve raised the
Atlantic Canadian harp sealing quota to 275,000,
up from 250,000 last spring, when 247,000 carcasses
were retrieved and thousands more washed
up on Newfoundland beaches. Although newborns,
called whitecoats, were and are off limits,
about 2,200 whitecoats were killed.
Mifflin left the quota for adult hooded
seals at 8,000, as in 1996, with juveniles, or
bluebacks, still off limits––but last year sealers
actually killed as many as 22,800 bluebacks. The
Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans has
charged 101 sealers including former Canadian
Sealers Association president Mark Small with
illegally killing whitecoats and bluebacks.

BOMBS AWAY!

March 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1997:

by Carroll Cox, Wildlife consultant, Friends of Animals

For many years the U.S. Navy
has leased the western Pacific island of
Farallon de Medinilla, Commonwealth
of Northern Marian Islands, uninhabited
by humans, for use in bombing practice.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service internal
reports indicate that the Navy bombs the
island at least four times a year, and considers
it an especially important target
site because so many other targets have
been placed off limits––chiefly to protect
endangered wildlife. This came to light
when the Navy requested a USFWS permit
to “take” migratory birds incidental
to their bombing activity. At first the
USFWS denied the permit, but then
reversed course and issued it.

Charities flunk NCIB standards

March 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1997:

NEW YORK––The National
Charities Information Bureau has
issued negative reports on
Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra
Club, and Project Cure, which
advertises itself as a cancer research
foundation that does not fund animal
experiments.
Defenders, the NCIB said,
“does not meet the standard calling
for the organization to spend at
least 60% of annual expenses for
program activities, nor the standard
calling for the organization to
insure that fundraising expenses, in
relation to fundraising results, are
reasonable over time.”

BIGGER KITTIES ADD NEW RISK TO ANIMAL CONTROL

March 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1997:

ARCADIA, Calif.––California Fish &
Game warden Mark Jeeter shot a puma pointblank
on January 28 in a suburban yard.
Once again bloodshed underscored the
warning ANIMAL PEOPLE issued in July 1996
that former pet pumas, not wild pumas, are
forming a dangerous fringe population around
many major North American cities.
Recounted Sergeant Endel Jurman,
field services department supervisor for the
Pasadena Humane Society and SPCA, “My officer
was standing behind the warden when the lion
was shot.” The warden, the PHS/SPCA, and
Arcadia police had all responded late at night to a
homeowner’s complaint that a puma was eating
his 40-pound dog.

HSUS told to give back Canadian funds

March 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1997:

Ontario Court of Justice judge Bruce C.
Hawkins on January 7 issued an interim order that the
Humane Society of the United States must repay $740,000
to the Humane Society of Canada, in advance of the yet-tobe-scheduled
trial of a lawsuit in which HSC and the
Canadian incorporation of Humane Society International
charge that HSUS improperly seized $1,012,663 in funds
HSC raised within Canada. Wrote Hawkins of the February
1996 seizure, “I cannot imagine a more glaring conflict of
interest or a more egregious breach of fiduciary duty.

Peter Gerard hires lawyer, repays a principle

March 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1997:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Under pressure from
Friends of Animals and other sponsors to provide a full
accounting of funds received and spent in connection with the
June 1996 World Animal Awareness Week and March for the
Animals, National Alliance for Animals executive director
Peter Gerard, formerly known as Peter Linck, recently
retained attorney Roger Galvin, of Rockville, Maryland, to
tell FoA that as of January 8, “the audit is not completed yet,”
and to argue that FoA “received more benefits in terms of participation
and publicity than its $5,000 contribution warranted.”
The March, crowning the week of activities, drew
just 3,000 participants according to the official National Parks
Service count––3% of the 100,000 Gerard’s fundraising letters
predicted would attend, and 21,000 fewer than the crowd at a
similar march that Gerard coordinated in 1990.

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