Category: North America

Electioneering

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

The Farm Animal Reform Movement’s Compassion
Campaign ‘96 seeks volunteers to help gather position statements
on animal issues from candidates and delegates at the Republican
Convention, August 10-16 in San Diego, and the Democratic
Convention, August 26-29 in Chicago. Info: 1-888-ASK-FARM.

Action for Animals asks animal activists to back the reelection
bid of Oklahoma senator Lewis Long, whose bill to ban
horse-tripping and bear-wrestling and stiffen the law against
spousal abuse was signed into law by state governor Frank
Keating on May 20. Address Long at POB 888, Glenpool, OK
74033.

DeCoster fined $3.6 million for abuse of workers

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

BOSTON––U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich
announced on July 12 that DeCoster Egg Farm, of Turner,
Maine, has been fined $3.6 million for multiple alleged violations
of wage and hour standards, safety codes, housing codes,
and workers’ rights, some of them allegedly ongoing for 30
years. Related criminal charges may follow. DeCoster is
expected to appeal, having repeatedly won reductions of lesser
fines imposed by various agencies and courts.
Most of the 325 DeCoster employees, many of them
Hispanic or Vietnamese immigrants, are densely housed in
run-down trailers on site. In January 1995, the Maine Supreme
Judicial Court ruled that DeCoster violated their civil rights by
excluding visitors, including social workers and legal advisors.
DeCoster Egg Farm, with 1995 sales of $40 million,
is solely owned by lifelong Turner resident Austin J. DeCoster.

Groups win reversals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Farm Sanctuary on June 13 won a New York
Appellate Division reversal of rulings by the Town of
Orange Board of Assessment Review and the Schuyler
County Supreme Court, which held that running a facility
incorporated for “the benevolent care of abandoned and maltreated
animals” is not a charitable purpose entitling the organization
to a property tax exemption. Such exemptions, they
contended, are limited to projects benefitting people, human
kind, or the community. The unanimous Appellate verdict
drew upon Matter of Hamilton, 1946, which upheld the will
of a woman who left her home and $400,000 in trust “for the
care, comfort, and benefit of dumb animals.” The court in
that case cited “the common view that the care and comfort
of animals are generally beneficial to mankind.”

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New USDA dog and cat regs announced

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C. – – The
USDA on July 3 proposed to amend
Animal Welfare Act regulations for the
care of dogs and cats to disallow tethering
as a primary means of holding
dogs; require that air temperatures in
dog and cat housing be kept below 90
degrees Fahrenheit; and require coated
wire flooring in dog and cat cages.
The proposed rules, applicable to
breeders and dealers involved in interstate
commerce, are a weaker version
of proposals advanced by 110 members
of the House of Representatives
and three Senators in a letter to
Agriculture Secretary Daniel Glickman
circulated for signatures in June 1995.

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Animal care

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Veterinarians Dee Dee
Moore and Helen Belknap, assisted
by interns from a DePaul University
program on exotic cat care, on June
25 donated spays to seven cougars at
the Turpentine Creek Exotic
Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs,
Arkansas. The facility now houses
19 cougars, with a waiting list of 70.
Cornell University College
of Veterinary Medicine behaviorist
Soraya Juarbe-Diaz hopes to
popularize an anti-barking collar that
instead of emitting an electroshock
with each bark instead squirts citronella
essence. Dogs don’t like the
smell of citronella, humans do like
it, and according to Juarbe-Diaz, it
is “at least as effective” as electroshock
in persuading chronic barkers
to amend their ways.

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Animal control & rescue

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Midwest
The legislative committee of Willard, Ohio, consisting
of councillors Bob Owens and Larry Jacobs, on July
3 introduced a policy allowing residents to borrow traps from
the police and dispose of stray cats at their own expense.
Objected councillor Tod Shininger, “If Joe Citizen doesn’t
have the will or the heart to destroy a cat, he’s going to move
it from one side of the city to the other, or take it out in the
country and dump it.” He noted that few residents would pay
a veterinarian to humanely euthanize a stray cat, and that
accidental killing of pet cats could touch off “a neighborhood
fight like you won’t believe.” Added mayor Stan Ware,
“We better get a cat warden.”
Second-year police officer Jeffrey “Mike” Crall,
of Beloit, Wisconsin––back on the job a month after being
stabbed while breaking up a bar fight––on June 26 performed
a daring rescue of a 14-year-old German shepherd/collie mix
caught in Rock River floodwaters. Crall “is our kind of guy,”
says Humane Society of Rock County executive director
Chris Konetski. The dehydrated, emaciated dog was reunited
with his owner, who recognized him on TV.

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Intelligence

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

A Food Research Association
survey reported in the May 29 edition of
New Scientist that “conscientious consumers”
fall into three categories, of
whom only vegetarians boycotting animal
products tend to sustain boycotts over
time. The second category includes people
who think about ethical issues, but
mainly shop by price; the third is people
who worry about issues but rarely change
their actual shopping behavior.

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ALF RAIDS KILL ANIMALS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Animal Liberation Front actions
reportedly caused the deaths at least 3,000
animals in the first half of 1996, including
2,000 pregnant mink who were roadkilled
or starved about six months before they
would have been pelted, after 3,000 were
released from the L.W. Bennett & Sons fur
farm near East Bloomfield, New York, on
April 4. Late snow cut their already slim
chances of finding adequate wild prey.
According to the Memphis-based
Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, which
claims to speak for the ALF, “more than
11,000 animals have been freed during the
past 10 months,” but except for the New
York action, most––almost all mink––were
recaptured on or near the fur farms.

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ORGANIZATIONS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Overseas
Royal SPCA members on June 22 voted 432-2 according to the London
T i m e s and 459-2 according to the Daily Telegraph to require members to pledge
that they will not “participate in any activity which is considered by the society to
involve avoidable suffering to animals.” The requirement is subject to the approval
of the Charities Commission, however, which in May obliged the RSPCA to drop
a 19-year-old antivivisection policy on grounds that a charitable organization may
not oppose activities undertaken “for the good of man.” An estimated 3,000 members
of the 88,000-member British Field Sports Society recently joined the 28,000-
member RSPCA in an attempt to reverse the RSPCA position against hunting, but
were not yet eligible to vote. The Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association i s
attempting a similar hostile infiltration and takeover of the Irish SPCA, The Irish
Times reported on June 27. Already five local affiliates have amended their policies
to endorse fox hunting. The ISPCA hopes to thwart the effort by adopting a membership
requirement similar to that adopted by the RSPCA.

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