Oceanariums

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Molly, the last known survivor of the traveling dolphin
shows popular in the 1960s, was on June 24 transferred by order of
the National Marine Fisheries Service from the Sugarloaf Dolphin
Sanctuary to the Dolphin Research Center, whose management has
long been critical of the Sugarloaf rehabilitation-for-release program.
NMFS suspended Sugarloaf operator Lloyd Good III’s
marine mammal exhibition license on June 7, two weeks after Good
and former Sugarloaf rehabilitation director Ric O’Barry released
the ex-Navy dolphins Buck and Luther without a permit. Buck and
Luther had been undergoing preparation for release since December
1994. A third ex-Navy dolphin, Jake, was seized on June 7 and
returned, with Luther, to the Navy dolphin program in San Diego.
Buck is also at DRC. Molly is claimed by the Key Largo-based
Marine Mammal Conservancy, formed by ex-Sugarloaf trainer Rick
Trout, who left after a November 1994 clash with O’Barry.

OFFING THEIR HEADS AT THE PASS

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

ANCHORAGE–– Indigenous
Alaskans killed at least 1,200 walruses this
spring, says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, in a headhunting binge likely to
have lasting repercussions. Indigenous
hunters may kill as many walruses as they
want, but must use the whole carcass.
Responding to reports of headless carcasses
drifting ashore, the USFWS in May charged
two hunters with waste, for bringing 18 adult
walrus heads with tusks back to their village,
along with 19 whole walrus calves, but only
150 to 300 pounds of meat. In mid-June the
USFWS issued posters offering $1,000 for
information leading to the arrest and conviction
of other alleged headhunters.

Reptiles

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Herp traffic
The 72 Malagasy ploughshare tortoises
stolen from a captive breeding project at
the Amphijoroa Forest Park in Madagascar in
May have turned up “for sale in Prague,”
reports Allen Salzberg of the New York Turtle
and Tortoise Society. But due to corrupt
authorities, herpetologists “have little hope of
getting them or the people selling them,”
Salzberg adds. The Austrian Chelonical
Society warned in June that any members who
buy any of the stolen tortoises will be expelled.
German customs officials on July
8 announced the arrest of a 32-year-old man
caught at Augsburg with 328 tortoises
“stacked up like plates” in his luggage. The
man, who may get up to five years in prison,
reportedly “admitted selling around 3,000 rare
and protected tortoises since 1991,” either
caught or bought cheaply in Serbia.

Editorial: Who got the March money?

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Observers of the June 23 March for the Animals in Washington D.C. and the preceding
World Animal Awareness Week may be reminded of The Producers, the 1968 Zero
Mostel/Gene Wilder film about two schemers who persuade an outlandish number of
investors to fund a deliberate Broadway flop. The idea is to fail so miserably that all
investors assume their money is lost, and don’t ask embarrassing questions. Mostel and
Wilder stage the most tasteless musical script they can find, called Springtime for
Hitler––only to have it succeed as a farce, sending them to Sing-Sing when the investors
ask for their promised cuts of the gate, adding up to far more than 100%.
But the March was no surprise success. And it might embarrass the cause of animal
protection less if it was in fact a fraud instead of just a public failure.

Makah don’t get quota: SEA SHEPHERDS FIND REPUBLICAN FRIENDS

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

ABERDEEN, Scotland– – Striking
another surprise blow for whales, this time
through Congressional politics, the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society on June 26
sunk Japanese and Norwegian hopes for
expanded legal whaling––at least for this year.
Eighteen years after Captain Paul
Watson established the Sea Shepherds’ reputation
as what he calls “good pirates” by ramming
the outlaw Portuguese whaler Sierra, 14
years after the International Whaling
Commission declared a global moratorium on
commercial whaling, the ban held at the 48th
annual meeting of the IWC, as under pressure
from the House Resources Committee the U.S.
delegation on June 26 withdrew an application
to allow members of the Makah tribe, of Neah
Bay, Washington, to kill five grey whales.

No fish, no rain, no bees

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Reform of the Magnuson Act, governing U.S. fisheries
management, is stalled in the Senate after passage by the House due to conflict between
Republicans Slade Gorton of Washington and Ted Stevens of Alaska over whether fishing
quotas should be bought and sold like private property. Stevens and the House majority
oppose individual transferable quotas. Gorton favors them.
While the Senators dispute over whether what’s good for the fishing industry in
their own states will be good for the nation, fish are in desperate trouble the world over
––and so are the other animals and people who depend upon them for food.
Even scarier, the fish crisis looms as just one of a triad of disasters bringing global
famine closer than at any time since the Dust Bowl ravaged the midwest 60-odd years ago
while millions starved during Soviet forced collectivization.

Candidates hunt the hook-and-bullet vote

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Secret Service agents on July 11
questioned James Carl Brown, 21, of Camarillo, California, on suspicion
that he may have been gunning for President Bill Clinton. Port
Hueneme police arrested Brown earlier in the day for allegedly shooting
three ducks with a crossbow. They found a target scrawled on a
newspaper photo of Clinton, about 20 automatic rifles and handguns,
and “militia-type paraphernalia and propaganda” in a search of his
apartment, according to police sergeant Jerry Beck.
Fellow hunters may wonder about Brown. While Clinton
and vice president Albert Gore avidly court their votes, the National
Rifle Association is figuratively gunning for opponent Robert Dole,
the former Senator from Kansas, who told CBS News on July 12 that
he would veto a Congressional attempt––supported by most of the
House Republican majority––to repeal the ban on assault weapons
signed by Clinton in 1994.

Wishing for an end to bear hunting

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

In Silver City, New Mexico, Juliette Harris, age 7, on
May 13 voluntarily began receiving a $1,500 series of painful postexposure
rabies shots, to spare the life of the eight-pound bear cub
she found on May 5. The mother might have abandoned the cub due
to a drought that made food scarce, or might have been killed by a
poacher. Whatever the case, Harris lugged him home despite having
been bitten on the finger, and saw to it that he was delivered to
Western New Mexico University biology professor Dennis Miller, a
member of Gila Wildlife Rescue.
“I just didn’t want that cute baby bear to die,” Harris said.
“He’s so small.
In Howie-In-The-Hills, Florida, Stuart McMillan, 14, on
May 15 climbed a 32-foot extension ladder, hoping to retrieve his
beloved cat from the top of a 36-foot power pole. He touched a
7,600-volt wire and either was electrocuted or killed on impact when
he fell headfirst to the ground.

Crimes against wildlife

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

June 12, 1996 was a day to
remember in the international fight against
wildlife traffickers:
• In Chicago, bird smuggler
Tony Silva, 36, was jailed pending sentencing,
after prosecutors Sergio Acosta a n d
Jay Tharp argued that he was likely to jump
bail. Silva, who ran a wild-caught bird
smuggling ring while posing as an outspoken
foe of the wild-caught bird traffic, in January
pleaded guilty to reduced charges of conspiracy
and tax evasion, but on May 17 sought
unsuccessfully to withdraw the plea, after
former Playboy Mansion animal keeper
Theodora Swanson, 36, in April drew a
lighter sentence for conviction on contested
charges than her confederates got after copping
pleas.

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