Lolita & Willy

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

MIAMI, Florida––Pressure on the embattled Miami
Seaquarium intensified on October 23 when Metro Dade building director
Carlos Bonzon gave management 45 days to come up with a plan to repair
Lolita the Killer Whale’s Stadium, the 25-year-old central attraction of the
facility. Plans for a $70 million expansion, including a new whale stadium,
are on hold due to a lawsuit filed by the nearby town of Key Biscayne.
“Lolita’s tank appears to be structurally sound,” the M i a m i
H e r a l d reported on November 25. However, “the grandstand has been
severely corroded by saltwater, and is held up by temporary beams.”
Bonzon’s order came a year after whale freedom advocate Ric
O’Barry introduced himself to the Dade County building inspection
department as “the former trainer of the Seaquarium’s original killer whale,
Hugo,” who died in 1980, and charged that the crumbling whale stadium
could be broken up by displacement as Lolita leaps.
The Seaquarium staff architect called O’Barry’s claim unfounded.

When there is no shelter

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

A November 9 CNN expose of dog shooting at the Bullitt County Animal
Shelter in Sheperdsville, Kentucky, and a print edition simultaneously distributed by
Associated Press raised outrage almost everywhere but in rural Kentucky and adjacent
states, where dogs are shot every day, and modern shelters don’t exist. Thirtyfive
of the 120 counties in Kentucky and 20 of the 95 counties in Tennessee have no
animal shelter of any kind.
Explained Vicky Crosetti, executive director of the Knox County Humane
Society in Knoxville, Tennessee, “Most parts of those counties aren’t wired for
cable––people there didn’t even see the broadcast.”
“In one segment,” said America Online Pethost3, an animal control officer
by profession, “the man just kept grabbing puppies and shooting them. These were
not feral, sickly, nasty animals––they were very adoptable.”
“You can kill 50 dogs for a dollar,” said Bullitt County judge/executive
John Harper, compared with lethal injection costs of $4.42 per dog.

Animal control & rescue

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

Legislation
The San Mateo County (California)
pet overpopulation ordinance is “a legislative
f a i l u r e , ” according to The Animal Council, an
association of dog and cat fanciers, in a newly
published “evaluation of statistics and reports.”
But the evidence is ambiguous. Countywide
euthanasia records going back to 1970 show dog
euthanasias peaking at 20,191 in 1971, declining
steadily to 1,298 in fiscal year 1990-1991, just
before the controversial San Mateo County ordinance
was adopted in March 1992. Since then,
dog euthanasias have continued to drop at approximately
the previous rate, to 1,111 in fiscal year
1993-1994. Cat euthanasias peaked in 1970, at
21,796; bottomed out at 4,697 in 1979; were
steady between 6,988 and 7,417 from 1985-1986
through 1991-1992; and since then have fallen to
5,134. Noting that 18 cities in San Mateo County
have not ratified the county ordinance, which
applies in unamended form only to the relatively
small unincorporated part of the county, the
report notes that, “Unincorporated cat euthanasias
in 1993-1994 were 46% greater than in 1990-
1991, the year prior to implementation” of the
ordinance, “compared to a 27% decrease countywide.”

Moral ground

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

Writing for the Society of Animal Welfare
Administrators, Denver Dumb Friends League president
Robert Rohde on October 20 charged San Francisco SPCA
president Richard Avanzino with publishing “promotional
pronouncements” on behalf of the San Francisco Adoption
Pact “suggesting a higher moral ground, at the expense of
everyone else in the field.”
Under the Adoption Pact, the SF/SPCA has since
April 1994 accepted the duty of finding a home for every
animal received by the city animal control center who is
healthy or recoverable, and not vicious. Most aggrieving
Rohde was Avanzino’s remark that, “In most communities,
older animals or those not deemed ‘desireable’ are considered
‘unadoptable’ and placed in the ‘euthanize’ category.”

What to do about too many deer?

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

The problem

Four aircraft––each carrying
more than 100 passengers––hit deer
during October and early November
while landing at the BaltimoreWashington
International Airport. The
Federal Aviation Administration recorded
2,287 collisions between aircraft and
wildlife in 1994, but only about 60
involved mammals of any kind. One
plane hit an alligator; the rest hit birds.
Still, airport brass aren’t taking chances.
While deer shooting hasn’t yet started at
Baltimore/Washington, a USDA Animal
Damage Control team on November 15
began killing the 50-odd deer believed to
inhabit the Philadelphia International
Airport. The ADC earlier shot deer at the
Chicago, New York, and Denver airports.

Wildlife & people

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

Waterfowl
Migrating ducks overloaded airport radar
s y s t e m s across the midwest on November 2. “It was
one of the most compressed migrations we’ve seen in
the past 25 years,” Ducks Unlimited chief biologist Jeff
Nelson told Ken Miller of the Gannett News Service.
“It was more than I’ve ever seen.” Explained Federal
Aviation Administration spokesperson Sandra
Campbell, “The primary radar system in Omaha picked
up so many targets, 29,000 to 39,000, that it shut itself
down. Ten minutes later, the same thing happened in
Des Moines. Three hours later, it occurred at Kansas
City.” This year’s total waterfowl migration is estimated
at 80 million, up from 56 million in 1990.

WHO GETS THE MONEY?

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

This is our sixth annual report on the budgets, assets,
and salaries paid by the major national animal and habitat protection
groups, listed below in alphabetical order, together
with selected other organizations of note. It is the fourth of
these reports published in ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Each group is identified in the second column by
apparent focus and philosophy: A stands for advocacy, C for
conservation of habitat via acquisition, E for education, H for
support of hunting (either for “wildlife management” or recreation),
L for litigation, P for publication, R for animal rights,
S for shelter and sanctuary maintenance, V for focus on vivisection
issues, and W for animal welfare. The R and W designations
are used only if an organization makes a point of being
one or the other.
While many groups are involved in multiple activities,
space limits us to providing only four identifying letters.
Except where otherwise stated, the financial data
comes from current Internal Revenue Service Form 990 filings,
covering either calendar year or fiscal year 1994.

GOP finds Republicans favor ESA as much as Democrats

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C. – – Con-
gressional momentum toward dismantling
the Endangered Species Act markedly
slowed in November, after House
Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged to
media that the Republican majority
“messed up on the environment” by seriously
misreading the public mood.
Gingrich was particularly rattled
by a T i m e/CNN poll conducted on
September 27-28, which showed that
63% of self-described Republican voters
and 67% of independents oppose legislation
to “reduce protection for endangered
species”––putting support for the
ESA at the same level among Republicans
as among Democrats.

Woofs & growls

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

The House Ways and Means Committee has recommended
legislation, similar to a proposal from the Clinton
administration last summer, that would enable the IRS to
order charity officials to refund compensation judged excessive
to their respective charities or be fined; require charities
to furnish copies of IRS Form 990 to anyone requesting them,
for a “reasonable” photocopying fee; and enable the Treasury
Department to fine charities more heavily for failing to file
IRS Form 990 in a complete and timely manner.
“Previously, the public relations firm BursonMarsteller
in New York kept a list for the beef industry of
reporters who ate steak,” the Wall Street Journal reported
on November 10. “Two years ago, Carma International
joined the effort,” the Washington D.C. media-monitoring
firm whose efforts on behalf of the Department of Energy
were exposed in late October. “Now, each month, Carma
reviews piles of press clips of dozens of journalists and spits
out computerized reports on how favorably they portray beef,
using a scale from zero to 100. Highly ranked reporters may
get star treatment; laggards are targeted for sit-down talks on
being fair to beef.”

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