Category: North America

Aquariums

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

An autopsy on a five-year-old dolphin w h o
died of lead poisoning on July 23 at the Luna Park tank
in Tel Aviv found she had ingested about 100 air rifle
bullets. X-rays found that her companion, Fiadora, 12
had also ingested several dozen bullets, and could die
soon without surgery. A third dolphin, Max, died of
unknown causes earlier in the year. All three were
imported from Russia about two and a half years ago.
Ric O’Barry, who staged an eight-day hunger strike to
get such imports stopped in early 1993, told ANIMAL
PEOPLE on August 7 that, “We will have Fiadora con-
fiscated soon, I feel. I will return to Tel Aviv to transfer
her to a sea pen at Elat, on the Red Sea. Then, when
the Sugarloaf Key project is over (page one), I will
rehab and release Fiadora back into the Black Sea off
Turkey. She will be the first Russian Navy dolphin to be
set free,” at least officially; another dolphin believed to
have been trained by the Russian Navy spent the early
summer begging for fish in the harbor at Bakar, Croatia.

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RELIGION & ANIMALS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

Self-styled Santerian priest Rigoberto
Zamora, 58, was charged July 18 with four counts
of felony cruelty for killing 11 birds, three goats, and
a lamb in his Miami Beach apartment on June 26,
1993. Zamora, whose priestly credentials are chal-
lenged by other Santerians, staged the slaughter to
celebrate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling two weeks ear-
lier that bans on animal sacrifice per se violate the
First Amendment right to freedom of religion. The
court left intact anti-cruelty statutes, which may
affect where and how sacrifices are made, without
prohibiting them outright.
Afflicted with an inflamed stomach,
Shin, a 10-year-old Himalayan snow leopard who
lives at the San Francisco Zoo, hadn’t eaten in two
weeks as of June 10, when she was visited by 11
Tibetan monks from Gyuto Tantric University in
Tenzin Gang, India. The monks performed a five-
minute puja for her––a healing chant. Reported Jorge
Aquino of Religion News Service, who photographed
the event, “As the monks began their blessing, Shin
came down from her 15-foot perch and sat down to
face the monks. She watched and listened, apparent-
ly transfixed.” Shortly after the chant ceased, she
resumed eating her regular rations.

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Zoos

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

Alleged embezzling rocked two leading animal exhibition insti-
tutions during the summer. The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association is
officially mum about the discovery that $72,000 of the $7.5 million it
received last year from concession sales is missing. The discrepancy was
discovered in early June, but has not been reported to police, as the associa-
tion apparently hopes to resolve the case internally. In a similar but unrelat-
ed case, the International Marine Animal Trainers Association recently
found $60,000 missing; did not press charges against the former IMATA
treasurer, who acknowledged responsibility; and has informed membership
that it has received partial restitution. IMATA pledged it would not reveal
the identity of the individual in question, whose identity is nonetheless
known to ANIMAL PEOPLE. She no longer works in the animal field.
As the Missouri River rose in the Dakotas in June, a patron
donated use of a private jet to Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago) and Milwaukee
County Zoo staffers, who collected 30 piping plover eggs then and 114
more later, along with 116 eggs from least terns. Both the plovers and the
terns are endangered, and the riverbank nesting sites of both were wiped
out. Ninety-one plovers and 67 terns hatched, the first of their species to be
successfully artificially incubated. Captive breeding may be the birds’ best
hope of survival, as they’ve lost about 80% of their habitat since 1950, and
are quite vulnerable to predation and bad weather in the remaining habitat.

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Wildlife & people

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

A day camp worker and a park
ranger on July 28 captured a three-foot
alligator in Kissena Park Lake, Queens,
New York. Days later, two young alligators
were found roaming Central Islip––and then
two pet rhesus monkeys escaped from their
owner’s home in Hauppauge, one of whom
bit an animal control officer. When an 11-
year-old hooked a piranha in Lake
Ronkonkoma, Long Island Newsday probed
the local exotic pet trade and found an Oyster
Bay store displaying alligators, monkeys,
ferrets, pythons, bobcat cubs and a wallaby,
all in violation of both state and town law.

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WHAT’S BREWING IN MILWAUKEE?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

MILWAUKEE––The Milwaukee County Board committee on parks, recreation, and culture
on July 12 ordered the county corporation council to share records pertaining to the Wisconsin Humane
Society with Wisconsin Animal Protection Society president Kay Mannes, but refused to probe allega-
tions of animal abuse and mismanagement at WHS, which closed its books and meetings to the public in
1990. WHS executive director Victoria Wellens, hired at $90,000/year in mid-1994 despite having no
background in animal work, recently ired both staff and outside critics by trading in several vehicles used
to haul animals and supplies for a $28,000 Ford Bronco, from which animals are barred.

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Animal control & rescue

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

New legislation
An update of Louisiana animal
protection laws long sought by
Legislation In Support of Animals, the
Coalition of Louisiana Animal Advocates,
and other state groups includes the stiffest
felony cruelty statute in the U.S., mandat-
ing a fine of not less than $1,000, up to
$25,000, plus from one year in prison up
to 10 years at hard labor; fines for misde-
meanor cruelty of up to $1,000 and 48
hours of community service plus jail time;
the extension of the cruelty law to cover
parrots, parakeets, and lovebirds (but not
fighting cocks); the extension of the state’s
anti-dog theft law to cover other pets, with
stiffer penalties; and the creation of a fund
to help save the scarce Louisiana specta-
cled bear, funded by sales of a special
license plate. Known for gung-ho effica-
cy––on a budget of just $50,000/year––
LISA celebrated by bringing the
Spay/Neuter Assistance Program mobile
clinic from Houston to New Orleans for a
weekend of providing free neutering to
low-income families.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

RABIES NOTES
Post-exposure shots for 665 people
who came into contact with a rabid kitten in a pet
store in Concord, New Hampshire, last October,
together with other essential follow-up, cost $1.5
million, says the CDCP.
The Pet Savers Foundation has pro-
posed establishing a National Rabies Awareness
D a y. “Letters to Congress supporting Rabies
Awareness Day would be very helpful,” Charlie
McGinley of Pet Savers told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Get details c/o 14 Vanderventer Ave., Port
Washington, NY 11050; 516-944-5025.
Two residents of San Rafael,
California, were bitten by rabid bats in June,
including a 5-year-old boy playing near a backyard
pool and a woman who was swimming. The bats
in each case were apparently attracted by insects
hovering over the water.
A laborer from Anhui province,
China, bit four people including a pregnant
woman on July 19 in the city of Suzhou, a month
after he was bitten by two rabid dogs.

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Chase pens spread rabies

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

ATLANTA––Hunters illegally translocating coyotes from Texas could cause rabies out-
breaks “the likes of which we haven’t seen since the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s,” warns
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rabies section chief Dr. Charles Rupprecht.
“This is a hot bug for dogs,” Rupprecht explained on August 10. “Dogs are the biggest
indicator of this outbreak, and we do not want it to get out of south Texas.”
Transmission occurs when coyotes or foxes in the latent phase of rabies––when they are
often easiest to catch––are trapped for use in chase pens, where hunters “train” hounds by setting
them on the captive animals, a growing pastime in much of the country. The coyotes or foxes may
either bite the hounds or escape from the pens to spread rabies elsewhere. At one Florida chase pen,
eight dogs were infected late last year, obliging 26 people to get post-rabies exposure shots, while
a 20-square-mile area was put under quarantine.

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Adoption Pact working

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

SAN FRANCISCO––”We predicted
that impounds would increase as the public
became aware of the Pact’s lifesaving guaran-
tee,” recounts the newly published SF/SPCA
report covering the first year of the revolutionary
no-kill animal control agreement. “The theory at
the heart of the Adoption Pact is that more peo-
ple will surrender their unwanted pets to shelters,
as opposed to abandoning or neglecting them, if
they know the animal is going to be placed in a
loving home rather than be killed. Total
impounds of San Francisco dogs and cats did
rise, by 1,314 animals.”
The SF/SPCA placed 5,054 animals
during the first 12 months of the Adoption Pact,
including 3,382 animals who required medical or
behavioral rehabilitation, 2,314 of whom would
have been euthanized at the city shelter before
the Adoption Pact, under which the SF/SPCA
accepts all healthy or recoverable animals
received by the city.

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