Cull cruelty on camera

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

CHICAGO – –Steve Hindi and Chicago

Animal Rights Coalition colleagues used remote-con-

trolled miniature night-vision cameras in January to

get rare video footage––aired by many local TV sta-

tions––of DuPage County Forest Preserve staff catch-

ing deer in rocket nets and killing them with a captive-

bolt gun.

“One animal was seen jumping as the net

was fired, only to fall on her back. Another deer was

dragged by three others in a net as they tried to escape.

Her head was pulled under her body. Still another

deer suffered for at least 35 minutes,” Hindi said.

Shown the video on January 18, the DuPage

commissioners voted 11-10 to suspend the rocket-net-

ting. But on February 7 they allowed it to resume “for

research,” with the deer thus caught to be radio-col-

lared. Only deer injured by the rocket-netting would

be dispatched with the captive bold gun. Culling con-

tinues via sharpshooting.

Wildlife & People

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

A hungry hippopotamus,

rampaging through rice fields and

upsetting canoes in the Selingue dam

district of Mali, was said to have

magical powers in January after elud-

ing vigilantes for more than a month.

Alaska Department of

Fish and Game officers shot a

mama moose because of “ill disposi-

tion” on January 14 at the University

of Alaska campus in Anchorage, after

she tried to kick professor Bruce

Kappes as he sprinted to class. A few

days earlier the moose fatally stomped

Myung Chin Ra, 71, when he tried to

pass her to enter a building.

Beaver-bashing

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

ALBANY, N.Y.––The New York

Department of Environmental Conservation

plans to ease beaver trapping rules in

Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, per-

haps as early as March. The beaver trapping

season officially ends April 16, but in the

two-county “nuisance zone” landowners

will be allowed to trap beaver year-round

without a permit; will be allowed to use

cable snares, which are cheaper and there-

fore easier to place in large numbers as well

as more easily replaced if they get lost; may

set traps on dens, rather than at least five

feet away; and will be allowed to bait

beavers to specific areas before setting traps.

Hunting

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Robert “Buzz” Barry, 64, assis-

tant executive director of the Sportsmen’s

Alliance of Maine, told reporters on January

21 that he’s giving up hunting mammals after

40 years because of second thoughts he’s had

since a TV debate with an anti-hunter in

November; because his anti-abortion convic-

tions have caused him to review his attitudes

toward the sanctity of life; and most of all

because of the pain and fear he’s seen in the

eyes of animals he’s killed. He asserted, how-

ever, that he isn’t an “anti,” and said he hadn’t

yet decided if he’ll quit shooting birds.

Animals in laboratories

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

The USDA hopes to soon replace the present system of

classifying animal dealers, Animal and Plant Health Inspection

Service officer Steve Smith told ANIMAL PEOPLE on January 3.

All commercial animal breeders other than farmers now receive Class

A permits; those who sell animals they do not breed themselves are

issued Class B permits. A common misperception is that “Class B

dealer” is synonymous with shadowy characters who sell stolen pets to

laboratories, but in fact about three-fourths of the 1,280 current Class

B permit holders are in the pet trade; no more than 75, according to

Smith, sell dogs and cats to labs, and of those, fewer still sell “ran-

dom source” animals. Under the anticipated regulatory amendment,

there will be nine different permit categories, each of which is specific

to the nature of the permit-holder’s business.

Willy may be freed

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

MEXICO CITY––Keiko, the orca star of the 1993 film

Free Willy!, will be relocated to a new facility under construction at

the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport by November, Free Willy-

Keiko Foundation president David Phillips announced on February

6––and this time, after many false alarms, the deal was confirmed by

Oscar Porter, general director of Keiko’s present home at the Nuevo

Reino Aventura amusement park in Mexico City.

Keiko, believed to be about 16, will be accompanied by

some of the Nuevo Reino Aventura staff, Porter said, praising him

for having “developed a very special sensitivity, intuiting and perceiv-

ing people. Keiko is very affectionate,” Porter continued, “especially

toward children, ‘showering’ them constantly with his outstanding

jumps. He is so intelligent that he has been able to learn more than 54

different routines.”

MARINE LIFE

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Biologist Macarena Green of Quito, Ecuador, on January 12

issued an Internet SOS for marine life in the Galapagos islands. On

October 15, 1994, she said, the Ecuadoran government opened the region

to sea cucumber collection for the first time, setting a quota of 550,000 to

be picked over the next three months. “However, in two months the take

exceeded seven million,” Green stated. “Fishermen were not only collect-

ing sea cucumbers, but also sea horses, snails, sea urchins, and black

coral. Also, one fisherman admitted he had already sent to Japan sea lion

penises as a try-out for a new aphrodisiac. The Japanese buyer paid $50 for

each penis.” The sea cucumber season was closed due to the abuse on

December 15, but, “The people involved during the lucrative yet devastat-

ing enterprise were not about to accept that. During the first days of

January they took over installations of the Park Service and Darwin Station.

They kept all the people inside as hostages, including the wives of many of

the workers and children. They threatened to kill all the tortoises in captivi-

ty at the station, and they threatened to start fires on little islands,” which

would also kill endangered tortoises. Green begged that letters on behalf of

keeping the sea cucumber season closed, permanently, be sent to Arq.

Sixto Duran Ballen, Presidente Constitucional de la Republica de Ecuador,

Palacia de Gobierna, Quito, Ecuador.

Sanctuary: THREE-YEAR-OLD TAOS STRIVES TO GROW INTO MISSION

January 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1995:

DALLAS––With a title dimly echo-

ing William Faulkner’s steamiest novel and an

acronym calling to mind the utopian com-

mune D.H. Lawrence began in New Mexico,

the Association of Sanctuaries might inspire

literary minds to imagine dark plots and tan-

gled motives even without dispute over what

“association” and “sanctuary” should mean.

Is TAOS a representative self-regu-

latory body, as billed, formed by sanctuari-

ans to advance the interests of the greater

sanctuary community? Or is it an activist

group disguised, with an agenda set mainly

by non-sanctuarians, at least some of whom

have little background in sanctuary work?

COURT CALENDAR

January 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1995:

Humane enforcement

Charro rodeo horse trainer Jesus

Quinonez, 24, pleaded not guilty to two misde-

meanor cruelty counts on December 7 in Denver.

Quinonez allegedly beat a 2-year-old horse with a

board on October 10. By October 14 the horse was

partially paralyzed, ostensibly from an accident, and

Quinonez kicked and punched him for not getting up.

The case has drawn national attention through a mail-

ing by Animal Rights Mobilization.

Officials in San Bruno, California, on

December 8 asked San Mateo County Superior Court

to apply a law usually used to make property owners

maintain debris-strewn land to alleged animal collec-

tor Ruth Harris, 71, who has repeatedly violated a

court order to obey the city limit of four cats per

household since 1991. More than 100 diseased cats

have been removed from Harris’ feces-saturated

home in four separate raids. To be heard January 6,

the motion if granted will bar Harris from owning

any cats and will allow authorities to spot-check the

house at random to insure compliance.

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