Animal control & rescue notes

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

Five months after the California

cities of Cupertino, Campbell, Los Gatos,

Saratoga, and Monte Sereno contracted

with a Campbell animal hospital for pound

service, instead of the Humane Society of

Santa Clara Valley, about one resident in

five who finds a stray still takes it to the

wrong place. The errors may erode the sav-

ings the cities hoped to gain by the switch.

The Harbor Animal Shelter in

San Pedro, California, estimates that 75%

of the animals it has received this

year––three or four a day––were left by

Navy families being transferred due to the

closure of the Long Beach Naval Air

Station. A parallel situation has developed

at the Wuensdorf barracks in Germany,

closed in August. Russian troops going

home left circa 150 cats behind, now fed by

volunteer Wilhelm Schrader, whose fund-

ing comes mainly out of his own pocket.

Alleged horse killers charged with murder

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

CHICAGO––Illinois and federal

authorities probing a scheme to kill race and show

horses for insurance money say they have cracked

a series of the most sensational unsolved crimes in

Chicago history. Richard Bailey, 62, described

as a gigolo who cheated lonely widows out of hun-

dreds of thousands of dollars, was charged July 27

in connection with the 1977 disappearance of

Helen Vorhees Brach, the Brach candy heiress

whose will founded the Brach Foundation, a

major source of funding for animal-related chari-

ties. August 12, stable owner Kenneth Hansen, a

Bailey associate, was charged with the October

1955 kidnap-rape-murders of Robert Peterson, 14,

and brothers John and Anton Schluessler, ages 13

and 11, whose deaths, some sociologists say,

changed the attitudes of America toward hitchhik-

ing and supervision of children, and reinforced

homophobia for a generation of parents.

RODEO

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

California Assembly Bill 49x, to ban

horse–tripping––a staple of charro rodeo – – at

deadline awaited only governor Pete Wilson’s

signature to become law. Calls of support for the

bill may be made to 916-445-2864.

The Animal Rights Foundation of

Florida asks that letters protesting Dr. Pepper’s

use of rodeo themes in ads be sent to John Clark,

Senior V.P. for Advertising, Dr. Pepper USA,

8144 Walnut Hill Lane, Dallas, TX 75231.

Members of In Defense of Animals

attempted a sit-in August 12 to protest a cattle

drive through the streets of Napa, California,

held to promote the Napa Town and Country Fair

rodeo. They were nearly trampled––along with

spectators––when the supposedly expert cowboys

lost control of the herd of 25 longhorn steers

about a block before reaching the demonstrators.

Bernstein lays down LASPCA law

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

LOS ANGELES––Hired to

revamp the Los Angeles SPCA, executive

director Madeleine Bernstein is already

dodging backstabs from some of the board,

which in April pushed Bernstein’s prede-

cessor, Ed Cubrda, into retirement after 25

years. In July, American Humane

Association west coast office director Betty

Denny Smith quietly quit the board, after

11 years. Soon afterward at least one other

board member intimated to media that

Smith quit because of Bernstein’s policies,

which Smith denied, and issued other

charges about Bernstein’s activity that fact-

checking soon disproved.

ANIMAL HEALTH

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

No face-branding halt yet despite what mass media reported

July 7 media reports that the USDA would no longer require face-branding of steers import-

ed from Mexico were incorrect. Such an announcement was expected, but was apparently delayed by

the White House to get input on the rules change from the National Cattlemen’s Association. The

USDA did amend the import rules for Mexican heifers, who now must be given a local anesthetic

prior to spaying, and are rump-branded. The steers are branded to help inspectors backtrack cattle car-

rying bovine tuberculosis; the heifers are spayed to prevent the transmission of brucellosis.

What’s up in Montreal?

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

MONTREAL––The Canadian

SPCA recently endured yet another of

many recent changes of management, as

a young dissident faction led by longtime

critic Alex Wolfe won control of the

board and moved it toward the distant

goal of becoming a no-kill––against bitter

union and veterinary opposition.

“Until now,” former board

member Anne Streeter wrote recently in

the Montreal Gazette, “the CSPCA has

been notoriously trigger-happy, putting

down close to 50,000 animals a year.

Now the CSPCA is accused of keeping

too many marginally healthy animals

alive. Critics say the place is overcrowd-

ed, dirty, underfunded and short-staffed.”

What’s up in Minneapolis?

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

MINNEAPOLIS––The Animal

Humane Society of Hennepin County, the

leading shelter in Minneapolis, has

achieved a 50% adoption rate or better

every year since 1990. Broken down,

AHSHC places 97% of the puppies it

receives, 50% of the adult dogs, 60% of

the kittens, and 35% of the adult cats. The

high adoption numbers are not achieved

through selective intake: of the 22,151 ani-

mals AHSHC handled in 1992, 84% were

animal control pickups.

HSUS QUITS COMPUSERVE

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

The Humane Society of the U.S. on July

25 abruptly terminated its forum on Compuserve.

“The decision,” said HSUS vice president for

training initiatives Randall Lockwood, “was based

primarily on the heavy demands it made on staff

time with very little return in terms of productive

contact with our constituents.”

Users took a different view. “Not only

did HSUS have a very low scroll rate,” said writer

Marcia King, “meaning it wasn’t making very

much money either for them or Compuserve, but

the HSUS system operator would barely tend the

forum.”

Added animal rescuer Vicki Rodenberg,

“There was an operator on duty for a while, but he

kind of faded away. Many of us, even HSUS sup-

porters, never understood why they had the forum

if they wouldn’t participate in it.”

Cold winter holds down roadkills: Peaks coincide with moon phases

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

DERRY, New Hampshire––The good

news is that roadkills will apparently claim 23%

fewer animal lives in 1994 than 1993. The bad news

is that the reason is probably not safer driving, but

rather the harsh winter of 1993-1994, which thinned

the numbers of many of the most vulnerable species.

Refinements of the survey method may

also account for some of the drop, from an estimated

total of 187 million animals killed in 1993 to just 137

million this year. The 1993 statistics were derived

exclusively from Dr. Splatt’s Roadkill Project, a

learning exercise then including students at 31 New

England middle schools, coordinated by Dr.

Brewster Bartlett of Pinkerton Academy, in Derry,

New Hampshire.

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