Hartz Mountain ignites a powder keg

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

HARRISON, New Jersey––The Hartz Mountain

Corporation on May 6 lit a powder keg by donating 10 cases

each of Blockade flea and tick repellent to numerous animal

shelters. Blockade hasn’t been controversial recently, but

some shelter staff recalled the history of the product and

responded by not only rejecting the gift, but also setting up

a telephone tree to warn other shelters.

The initial furor erupted in 1987, when Blockade

was introduced. Within a year it was blamed for 366 pet

deaths, 2,700 pet injuries, and 56 “alleged unsubstantiated

human injuries,” according to a letter Hartz Mountain sent

the EPA in December 1987, when it took Blockade off the

market for further testing.

Wildlife

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Hope rose for the endangered

Florida panther in late May when volunteers

from the Coryi Foundation discovered a car-

cass, a single pawprint, and clumps of fur on

the grill of a car that struck an unknown animal

in the St. Johns and Kissimmee River water-

sheds––far outside the Big Cypress Swamp

area of Lake Okeechobee, which was previ-

ously the panther’s only known habitat.

A coalition of U.S. environmental

groups has petitioned the U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service to add koalas to the endan-

gered species list. The koala population of

eastern Australia has fallen lately due to habi-

tat loss, caused by the combination of devel-

opment, logging, wildfires, and drought.

Laboratories

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Residents of Cranberry and

Hampton Township, Pennsylvania, got a

close-up view of the realities of vivisection on

May 7 when the tailgate of a truck taking 2.5

tons of dead rats from Zivic-Miller Laboratories

to a landfill broke twice, littering two streets

with rat remains. Zivic-Miller, of Zelienople, a

Pittsburgh suburb, sells rats to research institu-

tions. The dead rats were unsold surplus, owner

Bill Zivic told Associated Press.

1990 University of Minnesota animal

intake records obtained by the Animal Rights

Coalition under the Minnesota Data Practices

Act indicate that the university purchased for

research use at least 139 of 248 dogs who were

individually identified in a 1992 USDA com-

plaint filed against Class B animal dealers Julian

and Anita Toney, of Lamoni, Iowa, for failing

to keep records on animal acquisitions. The

USDA charges, now four years old, are still

pending, while the Toneys remain the primary

suppliers of dogs to the university––which has

been suspected of using stolen dogs ever since

the late Lucille Moses traced dog thefts through

local suppliers to UM in the early 1960s.

Woofs and growls

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Wise-use wiseguys

Frederick Goodwin, former director of the National

Institute of Mental Health, announced in late March that he would soon

be setting up a Center of Science, Medicine, and Human Values at

Georgetown University, to promote vivisection. The announcement was

premature: on May 5, Georgetown University executive vice president

Dr. Patrick A. Heelan, S.J., stated in a letter to inquiring faculty members,

“Please know that Dr. Goodwin is not coming to join the faculty.” No fur-

ther explanation was given.

U.S. Surgical Corporation chairman Leon Hirsch took a 97%

pay cut last year, as USSC stock crashed. His wife, Turi Josefsen, took

almost as steep a cut. Still, Hirsch drew $1.59 million, while Josefsen got

$941,117, enough to enable them to keep supporting anti-animal protec-

tion including the Americans for Medical Progress Research Foundation,

Educators for Responsible Science, and Connecticut United for Research

Excellence––all funded mainly by U.S. Surgical itself.

Greenwich Village vivisection and dog export hoaxes rattle humane community

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

NEW YORK, N.Y.––Two appar-

ent hoaxes in two weeks rattled the humane

community during late spring. Both orginated

out of New York City’s Greenwich Village, a

longtime hotbed of pranks executed in the

name of performance art. The first, advertised

in The Village Voice, was a purported pro-

vivisection group called American Vivisection

Defense, with a 92¢-a-minute 900 number set

up on April 29. The organization––AVID for

short––claimed to be soliciting donations of

unwanted pets for use in biomedical research.

It had no connection whatever with AVID

Microchip, of Norco, California, which

received a barrage of outraged calls and in

short order threatened to sue the purported

prankster, Winfield Scott Stanley III, of 304

Newberry Street in Cambridge, Mass-

achusetts. Both the name and the address are

believed to be fictitious. Callers to the 900

number heard a long diatribe promoting fur

and veal, as well as biomedical research.

Wake-up call on behalf of wolves

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

NEW YORK, New York––The wolves massacred in Alaska last

winter are dead but not forgotten––and neither are those slated for death next

winter, as Alaska continues to kill wolves to make moose and caribou more

plentiful for hunters. To be sure the wolves are remembered, pajama-clad

Friends of Animals volunteers and staffers occupied the lobby of the ABC-

TV headquarters on the morning of May 19 during the broadcast of the

Good Morning America show, protesting a week-long promotion of

Alaskan tourism. Six demonstrators were arrested for trespassing.

ABC had already scheduled a 30-minute segment on the wolf

killing, featuring a debate between Stephen Wells of the Alaska Wildlife

Alliance and a spokesperson for the state of Alaska––but it aired after the

promotion of Alaska was over with and most of the resultant travel bookings,

FoA believed, would already have been made.

Preparing for further conflict, the Alaska House of Representatives

on April 28 passed a bill to enable the state Department of Fish and Game to

withhold data about wolf pack locations––purportedly to protect wolves

from poachers, but actually directed, newspaper editorials agreed, at inde-

pendent wolf expert Gordon Haber, who sued to obtain such information

last year, then embarrased officials with aerial surveys that showed many of

their claims about wolf, moose, and caribou numbers were inaccurate.

Concessions to hunters win assault rifle ban

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

WASHINGTON D.C.––

The National Rifle Association took

the biggest defeat it has ever suffered

at the federal level in the House of

Representatives on May 5, as Indiana

Democrat Andrew Jacobs Jr. switched

his “no” vote to a “yes,” passing into

law a ban on 19 types of assault rifle,

which though backed by the Clinton

administration, had been expected to

fail by at least 15 votes.

Clinton bought the victory

with a string of concessions to the

hunting lobby. The assault rifle ban,

for instance, names 650 hunting

weapons and mandates that none shall

be outlawed during the 10 years the

assault rifle ban is to be in effect.

CHILDREN & ANIMALS

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

“Higher levels of childhood pet keeping

were related to more positive attitudes toward

pet animals and greater concerns about the wel-

fare of non-pet animals and humans,”

researchers J.S. Paul and James Serpell discovered

in a recent survey of 385 British university students,

published by the Universities Federation for Animal

Welfare (8 Hamilton Close, South Mimms, Potters

Bart, Herts EN6 3QD, United Kingdom). Serpell,

author of In The Company of Animals, now holds

the Marie Moore Chair for Humane Ethics and

Animal Welfare at the University of Pennsylvania.

MARINE MAMMAL NOTES

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The Marine Mammal Protection Act was

reauthorized on schedule on April 29, including loop-

holes to let hunters to import polar bear trophies and to

allow the killing of seals and sea lions who eat threat-

ened fish runs at locks and fish ladders. Other provi-

sions include a total ban on intentionally shooting

marine mammals who interfere with fishing, and a pro-

gram to cut accidental kills during fishing to near zero

over the next seven years.

The Liberal Party of Canada convention on

May 15 overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling

for the resumption of offshore seal hunting, halted in

1983 after two decades of international protest. The

Liberals form the Parliamentary majority. Claiming

“the concerns of animal rights lobby groups should not

be put before the concerns of the people of

Newfoundland and Labrador,” the resolution claims

sealing is needed to create jobs because the fishing

industry has collapsed––making no mention that the col-

lapse was caused by overfishing condoned in the name

of job creation by a succession of both Liberal and

Progressive-Conservative governments.

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