Deer overpopulation: Hunters caused it. What can we do about it?

October 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

DUPAGE COUNTY, Illinois––It isn’t deer

overpopulation that has the Dupage County Forest

Preserve commissioners, Steve Hindi of the Chicago

Animal Rights Coalition, Don Rolla of the Elsa Wild

Animal Appeal, and local hunting groups all at four-cor-

nered loggerheads. It’s what to do about it.

They’re agreed there are too many deer in the

six-square-mile Waterfall Glen preserve: 537 at last

count, even after 253 were culled last spring. They’re

agreed there’s nowhere to relocate them. They’re agreed

deer roaming out of the preserve are a hazard to cars and

perhaps to passing trains as well. They’re agreed that the

deer are eating songbirds and other brush-dwelling

species out of cover. They’re even agreed that there prob-

ably won’t be any ideal solution––quick, humane, and

inexpensive.

If Imelda Marcos goes cruelty-free, Frank Zigrang might get rich; NON-LEATHER SHOE KING SHOWS HUMANE MERCHANTS HOW

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

DAKOTA CITY, Iowa––”I’ve learned everything the hard way,” Frank

Zigrang states, “and I’m still learning from my mistakes.”

Zigrang founded his mail-order non-leather shoe firm, Heartland Products

in 1986, with no experience in either direct-mail sales or the shoe business. But in

six months as a vegetarian, Zigrang had discovered a vacant market niche, and as a

career businessman, he didn’t waste time moving to fill it. Heartland now boasts a

customer list of 30,000, annual sales of $100,000, and turns a modest profit.

“I’m making a living, anyway,” Zigrang admits. “It maybe isn’t much of

a living by some people’s standards, but I still have other business interests,”

including a share in the family grain farm run by his older brother.

Zigrang has become legendary in the animal protection community

through his frequent sales exhibits at half a dozen regional conferences per year.

But that’s not the key to his success. “I just do that for visibility,” he explains. “To

sell anything, you have to stay visible.” The keys, he emphasizes, “are the old

business stand-bys. That’s price, convenience, and quality. If you can’t sell some-

thing for less than the store at the mall, you sell something better than they have

down at the mall, or something they don’t stock, and you make it more convenient

for your customers to place an order with you than to drive down to the mall. You

stay in touch with your customers. That’s how you get repeat orders. You stock

what they want.”

Marine Mammals

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

The hit film Free Willy gave new

impetus to the ongoing campaign to persuade

Sea World in San Diego to return an orca named

Corky to her native habitat off British Columbia.

Her mother and several siblings remain with the

pod from which she was captured 24 years ago.

Sea World contends Corky could no longer sur-

vive in the wild. Free Willy has also started a

campaign on behalf of Keiko, the star of the

film, who resides at the El Nuevo Reino

Aventura amusement park in Mexico City. Free

Willy producers Lauren Shuler-Donner and

Richard Donner are reportedly ready to buy

Keiko and move him to a better facility, perhaps

even a fenced inlet off Cape Cod, using

$200,000 contributed by Warner Brothers, the

film’s distributor. Captured off Iceland in 1982,

and kept at Marineland in Niagara Falls before

being sold to his present keepers, Keiko hasn’t

drawn interest from major aquariums because of

a purportedly debilitating skin condition.

Agriculture

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on August 9

announced plans to hike grazing fees on 280 million acres

of public lands, from the present $1.86 per animal unit per

day to $4.28––still below market value, and half the $8.70

fee the House passed in July 1991, later killed by the

Senate. An earlier attempt by Babbitt to up grazing fees

was delayed by President Clinton until his budget cleared

Congress.

The European Commission on July 13 proposed

that horses in transport should be watered and fed every six

hours; calves under four weeks old, every eight hours; and

adult cattle every 16 hours. Horses and pigs would get 10

hours of rest after traveling 12 hours. If adopted, the new

rules will protect all animals traveling between member

nations.

Horse Tips

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Reporters Rans Pierson of The New York Post and Phillip

Nalbone of the Wall Street Journal recently followed Phyllis Orrick of

the New York Press in amplifying ANIMAL PEOPLE’s April and

July/August exposes of the treatment of horses in making the estrogen

supplement Premarin. Up to 75,000 pregnant mares spend half of each

year catheterized for urine collection and confined to narrow stalls;

most of their foals are sold to slaughter. Their numbers could triple

when the manufacturer, Ayerst Organics Inc., completes expansion of

its urine processing plant in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. According

to Pierson, more than eight million American women take Premarin

for menopausal symptoms. Costing half as much as synthetic alterna-

tives made by Ciba Pharmaceuticals, Mead Johnson, and Abbott

Labs, Premarin holds 80% of the estrogen supplement market, and is

now the most prescribed drug in the U.S. An Ayerst spokesperson said

the number of horses involved is much lower than the 75,000 estimate

produced by longtime estrogen industry observer Tom Hughes of the

Canadian Farm Animal Care Trust, adding that the firm isn’t responsi-

ble for the fate of the foals anyhow. Medical columnist Zoltan Rona,

M.D., meanwhile argued in the July issue of Alive magazine that

menopausal women could avoid needing estrogen supplements by

avoiding meat and taking appropriate vitamins, minerals, and herbs.

Animal Spectacles

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

The Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, pledged to end mule-diving exhibitions

on its famed Steel Pier on August 15. Models in bathing suits rode full-sized horses through 40-foot jumps into a tank of sea water at the Steel Pier from 1929 until 1978, when the pier was closed. Reopened this year, the Steel Pier featured Tim Rivers’ World’s Only Diving Mules, a riderless touring act from Citra, Florida, but met heavy protest when Rivers’ mule, two miniature horses, and a dog all appeared reluctant to jump from a 30-foot height.

COURT CALENDAR

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Activism

A federal grand jury in Grand

Rapids, Michigan, on July 16 indicted fugi-

tive activist Rodney Allen Coronado, 27, on

five felony counts including arson, pertaining

to a 1992 firebombing that gutted the

Michigan State University mink ranching labo-

ratory. The fire also destroyed the files of an

MSU staffer who was developing alternatives

to the use of animals in biomedical research.

Coronado, who has acknowledged involve-

ment in other direct actions including scuttling

two Icelandic whaling vessels, was reportedly

last seen in Oregon in early November 1992.

He is also sought for questioning by grand

juries probing arsons at animal research facili-

ties in Oregon, Washington, and Louisiana,

and by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in

connection with laboratory vandalism at the

University of Edmonton, in Alberta.

Hunting & Fishing

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

“We just don’t believe that

public safety is our responsibility,”

Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen direc-

tor Robert Crook told a recent Connecticut

legislative hearing on whether hunting

license fees should be raised to support hir-

ing more wardens. The CCS is backed by

the National Rifle Association.

The Texas chapter of the NRA

is up in arms over a U.S. Forest Service

proposal to limit target shooting to the

safest 500 acres of the 20,309-acre Lyndon

Johnson National Grasslands. Incidents

involving use of firearms have increased

from 286 in fiscal 1990 to 510 in 1993.

The Coalition to Ban Pigeon

Shoots will protest this Labor Day outside

a private shoot at the prestigious

Powderbourne Gun Club in East

Greenville, Pennsylvania, rather than at

the simultaneous public shoot in Hegins.

Zoos

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

In a case with implications for

zoos the world over, the California State

Board of Equalization argues that the San

Diego Zoo owes the state $3.5 million in

back taxes and penalties incurred via trans-

actions involving 1,992 animals between

1984 and 1987. The zoo lists the total

value of its 3,300 animals of 800 species at

just $1, claiming there can be no fair mar-

ket value for creatures who cannot be sold

on the open market or even transferred

without federal permits, but after finding

that the zoo does in fact keep records of

the animals’ estimated value, a Board of

Equalization auditor assessed the collec-

tion as being worth $19 million. The zoo

has offered to pay about $330,000 to settle

the matter, which zoo spokesperson Jeff

Jouett claims arose because the auditor in

question was on a vendetta.

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