Category: North America

Wildlife

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Hunting interests within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and recent presi-
dential administrations have kept the USFWS Division of Law Enforcement so under-
staffed and underbudgeted that senior agents admit they can’t effectively halt illegal
wildlife trafficking or even make more than a token effort to enforce the Airborne Hunting
Act, Jessica Speart revealed in the July/August issue of Buzzworm. The International
Primate Protection League has appealed for letters to Congress and the Senate in support
of H.R. 2360, a bill by Rep. Richard Lehman (D-Calif.) to create an assistant directorship
within USFWS for the Division of Law Enforcement, thereby increasing its clout in inter-
nal political struggles. However, IPPL believes the word “wildlife” should be deleted
from a phrase in Lehman’s bill that would require the new post to be filled by someone
with “wildlife law enforcement experience,” inasmuch as people with backgrounds in the
U.S. Customs Service, Secret Service, or Drug Enforcement Agency might be equally
well qualified, and would be less likely to have personal involvement in sport hunting.

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Los Angeles and New Jersey will stay in neutering business

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

The pioneering Los Angeles and New Jersey
discount neutering programs, in financial trouble a few
months ago, are back up to speed, top officials have
assured ANIMAL PEOPLE.
“As you noted in your June edition, City of Los
Angeles general manager Elza Lee wrote, “the city did
indeed close its low-cost neutering clinics due to a budget
crisis. But I am pleased to inform you that we have insti-
tuted another program to take its place. The Department
of Animal Regulation, with assistance from many com-
munity humane groups, is now issuing vouchers valued
up to $28 toward the sterilization of pet cats or dogs. Pet
owners who receive a voucher are referred to a participat-
ing private practice veterinarian, who will accept the
voucher as payment in full or as partial payment toward a
reduced fee surgery. Another program which is new for
us is the pre-release sterilization of dogs and cats adopted
from our animal care centers.” All six centers were “on
line with this project,” Lee said, by July 5.

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Animal Control & Rescue

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Animal shelters, public or private, must hold
animals at least five days including a Saturday before
releasing them to Class B dealers or researchers, under an
amendment to Animal Welfare Act enforcement regulations
that took effect August 23. Written certification that the
holding period has been met must accompany each animal.
The Bronx SPCA, recently incorporated by
American SPCA officers Stephen Zawistowski, Eugene
Underwood, and Harold Finkelstein, exists “to make sure
we would have consistent law enforcement authority” with-
in the whole of New York City, Zawistowski told ANI-
MAL PEOPLE. The ASPCA was incorporated before the
Bronx was, and therefore the charter granted to the ASPCA
by the state of New York does not specifically authorize it
as the sole animal protection law enforcement agency for
the Bronx, as it does for the other New York City boroughs.

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DIET & HEALTH

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Violinist Edgar Stanistreet, of
Philadelphia, still performing at 94, attrib-
utes his longevity to “No meat, eggs, milk,
booze, or cigarettes. Milk is for calves.”
The USDA on August 12
unveiled labels for meat, to become
mandatory in October, that include instruc-
tions on cooking to kill toxic bacteria. The
labels were drafted to settle a lawsuit
brought by the parents of a child who died
from tainted meat and the advocacy group
Beyond Beef, whose president, Jeremy
Rifkin, warned he would sue again if the
language isn’t strengthened. Added Farm
Animal Reform Movement president Alex
Hershaft, “The USDA should require that
animal products carry warning labels with
full disclosure of the documented dangers of
meat consumption to human health.”

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WOOFS AND GROWLS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

The Better Business Bureau has announced that the National
Anti-Vivisection Society fails to meet requirements that “an
organization provide on request an annual report containing
information on governance (such as a roster of the board of directors) and
financial activities (such as total income and a break-
down of expenses); that its financial statements present
adequate information to serve as a basis for informed
decisions; and that it substantiate on request its applica-
tion of funds, in accordance with donor expectations,
to the programs and activities described in solicita-
tions.” Exposes by ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt
Clifton recently documented the generous compensation
NAVS provides to president Peggy Cunniff and other
members of her family, who dominate the NAVS board
and payroll. NAVS told BBB that it “has changed its
accounting and auditing methods to meet the standards
for fiscal year 1993,” but recent forced resignations,
dismissals, and staff transfers have left the Cunniffs
more firmly in control than ever.

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Hot water in the North Atlantic

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Canada––Paul
Watson’s homecoming to Atlantic Canada in July and early
August may have been the most bizarre event yet of his long
career in protest. Raised in a New Brunswick fishing vil-
lage, Watson has been reviled throughout the four Maritime
provinces since 1977, when as a Greenpeace representative
he sprayed green paint on baby harp seals to protect them
from hunters. Subsequent anti-sealing expeditions after
Watson founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in
1980 have confirmed his bad reputation among those who
live by what they kill in the sea––but many Atlantic
Canadians are applauding Watson now for his July 28 attack
on a Cuban trawler, the Rio Las Casas.

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Layoffs at NEAVS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

BOSTON, Massachusetts––Financially drained, the New England Anti-
Vivisection Society laid off all but two of its staff August 24 at a reportedly stormy meeting
of the board of directors. According to former executive director Rebecca Taksel, who lost
her job at the meeting apparently because she resisted dismissing senior employees, “There
have been layoffs, and I was one of them. No, I resigned. NEAVS has been running at a
deficit for quite some time, and this was the board’s solution. NEAVS has been cut back to
just two projects, the education office and the legislative office.” Taksel declined to go into
detail.

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BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Validation of non-animal tests gains momentum
Significant progress in validating non-animal toxicity tests was announced
during the summer by both the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to
Animal Testing and the Scandinavian Society of Cell Toxicology’s four-year-old
Multicenter Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity Tests program, headquartered in
Sweden. Validation is the process of establishing how test results relate to human health.
The Johns Hopkins team published a “Framework for the Validation and Implementation
of In Vitro Toxicity Tests” simultaneously in four leading scientific journals, hoping to
speed researcher interest, while the Swedish team, somewhat ahead of Johns Hopkins,
now has 90 European in vitro toxicologists working on a variety of tests of their own
design, measuring the toxicity of 50 chemicals with well-known effects on humans.
“Relevance remains the key problem,” John Frazier of the Johns Hopkins team
said. “It was clear from the beginning that the ill-defined nature of the ‘gold standard’ we
are trying to measure with an in vitro test––human toxicity––was going to be difficult.
It’s a moving target. Nobody has come up with a definitive solution.”

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