Animal Control & Rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

New Hampshire has followed
New Jersey and Connecticut in establish-
ing a statewide low-cost neutering pro-
gram. The New Hampshire program, man-
aged by the state department of agriculture
and funded by a $2.00 surcharge on dog
licenses, will subsidize neutering animals
adopted from shelters and those belonging
to people of low income.
The percentage of purebreds
among dogs received by pounds and shel-
ters appears to be edging up, e.g. from 22%
in 1991 to 25% in 1992 at the SPCA of
Monterey County, California, which keeps
some of the most comprehensive records on
purebreds. Other shelters claim to be
receiving as many as 30% purebreds. The
percentage may be up simply because total
admissions are generally down while the
number of dogs surrendered by owners is
holding even, and owned dogs are more
likely to be purebred.

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WOOFS AND GROWLS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

USDA-licensed Class B animal dealer Noel
Leach of Chase City, Virginia, facing disciplinary action
for 46 alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act, sued
Friends of Animals on May 24 for purportedly defaming
his character and interfering with his business relation-
ships in connection with bringing many of the alleged vio-
lations to the USDA’s attention. Leach claims FoA under-
cover investigators trespassed on his property while gath-
ering evidence. FoA attorney Herman Kaufman respond-
ed to the suit with a request for dismissal, pointing out
that the action is based on an alleged tort in 1990 for
which the statute of limitations is just two years, and that
the statute of limitations in defamation cases in Virginia,
where the suit was filed, is only one year. Well known to
USDA inspectors, Leach was rapped for six previous
AWA violations in 1983. His primary business is selling
dogs and cats to research labs and dissection supply firms.

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Who’s in charge at the National Humane Education Society? FOUNDER, 83, TAKES NO PAY; FUNDRAISER TAKES $512,909

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

LEESBURG, Virginia––The history of the
National Humane Education Society is in microcosm the
history of the humane movement in the 20th century––and
perhaps that’s the problem.
Financially struggling for 37 years, NHES con-
tracted with the fundraising firm Steve Cram and Associates
in July 1986. Tear-jerking direct mail campaigns increased
revenue from $852,007 in fiscal year 1986 to $2,230,076 in
fiscal year 1990: almost a three-fold jump. The growth in
revenue enabled the three NHES no-kill shelters to more
than double the number of animals in their care, from circa
300 to the present 800. But expenses in connection with
fundraising have claimed an increasingly large share of the
income: 39% in 1990, and as much as 52% in fiscal year
1992.

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Performing Animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Anti-cruelty laws in most states do apply to ani-
mals at state and county fairs, carnivals, and circus,
reminds Vermont Volunteer Services for Animals humane
officer Sue Skaskiw. If you see cruelty, including live ani-
mals being offered as prizes, report it.
Christopher Ponte, 22, of Wappingers Falls,
New York, climbed a four-foot-high plastic fence at the
Fishkill Mall in nearby Fishkill on June 6 to get into an
enclosure with 10 elephants belonging to the Clyde Beatty-
Cole Brothers Circus. He was crushed to death when one of
the elephants turned, pinning him against a truck.
At least two pig-racing concessions are on the
county fair circuit this summer––Triple W Racing Pigs, run
by Wanda, Rachel, and Gene Webber of Shelby, North
Carolina, and Bob Hale Pig Racing Stables of Sikeston,
Missouri.

Habitat

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Eighty percent of the remaining old growth
forest in the Pacific Northwest would be protected from
logging under a plan to protect endangered spotted owls
and salmon runs unveiled July 2 by President Bill Clinton
in response to rulings by Federal District Judge William
Dwyer of Seattle that have restricted logging for nearly
three years. During the halt, the logging workforce has
declined from 145,000 to 125,000. The protected zones
would run along watersheds. Loggers would be allowed
to cut about 1.2 billion board feet of old growth per year
in less sensitive areas, down from five billion board feet
in the mid-1980s. While most of the plan does not
require Congressional approval, it must be ratified by
Dwyer before any old growth logging on the land covered
by his decisions can resume. Dwyer’s decision, based on
the provisions of the Endangered Species Act, is due in
mid-July. The Clinton plan, drafted with heavy input
from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, drew immediate
flak from House Speaker Thomas Foley, who indicated
he might cross party lines in an attempt to gut the ESA
when it comes up later this year for renewal.

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HUNTING & FISHING

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

The Illinois Department of Agriculture in June
banned captive pigeon shoots on advice of the state attor-
ney general, bringing its policy into line with the state
Humane Care for Animals Act of 1973 and a January 1992
amendment to the state Conservation Code. The ban was a
major victory for anti-pigeon shoot activist Steve Hindi, of
Plano, Illinois, who has struggled since 1990 to get
enforcement of the laws against pigeon shooting.
The Fund for Animals has announced that it
will not protest against the annual Fred Coleman Memorial
Labor Day Pigeon Shoot in Hegins, Pennsylvania, this
year. Major protests orchestrated by the Fund and PETA in
1991 and 1992 backfired when they became confrontational.
Nearly twice as many shooters and shoot supporters attend-
ed the Hegins shoot last year as before the Fund got
involved, possibly attracted by the chance an activist might
get killed in the act of rescuing a bird. The Coalition
Against Live Bird Shoots in Pennsylvania will hold a small-
er protest this year; details have not yet been announced.

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Wildlife

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

British and Danish mammologists have con-
firmed the discovery of a previously unknown hooved ani-
mal in the Vu Quang Nature Reserve of northwestern
Vietnam, along the Laotian border. Dubbed Psuedoryx
nghetinhensis, the animal resembles a cow, is about the
size of a goat, and has antelope-like horns. Psuedoryx
nghetinhensis is the biggest new land animal to be found in
more than 50 years.
An investigation of the cash value
Pennsylvanians would assign to various wildlife-related
experiences, upcoming in The Journal of Environmental
Management, found a day of fishing assessed at from
$4.80 to $53.40, depending on the site, while a day of
bird-watching would go for $15.00, and the chance to
view an elk at close range would fetch $24.52. The prices
are over and above the actual cost of the activity.

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Wolf Hollow

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

IPSWICH, Massachusetts––One of the newest and smallest
of the groups fighting to save Alaskan wolves is the North American
Wolf Foundation, the lifelong dream of retired clamdigger Paul
Soffron and his wife Joni. Incorporated in 1988, NAWF opened a 5-
acre wolf sanctuary two years later in the back yard of the coastal
Massachusetts home where Paul grew up. Funding thus far comes
mainly from the Soffrons’ savings, sympathetic relatives, and the sale
of Paul’s art prints and other wolf-related merchandise to the visitors
who crowd the facility every afternoon throughout the summer to see
and learn about the only grey wolves in New England.

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Guest column: Supreme Court did not okay animal sacrifice

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

by Gary L. Francione and Anna E. Charlton
ANIMAL RIGHTS LAW CENTER
On June 11, 1993, the Supreme Court issued its
decision concerning animal sacrifice in Church of the
Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah. The next
day, most major newspapers carried headlines proclaim-
ing that the Court had held that animal sacrifice is protect-
ed by the First Amendment freedom of religion clause.
Typical of those proclamations was the one splashed
across the entire front cover of New York Newsday: “Top
Court OKs Animal Sacrifice.” Reading the comments of
major humane organizations in reaction to the decision,
including those such as the American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals which have the police
power to stop the infliction of cruelty on animals, we have
been distressed to realize that the decision has been read
far too broadly, and that there is the mistaken impression
that humane officers are now powerless to stop the brutali-
ties of animal sacrifice.

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