ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE

May 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1993:

The Los Angeles City Council’ s

ad hoc committee on the ongoing municipal

budget crisis has dropped plans to merge

city and county animal control, as a merger

might hurt service without saving money.

The Agricultural Subcommittee

of the Maine legislature has unanimously

killed as impractical a bill to institute

statewide cat licensing.

Washington state senator Scott

Barr’s bill (SB 5832) to force pounds and

shelters to surrender animals to research lab-

oratories recently cleared the state senate

agriculture committee 6-0. The committee is

headed by Marilyn Rasmussen, who is

author of another bill, SB 5532, that would

strip humane societies of the power to

enforce anti-cruelty laws, and exempt dog

and cat breeders, circuses, zoos, aquariums,

Can we outlaw pet overpopulation?

May 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1993:

SACRAMENTO, California –– Neuter your cat

or else!

In legal language, “An owner of a cat over the age

of six months shall have the cat sterilized by a veterinarian if

the cat is permitted outdoors without supervision.”

As drafted, California state assembly bill AB 302

admits no exceptions. Introduced in early February by

assemblyman Paul Horcher, AB 302 sounds like a shelter

worker’s dream––but may be mainly symbolic, since it

includes neither an enforcement mechanism nor specific

penalties for disobedience. Due to the difficulty of identify-

ing cats, some legal experts believe it could never be

enforced without instituting a universal statewide system of

cat licensing, something never before attempted on any

comparable scale, and almost certain to be opposed by

many cat-keepers.

ANIMAL PEOPLE investigation: Acting head of North Shore Animal League cleared of old allegations; MAY BE NAMED PRESIDENT OF $59 MILLION HUMANE SOCIETY

May 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1993:

PORT WASHINGTON, New York––An intensive ANIMAL PEOPLE

investigation of allegations raised against acting North Shore Animal League chief exec-

utive officer J. John Stevenson by his opponents in an eight-year-old lawsuit has con-

cluded that they have no substance sufficient to call into question his fitness to adminis-

trate the world’s largest humane society.

ANIMAL PEOPLE reviewed more than 300 pages of court documents and

interviewed numerous prominently placed witnesses before grilling Stevenson himself

for six and a half hours. Stevenson suggested the unusually intense session, and drove

three and a half hours each way from his home in Connecticut to participate, he said,

because he saw no other way to lay the long-circulating claims to rest. Although

Stevenson’s opponents discussed some of the issues extensively with The Legal Times in

1990, Stevenson said he hadn’t previously defended himself in public, upon the advice

of his legal counsel to avoid action that could be construed as broadening the case.

Stallwood to edit Animals’ Agenda; Pacelle quits

May 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1993:

MONROE, Connecticut– –

Kim Stallwood, former executive director

of People for the Ethical Treatment of

Animals, has been named to replace

board member Jim Motavalli as editor of

the troubledAnimals’ Agendamagazine.

Days later, on April 26, board

president Wayne Pacelle abruptly quit,

without stating his reasons. Now national

director of the Fund for Animals, Pacelle

got his first job in animal rights as

Animals’ Agenda assistant editor in 1987.

Fixing a cat on the air

May 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1993:

Alan Givotovsky, DVM, of Vachon Island, Washington, says he isn’t sure

whether he’d again perform a neutering operation on live radio. On February 3, Givotovsky

neutered a tomcat in the studio of KISW-Seattle during the early morning drive time to pro-

mote neutering, while disk jockey Bob Rivers supplied commentary and took calls from lis-

teners.

“Field surgery most of the time is pretty clean,” Givotovsky told ANIMAL PEO-

PLE, “but people were anxious because we weren’t in a clinic.” In fact, Givotovsky got up

at four a.m. to pack up and take along just about all the equipment he’d normally have had at

his clinic. The operation took 45 minutes, Givotovsky said, because of the preliminary

introduction, the time required to anesthetize the cat, and interruptions for songs, advertis-

ing, and the news.

Rabies Update

May 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1993:

New Jersey Department of Health veterinarian Colin T. Campbell told a region-

al conference on rabies held March 24 in Syracuse, New York, that the state of New Jersey

has allocated only $55,000 of the estimated $160,000 necessary to complete a two-year field

trial of the long-awaited Wistar orally administered raccoon rabies vaccine on the Cape May

peninsula. The state Department of Environmental Protection and Energy is seeking grants to

make up the balance. The vaccine is embedded in bait balls; raccoons who take the bait

vaccinate themselves. The bait balls are being air-dropped in batches of 20,000 at a time,

directed at the probable corridors of raccoon movement from the vicinity of the nearest

known rabies cases, which are presently about eight miles away. About 145,000 bait balls

will be dropped in total if the project is successfully completed.

ANIMAL HEALTH

May 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1993:

Massachusetts SPCA veterinari-

ans Michael G. Aronsohn and Alicia M.

Faggella recently published protocols for

anesthetizing and neutering 6-to-14-week-

old kittens in the Journal of the American

Veterinary Medical Association, vol. 202,

#1, pp. 53-62.

The USDA announced April 1

that from now on it will require environ-

mental impact statements filed in connec-

tion with animal disease eradication activi-

ties to include identification of any pesti-

cides that might be used; any chemicals

used for sanitation; and a protocol for dis-

posing of carcasses and contaminated

manure and debris.

Diet & Health

May 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1993:

The Burger King franchise at

Watkins Glen, New York, in February qui-

etly introduced the spicy bean burger sold

by British Burger King outlets. Priced at

$2.29, the vegetarian burger is made from

kidney beans, carrots, onions, potato

flakes, and peppers, breaded and deep

fried, served on a bun with catsup, cheese

(optional), and tomato. Associated Press

quoted the manager as saying six weeks

later, “The demand is unbelievable. People

are coming from all over. There’s not a seat

in the restaurant. They say there are 12 mil-

lion vegetarians in the U.S. If we can kick

into that market, it’s well worth our while.”

According to AP, the spicy bean burger

will be introduced nationally if it remains

popular in Watkins Glen through the end of

the summer.

Aerial survey of Alaska finds few wolves–– and too many moose for habitat

May 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1993:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska––Predictions

that wolves and grizzly bears would devastate

Alaskan moose and caribou over the winter were

“a gross exaggeration,” world-renowned

wildlife expert Gordon Haber told media April

26. Thus there is no need for predator control,

contrary to the claims of the Alaska Board of

Game, which suspended a proposed aerial wolf

massacre in January under threat of an interna-

tional tourism boycott, but is expected to re-rec-

commend killing wolves and grizzlies to protect

the ungulates, prized by trophy hunters, at

meetings scheduled for July and October.

To verify their data, Haber and bush

pilot Buck Woods overflew 35,000 square miles

of interior and south-central Alaska between

April 3 and April 18, adding 87 hours of air

time to their combined total of more than 5,000

hours of aerial surveying and more than 10,000

hours of wolf observation. Haber is a 27-year

veteran of wolf research in Alaska, British

Columbia, and northern Michigan.

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