Category: Politics

Friends of Animals saves elephants at CITES: YEARS OF AID TO AFRICAN ANTI-POACHING EFFORTS PAYS OFF

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

FORT LAUDERDALE––Facing 14 other African nations aligned as a block,
South Africa on November 15 withdrew a proposal to remove elephants from protection
under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
South Africa sought the downlisting in order to sell parts from elephants culled to
limit park populations. The funds, it claimed, would go to conservation. The most con-
tentious item on the agenda at the triennial two-week CITES conference, ended November
18, the downlisting was backed by Zimbabwe, Japan, Australia, the World Conservation
Union, the trophy hunting lobby, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service head Mollie Beattie,
striving to ingratiate herself with hunting groups which have privately lobbied for her ouster.
Officially, the U.S. and the European Union
were committed to abstain––leaving elephants
with few influential friends.

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Editorial: The fallacy of “progressive” legislation

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Animal and habitat protection advocates breathed relief on October 7 as Russia
withdrew an objection to the May 1994 creation of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary by
the International Whaling Commission. Under IWC rules, the objection meant that Russia,
already holding an objection to the whaling moratorium in effect since 1986, could have
gone whaling at any time––within the sanctuary. Despite the instant claim of Greenpeace
and the International Fund for Animal Welfare that the latest Russian turnabout was all their
doing, the full story behind the reversals may take years to emerge. Yet somehow the ele-
ments in Russian politics who seek good trade relations with the rest of the world did tri-
umph over those who would prefer a return to the stagnant but secure isolation of the Cold
War. Ultimately, the threat of private boycotts carried more weight in Moscow than the
certainty of escaping trade sanctions through the loophole in the IWC treaty.

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AGRICULTURE

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Agriculture secretary Mike Espy
resigned on October 4, effective December 31,
amid allegations that while moving to more closely
regulate red meat sanitation, he improperly
accepted gifts and favors from Tyson Foods, of
Arkansas, the biggest U.S. poultry producer.
Grazing on public lands, reports the
National Wildlife Federation, has contributed to
the decline of at least 346 species of fish, birds,
and mammals that are either officially endangered
or have been nominated for endangered status.
USDA researcher Robert Wall predicts
that a way to make cows’ milk simulate the health
benefits of breastfeeding will be developed soon by
inserting human genes into cows. The first obsta-
cle will be finding a way to create a transgenic cow
for less than the present cost of $300,000 per head.

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Woofs & growls

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The October 6 edition of the Congressional
Record revealed that the Doris Day Animal League and
the Humane Society of the U.S. lined up with the
National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America
in opposition to S. 349, the Lobbying Disclosure Act of
1994, which was eventually killed by filibuster.
If the American SPCA thought it could
avoid protesters by holding its September 27 annual
meeting in Burbank, California, instead of New York
City, it got a surprise, as members of the New York-
based Henry Bergh Coalition followed the board west
and staged a 20-minute demonstration, joined by repre-
sentatives of several west coast groups. The effort drew
the attention of the Los Angeles Times to the adminis-
trative irregularities that have erupted into headlines in
New York throughout the past year, as the ASPCA
moves to turn over animal control duties to New York
City by January 1, 1995.

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Hunting

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The hook-and-bullet lobby is out to get
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Mollie
Beattie, the first nonhunter ever to hold the post,
Dennis Jensen reported October 1 in Vermont Sunday
Magazine––but few of the lobbyists he interviewed
dared identity themselves. “There’s the good-old-boy
network out there,” said former Vermont Fish and
Wildlife Department commissioner Steve Wright.
“And the fact that she is a woman. Many of these
guys have never worked with a woman in a powerful
position and just don’t know how.”
Legislation for Animal Welfare asked
members to help re-elect Ohio state senator Roy Ray,
targeted for defeat by the gun lobby over his opposi-
tion to opening a dove season. Dove-hunting propo-
nents, says Defenders of the Dove Campaign coordi-
nator Ritchie Laymon, “plan to bring their bill up on
the floor of the Senate after the November elections,”
as uncommitted representatives, “once safely back in
office, can vote for the interests of the wealthy hunt-
ing lobby and against the wishes of most Ohioans.”

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Hunting

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

Hunter harassment
WASHINGTON D.C.––A federal hunter
harassment statute became law with the August 26
passage of the Crime Bill of 1994. Added to the
Senate version of the Crime Bill by Senator Conrad
Burns (R-Montana), it cleared the Senate without
debate and was kept in the final version by a
House/Senate conference committee as a concession
to the National Rifle Association, which was irate
over the ban of 19 assault rifles named in the bill.
The statute may be considered the first fed-
eral lawmaking achievement of Humane Society of
the U.S. vice president for governmental relations
Wayne Pacelle––who can claim indirect credit for
getting more state legislation passed than any other
animal defender. Pacelle assumed his current post
after staging dozens of high-profile hunter harass-
ment actions from late 1988 into early 1994 in his
former position with the Fund for Animals. Only
four states had hunter harassment laws in 1986,
when Pacelle rose to prominence as a Yale under-
graduate with a successful constitutional challenge of
the Connecticut statute, which was thrown out in
1988 but was amended and restored by the state leg-
islature. There are now hunter harassment laws in 48
of the 50 states––and the NRA, recruiting around the
issue, now boasts a record high membership.

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WOOFS AND GROWLS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

Dr. Bill Frist, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee, recalled
in his 1989 autobiography Transplant that as a medical student he routinely adopted animals
from Boston-area shelters for use in experiments. “It was, of course, a heinous and dishon-
est thing to do,” he wrote, “and I was totally schizoid about the entire matter. By day I was
little Billy Frist, the boy who lived on Bowling Avenue in Nashville and had decided to
become a doctor because of his gentle father and a dog named Scratchy. By night, I was
Dr. William Harrison Frist, future Cardiothoracic surgeon, who was not going to let a few
sentiments about cute, furry creatures stand in the way of his career.”

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Russia objects; MAY IGNORE WHALE SANCTUARY WITH IMPUNITY

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

MOSCOW, Russia– – Already
holding a formal objection to the global whal-
ing moratorium decreed by the International
Whaling Commission in 1986, Russia on
September 13 filed an objection to the May
creation of the Southern Ocean Whale
Sanctuary as well––meaning that under IWC
rules, Russia not only may kill whales com-
mercially without fear of trade sanctions, but
also may kill whales below the 40th parallel,
where about 80% of the world’s surviving
baleen whales spend up to 80% of their time.
Intended to protect whales in
Antarctic waters, the sanctuary was in effect
won by the U.S. delegation at cost of conced-
ing the passage of a Revised Management
Plan for setting commercial whaling quotas.

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Killing for the hell of it

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A federal anti-hunter harassment statute
tucked into the Crime Bill is likely to stay there––and
pass––as the Clinton administration strives to get
around National Rifle Association opposition to the
Crime Bill as a whole, which would ban 19 types of
assault rifle. The NRA on August 10 claimed credit
for temporarily defeating the Crime Bill on a proce-
dural vote in the House of Representatives.
The Senate version of the California
Desert Protection Act, passed in April, would cre-
ate an East Mojave National Park between the Joshua
Tree and Death Valley National Monuments, which
are to be upgraded to National Park status––meaning
a ban on hunting. However, in a move of symbolic
import to the NRA, the House version passed on July
27 downgrades East Mojave to the status of a
National Preserve, to allow hunting. National Park
Service director Roger Kennedy pointed out that
because preserves require more staff than parks, the
House version will cost $500,000 more per year to
run. Since hunters kill an average of only 26 deer and
five bighorn sheep per year in East Mojave, Kennedy
said, this amounts to “a subsidy of $20,000 per deer.”
A House/Senate conference committee must reconcile
the conflicting versions before the bill goes back to
both the Senate and House for final passage.

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