Category: Tactics

WOOFS AND GROWLS

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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

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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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Guest column: Breeding regulation, not moratoriums by Petra Murray

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

A moratorium on the breeding of
dogs and cats may initially seem to be an
easy and effective solution for companion
animal overpopulation. However, if we
think beyond a moratorium we will come up
with an even more precise and effective
solution––albeit not the only solution.
A moratorium refers to a tempo-
rary cessation of activity, and therein lies
part of the reason that a moratorium will not
be the answer to pet overpopulation.
To be sure, good breeders should
pause for a week or two or a month or more
to become educated about overpopulation.
They should visit their local pounds and
shelters and look at the homeless animals.

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Editorial: No place for a saint

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Almost every day we hear from an animal rescuer in desperate trouble. Today it
was an elderly woman who had to relocate, and couldn’t take 50 feral cats she’d been feed-
ing with her. Only a handful of the females had been neutered; she lacked the funds to fix
the rest. She wanted us to recommend a shelter that could take them all in, guarantee they
would be socialized, and see to it that they were adopted into good homes.
“I don’t believe in euthanasia,” she warned us.
A few days ago there was the woman who’d purchased a farm and kennel with the
idea that the kenneling operation would support an all-species no-kill sanctuary. She got as
far as obtaining nonprofit status and acquiring a menagerie of 15 dogs, 14 cats, and 150
chickens, ducks, geese, and guinea hens before discovering that her income couldn’t come
close to meeting the mortgage payments. “All I need is $150,000,” she begged. “But it’s
coming down to where I have no choice but to put the animals down, and I know that when
I do, I will have a stroke and die.”

Editorial: You get more flies with honey than vinegar

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

“We appeal once again for stronger ordinances for companion animals,” the
address to the city council began. “It looks as if more will be killed this year than last year.”
So far, so good: a succinct statement of the problem by a humane group with an estab-
lished record of accomplishment. The councillors were at attention, awaiting the statistics
and the proposed solution. But instead the humane society director mounted a figurative
pulpit, her voice rising to fill the room.
“Deciding that death for other beings is preferable to a risk-filled life is not
euthanasia in its traditional form,” she lectured, “but rather a lethal manifestation of
speciesism that projects our own fears and values onto another species.” As the perplexed
council members glanced at each other and scratched their heads, she raised her voice
another decibel and continued. “Mass killing manages an animal control problem for soci-
ety, but only a morally bankrupt community would continue to participate in such institu-
tionalized slaughter. Humane euthanasia may be indeed the lesser of evils facing aban-
doned animals in a hostile world, but it is still an evil. Instead of confronting the sources of
injustice, as represented by public ignorance, apathy, and cruelty, we have chosen to
punish the victims. Our city shelter is not much more than a killing machine.”
And then, as her supporters climbed up on their chairs to cheer, she asked for
$30,000.

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“Wear the badge and the uniform.” How a small Alabama shelter wins big in court

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA––On March 12,
the Montgomery County Humane Society took a man
named Tom Green to court. His offense, testified executive
director Mary Stanley Mansour, was keeping seven
Weimeraners in “complete darkness and filth in a large
warehouse for several months.”
It was the sort of case anti-cruelty officers often
hesitate to recommend for prosecution, a case of neglect
rather than overt physical abuse, involving conditions that
in many poor communities aren’t demonstrably far from
“normal,” no matter how undesirable. Mansour was not
eager to prosecute Green, either. She gave him repeated
warnings.

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Direct action

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

U.S. District Judge Fremming Nielsen freed
Jonathan Paul, 27, from the Spokane County Jail on April
10, 158 days after Paul was held in contempt of court for
refusing to testify to a federal grand jury probing an Animal
Liberation Front raid on a Washington State University labo-
ratory in August 1991. Paul had been asked to testify about
his former housemate Rod Coronado, a suspect in several
ALF actions who has been sought for questioning for over a
year. Paul’s twin sisters, one of whom is TV actress
Alexandra Paul, waged a national campaign to free him that
eventually led to a two-page spread in People magazine.
Activists John Paul Goodwin, 20, Michael
Karbon, 20, and Jesse Keenan, 19, all of Memphis,
Tennessee, pleaded guilty April 19 to petty vandalism in
connection with spray-painting three fur stores last year,
slashing the tires of a truck, and signing the action “ALF.”
They drew a year in jail apiece (which may be suspended),
fines of $2,000 each, and were ordered to make restitution.

Guidelines for cat rescue by Carter Luke

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

EDITOR’S NOTE: Carter Luke, vice president of the Massachusetts SPCA humane services division, submitted the following guidelines as “a quickly drafted summary of my thoughts about things to consider” in cat rescue. “The MSPCA is not necessarily endorsing nor are we practicing neuter/release,” he continued, “but we are trying to provide guidance for humane approaches using any kind of strategy.”
The solution to the issue of unsocialized or feral
cats is often clouded with issues related to responding to the
presence of these cats. Clearly though, the bulk of our
efforts should be directed to preventing these situations from
occurring in the first place. All agencies involved in animal
protection should first and foremost be promoting responsi-
ble cat ownership, particularly focusing on matters relating
to sterilization, the wearing of identification, veterinary
care, and keeping cats safe at home, i.e. controlled.
Before doing anything

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Rethinking neuter/release by Kim Bartlett

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

I have always had strict rules on neuter/release,
essentially the same as those recommended on the facing
page by Carter Luke: all cats and kittens who can be social-
ized for adoption should be; no ill, elderly, or disabled
cats should ever be released; all cats should be properly
vaccinated; no cat should be released into hostile habitat;
and all feral cat colonies should be kept under the careful
supervision of a responsible feeder, who will try to remove
and assist any cat in distress. I have never seen
neuter/release as any real solution to the problem of home-
less cats, just a stop-gap measure to prevent more births.
But I find myself even less enthusiastic about neuter/release
now, after our experiences of the past 10 months.
We thought we had found feral cat paradise here
on this 10-acre site in the mountains. It is nearly a mile
from the nearest paved road; we have a basement outfitted
with a spring-loaded cat door, blanketed beds, and a heater;

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