Reindeer wasted

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

While Alaskan officials pretend-
ed wolves had to be massacred so that
there would be enough caribou to feed
natives, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service in December quietly massacred
790 reindeer on Hagemeister Island, a
wildlife refuge 300 miles south of
Anchorage. Introduced by an Eskimo
rancher in 1965, the reindeer were endan-
gering native lichen. Nome medical doc-
tor Donald Olson (also an Eskimo) hired a
team to fly another 120 reindeer to safety
at an abandoned dairy farm. Natives were
given 172 reindeer carcasses; the rest
were left to rot. “It’s the worst wanton
waste case since the buffalo,” said tribal
elder Moses Kritz. At deadline, another
193 reindeer were slated for killing.

HUNTING

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

The 1992-1993 hunting season
closed with a spate of killings by hunters
apparently desperate to shoot anything.
Victims included three rare trumpeter swans,
shotgunned January 1 on the Winterthur
Museum grounds in Wilmington, Delaware; a
tame deer slain at the St. Clair County
Humane Society in Port Huron, Michigan,
January 4; 13 cows killed in Clay County,
Missouri, between Christmas and New Year’s
Day; and three dairy cows killed near
Warsaw, Ohio, on January 16. Michael
Adamson, 20, of Barberton, Ohio, and a 17-
year-old companion face charges in the latter
case. Ronald Smith, 30, and his infant
daughter escaped injury December 30 when
hunters trying to jacklight rabbits––after mid-
night–– sprayed the baby’s bedroom with gun-
fire. Charles W. Tipton, 44, of Lorain,

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Fur

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service has proposed to take red, western
gray, and eastern gray kangaroos off the
threatened species list, which would mean
their pelts could be imported in greater
numbers. Protected since 1974, the
Australian kangaroos now number about
18 million, up from 10 million in 1984,
and are killed for pelts at the rate of about
5.2 million a year. Public comments will
be received until March 22. Address
Office of Public Affairs, USFWS, Dept.
of the Interior, Washington, DC 20240.

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Block pleads guilty

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

Miami animal trafficker Matth-
ew Block pleaded guilty to felony conspira-
cy February 9 for his role in the 1990
Bangkok Six case, in which six desperately
ill baby orangutans were intercepted in
Thailand en route from Malaysia to Moscow
via Yugoslavia in a crate marked “birds.”
Three of the orangutans died. The deal was
arranged in violation of the Convention on
International Trade in Endanged Species;
the U.S. prosecutor indicated it was initiated
by the KGB, which hoped to resell the
orangutans after they reached Moscow to
raise hard currency. The guilty plea came
two months after U.S. District Judge James
Kehoe on February 9 refused an attempted

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ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

Los Angeles County on January 5 became the
largest and most populous jurisdiction in the U.S. to require
cat licensing. Cats must wear either collar identification or
ear tags. The new ordinance is modeled after ordinances
already in effect in Carson and Lomita, California, but
enforcibility remains in doubt. The ordinance was passed at
the urging of Citizens for Sheltered Animals, who argue
that it will reduce the euthanasia rate for cats picked up by
animal control: 39,000 of 42,000 in 1992.
Zoocheck Canada seeks letters supporting pas-
sage of the Ontario Animal Welfare Act, eight years in
development, “which would license and set standards for
the care and keeping of animals in zoos, aquaria, wildlife
displays, pet stores, pounds and shelters, breeding and
boarding establishments, and native wildlife rehabilitation
centers.” Address Bob Rae, Office of the Premier,
Legislative Bldg., Room 281, Queen’s Park, Toronto,
Ontario M7A 1A1.

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Marine Mammals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

“EAT WHALES,” SAYS JAPAN
TOKYO, Japan –– The Japan Fisheries Agency and
25 Japanese fishing organizations on January 29 launched an
aggressive media campaign urging Japanese citizens to eat more
whale meat. The goal is to generate pressure on the International
Whaling Commission to rescind the six-year-old global ban on
whaling at its annual meeting in May, to be held in Kyoto.
The blitz includes radio and television spots touting
whale meat as a cure for asthma and acne, and distribution of
100,000 comic books depicting the history of the Japanese whal-
ing industry. The history is likely to be inaccurate: contrary to
the industry claim that whaling is part of Japanese cultural tradi-
tion, historian Fujiwara Eiji documented in 1989 that Japanese
commercial whaling actually began in 1909, when a man named
Oka Juro brought the concept and techniques from Norway. His
activity was so detested by traditional fishers that some of them
burned his facilities in 1911.

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Woofs and growls…

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

Fed up with nonprofit executives who hide the size of
their salaries by dividing them among related groups who file sepa-
rate returns, the Internal Revenue Service asks on the 1992 Form
990, “Did any officer, director, trustee, or key employee receive
aggregate compensation of more than $100,000 from your organiza-
tion and all related organizations, of which more than $10,000 was
provided by the related organization?” If the answer is yes, detailed
explanations are required.
The Senate Select Committee on Prisoners of War and
Missing In Action Affairs has recommended that the IRS should
crack down on charities who report fundraising costs as “educational”
program expenses. This would affect many animal-related charities;
see the notes accompanying the financial tables on over 60 national
groups published in the December 1992 and January/February issues
of ANIMAL PEOPLE. (Copies are still available at $2.00 each.)

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Animal Health & Behavior

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

Studying the relationship between brain evolution and the death of fetal cells, University of
Tennessee researcher Dr. Robert Williams has discovered that cat species seem to have an unusual capacity for
fast biological adaptation to suit their circumstances. All mammals seem to select adaptive capabilities through
the death of up to half of their neural brain cells just before birth, enabling the remainder to grow, but cats shed as
many as 80% of their fetal neurons––and this explains the key differences between domestic cat brains and those
of Spanish wildcats. Williams studied the brains of domestic cats and Spanish wildcats who had been euthanized
due to illness and/or injury.

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BOOKS: Care of the Wild: First Aid for Wild Creatures

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1992:

Care of the Wild: First Aid for Wild
Creatures. By William J. Jordan and John
H u g h e s . University of Wisconsin Press (114 N.
Murray St., Madison, WI 53715). 1992. 225 pages.
$11.95 paper; $27.50 cloth.
I’ve never read Care of the Wild all the way
through. I probably should. There are pages of my battered
old 1983 edition that I’ve never read––and pages I’ve read
aloud over the telephone or photocopied many times while
fielding desperate calls from people who have found an
injured this or that and don’t know what to do. Simply put,
Care of the Wild is an invaluable desk reference for anyone
who may encounter wildlife in need of help: wildlife reha-
bilitators, animal control officers, humane societies; any-
one who notices and cares. First published in England, it is
now expanded and updated to more thoroughly cover North
American wildlife, but it did a fairly good job before: I’ve
used it to help other people help opossums, raccoons,
songbirds, rabbits, and deer––who are only a handful of
the species discussed. Care of the Wild won’t replace your
veterinarian, but it will tell you when to call the vet, and
what to do before and afterward.
––Merritt Clifton
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