Marine mammals in captivity

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

A year after ANIMAL PEOPLE reader Janice
Garnett, of Venice, Florida, asked us to look into the
plight of two dispirited Pacific whitesided dolphins at the
Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, the dolphins were
flown to Sea World San Antonio in November to join the
biggest pod of their species in captivity, at the facility considered
the state-of-the-art for keeping whales and dolphins.
ANIMAL PEOPLE passed Garnett’s letter to San Francisco
SPCA ethical studies coordinator Pam Rockwell, who
learned that the dolphins, named Amphrite and Thetis, had
been in a tank only 25% of the legal minimum size since
1975 and 1978, respectively, sharing the space with four
harbor seals whom local stranding rescuers judged unsuitable
for return to the wild. The California Academy of the
Sciences, operators of the Steinhart, had special dispensation
from the National Marine Fisheries Service and USDA to
keep the dolphins, in part because they had remained healthy
for longer than any other whitesided dolphins ever captured.

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Animal Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Ebola virus
The World Health Organization
on December 16 declared a two-year drive
to discover how Ebola virus is transmitted
from other primates, who often survive it, to
chimpanzees and humans, in whom it is usually
fatal. An early clue came from Colonel
Nancy Jax of the U.S. Army Medical
Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, in
Frederick, Maryland, who reported in the
December 22 edition of the British medical
journal The Lancet that Ebola is probably
transmitted by airborne droplets, much like
the common cold. Jax observed that two
monkeys kept in cages 10 feet from others
who had Ebola also developed Ebola and
died in 10 and 11 days, respectively, even
though they had no physical contact with the
sick monkeys. “The findings emphasize the
advisability of at-risk personnel employing
precautions to safeguard against ocular, oral,
and nasopharyngeal exposure,” Jax wrote.

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Racehorses on a PMU line? Don’t bet on it

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

LOUISVILLE, Ky.––The
North American Equine Ranching
Information Council, representing
more than 450 PMU farms, has
opened a breed registry to promote
the use of Thoroughbred stallions in
impregnating PMU-producing
mares.
PMU stands for “pregnant
mare’s urine,” and is the basic
ingredient of Premarin, the most
often prescribed estrogen supplement
for relief of menopausal symptoms––and
the only estrogen supplement
made from an animal product.

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Horses

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Weeks after dismantling the Bureau
of Land Management wild horse program,
House Republicans on November 7 pushed
through a bill––unanimously passed by voice
vote––ordering the National Park Service to
leave alone about 30 wild horses living in the
Ozark National Scenic Riverways. The bill
directs the Department of the Interior to arrange
for herd management with the Missouri Wild
Horse League, which would be required to
keep the herd smaller than 50. The league and
the Park Service have fought in court since 1990
over a Park Service plan to exterminate the
horses. The bill must clear the Senate to take
effect, with enough support to overcome a
potential presidential veto. Assistant Secretary
for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks George Frampton
opposes the bill, and wild horse protection generally,
consistent with the position of conservation
groups including the Wilderness Society,
which he formerly headed, the Nature Conservancy,
the National Audubon Society, and some
factions of Earth First, that introduced species
should be removed from public lands.

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Lolita & Willy

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

MIAMI, Florida––Pressure on the embattled Miami
Seaquarium intensified on October 23 when Metro Dade building director
Carlos Bonzon gave management 45 days to come up with a plan to repair
Lolita the Killer Whale’s Stadium, the 25-year-old central attraction of the
facility. Plans for a $70 million expansion, including a new whale stadium,
are on hold due to a lawsuit filed by the nearby town of Key Biscayne.
“Lolita’s tank appears to be structurally sound,” the M i a m i
H e r a l d reported on November 25. However, “the grandstand has been
severely corroded by saltwater, and is held up by temporary beams.”
Bonzon’s order came a year after whale freedom advocate Ric
O’Barry introduced himself to the Dade County building inspection
department as “the former trainer of the Seaquarium’s original killer whale,
Hugo,” who died in 1980, and charged that the crumbling whale stadium
could be broken up by displacement as Lolita leaps.
The Seaquarium staff architect called O’Barry’s claim unfounded.

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Setting the floor for horse haulers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON, D.C.––Just days
ago S1283/HR2433, the Safe Commercial
Transportation of Horses for Slaughter Act of
1995, was rated the one humane bill with a
chance to clear the present Congress.
Introduced by Senator Mitch
McConnell (Kentucky) and Representative
Bill Goodling (Pennsylvania), both members
of the Republican majority, S1283/HR2433
was jointly endorsed by the leading horse
industry group, the American Horse Council;
the American Horse Protection Association;
the Humane Society of the United States; the
American Association of Equine
Practitioners; the American Humane
Association; and the American SPCA.

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RELIGION & ANIMALS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

Brigitte Bardot “was the picture
of elegance,” for a September 27 audience
with Pope Jean Paul II, a day before her
61st birthday, Reuter correspondent Jude
Webber reported, “clad in a tight brown
trouser suit, low-cut pink top, wearing flowers
in her upswept long hair.” Said Bardot
after visiting the Pope, “We talked of animals,
of course. He told us he thought of
them, and they need our help.” Bardot quit
her film career in 1973 to devote herself to
animal protection.
Monsoon floods inundated the
temple at Pathum Thani, Thailand, in
early October, revealing to newspaper
photographers an elephant named
D i a m o n d whom abbot Pra Kru Udom
Pawana-pirat has kept chained to a tree for
nearly 20 years to attract worshippers. The
temple sells the visitors food to give
Diamond––but he rarely gets enough.
Diamond “is skinny, bony, and not healthy,
especially mentally,” said Friends of the
Asian Elephants Foundation representative
Leutchai Kladsri, who tried unsuccessfully to
buy him. Objected Pawana-pirat, “I never torture
him.”
Radio “sex doctor” Ruth
Westheimer read from a prayer book in
Brooklyn on October 3 while a friend swung a
live chicken over his head in a Hassidic Yom
Kippur rite called “shlug kaporos.” After the
swinging, the chickens are killed according to
kosher law and given to the poor.
Faith healers caught a male and
female crocodile on September 30 in
Yaounde, capital of Cameroon; dressed the
male in a fake beard and pants; painted the
female’s claws with red nail polish; and
burned both alive as “bewitched.”

BOOKS: The Evil Side of a Racetrack

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

The Evil Side of a Racetrack
by Michael John Horak
Rainbow Books Inc. (POB 430, Highland City, FL 33846-0430), 1995. 515 pages, with photos. $30.00.

The Evil Side of a Racetrack is the autobiography of
Michael John Horak, a former harness racing owner, driver
and trainer, most heavily involved in the 1960s, when most
of his story takes place. But now, in 1995, the treatment of
racehorses hasn’t changed for the better. They are still
drugged and raced lame with alarming regularity.
Horak got into racing chiefly for the love of horses
and to be able to make a living with them. He tried to make a
difference by training his horses and those of clients in a cautious,
easy, drug-free manner. He did not believe in racing
an even slightly lame horse, no matter how well a drug
might mask the pain. He knew that drugs might work for a
while and perhaps a few more wins could be had, but in the
end the horse would break down in extreme pain.

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Agriculture

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

The National Cattlemen’s
Association, National Live Stock and
Meat Board, parts of the Beef Board, and
the U.S. Meat Export Federation a r e
reportedly uniting under one umbrella as the
Beef Industry Organization. Member groups
claim to have already trained 1,600 volun-
teers to help promote beef.
Pork King of Illinois on July 25
applied for a permit to reopen the defunct
Kenosha Beef slaughterhouse in Hebron,
Illinois––and nine days later withdrew the
application amid a storm of opposition from
residents, who said they no longer want a
slaughterhouse in their community.

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