DOG SLEDDING

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Discouraged by the loss of a

dog due to heart attack, the only dog

death during the 1994 Iditarod sled race,

Susan Butcher, 39, announced March

21 that she won’t enter the race in 1995,

and said she would sell most of her ken-

nel. Butcher has competed in every

Iditarod since 1978, recording four vic-

tories and 15 finishes in the top 10 while

crusading for humane dog care and han-

dling. In 1991 she surrendered a lead

and allowed her longtime archrival Rick

Swenson to become the first five-time

winner, rather than risk her dogs’ lives

in a blizzard.

Biomedical research

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Following five years of controversy and

a two-month probe by concerned individuals and

organizations, the University of Arizona in mid-

March released 12 greyhounds bought for biomed-

ical research from Greg Ludlow of GTL Kennels in

Goodyear, Arizona. Another greyhound was to be

released upon completion of a pacemaker trial; a

14th had already been used in a terminal experiment.

For the second time in six years, and just one year

after serving out a five-year USDA suspension of his

Class B dealer’s license, Ludlow was accused of

obtaining and selling dogs under false pretenses.

The release was achieved through the cooperation of

Concerned Arizonans for Animal Rights and Ethics,

the Greyhound Protection League, Greyhound

Network News, the management of the greyhound

tracks at Phoenix and Apache Junction, and Arizona

Greyhound Breeders and Kennel Operators.

Dog sledding

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

After announcing that the

Humane Society of the U.S. would call a

boycott of Iditarod sponsors if any dogs

died during this year’s edition of the 1,163-

mile race from Anchorage to Nome, HSUS

vice president David Wills was embarrassed

when a six-year-old dog belonging to four-

time Iditarod winner and leading exponent of

humane dog care Susan Butcher died suddenly

of a heart attack on March 7. Butcher, who

backed the zero death goal, revolutionized

sled dog training by motivating her teams with

love instead of aggression; was instrumental

in forming a self-policing association of

dogsledders; outspokenly opposes breeding

large numbers of dogs to get a few fast ones;

and keeps 28 retired dogs as well as breeders

and dogs in training. After the death, she

gave her team a 24-hour rest, dropping out of

contention. She previously lost two dogs

when a moose charged her team in 1985, plus

another who died of a ruptured liver in 1987.

Horses

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Wild Horse Annie (right), the first

wild horse to be protected by the Bureau of

Land Management, died on January 27 at the

International Society for the Protection of

Mustangs and Burros sactuary near Scottsdale,

Arizona. Named after Velma “Wild Horse

Annie” Johnston, the Nevada secretary who

worked for more than 20 years to secure feder-

al wild horse protection (and inspired the last

film of Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, The

Misfits), the horse was tattooed U.S. #1 after

she was rescued as a starving foal on

September 4, 1970, in the Pryor Mountains

––a year before the Free Ranging Wild Horses

and Burros Act took effect.

Horses

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

The Ochoa brothers, reputedly

the world’s leading cocaine traffickers after

the death of Pablo Escobar in a shootout with

Colombian police late last year, reputedly

launder their income through their father’s

horse breeding business. Fabio Ochoa

Restrepo’s herd of 1,200 horses is reportedly

worth $25 million. The Escobar family also

breeds horses, but the value of their stock fell

shortly before Pablo Escobar was killed,

when rivals castrated a stud worth $1 million.

SPECTACLES

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

A group of Ecuadoran school children

in late January donated their allowances, sold toys,

and performed on street corners to raise funds to

feed polar bears, elephants, seals, and horses aban-

doned in Quito by the Circus of Czars, from St.

Petersburg, Russia. The circus manager vanished

with the receipts from a successful tour, leaving the

human performers stranded, as creditors seized

their equipment. As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to

press, help was reportedly en route from business

leaders and environmental groups.

ANIMAL HEALTH

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

Rabies update

New Hampshire state veterinarian

Clifford McGinniss warned January

15––after a rabid kitten was found in a

Merrimack College dormitory––that feral cats

must be exterminated to protect Hampton

Beach visitors. Disagreeing, Hampton Beach

is pursung a $24,000 cat control plan combin-

ing catch-and-kill with selective neuter/

release. The plan is also opposed by New

Hampshire SPCA executive director Bonnie

Roberts, who told the Boston Globe that the

feral cats “are going to tangle with rabid ani-

mals and spread the disease.” In fact, rabies

vaccination is a prerequisite of the Hampton

Beach plan, and of all properly managed

neuter/release programs. There are no reports

on record of any cat in any recognized

neuter/release program anywhere ever con-

tracting rabies, while several neuter/release

programs including one coordinated in 1991-

1992 by ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim

Bartlett have been credited by public safety

officials with creating an immunized barrier

between rabid wildlife and family pets.

Horses

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

New York City entered 1994

with no regulations protecting carriage

horses, after outgoing mayor David

Dinkins vetoed a bill on December 29 that

would have amended the 1989 Carriage

Horse Protection Act to allow horsedrawn

carriages to operate in city traffic except

during the rush hours, when they will be

restricted to Central Park, and to extend

the workday for carriage horses from eight

hours to nine. Carriages had been restrict-

ed to Central Park all day and barred from

operating during rush hours. Introduced

by councillor Noach Dear, the bill was

approved by the New York City Council on

December 21, 29-17, which was consid-

ered a close vote. The Carriage Horse

Action Committee had sought reauthoriza-

tion of the 1989 act, supported by the the-

atre industry and other groups concerned

that the carriages discourage business by

slowing down traffic, plus a faction that

claims the carriage horse trade is a “green

card factory” for Irish immigrants, who

dominate the workforce of drivers and

grooms. There are now 396 licensed car-

riage drivers, up from 266 in 1991, but

there are only 140 horses and 68 carriages

actually out on the job. The CHAC, head-

ed by Peggy Parker, may now seek a total

ban on horsedrawn vehicles in Manhattan.

PERFORMING WILDLIFE

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Elephant trainers Robert

“Smokey” Jones, Scott Riddle, and Heidi

Riddle raised eyebrows on December 22 by

announcing “A hands-on course in the humane

training and handling of captive elephants,” to

be taught at Riddle’s Elephant Breeding Farm

and Wildlife Sanctuary near Greenbriar,

Arkansas. A string of unusual elephant deaths

under Scott Riddle’s supervision over the past

15 years have brought repeated allegations of

mishandling, including two deaths resulting

from conflicts between elephants at the Los

Angeles Zoo in the early 1980s and one

ascribed to a stress-induced heart attack in

1986 at the Garden City Zoo in Garden City,

Kansas. Zoo officials in the latter case asked

the Kansas state police and the USDA to inves-

tigate the possibility that the heart attack was

brought on by an overdose of electric shock, as

at age 23 the elephant was still young, and had

been believed to be healthy. Riddle was

attempting to buy her for transport to a breed-

ing colony he wanted to start in Florida.

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