REVIEWS: Earthlings

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:

Earthlings
Written, produced & directed
by Shaun Monson;
narrated by Joaquin Phoenix
Nation Earth (4000-D West Magnolia Blvd., Suite 260, Burbank, CA
91505; www.isawearthlings.com), 2006. DVD, 95 minutes. $19.95.

Actor Joaquin Phoenix in Earthlings explains video clip after
clip of shock video footage of the use and abuse of animals for food,
clothing, entertainment and medical research. Much of the material
was obtained by activists working under cover.
Earthlings has been compared to The Animals’ Film, narrated
by Julie Christie, which in 1981 helped to raise animal advocacy to
global prominence. Very few people were thoroughly aware, at that
time, of the issues that The Animals’ Film raised, and the shocking
aspects of it were demonstrably effective.

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BOOKS: Making Burros Fly

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:

Making Burros Fly:
Cleveland Amory–Animal Rescue Pioneer
by Julie Hoffman Marshall
Johnson Books (Big Earth Publishing, 3005 Center Green Drive, Suite 220,
Boulder, CO 80301), 2006. 176 pages, paperback. $17.50.

The title of Making Burros Fly refers to
the well-publicized 1979 rescue of 557 wild
burros from Grand Canyon National Park,
organized by Cleveland Amory after the National
Park Service deemed them alien and invasive, and
ordained that they should be exterminated. Amory
persuaded the reluctant and skeptical agency to
allow his 11-year-old Fund for Animals to attempt
capture and relocation. Using a variety of
methods including net-gunning from the air,
Amory and his “Army of the Kind” achieved the
rescue at a cost to donors of $500,000. The
capture operation led to Amory’s acquisition in
1980 of an 83-acre property which became the
Black Beauty Ranch sanctuary. Read more

Animal Liberation author Peter Singer ires activists by calling some animal testing “justifiable”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:

 

LONDON–Philosopher and Great Ape Project
cofounder Peter Singer, whose 1975 opus Animal
Liberation provided intellectual support to the
early animal rights movement, allegedly endorsed
biomedical research on monkeys during an
on-camera discussion with Oxford University
neurosugeon Tipu Aziz.
Aired by BBC-2 on November 27, Singer’s
remarks were previewed a day earlier by Gareth
Walsh of the London Times, under the headline
“Father of animal activism backs monkey testing.”
“I am a surgeon and also a scientist,”
Aziz told Singer. “Part of my work has been to
induce Parkinsonism in primatesŠTo date 40,000
people have been made better with [one of Aziz’s
discoveries], and worldwide at the time I would
guess only 100 monkeys were used at a few
laboratories.”

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Budgets, Programs, Assets, & Overhead of Ten Opposition Organizations

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 From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  December 2006:




Americans for Medical Progress
TYPE           AEV
GIVEN/EARNED    $      911,716
BUDGET          $      560,798
PROGRAMS        $      453,913
OVERHEAD        $      106,885
19%
19%
NET ASSETS      $      747,990
TANGIBLE ASSETS $     13,738
FUNDS/INVEST    $      752,006


Ducks Unlimited
TYPE           CHU
GIVEN/EARNED    $132,583,469
BUDGET          $147,764,480
PROGRAMS        $120,264,714
OVERHEAD        $ 27,499,766
19%
23%
NET ASSETS      $ 34,673,085
TANGIBLE ASSETS $ 11,402,625
FUNDS/INVEST    $  7,811,006


Heifer International
GIVEN/EARNED    $ 77,057,248
BUDGET          $ 67,749,886
PROGRAMS        $ 51,096,441
OVERHEAD        $ 16,653,445
25%
29%
NET ASSETS      $ 69,900,629
TANGIBLE ASSETS $ 36,838,678
FUNDS/INVEST    $ 20,561,544
	NOTE:  Formerly called The Heifer Project,  Heifer 
International also controls the Heifer International Foundation, 
with assets of $47.7 million.


International Fund for the Conservation of Resources
TYPE           AE
GIVEN/EARNED    $    196,878
BUDGET          $    197,555
PROGRAMS        [not able to determine]
OVERHEAD        [not able to determine]
NET ASSETS      $     58,917
TANGIBLE ASSETS $     57,475
FUNDS/INVEST    $      1,442


Foundation for Biomedical Research
TYPE           AEV
GIVEN/EARNED    $    905,597
BUDGET          $    998,331
PROGRAMS        $    698,247
OVERHEAD        $    300,084
30%
30%
NET ASSETS      $ 10,906,454
TANGIBLE ASSETS $    125,772
FUNDS/INVEST    $ 10,372,252


National Animal Interest Alliance
TYPE           AE
GIVEN/EARNED    $     74,763
BUDGET          $     78,585
PROGRAMS        $     60,576
OVERHEAD        $     18,009
30%
30%
NET ASSETS      $     12,232
TANGIBLE ASSETS $      2,814
FUNDS/INVEST    $      9,418


Safari Club International Foundation
TYPE            H
GIVEN/EARNED    $  2,874,134
BUDGET          $  2,568,964
PROGRAMS        $  1,957,055
OVERHEAD        $    611,909
24%
24%
NET ASSETS      $  8,658,874
TANGIBLE ASSETS $  6,033,489
FUNDS/INVEST    $  2,150,659
	NOTE:  Safari Club International has more than 160 
independently funded U.S. affiliates.


U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance
TYPE            H
GIVEN/EARNED    $    782,158
BUDGET          $    968,938
PROGRAMS        $    811,150
OVERHEAD        $    157,788
16%
16%
NET ASSETS      $      82,851
TANGIBLE ASSETS [none claimed]
FUNDS/INVEST    $     245,654


U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation
TYPE            H
GIVEN/EARNED    $   2,186,081
BUDGET          $   1,544,260
PROGRAMS        $   1,324,287
OVERHEAD        $     219,973
14%
14%
NET ASSETS      $   4,207,632
TANGIBLE ASSETS $     720,784
FUNDS/INVEST    $   2,588,803
	NOTE:  The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance and U.S. Sportsmen's 
Alliance Foundation are affiliates,  under common governance.


White Buffalo
TYPE            H
GIVEN/EARNED    $    493,474
BUDGET          $    355,491
PROGRAMS        $    353,402
OVERHEAD        $      2,089
  1%
10%
NET ASSETS      $    466,077
TANGIBLE ASSETS $    192,122
FUNDS/INVEST    $    283,576
	NOTE:  White Buffalo claims "To conserve native species and 
ecosystems by sponsoring,  supporting,  and conducting scientific 
research and education...To aid and assist in the management of 
wildlife populations through reduction or enhancement."  What White 
Buffalo mostly does is enable founder Anthony DeNicola to hunt deer 
at taxpayer expense.  Hired by local governments,  DeNicola and 
assistants have within the past six years reportedly killed at least 
3,168 deer  at sites in Iowa,  New Jersey,  Ohio,  and Pennsylvania. 
DiNicola has long outspokenly denouncd contraceptive means of 
controlling deer.  Yet DeNicola was also hired to test the 
experimental deer contraceptive SpayVac in Princeton Township,  New 
Jersey,   and the Cleveland Metroparks during 2005.  Both tests 
failed.  DiNicola at last report was testing another promising 
contraceptive,  GnRH,  in Princeton Township.

Chimps go from Primarily Primates to Chimp Haven

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
SAN ANTONIO–Seven chimpanzees who were at the center of
recent PETA allegations against the Primarily Primates sanctuary were
on November 16 relocated to Chimp Haven, in Keithville, Louisiana,
near Shreveport.
“The move sparked a rush of high emotion outside the
sanctuary,” summarized Jordan Smith of the Austin Chronicle, as
neither Primarily Primates senior staff nor the Primarily Primates
attorneys had been told that the chimps were to be moved.
Opened in October 2005, after 10 years of fundraising and
construction, the $14 million Chimp Haven complex houses 84 former
lab chimps in all, mostly under a contract from the National
Endowments of Health which allows the NIH to reclaim chimps for
further study if at any time they develop a medically interesting
condition or for any other reason are again wanted for lab use.
Not accredited by either the American Sanctuary Association
or the Association of Sanctuaries, Chimp Haven was itself intensely
controversial in January 2002, when ANIMAL PEOPLE explored the
debate about it. But it was Ohio State University researcher Sally
Boysen’s destination of choice for her nine chimps after OSU quit
funding their care–and the destination of choice for PETA, to whom
Boysen appealed for help when OSU sent the chimps to Primarily
Primates instead, along with $324,000 for their housing and $72,000
for their upkeep. The funding is to follow the chimps wherever they
end up, said OSU spokesperson Earle Holland.

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Awards & honors

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
Phil & Trix Wollen, of Melbourne, Australia,
administrators of the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust, on October
28, 2006 awarded Animal Liberation cofounder, Pulling The Wool
author, and Help In Suffering chief trustee Christine Townend a gold
medal for distinguised lifetime achievement. Victoria state governor
David de Kretser on November 16 named Phil Wollen Victoria’s
Australian of the Year. “Philip promotes kindness to all living
creatures and strives to make this a key trait in the Australian
character,” said de Kretser.

The Fur Free Alliance on October 30, 2006 awarded the
“Design Against Fur” juried grand prize for anti-fur poster art to
Maria Rhodes Castro, of Spain, who is studying at the Accademia di
Communicazione in Milan, Italy. FFA also honored Yu-Tru Chung of
the Pratt Institute in New York City with a “People’s Choice” award,
for getting the most votes from web site visitors who viewed the work
of the 18 finalists at <http://inFURmation.com>. The Fur Free
Alliance is an international coalition of more than 30 anti-fur
organizations. The 2006 poster theme was “Protect Seals.” The 2007
theme will be “Fashion Victims.”

The American SPCA on November 2, 2006 honored Chicago Police
Sergeant Steven Brownstein as “Law Enforcement Officer of the Year”
for work against dogfighting. “The 24-year police veteran has served
on the city’s animal abuse control team since 1999,” wrote Chicago
Tribune staff reporter Tony C. Yang. “Since then, the team has
seized more than 5,000 animals, mostly dogs, and has made more than
700 arrests for cruelty and dogfighting,” according to ASPCA
spokesperson Anita K. Edson.

REVIEWS: Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:

Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures
Buena Vista Productions & R.K.O.Productions, 2006.
Four volumes; $32.95 each.

True Life Adventures, the first release
in the new Walt Disney Legacy DVD collection,
features 13 wildlife documentaries which among
them won eight Academy Awards and created a whole
new genre of cinema. Originally filmed fifty
years ago in 16 millimetre format, the films
have been digitally restored, are presented in
four 2-disc volumes with collectible packaging,
and include commentary by Roy E. Disney, nephew
of Walt Disney and son of Walt Disney Studios
founding partner Roy Oliver.

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Fur trim trade exploits ambiguous attitudes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
LONDON–Fashion superstar Kate Moss
designs garments for Topshop, a firm with a
policy against using fur–but as a model, the
role that propelled her to fame, Moss wears furs
for Burberry. Her paradoxical alignments reflect
the ambiuity of a fashion market in which
traditional highpriced fur coats have been “out”
for nearly 20 years, yet cheap imported fur trim
is selling as never before.
The London Independent in a series of
November and early December 2006 features
reported “a growing backlash against soaring
sales of fur,” which has yet to show much sign
of reversing the fur trim boom.
British fur sales are up 30% in two
years, The Independent said, “with £41 million
of new fur products,” about 1,000 tons’ worth,
“imported every year into a U.K. market now worth
an estimated £500 million.”

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