Rocky Mountain Wildlife sanctuary struggles on–for now

October 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
KEENESBURG, Colorado–The Rocky Mountain Wildlife
Conservation Center “has received donations and pledges that will
help to keep it operating for now,” the sanctuary management
announced in a September 2, 2006 web posting, but closed to public
visits “for an undetermined period of time,” the web page said,
“so that the board of directors will have time to evaluate the entire
situation.
“The animals are in no danger,” the posting added. “It is
the desire of the board that the animals remain at their current
location…If no solution to keeping the sanctuary operating is
found, the board will proceed with closure and the placement of as
many animals as possible.”

N.J. Consumer Affairs prosecutes another coin-can fundraiser

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
HACKENSACK, N.J.–Exiting New Jersey Office of Consumer
Affairs director Kimberly Ricketts on August 2, 2006, her last day
with the agency, appealed for public help to locate and impound an
estimated 1,400 to 1,500 coin collection canisters believed to have
been placed by an entity calling itself Lovers of Animals.
The Office of Consumer Affairs has filed suit, reported
Newark Star-Ledger staff writer Brian T. Murray, alleging improper
accounting for about $7,500 raised and spent in 2005.
The case followed the state shutdown of coin can fundraiser
Patrick Jemas in June 2006. Jemas did business as the National
Animal Welfare Foundation.
“Lovers of Animals was incorporated when Russell Frontera,
49, of Beachwood was furloughed from state prison in late 2004 after
serving two years of a seven-year sentence for loan sharking,” wrote
Murray. “His name appears on documents filed with the Internal
Revenue Service and the state that year, when he also opened a post
office box for the charity.

Gunfire no aphrodisiac for African elephants

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force chair Johnny Rodrigues and
Presidential Elephant Conservation Project elephant fertility
researcher Sharon Pincott contend that the stress associated with
gunfire has actually suppressed elephant fecundity–a finding which,
if verified, would contradict other studies showing that wildlife
populations tend to increase their fecundity under hunting pressure.
Both coyotes and deer, for example, notoriously raise more
young successfully when hunting has thinned their populations,
making more food available to the survivors.
But different mechanisms are at work.
While coyotes are hunted year-round, intensive hunting
pressure on coyotes tends to be limited to the spring birthing season
for cattle and sheep, and the fall deer hunting season, when deer
hunters often shoot coyotes as well.

Kangaroo contraceptives

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
CANBERRA–The Australian Capital Territory government and
Newcastle University on August 23, 2006 announced plans to jointly
develop a species-specific oral contraceptive for eastern grey
kangaroos.
The contraceptive should be ready for field trials in two to
five years, senior Environment ACT ecologist Don Fletcher told news
media.
“In the coming weeks a research population will be set up in
the empty former kangaroo display area at Tidbinbilla,” said
municipal services John Hargreaves, referring to the scene of
“rocket science” of a very different sort. The Tidbinbilla Nature
Reserve, on the fringe of Namadgi National Park, is best known for
housing the radio telescopes operated by the Canberra Deep Space
Communication Complex, part of NASA’s Deep Space Network.

Case against Primarily Primates tossed out, but president Wally Swett resigns under fire

October 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

SAN ANTONIO–Bexar County Civil District Court Judge Andy
Mireles on September 8, 2006 ruled that former Ohio State University
chimp caretakers Klaree Boose and Stephany Harris, along with
California veterinarian Mel Richardson, lacked standing to pursue a
PETA-backed lawsuit against the Primarily Primates sanctuary.
Named as co-plaintiffs and also denied standing were seven surviving
chimpanzees and two capuchin monkeys from the research colony
formerly kept by OSU psychology professor Sally Boysen. OSU retired
the colony to Primarily Primates in February 2006, with an endowment
of $324,000 for their quarters and upkeep, over the objections of
Boysen and PETA.

HSUS absorbs Doris Day Animal League

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
WASHINGTON D.C.–The Humane Society of the U.S. on August 31,
2006 announced that it has absorbed the Doris Day Animal League by
merger, affirming nearly three months of speculation.
Founded in 1987 by actress Doris Day’s son Terry Melcher,
who died of cancer in November 2004, DDAL in 20 years never spent
less than half of its revenues on fundraising and administration,
cumulatively spent more than two-thirds of all the money it ever
raised on direct mail, and in the most recent fiscal year reported
on IRS Form 990 operated at a loss of more than $400,000, with
revenues of just over $2.5 million, raised from approximately
180,000 donors.
HSUS claims 9.5 million donors, with a 2006 budget of $103
million and 2005 revenues of $145 million.

Lebanon war animal victims still need help

October 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
BEIRUT, HAIFA–More than a month after Hezbollah militia
members quit rocketing northern Israel and Israel quit bombing
southern Lebanon to try to stop them, animal rescuers continued
efforts begun under fire to help the many nonhuman victims.
Best Friends Animal Society rapid response manager Richard
Crook, a Chilean veterinarian, and a vet tech flew to Lebanon on
September 7, 2006 with 175 pounds of kitten food, along with
veterinary supplies, en route to help arrange the evacuation of
about 300 dogs and cats to the U.S.
Calling the evacuation “Paws for Peace,” Best Friends
reportedly raised $182,000 of the estimated $300,000 cost of that
project and other rescue work in Lebanon and Israel before Crook’s
departure.

War hurts wildlife

October 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

Scarce wildlife habitat in both Lebanon and Israel took a big
hit from the July and August 2006 fighting.
“Huge swaths of forests and fields across northern Israel
were scorched by Hezbollah rocket strikes,” reported Associated
Press writer Aron Heller. “Charred branches stick out of the ground
like grave markers at the Mount Naftali Forest overlooking Kiryat
Shemona. In all, rocket fire destroyed 16,500 acres of forests and
grazing fields, said Jewish National Fund forest supervisor Michael
Weinberger, the top administrator of Israel’s forests. About a
million trees were destroyed.

Comparing costs of carbon monoxide v.s. sodium pentobarbital

October 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
After claims that gassing is safer for employees, the most
persistent argument for killing animals by carbon monoxide instead of
sodium pentobarbital is that carbon monoxide is less expensive–if
only because most of the gas chambers now in use were installed and
paid for decades ago.
“Switching to lethal injection would mean investing in drugs
and training staff,” reported Raleigh News & Observer staff writer
Marti Maguire in February 2006. “That could strap counties that now
spend as little as $20 per animal. The Orange County shelter spends
$150 per animal,” using lethal injection, Maguire wrote.

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