Changing of the animal guard at Fort Mason, San Francisco

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

SAN FRANCISCO–A July 31 grand opening marked the transfer of
the former Fund for Animals office in San Francisco to Animal
Switchboard, still under direction of Virginia Handley and her
assistant Elizabeth Keller.
The office was closed on May 1, after the Fund merged into
the Humane Society of the U.S. at the beginning of 2005, but was
retained by Animal Switchboard with the encouragement of PawPAC,
Action for Animals, Vigil for Animals, and the Animal Welfare
Association.
Animal Switchboard was begun in 1970 by Handley’s mother,
Grace Handley, assisted by Virginia and longtime Animal Welfare
Association volunteer Gloria Chavarria. Together they shared advice
about animal-related problems and referred callers to appropriate
veterinary and humane services. While Virginia Handley went on to
work for the Fund, Grace Handley continued Animal Switchboard for
more than 20 years. Chavarria kept it going after she died.
Contact: Animal Switchboard, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
94123; 415-474-4021; <www.animalswitchboard.org>.

UW seeks to block opening of antivivisection museum

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

MADISON–The Primate Freedom Project and Alliance for Animals
on July 4, 2005 announced plans to create a National Primate
Research Exhibition Hall in a complex of dilapidated buildings
presently used as a bicycle warehouse, located between the Wisconsin
National Primate Research Center and the Harry H. Harlow Primate
Psychology Building.
Owned by the University of Wiscon-sin, the two primate labs
have housed some of the most infamous experiments ever.
Harlow from 1930 to 1970 drove generations of baby macaques
mad there, plunging them into stainless steel “pits of despair,”
subjecting them to deliberately cruel robotic “mothers,” and
allowing mothers driven insane by his experiments to abuse and kill
them.
Primate Freedom founder Rick Bogle likened the proposed
National Primate Research Center to “having the Holocaust Memorial at
the gates of Auschwitz in 1944.” He had a nine-month purchase option
on the site, he said, which he hoped would be time enough to raise
the $675,000 purchase price of the warehouse site, assessed at only
$150,000 for tax purposes.
But there was a catch.

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AVMA refuses to condemn foie gras, amends sow crate policy, excludes critics from hall

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

MINNEAPOLIS–The American Veterinary Medical Association
House of Delegates on July 16, 2005 unanimously defeated a
resolution asking the AVMA to formally find inhumane the practice of
force-feeding ducks and geese to produce foie gras.
The resolution was rejected, AVMA publicist Sharon Granskog
said, “because limited peer-reviewed scientific information dealing
with the animal welfare concerns associated with foie gras is
available, and because the observations and practical experience of
members indicate a minimum of adverse effects on the birds involved.”
Charged Farm Sanctuary in a membership alert, “The AVMA
House of Delegates rejected the 1998 Report of the Scientific
Committee on Welfare Aspects of the Production of Foie Gras in Ducks
and Geese as being out-dated.”
The resolution was squelched, Farm Sanctuary alleged, “due
to opposition by the American Association of Avian Veterinarians,
the American Association of Avian Pathologists, and the New York
State Veterinary Medical Association. These organizations claimed
that their recent visits to foie gras farms in New York revealed
proper care of birds. However, in previous unannounced visits to
the same farm, ducks were videotaped in diseased and filthy
conditions.”

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Hired & promoted

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

Joyce D’Silva, heading Compassion In
World Farming since 1991, retired on August 8,
2004, succeeded by former World Society for the
Protection of Animals communications director
Philip Lymbery. D’Silva continues with CIWF in
the newly created position of ambassador,
representing CIWF in foreign affairs.
WSPA has promoted two-year staffer Leah
Garcés to director of campaigns, hired former
advertising executive Emma Hall as public
relations director, and added ex-British Army
Air-borne Forces officer Nigel Wilson as disaster
relief director.
The Escondido Humane Society has hired
Sally Costello, 46, to succeed former executive
director Phil Morgan, who now heads the Northern
Arizona Second Chance Center for Animals in
Flagstaff. Costello, reported San Diego
Union-Tribune staff writer Craig Gustafson, “is
a former health and safety manager for Air
Products & Chemicals Inc.,” who cofounded a
local nonprofit organization called San Diego
Community Awareness & Emergency Response.

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New state legislation

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

The North Carolina legislature on August 17, 2005
incorporated into the state budget a set of standards for animal
shelters, to take effect on October 1, which will require that
euthanasia technicians be properly trained and forbid use of any
methods to kill animals other than lethal injection and carbon
monoxide. “The majority of counties in the Carolinas and in the
Charlotte region use gas to kill most animals, even though the
method is banned by at least two states,” wrote Michelle Crouch of
the Charlotte Observer. “Most use lethal injection to put down sick
and young animals, but say they can’t afford to use it every time.”
Earlier, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley signed a bill
requiring petting zoos to be licensed and inspected. The bill was
introduced after 108 children suffered e- coli infections after
visiting petting zoos at the North Carolina State Fair in 2004.
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on August 12, 2005 vetoed
a bill which would have allowed fur trappers to use cable snares,
banned in the state for more than 50 years. Blagojevich on August
22 endorsed into law a bill establishing a fund for subsidized dog
and cat sterilization, supported by a surcharge of $3.00 on rabies
vaccinations. American SPCA senior director of legal training and
legislation Ledy VanKavage predicted that the surcharge would
“generate around $2.5 million a year.”

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How to protest the Taiji dolphin killing by Ric O’Barry, One Voice/France

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

In response to our call for October 8 to be an international
day of protest at Japanese consulates and embassies against the Taiji
dolphin slaughters, we have received much correspondence suggesting
that we should either hit Japan with an all-out boycott, or just
meet quietly with Japanese officials.
Both approaches have already been repeatedly attempted, and
both were big mistakes.
Having witnessed the dolphin slaughters myself, I can report
with absolute certainty that the Japanese people are not guilty of
these crimes against nature. I saw only 26 whalers in 13 boats drive
dolphins into a cove and slaughter them. The vast majority of the
people in Taiji and surrounding villages were exceptionally friendly
toward our small group of protesters, and should not be targeted and
punished for something they are not guilty of.
The Japanese people don’t need a boycott. They need the
information that we take for granted. If they knew the truth about
the dolphin slaughter, they would help us to stop it.

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Haunted by hidden past, humane law enforcement legend Dave Garcia retires

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

DALLAS–Dave Garcia, 55, vice president of operations for
the SPCA of Texas in Dallas since 2001, on August 6, 2005 announced
his retirement from humane work.
“His resignation comes days after Smith County District
Attorney Matt Bingham dismissed three animal cruelty charges against
Julia McMurrey, the former operator of Paws Around the Planet ranch
in Tyler,” reported Kim Horner of the Dallas Morning News.
“Bingham received anonymous information, which was
confirmed, that Garcia has a criminal background including arrests
for driving while intoxicated in Texas, Missouri, and Arizona,
plus a rape and kidnapping conviction in Arizona in 1973. Garcia was
paroled in the rape and kidnapping case in 1976. Bingham said he
dismissed the charges against McMurrey because of ethical concerns
about using Mr. Garcia as a witness. He said Garcia told a
prosecutor that he had no criminal history,” Horner added.
Cockfighting proponents, including commentators for Game
Fowl News, have long circulated reports similar to those Bingham
received. Longtime acquaintances of Garcia within the humane
community were mostly aware that he had a troubled past, which had
helped him to successfully infiltrate animal fighting rings and bring
the perpetrators to justice.

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Israeli Rescuers remove about 400 animals from Gaza & Northern Samaria

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

JERUSALEM–Tension accompanying the Israeli withdrawal from
Northern Samaria and Gaza spilled over into the animal rescue work
that followed in the 24 vacated Jewish settlements.
About half the reports reaching animal people descr-ibed
animal rescues. The rest accused other rescuers of performing
publicity stunts and acts of sabotage.
Settlers resisting the withdrawal were often removed forcibly
by Israeli soldiers and police, leaving pets, livestock, and feral
cat colonies behind.
If the 15,000 former residents of the evacuated villages kept
pets and fed feral cats at European rates per household, up to 3,000
pets and 600 feral cats might have been affected. The Israeli Army
and Israeli Veterinary Services allowed some rescuers to enter Gaza
and Northern Samaria on August 16. Accounts forwarded to ANIMAL
PEOPLE indicate that the rescuers evacuated about 400 animals,
mostly cats, but also some dogs, parakeets, lizards, and goats.
Concern for Helping Animals in Israel and Hakol Chai, an
affiliate, worked in Gaza with representatives of the Tel Aviv,
Beersheva, and Jerusalem SPCAs, CHAI founder Nina Natelson told
ANIMAL PEOPLE. “We had veterinarians Sarah Levine and Tsachi Nevo
spelling each other, plus one more who helped as needed,” Natelson
added. “Two drivers took turns, day after day. Hakol Chai staff
worked 15 hour days. We had no lack of volunteers.”

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Marine mammal activist Ben White, 53, dies of abdominal cancer

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

Ben White, 53, died on July 30 in
Friday Harbor, Washington, after a six-month
struggle against abdominal cancer.
White “cut open dolphin-holding nets in
Japan, scaled buildings to hang anti-fur
banners, jumped in front of naval ships in
Hawaii to stop sonar tests, and slept atop
old-growth trees to protest logging,” recalled
Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter M.L. Lyke.
“In Seattle, he protested the capture of sea
lions at Ballard Locks by locking himself to the
cage used to hold them. In 1999, he marched as
head turtle at the 1999 World Trade Organization
protests [in Seattle]ŠThe turtle costumes became
the international emblem of opposition to the
WTO.”
White claimed to have informed on the Ku
Klux Klan for the FBI at age 16, while still in
high school. He joined the 1973 American Indian
Movement occupation of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs offices in Washing-ton D.C., and
traveled for a time with the Rolling Thunder
medicine show, which popularized Native American
causes and spirituality during the 1970s and
1980s. He was accused of fomenting strife within
both AIM and the Rolling Thunder entourage.

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