LETTERS [December 2001]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:
Letters

Adoption criteria

I worked for years in Virginia and Maryland as a humane investigator, yet am still horrified by the cruelties inflicted upon helpless creatures, both human and animal. I am also outraged at the practices of many so-called “humane
societies,” both local and national. But then, when you stop and think about it, you can rarely find two people who agree upon what the word “humane” really means. The bottom line is that no one should contribute to any charity without knowing what it really does.

If a group brags about the number of adoptions it does, then find out what the quality of the adoptions is. Is quality better than quantity? If you believe, for instance, that animals should be kept inside and treated as members of the family, then be certain that the group to which you contribute practices that kind of adoption. Many do not!
–Mollie McCurdy
Waynesboro, Virginia

High-volume adoption and strict standards often go together. High-volume adoption shelters with longstanding policies against placing “outdoor” pets include the Helen V. Woodward Center in El Rancho, California, whose executive director, Mike Arms, has supervised more than 250,000 adoptions during his career in humane work; and the North Shore Animal League, annually leading the U.S. in adoptions for more than 20 years.

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Kabul Zoo relief; aid for Afghan cats, dogs, equines; bulletins from the front

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

KABUL–The American Zoo Association, European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, and World Association of Zoos and Aquaria in late November set out to raise $30,000 in relief aid for the Kabul Zoo. By December 20 they had raised $202,000, and were asking callers to help the Afghan Animal Fund instead, a separate account set up to help Afghan cats, dogs, donkeys, and horses. The Afghan Animal Fund had collected $28,536 through December 17. Both funds are directed by Davy Jones, 57, president of both the North Carolina Zoo and the board of the London-based Brooke Hospital for Animals.

Since October the Brooke has had as many as 300 workers helping the equines of Afghan refugees in and around the camps in Peshawar and Quetta, Pakistan. The Brooke, the only western animal protection charity to maintain a close presence during the Taliban years, rehearsed in July 2001 by rescuing about 60 racehorses who were left to starve at the Karachi Race Club after the track closed temporarily due to a dispute with the Pakistani government over licensing fees. Another 70 horses died before the Brooke learned of their plight. The track reopened on July 31.

The British Royal Air Force is to fly a three-member team to Kabul in January 2002 to spend eight to ten days at the zoo, treating sick and injured animals and developing a plan to put the facilities in order. Included will be former Kabul University dean of science Ehsan Arghandewal, who fled to Germany after the Taliban came to power; former Kabul Zoo head keeper Taufik, now working at the Koln Zoo in Koln, Germany; and wildlife veterinarian John Lewis.

“Renovating the zoo and giving the staff the ability to buy food, equipment, building materials, power, and water can make the Kabul Zoo a key area for recovery of the whole city,” Jones said, emphasizing the role the zoo has in Afghanistan as a national symbol.

Built in 1967 by Kabul University, the 100-acre zoo was then considered the best in Central Asia, with 417 animals and annual attendance of 150,000 by 1972. From 1992 until 1996, however, it was caught in fighting among mujadin and Communists, warring mujadin factions, and mujadin and the Taliban. Many of the animals were eaten by the fighters. Then bandits in 1997 killed longtime keeper Agha Akhbar. The collection was down to about 40 wild animals and 60
animals of domestic species by the time the Taliban surrendered Kabul to the Northern Alliance.

Even before much outside aid arrived, the Kabul Zoo lions, wolves, and bears received a December 10 feast, through the misfortune of two oxen who escaped from an open-air meat market and rampaged through the remnants of the embassy district before a militia member shot them both dead. Afghan law requires one handler per ox, but the owner
reportedly escaped a fine by donating the carcasses to the zoo. The oxen were considered unfit for human consumption because they were not killed by hallal procedure.

Kenya link?
Kenya Wildlife Service chief Nehemiah Rotich, who staunchly opposed radio-collaring rhinos because it enables poachers to find them, was suspended in mid-November by Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi. “There were press reports linking his suspension to differences with prominent personalities with interests in the posh KWS-owned
Rangers Restaurant at the KWS headquarters in Nairobi, which is leased to Garian Investments Ltd. of South Africa,” reported John Mbaria of the East African. Regardless of why Rotich was ousted, four black rhinos were soon afterward poached in Tsavo East National Park, the first rhinos poached in Kenya since 1993. KWS rhino program coordinator Martin Mulama told Christian Science Monitor staff writer Dana Harman that he suspected Somali involvement, possibly stimulated by the need of Al Qaida to build its finances after taking heavy hits during the U.S. war on terrorism. Somali militias with ties to Yemen have reputedly done most of the ivory and rhino horn poaching in Kenya since circa 1970.
Al Qaida cowboy

Australian rodeo rider David Hicks, 26, of the Adelaide suburb of Salisbury, was among the Al Qaida soldiers captured
fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghan-istan, Australian attorney general Daryl Williams disclosed on December 12. Hicks was reportedly taken into custody by Northern Alliance troops several days earlier. Hicks apparently left the Australian rodeo circuit in November 1999 to train for combat in Pakistan with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a guerilla faction seeking to take Kash-mir from India and unite it with Pakistan. Lashkar-e-Taiba is one of the two factions linked by
India to the December 12 attack on the Indian parliament that left nine Indian citizens and all five attackers dead. After fighting against India in Kashmir, Hicks fought with Al Qaida in Kosovo under the name Muhammad Dawood. He reportedly told his father about two weeks after September 11 that he had gone to Afghanistan to help the Taliban defend Kabul.
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan Society for the Protection of Animals president Azar Garayev announced on January 1 that the parliament of the Azerbaijan Republic has agreed to consider ratifying the European Union Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals in 2002, and that the mayor of the capital city of Baku has agreed to work with the Azerbaijan SPA to start an animal shelter. Azerbaijan, a former Soviet state, is located between Iran and Turkey.
Frontier Gandhi

ANIMAL PEOPLE is seeking information about the animal-and-diet-related teachings of the late Pashtun leader Abdul
Ghaffar Khan, 1890-1988, called “the frontier Ghandi” for his dedication to nonviolence and forgiveness. Allied with Mohandas Gandhi, 1930-1947, Ghaffar Khan led the Muslim wing of Gandhi’s Congress Party, seeking a secular subcontinental nation uniting Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. He later sought autonomy for Peshwar.
The “link”

A jury in Santa Ana, California, on December 20 recommended the death penalty for one-armed butcher John Samuel Ghobrial, 31, convicted nine days earlier of raping and killing Juan Delgado, 12, in 1998, in a classic case of violence toward animals preceding violence toward humans. Ghobrial hacked Delgado apart with a meat cleaver and buried the remains in cement. Ghobrial won repeated trial delays after September 11 as defense attorney Denise Gragg contended his ethnicity would preclude a fair trial. Gobrial, a Coptic Christian from Egypt, won religious asylum in 1996 after telling the Immigration and Naturalization Service he lost his arm when a mob pushed him under a train. He turned out to have fled Egypt after he was arrested on suspicion of molesting his seven-year-old cousin and stabbing him with a penknife. Ampu-tation of the arm may have been a penalty under the Islamic fundamentalist penal code of sharia for previous conduct of a similar nature.

Diving mule man in hot water

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

ST. LOUIS–Tim Rivers, 55, of Citra, Florida, notorious for the “Tim Rivers High Diving Mule Act” performed since 1957 at county fairs around the U.S., is among nine defendants named in federal indictments for allegedly illegally supplying 11 captive-raised tigers and leopards to canned hunts.

Indicted with Rivers for alleged conspiracy and Lacey Act violations were Lazy L Exotics owners Todd Lantz, 39, and Vicki Lantz, 40, of Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Freddy Wilmoth, 44, of Gentry, Arkansas, who is son of Wild Wilderness Drive Through Safari owner Ross Wilmoth; and Stoney Elam, 30, owner of the Power House Wildlife Sanctuary in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.

Named later were three Michigan men who allegedly bought some of the animals’ pelts: George F. Riley, 69, of Farmington Hills; Leonard Kruszewski, 40, of Milford; and William D. Foshee, 43, of Jackson. Issued earlier, the indictments were opened in November 2001. The Lacey Act bars taking, moving, or selling in violation of any U.S. law or treaty.

The nine defendants were indicted in a continuing investigation, said a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service press release. “In January 2001, Woody Thompson Jr.,” owner of the Willow Lake Sportsmen’s Club in Three Rivers, Michigan, “was sentenced to serve six months home detention and two years probation; fined $2,000; and ordered to pay $28,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Save the Tigers Fund,” the Fish and Wildlife Service release said.

The case resulted from a probe by the Fish and Wildlife Service and federal attorneys in Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan, who the release said, “uncovered a group of residents and small business owners who allegedly bought and killed exotic tigers, leopards, snow leopards, lions, mountain lions, cougars, mixed breed cats and black bears with the intention of introducing meat and skins into the animal parts trade.”

Rivers was accused of selling two leopards in 1998. Elam allegedly sold two tigers and three leopards. Todd Lantz was accused of buying four tigers from Freddy Wilmoth in 1998 and taking them to be shot at the 5H Ranch in Cape Girardeau. “Vicki Lantz prepared federal forms falsely stating that the transaction was a donation,” the press release said.

Jim Mason, now head of the Two Mauds Foundation in Mt. Vernon, Missouri, told ANIMAL PEOPLE that he had heard of the activities of Lazy L Exotics and the 5H Ranch “the first time I went to Cape Girardeau to investigate the wildlife traffic,” after editing the Animals’ Agenda magazine, 1981-1986.

Rivers took over the Diving Mule Act from his father, who reportedly founded it. In early years a monkey was often chained to the back of the mule, who was forced to dive into a tank of water from a ramp of varying height. In recent years the monkey was no longer seen.

Rivers fled town to evade cruelty charges against the Diving Mule Act in Babylon, N.Y., 1979 and 1991; Brockton, Mass., 1983; Jackson, Miss., 1988; Birmingham, Ala., 1990; and Lackawanna, N.Y., 2000. The Diving Mule Act was stopped by injunction in 1989 in Huntsville, Ala.; in 1994 in Chicago; and in 2001 in Green County, Tenn. In 1994, Brevard County, Fla., passed an emergency bylaw to bar the act from the county fair. In 1998 the Florida House
Agriculture Committe approved a bill to ban the Diving Mule Act, but the bill did not advance farther. In 1999 Rivers won dismissal of a cruelty case brought by Justice for Animals in North Carolina when the veterinarian who was to testify against him did not appear.

WSPA and ending animal circuses in Rio

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

RIO DE JANEIRO–“We did it! No more circuses with animals in Rio de Janeiro! Governor Anthony Garotinho signed our bill into law! This is our second victory this year, as we also got rid of the decompression chamber for good in Sao Paulo,” enthused Alianca International do Animal founder Ila Franco in a November 26 e-mail to ANIMAL PEOPLE.

The Sao Paulo decompression chamber was believed to be one of the few still used to kill animals anywhere in the world. Most U.S. shelters quit using decompression between 1976, when the San Francisco SPCA was reputedly first, and 1985, when the Dallas and Houston animal control shelters were reputedly among the last.

Franco had updated ANIMAL PEOPLE from time to time about her pursuit of both campaigns–and also about the work of Alianca in sterilizing 6,000 dogs and cats and filing 36 cruelty cases during 2001. Franco credited many other people and organizations with helping. She thanked World Society for the Protection of Animals veterinarian Lloyd Tait, for example, for helping with sterilizations.

Franco was quite upset with WSPA, however, when she next contacted ANIMAL PEOPLE, on December 18, after seeing the WSPA web site. Said the site, making no mention of Alianca, “The state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil has passed a law banning the use of animals in circuses. The move follows a series of reports and campaigns by WSPA’s Latin American offices.” Elaborated WSPA Brazilian representative Elizabeth MacGregor in an e-mail announcement, “Public support for this bill was partly inspired by a terrible incident in Brazil last year where an improperly caged circus lion killed a child. The parents of that child have appeared at WSPA-sponsored demonstrations in support of the bill.”

Countered Franco, “Support for this bill was immensely inspired by this terrible accident because Alianca kept the facts of the incident vividly in view.” The campaign began “In 1999, when the circus elephant Madu killed her keeper in Caraquatatuba and then ran away to Sao Sebastiano,” Franco remembered. “I was called by a man who took his
son to the show and saw the circus people beating Madu.” Rushing to the scene, Franco spent four days at the circus,
she said, monitoring the treatment of Madu, and learning that the dead trainer had allegedly beaten her on the trunk to make her drink. Franco also watered a thirsty bear, she recalled, “who drank for 20 minutes without stopping.”

Franco “photographed what I had seen, to prove what was going on,” she continued. “Then I rented a big screen, sound system, and microphones, and a few feet away from this circus I showed videos to inform the public about how circus animals are trained.” Franco also formally incorporated Alianca, after years of activity, to bring a court case against the circus, seeking to confiscate the allegedly abused animals. She won the case, and arranged for the animals to be sent to a Rio de Janeiro zoo where she hoped they would receive better care–but the circus left the city
rather than give the animals up.

Franco then arranged to follow the circus and lead a rally against it, but “Three days before the scheduled protest,” she
remembered, “the six-year-old child was killed by a lion in Recife, Pernambuco.” Meeting the father of the child at a TV talk show appearance, Franco invited the family to join the Alianca rally. “I sponsored their air fares out of my pocket, and the father, mother, and baby sister all stayed for three days at my home, where we planned our approach to the state legislature,” Franco told ANIMAL PEOPLE.

For the next two years Alianca volunteer Andrea Lambert lobbied the Rio de Janeiro legislature, while Franco roused public opinion. “I edited videos, made 20,000 pamphlets, made t-shirts, passed out information at a science fair for 60 public schools, and hired a theatrical troupe” to take the message to the poor communities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, Franco recounted. “Meanwhile, we removed seven lions from another circus. As the only place available for them was at the zoo in Sta. Catarina, where I saw that the people would treat them well, but the quarters were unfinished due to lack of funding, I helped to fund proper quarters,” Franco said.

The seven lions became an effective exhibit in the Alianca campaign.Then, Franco recalled, “We found out that the same lion who killed the six-year-old had injured another child three years earlier, and killed two four-year-old girls 12 years before that. Their families were also invited” to join Alianca on TV talk shows. Along the way, Franco said, she was often threatened by circus people, and was once beaten by the wife of a circus owner. Only on the day of the voting on the bill to ban animals from circuses, Franco said, did she introduce the father of the dead six-year-old to MacGregor.

“At not one moment before that,” Franco stated, “did Je’ Miguel [the father] ever hear of or know of WSPA or MacGregor, and neither he nor I had any help from them.” Franco made an issue of the omission of Alianca from the
account because while WSPA is a $9-million-a-year group in the U.S. and a $7-million-a-year group in Britain, Alianca is a hand-to-mouth group in Brazil, with no paid administrative staff. A victory of global note could be a rare chance to attract U.S. and British donors.

[Contact Alianca International Do Animal c/o 2535 La Serena St., Escondido, CA 92025, USA; <WynterWulf@aol.com>.]

Other cases

Earlier in 2001, ANIMAL PEOPLE received similar allegations of discrepancies between WSPA claims and actuality from India, Korea, Pakistan, Romania, and Costa Rica, reported in “Seeking the bear truth about World Society work in India” (April 2001), and “Questions for WSPA and the RSPCA” (June 2001). ANIMAL PEOPLE then received a series of anonymous letters detailing alleged parallel episodes involving WSPA in other nations during the past decade. Many allegations were supported by photographs.

Much of the material could not be published without on-the-record sources, but ANIMAL PEOPLE was able to ask WSPA chief executive Andrew Dickson on October 1 why the WSPA wildlife rehabilitation center in Colombia stands dilapidated and vacant.  Built in 1984 with funds from the estate of Marcelle Delpu, it closed in 1998.

Wrote WSPA publicist Jonathan Owen, on October 10, “The buildings are now the property of Colombia. WSPA ownership ceased when the centre was subject of a compulsory purchase order from the authorities due to a major road building scheme. The site is now adajcent to a busy major highway.” The source expressed skepticism. The photos show facilities which–with repair–appear still suitable for use as a rehabilitation center, shelter, or clinic.

“We have also received photographs documenting the condition of the former Clinica Veterinaria Sozed animal shelter and hospital in Rio de Janeiro, another short-lived WSPA venture. Why was this project not sustained?” ANIMAL PEOPLE asked Dickson. Replied Owen, “We are unable to comment as we have no direct involvement in or knowledge of this facility.”

“Let us give you further detail,” said ANIMAL PEOPLE, “and perhaps you can come up with WSPA’s side of the story. According to our source, ‘Dr. Claudie Dunin, a longtime supporter of WSPA, offered to donate nearly $50,000 U.S. to WSPA to buy an office in Sao Paolo. The building was purchased in 1994, and Anna Maria Pineiro, who lived nearby, was made president of WSPA in Brazil. However, within 18 months, Andrew Dickson made a unilateral decision to close the office and sell the property. He irreparably harmed relations with animal protection organizations in Brazil. Mrs. Pinheiro will no longer have anything to do with anyone in animal protection. When Dunin threatened legal action, WSPA gave her back $22,000, with which to buy a shelter and veterinary clinic in Rio Comprido, in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, in which WSPA would have a rent-free office. WSPA never paid a cent toward helping the animals who were
assisted by the shelter. In early 2001 it closed due to lack of funding.'”

Twelve weeks later, WSPA has said nothing further. ANIMAL PEOPLE can say with certainty only that the mere fact the account was leaked to us–true or false– appears indicative of management problems.

No Olympic medals for “cultural” cowpokes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

SALT LAKE CITY–The Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the forthcoming Winter Olympic Games was expected to drop the scheduled February 9-11 Command Performance Rodeo from the Cultural Olympiad at a January 3 meeting with rodeo foes. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association could still hold the rodeo, but without an official Olympic connection.

SLOC president Mitt Romney “suggested that if calf-roping is in, then SLOC is out,” Salt Lake City mayoral spokesperson Joshua Ewing told Brady Snyder of the Deseret News, “so we’re assuming that since calf-roping is still included, SLOC is out.” Confirmed Caroline Shaw, spokesperson for Romney, to Mike Gorrell of the Salt Lake Tribune, “Mitt is relatively insistent that calf-roping not be one of the events.”

Cultural Olympiad artistic director Raymond T. Grant on December 3 relayed to PRCA commissioner Steven J. Hatchell a request from Romney that calf roping be excluded, after Romney said at least three times after a November 29 meeting with rodeo opponents that calf roping might be dropped for being too violent. At the meeting, said Eric Mills of Action for Animals, “Grant was the main guy promoting the rodeo.” [Mention of Mills and Vancouver Humane Society representative Debra Probert was accidentally lost from the ANIMAL PEOPLE coverage of the meeting.]

According to Deseret News staff writer Snyder, Grant told the PRCA that, “Having engaged the animal rights activists, this engagement needs to produce some results. I recognize that the result might very well be the PRCA saying to me that what was suggested is not acceptable to the PRCA.” The PRCA reportedly responded that, “Since we have not been asked or given an ultimatum, our plan is to proceed as scheduled. We have a contract for the rodeo, and that includes calf roping.”

Pledged Steve Hindi of SHARK, “If the rodeo plans continue, the Olympics are in for a very rough run. The SHARK Tiger video truck is being readied for a rendezvous with the Olympic Torch Relay on January 4 in Illinois. From then on, the Tiger will relentlessly follow the Torch,” through a 31-stop itinerary, “and right into Salt Lake City. The Tiger will not be at the Olympic rodeo, but will instead patrol legitimate Olympic events, where it will be seen by far more people from around the world. Nevertheless, there will be protesters outside the rodeo grounds, and investigators inside to
report on whatever happens to the animals.”

PETA also planned to follow the Torch Run, and on January 1 put up a billboard opposing the rodeo in Salt Lake City .
Protests at the rodeo site, the Davis County FairPark in Farmington, Utah, were to be led by the Utah Animal Rights
Coalition. The Farmington city council withdrew and rewrote a draft anti-protest ordinance in early December on the advice of the American Civil Liberties Union, but will still require demonstrators to obtain permits 10 days in advance.

Hindi, Tony Moore of the Foundation Against Animal Cruelty in Europe, and Mathilde Mench of the German groups Initiative Anti-Corrida and Animal 2000 on Dec-ember 19 flew to Lausanne, Switzer-land, to meet with International Olympic Committee medical director Patrick Schamasch, M.D.Schamasch told them that even if the rodeo is held as part of the Cultural Olympiad, it will not be allowed to call the event an “Olympic competition” or give “Olympic medals” to the winners.”Schamasch declared that there will be no Olympic medals, real or imitation, given to the contestants,” Hindi affirmed. “That brings to an end any fantasy the rodeo people had about being Olympians.”

An obvious distinction between the Command Performance Rodeo and other Olympic-related events, pointed out Mills, is that “The rodeo cowboys are the only contestants competing for prize money–$140,000, according to the PRCA. Rodeo animals,” Mills continued, “are the only contestants forced to compete through the use of electric prods, bucking straps, spurs, ropes, tail-twisting, kicks, slaps, pain and fear.” Officially, the Olympic Command Performance Rodeo is not even offered as an athletic competition, despite the pretense of rodeo cowboys to athleticism. Instead it is to be repeated daily, February 9-11, as part of the Cultural Olympiad, which usually features music, dancing, and theatrical events considered representative of the host nation.

A rodeo was also part of the Cultural Olympiad at the 1988 Winter Olympics, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, but drew little protest because most animal activist groups knew nothing about it until after it was held. The frequent violent fate of rodeo animals was shown meanwhile at the National Rodeo Finals in Las Vegas on December 9 when a 14-year-old bucking horse named Great Plains suffered a broken back during a ride by William Pittman II of Florence, Mississippi.

In November, a mare was killed and a calf reportedly badly hurt at the American Royal Rodeo in Kansas City. According to the most recent available PRCA data, 38 animals were injured at 57 officially sanctioned rodeos in 1999–meaning that the PRCA itself admits that animals are injured at two-thirds of rodeos. Rodeo opponents believe the actual injury rate is far higher.

Rodeo cowboys too are often injured, and not just by falling off or being dragged by the animals they try to ride or rope. In Rockhampton, Aust-ralia, Central Queensland Fertility Clinic science director Simon Wal-ton has linked bull-riding and riding bucking horses to reduced sperm counts among contestants, though not to the point of inducing sterility.

University of New Mexico researcher Loren Ketai, meanwhile, has found that recreational horse riders suffer more head injuries than rodeo performers when bucked off an animal–but recreational riders are rarely trampled by the animal who bucked them, whereas rodeo performers are trampled twice as often as they hit their heads.

Mutes win big

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

WASHINGTON D.C.–A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on December 28 restored Migratory Bird Treaty Act protection to mute swans. Ruling for mute swan defender Joyce M. Hill, the appellate court reversed a district court verdict which would have allowed wildlife agencies to kill mute swans at will.

“Counsel for the Secretary [of the Interior] contended that the non-native character of the mute swan justified exclusion [from protection],” the appellate panel wrote. “However, no agency decision explains the definition of ‘native,’ whether the mute swan is native or non-native, and why the native or non-native character of a species is relevant under the statute and treaties. This is especially important, because Hill argues that other birds on the List of Migratory Birds are non-native under many common definitions.

“Government counsel also claimed that the mute swan’s destructive and aggressive nature support exclusion,” the panel added. “The Secretary points to nothing in the statute, treaties, or administrative record to support this conclusion. It is unclear how such a consideration could ever overcome a statutory requirement to the contrary.”

Wildlife agencies have sought to cull mute swans for nearly 20 years, as an alleged threat to the recovery of trumpeter swans, who were hunted almost to extinction. There are about 18,000 mute swans in the U.S., and around 25,000 trumpeters.

Most mute swans in the U.S. apparently descended from birds brought from Europe during the 19th century, but there is disputed fossil evidence that they inhabited the west coast before human settlement.

The Department of the Interior has not yet said if it will appeal the December 28 ruling. If the ruling stands, it could serve as a precedent to a challenge of the 1994 decision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to exclude nonmigratory giant Canada geese from MBTA protection, as allegedly not being part of the goose population that the 1916 legislation was meant to protect.

Great expectations and humane work

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

ATLANTA, HONOLULU, INDIANAPOLIS, ITHACA, LOS ANGELES, MIAMI, NEW YORK–“No healthy or treatable animal or feral cat has been killed in Tompkins County since June,” former San Francisco SPCA operations director Nathan Winograd announced on New Year’s Eve, after just under a year as head of the Tompkins County SPCA in
Ithaca, New York.

The Tompkins County rate of shelter killing, for all reasons combined, dropped to 3.9 dogs and cats per 1,000 human residents: less than 25% of the U.S. norm. The TC/SPCA had already cut shelter killing in Tompkins County by 50% in 10 years. In 2001 it achieved a further 50% cut, by boosting the percentage of pets sterilized before adoption from 10% to 100%; sterilizing 568 pets for low-income people; starting a feral cat aid program; increasing adoptions; markedly increasing use of volunteers; and expanding partnerships with local veterinarians and the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Captain Mark D. Jeter of the Miami-Dade Police Department is testing the same formula in Miami, Florida–hub of Dade County, once considered an impossible venue. A huge feral cat population gave birth three times a year, pet sterilization outreach to Spanish-speaking residents had barely been tried, and an entrenched old guard drove progressive shelter directors out of town, among them Rick Collord, now noted for reducing shelter killing in Vancouver, Washington, and Karen Medicus, now leading a promising drive to make Austin the first no-kill city in Texas.

Today, feral cat sterilization programs and multilingual outreach have cut the Miami kill rate to 9.3 per 1,000 human
residents–a 75% drop in 10 years. Jeter, put in charge of Miami Animal Services on October 1, 2001, a month later announced partnerships with the Humane Society of Greater Miami and local veterinarians, “and corporate sponsors,” to provide free sterilization for any local dog or cat.

As ever more communities show that the low shelter killing rates in San Francisco (2.6/1,000) and the whole state of New Hampshire (2.2) are not flukes, clamor for change is rising in cities that lag.

Los Angeles mayor James K. Hahn in October 2001 fired city Animal Services chief Dan Knapp, 46. During his 40-month tenure, Knapp introduced one of the highest licensing fees in the U.S. for unaltered dogs, won passage of a $154 million bond issue for shelter improvements, and doubled the city animal control budget, but the L.A. shelter killing rate of 14.4/1,000 remained static. Knapp in December became executive director of the Capital Area Humane Society in Columbus, Ohio, succeeding Jim Cunningham, who retired.

New York Center for Animal Care & Control chief Marilyn Blohm reportedly got a contract extension from former New York City mayor Rudolf Giuliani just before his December 31 exit. Hired in 1997, Blohm has had strained relations with other New York City shelters, and in December 2001 told nonsheltered rescuers that they will now be
charged $25 to $40 per animal they take from the CACC shelter to socialize, groom, train, and place. After 30 years of annually reduced shelter killing, the New York City rate has plateaued circa 5.5/1,000 since 1995, when the CACC took over animal control from the American SPCA.

The Atlanta Humane Society, Hawaii Humane Society, and Indianapolis Humane Society also opened 2002 under growing scrutiny. Led by some of the longest-tenured executive directors in humane work, in Bill Garrett, Pam Burns, and Marcia Spring, each does animal control for an affluent and fast-growing city; has unusually high reserves relative to operating budget; is known for “by-the-book” operation; has clashed with no-kill proponents; and has cut shelter killing less rapidly than the U.S. as a whole, with current per-1,000 killing rates of 21.0, 17.7, and 27.1, respectively.

Allegations of mismanagement by ex-staff of short tenure are also part of the uproar in Atlanta and Honolulu, while the
Indianapolis Humane Society inherited some of its problems after taking over the city pound in April 2001.

Mexico City bars children from bullfights

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

MEXICO CITY–Mexico City mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told news media on Decem-ber 28 that he would not try to undo an ordinance barring persons under 18 from attending bullfights. The ordinance was part of a 70-article omnibus animal protection act adopted on December 27 by the Mexico City Metropolitan Assembly, 51-6. It was “pushed through the left-leaning assembly by the small but forceful Green Ecologist Party, which has long campaigned against bullfights and cockfights,” reported Los Angeles Times staff writer Chris Kraul.

Green Ecologist assembly member Arnold Ricalde told Kraul that the Greens would seek passage of similar ordinances around Mexico. “To kill for enjoyment is an act without justification,” Ricalde said.

The new ordinance was opposed, however, by Mexico City News columnist Ricardo Castillo Mireles. “Some assembly members are questioning their own vote,” Mireles said, “as they claim they did not see this particular provision” within the larger bill. “A main problem created by the new law,” Mireles continued, “is that young novilleros will no longer be able to cape at Plaza Mexico. In a business that needs to start bullfighters early, this could mean a death blow. Expect a very strong protest,” Mireles warned, “from Mexico City’s Taurine Com-mission, the bullfighters and cattlemen associations, and parents who want to retain the right to choose what their children should see.” But whether the bullfighting industry still has enough clout to win a reversal is uncertain.

“In exchange for their support in the 2000 presidential election,” Kraul wrote, “the Greens extracted a promise from
[victorious Mexican presidential candidate] Vicente Fox that he would not attend a bullfight or a cockfight until after the elections.” Implied is that the Greens enjoy more political support now than the bullfight promoters.

Similar legislation was proposed in Madrid, Spain, in January 1998 by regional government ombudsman for children’s rights Javier Urra, but was not enacted.

BLM slows horse captures under Fund pressure

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2001:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The Bureau of Land Manage-ment on December 19, 2001 agreed to suspend until May 2002 a plan to remove 40% more wild horses than the official “appropriate management level” from 11 sites on the western range.

The Fund for Animals and the Animal Legal Defense Fund in September 2001 jointly charged in a lawsuit against the BLM that, “The [removal] strategy violates the 1971 Wild and Free Ranging Horse and Burro Protection Act,” by allegedly failing to consider the environmental impact of the removals, and also allegedly failing to consider alternatives.

“In order to avoid an immediate court ruling on the part of the strategy whereby the BLM removes wild horses and burros to 40% below the official appropriate management level, the BLM agreed that it will not undertake such removals without first giving the plaintiffs significant advance notice, to ensure that the court can rule on the practice before it happens again,” said Fund for Animals vice president Mike Markarian.

BLM spokesperson Celia Boddington said that the 11 scheduled wild horse roundups would be held, but would capture only about 4,500 horses instead of the 7,500 originally targeted.

A final ruling on the Fund/ALDF case is due in early 2002, but not before January 20, when the captures are to begin. Altogether, the BLM wants to remove 21,000 of the estimated 48,000 wild horses left on federal rangeland in 10 western states. The temporary agreement came less than 10 days after Fund for Animals attorney Howard Crystal released to news media BLM reports documenting that at least 600 wild horses gathered in previous roundups since 1998 have been sold to slaughterhouses. The horses were adopted by private citizens, who by law were not allowed to
sell them until receiving legal title to them, issued one year after the adoption date.

“Forty wild horses adopted out by the BLM were sent to slaughter in the most recent six-month period covered by the records, four of them within four weeks of the owner receiving title,” summarized Robert Gehrke of Associated Press. “Two others were slaughtered within two months of being titled. However, the quick turnaround seems to be less frequent than it once was,” Gehrke wrote. “A BLM report covering March 1998 to September 1999 showed 186 horses were slaughtered within three months of being titled, a rate of nearly 10 per month.”

Responded Fund for Animals western office representative Andrea Lococo, via Deborah Frazier of the Denver Rocky Mountain News, “If you look at the legislative history, it is clear that Congress never intended for wild horses to be slaughtered.” Wild horses were once a mainstay of the U.S. horse slaughter industry, along with cast-off racehorses and saddle horses, while about half of the horses killed in Canada were foaled by the mares used to produced pregnant mare’s urine, the base material for the hormone supplement Premarin. As recently as 1990, U.S. slaughterhouses killed 315,000 horses, and Canadian slaughterhouses killed 235,000 more. France reportedly bought most of the meat, and Italy bought most of the hides.

The collapse of trade barriers between eastern Europe and the European Community in the early 1990s brought a glut of ex-workhorses into France and Italy at prices well below the cost of importing horsemeat and hides from North America, where the market collapsed. In 2000, U.S. slaughterhouses killed only 50,449 horses; Canadian slaughterhouses killed about 62,000.

Equine slaughter resurges

However, scares over mad cow disease and hoof-and-mouth disease scares sent demand soaring again in 2001. As the eastern European horse supply ran thin, killer-buyers began importing horses from South America. The average price paid for horses by U.S. killer-buyers rose 37% in three months, while in Canada killer-buyers paid 50% more. Botswana and Namibia began governmentally encouraging plans to slaughter donkeys for meat, and rumors flew in India about the alleged slaughter of donkeys for illegal export.

Although donkey meat would be rejected by many Europeans, it is often eaten in parts of Asia. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il in July and August 2001 shocked Russians by serving donkey meat mislabeled “heavenly cow” to local dignitaries who visited him at stops on an 11-day train visit to Moscow and back. Some reports claimed Kim Jong-Il brought live donkeys aboard the train to be sure of always having fresh meat.

In the U.S., it is unclear if higher prices are encouraging more adoptions of wild horses for speculation on resale to slaughter, or are just encouraging adoptors with problematic wild horses to sell them for slaughter while the selling is lucrative. Even at the present prices, giving a horse bought fodder for a year in anticipation of sale for horsemeat would not be profitable.

Alleged wild horse speculator Haven B. Hendricks was charged on December 7 with four counts of cruelty for allegedly leaving 24 horses to starve and suffer from exposure on land he owns in Cache County, Utah. Hendricks, a Utah State University associate professor of agriculture, reportedly told news media that he bought the two dozen horses at a BLM auction in southern Utah, and said, “They were really thin when I got them.” On December 16, Salt Lake City Deseret News staff writer Twila Van Leer reported that, “An internal review of the performance of USU associate professor Haven Hendricks has resulted in a recommendation that he be dismissed.”

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