A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:
A Food Research Association
survey reported in the May 29 edition of
New Scientist that “conscientious consumers”
fall into three categories, of
whom only vegetarians boycotting animal
products tend to sustain boycotts over
time. The second category includes people
who think about ethical issues, but
mainly shop by price; the third is people
who worry about issues but rarely change
their actual shopping behavior.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:
Animal Liberation Front actions
reportedly caused the deaths at least 3,000
animals in the first half of 1996, including
2,000 pregnant mink who were roadkilled
or starved about six months before they
would have been pelted, after 3,000 were
released from the L.W. Bennett & Sons fur
farm near East Bloomfield, New York, on
April 4. Late snow cut their already slim
chances of finding adequate wild prey.
According to the Memphis-based
Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, which
claims to speak for the ALF, “more than
11,000 animals have been freed during the
past 10 months,” but except for the New
York action, most––almost all mink––were
recaptured on or near the fur farms.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:
WELLINGTON, N.Z.––Farm animals
have no right to freedom from discomfort, disease,
injury, or pain, say the Federated Farmers of New
Zealand.
Expecting the Animal Welfare Advisory
Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture to soon publish
a proposed code governing the treatment of farm
animals, the Federated Farmers’ annual conference on
June 16 moved quickly to undo a 1988 endorsement
of “five freedoms” for farm animals propounded by
the Farm Animal Welfare Council of Britain.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:
Nairobi University ecology lecturer Warui Karanja blames a recent steep drop in the legendary pink flamingo population of Lake Nakaru National Park, featured in the film Out of Africa, on the construction of a sewage treatment plant that stopped the flow of effluent into the lake, which in turn fed blue-green algae, the flamingos’ main food. The 18-squaremile wetlands formerly supported more than a million flamingos, but now has just 10,000, according to Karanja. Other investigators blame well-drilling, which has lowered the Lake Nakaru water table, exacerbating the effects of periodic drought.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:
Overseas
Royal SPCA members on June 22 voted 432-2 according to the London
T i m e s and 459-2 according to the Daily Telegraph to require members to pledge
that they will not “participate in any activity which is considered by the society to
involve avoidable suffering to animals.” The requirement is subject to the approval
of the Charities Commission, however, which in May obliged the RSPCA to drop
a 19-year-old antivivisection policy on grounds that a charitable organization may
not oppose activities undertaken “for the good of man.” An estimated 3,000 members
of the 88,000-member British Field Sports Society recently joined the 28,000-
member RSPCA in an attempt to reverse the RSPCA position against hunting, but
were not yet eligible to vote. The Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association i s
attempting a similar hostile infiltration and takeover of the Irish SPCA, The Irish
Times reported on June 27. Already five local affiliates have amended their policies
to endorse fox hunting. The ISPCA hopes to thwart the effort by adopting a membership
requirement similar to that adopted by the RSPCA.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:
The trial of Mary Constantine and
Bobbi Rhud of Minnetonkans Against Animal
Cruelty for allegedly interfering in a deer cull by
videotaping it ended June 24 with a hung jury.
Constantine and Rhud were arrested in an apparent
ambush on February 19, along with Steve Hindi,
president of the Chicago Animal Rights Coalition,
after retrieving hidden cameras and returning to
Hindi’s van. Minnetonka police spent several days
checking out Hindi’s electronic equipment before
returning it all to him, under court order, with rundown
batteries. All charges against Hindi were
dropped just before the trial. Hindi attended anyway,
as a defense witness. “The police really
helped,” he said. “One cop described the layout of
the ‘getaway’ van––even the back seats, quite an
accomplishment, since there weren’t any. Police
photographs proved that. The police were caught in
so many lies that the prosecutior repeatedly apologized
to the jury for their ‘mistaken’ testimony in his
final argument. The jury was apparently hung
because one juror, a bow hunter, was bent on conviction
from the beginning, telling other jurors he
‘wasn’t particularly concerned’ that the cops lied.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:
Molly, the last known survivor of the traveling dolphin
shows popular in the 1960s, was on June 24 transferred by order of
the National Marine Fisheries Service from the Sugarloaf Dolphin
Sanctuary to the Dolphin Research Center, whose management has
long been critical of the Sugarloaf rehabilitation-for-release program.
NMFS suspended Sugarloaf operator Lloyd Good III’s
marine mammal exhibition license on June 7, two weeks after Good
and former Sugarloaf rehabilitation director Ric O’Barry released
the ex-Navy dolphins Buck and Luther without a permit. Buck and
Luther had been undergoing preparation for release since December
1994. A third ex-Navy dolphin, Jake, was seized on June 7 and
returned, with Luther, to the Navy dolphin program in San Diego.
Buck is also at DRC. Molly is claimed by the Key Largo-based
Marine Mammal Conservancy, formed by ex-Sugarloaf trainer Rick
Trout, who left after a November 1994 clash with O’Barry.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:
ANCHORAGE–– Indigenous
Alaskans killed at least 1,200 walruses this
spring, says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, in a headhunting binge likely to
have lasting repercussions. Indigenous
hunters may kill as many walruses as they
want, but must use the whole carcass.
Responding to reports of headless carcasses
drifting ashore, the USFWS in May charged
two hunters with waste, for bringing 18 adult
walrus heads with tusks back to their village,
along with 19 whole walrus calves, but only
150 to 300 pounds of meat. In mid-June the
USFWS issued posters offering $1,000 for
information leading to the arrest and conviction
of other alleged headhunters.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:
Herp traffic
The 72 Malagasy ploughshare tortoises
stolen from a captive breeding project at
the Amphijoroa Forest Park in Madagascar in
May have turned up “for sale in Prague,”
reports Allen Salzberg of the New York Turtle
and Tortoise Society. But due to corrupt
authorities, herpetologists “have little hope of
getting them or the people selling them,”
Salzberg adds. The Austrian Chelonical
Society warned in June that any members who
buy any of the stolen tortoises will be expelled.
German customs officials on July
8 announced the arrest of a 32-year-old man
caught at Augsburg with 328 tortoises
“stacked up like plates” in his luggage. The
man, who may get up to five years in prison,
reportedly “admitted selling around 3,000 rare
and protected tortoises since 1991,” either
caught or bought cheaply in Serbia.