AMC rift goes public

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

NEW YORK, N.Y.––A two-year clash between senior staff and
management at the nonprofit Animal Medical Center in Manhattan exploded
into the New York Times and New York Post in early February. Eight
veterinarians from a permanent AMC staff of 25 quit between March 1994
and March 1995, after which the remaining vets split into factions of 11
opposing chief-of-staff William Kay, DVM, and 10 supporting him, six
of whom were said to be related by marriage.
Documents received by ANIMAL PEOPLE from the dissident
faction indicate Kay, a 30-year employee with strong board support, was
soon afterward kicked upstairs and replaced on an interim basis by Michael
Garvey, DVM, whose policies are no more popular and who is reportedly
soon to be replaced by a new permanent chief of staff.

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Animal health

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

Amid the mad cow disease panic, Britain barely
noticed the death of an 11-year-old Moslem girl from anthrax
after a two-day stay at the Poitier’s University Hospital in
London. Anthrax, a disease of known epidemic potential, hits
about 100,000 people a year. It can be treated with antibiotics, if
recognized early, but otherwise kills through the combination of
high fever, pneumonia, and internal hemorrages. Sixteen days
before falling ill, the girl helped her father kill an infected sheep
at an unlicensed slaughterhouse during the Ramadan religious
holiday. She then ate a lightly cooked piece of the liver. The rest
of her family, fasting according to the rules of Ramadan, waited
until the end of the holidays before boiling and eating the rest of
the meat. None of them became ill.

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Winter of snow and drought

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

Severe swings in winter weather,
believed to be symptomatic of global warming,
hit animals hard around the world.
Near Bascones del Agua, in northern
Spain, more than 4,000 pigs drowned two days
after Christmas when a river overflowing with
snowmelt from the Pyranees mountains trapped
them in their barn.
At the same time, tropical fish farmers
in Hillsborough County, Florida, lost fish by the
ton to a sudden cold snap. The U.S. tropical fish
industry centers on Florida, and about 150 of
Florida’s 184 tropical fish farms are in
Hillsborough County, previously noted for climatic
stability.

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More “Who gets the money?”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

ANIMAL PEOPLE continues to receive IRS Form 990 filings and/or group financial
statements for fiscal year 1994, four months after the deadline for inclusion in our annual
December financial abstract of animal and habitat protection groups:

• The American Bird Conservancy,
formed by the 1993 merger of the International
Council for Bird Protection–U.S., the ICBP–Pan
American Section, and the ICBP Inc., when the
original ICBP became BirdLife International,
spent $237,067; claimed to spend $142,517 on
programs, against $94,550 (40%) on fundraising
and overhead; did not claim program costs associated
with fundraising; and had assets of
$638,541, including $11,484 in fixed property
and $629,024 in cash. It took in $841,482 for the
year, $603,158 as grants from affiliates. Both the
revenues and the assets are quite high relative to
the level of reported activity, and may reflect
preparation to buy land or other facilities. Acting
administrative director George Schillinger was
paid $36,250. George Fenwick, paid $9,000 for
service “as required,” was the only other staffer
listed.

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Who was that masked man?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

WEYAUWEGA, Wisc.– –
Evacuated along with 1,700 other human
residents of Weyauwega on March 3,
after a Wiscnsin Central freight train
derailed, igniting 14 ruptured propane
tankers, Susan Weiss got the birthday
gift she most wanted 12 days later: her
10-year-old cat Kynda, the disabled
woman’s sole companion, delivered
from freezing and dehydration by a
stranger in a ski cap. The unknown rescuer
called two nights earlier, on her
birthday, to get directions to Weiss’
home and a set of keys, after learning
from news reports that she hadn’t been
allowed to retrieve Kynda on March 8,
when the National Guard let 132 residents
go back in armored cars to get their
pets, because Weiss’ home was too close
to the derailment. Weiss had left a bag of
catfood open when she fled, but with all
gas and electricity in the village off to
avoid accidental sparks, the cat had neither
heat nor a source of water other than
licking ice in the frozen toilet bowl.

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Organizations

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, after announcing
a move to Seattle last year, then indicating
it might go to Hampton Beach,
Virginia, or Atlanta instead, has reportedly
now purchased a building in Norfolk,
Virginia, with a dock on the Elizabeth
River. PETA is experiencing online
address confusion, too: someone set up a
World Wide Web page at >>http://
www.peta.org<< for “People Eating Tasty
Animals,” with links to the Americans
for Medical Progress home page.

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Marching orders

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

Last Chance for Animals has
pledged to “take advantage of the tens of
thousands of supporters” it expects to attend
the June “March for the Animals” in
Washington D.C. to “blockade the USDA”
if it fails to announce pending regulatory
amendments to change the Class B dealer
system before then. Currently, the “B”
dealer classification covers anyone who
buys or sells animals across interstate
lines––including more than a thousand pet
dealers along with from 50 to 75 sellers of
random-source dogs and cats to laboratories,
many of whom have been accused of trafficking
in stolen pets. USDA spokesperson
Stephen Smith told ANIMAL PEOPLE
almost a year ago that the agency wants to
split th” ‘B” category into nine subcategories,
to enable closer tracking of activity.

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WOOFS & GROWLS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

Adopt-A-Pet, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, quiet for several
years, recently issued a bulletin “introducing our statewide
service,” a purported mobile adoption-and-rescue program,
and soliciting donations. Adopt-A-Pet in 1986-1992 raised
$6,840,756 via the Watson and Hughey direct mailing empire,
which renamed itself Direct Response Consulting Services after
paying $2.4 million in 1991 in out-of-court settlement of
charges pertaining to alleged use of misleading sweepstakes
appeals. Adopt-A-Pet was among the W&H/DRCS codefendants
in a series of cases brought by 22 states. In 1987-1989,
Adopt-A-Pet reportedly spent 97% of revenues on further
fundraising. Overall, according to incomplete IRS Form 990
filings obtained and abstracted by The Chronicle of
P h i l a n t h r o p y in September 1993, Adopt-A-Pet spent at least
55% of revenues on fundraising, with 6% spent on other documented
activities and 39% apparently unaccounted for.
W&H/DRCS also represented the Cancer Fund of America,
which sought donations by claiming it didn’t fund animal-based
research. It apparently funded––and funds––little or no
research of any kind.
German freelance TV producer Michael Born
faces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly defrauding customers
of more than $203,000 by faking at least 22 documentaries
between 1991 and December 1994. In one episode he
purportedly paid an actor to pose as a hunter shooting a housecat.
Born defends his creations as “docu-drama,” in which
players act out real events.
National Audubon Society president John Flicker
says he cancelled publication of an article for the A u d u b o n
magazine by former New York Times columnist Tom Wicker as
part of “a relatively minor adjustment we’re making” to policy.
Wicker had charged that the Clinton administration has not
demonstrated a clear commitment to environmental protection.
The British Advertising Standards Authority censured
the International Fund for Animal Welfare o n
Valentine’s Day for the fourth time in a year, holding that ads
urging Tesco supermarket chain chair Sir Ian MacLaurin to
cease selling Canadian canned salmon “unfairly discredited
Tesco by its false implication about the supermarket’s involvement
in seal killing.” IFAW was previously rapped for likening
hunters to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (who serially torturekilled
wildlife before turning to human victims); using a photo
allegedly depicting John Wayne Bobbitt’s severed penis in an
anti-sealing ad, which pointed out that the major profitable
market for seal products is Asian aphrodisiac demand for dried
penises; and suggesting that South Koreans kill 400,000 cats a
year for use in soup. Cat-eating is technically banned in South
Korea, but is reportedly still commonplace.

Parody
Students United to Protest Research on
Sentient Subjects, now doing business as The Nature of
Wellness, startled Washington Post readers on February 25
with a parody of Americans for Medical Progress a d s
attacking antivivisectionists. Surrounding a photo of a bonneted
baby was the headline, “Most people see a beautiful,
healthy child…We see a cure for Feline Leukemia.”
Continued the text below, “Outrageous, isn’t it? How can
anyone possibly believe that a cat disease can be cured by
conducting research on healthy human beings? Ridiculous.
But, unfortunately, millions of Americans have been led to
believe that it is possible to cure human diseases by conducting
research on healthy animals.”

The hunting lobby at work

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

British Field Sports Society deputy chair Lord
Mancroft and the Duchess of Devonshire in early March
asked the reputed 80,000 BFSS members to join the 28,000-
member Royal SPCA so as to influence policy away from
opposition to fox hunting and other blood sports. The RSPCA
has formally opposed hunting since 1976. New members had
to join the RSPCA by March 22 to be eligible to vote at the
organization’s June annual meeting––and as many as 1,500
hunters reportedly did, as RSPCA board members and staff
scrambled to find a way to legally bar them.
“The biennial conference of the parties to the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
is due to be held in Zimbabwe in 1997,” reminds Shirley
McGreal of the International Primate Protection League.
“Problems are developing, as the government of Zimbabwe
wants to hold the meeting in Victoria Falls. Hotel rooms for
government officials are available in the town, which has a
total of 900 beds, but usually 1,500 or more people attend
CITES conferences. Because of the room shortage, representatives
of non-governmental organizations would be lodged far
away, in Zambia and Botswana, out of the action.” This
would give Zimbabwe more opportunity to lobby officials in
favor of abolishing the international ban on ivory trafficking.

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