COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Crimes vs. humans
Convicted rapist Lloyd Frank Millett, of
Turner, Maine, charged November 6 with killing Rachelle
Anne Williams, 33, of Gorham, New Hampshire, and
Terrie M. Lizotte, 39, of Canton, Maine, was said to be
good with cattle, as a farm hand but also reportedly had a
prevous record for cruelty to his dog, as well as for assaulting
his ex-wife. Arrested 14 times since 1987, Millett is under
investigation in connection with six other murders and disappearances
since January 1983.
Northern Territories coroner John Lowndes
ruled December 13 in Darwin, Australia, that there is
insufficient evidence to say either that a dingo snatched 9-
week-old Azaria Chamberlain from her parents’ tent on
August 17, 1980, or that her mother was involved. The
infant vanished without a trace, but her mother, Lindy
Chamberlain, screamed “A dingo’s got my baby!” to tourists
at a nearby campfire. A February 1981 coroner’s verdict held
that a dingo took Azaria, but was overturned by an Australian
Supreme Court ruling. Lindy in October 1992 drew a life
term for allegedly murdering Azaria; her husband Michael
was convicted as an accessory, but remained free on a good
behavior bond. Two appeals failed, but in February 1986 a
hiker found Azaria’s bloodstained, torn jacket in a dingo den.
Lindy was released from prison five days later, and in May
1992 received $962,000 compensation for wrongful conviction.
Lindy and Michael requested the coroner’s re-examination
of the evidence in hopes of finally clearning their names.
Du Runqiong and her son Tang Youhua, 20, of
Jinli village in southern China, drew death sentences on
December 27 for killing 18 people, 10 cattle, 300 fish, 240
pigs, and 3,100 chickens with rat poison between May and
November 1995, purportedly to rid the earth of “bad people.”
Another 160 people were poisoned but survived.

Activism
The libel suit waged by McDonald’s Corporation
against London Greenpeace activists Helen Steel, 30, and
Dave Morris, 41, on December 11 became the longest-running
civil case in British history––and is expected to continue
into summer, costing McDonald’s an estimated $8,000 a day
in legal fees. Steel and Morris, who alleged circa Earth Day
1990 that McDonald’s promotes an unhealthy and environmentally
unsound meat-centered diet, are conducting their own
defense plus a concurrent countersuit.
A jury in Roanoke, Virginia, on November 30
awarded bird-lover Ruby Campagna $135,000 for emotional
distress suffered when South Roanoke Apartment Village
building manager Judy Woody crushed a nest of wrens in front
of her. Campagna’s granddaughter, Ginny Davis Owen, a
registered nurse, found her half an hour later in a state of clinical
shock. Campagna was represented by former U.S. attorney
and state senator-elect John Edwards, who said she remains
“very sad and depressive.”
U.S. district judge James Lawrence King r u l e d
December 21 in Key West that Russ Rector of the Dolphin
Freedom Foundation and Ric O’Barry of the Dolphin Project
were responsible for their own injuries suffered during a protest
against underwater bomb tests by the U.S. Navy on August 9,
1990. Rector and O’Barry held that the Navy and civilian contractors
intentionally ran over them with boats.
British activists Sandra White, Gaynor Ford,
and Gillian Peachey were arrested Christmas Eve and charged
December 29 with a December 5 arson at a poultry farm, as
well as with conspiracy to possess explosives and commit
arson. Peachey was already under a 21-month suspended sentence
for conspiracy related to a 1994 attempted arson at a hotel
that was hosting a hunt club meeting.
A 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy have been
sentenced for their part in releasing more than 1,000 black
mink from a mink farm in Cleveland, Wisconsin, last July,
with charges pending against a 13-year-old girl. The 12-yearold
was ordered to apologize to the mink farmer. Wisconsin
media have often reported, apparently due to a typo in an early
account, that the mink were valued at $3,000 apiece; the going
price for a black mink pelt at auction is actually $30.00 or less.

Humane enforcement
Navy officers Jeffrey Scott Wilkerson, 21, and
Dennis Steven Artzer, 20, pleaded guilty to felony cruelty
in Sonora, California, on December 13, for dragging a cat
behind a car last June 18––right after sheriff’s deputy Todd
Blankenship warned them not to––but Judge William Polley
said he would reduce the charges to misdemeanors on
January 16 if he got a good probation report. The cat was
rescued by animal control officer Wynette Townsend.
Letters to the judge may be sent c/o Tuolomne County
Animal Control, 2 S. Green St., Sonora, CA 95370.
James Michael Fishburn, 18, and Robert
Francis Lipsky, 20, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, were
charged December 26 with misdemeanor cruelty and conspiracy
for allegedly nailing a dog’s chain to a tree 10 days
earlier and using him as an archery target. Left for dead,
the dog dragged himself over a mile to animal rights activist
Doris Gitman’s porch in nearby Mechanicsville. District
Justice Andrew Zelonis of Tamaqua set bail at $10,000,
then raised Fishburn’s to $15,000 after he threatened to kick
a witness. Failing to make bail, the suspects were remanded
to Schuykill County Prison. The dog’s owners, Joseph
and Judy Harkins of Pottsville, said they didn’t want him
back, but Ruth Steinert SPCA shelter manager Diane
Reppy said more than 50 other people asked to adopt him.
Pottsville, Mechanicsville, and Tamaqua are all near
Hegins, scene of the notorious Labor Day pigeon shoot.
Jesse Bryan, 20, of Menomonie, Wisconsin,
on November 16 drew a year in jail on work-release toward
restitution, plus 10 years probation, for shooting cats,
dogs, cows, horses, and wildlife on a five-county crime
spree also including theft, burglary, and vandalism in
December 1994.
Alan Dahle, 34, of Haugen, Wisconsin, o n
November 29 drew 15 days in jail, two years probation,
and a seek-treatment order for killing his children’s dog and
fish because his 12-year-old son played hooky.
William J. Olson, 24, of Sand Springs,
Oklahoma, drew an 18-month deferred jail sentence plus
18 months probation on December 13 for abusing two tiger
cubs. A 5-month-old tiger with a broken leg and a 2-monthold
tiger who was partially blind from malnutrition were
found July 28 at Olson’s residence. Olson is not allowed to
keep exotic animals during his probation.
Allen Laboy, 37, of Miami, Florida, drew 9.5
years in prison on December 9 for brutally killing a dog in
August 1994––five years for cruelty, and 4.5 years as a
habitual offender, with priors for burglary, assault, and
drug possession. The total sentence appears to be the
longest on record for abusing a single animal.
Jay Messinger, 35, of McKeesport,
Pennsylvania, on December 4 drew 90 days in jail for beating
a dog who bit his 18-month-old daughter to death with a
hammer on November 14––28 days after Alan Roberts of
Westminster, California, was acquitted of cruelty for beating
a dog who bit his son to death with a baseball bat, in a
nationally publicized case. Messinger will get 45 days off if
he pays $210 in necropsy and court costs.
Farmer Daryl Larson, of Craig, Missouri, is to
be sentenced on January 11 for 50 counts of animal abuse
and 50 counts of improperly disposing of dead animals, all
misdemeanors. A jury on December 16 convicted Larson of
allowing an unknown number of hogs to starve in his barn.
“Estimates of the number of dead hogs ranged from several
hundred to 2,000,” reported Associated Press.
Three of seven students from McNary High
School in Keizer, Oregon––four of them football players––who
beat and burned to death an oppossum on video in
October and then showed the video as a high school class
project are now doing 60 hours of service apiece at a local
humane society, and are to do another 40 hours with other
institutions, according to the Portland Oregonian. The
other four youths are awaiting trial.

OBITUARIES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Sonia Cortis, 83, died in her sleep on December 12. Born in
Yalta, daughter of a diplomat, she became a successful cabaret singer.
She sang from her teens until the early 1960s and performed with Edith
Piaff and for royalty. In her later years, this dedicated friend of all animals
worked as a waitress and restaurant manager, spreading the good
word to staff and customers. And with her bullhorn, the former
chanteuse energized activists every weekend for 78 weeks in a campaign
to end the cat sex experiments at the American Museum of Natural
History, the first public protest successful in saving animals from suffering
in a U.S. laboratory. She dedicated her life to helping humans and
animals, and left her body to science. We’ll miss her.
––Henry Spira

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Animals in entertainment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

On the screen
PETA on December 5 asked the USDA to
investigate alleged Animal Welfare Act violations by
Tiger’s Eye Productions, of Orlando, Florida, which
trains animals for use in TV commercials and rock
videos. “Our investigator witnessed facility owner
David McMillan beating tigers in the face, ramming
ax handles down their throats, and depriving them of
food and water as punishment,” charged PETA
researcher Jennifer Allen. “Animals have also been
left outside without shade in searing heat, or without
shelter from raging thunderstorms, and have been
denied necessary medical attention when sick.”
Finding venues for his diving mule act
scarce, Tim Rivers has turned to Hollywood, training
many of the animals used in Ace Ventura: When
Nature Calls, the second of a comedy film series starring
Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura, pet detective and animal
rights militant. Because Rivers’ role was entirely
off-set, his involvement eluded American Humane
Association observers, whose contractual role in
supervising the use of animals in films is limited to on
set action. As the November 28 edition of T h e
National Enquirer put it, Rivers’ diving mule act “is
so hideous that Rivers has been arrested on cruelty
charges in Alabama, his act is banned in Illinois, and
he was thrown out of Atlantic City by Donald Trump.”

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ANIMAL RACING

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Greyhounds
The Shoreline Star greyhound track in Bridgeport, Connecticut,
opened on November 1, drawing dogs and managerial talent from The Woodlands,
a Kansas City-area greyhound track reportedly in economic trouble. By
Thanksgiving, Shoreline Star was in trouble too, with purses averaging circa
$77,000 a night, well below the projected $100,000-$150,000. Attorney Robert Zeff
financed the track––a converted jai alai fronton––with $30 million of his own money.
Zeff previously made headlines in Detroit as subject of two high-profile legal malpractice
cases, one of which Wayne County circuit judge Mariane Battani called “the
worst case of attorney manipulation that I have ever seen,” and as organizer of a
1988 scheme to export hazardous waste to Guinea-Bissau, Africa.
The Cour d’Alene greyhound track in Post Falls, Idaho, went out of
business on December 17, three months to the day after J. Todd Foster of the
Spokane Spokesman Review published a page one expose of abuses causing one trainer
to call it “the Auschwitz of greyhound tracks.” The National Greyhound Adoption
Network and the Spokane activist group Animal Advocates of the Inland Empire
were at deadline seeking homes for 200 to 500 greyhounds who would otherwise be
euthanized. Earlier, similar placement efforts saved hundreds of dogs after track
closings at Harlingen, Texas; Belmont, New Hampshire; and Joplin, Missouri.
Tracks in Alabama, Florida, Iowa, elsewhere in New Hampshire, elsewhere in
Texas, and in Wisconsin are also reportedly close to folding.
Greyhound Network News reports that there are now 53 active greyhound
tracks in the U.S., located in 16 states. Nevada, South Dakota, and Vermont formerly
had greyhound racing, but no longer have active tracks. Vermont, Maine,
and Virginia have banned greyhound racing. GNN is published from POB 44272,
Phoenix, AZ 85064-4272.
Sled dogs
The 1996 International Rocky Mountain Stage Stop Sled Dog Race,
running from Jackson to Alpine, Wyoming, will feature a $100,000 purse––and a
new “dog friendly” format. “Rather than a long marathon race, where dogs pull for
extended periods of time, the Stage Stop will be run in stages, like the Tour de
France,” race director Frank Teasley told Team & Trail. “We will have a brand-new
race of between 30 and 80 miles starting each day for the nine racing days of the contest.
Our mushers should always have fresh dogs in their teams.” Eight members of
the International Sled Dog Veterinary Medicine Association will supervise 30 human
contestants, who may bring up to 14 dogs apiece. No more than 12 dogs may compete
on any given day. Each dog will be given an EKG exam before the race, and
will be identified by an injectable microchip. Each musher must be a member in
good standing of PRIDE, described by Team & Trail as “an Alaska-based organization
created to educate mushers on the responsible care and treatment of sled dogs.”
Horses
The French horseracing industry, already in decline, reportedly took
heavy losses when employees of the state-run Pari Mutuel Urbain off-track betting
monopoly struck for job security on December 13. The pari mutual unions believe a
computer system upgrade scheduled for 1997 will cost the 1,700-member workforce
several hundred jobs.
The British Horseracing Board, with an annual budget of $30 million,
reportedly donates not one cent to horse welfare work. Racehorse breeding has
recently accelerated in Britain, taking advantage of the growth of the European
horsemeat market to profitably dispose of culls. The 25,500 thoroughbred mares in
Britain produced an estimated 11,500 foals in 1995––far more than racetrack demand
can absorb. The boom recently inspired Cambridge University to appoint horse fertility
expert William Allen as its first “professor of racehorse breeding.”
Other species
Gambling and investment stakes in pigeon racing are bigger than ever,
but U.S. participation has fallen from an estimated 100,000 fanciers a generation ago
to barely 20,000 today. Prizes currently peak at around $15,000, but the betting on a
$15,000 race can run as high as $100,000. Although pigeon racing here developed as
a pastime of the poor in crowded immigrant neighborhoods, in England, one pigeon
of proven success recently changed hands for $128,000.
Sugar cane farmer Wa Paopouchong, 41, on October 8 rode an 1,870-
pound water buffalo named Korn to their fourth world championship of water buffalo
racing in Chonburi, Thailand, at an average speed over the 120-meter course of
nearly 25 miles an hour. The victory paid them $200. The event, the only water buffalo
racing meet in the world, has been held for more than a century, but surrounding
festivities have been organized for only the past decade.
An ostrich named Flash Harry won the first-ever ostrich race in
K e n y aon Boxing Day at the Ngong racecourse on the outskirts of Nairobi. Six
ostriches were entered in the 200-meter sprint.

Men who beat up cattle

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Rodeo
Three years after lobbying to defeat
California state bill AB 1660, which would have
required on-site veterinarians at all rodeos, the
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has
moved to require on-site vets at all events that it
sanctions––and to bar the use of prods in bull
riding, “without exception,” as well as in other
riding events except with animals known to have
histories of refusing to leave the chutes.
While longtime rodeo critic Eric Mills
of Action for Animals said, “Things are looking
up,” he added that even though “vets were present
at the 1995 California Rodeo in Salinas, in
which five animals died, a roping calf with a
broken back was not euthanized but was simply
trucked off to slaughter, terrified and in pain
[and in apparent violation of the 1994
California Downed Animal Protection Act],
with no pain-killers given, for ‘That would ruin
the meat,’ said the attending vet. After great
public outcry,” Mills noted, “the Salinas Rodeo
Committee’s new policy will require immediate
euthanasia, as well as a ban on the brutal and
unsanctioned wild horse race,” in which a horse
died last July.

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Zoo people

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Jim Fouts, 42, an unaccredited
exotic animal broker/transporter who in
1990-1991 surfaced as a central figure in
routing animals from AZA-accredited zoos
to canned hunts, is now breeding about 25
species at his Tanganyika Wildlife Co. ranch
near Goddard, Kansas, and promoting the
sale of meat and antlers from captive-reared
elk, after several years of breeding and selling
ostriches. For several years beginning
in 1977, Fouts captured South American
monkeys for laboratory suppliers; then ran
an exotic bird import business; and operated
an avian quarantine station from 1982 to
1985. Because zoos are now more particular
about who they deal with, Molly McMillin
of the Wichita Eagle reported recently,
Fouts now trades mainly with “privately
owned zoos, circuses, and wealthy animal
collectors,” and finds Kansas “a good place
to do business because it does not have as
many restrictions on raising exotic animals
as does California.” Fouts is, however,
advising Sedgewick County on a proposed
ordinance to ban private ownership of
“inherently dangerous” animals including
“undomesticated cats over 15 pounds.”
Presumably this does not include feral
domestic cats.

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Primates

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Forced to cut costs by 24 weekends
of rain during the first nine months of
1995 plus a $53 million construction debt load
for expanded marine mammal facilities,
Marine World Africa USA on October 31 discontinued
the chimpanzee act run since 1982
by husband-and-wife team Liam and Kim
Hussey. Of the seven MWAUSA chimps,
four, ages 13, 15, 21, and 22, were already
retired from performing, and two others, ages
9 and 11, were near the usual upper age limit
for performing chimps. They are, however,
just coming into their prime breeding years,
and are highly valued members of the
American Zoo and Aquarium Association administered
chimpanzee Species Survival
Plan gene pool. “We have always wanted to

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Overhead at the National Zoo

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Closed to
the public repeatedly during the
November/December federal budget impasse,
the National Zoo made headlines earlier for
introducing a unique 400-foot Orangutan
Transit Line enabling the six resident orangs
to swing from cables 35 to 45 feet above visitors
as they cross at will from the current ape
house to a schoolroom in the original monkey
house, built in 1907. Unauthorized descents
from support towers are inhibited by a 9,000-
volt electric skirting around the tower platforms.
The orangs were introduced to the
transit line in pairs, to see what one could
learn from watching another. In the schoolroom,
the orangs are learning to use a computer
with a special symbol keyboard, which
may eventually enable them to talk to visitors.

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More elephant news

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Activists thought a July 10
stampede by two Clyde Beatty-Cole
Brothers elephants during a performance
in Queens, New York, might have marked
a turning point in efforts to halt traveling
elephant acts. None of the 12 spectators
who were injured were hurt seriously, but
the stampede did occur before the New
York media, drawing national publicity,
and came shortly after the same elephants
made national TV with a May 20 stampede
in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Within 10
days, the Beatty-Cole circus had cancelled
scheduled elephant performances on Long
Island, and retired the two elephants
involved. Within 21 days the Performing
Animal Welfare Society sued the USDA,
asking that the Beatty-Cole, Hawthorn
Corporation, and King Royal Circus elephant
collections be confiscated due to
alleged violations of the Animal Welfare
Act, purportedly contributing to the stampedes.
Momentum soon shifted, however,
as on August 25 the town board of
Southampton, New York, unanimously
voted to ask Beatty-Cole to bring performing
elephants. Beatty-Cole followed with a
media blitz defending its elephant handling.

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