Diet & Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:
“Jack Sprat is the only per-
son in the English lexicon to promote
vegetarianism,” claim Jeff and Dana
Dorson, who recently opened the first
of a projected chain of vegan fast food
restaurants called Jack Sprat’s
Vegetarian Grill in the French Quarter
of New Orleans. “We’re going to make
Sprat into a character in costume, have
him go around in public places, pass
out vegetables, and teach people how to
eat healthy,” the Dorsons continue.
“We hope to stage a national debate
with Ronald McDonald.” The Dorsons
have shown their ability to build a
strong organization via Legislation In
Support of Animals, now six years old,
with 1,200 members (profiled in the
January 1994 issue of ANIMAL PEO-
PLE). Their menu already gets raves
from New Orleans restaurant critics.

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Pigeons not animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

HEGINS, Pennsylvania––The Fund for
Animals is urging activists to send copies of the
dictionary definition of “animal” to Pennsylvania
State Police Commissioner Glenn Walp, for refus-
ing to charge participants and staff at the Hegins
pigeon shoot with animal abuse. Walp said his
legal advisors are uncertain if pigeons are “ani-
mals” and therefore protected by state law.
The Hegins shoot, held each Labor Day
since 1934, went on as scheduled this year after the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court on September 2
rejected an appeal of a lower court’s refusal to issue
an injunction to stop it. The shoot organizers
refused an offer of $70,000 to call it off, delivered
by Rutgers Animal Rights Law Clinic director Gary
Francione on behalf of an anonymous donor. The
shoot raises about $20,000 a year for the Hegins
recreation department, but costs almost as much to
run––and far more when the cost of the state troop-
ers who provide security is factored in. The offer
was controversial in animal protection circles
because the shoot organizers might have demanded
similar amounts to call off future shoots.

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Hunting

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

Hunter harassment
WASHINGTON D.C.––A federal hunter
harassment statute became law with the August 26
passage of the Crime Bill of 1994. Added to the
Senate version of the Crime Bill by Senator Conrad
Burns (R-Montana), it cleared the Senate without
debate and was kept in the final version by a
House/Senate conference committee as a concession
to the National Rifle Association, which was irate
over the ban of 19 assault rifles named in the bill.
The statute may be considered the first fed-
eral lawmaking achievement of Humane Society of
the U.S. vice president for governmental relations
Wayne Pacelle––who can claim indirect credit for
getting more state legislation passed than any other
animal defender. Pacelle assumed his current post
after staging dozens of high-profile hunter harass-
ment actions from late 1988 into early 1994 in his
former position with the Fund for Animals. Only
four states had hunter harassment laws in 1986,
when Pacelle rose to prominence as a Yale under-
graduate with a successful constitutional challenge of
the Connecticut statute, which was thrown out in
1988 but was amended and restored by the state leg-
islature. There are now hunter harassment laws in 48
of the 50 states––and the NRA, recruiting around the
issue, now boasts a record high membership.

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Birds

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

A study of more than 1,200
cormorant regurgitations conducted
by the National Biological Survey and
the New York Department of
Environmental Conservation has con-
cluded that lake trout and salmon make
up only 0.5% of the birds’ diet.
Further, cormorants eat only 5% of the
volume of smaller fish that the trout
and salmon eat. Thus the estimated
12,000 cormorants now living along
the eastern shore of Lake Ontario are
no threat to the sport fishing industry,
contrary to the claims of hunting and
fishing groups, which have been call-
ing for cormorant control––often in the
form of an open season on cormorants,
generally considered inedible.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

The European Union has granted Zimbabwe $3.4 million to fight hoof-and-
mouth disease––on condition that farmers be charged for veterinary care now given free.
Anthrax, the worst drought on record, and bovine tuberculosis transmitted by
dairy cattle have together cut the Cape Buffalo population of Kruger National Park in South
Africa from 30,000 to 14,000 in just two years.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is probing a cluster of genetic defects in rap-
tors, blackbirds, and robins from the Rogue Valley region of Oregon, reported by Dave
Siddon of the Wildlife Images rehabilitation center. Similar defects found in birds around the
Great Lakes have been traced to organochlorines, a chemical family which includes dioxin,
PCBs, and the pesticide DDT, which devastated raptors until a U.S. ban took effect in 1973.

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AGRICULTURE: California downer bill may ratify neglect of hurt cattle

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

SACRAMENTO, California––California governor Pete Wilson on September 16
signed SB 692, the California Downed Animal Protection Act, passed by the legislature on
August 26. Endorsed by Farm Sanctuary, the Doris Day Animal League, and the Association
of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, SB 692 was fought by the Humane Farming Association
and Friends of Animals, who charge that amendments made to win the support of the Farm
Bureau Federation mean the new law only ratifies the present treatment of injured and ill cattle.
Of most concern to HFA and FoA is clause 599f.(b), which originally mandated that,
“No slaughterhouse, stockyard, auction, market agency, dealer or hauler shall hold a nonam-
bulatory animal without immediately humanely euthanizing the animal.” As amended, 599f.(b)
deletes haulers from the list, enabling cattle truckers to continue to accept downers for trans-
port. Further, instead of requiring that downers be immediately euthanized, which precludes
slaughtering them for human consumption, the bill now requires only that “immediate action”
must be taken “to humanely euthanize the animal or remove the animal from the premises.”

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Wildlife briefs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

Three related California bills to
decriminalize accidental killings of protect-

ed species, improve scientific review of
species proposed for protection, and allow
some killing of endangered species in eco-
nomic activities providing compensation was
made died September 2 when a coalition of
business interests and environmentalists split
over the definition of the word “conserve.”
The business groups objected that the word
might commit them to species recovery work,
not just to paying for habitat or individuals
lost. The bills were touted as potential mod-
els for reforming the federal Endangered
Species Act, reauthorization of which is more
than two years overdue.

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Wildlife research

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

A 10-year study by Beijing
University researcher Pan Wenski has dis-
covered that giant pandas in the wild are not
the solitary foragers they have long been
believed to be, but rather form social com-
munities of up to 28 animals. Both males
and females tend to have multiple sexual
liaisons, Pan Wenski reported, adding that
the wild panda population is slowly increas-
ing now after decades of decline.
Genetic research by University
of California at Davis biologist Phillip
Morin suggests that one western African
chimpanzee subspecies––the only tool-using
chimp in the wild––appears to have been
genetically isolated for 1.5 million years,
and therefore might qualify as an altogether
different but related species. Captive
chimps from this group have readily
hybridized with others.

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Bears head CITES agenda

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.––
China is expected to push to relax global
restrictions on traffic in bear parts at the
November 17-18 meeting of the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species,
to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The World Society for the Protection
of Animals prepared by hosting an internation-
al symposium on the medicinal uses of bear
matter in Seattle on September 10-11. Said
WSPA North American campaigns director
Wim de Kok, “The huge number of bears
being farmed in China,” estimated at more
than 10,000, “is like an alarm signaling the
threat to wild bears around the world,” since
poached bear parts can easily be relabeled to
indicate farm origin. “The continued captivity
of bears on farms only serves to fuel demand
for these products, and forces thousands of
bears to endure miserable lives,” de Kok
added. Many of the bears are connected to
tubes through which bile––believed by many
Asians to have medicinal properties––is
extracted from their stomachs. Other facilities
combine bear parts production with tourism.

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