Birds

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Hard-pressed sturgeon, sharks, and
rays got a break courtesy of the birds in May when
the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge
closed a popular fishing road to protect the nests of
threatened snowy plovers. Killed mainly for kicks,
not eating, the sturgeon, sharks, and rays are less
protected than the plovers but perhaps in greater
jeopardy of extinction because of their rapid deple-
tion and slow reproductive rate.
Oregon State University professor
Morrie Craig has received an award from the
American Racing Pigeon Union for developing a
way to test guano to detect the use of performance-
altering drugs. Doping has lately become a prob-
lem in pigeon racing, as the top prizes in interna-
tional competition have soared above $200,000.

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Horses

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Jean R. Strothenke, town jus-
tice for Schroon, New York, on April
20 fined horse hauler David A. Carper, of
Frank Carper & Sons, $11,100 for ille-
gally taking 40 horses to slaughter in a
double-decked trailer, lacking individual
stalls and insulation. He was caught on
January 27, en route from New Jersey to
Canada, when the truck broke down in a
snowstorm. The fine was by far the
toughest since New York adopted legisla-
tion to cover horse transport in 1980.

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Spectacles

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Florida attorney general Bob
Butterworth on May 6 ruled that so-
called hog-dog rodeos violate the state
animal cruelty law. The rodeos pit dogs
against hogs in an enclosed arena. The
dog who corners a hog fastest is the win-
ner. Videos of dogs biting pigs’ snouts,
ears, and legs have been widely broadcast
in recent weeks, as members of United
Bay Pens Association, a hog-dog rodeo
front group, have defended the events as
“good clean family fun,” and Hardee
County sheriff Rickey Dick has refused to
arrest either organizers or participants.
State attorney Joseph D’Alessandro
promised on May 13 that no one would be
arrested if the rodeos cease, but a UBPA
spokesman said they would continue until
arrests were made.

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Agricultural veterinary medicine

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The trade journal Beef Today and the
Colorado Cattlemen’s Association have urged the beef
industry to join animal protection groups in urging the
USDA to abolish face-branding cattle imported from
Mexico. The cattle are painfully face-branded––and cows
are spayed without anesthesia––as part of an anti-bovine
tuberculosis program. Of 438 cases of bovine TB found in
1993, 427 were in cattle of Mexican origin. Exposed in an
ongoing series of newspaper ads by the Coalition for Non-
Violent Food, face-branding was also discussed recently by
the Animal Welfare Committee of the AVMA. AVMA
policy presently supports face-branding, but related pro-
posed policy amendments are up for review by the AVMA
executive board.

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AVMA says mad cow disease won’t hurt public

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

SCHAUMBERG, Illinois––University of San
Francisco researchers led by Dr. Stanley Pruisiner reported
on April 22 that they have discovered how disease-carrying
agents called prions replicate, a key step toward finding a
way to fight scrapie, a fatal brain disease of sheep and
goats, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), bet-
ter known as “mad cow disease.” More than 100,000
British cattle have been destroyed due to BSE since 1986,
while isolated cases have appeared in seven other nations.
The spring 1994 Farm Sanctuary newsletter
meanwhile asserted that “At least two British dairy farmers
whose cows had BSE, and who had been drinking milk
from their herds, died from CJD, the human counterpart to
mad cow disease…There is evidence to suggest that BSE
has existed in the United States for some time. In 1985,
several thousand mink at a Wisconsin fur farm died of
transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) which was
caused by their diet, primarily ‘downer’ cows. Research
done in the U.S.,” Farm Sanctuary continued, “has linked
BSE with the use of ‘downer’ cows… Scientists are now
concerned that the disease currently referred to by the U.S.
meat and dairy industries as ‘downer cow syndrome’ could
actually be BSE.”

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AGRICULTURE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The USDA on April 26 announced yet another pro-
posal to raise grazing fees on federal land. This version would
boost the base fee to $3.96 per head-month by 1997, but would
provide incentive discounts for ranchers who undertake various
forms of conservation and/or rangeland improvement.
Comments will be reviewed until July 28. An Environmental
Protection Agency impact study published May 18 estimated that
current management practices would bring a 3% decline over the
next 20 years in stream quality in the affected habitat, while the
proposed changes would bring a 27% improvement.
A National Agricultural Statistics Service survey of
the 10 largest corn-producing states, which raise 80% of the total
U.S. corn crop, reports that less than 1% is lost to wildlife. The
average loss per acre is 0.66 bushels. Of the 35.4 million bushels
eaten by wild animals, deer eat 13.9 million, while birds eat 9.6
million. The 1993 crop came to 5.14 billion bushels in all.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

“Often dogs show signs of lead intoxication
before children, and the signs in humans are more subtle
than in dogs,” University of Missouri veterinary toxicologist
Stan Casteel advises. Canine symptoms include prolonged
diarhea, vomiting, and stomach upset.
Fort Dodge Laboratories, a division of
American Home Products, has introduced the first vac-
cine for treating and preventing ringworm in cats. T h e
vaccine replaces traditional oral and topical treatments.
Michigan State University professor of veteri-
nary medicine Sally Walshaw, 49, on May 1 became the
ninth annual winner of the Leo K. Bustad Companion
Animal Veterinarian Award––and the first female recipient.
Walshaw teaches laboratory techniques. Said Richard
Walshaw, her husband and a fellow member of the MSU
veterinary teaching staff, “Before Sally, few people really
ever bothered understanding laboratory animals’ feelings,
and they indeed have a lot of feelings.”

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Hartz Mountain ignites a powder keg

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

HARRISON, New Jersey––The Hartz Mountain
Corporation on May 6 lit a powder keg by donating 10 cases
each of Blockade flea and tick repellent to numerous animal
shelters. Blockade hasn’t been controversial recently, but
some shelter staff recalled the history of the product and
responded by not only rejecting the gift, but also setting up
a telephone tree to warn other shelters.
The initial furor erupted in 1987, when Blockade
was introduced. Within a year it was blamed for 366 pet
deaths, 2,700 pet injuries, and 56 “alleged unsubstantiated
human injuries,” according to a letter Hartz Mountain sent
the EPA in December 1987, when it took Blockade off the
market for further testing.

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New species discovered in the jungles of Southeast Asia

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia– –Exploration teams in the
jungles of Southeast Asia reported two extraordinary finds in late
April––a small herd of kouprey, an extremely rare wild cow, and an
entirely new deer species, the giant muntjac.
Italian veterinarian Maurizio Dioli tracked the kouprey in
northeastern Cambodia from March 27 until April 7, never actually
seeing any, but collecting evidence of their presence, also observing
“one of the largest populations of Asian elephants and Sumatran tigers
in Asia,” and evidence, too, of enough poaching to “present a major
threat to the survival of the wildlife.”

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