Peggy Larson, DVM and Doctor -of-Law: Committed, compassionate, qualified to castrate or sue

July 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

BURLINGTON, VERMONT––Among the

heroes and heroines of animal protection are ex-vivisectors

turned animal rights advocate, veterinarians who do low-

cost neutering, whistleblowers who challenge the meat

industry, articulate writers and speakers, and attorneys who

secure better humane enforcement.

Tough, skeptical, and able to debate any subject

she addresses, Peggy Larson is all the above and more. Her

37 years of professional research, activism, and advocacy

began with two years of neurophysiologic experiments on

cats at the University of Minnesota in 1956-1957, as one of

the first women to break into an overwhelmingly male-dom-

inated field. This work, she recalls, “was horrible. Succinyl

choline was commonly used at that time, which paralyzes

the cat but does not anesthetize him.”

COURT CALENDAR

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Undercover probe nabs Wisconsin dog dealer; local judge lets him go

Circuit judge Donald Poppy, of

Calumet County, Wisconsin, on June 14

dismissed a felony cruelty charge against

USDA-licensed Class B animal dealer

Ervin Stebane, 72, for tying, shooting,

and disemboweling a dog he sold as meat.

Poppy claimed Wisconsin law allows peo-

ple to kill their own dogs in a humane man-

ner, called the slaughter humane, and

added, “If the legislature intended for peo-

ple not to kill dogs as food, the legislature

should pass such a law.”

Zoos

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Interior Secretary Bruce

Babbitt told the San Diego Zoo on June

25 that, “Frankly, at this time, I am not

optimistic that our biologists can issue the

permit” the zoo seeks to import three pan-

das from China under a captive breeding

loan, because the import might violate the

Endangered Species Act. Babbitt said the

zoo would be allowed to bring in the pan-

das only if it can prove that the breeding

loan “will ultimately result in enhanced

protection for the species.” He added that

his staff was concerned “that this transac-

tion will set a precedent and generate irre-

sistible pressure for the capture and export

of pandas from the only region where they

are found wild.” The San Diego Zoo has

already spent more than $1 million in

preparation to receive the pandas, who are

expected to be a record-breaking attrac-

tion, and has agreed to pay China $1 mil-

lion a year during their visit plus $600,000

per cub who lives longer than six months.

FUR

July 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

A frequent target of animal

rights protesters for keeping marine mam-

mals in captivity, Marine World/Africa

USA is also under fire from the California

Fur Industry Inc. for describing the near-

annihilation of wild serval cats by the fur

trade during educational presentations at the

amusement park’s Wildlife Theatre.

“Fur trade officials are now

receiving Indian Affairs funds, which

should be going to First Nations,” the

Aboriginal Trappers Federation of Canada

charged in a public statement at the recent

North American Fur and Fashion Exposition

in Montreal. The statement referred to the

allocation of funds from Indian and Northern

Affairs Canada to the Wildfur Council of

North America, a pro-trapping group with

little Native American representation.

Did AmEx renege on “no fur” pledge to Roddick?

July 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Did or did not American Express pledge to drop fur from

its catalogs, to secure an endorsement from Body Shop skin and

hair care products founder Anita Roddick?

Catching flak for appearing in AmEx television commer-

cials while the firm is under boycott by PETA and other groups,

Roddick issued a written statement on April 15 asserting that,

“Before agreeing to do the commercial, I had a meeting with

American Express where I was assured that the current catalog

would be the last one to include fur.” Receiving Roddick’s state-

ment directly from The Body Shop, ANIMAL PEOPLE pub-

lished it in May.

BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

The premise of the hit film Jurassic Park is that

scientists might some day clone dinosaurs from bits of their

DNA, containing their genetic codes, which may be found

in the bellies of blood-sucking insects whose remains are

preserved in amber. Considered far-fetched by many, that

scenario moved closer to reality in June when a team of

California-based researchers reported in Nature that they

had extracted recognizable DNA segments from a weevil

who became caught in tree resin 120 to 135 million years

ago. The resin harrdened into amber, and was eventually

excavated near Jezzine, Lebanon. Paleontologist Jack

Horner of Montana State University topped that June 30,

announcing that his graduate assistant Mary Schweitzer had

discovered apparent blood cells in the deep interior of a

tyrannosaur bone, where the thickness of the bone protected

them from fossilization and decay. Horner’s team is now

trying to extract DNA from the blood cells.

Animal Health & Behavior

July 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

CDC goes to rat-@#$%

The Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention blame an unknown Hantaan virus probably

transmitted by rodents for causing flu-like symptoms that

killed 19 residents of the Four Corners region of New

Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado during May and

June. Most of the victims were Native Americans.

Hantaan viruses are typically transmitted through inhala-

tion, after becoming airborne with evaporated urine.

The transmission route for this as yet unidentified virus

has not been found, and investigators have been thwarted

by the reluctance of Navajo victims’ families, in particu-

lar, to speak either of the dead or of matters involving

their religion and rituals. However, Nevada paleoenvi-

ronmental researcher Peter E. Wigand, who seeks clues

to ecological history in ancient deposits of crystalized rat

urine, may have unwittingly provided a clue to the out-

break last January, before it actually occurred. Wigand

Diet & Health

July 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Thirty of 90 beef slaughterhouses inspected by

the USDA during last winter’s outbreak of E. coli bacterial

poisoning of hamburger were temporarily closed for clean-

up, Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy announced May 27.

Twelve plants were put in a special enforcement program,

with which they must comply or lose USDA certification.

The last of 143 people who were hospitalized during the E.

coli outbreak, 10-year-old Brianne Kiner, was released as

an outpatient from Children’s Hospital in Seattle on June 29.

Stricken after eating a Jack-in-the-Box hamburger on

January 13, Kiner spent 41 days in a coma and lost her

large intestine. Four children died––three in the Seattle area

and one in San Diego.

CHILDREN & ANIMALS

July 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Lucinda Randolph Benjamin of the 4-H Club

and Margaret Barker of the Cornell Laboratory of

Ornithology are coordinating a study of inner city pigeon

life, funded by the National Science Foundation and actu-

ally carried out by 15 young residents of the Bedford-

Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. The partici-

pants, ages 9-14, are to closely observe the pigeons in

their neighborhood, documenting everything the birds do.

Carol Stevenson, principal of the Ladera del

Norte Elementary School in Farmington, New Mexico,

rewarded a class of 23 second graders for reading 7,000

pages of library books during May by eating six live worms

in front of them. The geek show was apparently the chil-

dren’s idea, inspired by one of the books they read.

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