ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

* The Sprint telephone service and the
American Humane Association have set up a
nationwide hotline to help reunite lost pets
with their keepers. Reporting a stray is free:
call 1-800-755-8111. To report a lost pet, call
1-900-535-1515. The cost for lost pet calls is
$1.95 per minute, a portion of which is donat-
ed to AHA. The average lost pet report takes
four minutes to complete, according to Sprint.
* Paige Powell and Tama Janowitz of
New York City produce a TV show in cooper-
ation with the animal rescue groups Being
Kind and the Animal Project to promote pet
adoptions. Called It’s A Dog’s Life, the show
airs on channels 16 and 17.

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Watson & Hughey charities are in trouble again

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

ALEXANDRIA, Va. The states
of Connecticut and Pennsylvania are suing the
Cancer Fund of America and three other chari-
ties for alleged fraudulent accounting in
describing the use of donations.
The Cancer Fund of America,
based in Knoxville, Tennessee, solicits con-
tributions by claiming that it does not fund
research using animals. In actuality, it funds
little or no cancer research of any kind, and is
one of eight charities promoted by the Watson
and Hughey direct mail fundraising firm, of
Alexandria, Virginia, which were fined a total
of $2.4 million in 1991 for using misleading
sweepstakes appeals.

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Woofs and growls:

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the 11th Circuit on August 18 upheld a lower
court decision that Soldier of Fortune maga-
zine must pay $4.3 million in damages to the
sons of Richard Braun, an Atlanta business-
man who was murdered in 1985 by a contract
killer whose “gun for hire” ad the magazine
published. The killer, Michael Savage, 44,
of Knoxville, Tenn., and eight of his clients
have been convicted of criminal conspiracy in
connection with the Braun case and at least
two others. Soldier of Fortune has recently
amplified a series of National Rifle
Association attacks on the animal rights move-
ment and anti-hunting activists.

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Religion & Animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

Pope John Paul II was scheduled to
issue “A solemn appeal for animal welfare” on
eptember 30, from the Vatican. The appeal
will not have the force of ecclesiastic law, and
is expected to be quite conservative.
A San Francisco Board of
Supervisors subcommittee on August 18
approved an ordinance to ban animal sacrifice,
modeled after similar ordinances now in effect
in various Florida and southern California
cities. Supervisor Carole Migden introduced
the ordinance after the city Department of
Animal Care and Control reported having
found evidence of at least 1,000 animal sacri-
fices during the past year. The ordinance now
goes before the full Board of Supervisors for
enactment. Migden meanwhile withdrew a
proposed to ban the sale or ownership of wolf
hybrids, since so many are already in San
Francisco that enforcement might prove
impossible.

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Defenders of Animal Rights shelter picketed

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

PHOENIX, Md. Weekly protests
outside the Defenders of Animal Rights shel-
ter just north of Baltimore commenced on
August 14, coordinated by the Animal
Welfare League of Greater Baltimore. The
protesters, including former shelter employ-
ees and volunteers, alleged unrecorded
euthanasias, financial abuses, and miscella-
neous other irregularities paralleling some of
those alleged against Primarily Primates one
month earlier, also by former volunteers and
staffers. Several protesters contacted ANI-
MAL PEOPLE, including AWLGB president
Elizabeth Kirk, but none documented any-
thing at DAR that substantially deviates from
common shelter practice., nor did they pro-
vide evidence that anyone at DAR is collect-
ing unusually high remuneration.

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Shakeup coming at NAVS?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

CHICAGO, Ill. Independent auditor William Foy assumed administration of the
National Anti-Vivisection Society on August 1 for an indefinite period, replacing president
Mary Margaret Cunniff, who took a paid maternity leave. .
The NAVS board of directors hired Foy to perform an internal audit shortly after an
expose by ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton revealed that over a fourth of the NAVS
stock portfolio was invested with firms who perform or commission vivisection and/or have
become notorious for environmental abuses—including U.S. Surgical, whose sales demonstra-
tions on live dogs Cunniff denounced in print in May 1991, only days before purchasing
$46,745 worth of U.S. Surgical shares. The stock had nearly doubled in value when sold.
Earlier exposes traced the extensive use of NAVS funds to benefit members of Cunniff’s family,
including her husband, attorney Kenneth Cunniff; her sister, Catherine Curran; her father,
George Trapp, who preceded her in the presidency; her brother-in-law, Patrick Rocks; and her
uncles, Robert Mahoney and Al Lamier. Cunniff and her husband alone received an estimated
$172,000 in salaries and benefits during 1991. During their administration, according to well-
placed staffers, NAVS membership has fallen from 53,000 to 11,000; following the exposes,
the organization was believed to be losing from $25,000 to $50,000 a month.

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Fighting isn’t over for the Old War Horse

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

LONDON, U.K. The late Dorothy
Brooke founded the Brooke Hospital for
Animals as the Old War Horse Memorial
Hospital. Brooke specified that her primary
purpose was to protect retired military horses
and donkeys. Military organization wasn’t nec-
essarily part of her plan–but after assuming the
top post at the Old War Horse approximately
one year ago, following his retirement from the
Royal Army Veterinary Corps, Col. Brian
Thompson quickly moved to establish military
order—including institution of a rigid chain-of-
command, increased paperwork to track activ-
ities, a lid on information released to the press,
and an apparent ban on cooperation with per-
ceived rivals.

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No time for monkey business at Primarily Primates

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

SAN ANTONIO, Tex. Primarily Primates
has survived an attempted putsch, at least for
now, but the future of the showplace sanctuary
could yet be jeopardized by animal rights move-
ment politics.
Founded over a decade ago by former
zookeeper Wally Swett to house primates res-
cued from laboratories, roadside zoos, and
abusive exotic petkeepers, Primarily Primates
has expanded to accommodate nearly 400 ani-
mals. As Swett admits, there have been grow-
ing pains. Animals have often arrived at a
faster rate than funds to feed and shelter them.
Sometimes Swett and his volunteer staff have
been obliged to handle species they’ve never
seen before. Frequently they receive non-pri-
mates for temporary housing until other situa-
tions can be found—which can be difficult. A

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What’s going on at The Animals’ Agenda?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

MONROE, Conn. Five months after the
Animals’ Agenda board of directors sacked
most of the staff and forced editor Kim
Bartlett’s eventual resignation, the publication
is in “dire financial peril,” according to a late-
September appeal issued by board president
Wayne Pacelle..
Under pressure from numerous national
organizations who were irate over exposes of
group financial practices, among them PETA,
the National Anti-Vivisection Society, the
Doris Day Animal League, In Defense of
Animals, and the American SPCA, the board
abruptly fired news editor Merritt Clifton,
now editor of ANIMAL PEOPLE, last May
1. Simultaneously, the board terminated use
of otherwise vacant space at the magazine
offices by Bartlett’s feral cat rescue project.

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