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Appalled by Palin, Humane Judge Society Legislative Fund tells the WASHINGTON D.C.—The Repub- Fund board includes prominent Republicans as lican nomination of Alaska governor Sarah well as Democrats. USDA Palin to run for U.S. vice president alongside “While we have endorsed hundreds presidential candidate John McCain inspired of Congressional candidates for election, both the Humane Society Legislative Fund to break Democrats and Republicans, we have never to sit out with precedent in unanimously endorsing before endorsed a presidential candidate,” Democratic presidential nominee Barack wrote Humane Society Legislative Fund presi- California Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden. dent Mike Markarian in his September 22, The Humane Society Legislative 2008 blog. “As an Illinois state senator,” Prop Two Markarian explained, “Obama backed at least a dozen animal protection laws, including to strengthen the penalties fight for animal cruelty, to help animal shel- ters, to promote spaying and neutering, and to ban the slaughter of horses for Feds barred human consumption. In the U.S. Senate, he has consistently co-spon- from using sored bills to combat animal fighting and horse slaughter, and has supported promo efforts to increase funding for adequate enforcement of the Animal Welfare funds Chickens living free. (Kim Bartlett) Act, Humane Methods of Slaughter SAN FRANCISCO––U.S. Dist- to promote the egg industry on television Act, and federal laws to combat ani- rict Judge Marilyn Hall Patel on September ads that may affect the election outcome. mal fighting and puppy mills.” 22, 2008 ordered the USDA to stay out of The American Egg Board is a an Responding to a Humane Society the agribusiness effort to defeat the 18-member panel appointed by the U.S. Legislative Fund questionnaire, California Prevention of Farm Animal Secretary of Agriculture. The two ads at Obama “pledged support for nearly Cruelty Act, Proposition Two on the state issue suggest buying locally raised eggs. every animal protection bill currently ballot. Judge Patel ruled that the USDA They feature the same spokesperson who pending in Congress,” Markarian said. Sarah Palin opposed listing polar bears as a species may not legally spend funds collected from appears in ads directly funded by the egg threatened by global warming. (Robert L. Harrison) (continued on page 12) egg producers by the American Egg Board industry which assert that Proposition Two will drive egg producers out of California. “A government lawyer described the ads as ‘neutral and educational’ and said they were unrelated to Proposition Two,” wrote San Francisco Chronicle ANIMAL PEOPLE staff writer Bob Egelko. “Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Arbuckle said the USDA News For People Who Care About Animals could accept an order not to spend any of the $3 million [allocated to air the ads] on California advertising before the election. But she argued it would be too burdensome September 2008 to review the egg board’s national advertis- Volume XVIII, #7 ing campaigns and remove any California references. Patel replied that the depart- ment was skirting the law and would have to take any steps necessary to comply.” (continued on page 15) Off-exhibit secrets of troubled zoos U B U D , G I A N Y A R ––The Bali and potentially deadly accidents to visitors and Zoo, featuring exhibits from which animals neighbors lurking just around many of the often “go walkabout,” might be described as bends of the zoo’s winding paths. emphasizing form over substance. ANIMAL PEOPLE discovered a Occupying a six-acre forested ravine long list of problems on two visits to the Bali in a residential neighborhood in Singapadu, a Zoo in August 2008. Many would by them- suburb of Ubud, the Bali Zoo has been selves be sufficient to close a U.S. zoo for vio- described by tourism media as a “hidden lating the federal Animal Welfare Act, pend- jewel”––and it is, at a glance. ing substantial improvement. A closer look reveals species-inap- The much larger Bali Safari & propriate exhibits, neglect of animal health, Marine Park, in Gianyar, offers an altogether safer, tamer atmosphere. The menagerie consists chiefly of ele- phants and big cats. The animals cannot even be seen from most of the park. Few animals are exhibit- ed even in the animal areas. Shops and restaurants may outnumber the resident species. Jansen Manansang, head of the family-controlled company that developed the Bali Safari & Marine Park, Taman Safari at Bogor, East Java, and the Taman Safari II park at Ragunan, West Dog rescued after Hurricane Ike. (Mark Cirillo/SPCA-Los Angeles) Java, was honored on August 14, 2008 in Jakarta by Indonesian pres- ident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. But the Bali Safari & Hurricanes Gustav & Ike test Marine Park elephant act, in which an elephant steps through a maze of Bali Zoo lion cubs. (Wolf Clifton) (continued on page 9) federal pet evacuation mandate
ANIMAL PEOPLE HOUSTON, NEW ORLEANS– – ensure animal safety,” wrote Alex Branch of Nonprofit Organization Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, hitting the Gulf the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. PO Box 960 Coast barely more than a week apart in “We’re making sure the pets go Clinton, WA 98236-0960 U.S. Postage Paid September 2008, brought the first major test where their owners go,” United Animal ANIMAL PEOPLE, Inc. of the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Nations volunteer Sandy Cochran told Branch. Standards Act, passed by Congress in 2006. Gustav, doing relatively little dam- The PETS Act was passed after evi- age, proved to be a valuable “wet run” for Ike, dence surfaced that many of the human fatali- believed to be the third most costly hurricane ties attributed to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to ever hit the U.S., after Katrina and resulted from people refusing to evacuate Hurricane Andrew in 1992. because they could not take pets with them. In Shreveport, “Using lessons from The purpose of the PETS Act is to ensure that Hurricane Katrina, when people refused to provisions for pet evacuation are incorporated evacuate without their pets, the state created into regional disaster planning. the Louisiana Mega Shelter,” wrote Cindy “Three years after pet owners were Wolff of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. reduced to tears while being forced to leave “More than 800 dogs and cats from residents, their dogs and cats in neighborhoods affected local rescue groups and shelters were housed by Hurricane Katrina, emergency response at the shelter, tended by volunteers from officials are taking extraordinary care to (continued on page 19) September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 2
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Editorial feature ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 - 3 Animal welfare & conservation in conflict While in Indonesia for the August 2008 Asia for Animals conference, the fifth in a Island species and habitat are especially sensitive to any sort of environmental series co-sponsored by ANIMAL PEOPLE since 2001, ANIMAL PEOPLE president Kim change. Indonesia consists of 13,677 islands, many of them the habitat of unique species or Bartlett joined several other conference attendees in a visit to the International Animal Rescue subspecies. Because Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world, after China, facilities in West Java, near Bogor, two hours by car south of Jakarta. India, and the U.S., with a rapidly developing economy, almost every part of the country The visit provided an unexpectedly stark illustration of some of the sharpest edges could potentially become a battleground over conservation issues. and conflicts in the three-cornered relationship among animal welfare, wildlife species conser- Worse, in Indonesia “battleground” might be more than a metaphor. A nation only vation, and habitat protection. since 1950, Indonesia has seldom been free of civil strife, and environmental conflicts might In theory, ensuring the well-being of individual animals sounds as if it should be easily become mixed with some of the regional and ethnic issues that have often erupted in both the starting point and the ultimate outcome of protecting entire endangered or threatened violence. Between suppressing insurrections, Indonesian military officers have frequently species, and protecting the animals’ habitat would seem to be implicit in protecting either exploited their positions for economic advantage, including in facilitating rainforest logging individual animals or their species as a whole. and wildlife trafficking. The well-placed perpetrators appear to have been undeterred by In practice, distinctions among the goals and philosophies of animal welfare, decades of exposés published in both western and domestic media. wildlife conservation, and habitat protection emerge almost immediately, beginning with the As the Brussels-based International Crisis Group reported in December 2001, and question of how and when humans should intervene in the life cycles and feeding habits of The New York Times summarized, “Illegal activities are protected and in some cases orga- wild animals: nized by bureaucrats and the security forces, with the military and police organizations deeply • What if preserving a species requires trapping some of the last individual members involved in illegal logging,” which leaves displaced wildlife vulnerable to hunting or capture. of the species—even if they are only those animals who are debilitated and unlikely to survive Sidney Jones, the primary author of the International Crisis Group study, was in the wild—and putting them into a captive breeding program, at perhaps significant detri- expelled from Indonesia in June 2004, essentially for knowing too much. Jones’ expulsion ment to their quality of life? produced yet another round of exposés, adding some linkage of military and police involve- • What if these animals are predators, whose offspring must be taught how to catch ment in illegal logging and wildlife trafficking to militant Islamicism. Again government live prey? pledges to stop log piracy in national parks and to stop trafficking in endangered species • What if there is no longer enough wild habitat to sustain a breeding pool of a brought spasms of well-publicized enforcement, but scarcely stopped the pattern of abuses. species that will be large enough to ensure species recovery? ProFauna Indonesia chair Rosek Nurshid, for example, in February 2005 identified • What if there is some reasonable hope that sufficient habitat can be acquired and military officers as major participants in exporting as many as 100,000 illegally captured cock- restored at some future time, if the species still exists? atoos per year. His allegation was confirmed in early August 2008 when a Malaysian smug- Such questions are vexing enough by themselves, but are frequently compounded by gler named E Kong Seng began talking after police caught him and 10 others in possession of human economic interests. 8.25 tons of frozen anteater meat, 200 tons of dried anteater hide, and 85 anteater gall blad- Logging, mining, and real estate development companies, for example––and their ders, all packaged for export. executives and shareholders––often contribute generously to animal rescue and rehabilitation, “He confessed to having bribed high-ranking police and military officials,” wrote and to species conservation in captive situations such as zoos. The unspoken basis of the rela- Khairul Saleh of the Jakarta Post. tionship is that the companies’ destruction of habitat must remain unimpeded, since logging, Animal welfare concerns have relatively little organized voice in Indonesia, espe- mining, and development generate the revenue that makes the donations possible, including cially compared to the U.S., India, and much of Europe, but are emerging as a factor, includ- donations of land to conservation purposes after much of the land has already been economi- ing in the efforts of conflicting economic interests to put a friendly face on their activity. cally exploited. Loggers, palm oil plantation developers, and promoters of tourism are often linked Primatologist Dale Peterson and nature photographer Karl Amman devoted much of through family and business relationships to wildlife exporters and exhibitors, as well as to their 320-page opus Eating Apes (2003) to detailing many such relationships in Africa, linkng their facilitators in the police and military. private timber and mining companies, major international conservation societies, and some of As tourism gradually supplants resource-based development, first on Bali, now in the world’s most prominent zoos. parts of Java and Lombok, some of the most ambitious developers have learned to put a more Many of those same corporations, conservation societies, and zoos are involved in ecologicaly friendly face on their work. Some claim to endorse, promote, and teach both similar dealings in Southeast Asia, along with others of comparable modus operandi. conservation and animal welfare. Rhetoric about educating the public is a prominent part of Should animal rescuers, rehabilitators, and conservationists refuse money from the facade. Some of the education seems credible and sincere, though some is not; but even resource-based industries, knowing that countless animals might then suffer from lack of help at best, it tends to stop short of promoting habitat preservation, and certainly falls well short and that whole species might disappear, while habitat-destroying projects proceed anyway? of promoting activism against economic development. Habitat preservationists, conversely, often have little or no interest in protecting the At the Bali Safari & Marine Park in Gianyar, for example, a captive bird act similar lives of individual animals they deem to be problematic or “non-native.” Historically, habitat to those offered at many U.S. zoos demonstrates avian intelligence. An elephant act offers preservationists have been most interested in preserving species when the presence of an some sympathetic discussion of animal welfare. An elephant wields an ankus, or elephant endangered species provides a legal pretext for protecting broad swaths of “critical habitat” hook, while handlers explain why the park doesn’t use ankuses. that include scenic vistas. There are significant animal welfare issues at the Bali Safari & Marine Park, such as Some habitat preservationists, the Nature Conservancy in particular, have killed heavily sedating animals to give visitors the opportunity to pose for photographs with them tens of thousands of “non-native” animals to “cleanse” nominally protected habitats, even (see page 1). There are also significant economic issues. A newly completed indoor marine when the massacres have put endangered species at risk. The effect on endangered island mammal stadium resembling an exceptionally tall aircraft hangar stands idle, reputedly foxes of the Nature Conservancy-driven effort to purge the Channel Islands off California of because of the potential effects on nearby beach-front habitat if it is allowed to begin pumping non-native hooved species is among the best-known examples. First the fox population rose in and discharging vast amounts of sea water. The dispute pits developers against developers. while feeding on abundant carrion—which also attracted golden eagles. Then, as the carrion On the whole, however, the Bali Safari & Marine Park appears to promote both ani- was exhausted, the golden eagles ate foxes instead. mal welfare and species conservation via captive breeding, with scarcely a mention that wild habitat for the species bred there no longer exists on Bali, and is rapidly disappearing from the SEARCHABLE ARCHIVES: www.animalpeoplenews.org other Indonesian islands. The likelihood of any captive-bred animal from the Bali Safari & Marine Park ever returning to the wild would appear to be slim, even if returning animals to ANIMAL PEOPLE the wild was actually among the park goals. News for People Who Care About Animals Animal Rescue Centers Published by Animal People, Inc. In recognition of the limitations and problematic alliances of many Indonesian zoos, President & Administrator: representatives of the species conservation and animal welfare communities rallied by the Kim Bartlett – [email protected] Gibbon Foundation met at Bogor in July 2000, producing 11 recommendations for reform. Editor: Merritt Clifton – [email protected] The recommendations were framed in the context of enabling Indonesia to meet the terms of Web producer: Patrice Greanville the United Nations-brokered Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Newswire monitor: Cathy Young Czapla The Cikananga Animal Rescue Center was among seven officially designated rescue centers that were opened within the next year through partnerships among the Indonesian gov- P.O. Box 960 ernment, the Gibbon Foundation, and several indigenous Indonesian wildlife charities which Clinton, WA 98236-0960 had until then enjoyed little official support or recognition. Initially the Gibbon Foundation pledged only start-up funding for the Animal Rescue ISSN 1071-0035. Federal I.D: 14-1752216 Center Network. By 2006 the network members were supposed to have developed the Telephone: 360-579-2505. Fax: 360-579-2575. fundraising capacity to operate independently. Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org In actuality, as often occurs with externally funded mission-driven start-ups, the Copyright © 2008 for the authors, artists, and photographers. Animal Rescue Centers were directed by scientists, activists, and volunteers who had little if Reprint inquiries are welcome. any experience in nonprofit capacity-building, and tended to focus on their animal-related pro- grams to the near-exclusion of developing their own donor bases. ANIMAL PEOPLE: News for People Who Care About Animals is published Almost nothing appears to have been done to generate support from the fast-growing nine times annually by Animal People, Inc., a nonprofit, charitable corporation dedicated educated and affluent sectors of Indonesian society. What fundraising was done appears to to exposing the existence of cruelty to animals and to informing and educating the public of have consisted mainly of writing grant applications to other foreign foundations. the need to prevent and eliminate such cruelty. Donations to Animal People, Inc. are tax- Predictably, the animal rescue centers fell on hard times, even after the Gibbon deductible. Financial information on Animal People, Inc. and other charities can be Foundation continued helping some of them beyond the initial five-year cut-off dates. And accessed at
4 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 Animal welfare & conservation in conflict (from page 3) drive wild orangutans, gibbons, and many other Indonesian “On June 2, 2008 the Government of Indonesia ment, which had ruled Indonesia since a year before her arrival. species to extinction. announced an early termination of cooperation with the Gibbon In that capacity, Galdikas was able to designate 76,000 But the collapse of the Gibbon Foundation meant the Foundation in the development and management of animal pro- hectares as an orangutan preserve. But the Suharto regime was loss of the resources to continue subsidizing the Animal Rescue tection centers in Indonesia,” stated the official announcement. toppled in May 1998. Centers, and gave the Indonesian government the opportunity Smits has been on tour outside of Indonesia for much Wrote Galdikas a year later in the Orangutan to withdraw support as well. of 2008, promoting a new book, Thinkers of the Jungle, pro- Foundation International newsletter Pongo Quest, “Many peo- duced with journalist Gerd Schuster and photographer Jay ple realised very quickly that they could now do whatever they Ullal. Smits’ speaking appearances and interviews have drawn liked. Tanjung Puting National Park,” home of about 6,000 more global attention than ever before to the dismal future of orangutans, “is a case in point. The 50 square kilometer forest wild orangutans. Global demand for biofuels has accelerated area with Camp Leakey at its center has not been touched. But deforestation of orangutan habitat to create palm oil plantations, every other part of the national park has been invaded by illegal as Smits mentions and documents at every opportunity. loggers. Unfortunately, the situation reflects what is happening But while Smits was abroad, the Animal Rescue across Indonesia. All national parks with stands of timber are Center network collapsed, in a pattern both paralleling and being logged and the situation is so bad that illegal logging now contrasting with the destruction a decade ago of much of the outstrips legal timber production.” orangutan rescue and conservation work conducted since 1971 Former Tanjung Puting orangutan conservation vol- by Orangutan Foundation International founder Birute unteer Lone Droscher-Nielsen and Willie Smits in 1998 found- Galdikas. ed the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project to res- Galdikas, 61, was the third, youngest, and last of cue and rehabilitate as many displaced orangutans as possible. “Leakey’s Angels,” following Jane Goodall, whom the late The Nyaru Meteng center reportedly now houses 630 orang- anthropologist Louis Leakey sent to study chimpanzees in utans, with little hope of soon finding habitat suitable for any Tanzania, and Dian Fossey, sent to study gorillas in Rwanda. of them to be released. Galdikas’ approach soon expanded from scientific Galdikas campaigned worldwide to expose the devas- observation to hands-on care of orphaned orangutans. This tation in Tanjung Puting and elsewhere, but ran afoul of con- work is continued by the Orangutan Care Centre that Galdkikas servation politics. In a 1999 biography entitled A Dark Place in established at Kalimantan Tengah, Borneo. The center houses the Jungle: Following Leakey’s Last Angel into Borneo, about 200 rescued orangutans at a time, releasing about 30 per Canadian author Linda Spalding questioned whether Galdikas’ year back into the diminishing rainforest. emphasis on individual animal rescue was an effective approach As Galdikas came to recognize that the individual on behalf of orangutans as a species. Spalding’s arguments cases she handled were representative of threats to the entire have been amplified ever since by habitat conservationists who orangutan species, she became increasingly involved in habitat contend that Galdikas’ concern for individual animal well-being conservation. From March 1996 through March 1998, is a distraction from preserving orangutan habitat. Galdikas served as senior advisor to the Indonesian minister of “There are concerns that freed orangutans spread dis- Bali temple longtailed macaques. (Kim Bartlett) forestry on orangutan issues, under the former Suharto govern- (continued on page 5) LETTERS Kenya dogs Rabies in Sofia I had my tickets ready to fly to Bali The Africa Network for Animal On August 1, 2008 a rabid fox bit a for the 2008 Asia for Animals conference, but Welfare initiated a three-year humane dog pet dog in Vladaya, a suburb of Sofia, was forced to stay back, as I had to take care population and rabies control pilot campaign Bulgaria. About 40 cases of rabies per year are of around twelve types of endangered tortoises on September 24, 2008. Our goal is to end discovered in Bulgaria, almost half of them in in a pond constructed some 700 years back by the inhumane use of strychnine for dog pop- and near Sofia, said National Veterinary a king for his people inside the premises of the ulation and rabies control. We are targeting Service deputy director Damyan Iliev. Hargrib Mahdab Temple, around 40 kilome- dog populations in impoverished slum areas However, Sofia Municipal Animal ters from my home. in Nairobi and surrounding areas. Our key Control Agency director Miroslav Naydenov The Kamrup deputy commissioner, partners include Worldwide Veterinary told Darik News on August 11, 2008, that with funding from the prime minister, in April Services, the government Department of “There is absolutely no danger of rabies 2008 constructed a five-foot-high concrete Veterinary Services, the University of spreading among homeless dogs in Sofia. wall around the pond, preventing the tortoises Nairobi, and the Kenya Veterinary There is no single case of a stray dog infected from coming to the shore of the pond to bask Association. ANAW is coordinating it. The with rabies in Vladaya,” because “during the in the sun and laying their eggs. They devel- Kenya SPCA is helping to coordinate part- last two years we have been vaccinating all oped fungal infections from staying inside the ners and deal with designated areas. We are stray dogs against rabies,” to form a buffer pond continuously, with water leeches feeding operating under the umbrella of Animal between rabid foxes and pet dogs. on them. Fifteen tortoises died recently within Welfare Action Kenya (AWAKE), hoping But the influx of unwanted dogs in one months time. Three hundred fifty coconut spoke against the deputy commissioner. to develop a program to be replicated in Sofia does not stop, because most owned dogs trees around the pond were felled in the name I wrote to the prime minister and the other cities in Kenya and Africa at large. remain unsterilizered. There are no educational of beautification, so there was no shade for the chief minister. Ironically, the chief minister ––Josphat Ngonyo, Director programs, no low-cost sterilization programs, tortoises, and the pump for a fountain installed inaugurated the pond, but at his initiative the Africa Network for Animal Welfare and no active policy for saving, sterilizing, within the pond made the water even hotter. wall has been totally dismantled. Immediately P.O. Box 3731-00506 and re-homing abandoned animals. The wall was built with the advice of the tortoises came up on the shore. Nairobi, Kenya ––Emil D. Kuzmanov one member secretary of the Wildlife Trust of ––Sangeeta Goswami Telephone: 254-20-606-510 Animal Programs Foundation India and the Guwahati University zoology People for Animals Fax: 254-20-609-691 18 Yanko Sofiiski Voivoda Str department head. I fought hard against it. The Guwahati, Assam, India
ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 - 5 Animal welfare & conservation in conflict (from page 4) eases to the wild populations,” summarized Greenwire senior The message is that wildlife will be rescued and pro- Foundation helped International Animal Rescue to intervene. reporter Darren Samuelsohn in April 2008. “At Camp Leakey, tected in Indonesia only if the effort pays for itself. Since IAR had become involved in Indonesia one year ear- there are daily feedings for the wild and former captive orang- donor-funded nonprofit rescue centers are deemed to have lier. “Since attending the Asia for Animals Conference in utans that often also draw tourists. Some of the orangutans failed, the political path is cleared for proponents of zoological Singapore last year,” IAR announced in July 2006, “we have have attacked guests and staff.” conservation, meaning captive breeding without particular con- been building a relationship with the Indonesian-based group Borneo-based Nature Conservancy scientist Erik cern for individual animals, and “sustainable development,” Pro Animalia International, founded in 2004 to protect Meijaard told Samuelsohn that Galdikas is “playing around meaning the exploitation of wildlife in any manner which does Indonesian wildlife.” with symbolism without getting to the core of the issue.” not lead directly to the destruction of a species. In December 2006 the Pro Animalia founders, The gist of the conflict may be a difference in percep- The Animal Rescue Centers on Bali, on the Jakarta Spanish veterinarian Karmele Llano Sanchez and Femke den tion of the future of orangutans, and indeed of most Indonesian outskirts, at Gadong, at Jogja, at Kulonprogo, and on North Haas, originally from the Netherlands, merged their project wildlife. Galdikas believes that if Indonesians sufficiently take Sulawesi all closed during the summer of 2008. The into International Animal Rescue to become IAR-Indonesia. to heart the needs and nature of wild orangutans, plantation Pentungsewu Animal Rescue Center in Malang, founded and IAR thus inherited their primate rehabilitation pro- developers can be persuaded to leave buffer strips of natural partially supported by Pro Fauna Indonesia, lasted a little gram and an attempted reintroduction of Brahminy kites to the vegetation along watercourses and in places where windbreaks longer than the rest, but closed at the end of August 2008. region, beginning with releases on Kotok Island, within are needed, enabling orangutans and other species to learn to “Our rare and endangered species have been handed Thousand Islands National Park. live among humans much as most surviving wildlife does in over to Indonesia Safari Park II, the Jatim Recreational Park, IAR has previously melded species conservation and India, Europe, and North America. and the Malang Municipal Recreational Park,” PARC project animal welfare work in Britain, Malta, and India, partnering While protecting large expanses of habitat is ideal, manager Iwan Kurniwan told Wahyoe Boediwardhana of the in India with Wildlife SOS to rescue former dancing bears. Galdikas learned from her experience at Tanjung Puting Jakarta Post. “The majority of our work is with macaques. We are National Park that protected habitat in a developing nation may “The center was home to 100 rare and endangered also trying to help slow lorises, as the Javan slow loris just be viewed by many as an irresistible economic opportunity, species of primates and birds seized from illegal owners,” appeared on a list of the 25 most endangered species in the which one faction will exploit if another does not. Galdikas wrote Boediwardhana. world,” explains IAR cofounder Alan Knight. remains committed to protecting as much habitat as possible, “With the closure,” Iwan Kurniwan said, “the gov- The slow lorises at the rescue center have often had but appears to see raising public concern about animal welfare ernment put all the rare species rescued from illegal trade and their teeth excised before sale as exotic pets. as the most viable approach to species conservation. As U.S.- smuggling into zoological gardens, whose missions are not Knight “is researching the option of dental implants,” based fundraisers learned more than 50 years ago from the suc- purely conservation.” Bartlett reported. “AR will also try to find out if lorises can cess of the first “Smokey the Bear” campaign against forest That left the Cikananga Rescue Center, “fully funded still kill their prey without teeth, or if they can live without fires, the most successful appeals on behalf of habitat begin by the West Java provincial government,” according to meat. They only have a few lorises at present, but expect to with appeals on behalf of individual animals’ needs. Boediwardhana, but rescued from catastrophe by British-based receive more. Knight told me that if they cannot rehabilitate The closure of most of the Animal Rescue Centers, charity International Animal Rescue in August 2007, after and release the lorises, they will try to use them for captive one by one, has not been nearly as dramatic as the invasion of Jessica Boulton of The People reported that “More than 200 breeding, with the offspring eventually released into the wild.” Tanjung Puting National Park by log poachers, and unlike the creatures, including a bear, an orangutan and her baby, and a “I don’t approve of animal welfare organizations destruction of many Indonesian parks, it has not been visible rare slow loris are fed only once every four days. They were involving themselves in breeding of animals for any purpose,” from space. Yet the closures have amounted to dismantling meant to be the ‘saved’ ones,” Boulton noted, “after being Bartlett noted, while observing that the IAR macaque program much and perhaps most of the fledgling animal welfare infra- plucked from cruel street entertainers, horrific pet markets and takes quite a different approach. structure of Indonesia, and have resulted in wholesale transfers roadside traders.” Throughout Asia, as street dog sterilization projects of animals and influence away from independent nonprofit Emergency funding from readers of The People, the have reduced the numbers of dogs at large, macaques have agencies to privately operated zoos. International Primate Protection League, and the Born Free (continued on page 6) Moral progress “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated,” Mohandas Gandhi reput- edly said. So, what does that say, when one severely starved, tick-infested, mange-cov- ered blue tick coonhound was left to walk around on the main street of Hurtsboro, Alabama and everyone just walked past her? Barely able to walk, she still wagged her tail at the passers-by. Her front teeth were worn down, probably from trying to chew out of a kennel, and her neck was scarred from a collar that was too tight. Yet this dog still trusted people and looked to them for help. The concerned receptionist at the local veterinary clinic told me the dog had been wandering around Hurtsboro for a few weeks. The receptionist and a United Parcel Service delivery woman had given her food when they happened to see her. As a volunteer for the Macon County Humane Society, I brought the coonhound into the vet clinic to get the immediate treatment she desperately needed. We named her Blue Bell. I placed Blue Bell on the Macon County Humane Society web site and Christina and Sean Murdoch of the Windfire Ranch animal rescue facility adopted her within a few weeks. She is now their happy indoor companion. Blue Bell was the fourth coonhound I found running loose in Russell County this year. I called some coon hunters and asked some questions. I found out that even though turning out or dumping animals is a Class A misdemeanor in Alabama, it is standard prac- tice among some coon hunters to turn loose any dogs they no longer want, often due to being gun-shy, not treeing raccoons, not being aggressive enough, or being too old. Some coonhounds who are not good raccoon hunters are used to chase deer, but are turned loose if they also fail at this. If Gandhi’s quote were changed to “The greatness of Alabama and its moral progress can be judged by the way the people of Alabama treat its animals.” I would say we are in trouble. ––Sue-Ellen Brown Clinical Psychologist Russell County, Alabama
CATHOLIC CONCERN FOR ANIMALS began in 1929 in the UK. We now have a branch in the USA. w ww.catholic-animals.org 973-694-5155 September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 6
6 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 Animal welfare & conservation in conflict (from page 5) invaded the dogs’ former habitat, proving much more difficult macaques,” Knight told ANIMAL PEOPLE, “so they can very bad humane education model. both to live with and to control. Tens of thousands per year are help [humane societies performing the surgery] to purchase the “In my view,” Bartlett told the assembled IAR visi- captured for use in biomedical research. Though U.S. laborato- equipment needed for the job. We hope to perfect this tech- tors, “it shouldn’t matter to an animal welfarist if an animal is ries are the largest purchasers and any macaques sold to the nique of macaque sterilization in Indonesia and then take it to from an endangered species, because it is the individual who U.S. are supposed to be captive-bred, primate conservationists India. We have been given the green light to do this by Major suffers—not the species. I tried to explain that when a species and investigative reporters who have followed the macaque General R.M. Kharb, chair of the Animal Welfare board of is designated ‘endangered,’ it achieves the status of ‘sacred’ traffic suspect that wild-caught macaques from all over India, at the Asia for Animals conference in Bali.” and then all other animals from non-endangered species can be Southeast Asia are being “laundered” through southern China Though the IAR slow loris project may be construct- sacrificed to it—because they are predators of the endangered and sold to U.S. firms as “captive bred.” ed to emphasize species conservation over individual welfare, species, or competitors, or prey.” IAR receives both crab-eating and pig-tailed while the macaque project is mostly about animal welfare, both Wildlfe SOS cofounder Kartick Satyanarayan sug- macaques from a variety of sources, but mainly as cast-off projects are managed in a manner that minimizes a conflict of gested that if the hawk eagles must learn to hunt live prey pets. The IAR rehabilitation program focuses on integrating the ethics. Not so a Javan hawk eagle project begun parallel to the before they are released from flight cages, an alternative might macaques into progressively larger social groups until they Brahminy kite reintroduction project. be to throw grain down in the cages to attract the native rats. form troops big enough to be returned to the wild, mainly in The hawk eagle project, which has released six hawk This would more closely simulate nature, “and the uninhabited areas on smaller islands. eagles so far, “uses intensively-reared guinea pigs, a non- rats would have a choice about whether to risk eating the grain, “All our macaques are sterilized before starting reha- native species, for live feeding to eagles who are being readied as well as a much greater chance of escaping from the eagles,” bilitation. The males all have vasectomies, although our first for release into the wild,” Bartlett observed. “I said I didn’t Bartlett summarized. group was castrated with no effect on the social structure of the think animal welfarists should be engaged in live-feeding, “The welfare concerns in terms of live feeding are the group,” Knight explained, contradicting conventional belief much less in raising animals for feeding to other animals in same regardless of whether the project uses rats, guinea pigs, that macaque troupes reject castrated males. intensive confinement systems that do not incorporate the Five lizards or snakes,” responded Animals Asia Foundation veteri- IAR recently introduced the use of laparoscopic Freedoms,” promoted by Compassion In World Farming and narian Heather Bacon. “I believe it would be speciesist to be endoscopy, a form of microsurgery, to sterilize macaques with other organizations as the minimum acceptable standards for concerned only for the welfare of the sole mammalian prey minimal incisions and risk of post-surgical infection. animal husbandry. species involved.” “I am really hoping we can convince the Indian gov- “I asked if the guinea pigs were also being used as Knight told the IAR guests that the presentation by ernment to set up an Animal Birth Control program for meat for people,” Bartlett recalled, but the hawk eagle program the Javan hawk eagle project on the day of their visit was the staff “said they were only first he knew that guinea pigs were fed to the hawk eagles alive, Laboratory oversight in Sri Lanka for feeding to the birds. The and that he had earlier been disturbed by live feeding of fish to guinea pig dung is used for sea eagles. “I was as surprised as anyone that they use live I am pleased to announce a signifi- must approve research using animals, consid- fertilizing vegetable gardens. prey,” Knight confirmed later. “I reared snakes in my youth cantly positive development with regard to ering the benefit expected to come from the They mentioned that some- and fed them dead prey that had been heated. I will look into using animals in research in Sri Lanka. experiments and whether the research justifies times the guinea pigs escape the problems with feeding live prey,” he pledged, “as I am This development comes one year the distress caused to the animals who will be from the eagles, but that very uncomfortable with this. I can assure you that the Javan after our shelter dogs Polly, Wussie and Perry used. Veterinarians must strictly supervise because of their bright color- hawk eagle project is only $200 a month out of a budget of were obtained by deceit and subjected to any animal used in research during and after ing, they can easily be spot- $20,000 a month, so is 1% of the work we do, and you can unethical research by two veterinarians. The the experiments. The guidelines are to be ted outside of the flight rest assured that we will be looking at the feeding of raptors Sri Lanka Veterinary Council judged the two finalized at a subsequent workshop. cages and be brought back more closely. We will correct the feeding methods or remove vets to have conducted themselves inhumane- A new Sri Lankan animal welfare in. However, given the our small funding of the project.” ly and unethically. act, replacing the antiquated act of 1907 and fecundity of guinea pigs, it Claiming to take a broader overview of the project, An ethical review committee was awaiting to be passed in parliament, will pro- would seem that just a few beyond the live feeding issue, Bacon argued that “It is not a established at the Veterinary Faculty of the vide the necessary and adequate legal backing escaped animals might question of eagle versus guinea pig, or conservation versus Univeristy of Peradeniya soon after our com- to take action against acts of cruelty to ani- establish a breeding popula- welfare…By conserving species such as eagles and preparing plaint to the Sri Lanka Veterinary Council. mals. The new act will establish an Animal tion in the nearby jungle,” them for the wild and training them to hunt, you protect not As a direct result of this scandal, a Welfare Authority, consisting of veterinary Bartlett mentioned, a con- only the welfare of the eagle but also the habitat in which it workshop organized by a group of eminent clinicians and professors as well as animal cern of conservationists who lives, by providing a reason for maintaining national parks for medical and veterinary professionals was held welfarists. The Animal Welfare Authority have recently exterminated a species of conservation interest, thus protecting the welfare on September 11, 2008 at Colombo Univ- will have powers to invesitigate acts of cruelty feral guinea pig populations of all of the other species within that animal’s habitat.” ersity. At the workshop a draft document was and take action against perpetrators. in Hawaii and New Zealand. But this presumes that the Indonesian national parks taken up for discussion to formulate a set of ––Champa Fernando “In addition to the are in fact being protected and maintained as wildlife habitat, a National Guidelines for Protection of Animals Secretary, KACPAW guinea pigs, the eagles are debatable proposition in many cases. in Research. 191 Trinco Street also fed lizards and snakes,” Extended to endangered species and habitat every- This set of guidelines incorporates a Kandy, Sri Lanka Bartlett learned. “All in all, where, Bacon’s argument is the reason why U.S. habitat requirement that ethical review committees
ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 - 7 Welfare & conservation in conflict (conclusion) preservationists have focused on lawsuits seeking to protect the “The goals of conservation are to preserve native “critical habitat” of broadly distributed rare species such as species and their habitat, and to reverse the effects of human spotted owls, marbled murrelets, and red-cockaded woodpeck- disruption of ecosystems and the migration of so-called non- ers, instead of—for example—the much scarcer 31 endangered native species into protected ecosystems,” whose ideal state is and threatened bird species native to Hawaii. usually supposed to have existed at a relatively arbitrary time In consequence, more than a third of all the money before the arrival of technological civilization, western civi- spent to protect the 95 officially endangered or threatened U.S. lization, or people with boats and dogs, for instance. bird species, from 1996 through 2004, went to protecting spot- “I see little science in the desire to ‘cleanse’ the envi- ted owls, marbled murrelets, and red-cockaded woodpeckers, ronment of ‘invasive’ species,” Bartlett wrote, “and I believe as documented by Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife moreover that it is anti-nature, since migration of species has biologist David L. Leonard Jr. in the September 2008 edition always been one engine of evolution, as animals move into of Conservation Biology. new habitat, and then adapt (another engine of evolution) and Whether this skewed emphasis on species with out-compete rival species, often driving them into extinction, expansive “critical habitat” has actually helped many other which is the principle of survival of the fittest. Ecosystems species is questionable. Certainly the endangered Hawaiian have never been static environments. I am not in favor of fur- birds have not benefitted. Neither have barred owls, who have ther human intervention that disrupts ecosystems, but neither been killed for hybridizing with spotted owls and for extending am I in favor of restoring ecosystems if it means killing animals their range into former spotted owl habitat. who have adapted to them. I say leave wild animals alone from If the theory that all wildlife can be protected by pro- now on and let nature take its course. But of course this will tecting the critical habitat for broad-ranging endangered species not happen. has failed in the U.S., where the federal Endangered Species “The point of conservation is generally perceived as Act has been in force for 35 years, with billions of dollars and restoring and preserving a healthy environment for the benefit overwhelmingly favorable public opinion behind it, the odds of humans,” Bartlett pointed out, “which has led to the con- would appear slim that this approach will succeed in the most cept of ‘sustainable use,’ now virtual dogma for conservation- populated parts of the developing world. ists. Some conservative animal welfarists accept the idea of humane consumptive use of domestic animals, but even these Population pressure people generally draw the line at hunting, trapping, and other International Animal Rescue macaque. (Kim Bartlett) Assessed Bartlett, “Experience in India, and to a consumptive use of wildlife, whereas virtually all of the main- adaptable enough to survive in a changing environment. lesser extent in Kenya, has demonstrated that national parks stream conservation organizations accept hunting, trapping, “At some point humans will themselves adapt to and forests will only be protected by government as long as and other consumptive use of animals as ‘tools of wildlife man- changing circumstances, and perhaps then the species who sur- there is no human population pressure surrounding the areas. agement’ or the means through which ‘wildlife pays for itself.’ vive in the wild will be allowed to live unmolested, while those As soon as there is sufficient human demand to exploit the “Despite all the effort going into preserving endan- who have been kept alive in captivity might be returned to ‘protected’ natural resources or to establish human settlements gered species, as soon as a species has ‘recovered,’ it goes wildlife preserves that are truly protected. But that will only in the area, politicians accede to the demands to open the back on the list of animals approved for killing. If the point of happen when and if people begin to believe that animals have reserves, and the wildlife and plant species quickly decline. preserving an endangered species is so that it can eventually be the same right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as “There is rapid human population growth in caught, killed and/or otherwise used again in the future, then human beings, or at the very least that animals do not exist to Indonesia, especially on Java, which is expected to continue why should it be preserved at all?” be props in the human environment, or to be foodstuffs for for the foreseeable future. The rising ocean levels caused by In effect, the “sustainable use” mantra calls for treat- humans or other commodities. global warming may simultaneously shrink land surface of the ing wildlife like livestock, and is therefore in fundamental con- “I cannot imagine the conservation movement on its Indonesian islands, while food shortages increase the demand flict with animal advocates who believe that “livestock species” present trajectory achieving the necessary change in human per- to turn forests into farms,” Bartlett continued. should not be treated like livestock, either. spective, though I applaud the animal welfare initiatives that “Unless we can inculcate an animal welfare perspec- Concluded Bartlett, “I think that short of a miracle may accompany certain conservation projects. tive, all wild creatures are endangered,” Bartlett predicted. happening, the only wild animals who have a good chance of “We are not going to get ahead long-term by substi- “There is a degree of overlap between certain animal welfare surviving the next 25 years in countries with burgeoning popu- tuting one animal victim for another,” such as in conservation- projects and conservation efforts, but the goals of animal wel- lations are those who either have no monetary or dietary value; ist efforts to encourage Africans to eat more dogs instead of fare are to prevent suffering and improve the lives of individual are prolific breeders; have low territorial needs and can live in bushmeat, Bartlett finished. “The whole paradigm has to animals,” which if practiced widely enough will protect the proximity to human settlements without causing property dam- change, because conservation approaches are not going to be health of species as well, “and the animals’ status as endan- age or crop destruction; are viewed as being harmless to successful in resolving the fundamental problems of how ani- gered or non-endangered is irrelevant. humans; are unafraid of or can cope with humans; and are mals and humans can share the earth.” September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 8
8 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 Shelters discontinue killing animals for other agencies, TULSA, CLOVIS, MACON, control company on notice that trapping and up to $12,500. To get the full amount,” Burk North Florida People for Animal Welfare LAKE CITY, HAYWARD––Beginning a killing cats can result in criminal convictions wrote, “the fund would have to collect Society, has been trying to get rid of the cages “new era” in animal care and control, accord- for animal cruelty,” Alley Cat Allies president $25,000 in donations by December 31, 2008.” for years,” wrote Castro. “Some of the prob- ing to Tulsa, Okalahoma mayor Kathy Taylor, Becky Robinson told ANIMAL PEOPLE. Macon gassed 3,970 animals in lems the animals were facing in the cages were the Tulsa animal shelter on September 8, 2008 “Last week we sent a letter to the 2007––85% of the city shelter intake. Only extreme weather conditions, biting red ants, quit killing animals for surrounding communi- chief executive officer of Critter Control,” 160 animals were adopted out. and the risk of being stolen for nefarious rea- ties’ animal control agencies. Robinson elaborated, “alerting him that one of Defenders of gassing contend that it sons, Rooney added.” “For at least three decades, the city his franchise owners was found guilty on three is not only cheaper but safer for workers than Specifically, animals taken from the has charged suburbs $1.00 per animal counts of animal cruelty for killing three feral lethal injection. This contention is difficult to drop-off cages were allegedly used in dog- destroyed at Tulsa’s shelter. Last year, an esti- cats. We forwarded that letter to 170 Critter assess. The only death by a shelter worker fights and in training dogs to fight. mated 4,000 animals from outside the city Control franchise owners across the country. while using a gas chamber of which ANIMAL “Earlier this year,” Castro recalled, were killed in the shelter’s gas chamber,” Alley Cat Allies also urged Critter Control to PEOPLE is aware was that of Vernon Dove, “two men were charged with fighting or bait- recalled Tulsa World staff writer P.J. Lassek. remove a page from its website that suggest- 39, at the Humane Educational Society of ing animals and unlawful assembly after The new policy was phased in over ed—wrongly—that unidentified cats are rarely Chattanooga on March 28, 2000. ANIMAL attending a pit bull fight outside Fort White. 60 days to give the Tulsa suburbs time to make protected under state laws.” PEOPLE is aware of about half a dozen sui- Attended by dozens of people, the event was other arrangements. Taylor may authorize Wrote Alley Cat Allies department cides by shelter workers who used pentabarbi- so well organized that there were even genera- killing other communities’ animals at the of law and policy director Wendy M. tol apparently obtained on the job, but no fatal tors and portable lights brought to the rural Tulsa shelter, in cases of necessity, but not Anderson to Critter Control CEO Kevin Clark, accidents. area so that the dogfighting in the woods could for less than $15 per animal, under a new ani- of Traverse City, Michigan, “On August 14, In any event, the argument that be better seen.” mal control ordinance that is meant to reduce 2008 Keith Copi, the owner of a Critter gassing is safer blew up, literally, at the Drop-off cages have been used by shelter killing and expedite the transition Control franchise in suburban Richmond, Iredell County Animal Shelter in North many shelters at least since the early 20th cen- already underway to using lethal injections Virginia was convicted in Henrico General Carolina on July 22, 2008 when an electrical tury, and were still recommended in the 1989 instead of gassing. District Court.” For each of the three convic- malfunction occurred inside the shelter’s gas edition of the National Animal Control Shelter manager Jean Letcher told tions, Anderson continued, “Copi was sen- chamber. Ten dogs in the chamber were Association training manual, but fell into dis- Lassek that lethal injection is already used for tence to jail for a period of 12 months, sus- already deceased, and the chamber was near repute and rapidly disappeared in the 1990s. about 75% of the dogs whom the city kills. pended on the condition of good behavior. He the end of its 20-minute operating cycle when The Hayward Animal Shelter, “The gas chamber is still used for the remain- was assessed close to $1,000 in fines and the explosion occurred. No one was injured, among the last in California known to use ing 25% who are deemed too aggressive to be costs, and he also incurred the cost of hiring a but three emergency vehicles responded to drop-off cages, closed theirs in mid-2007. handled, or when there is not enough staff” to defense attorney. calls about the blast. Objected Hayward Friends of hold animals for injection, Lassek wrote. “All cats––pet, stray, and feral–– Of the 102 licensed public animal Animals president Steve Sapontzis, to The Clovis, New Mexico animal are protected under the animal cruelty laws of shelters in North Carolina, 67 reportedly use Hayward Daily Review staff writer Matt control task force on September 9, 2008 voted the 50 states and the District of Columbia,” only lethal injection to kill animals, 25 use O’Brien, “The Hayward Animal Shelter has, 6-3 to recommend an end to gassing to the city Anderson reminded. “Animal cruelty laws only gas, and 10 use both. since at least 1985, had the boxes open to pro- commission. The commission is to review the apply regardless of whether the cat is owned or vide shelter for stray animals at night, when- recommendation in November. Task force unowned, identified or unidentified.” Drop-off cage ever. Even when they cut back on animal con- chair Linda Cross “said the city would receive Older state anti-cruelty laws often trol officers, they kept the boxes open, $100,000 from Governor Bill Richardson’s applied only to owned animals. Such laws debate because that’s the humane thing to do.” office, and that Animal Protection of New were typically widened to cover all dogs and Drop-off cages to allow the public to Wrote O’Brien, “Sapontzis said Mexico would provide free training and a cats as part of introducing felony penalties for surrender animals to shelters after hours or to some people are reluctant to drop animals off year’s supply of sodium pentobarbital, the animal cruelty, now in effect in nearly all avoid a long drive to a distant shelter moved during regular shelter hours because of a sur- medicine used in lethal injections,” if the gas states, to eliminate the defense that a perpetra- closer to abolition in March 2008 when the render fee that averages $90, although shelter chamber is abolished, reported Clovis N e w s tor did not know a victim animal’s status. Lake City Animal Shelter discontinued collect- officials say they reduce it on a case-by-case Journal staff writer Gabriel Monte. ing animals from cages near the town hall in basis if owners face financial hardships.” The Clovis task force unanimously Gassing cost & Fort White, Florida. Fort White is about 20 But surrender fees are another idea approved requiring that shelter animals be ster- miles from Lake City. of the past, introduced during the Great ilized before being placed for adoption. safety Assistant shelter director Terry Depression despite warnings from the The Tulsa and Clovis transitions Anxiety about the cost of converting Marques told High Springs Herald correspon- American Humane Association that they might mirror changes in animal control modus from gassing continues to be cited most often dent Maria Fernanda Castro that the cages increase animal abandonment at large, rather operandi that have already been adopted in by agencies that resist switching to lethal were in “deplorable condition,” and demon- than discouraging the casual disposal of pets–– most of the U.S., in some cases decades ago, injection, despite 35 years’ worth of data gath- strated “inhumane treatment of animals.” including the pets of people other than those and are now becoming established in the rural ered by shelter management consultant Doug “Katie Rooney, president of the who leave them at shelters. More than 70 areas that had been the last holdouts. Fakkema showing that the cost per animal dif- California, for example, has required munici- ference is negligible. Fakkema presented pal shelters to sterilize animals before adoption recent numbers in “Comparing costs of carbon for nearly 20 years. Gassing dogs and cats has monoxide v.s. sodium pentobarbital,” in the been banned by law in at least five states, October 2006 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE. although in some states shelters that had gas After initially resisting movement chambers are still allowed to use them. toward abolishing gassing in Macon, Georgia Killing animals for other agencies, because of the cost issue, mayor Robert once a significant revenue source for agencies Reichert in June 2008 signed an ordinance that had gas chambers and crematoriums, has authorizing the Community Foundation of become much less common as agencies com- Central Georgia to bank $50,000 in donated pete to lower their death tolls. funds that local activists pledged to collect Since the advent of microchipping toward offsetting the expenses, if the gas pets began to reveal that “owner-surrendered,” chamber is scrapped by July 1, 2009. “found,” and privately trapped “feral” animals “The initial $50,000 will cover start- are often the pets of people other than those up costs including $15,000 for building who bring them to shelters, many shelters improvements, about $14,000 for equipment have also begun requiring proof of ownership and supplies, and about $13,000 for a year’s before agreeing that an animal will be killed. worth of medication,” reported Jennifer Burk of the Macon Telegraph. “After adding Exterminators increased salaries for the officers doing the work, which private donations cannot pay for, warned the total cost could run about $113,000, ani- Private exterminators have claimed mal control director Jim Johnson said.” some of the business from property owners Macon city council subcommittee on and others who just want to get rid of per- animal control issues head Nancy White told ceived nuisance animals, but Alley Cat Allies Burk that an anonymous donor “has offered to in early September 2008 “put a national pest match $1 for every $2 contributed to the fund, Shelter manager sold cadavers for lab use VISALIA, Calif.––After an eight- guidelines. Harmon also faces a separate trial day trial and two days of deliberation, a in November 2008 on animal cruelty charges. Tulare County Superior Court jury on Harmon, Sergeant, and another September 24, 2008 convicted former Tulare Tulare County shelter employee, Ronn County Animal Control Shelter manager Cookson, were arrested in June 2007. The William Harmon of two felony counts of single cruelty charge filed against Cookson accepting bribes, a felony count of embezzle- was later dropped. ment and a misdemeanor charge of accepting The case came to light, recounted an unlawful gratuity. Sarah Jiminez of the Fresno Bee, after “ken- “The jury found him not guilty of nel cards at Tulare County Animal Control falsifying public documents,” reported Brett started disappearing. Animals were killed on Wilkison of the Visalia T i m e s - D e l t a . “The the day of impoundment despite a four- to-six- jury found Harmon accepted and requested day holding requirement. Dogs designated for restaurant gift certificates from Michael adoption were killed. It seemed the shelter Sargeant,” allegedly in exchange for provid- was killing more animals than in previous ing Sargeant with the remains of dogs killed at years,” about 700 more cats and the same the shelter. Sargeant’s business, Wholesale number of dogs. “All the while,” Jiminez Biologicals of Bakersfield, sells animal car- added, “trucks from Wholesale Biologicals casses to laboratories. The transactions were collecting cat and dog cadavers, even allegedly occurred from 2002 through 2006. though the company’s expired contract related Harmon faces a minimum of six only to cats, according to court records.” years in prison and could be sentenced to serve Sergeant is to be tried in October up to 12 years, under California sentencing 2008 for alleged bribery. September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 9
ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 - 9
Off-exhibit secrets of the Bali Zoo and Bali Safari & Marine Park (from page 1) audience volunteers lying flat on the stage, Bogor, West Java, owned and built by the and welfare committee. cession was already attracting customers. The would not be permitted at an an accredited zoo same investors. Jansen Manansang was a member of lion cub offered for the customers to pose with in most of the world. Insurers and safety regu- Many photos posted to web sites by the WAZA working group that in October was sedated to the point of unconsciousness. lators would stop it if zoo association stan- previous visitors to the Bali Safari & Marine 2006 produced a document headlined “The He remained unconscious until about an hour dards did not. Park and Taman Safari appeared to confirm Global Zoo Community takes up Global Zoo before the concession closed in early after- Bali Safari & Marine Park visitors Wedderburn’s allegations. Standards through WAZA.” noon. He then began attempting to move and for an added fee may be photographed cud- But Jansen Manansang, who heads The 21-page document opened with between frequent bouts of dry heaves appeared dling lions, tigers, and orangutans, at least the family-controlled company that developed a seven-point “Crux of the issue” statement, to be trying to find something to nurse from–– some of whom are drugged to stupifaction––as the Bali Safari & Marine Park, Taman Safari, mentioning that “a bad zoo conveys unfortu- a hint that he had only recently been weaned, ANIMAL PEOPLE witnessed and document- and the Taman Safari II park, is also president nate subliminal messages,” and expressing if weaned at all. ed for seven hours on August 31, 2008. of the South East Asian Zoo Association. concern about “negative impacts on the safety Tony Greenwood, owner of the Peel Asia Animal Protection Network The South East Asian Zoo Associ- of animals, public, and staff.” Zoo in Australia, joined ANIMAL PEOPLE founder John Wedderburn had already posted ation is a member of the World Association of This all raised two questions preced- in observing the lion cub about an hour after on the AAPN “ZooPage” that “the general Zoos & Aquaria. Both associations’ logos ing the ANIMAL PEOPLE visit to the Bali ANIMAL PEOPLE started. Greenwood, good impression” that the park presents “is appear on the Bali Safari & Marine Park and Safari & Marine Park. First, are the also involved in developing and attempting to spoiled by the photography areas where you Taman Safari web site front pages. Manansang-directed zoos actually drugging improve the Bali Zoo, had business at the Bali can have your picture taken with a drugged Drugging animals for photography and/or chaining animals for photography? Safari & Marine Park with general manager lion or tiger cub lying on a table.” and encouraging the public to handle animals Second, if this is happening, does the Esther Manansang, daughter of Jansen Wedderburn had earlier noted “vari- “is contrary to the World Association of Zoos Manansang family know about it? Manansang. ous big cats…chained to a bench for long peri- & Aquaria ethics and welfare policy,” ANIMAL PEOPLE arrived at the Esther Manansang’s uncles Frans ods so that visitors can have their photographs affirmed North Carolina Zoo director David Bali Safari & Marine Park soon after it Manansang and Tony Sumampau were Jansen taken sitting beside them” at Taman Safari in Jones, who is vice chair of the WAZA ethics opened in the morning. A lion cub photo con- (continued on page 10) Events Oct. 16-19: Spay USA conf., Chicago. Info: 1- 8 0 0 - 2 4 8 - S P A Y ;
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10 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 Off-exhibit secrets of the Bali Zoo and Bali Safari & Marine Park (from page 1) Manansang’s partners in founding all three of how many lion and tiger cubs are used for E-mailed Agoramoorthy on Sep- looked into and hopefully stopped.” the zoos that their family owns. photo concessions, how often they are tember 28, “Animal shows and photography WAZA peer pressure may influence Esther Manansang boasted to media drugged, and what becomes of them when are allowed in SEAZA member zoos if they do the direction of the Bali Safari & Marine when the Bali Safari & Marine Park opened they mature. not violate welfare and ethical standards. The Park––or may not. The Bali Zoo does not that “There will be no honking car horns or ANIMAL PEOPLE forwarded our SEAZA Ethics and Welfare Committee carried belong to either WAZA or the South East feeding animals” there, but apparently said findings to both David Jones and the WAZA o u t assessment of all three Taman Safari Asian Zoo Association. And Tony Green- nothing about drugging animals for photos. secretariat in Liebefeld, Switzerland, along Indonesia parks owned by Jansen [Manan- wood, after two years of trying to lead While ANIMAL PEOPLE c o n t i n - with seven photos from individual visitors’ sang], and did not see any evidence regarding founder Anak Agung Gede Putra by example, ued watching the cub, also keeping an eye on web sites and links to tourism web sites that sedating animals for photography,” but is openly running out of patience. two locations at which keepers sold visitors illustrate and describe the Bafi Safari & Agoramoorthy did not say when this assess- Tony and Narelle Greenwood dis- greens to feed elephants, Greenwood met with Marine Park photo concession practices. ment was done. Neither did he mention the covered the Bali Zoo in November 2006. Esther Manansang. “The WAZA office have tried to many web site references to the practice. Attendence had collapsed since the terrorist After five hours the lion cub had make contact with Manansang,” Jones report- “I discussed [the drugging] with attacks on Bali tourism facilities of 2002 and almost continuous dry heaves, and was carried ed on September 19, “but have had no Esther [Manansang]. She had no recollection 2005. With 75 staff to pay and 350 animals to to an off-exhibit area over an attendant’s response. It appears that this is not for the first of speaking to anyone regarding sedating ani- feed, the Bali Zoo was $500,000 in debt. shoulder, past a much smaller and younger time [that similar complaints were made]. mals for photography,” Agoramoorthy said. The Greenwoods bailed the Bali Zoo tiger cub who had been offered for photogra- Apparently something similar was reported a Responded Greenwood, “The out financially and began rebuilding, repair- phy for nearly as longer. The tiger cub, if while back and they asked him about it then, daughter cannot remember talking to me? I ing, and re-organizing the animal exhibits, drugged, was less obviously so. The tiger cub with no response.” have no need to lie and the animals tell the tale but soon encountered resistance. was taken off exhibit soon afterward. Jones promised that he would, “act- any way. We have been in this industry all our For example, Anak Agung Gede Greenwood emerged from his meet- ing on behalf of the welfare and ethics com- lives. We are not silly. You were with me Putra, who shares the name of the longtime ing with Esther Manansang stating that she had mittee, formally ask for an explanation, and when we videotaped the animals in question hereditary rulers of the community, was in confirmed that the lion cub was sedated with a we will do that next week,” he pledged, “if This practice is widely known by many visi- early September 2008 negotiating the acquisi- half-and-half blend of Ketamine and Xylazine there is no response to the Swiss office.” tors. It is no surprise at all.” tion of 14 elephants. He hoped to start an ele- (sold as Rompazine). Greenwood later posted Sabine Gyger of the WAZA secre- The WAZA 2008 annual meeting is phant trek around the grounds, to compete a similar summary of his discussion with tariat had already asked Jansen Manansang to to be held in October in Adelaide, Australia. with the elephant trek offered by the vastly Esther Manansang on the Asia Dana Forum, a “Please look into the matter and respond.” Jansen Manansang is expected to attend. larger Bali Safari & Marine Park. Greenwood web site about Asian charities and travel, Taman Safari project consultant “I am going to suggest that it might wondered where Anak Agung Gede Putra maintained by “Anada,” one of the investors Sherman T. Wong on September 25 referred be better for him to come to the meeting hav- could even find room for 14 elephants to stand. Greenwood introduced to the Bali Zoo. the drugging issue to South East Asian Zoo ing stopped the practice, rather than it become Unused space at the Bali Zoo is chiefly on Esther Manansang did not respond to Association animal ethics & welfare commit- an issue in Adelaide,” Jones said. “One way steep slopes and seasonal floodplain, poten- an e-mail from ANIMAL PEOPLE a s k i n g tee chair G. Agoramoorthy. or another,” Jones promised, “I will get it tially suitable for expanding existing exhibits, but not for year-round ele- phant housing. Seeking expert back- up for his recommenda- tions, Greenwood invited attendees at the August 2008 Asia for Animals conference held in Bali to tour the zoo and express their views to Anak Agung Gede Putra. Among the Asia for Animals visitors who are known for acumen about zoo management standards and practices were Zoo- Check Canada founder Rob Laidlaw; Indian Zoo Inquiry Report a u t h o r Shubhobroto Ghosh; and Amy Corrigan and Louis Ng of the Animal Con- cerns Research and Edu- cation Society in Singa- pore. Corrigan and Ng are noted for their campaign seeking to relocate the Singapore Zoo’s two lethargic polar bears, both green with algae. The findings of the Asia for Animals visitors, many of them posted later to the Asian Animal Protection Network discus- sion group, focused on small and obsolescent enclosures. Some of the birds in the entry corridor were caged so closely that they could barely spread their wings. The lion and tiger exhibits had already been enlarged, but are not yet fully used by the ani- mals, especially the lions, who continue to pace in the dimensions of their for- mer habit. Greenwood had rearranged the monkey and gibbon exhibits to give the primates space more suited to their needs ––but Anak Agung Gede Putra or some of his staff moved most of them back to their former quarters. (continued on page 11) TRIBUTES
In honor of John Wesley. ––Brien Comerford ––––––––––––––––––––– In honor of Genesis 1:29 and Isaiah 11:6-9. ––Brien Comerford September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 11
ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 - 11
Off-exhibit secrets of the Bali Zoo and Bali Safari & Marine Park (from page 10) The Bali Zoo bear pit harks back to the back wall of their enclosure. Introducing clean escape, vocally objecting when Greenwood to a visitor observation platform. Had she Middle Ages, when similar pits were built running water would take a plumber just a cou- snapped the lock shut. turned right, she could have jumped down into near marketplaces throughout Europe. ple of hours. Deer of several species, including the village. Instead she turned left, into the Passing animals around for visitors But there were less obvious failures some with fully developed horns, on both vis- zoo grounds, where she was shot with a tran- to pet and handle, including an endangered of management, as ANIMAL PEOPLE veri- its hopped casually in and out of their enclo- quilizer dart and returned to the exhibit. slow loris, would not meet the care standards fied on a re-visit with Greenwood two days sures in a petting area to mingle with visitors. The worst, however, was behind of most zoo associations and the legal require- after the Asia for Animals group visit. The tiger exhibit is separated from the scenes, in the off-exhibit area. ments of many nations. A gate to the crocodile and pygmy dense housing just a few feet away by a one- A barren concrete cell housed two Two Javan cattle stood in a reeking hippo pond was open on both visits, with no brick-width wall that a tiger might be able to lion cubs, without food or water. The neigh- pond of their own diluted excrement, near the visible lock. Several primate cages were left knock down with a charge. Greenwood said boring cell housed a lion cub with a large and zoo restaurant, with no access to clean run- unlocked. The inmates of one cage appeared that the smaller of the two tigers in the exhibit, evidently infected head wound. A variety of ning water or food. Water pipes run along the to know how to unhook a lock left open and a white female, once leaped out of the exhibit caged birds nearby also lacked food and water. Fetching water for first the lion cubs and then the birds, Greenwood explained that the local police and wildlife law enforcement authorities bring to the zoo any wildlife they confis- cate in their work. Often they leave animals in the off-exhibit areas to be discovered hours later by staff, who may enter to attend the ponies stabled there between use at a pony-ride con- cession, or to burn garbage. He believed that the lion cubs were born at the Bali Zoo, but that the birds were probably confis- cated from alleged traffick- ers––with whom they may have been no worse off. The off-exhibit area also housed seven gamecocks in the baskets in which they are typi- cally displayed and taken to cockfights. Greenwood said the gamecocks belonged to Anak Agung Gede Putra himself, and were formerly exhibited near the Bali Zoo entrance. Greenwood had pressured Anak Agung Gede Putra to disassoci- ate himself and the zoo from cockfighting, he said. This, Greenwood added, was the first that he had seen of the game- cocks since then. Behind the gamecocks was a lumber pile. Atop the lumber pile, clinging to a board in apparent rigor mortis, recog- nized immediately by Green- wood’s children, was the slow loris who had been passed around for Asia for Animals conference visitors to handle. None of the Bali Zoo staff admitted any knowledge that the slow loris had died. Several told conflcting stories about where he was. Aware that a slow loris, as a fellow primate, may carry any number of diseases commu- nicable to humans, Greenwood and ANIMAL PEOPLE s p e n t the next several hours trying to find a veterinarian capable of performing a necropsy. The slow loris meanwhile passed well beyond rigor mortis. By then, Greenwood believed from his own zookeeping experience, the odor of the remains indicat- ed that the cause of death was salmonellosis. The slow loris might have become fatally ill from being handled by visitors who had previously touched some of the zoo reptiles. ––Merritt Clifton September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 12
12 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 Humane Society Legislative Fund backs “Obama also commented on the forefront of Obama’s campaign––he is no and has not issued any public statements on broader links between animal cruelty and vio- vegan Kucinich.” animal welfare issues. Yet he did speak at the lence in society,” Markarian mentioned. Humane Society of the U.S. presi- National Rifle Association convention earlier Conceded online animal advocacy dent Wayne Pacelle has also frequently praised this year, and was the keynote speaker” at a commentator Karen Dawn, who has frequent- Republicans, but Obama appeared to win late September conference held by the U.S. ly praised Republicans, “Obama’s record on Pacelle’s support in July 2008 by pledging to Sportsmen’s Alliance. animal issues is better than most. I have spo- adopt a shelter dog for his daughters. Endorsing McCain through a ken to him personally, and found a keen The anti-puppy mill book A Rare “Sportsmen for McCain National Steering awareness of and interest in the connection Breed of Love, by Jana Kohl, published earli- Committee” were National Rifle Association between the livestock industry and global er in 2008, includes a photo of Obama posing past president Sandra Froman, American warming. Yet animal issues are hardly at the with Kohl’s dog Baby in front of the Lincoln Council of Snowmobile Associations execu- Memorial. tive director Christine Jourdain, former Obama convinced many pro-animal National Wild Turkey Federation chief execu- voters of his sincerity when E n t e r t a i n m e n t tive Rob Keck, Boone & Crockett Club past W e e k l y asked him to name the first film he president Robert Model, and Sportsmen for could remember watching as a child. Fish & Wildlife founder Don Peay. “I don’t remember the first movie,” McCain has also long enjoyed the Obama replied, “but I can tell you that one of backing of prominent members of Safari Club the first was Born Free. I remember that International, whose national headquarters in movie having an impact on me. I think I may Tucson is within his home state. have teared up at the end when they release But the League of Conservation [ADVERTISEMENT] [the lioness] Elsa. I couldn’t have been more Voters, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Sierra “There are approximately 765 griz- than four or five, but I remember choking up Club have all long backed Obama. While all zly bears in northwestern Montana,” summa- on that.” three organizations’ statements have empha- rized Associated Press writer Dina Cappiello Continued Markarian, “Republican sized McCain’s positions on energy issues in four days earlier, after the U.S. Geological Senator John McCain voted for and co-spon- opposing him, mainstream conservationists Survey announced the study results. “That’s Menaced by melting permafront sored legislation to stop horse slaughter, and have been annoyed since February 2003 by the largest population of grizzly bears docu- flooding their dens, exterminated for preying voted to eliminate a $2 million subsidy for the McCain’s repeated derisive attacks on a five- mented in Montana in more than 30 years,” on Canada geese, and often trapped for fur, luxury fur coat industry. But he has largely year, $4.8 million grizzly bear census based three times as many as were believed to be in Arctic foxes are another species harmed by been absent on other issues. The McCain cam- on DNA analysis of hair and scats. the region when the study was first proposed, Sarah Palin’s policies as Alaska governor. paign did not fill out the Humane Society McCain continued to scoff at the half again as many as the most recent previous (Kim Bartlett) Legilsative Fund presidential questionnaire, study in his September 26 debate with Obama. estimates by conventional counting methods. “Supporters of the research included Montana ranchers, farmers and Republican leaders,” said Cappiello. “They pushed for the study as a step toward taking grizzlies off the endangered species list. Since 1975, grizzlies have been [designated as] threatened in the lower 48 states, a status that bars hunting [grizzlies] and restricts development.” “While McCain’s positions on animal protec- tion have been lukewarm,” wrote Markarian, “his choice of running mate cemented our decision to oppose his ticket. Govern- or Sarah Palin’s record is so extreme that she has perhaps done more harm to animals,” in only two years in office, “than any other current governor in the United States. “Obama’s running mate, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, has been a stal- wart friend of animal wel- fare advocates in the Senate,” Markarian wrote, “and has received high marks year after year on our Humane Scorecard. In the 108th Congress he was the co-author with California Senator Barbara Boxer of legislation to ban the netting of dolphins by commercial tuna fisher- men. He was the lead author of a bill in the 107th Congress to prohibit tro- phy hunting of captive exotic mammals in fenced enclosures, and he suc- cessfully passed the bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee.” Palin’s parents, Chuck and Sally Heath of Anchorage, Alaska, “have been part-time U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife specialists for the past 15 years, traveling throughout Alaska trapping or killing animals,” recounted Associated Press writer Matt Volz. Among their assignments, Volz noted, have been killing Arctic foxes for preying on nesting Canada geese in the Pribilof islands, poi- soning rats on Palmyra Atoll, and killing mice and rats in debris from the World Trade Center during (continued on page 13) September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 13
ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 - 13 Appalled by Sarah Palin, Humane Society Legislative Fund endors- the search for human remains in the Fresh Kills landfill in recounted Mark Hertsgaard in The Nation. The January 2002. listing, Palin asserted, would harm Alaskan oil Palin rose to political prominence in Alaska as mayor of and gas development. Wasilla, a town of 7,000 known chiefly as the starting point for “The George W. Bush administration the annual 1,100-mile Iditarod dog sled race. Palin promoted had not wanted to designate the polar bear as the race, which is opposed by many animal advocates. threatened in the first place,” Hertsgaard As governor, “Environmentalists have nicknamed explained. Polar bears were protected only under Palin the ‘killa from Wasilla,” reported Associated Press writer pressure of court orders, based on a finding by Dina Cappiello. the U.S. Geological Survey that two-thirds of all Upon being nominated to run for vice president, polar bears could be lost by 2050 if Arctic ice Palin declared that her favorite food is “moose burgers.” continues to melt at the present rate. Among the first photographs distributed by Palin boosters after “The listing was the first time global state did a ‘comprehensive review’ of the science and found no her nomination were several showing her and one of her daugh- warming had been cited as the sole premise in an Endangered reason to support a listing. This statement flatly contradicted ters with a moose whom Palin shot, one showing her speaking Species Act case,” Hertsgaard continued. “Interior Secretary the conclusions reached and communicated by the state’s lead- in the governor’s office from a sofa with a grizzly bear pelt Dirk Kempthorne clearly wanted it to be the last. When ing marine mammal biologists.” (head attached) draped over the back, and one of her speaking Kempthorne announced the polar bear listing, he emphasized Palin also opposes protecting the estimated 375 belu- while wearing fur. A photo of her parents’ home showed little that it would not affect federal policy on global warming or ga whales remaining in the Cook Inlet, off Anchorage––less space that was not stuffed with hunting and trapping trophies. block development in the Arctic. On August 11,” with Palin’s than 20% of the population believed to have inhabited the Cook “Her philosophy from our perspective is cut, kill, dig lawsuit as pretext, Kempthorne “proposed new rules that could Inlet in 1959, when Alaska was admitted to statehood. and drill,” Alaska Wildlife Alliance president John Toppenberg allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether their “Federal scientists have said the Cook Inlet whales said. “She is in the Stone Age of wildlife management and is actions will imperil a threatened or endangered species. To have a 26 percent chance of going extinct in the next 100 very opposed to utilizing accepted science.” make sure no one missed the point, Kempthorne told reporters years,” pointed out Associated Press writer Mary Pemberton. Continued Cappiello, “At the National Governors that the new rule would keep the Endangered Species Act from A decision on listing the Cook Inlet belugas as threat- Association conference where she first met John McCain, Palin becoming ‘a back door’ to making climate change policy.” ened is due by October 20, two weeks before election day. had other business: making her case to Interior Secretary Dirk Wrote Alaska Conservation Solutions president Among Palin’s many hostile positions toward Kempthorne against classifying the polar bear as a threatened Deborah Williams, “Palin’s actions and comments regarding wildlife, her antipathy toward wolves is best known, amplified species.” polar bears and the impact of global warming on the Arctic ice in part by a McCain/Palin TV commercial which depicted their On August 4, 2008 Palin in her capacity as governor cap reveal serious problems with her views on science and political opponents as a wolf pack. of Alaska “sued the government for listing the polar bear,” proper governmental process. Governor Palin asserted that the “I have lived in Alaska for nearly 25 years, long enough to see the on-again off-again cycles of predator control,” wrote Friends of Animals member Marybeth Holleman in a statement distributed by FoA. “Never has the killing of wolves and bears in order to inflate the numbers of moose and caribou been so widespread and mean-spirited as under Palin’s reign. Under Palin, private citizens kill wolves from planes under the guise of predator control. They run the wolves to exhaus- tion, and then shoot them. Under Palin, for the first time in 20 years, wolves are also gunned down from state-chartered helicopters. Palin authorized $400,000 in state funds for advertis- ing to persuade Alaskans to vote against a ballot initia- tive that would have cur- tailed aerial hunting. Her propaganda was successful; the ballot measure failed,” just one day before her nomination to run for vice president. “Under Palin, for the first time since Alaska statehood, it’s legal to do land-and-shoot killing of bears and their cubs,” Holleman added. “Under Palin, predator control has spread from one to five regions of Alaska, to over 60,000 square miles, more than at any time since state- hood. Nearly 800 wolves have been shot from planes, and some 2,000 are killed every year by other meth- ods. And that’s just the reported deaths. Palin even went so far last year as to put a bounty on wolves–– she wanted to pay $150 for a foreleg of each dead wolf. Thanks to Friends of Animals, the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, and Defenders of Wildlife, her wolf bounty was ruled ille- gal by the courts.” Palin’s speech accept- ing the Republican vice presidential nomination was ghosted by former White House speechwriter Mat- thew Scully, author of Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Ani- mals, and The Call to Mercy (2002). Noted Massimo Cala- bresi of T i m e m a g a z i n e , “Scully is best known for (continued on page 15) September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 14
14 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008
Victory for the Horses! After SHARK placed relentless pressure on the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo by exposing their cruelty, the rodeo chair announced that from now on, horses will only be shocked in cases of an emergency.
This is a great first step, but the cruel and deadly events of steer roping, calf roping and wild horse racing still have not been addressed by the CFD officials. Incredibly, the booking company for Cheyenne Frontier Days has filed a federal lawsuit against SHARK that is an outrageous slap in the face to the First Amendment, asking that SHARK be barred from informing entertainers about the facts of what REALLY happens at the Cheyenne Rodeo. To view the shocking documentation for yourself and to get more information on this cruel and deadly rodeo, please visit www.shameoncheyenne.com Please help SHARK fight this frivolous lawsuit, which if successful, will silence animal activists every- where! Help us continue to fight the remaining cruel and deadly events at Cheyenne Frontier Days that include steer roping, calf roping, and the wild horse race. SHARK, P.O. Box 28, Geneva, IL 60134 www.sharkonline.org September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 15
ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 - 15 Judge tells the USDA to stay out of Calif. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schaefer personally part of a larger, state-by-state campaign targeting food animal approved the $3 million expenditure, Californians for Humane production.” Farms alleged in filing the case. “We are not taking a position on Proposition Two,” Even without USDA support, agribusiness is expect- DeHaven claimed. “But..we want our members in California ed to outspend proponents of Proposition Two several times and the public to consider these potential consequences when over. If passed, Proposition Two would reduce the stocking they make their decision on how to vote.” density for caged laying hens by 2015, and after 2015 would The California Veterinary Medical Association board prohibit raising pigs and veal calves in crates that prevent them of governors earlier voted to endorse Proposition Two, Nolen from turning around and extending their limbs. acknowledged, “finding it consistent with the association’s California production of pigs and crated veal calves is ‘Eight Principles of Animal Care and Use,’ which describe vet- almost invisible as a percentage of the national totals, but erinarians’ commitment to animals. California ranks fifth among all states in egg production, with This so “angered, frustrated, and disappointed” some approximately 19 million laying hens. Proposition Two would CVMA members, Nolen continued, that CVMA agriculture therefore influence the entire U.S. egg industry. committee chair Michael S. Karle formed the would-be rival The USDA television ads were only one of several Association of California Veterinarians, with himself as presi- campaign funding issues sending Californians for Humane dent. “The group’s goal is to become the principal veterinary as $2.50 a dozen,” Denis Gregory of the Melbourne Age Farms to the courts in mid-September. On September 11, 2008 organization on issues affecting California’s animal agriculture reported on September 28. Californians for Humane Farms alleged that “more than a dozen industry. Karle estimates the number of ACV members at However, added Seamus Bradley, also of the major out-of-state egg producers may have violated California around 20 and ‘growing every day,’” wrote Nolen. Melbourne Age, “More than double the number of free-range law in connection with a massive money laundering scheme The San Diego County Veterinary Medical hens are needed to ensure that every egg sold as free range is orchestrated by the No on Two campaign,” according to a Yes Association meanwhile joined the CVMA in endorsing genuine. Each day, hundreds of thousands of barn-laid eggs are on Proposition Two campaign press release. Proposition Two––a significant endorsement, in historical con- passed off as free range in an egg-substitution racket that costs “Two days after the Yes on Proposition Two cam- text, because San Diego County includes several major egg Australian consumers billions of dollars each year,” according paign filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices farms, and was in 2003 hard hit by an outbreak of Newcastle to Ivy Inwood, president of the Free Range Egg & Poultry Commission charging that the United Egg Producers and the disease. A fungal infection deadly to birds, Newcastle in 2003 Association of Australia. No on Two campaign were unlawfully concealing out-of-state spread from gamecocks to egg farms. Acting on the advice of Demand is so great and accountability is so weak in contributions,” the release alleged, “the No on Two committee AVMA animal welfare committee member Gregg Cutler, sev- the egg industry that “You can call anything free range and get filed a 76-page report disclosing 127 contributions totaling eral San Diego County egg producers cleared their facilities of away with it,” Inwood alleged. “Half the free-range eggs are more than $4.5 million. The report claims, incredibly, that hens who might have been exposed to Newcastle by tossing falsely labeled because they’re not coming from genuine free- every one of these 127 contributions was received on them alive into a woodchipper. range farms.” September 5—even though many of the contributors are listed Public outrage over the incident––and the refusal of A similar fraud involving the sale of conventionally as already having committed funds in a July 15, 2008 fundrais- the AVMA to discipline Cutler, extensively publicized by produced eggs that were mislabeled “free range” came to light ing letter distributed by UEP. United Poultry Concerns––helped to attract attention to the rou- in Britain in November 2006. “California law generally requires that all donations tine live maceration of “spent” laying hens and unwanted male Inwood “has called on all Australian governments to to a ballot measure campaign exceeding $5,000 be reported chicks. As awareness of the routine practices of the egg indus- urgently develop a nationwide, legally binding definition of within 10 business days, and in the final three months before try increased, support developed for regulation. free-range eggs,” wrote Bradley. the election requires that any contribution over $1,000 be Proposition Two partially addresses the most basic “Any new laws should require that laying hens be reported within 24 hours,” the Yes on Proposition Two release issue, the crowding that enables diseases such as Newcastle to allowed out of sheds at first light, have adequate space for for- explained. At least 17 out-of-state agribusiness firms donated spread rapidly among tens of thousands of birds. aging, and that all hens should be reared as free rangers from more than $50,000 in previously unreported funds. The editorial boards of the San Francisco Chronicle hatchlings,” Inwood recommended. and Los Angeles Times opposed Proposition Two, but the edi- AVMA statement torial board of the San Diego Union Tribune s u p p o r t e d “Misleading” egg ads The Illinois-based American Veterinary Medical Proposition Two. Eggs in the U.S. are not commonly mislabeled ”free Association on August 26, 2008 issued a statement criticizing “Food prices would soar? We don’t think so,” wrote range,” so far as is documented, but the Humane Society of Proposition Two. Approved by the AVMA executive board a the Union Tribune editorialists. “A study by the University of the U.S. alleged in a September 24 petition to the Federal Trade week earlier, the statement called Proposition Two “admirable California Riverside, comparing the price of eggs from cage- Commission that United Egg Producers and member companies in its goal to improve the welfare of production farm animals,” free and caged hens, suggested the producer price would that together produce about 95% of the U.S. egg supply engage but asserted without specifying a reason that “it ignores critical increase less than 1 cent per egg. Egg farmers put out of busi- in price fixing and false advertising. aspects of animal welfare that ultimately would threaten the ness? We don’t think so… In the end, Proposition Two is about In particular, HSUS charged, United Egg Producers well-being of the very animals it strives to protect. the basic humane treatment of animals, even those raised for has published animal husbandry guidelines that “maintain the “The best housing environments,” the AVMA con- food. There are an estimated 40 million farm animals raised for materially false and misleading impression that egg-laying hens tinued, “take into consideration all relevant factors, including: commercial purposes in California. Every one of them are confined under ‘humane and ethical’ conditions.” freedom of movement; expression of normal behaviors; pro- deserves at least that much civility.” HSUS also filed the petition with the Justice tection from disease, injury, and predators; adequate food and Department, “which is already looking into allegations of price water; and proper handling. Proposition Two would clearly Battery caging abroad fixing in egg products,” noted Diane Bartz of Reuters. provide greater freedom of movement, but would likely com- As the California Proposition Two debate raged, The Wall Street Journal reported on September 23 promise several of the other factors necessary to ensure the French minister of agriculture and fisheries Michel Barnier told that the three largest U.S. egg processors had received grand overall welfare of the animals, especially with regard to protec- the European Parliament’s Intergroup on the Welfare & jury subpoenas in connection with the investigation. tion from disease and injury.” Conservation of Animals that he favors enforcing a European HSUS factory farming campaign director Paul Leaving wholly unexplained how giving laying hens Union ban on battery caging by 2012, as the EU agreed to do Shapiro and vice president for farm animal welfare Miyun more space could in any way compromise the other factors, the in 1999. “I would not like to see it postponed. That is the Park, who cofounded Compassion Over Killing, enjoyed suc- AVMA statement concluded by repeating the agribusiness Council position, that battery farming should cease on that cess at CoK with similar complaints to the FTC alleging that refrain that Proposition Two might end up “compromising the day,” Barnier said on September 25, 2008 United Egg Producers’ use of the slogan “Animal Care sustainability of production systems.” British egg producers in November 2006 asked that Certified” on egg cartons was misleading. Now headed by former USDA Animal and Plant the battery cage phase-out deadline be extended. United Egg Producers settled FTC charges by agree- Health Inspection Service director Ron DeHaven, the AVMA In Australia, “Even though free-range eggs are sell- ing to phase out the use of cartons bearing the slogan by April published the statement, wrote American Journal of Veterinary ing for more than four times the price of conventionally farmed 2006. However, eggs continued to appear in supermarkets in Research senior reporter R. Scott Nolen, because “Association product, consumption has increased to about 45 million dozen cartons labeled “Animal Care Certified” nearly two years after leaders believe the referendum, sponsored by national organi- a year. They now make up 22% of total sales, even though they the phase-out was to have been completed. Compassion Over zations such as the Humane Society of the United States...is cost as much as $9.50 a dozen. Battery hen eggs sell for as little Killing in February 2008 sued United Egg Producers and the egg marketing firm ISE America for alleged noncompliance H.S. Legislative with the phase-out agreement. ––Merritt Clifton
his vigorous defense of animal rights. A vegetarian Donate your old car & who is regularly critical of the NRA and much of help support the hunting community, he is a passionate advocate for doing away with the more brutal versions of blood-sport, including aerial hunting, which Palin supports.” Karen Dawn hoped that the Scully/Palin partership might positively influence Palin. The partnership may be more likely to strain Scully’s welcome at animal advocacy conferences. It's easy to make a contribution that supports Said Norm Phelps, author of The Longest ANIMAL PEOPLE! Here's how it works: S t r u g g l e (2007), “I think the fact that Matthew Call Toll-Free 877-537-5277, or e-mail Barack Obama, as shown in A Rare Breed of Love, by Jana Kohl. Scully wrote her convention speech, which was a
16 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008
The Watchdog monitors fundraising, spending, and The political activity in the name of animal and habitat protec - tion—both pro and con. His empty bowl stands for all the Watchdog bowls left empty when some take more than they need. Austrian activists freed after 104 days, still face charges V I E N N A – – Association Against gation of their activities. watched 24 hours a day. Three private homes Elaborated Milmo and Head, “The Animal Factories founder Martin Balluch, Balluch alleged that the intent of the had video cameras filming their entrances. group of London-based protesters, represent- Vier Pfoten campaign director Jürgen arrests was to silence Austrian animal advoca- Undercover agents tried to infiltrate us. More ing several animal rights groups, accused Kent Faulmann, and eight other Austrian animal cy, just as his organization was preparing to than a dozen potential targets of animal rights police of heavy-handed tactics after their advocates were released from jail on introduce an initiative campaign on behalf of activists were under permanent surveillance. coach was stopped as it entered Dover in July September 2, 2008, 104 days after they were farm animals. “To justify this operation,” Balluch 2006 en route to a demonstration against the arrested in a series of dawn raids on May 21. “At the end of 2006,” Balluch said, “the secret service drew up a list of 240 shipping of sheep and cattle to the Continent. Three other activists who were charged, “the owners of Kleider Bauer [an acts of criminal damage and arson from the Said ALF Support Group donor arrested at the same time were released earlier. Austrian furrier] and representatives of the past 13 years, and claimed there was one big Adrian Appley, 65, “The police pulled us The ten who were released on Conservative Party as well as high ranking international criminal organization responsible over by claiming that our coach was not road- September 2 were arraigned in July for alleged police officers met and spoke about how to for all of them.” worthy, but it rapidly became clear that they involvement in a variety of “direct action” destroy [the Association Against Animal Added Balluch, “The Green Party did not want to let us reach the protest. “At offenses between 2002 and 2007. All have Factories]. The minutes of those meetings are and the Social Democrats criticized the police first we were told that we could demonstrate pleaded innocent. now in our hands.” actions with increasing impatience…The case for half an hour. But 10 minutes later we were “I was released without the keys to After other tactics failed, Balluch of whether our imprisonment was legal is still all told to get back on the coach and anyone my home, my car, or my office being asserted, “a special police unit consisting of pending before the Austrian Supreme Court.” refusing to do so would be arrested. The returned to me. I was also not given my com- more than 32 agents from the secret service, “Green party boss Alexander Van police started filming everyone on board the puter, access to my bank account, or even my the murder division, and from the anti-terror der Bellen asked Balluch to run as an indepen- coach and when one of our group tried to get wrist watch,” Balluch said in a prepared state- police was formed with the sole purpose of dent candidate for the party in the September off he was forcibly prevented from doing so. ment. “Our office, and the offices of six other framing us. This special unit started the 28 election,” wrote Hill of the Austrian Times. “We were then escorted all the way animal rights groups, are still empty. Nothing largest operation of spying on political In a partially parallel British case, back up the motorway to London, and were has been handed back so far: no video materi- activists since World War 2. For almost two reported Cahal Milmo and Kate Head of T h e told that we could not turn off the motorway at al or cameras, no computers, no membership years, two private houses, a pub [we used] as Independent on September 25, the Kent police any point for water or toilet breaks, on one of data, no archives, and no bookkeeping.” a meeting place and our offices were bugged. have “offered £40,000 in compensation to ani- the hottest days of the year. It was a ridiculous Prosecution spokesperson Erich The telephone and e-mail conversations of mal rights campaigners, including supporters situation,” Appley said. “Most of us were Habitzl told David Hill of the Austrian Times more than 30 people were monitored. Two of the Animal Liberation Front, after they middle-aged or elderly, and we had all come that the release of Balluch, Faulmann, et al cars, including mine, had tracking devices put were prevented from joining a protest against to exercise our democratic right to stage a would not interrupt the ongoing police investi- on them. Seventeen people were followed and livestock exports.” peaceful protest.” Puerto Rico gains a new humane law; prosecution of animal BAYAMON, Puerto May, was in the Governor’s hands right to a jury, saying finding impar- “Some of the animals managed to Diaz’s companies.” R i c o ––“With very little fanfare in in early July, and was signed into tial jurors would be impossible due climb to the highway even though The case drew internation- the rest of the U.S., Puerto Rico has law and went into effect in August.” to the heavy publicity surrounding they were all battered, but about 50 al attention to the lack of effective enacted a landmark animal protec- The new law was both the case,” which received saturation animals remained.” humane services in most of Puerto tion law, based, in large part, direct- boosted to passage and overshad- coverage from Associated Press and When Jose Manuel Rivera Rico. Several large-scale dog and ly on Animal Legal Defense Fund’s owed on introduction by probably other media. alerted local officials, he said, they cat sterilization programs have oper- model laws,” announced ALDF the last and almost certainly the most “Public prosecutor Zulma merely spread lime over the animals’ ated in Puerto Rico during the past director of legislative affairs Stephan sensational case ever brought to trial Delgado told reporters she did not remains. Rivera then buried the 15 years, and the numbers of ani- Otto on September 12, 2008. under the old law. The case con- intend to appeal Fabre’s ruling,” dead animals with a backhoe, said mals at large where they have “Included,” Otto said, cluded on September 10, 2008 when added Carlos Martinez Rivera. Michael Melia of Associated Press. worked have reportedly decreased, “are felonies for neglect, abandon- Superior Court Judge Miguel Fabre Barceloneta mayor Sol Diaz cofounded an appar- but none of the programs have suc- ment, cruelty and animal fighting; found Animal Control Solutions Luis Fontanez “said the city hired ently defunct firm called Animal ceeded in extending low-cost or free and statutory recognition of the link owner Julio Diaz and workers Lucas Animal Control Solution to clear Delivery in 1999, and formed sterilization services to more than a between cruelty to animals and vio- Montano Rivera and Roberto Rod- three housing projects of pets after Animal Control Solutions in 2002. small part of the island. lence toward humans through riguez Ceballo not guilty of alleged- warning residents about a no-pet Recounted Associated In theory, Puerto Rico is increased penalties for those with ly collecting about 80 dogs and cats policy,” reported Associated Press Press writers Yaisha Vargas and compact enough that a single cen- prior animal abuse convictions,” or from the city of Barceloneta, along writer Omar Marrero after the ani- Andrew O. Selsky, “Facing little trally located clinic could serve the convictions for domestic violence, the north central Puerto Rican coast, mals were found on October 10, competition, the companies had 85 entire island. In practice, the wind- child or elder abuse, and/or com- and hurling them over a 50-foot-high 2007. “He said the city paid $60 for contracts with municipalities and ing, narrow roads through the mitting cruelty in front of children. bridge to their deaths. every animal recovered and another other clients worth $1.1 million in mountainous interior of the island The new Puerto Rican def- “Fabre ruled prosecutors $100 for each trip to a shelter in the the past eight years, according to the make operating from a single central inition of animal abuse “includes did not show sufficient evidence to San Juan suburb of Carolina.” Puerto Rican comptroller’s office. A location impractical. emotional harm,” enables judges to make a finding of guilt beyond a rea- “They came as if it were a former employee of one of Diaz’s The North Shore Animal grant protective orders on behalf of sonable doubt, telling the court that drug raid,” animal advocate Alma companies told Associated Press that League funded ANIMAL PEOPLE animals, and creates a duty to investigators had no witnesses link- Febus told Marrero. “They took the firms rounded up thousands of to do an assessment of the Puerto enforce anti-cruelty laws, Otto said. ing the trio to the pets’ deaths,” away whatever animals they could animals over the years, brutally Rican dog and cat population situa- “This bill sailed through reported Associated Press writer find. Some pets were taken away in killed many of them, and discarded tion in 1998, and sent then-opera- the Puerto Rican legislature,” Otto Carlos Martinez Rivera. “Diaz, front of children.” the corpses wherever it was conve- tions director Perry Fina to begin marveled. “It was introduced in Rivera, and Ceballo waived their Added Marrero, “Resi- nient. One former employee led implementing the ANIMAL PEO- dents told TV reporters that they saw Associated Press to two different PLE recommendations. When local RSPCA asks EC to publish new lab regs the animal control workers inject the killing fields, and he and another organizations balked at cooperating LONDON, BRUSSELS––Royal SPCA of Britain chief executive animals,” supposedly with “a seda- former employee described a third.” with each other, North Shore trans- Mark Watts on September 11, 2008 asked European Commission president tive for the drive to the shelter.” “Not a single animal was ferred most of the funding that had José Manuel Barroso to expedite publication of proposed changes to the The animals were discov- turned over to a shelter,” the former been allocated to helping in Puerto European Union rules governing animal experimentation, now long overdue. ered under the bridge in Vega Baja, employees said anonymously. Rico to assist the highly successful “We are repeatedly told that publication of the proposals is immi- between Barceloneta and San Juan, “Associated Press contact- “no-kill, no shelter” McKee Project nent, only to find it has been put back––and put back again,” said RSPCA two days after the aggressive pick- ed all eight animal shelters and sanc- in Costa Rica. senior European campaign manager Peter Craske. “Legislation needs to be ups began. “Many were already tuaries across Puerto Rico,” Vargas Fina died in January 2008, debated fully, but this debate seems to have gone on forever.” dead when they threw them, but oth- and Selsky continued, “and they disappointed that the McKee Project EU nations use about 12 million animals per year in experiments; ers were alive,” bridge neighbor confirmed that none had received has yet to be copied in Puerto Rico. Britain uses about three million of the total. Jose Manuel Rivera told Marrero. animals for potential adoption from ––Merritt Clifton
Please enter my subscription for: ____ One year (9 issues.) Enclosed is $24. YES! I’M AN ____ Two years (18 issues.) Enclosed is $38. ANIMAL PERSON! ____ Three years (27 issues.) Enclosed is $50. ____Please send additional subscriptions as gifts to the addresses I have listed below or on a separate sheet. Enclosed is $24 apiece. ____Please send the 2008 ANIMAL PEOPLE Watchdog Report on Animal Protection Charities, which provides the background I need to make my donations more effective. Enclosed is $25. ____I want to help support your outreach with a tax-deductible contribution of: $25 ____ $50 ____ $100 ____ $250 ____ $500 ____ Other ____ Name: Name of gift recipient: Number and street: Number and street: City and state: City and state: ––Wolf Clifton ZIP code: ZIP code: Please make checks payable to: ANIMAL PEOPLE, P.O. Box 960, Clinton, WA 98236, or call 360-579-2505 to order by MasterCard or VISA. September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 17
ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 - 17
TigersNEW DELHI––Poac hesrsc whoa carn-ce,Times News poacNetwork reporterh Nehae rsShukla onzeSeptemberro 13,i n 2008. on leopards,shoulders of the Zwarnsulu royal family and other not find tigers to kill and traffickers who have September 28, after a leopard dragged a nine- “Organized poachers are networking dignitaries,” Currie wrote. increasing difficulty moving tiger parts from year-old girl from her hut and killed her in with wildlife traders in India, Nepal and China. “The man was arrested four years India to customers in Nepal and China are Doodhnathpurwa village, in the Katarniaghat Most of these killings took place in ago,” Currie recalled, “when police found the turning their notice to leopards, warns forest near Lucknow. Uttarakhand, Himachal, Maharashtra and remains of 64 leopard skins, which were in Wildlife Protection Society of India program Leopards have recently killed eight Karnataka,” Joseph said. the process of being tailored into traditional manager Tito Joseph. people in the Katarniaghat forest, seven of “Although leopards are killed across attire. Though he was eventually convicted of “Tiger parts fetch a price 20 times them since December 2007, said Shukla. the country, the threat is much larger in north- several serious wildlife crimes, he never went higher than those of leopards,” Joseph told Street dogs formerly kept leopards ern India,” added WCCB deputy director to jail. Three weeks ago police found the rem- The Times of India on September 7, 2008 “but out of Indian villages, but the success of fed- Ramesh Pandey. nants of another 64 leopards at his home, their bones are considered on par.” erally subsidized Animal Birth Control pro- According to official estimates, along with skins from several civet cats, 10 Compounding the situation, leop- grams have thinned the dog population in India had about 1,650 wild tigers and 12,000 suni antelope, 30 samango monkeys, a wilde- ards are coming into increasingly frequent and some areas to the point that leopards can creep wild leopards at the start of 2008. India has beest and five grey duiker.” deadly conflict with humans––partly because in and kill dogs without rousing a pack. dedicated conservation programs for tigers and The suspect is believed to poach more desperately poor people are taking the Joseph said that 125 Indian leopards elephants, but leopards are only protected by wildlife by using common agricultural pesti- risk of moving into their habitat, partly too were known to have been poached during the the same general measures that pertain to all cides to poison carcasses set out as bait. because more hungry leopards are coming into first nine months of 2008, after 124 were other wildlife. Predicted Currie, “The case is likely villages to hunt livestock. poached in all of 2007. High-volume leopard poaching has to revive debate about the ceremonial display The preferred prey of Indian leop- “From the border outposts of north also recently come to light in KwaZulu-Natal, of protected animal skins by Zulu nobility and ards include hog deer and chital, but the prey Bengal to the small towns of Uttarakhand to South Africa, reported Tony Carnie of T h e the degree to which this drives wildlife crime.” species are in decline in many regions due to the remote forest-rich district of Gondia in Mercury on September 5, 2008. While the animals’ pelts were used agricultural expansion into former forest. Maharashtra, 27 leopard skins have been “Police are hunting for a Jozini man to make garmets, other remains are believed “A declining prey base has lured seized in the past 45 days,” wrote Avijit linked to the slaughter of at least 120 leopards, to have been used for muti, involved in tradi- leopards to human settlements,” Joseph told Ghosh of the Times News network on whose distinctive spotted pelts often adorn the tional religious and medical practices. Murder-by-dog conviction reinstated & other dog attack cases of note SAN FRANCISCO–– returning Knoller to prison nearly was the fatal mauling of Cash exploding fireworks without inci- of the property by authorizing or San Francisco Superior Court Judge four years after she was paroled on Carson, 10, of Newberry Springs, dent, but attacked Lena Dickerson permitting the dogs to run loose,” Charlotte Woolard on September 22, the manslaughter conviction. by two pit bulls belonging to neigh- after she and two siblings patted and wrote Justice Douglas Swager. 2008 sentenced former attorney Rejecting Riordan’s plea bor James Chiavetta. Convicted of stroked him. Marjorie Knoller, 53, to serve 15 for parole on the murder conviction, manslaughter in 2001, Chiavetta On August 29, 2008 a Police shootings years to life in prison for causing the Woolard noted that Knoller had not died before starting a four-year three-judge panel of the First District In Sacramento, Mark Parr, January 2001 dog attack death of muzzled the Presa Canarios, did not prison term. Court of Appeal in San Francisco 43, and Cynthia Peters, 41, were lacrosse coach Diane Whipple, 33, call for help, retrieve a weapon or In San Jose, Ivan Bat- ruled unanimously that construction jailed on suspicion of robbery on in the hallway of the apartment dial 911 while the larger dog mauled inich, 22, was to be arraigned on worker Stephen Salinas may sue August 13, 2008 and were held in house where both dwelled. Whipple for at least 10 minutes, September 30, 2008 for allowing his homeowner Paolo Martin, of lieu of $30,000 and $32,500 bail. A “Knoller, who has served “lied repeatedly in grand jury and 10-month-old unneutered pit bull Richmond, California, for allowing sheriff’s detective who was helping three years in prison, will have to trial testimony, has never expressed Brutus to run loose on April 11. his gardeners to keep a pit bull terri- to arrest Parr and Peters for an serve 12 more years before she can remorse, and ‘blamed the victim’ in Brutus severely injured the hands er in his back yard while Salinas was alleged purse snatching shot their apply for parole,” reported an interview with ABC’s G o o d and left arm of Lockheed-Martin doing a remodeling job for Martin in two pit bulls when the dogs attacked Associated Press writer Paul Elias. Morning America 13 days after the engineer Steve Belsley, 57, after 2005. The dog mauled Salinas in a motel maintenance worker at the Whipple bled to death attack,” summarized Egelko. attacking Belsley’s Shiba Inu dog August 2005. Salinas had warned scene. from at least 77 wounds inflicted by Criminal convictions and Bella. Bella fled, and has not been Martin, he testified, that he thought The maintenance worker, one and possibly both of two Presa stiff sentencing in dog attack cases found despite an intensive effort by the dog was dangerous, and he was 57, suffered multiple severe bites, Canarios kept by Knoller and Robert have become markedly more com- Belsley and his wife Terri. not aware that the dog was loose in Sacramento County sheriff’s Noel, her husband and law partner, mon since the original Knoller and the yard before the attack. sergeant Tim Curran told S a n for white supremacist Paul Noel convictions. Injury lawsuits Salinas sued the gardeners Francisco Chronicle staff writer “Cornfed” Schneider. Serving a life In other California dog as well as Martin, but the gardeners Henry K. Lee. The worker was not sentence in the California peniten- Michigan parallel attack cases of note, the family of “disappeared,” his attorney told the involved in the arrests. tiary system, Schneider was legally In Michigan, Livingston Lena Dickerson on September 23, court. On June 16, 2008 the adopted by Knoller and Noel as an County Circuit Judge Stanley 2008 sued Disneyland on her behalf. “Superior Court Judge dogs had been impounded for attack- adult inmate. Latreille on September 18, 2008 On October 3, 2006 Dickerson, Judith Craddock dismissed the case ing a Sacramento Municipal Utility The dogs, allegedly bred rejected a defense similar to then age two, was severely mauled against Martin, saying there was no District worker who was apparently and raised to attack, had extensive Knoller’s, and sentenced Diane by a German shepherd/ Labrador evidence that he had known the dog investigating alleged theft of ser- histories of biting and other danger- Cockrell, 52, to pay $30,000 resti- mix who was adopted 10 days earlier was dangerous,” wrote S a n vices, for which Peters was charged. ous behavior. tution and serve from 43 months to by a Disneyland employee from the Francisco Chronicle staff writer Bob On July 8 the dogs were stolen from The case, among the first 15 years in prison, after Cockrell Orange County Animal Shelter. The Egelko. “But the appeals court said the Sacramento animal shelter. murder-by-dog convictions in the pleaded no contest to two felony dog, who had a history of aggres- Craddick's standard was too strict Parr and Peters received a U.S., has been before California counts of keeping dangerous animals sion, the suit alleges, was intro- and that Salinas had to show only $210,000 settlement and an apology courts for more than seven years, causing death plus a misdemeanor duced to the Big Thunder petting that the contractor's warning made from the city of Richmond in 2005 and is likely to be appealed again, charge of letting her dogs stray. zoo, near the Big Thunder Mountain Martin aware of the potential risk.” after police shot a pit bull belonging said Knoller’s attorney, Dennis Cockrell’s four American roller coaster. The dog was appar- Martin “participated in to them while pursuing a suspect in Riordan. bulldogs on September 13, 2007 ently walked in parades beneath creation of the dangerous condition an unrelated case. A Los Angeles jury con- escaped from her property and victed Knoller of second degree killed Edward Gerlach, 91, What became of the puppies after cloning client didn’t pay? murder in 2002, for taking the dogs and Cheryl Harper, 56, in sep- The bizarre backstory to the have cloned a Japanese retriever who McKinney denied some of out when she allegedly knew she arate attacks. The dogs also reported first-ever commercial dog can sniff out human cancers, and two the more colorful tabloid accounts of could not control them, and convict- attacked Gerlach’s son Eugene, cloning, reported in the July/August Afghan hounds who were clones of her history that surfaced after she ed Noel of involuntary manslaughter who with his uncle discovered 2008 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE, the first successfully cloned dog. appeared at a Seoul press conference for leaving Knoller alone with the both victims. Harper was still gained another chapter on September McKinney initially tried to with the claimed Booger clones, and dogs, knowing she could not hold alive, but they were unable to 24, 2008 when Joyce Bernann Mc- have Booger cloned by a Texas firm, confirmed others. them back. The larger dog, who get help in time to save her. Kinney, 58, repeatedly called Friends Genetic Savings & Clone, she told In particular, McKinney killed Whipple, weighed 140 Like Presa Canarios, of Animals president Priscilla Feral at ANIMAL PEOPLE. Genetic Sav- denied that she tied up and raped a pounds; the smaller dog weighed who are a cross of mastiff and her home and then spent nearly two ings & Clone had reportedly cloned a Mormon missionary in England in 100 pounds. pit bull terrier, American bull- hours on the telephone to A N I M A L cat for $50,000, but went out of busi- 1977, for which she was criminally “Judge James Warren of dogs are generally recognized PEOPLE. ness in 2006. McKinney said she charged. She and an alleged accom- San Francisco Superior Court, who as pit bull variants, or a “bully McKinney sought help in a spent months tracing the founders and plice jumped bail in 1978, left presided over the trial, reduced breed.” last-minute effort to win possession of pursuing legal action to recover England, and were never tried. Knoller’s conviction to involuntary Three California pit the five pit bull terrier puppies whom Booger’s frozen ear, before turning to manslaughter,” recounted S a n bull keepers were criminally RNL Bio of Seoul, South Korea RNL Bio. Francisco Chronicle staff writer Bob charged in connection with dog claimed in August 2008 to have McKinney said that if she Egelko. “But the state Supreme attacks within days of the cloned from the frozen ear of Mc- failed to pay RNL Bio the $50,000 Court ruled last year that Warren had Knoller re-sentencing. Kinney’s deceased pet Booger. they expected by September 28, used the wrong legal standard in Jeffrey Dwayne King McKinney reportedly paid 2008, the company had threatened to overturning the murder verdict. The Jr. and John Allan Peterson, $50,000 to RNL Bio to clone Booger, use the cloned puppies in stem cell court said prosecutors seeking a both 23, were jailed in but never actually gave the firm any research. McKinney had little hope of murder conviction for dog mauling Barstow on September 17, money, she told ANIMAL PEOPLE. obtaining the cash by the deadline, don’t have to prove the owner knew 2008 in lieu of $50,000 bond, She delayed payment, she said, pend- she said, and had been living on the dog was likely to kill, only that nearly nine months after their ing receipt of independent laboratory Social Security disability insurance the owner had been aware the animal three pit bulls killed Kelly confirmation that the puppies were until the Social Security Administ- was potentially lethal and had Caldwell, 45, on Christmas Booger’s offspring, and pending the ration found out about her deal to exposed others to the danger. The 2007. Filing the case was sale of her house to raise the price. clone Booger and cut her off, saying court returned the case to Superior delayed, deputy district attor- The cloning team was led by that if she could pay $50,000 to clone Court to decide whether to reinstate ney Sean Daugherty told S a n Lee Byeong-chun, a former assistant a dog, she did not need financial aid. the murder conviction.” Bernardino Sun staff writer to Hwang Woo-suk, whose 2004 Neither RNL Bio nor Seoul Riordan cited as one possi- Melissa Pinion-Whitt, pending claim to have cloned human embryos National University, Lee Byeong- ble cause for appeal that San receipt of DNA test results that and extracted stem cells from them chun’s employer, responded to ANI- Francisco Superior Court presiding identified Caldwell’s blood on was exposed a year later as false. MAL PEOPLE inquiries about judge Davd [sic] Ballatti transferred the dogs. However, Hwang Woo-suk and Lee McKinney’s allegation that the pup- the case from Judge Warren, who The case was the Byeong-chun had verifiably cloned a pies would be used in experiments, has retired but was available to again fourth dog attack fatality inves- dog, and reportedly cloned more than the fate of the puppies, and what review it, to Judge Woolard. tigated in part by San 20 dogs before cloning Booger. At a became of the two surrogate mother Woolard reinstated the Bernardino County sheriff’s September 4, 2008 press conference dogs who carried the cloned embryos murder conviction on August 22, deputy Steve Harbottle. One Lee Byeong-chun also claimed to to birthing. September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 18
18 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 Closer regulation of exotic cat facilities may follow two ST. LOUIS––Kenneth and Sandra Smith, owners of it the animals in 2003, after repeated Animal Welfare Act cita- Schreibvogel told Whitney that the Carnivore the now closed Wesa-A-Geh-Ya exotic animal park in Warren tions, for which they were fined $13,000 and given two years Preservation Trust in North Carolina had offered to take four County, Missouri, and Wesa-A-Geh-Ya board member Roy on probation in 2004. tigers, but withdrew the offer after the Smiths refused to sign a Elder were on September 19, 2008 charged with evidence tam- “That got the USDA off their backs,” wrote Weich. contract stating they would never again own exotic animals. pering for allegedly trying to mislead the county sheriff’s “It also stopped the Smiths from being able to collect donations Both Schreibvogel and the Serenity Springs Wildlife department into believing that a pit bull terrier rather than a from visitors who came to see their animals. Funding for the Center have also had troubled histories. Schreibvogel’s back- tiger attacked volunteer Jacob Barr. facility slipped to about $1,200 a year from $40,000 annually. ground, including controversies over the safety of his traveling “Barr, 26, had part of his leg surgically amputated Donations of meat and volunteers help to tend the animals animal shows, filled 15 paragraphs in the October 2002 edition following the August 3 mauling,” recounted Associated Press dropped off as criticism by animal rights groups and public of ANIMAL PEOPLE. writer Betsy Taylor. “Elder and Sandra Smith are accused of scrutiny of the operation increased.” The Serenity Springs Wildlife Center debuted as a lying to investigators. Kenneth Smith, who shot and killed the The Smiths reportedly also drew probation after con- breeding operation in 1993, but turned to rescue in 1995 after attacking animal, is accused of moving the dead tiger’s body to victions in May 2008 for failing to register dangerous animals taking 12 big cats from a facility called the Alamo Tiger Ranch a different location.” with the county sheriff’s department. that was closed due to Animal Welfare Act violations. In June In Stone County, Missouri, only one day after the “Unfortunately, Barr, of Warrenton, knew nothing 2003 two Bengal tigers mauled the only Serenity Springs Barr attack, “Branson Zoo intern Dakoda Ramel, 16, suffered about the facility’s troubled history,” continued Weich. “Barr employee. Founders Nick and Karen Sculac lost their home to puncture wounds to the neck, head and leg after he entered a is friends with a volunteer at Wesa-A-Geh-Ya. The two men foreclosure in 2005, after Nick Sculac suffered a heart attack tiger enclosure,” reported Branson Daily News staff writers had been camping together, and when Barr’s friend said he was and was unable to continue his contracting firm. Karen Sculac Chad Hunter and Donna Clevenger. “The Stone County going to clean the cages, Barr agreed to help.” died of pneumonia in August 2006––but Serenity Springs now Sheriff’s Department reported that Ramel entered the tiger pen The Barr family sued the Smiths for damages on has nearly twice as many animals as it reportedly did then. to take photographs for a customer.” September 3. Amid the Wesa-A-Geh-Ya and Branson Zoo “At that point, two other tigers joined in the attack “Officials in Warren County said they would consider episodes, Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida and dragged the victim to a water pool,” said a Stone County an ordinance addressing ownership of nondomestic animals in wrote “New laws,” including the 2003 federal Captive Wildlife Sheriff’s Department press release. the next month,” reported Weich. “State Representative Mike Safety Act, “have caused such a dramatic decrease in the num- Responded a Branson Zoo press release, “We do not Sutherland, who has been trying to set standards for places like ber of unwanted big cats that we are on the brink of no more know at this time why Ramel was in the enclosure, as it is a Wesa-A-Geh-Ya for five years, is hopeful that publicity about abused and unwanted big cats.” clear violation of policy, which is both written and verbal. The the mauling will help a law get passed this session.” The long list of individual big cats in urgent need of only persons who saw what happened clearly stated that he Wesa-A-Geh-Ya entered the summer of 2008 with sanctuary space is much shorter than five years ago, ANIMAL slipped and fell and that the cats had not attacked in any way. “52 animals of the 84 they reported in 2004,” longtime critic P E O P L E files indicate––but the total numbers in need of It is also firmly believed he was unconscious when a female Rosella Baller told ANIMAL PEOPLE, “and this does not placement remain about the same, due to increasing numbers tiger approached, grabbed him by the neck, and dragged him include new animals born” since then, Baller said. Baller of sanctuary and roadside zoo closures. ––Merritt Clifton to what she would have felt was safety.” claimed that at least one litter of four tiger cubs Ramel had worked at the zoo, formerly known as was born at Wesa-A-Geh-Ya in 2007. Predator World and the Branson West Reptile Garden, for Sandra Smith told Sarah Whitney of about three years. the P o s t - D i s p a t c h that just one tiger had been Both Wesa-A-Geh-Ya and the Branson Zoo had long born at Wesa-A-Geh-Ya since 1998, a lone cub histories of alleged violations of the federal Animal Welfare in 2003. Act, including failure to maintain secure enclosures. Wesa-A-Geh-Ya had 49 animals when “A 2007 safety inspection of Branson Zoo noted three the Smiths announced on August 5 that they instances of animals getting out of their pens: two wolves who would close the facility. Among the animals escaped into the community, a grizzly bear that remained on were 33 tigers, eight lions, four wolves, a bear, the property but was able to kill a tiger, and a fox that was hit a puma, and a leopard, according to Kevin by a car,” wrote Hunter and Clevenger. Murphy of the Kansas City Star. The last animal “The Smiths moved to eastern Missouri in 1986 with was a fox whom the Smiths planned to keep. a tiger and two cougars, and acquired more animals over the Joe Schreibvogel, director of the G.W. years,” recalled Taylor. Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, The business name they adopted, Wesa-A-Geh-Ya, took in “eight lions, the four wolves, four tigers, “means ‘Cat Lady’ in Sandra Smith’s native Cherokee lan- the bear, the cougar and the leopard,” said guage,” the Smiths told visitors. Murphy. Schreibvogel told Jordan Wilson of Initiatially operated as a for-profit zoo and breeding Post-Dispatch that the G.W. Exotic Animal Park compound, Wesa-A-Geh-Yah obtained nonprofit status in already had more than 170 big cats and 1,400 1998 and thereafter claimed to be a sanctuary. “Many of the animals on 16 acres. A scene from the Big Cat Rescue web site. “New laws,” Baskin recently tiger cubs that were sold to others ended up back in Warren Nineteen Wesa-A-Geh-Ya tigers were told ANIMAL PEOPLE, “have caused such a dramatic decrease in the County when the new owners couldn’t handle them,” noted St. sent to the Serenity Springs Wildlife Center in number of unwanted big cats that we are on the brink of no more abused Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Susan Weich. Calhan, Colorado, opened in 1993, already and unwanted big cats. I do not wish to signal an opportunity for new The Smiths surrendered their USDA license to exhib- housing 147 big cats, chiefly tigers. breeders, “ she added, “but rather to convey that the planet is moving on.” Courts restore federal protection to wolves in all Lower 48 WASHINGTON D.C.––Wolves are ern Rocky Mountains to Endangered Species released into Yellowstone National Park in sating ranchers in Montana for livestock lost to again a federally protected species throughout Act protection. 1995-1996, over intensive opposition from wolf predation. Defenders has paid more than the U.S., after U.S. District Judge Paul Both cases were filed by a coalition hunters and ranchers. $1 million total compensation since 1997 to Friedman ruled in Washington D.C. on of environmental and animal protection orga- At about the same time the Fish & ranchers in the northern Rockies, but turned September 29, 2008 that the U.S. Fish & nizations including Defenders of Wildlife and Wildlife Service began trying to reintroduce the Montana part of the program over to the Wildlife Service improperly removed wolves the Humane Society of the U.S. Mexican gray wolves to Arizona and New state Livestock Loss Reduction and Mitigation in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin from Extirpated from the continental U.S. Mexico. Program when wolves were delisted as a feder- the endangered species list in 2007. by 1945, wolves outside of Alaska were The Mexican gray wolf reintroduc- ally protected species. Anticipating the similar verdict in a placed on the U.S. endangered species list in tion has been slowed to a near halt by the com- “The Montana legislature con- pending case in Missoula, Montana, the Fish 1974. Wolves migrating from Canada recolo- bination of political opposition from ranchers, tributed $30,000 in start-up funds, and & Wildlife Service on September 22, 2008 nized parts of Michigan, Minnesota, and removals of wolves who prey on livestock, Defenders donated $50,000 with a pledge to asked U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy to Wisconsin in the 1980s and 1990s without for- and malicious shootings. Mexican gray donate an additional $50,000 in early 2009,” return the estimated 1,455 wolves in the north- mal reintroduction. wolves have remained officially endangered. Great Falls Tribune staff writer Karl Puckett “Surveys this year turned The Fish & Wildlife Service recounted. up 2,921 wolves in Minne- removed wolves in the northern Rockies from Through September 18, 2008, the sota, at least 537 in Wiscon- Endangered Species Act protection in state agency had paid $17,000 in new claims, sin, and 520 in Michigan,” February 2008. but had not received any of the further funding said Associated Press envi- Estimating that the northern Rockies it had anticipated from private donors, agency ronmental writer John wolf population had increased to 1,513, up coordinator George Edwards told Puckett. Fleshler. from 1,455 six months earlier, the Fish & WildEarth Guardians on September “The biggest practical Wildlife Service in March 2008 returned 23, 2008 petitioned the Fish & Wildlife effect of Friedman’s ruling,” responsibility for wolf population management Service to develop a wolf recovery plan for Fleshler assessed, “is to nul- in the Yellowstone region to the states of four regions of Colorado. lify newly established state Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. “We believe that the Southern policies allowing people in More than 180 wolves were killed in Rockies needs wolves, and wolves definitely the Great Lakes area to kill the name of predator control by the end of the need the Southern Rockies,” WildEarth carni- wolves attacking livestock or summer––and all three states announced wolf vore recovery director Rob Edward told Aspen pets. It also bars the states hunting seasons to begin in fall 2008. Daily News correspondent David Fry. from permitting hunting or Acting on behalf of 12 animal and Wolves from the northern Rockies trapping of wolves, although habitat protection groups, EarthJustice attor- are believed to have wandered into Colorado none had done so.” ney Doug Honnold on July 18, 2008 won a occasionally, but have not yet established However, recalled Lee preliminary injunction from Judge Molloy that breeding populations. The WildEarth petition Bergquist of the Milwaukee temporarily put the Yellowstone wolves back hopes to expedite their return to Colorado with J o u r n a l - S e n t i n e l , “With under federal authority. deliberate reintroduction. strong support from hunting “There were fall hunts scheduled “WildEarth Guardians is asking the and farming organizations, that would call for perhaps as many as 500 federal government to restore wolves to the the Wisconsin Department of wolves to be killed,” testified Honnold. Flat Tops, a vast area of rolling meadows and Natural Resources said in “What we want to do is look at this buttes, much of it wilderness,” wrote Fry. “It August 2008 that it might ini- more thoroughly,” Fish & Wildlife Service includes the largest elk herd in the country, tiate the first public hunt of spokesperson Sharon Rose told Matthew which biologists say is too big for the habitat wolves in more than 50 Brown of Associated Press, after the service to sustain. Edward said wolves could help years.” moved to withdraw the delisting. improve the ecologic balance by thinning the State plans to hunt and “I would call that victory,” respond- herd and forcing it to move, allowing vegeta- trap wolves were a central ed Honnold. “What they’re requesting is to go tion to recover. issue in the northern Rockies. back to the drawing boards.” “However,” Fry noted, “the region Sixty-six wolves were Not immediately clear was whether also includes many ranchers and sheepherders Gray wolf. (Kim Bartlett) live-trapped in Canada and Defenders of Wildlife would resume compen- who have fought against wolf reintroduction.” September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 19
ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 - 19 Hurricanes Gustav & Ike test federal pet evacuation national groups. People registered their pets other animals who died during Hurricane mals [who needed to be evacuated] and left.” Root and Brown added, “but several hundred with the state when they left. The animals Katrina,” reported Companion Animal Vehicle trouble and trouble finding remain at the Dallas-area shelters, as well as were loaded into air-conditioned trucks and Network founder Garo Alexanian. “Mandatory open gasoline stations amid widespread elec- in other cities. They are up for adoption and taken to Shreveport.” Their humans were noti- evacuation got us out barely in time, and we trical blackouts complicated Alexanian’s won’t return to their former shelters, which fied when the animals could be reclaimed. flew home to New York City to organize a return to New York, but the mission rescued have to make room for stranded pets found in Twenty-nine dogs, four cats, and a major rescue effort.” 58 dogs, he said, “who would otherwise have the hard-hit cities along the Gulf Coast.” bird belonging to Gustav evacuees were The Humane Society of Louisiana been put down to make room” for animals dis- housed at the Mobile County Emergency organized the Katrina Memorial ceremony, placed by Ike. Galveston flood- Management Agency’s temporary shelter at and several follow-up fundraisers, but had to The North Shore Animal League the Boys & Girls Club in Semmes. cancel everything but the dedication of a statue America sent two 40-foot mobile rescue units ed “We’ve been planning this service to the memory of the animals lost to Katrina. to help evacuate animals from the Humane Ike killed at least 67 Americans, for two years,” Mobile SPCA humane officer Katrina destroyed the former Society of Greater Birmingham, the after killing more than 100 people with more Elizabeth Flott told Renee Busby of the Mobile Humane Society of Louisiana shelter in New Mississippi Animal Rescue League, and the than 400 missing in Haiti, Cuba, and other Press-Register. Orleans, soon after staff and volunteers evac- Humane Society of Louisiana. Caribbean island nations. As well as devastat- Dallas Animal Services practiced for uated 157 animals to the premises of the St. Many of the animals were previously ing Galveston on September 12, Ike knocked the much larger influx of animals received in Francis Animal Sanctuary in Tylertown, relocated from the Plaquemines Animal out electricity across much of Texas and in connection with Ike by housing 43 pets of Mississippi, a two-hour drive north. The Welfare Society, “which is located below sea other regions as far north as Quebec. Ike also Gustav evacuees in a temporary shelter in the sanctuary also housed the Best Friends Animal level in Louisiana,” noted North Shore briefly flooded parts of Houston. Reunion Arena parking garage. Society post-Katrina rescue effort. Animal League operations director Joanne Ike destroyed the Galveston Island “Officials in cities across Texas say Katrina likewise destroyed the Yohannan. Other animals came from the Humane Society, executive director Caroline housing the furry, feathered and scaly loved Louisiana SPCA shelter. But while the 120- Humane Society of South Mississippi, St. Dorsett told Leslie Casimir of the H o u s t o n ones of evacuees has for the most part gone year-old Lousiana SPCA quickly converted a Tammany Parish Animal Shelter, and Slidell Chronicle. well,” reported Root and Brown of Associated former warehouse into a new shelter and Animal Control. Added the Animal Rescue Central Press, as the Ike rescue effort wound down. resumed operations in New Orleans after only A second North Shore mission, after web site, “Ike left mass destruction at the “We are seeing fewer animals left a brief hiatus, the barely 20-year-old Humane Ike, took animals from the Humane Society of Galveston County Animal Shelter in Texas behind,” said Humane Society of the U.S. Society of Louisiana has continued to work Bexar County in San Antonio. City. The Houston SPCA Disaster Response senior director of emergency services Scott from Tylertown. Bay County Animal Control in team rescued 77 dogs, 65 cats, one rabbit, Haisley. “The PETS Act is not only saving “We have been working to transform Panama City, Florida, took in 208 animals some parakeets and a pelican,” from the shel- pets' lives––it's saving human lives," the former Camp Katrina location in from Jefferson Parish. ter, “along with other wildlife who sheltered No reports of human deaths associat- Tylertown into a permanent shelter and evacu- The Tuscaloosa Metro Animal in place with staff when the hurricane hit. ed with trying to save animals from Gustav ation facility, while reestablishing our organi- Shelter in Tuscaloosa, Alabama housed ani- High winds and pounding rain ripped holes in and Ike reached ANIMAL PEOPLE. zation in the New Orleans area,” said Humane mals for Gustav evacuees, while the Tusca- the ceilings, causing sheets of water to pour “Gustav approached Louisiana while Society of Louisiana founder Jeff Dorson. loosa County Humane Society, and ADAR into the shelter, leaving slick floors and we were in New Orleans at the Katrina Apart from disrupting fundraising, Rescue took in as many previously impounded soaked animals. The air conditioner went out, Memorial ceremony on August 30th, remem- Gustav destroyed a portable building at the animals as possible from the Metro Animal forcing the animals to survive with insufficient bering the tens of thousands of dogs, cats and Tylertown site, and blew the roof off a barn in Shelter to help make room for the influx. ventilation.” Acadia, Louisiana, where In Memphis, the Humane Society of Only five dead animals were found Humane Society of Louisiana Memphis and Shelby County, West Memphis on Galveston Island in the first two days after volunteers coordinated by Janet Animal Services, and the Germantown Ike hit, Dorsett said, but the Best Friends Lyons had housed 13 cats and Animal Welfare League provided similar Animal Society Rapid Response Team later 10 dogs, nine of them puppies. assistance. found many, reported team leader Rich Crook. Memphis also accommodated a trav- More than 200 found animals taken Ike hits eling unit from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum to the Houston SPCA “look like they were & Bailey Circus, with three Asian elephants taken care of,” spokesperson Meera Nandlal next and six white tigers, who fled ahead of Gustav told media. “I’m sure they all have a story.” While Hurricane Gustav from Biloxi to Jackson before settling in The Houston SPCA also received did less damage than expected, Memphis at the FedExForum. more than 1,000 baby squirrels. “Kind hearted “Hurricane Ike was bearing As after Katrina, the Houston SPCA people picked them up, put them in boxes with down,” Alexanian continued, and the SPCA of Texas were also major soft rags like we told them to, and lined up to “so by September 8 we orga- receiving stations for animals evacuated from drop them off,” volunteer Stacy Fox told nized a 12-organization, five- Louisiana shelters, initially to make room for MSNBC senior news editor Mike Stuckey. vehicle convoy, boarded our the anticipated post-hurricane surge of lost and “Volunteers are feeding the babies around the own best friends, drove to abandoned animals. clock.” North Carolina to pick up our Accepting animals displaced by When healthy and weaned, Fox 24-foot mobile clinic, and on Gustav complicated matters when animals dis- said, the young squirrels will be returned to September 10 converged on placed ahead of Ike began arriving. the wild. Ascension Parish,” which had “The SPCA of Texas took in about The Houston SPCA, Denver Dumb requested help, “with volunteer 300 animals from Louisiana shelters before Friends League, Code 3 Associates, Humane groups from New Jersey, New Gustav, then accepted 235 more from South Society of Pike’s Peak Region, SPCA of York, Colorado and Florida. Texas shelters in Ike’s path,” reported Root Texas, Humane Society of Missouri, We had to stay ahead of Ike and and Brown of Associated Press. The displaced SPCA/Los Angeles, and the Louisiana SPCA get into and out of Louisiana animals were housed “in addition to the 500 combined forces to operate an emergency shel- before contraflow was imple- cats and dogs already at the SPCA’s shelters in ter in Galveston and establish an online data- The four small dogs above (and one more not mented. We slept in our cars for Dallas and McKinney,” Root and Brown said. base of found animals to help return lost pets shown) swam for hours to survive the Galveston flooding six days in a row, 2-3 hours a “Animal rescue groups in other during Hurricane Ike. (Houston SPCA) day at most. We loaded the ani- states helped out by taking cats and dogs,” (continued on page 20) Monsoons bring floods from Himalayas to the Bengal coast KOLKATA, VISAKHA- dition to Myanmar ever, under aus- 37, the busiest east/west route in the courses, eventually displacing as injured animals at relief camps P A T A M ––Increasingly violent pices of the United Nations Food region. At least six hog deer were many as 2.7 million people and more where appropriate,” Myers added. monsoons battered India yet again in and Agriculture Program. road-killed, The Hindu reported. than a million livestock. The WSPA team was ini- August and September 2008, India, across the Bay of Eight of the 1,855 rhinos “All Bihar nongovernmen- tially directed by WSPA veterinarian afflicting millions of humans and Bengal, suffered relatively light who were believed to have lived in tal organizations, honorary animal Ashish Sutar, and later by Animal animals in regions below the damage from Nargis, but bridges Kaziranga were found dead, T h e welfare officers and members have Help Ahmedabad founder Rahul Himalayas from northern Bihar to were washed out in parts of southern H i n d u added on September 11, been requested to participate in the Sehgal, sent by the Humane Society central Arunchal Pradesh, and as far coastal Orissa and northern coastal 2008, but noted that the toll was far animal rescue operations and apply International division of the Humane south as Srikakulum, halfway down Andhra Pradesh, disrupting rail traf- below those of 1988 and 1998. The to the Animal Welfare Board of Society of the U.S. the Bengal coast. fic for more than a month, and leav- 1988 flooding killed 38 rhinos, India for financial assistance under The Visakha SPCA in ing the region unusually vulnerable 1,050 deer, 69 boar, three baby ele- our Natural Calamity Scheme,” said Visakhapatnam sent animal relief to further catastrophe. phants, and two tigers. The 1998 AWBI secretary D. Rajasekar. missions from northern Andhra More than half of Orissa toll included a record 44 rhinos. “Interested NGOs from other states Pradesh, as it did after previous had experienced flooding by Sept- Media commentators were are also requested to participate.” monsoon floods and the 2004 Indian ember 23. The Orissa state director almost unanimous that flooding A relief expedition mount- Ocean tsunami. of animal husbandry told Nath that along the Kosi River could have ed by the Wildlife Trust of India and “We are in touch with our approximately 650,000 large domes- been predicted and prevended. The International Fund for Animal people at Srikakulum,” founder tic animals, 620,000 small domestic Kosi, flowing from eastern Nepal Welfare reported treating about Pradeep Kumar Nath e-mailed. “We animals, and 212,000 poultry were across northern Bihar to the Ganges, 6,000 cattle, but noted that at least are doing rescues wherever possible in urgent need of help. Twenty- drains much of the central 24,000 were stranded in the same and shifting [animals to safety] eight veterinarians and 46 para-vet- Himalayas, and is notorious for vicinity, beyond reach. The Andhra wherever necessary.” erinarians had vaccinated nearly rapidly inundating dams and levees Pradesh cow protection organization The Visakha SPCA has 570,000 animals against diseases with silt––or smashing them with Rastriya Ahimsa Manch sent a relief itself been hit several times by that might result from the flooding, rolling boulders. Governments in team to Madhepura and Saharsa, cyclones in recent years. and had treated 8,317 animals for both Nepal and India have for more with feed and medicines, unaware The monsoon flooding flood-related illness and injury. than 60 years campaigned to harness that Andra Pradesh would also soon added to accumulations of water left Some of the flooding was the Kosi with bigger dams, while need help. by the tail of Cyclone Nargis in May predictable. The Brahmaputra, the ecologists are increasingly con- The World Society for the 2008. Cyclone Nargis killed more largest river in northeastern India, vinced that the best way to avoid Protection of Animals “has been in than 146,000 people and 48 million again submerged Kaziranga National flooding is to let the Kosi run free. the field in Bihar for almost two animals in Myanmar, occasioning Park, an almost annual occurrence. The debate was revived by weeks conducting assessment and the World Society for the Protection As in past years, animals including one of the first disasters of the 2008 building a response platform,” e- of Animals, International Fund for hog deer, elephants, and highly monsoon season, an August 18 mailed WSPA disaster response Animal Welfare, and Wildlife endangered Asian rhinoceroses fled levee break near Kusaha, Nepal, team leader Tim Myers on Friends of Thailand to mount the Kaziranga to higher ground, requir- which killed at least 80 people and September 10. “During this term the first international animal relief expe- ing them to cross National Highway allowed the river to reclaim three old team has also treated sick and September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 20
20 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 Hurricanes Gustav & Ike test federal pet evacuation to their people. opened their hearts and homes to foster inside,” reported Associated Press national critical need.” The Brazoria County SPCA and Bay Galveston pets for 10 days,” to give evacuees writer Allen G. Breed. Of the estimated 40,000 cattle kept Area SPCA of San Leon assisted with the who were staying in the Houston area a better Locked in a sanctuary, “the lion in Jefferson and Chambers counties in Texas, hands-on rescue. chance to find the animals. was as calm as a kitten,” Breed said, despite Meat & Poultry added, about 25,000 were The Houston Humane Society, on Other Texas shelters, including the water that rose to the waists of the humans and missing. the Gulf side of the city, suffered tree damage, Austin Humane Society and Town Lake debris that floated in through broken windows. The Meat & Poultry report went to broken fences, and wrecked equipment includ- Animal Shelter in Austin, housed animals for “When you have to swim, the lion press shortly before aerial surveys by the ing a horse trailer that was lost just when it human evacuees who were temporarily doesn’t care about eating nobody,” said Texas AgriLife Extension Service confirmed was urgently needed. Most normal operations bivouaced in their communities. Kujawa. that at least 4,000 of the missing cattle were were suspended, but the Houston Humane “National Guardsmen dropping off dead. “They’re being eaten by alligators,” Society continued to accept animals through- Big cats food and water lined up in the choir loft to get AgriLife Extension Service spokesperson out the crisis despite operating for more than The American SPCA allocated more a glimspe of the lion,” Breed added. “The sol- Kathleen Phillips told Associated Press agri- two weeks on generator power. than $75,000 to Gustav and Ike animal relief diers jumped back when the lion looked up culture writer Betsy Blaney. The number of animals housed at the work, including grants to the Louisiana SPCA, from his perch on the altar and snarled.” As many as 15,000 cattle were roam- Houston Humane Society “nearly quintupled, Humane Society of Louisiana, Animal Rescue ing at large, without access to clean feed and due to the care of animals from La Porte, New Orleans, Plaquemines Animal Welfare Hooved animals fresh water. Pasadena, and other municipalities,” the soci- Society, Denham Springs Animal Shelter, The ASPCA funded three horse res- “The storm’s surge carried cows up ety announced. Animal Aid of Vermillion Parish, Greater cue projects, including Habitat for Horses, to 20 miles from their pastures,” reported Kate The Houston SPCA, on some of the Birmingham Humane Society, and Wild Hopeful Haven Equine Rescue, and the Murphy of The New York Times. Two weeks highest land in the city, likewise suspended Animal Orphanage. Walter Ernst Foundation, a subsidiary of the after Ike, Murphy wrote, “Dead cows can be normal operations while serving as a disaster Wild Animal Orphanage was funded Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association. seen rotting in the forks of trees, and lone rescue base. On September 13, said the specifically to do animal transport, but a loose Habitat for Horses founder Jerry calves wander looking for their mothers. Houston SPCA’s Animal Rescue Central web tiger was reported at Crystal Beach on the Lynch led horse and cattle rescue efforts on Displaced and severely dehydrated cows have site, “we sheltered 233 animals from Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston County, and Galveston Island at the request of the been herded into fenced pastures north of Galveston, took in another 149 at the tempo- lion caretaker Michael Ray Kujawa found Galveston County Sheriff’s Department where the storm surge ended. They are marked rary shelter on the island, and conducted 141 refuge for himself and the big cat at a Baptist despite extensive damage to Habitat for with brands from the scores of ranches in the rescues. Overall, nearly 600 animals have church on Bolivar Island, after rising water cut Horses’ own 27-acre rescue facility. area and need to be sorted.” arrived from our island temporary shelter and off his escape. “All the shelters for horses have “There are no fences any more for our teams in the field have conducted over 600 “He headed for the church and was been flattened, including a new barn,” about 20 miles inland from the coast,” rescues. Hundreds of Houstonians responded met by residents who helped the lion wade spokesperson Valerie Kennedy told Stuckey of Independent Cattlemen’s Association of Texas to our ‘Operation Safe-a-Life’ plea and have MSNBC. “All their hay and equipment was director Bill Hyman told Murphy. completely ruined,” Kennedy added––but the 60 horses on the premises all escaped injury. Cuban chicken Among Lynch’s more immediate problems were animals who “swam until they rescue found someplace to stand,” he told Stuckey, Before approaching Texas, Gustav and then were trapped in unlikely locations. and Ike struck the Pinar del Rio region of “We got one bull down there still Cuba––and Ike circled back to hit Pinar del standing on a porch,” Lynch said on Rio again two days later. The hurricanes September 17. “We can’t get him down yet.” reportedly destroyed 93 laying hen barns in the The problem in that case is that the Pinar del Rio area, damaging 205 others, legs of cattle are not jointed in a manner that leaving just 92 intact, the official Cuban News allows them to easily navigate flights of steps. Agency reported. Workers––about two-thirds Livestock rescues elsewhere in the of whom lost their own homes––evacuated Gustav and Ike disaster areas were coordinated 350,000 laying hens to other facilities in Pinar by the National Cattlemen’s Foundation. del Rio and Havana, said the Cuban News “Approximately 7,000 cattle are Agency, and were scrambling to feed them, trapped in water or on levies from Cameron to after two local feed mills were damaged. St. Bernard Parishes in Louisiana,” Meat & Mass evacuations of poultry from Poultry reported on September 17. “[Lack of] barns hit by natural disaster is not standard fresh water is a concern there, and hay is a procedure in the U.S., or in most of the world. Trying to capture storm-frightened horses near Galveston. (Mark Cirillo/SPCA-Los Angeles) Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts & Minds Social Creatures: About Animals & Food by Gene Baur A Human and Animal Studies Reader Touchstone Books (1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY Edited by Clifton P. Flynn 10020), 2008. Hardcover, 286 pages. $25.00. Lantern Books (128 Second Place, Garden Suite, Brooklyn, “Gene Baur grew up in Hollywood, But Farm Sanctuary, years before NY 11231), 2008. Paperback, 458 pages. $50.00. California, where he worked as an extra in the Best Friends Animal Society took a similar television, films, and commercials, including approach to campaigning for “No More A cynic might conclude from Social The fatal flaw in Social Creatures–– several spots for McDonald’s and other fast Homeless Pets,” learned to attract and edu- Creatures: A Human and Animal Studies apart from the frequently deadly dull academic food chains,” opens his brief back-page biog- cate visitors by the tens of thousands, by giv- R e a d e r, assembled as a sociology text, t h a t writing––is that popular culture has already raphy in Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts & ing them a good time with well-treated animals animal advocacy has either died of old age or raced far ahead of academia. Several essays M i n d s . Baur might have pursued a screen in the sort of bucolic environment that most is terminally moribund, that no one involved exploring the relationship of animal abuse and career. Instead, as a teenager Baur heard from people imagine “family farms” once were. has had an original insight or useful idea since crimes against humans, for example, merely his grandmother about veal calf crating and In truth, the neat, clean family farm approximately 1998, and that the cause of quantify themes that are today explored in rou- briefly became a vegatarian. Baur became a where all the animals were happy until slaugh- death was Latinate writing, also implicated in tine police beat reporting. committed vegetarian in 1985 after meeting his ter was chiefly a creation of early mail order the decline and fall of the Roman empire. A second obvious example is future wife Lorri during a summer stint work- catalogs, published to sell products to hard- Editor Clifton P. Flynn and probably “Loving them to death,” a 1999 study of ing for Greenpeace in Chicago. scrabbling farm families on the premise that most of the contributors may regard this “Blame-displacing strategies of animal shelter They began their careers in animal they could become as comfortable as the folks anthology as evidence that animal advocacy workers and surrenderers,” by Stephanie S. advocacy together in Washington D.C. about in the illustrations. The food industry later has arrived as a respectable topic of academic Frommer and Arnold Arluke. six months later. Working initially for other appropriated the catalog images, and still study, since it now has an ossified canon “Frommer and Arluke argue organizations, they incorporated Farm hides behind them. Now Farm Sanctuary turns authored by Ph.D.-holding professors, some that…blame management strategies make it Sanctuary in April 1986. By 1996 Farm those images against factory farming. of whom long since became emeritus. possible for the cycle of surrendering and Sanctuary operated sanctuaries in both upstate Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts Unfortunately, very little of this killing to be perpetuated,” writes Flynn in New York and northern California, and had & Minds deftly breaks up the bad news about material will strike the students upon whom it introduction. long since become the second largest farm ani- how animals suffer in agribusiness with feel- will be inflicted as any more immediate, Indeed. But even in 1999 this was mal advocacy group in the world, trailing only good stories about animals that the organiza- urgent, or emotionally and intellectually com- no news. Ed Duvin and Patrice Greanville had Compassion In World Farming, of Britain. tion has rescued. pelling than anything else gleaned from little- made all the same major points 13 years earli- When Gene and Lorri split, the out- It is not the definitive history of read journals and stuffed between covers to be er. The central ideas in their critiques became come was growth by division, as she soon Farm Sanctuary. Indeed, it omits any discus- recycled as required reading. tenets of the “no kill movement,” advanced by founded Animal Acres to do parallel work in sion in depth of Baur’s long record of political This is not to say that the contents national conferences beginning in 1995. By southern California. blunders. Two full-page ads placed by the are worthless; only that they are mostly now 1999 much of the curriculum of the no-kill Farm Sanctuary has not succeeded Humane Farming Association in the period pieces, offering studies of the attitudes conferences had already crossed over into simply because it took up the issues involving July/August 2008 edition of ANIMAL PEO- of university students, for example, whose mainstream shelter conferences. the most animals at the right time and place. PLE detailed how Farm Sanctuary earlier this generation is now reaching middle age. In original context, much of the Farm Animal Reform Movement, founded year misrepresented as a “victory” a New Among the canon included in Social content of Social Creatures presented a chal- and still headed by Alex Hershaft, had almost Jersey Supreme Court ruling which was in C r e a t u r e s are several selections that were lenge to conventional ideas about animals and a 10-year head start, and has organized con- truth a significant setback. Thirteen years ear- clearly influential in their time, and still echo the animal/human relationship. Today much ferences, beginning in 1981, which have been lier Farm Sanctuary declared “victory” over in public as well as academic discourse. The of it summarizes conventional thinking. catalysts to the entire animal rights movement. the passage of a supposed “anti-downer” bill in oldest chapter is an excerpt from A n i m a l Breaking edge writing about animal Baur acknowledges the influence of California that the Humane Farming Associ- L i b e r a t i o n , by Peter Singer (1974), often issues has advanced from sociology into politi- the late Henry Spira’s Coalition for Nonviolent ation accurately predicted would not be credited with providing the intellectual frame- cal science. Campus activists today campaign Food––as does virtually every other leader in enforced. In between, Farm Sanctuary was work for the animal rights movement. Tom to enact into law the advances in public per- activism on behalf of farm animals. fined $50,000 for egregious violations of fed- Regan’s 1985 essay The Case For Animal ception that have been won since the ideas in The Humane Farming Association, eral election law in Florida. R i g h t s, disputing Singer from a pro-animal Social Creatures might have been new to most two years older than Farm Sanctuary, has over A good book now, Farm Sanctuary perspective, has also had enduring influence. undergraduates. Much of the most precedent- the years demonstrated superior investigative might have been a great book if Baur had Carol Adams’ excerpt from The Sexual setting lawmaking is accomplished through the skill and political analysis. forthrightly reviewed his mistakes. Much Politics of Meat (1990) may be the essay most passage of ballot initiatives––which require United Poultry Concerns and strategic wisdom could be gained thereby, if relevant to the issues presently before many broad societal agreement about the goals in Compassion Over Killing have led breaking- Baur recognized the blunders for what they university students, even if Adams wrote it order to succeed. The movement, in short, edge efforts on behalf of chickens. were. ––Merritt Clifton before some of them were born. has moved on. ––Merritt Clifton September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 21
ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 - 21 University of California Press (2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, Pet Food Politics by Marion Nestle CA 94704), 2008. 219 pages, hardcover. $18.95. The China Health Ministry at this Dairy Farm Pure Milk in one-litre packs sold site and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. their products with melamine. Sanlu received writing has just announced that the number of to caterers be recalled, after melamine was “The Chinese government,” already complaints about babies falling ill after con- infants and young children known to have reportedly found in one of 65 samples. embarrassed by several previous food and drug suming the contaminated products in been poisoned by melamine mixed into pow- Pet Food Politics author Marion adulteration episodes since 2004, “promptly December 2007, according to China Central dered milk or baby formula has increased ten- Nestle has spent much of her career explaining announced that it intended to strengthen safety Television, but did not discover that melamine fold in 48 hours, to more than 54,000. that she has nothing to do with the Nestle food standards, increase inspections, require safety was the cause of the illnesses until June 2008. Four children have died, 13,000 are conglomerate. Her previous books include certifications, and tackle corruption in the Fonterra learned about the mela- hospitalized, and 40,000 children plus two Food Politics: How the Food Industry influ - food system and its oversight. And they would mine contamination on August 2. Pressured orangutans and a lion cub at the Hangzhou ences Nutrition and Health, and Safe Food: be testing for toxins in cooking oil, flour, by Fonterra to recall any products containing Safari Park near Shanghai have required out- Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism. beverages, and baby food,” reports Nestle. melamine, Sanlu the same day alerted the city patient medical treatment for kidney stones Pet Food Politics would appear to be “In short order, China sent more government of Shijiazhuang, in Hebei caused by ingesting melamine, a coal deriva- a departure from Nestle’s usual range, except than 33,000 inspectors into the field, conduct- province, where the company is based. But tive of no nutritional value. that she also happens to be nutrition co-editor ed 10 million inspections, and shut down Shijiazhuang officials did not take the matter Most observers expect the toll to rise of The Bark magazine. Nestle knows dogs, as nearly 200 food manufacturers. Over the next to their Hebei counterparts until September 9. far higher. Eighteen alleged perpetrators face well as nutritional issues and the food industry. few months,” Nestle recounts, “officials By then Fonterra had already notified New the death penalty. In particular, Nestle understands the uncovered hundreds of thousands of food safe- Zealand prime minister Helen Clark about the Most of this was foreseen by Marion most basic issue in manufacturing pet food. ty violations and closed down more than melamine problem––but Clark did not move to Nestle in Pet Food Politics, detailing the “As one dog food maker explained 150,000 unlicensed food businesses. The gov- warn China for three more days. melamine pet food contamination crisis of to me,” Nestle writes, “the products have to ernment said it would establish systems for Once China was officially notified, early 2007. Nestle subtitled Pet Food Politics be nasty enough so a dog will eat them but food recalls, export inspections, and food the response gathered speed. Chinese media “The Chihuahua in the coal mine” to empha- look and smell good enough for pet owners to safety standards, and would create a cabinet- disclosed the investigation on September 10. size that what happened to dogs and cats can want to buy them.” level panel to oversee food safety and quality.” A day later, Hebei province deputy governor happen to humans, too. A similar consideration applies to Former Chinese food and drug safety Yang Chongyong reported that as many as 373 Chiefly used to make plastics, making cat food, with the difference that cats administration chief Zheng Xiaoyu, convicted milk suppliers to Sanlu had been found to have melamine can also be added to foods to make are top predators who want their food to smell of taking bribes to approve drugs, was execut- been adding melamine to powdered milk since them appear to have higher protein content and taste like a fresh kill. Dogs prefer theirs to ed on July 10, 2007. as far back as April 2005. than they really do, when tested using conven- have been dead for three days. Concludes Nestle, “If we want our Thus children may have been made tional methods. Accordingly, stirring “The manufacture of wet pet foods global food system to provide safe food for ill by melamine for nearly three years before melamine into “milk” powder that has already presents additional challenges,” continues everyone, ensuring the safety of pets is as the pet food contamination furor erupted–– been diluted with cheaper substances such as Nestle. “For most pet food companies, it is good a place as any to start.” and the adulteration continued even after the chalk dust turns out to have been a cover tactic easier and less expensive to give up control of Yet ensuring the safey of pets, to perpetrators should have known that they for unscrupulous distributors of Chinese dairy production and contract out the making of wet whatever extent it was achieved, proved insuf- might be killing babies. products, just as it was for unscrupulous pet foods to ‘co-packers’ such as Menu ficient to prevent a similar scandal from Lest anyone believe this depravity is Chinese sellers of pet food ingredients. Foods,” which used 1,300 recipes, and for afflicting children in China and other nations, uniquely Chinese, let it be remembered that As well as injuring many thousands several months in 2006-2007 unknowingly barely more than a year later. U.S. milk sellers in the early 20th century of children in a nation of mandatory one-child included in many of them wheat, rice, and Responding to the pet food crisis often spiked milk with formaldehyde to delay families, the milk adulterators sold their taint- soy glutens which were imported from China was delayed, as Nestle details, because U.S. spoilage. Overdoses occasionally killed small ed products to Bangladesh, Burundi, Gabon, and spiked with melamine. and Canadian laboratories initially had no idea children. Congress passed the Pure Food and Myanmar, Taiwan, and Yemen, where they “Such recipes may differ in propor- what kind of contamination to look for. By Drug Act of 1906 to address the problem, but almost certainly harmed many more children, tions of ingredients,” Nestle explains, “but now the effects of melamine ingestion are rela- “blue milk” scandals, so-called because the mostly in nations of limited capacity to detect the basic ingredients are much the same. So tively easily recognized. Yet the agencies that chemical methylene blue is used to detect and respond effectively to the damage. the recall produced this revelation: the con- could have moved promptly to reduce the risk formaldehyde in milk, remained frequent for Those nations’ lack of ability to tents of pet foods are much alike, and the most to children were as sluggish in response to another decade, until the advent of refrigera- intercept poisoned milk powder parallels the important difference between one brand and melamine in milk as they were when the prob- tion ended the incentive for the adulteration. lack of effective inspection and oversight of another is not nutrition; it is price.” lem was an unknown pollutant in pet food. People who gave their cats milk pet food production. Melamine in pet foods killed from The New Zealand dairy firm were mostly safe all along. Though humans The Swiss-based Nestle food manu- 1,950 to 2,334 cats and 4,150 to 4,583 dogs, Fonterra purchased 43% of Sanlu, the largest cannot smell formaldehyde in small doses, facturing empire is resisting a request from the causing illness in 14,228 to 17,000, according Chinese dairy company, in late 2005. Sanlu cats can, and if milk was tainted, cats Hong Kong Center for Food Safety that Nestle to data collected by the Pet Connection w e b milk suppliers were apparently already spiking wouldn’t touch it. ––Merritt Clifton ANIMAL PEOPLE thanks you for your generous support
Honoring the parable of the widow's mite––in which a poor woman gives but one coin to charity, yet that is all she possesses–– we do not list our donors by how much they give, ––Wolf Clifton but we greatly appreciate large gifts that help us do more for animals. Richard Abbott, Cynthia Abousayf, Heather Abraham, Clova Abrahamson, Violet Aharonian, Warren Albert, Joan Allen, Animal Lovers Society, Animal Radio Network, June Anna-Fey, Darilyn Arancio, Richard Arbizzani, Rachel Arvizu, Mary Ruth Aull, Dolores Marie Babel, Dianne & Michael Bahr, Nancy Barthule, C. 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Valente, Vegetarian Society of Western Michigan/Duncan Myers, Mirelle Vernimb, Barbara Vickers, Judith Volk, Anne Vollmerhausen, Barbara Wade, Ellen Waggoner, Nancy Wagner, Leroy Walters, Nai-Yu Wang, Josephine Wardle, Anna Bell Washburn, Hedwiga Weatherford, Diane Weinstein, Drs. Charles & Patricia Wentz, Dee Westlund, Dr. Larry Wilder, Hilde Wilson, Victoria Windsor, Ronald Winkler, Barbara Wolff, Eleanora Worth, Carolee Wright, Louise Wunsch, Doris & Marty Wurst, Mr. & Mrs. Hugh Yaeger, Bill Young, Judy Youngman, Audrey Yuse, Carla Zimmer September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 22
22 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 ANIMAL OBITUARIES
Claudio, a three-month-old gorilla, Genuine Risk, 31, winner of the died on August 16, 2008 at the Munster Zoo 1980 Kentucky Derby, the only filly to win in in Germany. “Münster zookeepers said her lifetime, died on August 18, 2008 in her Claudio’s death was almost certainly the result paddock at Newstead Farm in Upperville, of [his mother] Gana neglecting and mistreat- Virginia. “After her Derby win, Genuine Risk ing the infant,” wrote Tony Patterson, Berlin finished second to Codex in a controversial correspondent for The Independent. “Gana, Preakness and second to Temperence Hill in 11, last year gave birth to her first baby, a the Belmont Stakes––the only time a filly has female named Mary Zwo,” Patterson added. finished in the money in all three Triple Crown ––Wolf “Gana rejected Mary Zwo for six weeks. Staff races,” recalled Associated Press sportswriter Clifton at the zoo finally intervened and rescued the Hank Kurz Jr. “She won 10 of 15 career races, baby,” who “has lived at a zoo in Stuttgart and never finished worse than third for Hall of with four other gorillas ever since.” Said Fame trainer Leroy Jolley.” First bred to 1973 birthed only two offspring successfully in 17 necropsy to determine the cause of death were Munster Zoo director Jorg Adler, “There was Triple Crown winner Secretariat, in the first- attempted breedings. She was retired to pas- not expected to be available for weeks, zoo no point in intervening again. We cannot keep ever mating of two Kentucky Derby winners, ture in 2000. spokesperson Holly Braithwaite told Lynn on taking away children from a mother.” Genuine Rick produced a stillborn foal, and Indra, an Asian elephant exhibited Arave of the Deseret News. by the Mexican traveling circus Circo Union, Mama Cuddles, 46, a Nile hip- escaped from his enclosure just before dawn popotamus who was born at the Philadelphia OBITUARIES on September 23, 2008, wandered through Zoo in 1962, transferred to the San Francisco two neighborhoods of the northern Mexico Zoo a year later, was euthanized on August Thomas Doerflein, 44, renowned Ben Cunneen, 33, of Brisbane, City suburb of Ecatepec, and was killed when 13, 2008 after becoming unable to stand due for raising the Berlin Zoo polar bear Knut in Australia, on August 21, 2008 became the he stepped in front of a bus driven by Tomas to arthritis and other conditions of age. 2006-2007 after the cub was abandoned by his third known human death attributed to hendra Lopez, 49, who also died in the collision. mother, was found dead in his apartment of a virus, a disease carried by fruit bats which Dorothy, a chimpanzee believed to Four passengers were hospitalized. The be between 35 and 50 years old, died on heart attack on September 22, 2008. A 25- produces symptoms similar to rabies but is not Mexican environmental protection agency year Berlin Zoo employee, “Doerflein with always fatal. “Cunneen contracted the disease September 22, 2008. “Dorothy spent at least seized two other Asian elephants and 10 25 lonely years, and probably closer to 40 his burly build and ponytail was a distinctive after treating horses at the Redlands Veterinary Siberian tigers from the circus the following figure at the side of the growing bear,” Clinic,” reported Christine Kellett of t h e years, chained by her neck before a daily day, after reportedly finding that all of them parade of people at an amusement park,” recalled Associated Press writer Patrick Brisbane Times. “Five horses infected with were potentially capable of escaping. McGroarty. “He nursed young Knut in his the disease at the Redlands clinic have either recalled In Defense of Animals. “After the arms behind closed doors and wrestled with died or been put down. Hospitalized five M i s h a , 27, an African elephant first ever armed confiscation of primates in him after the bear grew old enough to play. weeks ago, Cunneen was placed in a medical- who was transferred to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Cameroon in May 2000, Dorothy enjoyed When Knut made his public debut in March ly-induced coma after his condition deteriorat- Lake City from Six Flags Discovery Kingdom eight years and four months at the Sanaga- 2007, Doerflein was at his side. They started ed. The virus is believed to have killed horse in Vallejo, California, in 2005, was eutha- Yong Center,” sponsored by IDA, “sur- a daily performance for the thousands of visi- trainer Vic Rail, 49, following a similar out- nized on September 9, 2008 due to mysteri- rounded by people and chimpanzees who cher- tors who flocked to see the bear at his outdoor break in 1994.” Fourteen horses died from ously deteriorating health. Results of a ished her.” enclosure. But the ‘Knut show’ ended in July the 1994 outbreak. The second human victim, of that year when the zoo’s director ruled that a 35-year-old horse breeder, apparently devel- the bear had grown too large for Doerflein to oped the disease 13 months after his exposure MEMORIALS frolic with in safety.” The “Cute Knut” phe- to two infected horses. A female veterinary In memory of my kids with fur who wait for nomenon reportedly boosted Berlin Zoo atten- nurse who worked with Cunneen was also hos- me at Rainbow Bridge: Schwartz, Mimi, dance by 27% in 2007, and increased rev- pitalized, but reportedly was released and E.T., Haji Baba, Yogi Bear, and enues by $10 million. recovering, under ongoing medical surveil- Monty Moe. Love and hugs from mom. Heidi Jean Krupp, 49, a co- lance. A Department of Primary Industries ––Judy Youngman founder of the St. Francis Animal Sanctuary in veterinarian who accidentally jabbed himself ______Tylertown, Mississippi, died of cancer on with a needle while euthanizing a racehorse Que, it was two years August 28. August 22, 2008. Modeled after the Best was tested to see if he had become infected, I miss you, you were the best. Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, Kellett said. The horse was infected, but had ––Hilde Wilson the St. Francis Animal Sanctuary had barely recovered. “The horse’s owner is considering ______opened when Hurricane Katrina hit New legal action,” Kellett noted. In memory of my husband Andy. Orleans, Krupp’s home, in September 2005. Thomas Weller, 93, died on ––Lynn Rasmussen Overnight the sanctuary accommodated the August 23, 2008 in Needham, Massachusetts. ______Humane Society of Louisiana, whose New Weller and Harvard Medical School collabora- In memory of all the animals Orleans shelter was destroyed, and the Best tors John F. Enders and Frederick C. Robins in this cruel world. For my beloved Tinker (1990-2008): Friends relief operations. The Humane shared the 1954 Nobel Prize for Medicine for ––Nancy Barthule I rescued you from the streets of Society of Louisiana is still working from the developing an in vitro method of growing the ______Lake Arrowhead in 1990. A tiny beige sanctuary. Best Friends again collaborated polio virus, a critical step toward enabling To Marjorie, in memory kitten with a huge tail that stood straight and with the sanctuary in response to Hurricanes Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin to produce the of your precious Ebony. proud at all times. You spent the next 18 Gustav and Ike in September 2008. first effective polio vaccines. “Before the She was so blessed to have found you. years rescuing me through all the painful Joyce Smith, 79, founder of the 1949 breakthrough, which showed how to cul- You were the best "mom" in the world. moments life can bring. You were the Second Chance Wildlife Sanctuary in tivate the virus in test tubes,” the Washington ––Lindy, Marvin, & Melinda epitome of brilliance, loyalty and Pickering, Ontario, died on August 19, 2008. Post explained, “scientists believed it could be ______unconditional love. I pray that your best The sanctuary at her death reportedly housed grown only in the nerve tissue of live mon- friend, Freddie, was waiting for you as you as many as 500 cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea keys. So impractical was this technique that arrived at your new home. I want to thank pigs, ducks and other animals on 25 acres specialists despaired of finding a way to shield you for sharing your life on earth with me. made available by the Cherry Downs Golf & populations against the infectious menace that You were truly "Mommy's angel," Country Club. The future of the sanctuary struck without warning, had crippled and I will miss you the rest of my days. since her death is reportedly unclear, with the President Franklin D. Roosevelt and left others With all my love, Lindy board of directors trying to rehome as many of unable to walk, or even breathe, unaided… ______the animals as possible. Enders was credited with introducing Weller In memory of our little Termite, to virus research and cultivation in test tubes a tiny lovebird with a huge heart. rather than using monkeys.” There is no better way to Bugsy could not have asked for a more loving and devoted mate. remember animals or animal people Jacklyn Sue Thunder Sellers, 58, executive director of the Sumter Humane You were an example to the rest of us. than with an ANIMAL PEOPLE Society in Americus, Georgia, since 2000, We miss you and love you. memorial. Send donations was killed on August 19, 2008 when her rid- ––Lindy and Marvin Sobel (any amount), with address for ing lawn mower flipped over on top of her. ______acknowledgement, if desired, to There were no witnesses. Originally from In memory of Brendan and Meeko. Battle Creek, Michigan, Sellers joined the ––Shirley Brown P.O. Box 960 Sumter Humane Society staff two years before ______Clinton, WA 98236-0960 her promotion to the top job. In memory of Purr Box (12/3/87), Prometheus (3/21/81), Friendl (10/30/87), CLASSIFIEDS––$1.00 a word! • Lizzie (5/8/84), Boy Cat (12/26/85), Miss Penrose (11/18/98), Duke (11/1/98), Purr Box, Jr. (5/1/04), Mylady (8/1/06), In memory of Marco. Muffin (1/2/08), Blackie (9/9/96), PLEASE HELP THE WORKING HOLY LANCE: ––Kim and Wolf and Honey Boy (11/1/05). DONKEYS OF INDIA! http://holy-lance.blogspot.com We sponsor free veterinary camps twice a ______year for over 2,000 working donkeys in cen- FREE SPAY/NEUTER for stray and feral tral India, plus free vet care on Sundays. cats and dogs in Arad, Romania. Please Your love for animals Dharma Donkey Sanctuary/Ahimsa of help us with a donation: www.animed.ro Texas, 1720 E. Jeter Road, Bartonville, TX ______76226;
ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 - 23 September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 24
24 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008 September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 25
Usually birds trapped in wrecked barns are either killed on site or just left to die. The report that Cubans had evacuated so many hens amid the devastation was especially surprising in view of the high cost of fuel in Cuba, the scarcity of motor vehicles, and a mention in the same Cuban News Agency dispatch that the hens’ egg production fell by half as the hurricanes approached. September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 26 September 2008 3/22/13 9:22 PM Page 27