FINDING HOPE & MEANING IN Cockfighters AVIAN FLU CATASTROPE (page 3) spread Asian Asian H5N1 pandemic rages on–– worst ever factory farm disaster killer bird flu BANGKOK, BEIJING, it apparently does not cross easily into BANGKOK, BEIJING– – C o c k f i g h t e r s , J A K A R T A ––United Nations Food & humans, and attacks mainly children, cock breeders, and public officials kow-towing to Agricultural Organization chief Jacques who have had less time to develop a them tried to pass the blame for spreading the dead- Diouf on February 25 opened an emer- spectrum of immunities to flu viruses. ly H5N1 avian flu virus throughout Southeast Asia gency meeting in Bangkok of experts Trying to eradicate the H5N1 to pigeons, sparrows, and even open-billed storks. from 23 nations with a warning that the outbreak before it mutates has involved Bad vaccines took some of the rap, too. H5N1 avian flu pandemic sweeping killing virtually all the poultry of entire An attempt was even made, as the death Southeast Asia in recent months is not regions. The economic fallout may toll increased on factory farms, to attribute the epi- yet under control. Diouf urgently have influenced both Japan and Indo- demic to free range poultry producers. appealed for economic help from other nesia to claim prematurely that their But as the H5N1 “red zones” expanded in parts of the world. H5N1 outbreaks were over, and at least eight nations, the evidence pointed ever Fear that H5N1 could quickly appears to have caused China to hope more directly at commerce in gamecocks––and at mutate into a virulent human form was repeatedly that the disease was geo- the efforts of cockfighters and cock breeders to pro- heightened on February 19 when Thai graphically contained, only to see it tect their birds from the culls and disease outbreaks scientists confirmed that the disease had leap hundreds of miles and re-emerge. that had already killed more than 100 million chick- killed 14 of 15 housecats kept by one Japan came closest to actually ens who were raised to lay eggs and be eaten, as family who had seen one of the cats stopping H5N1, going from January 12 well as 22 people, most of them children. (Robert L. Harrison) scavenging a dead chicken. All of the to February 17 with no new cases The pattern of the H5N1 outbreak paral- layer flocks through contaminated clothing worn by cats fell ill, but one recovered. before an outbreak erupted among ban- leled the spread of exotic Newcastle disease through workers who participated in cockfighting. Further investigation deter- tam gamecocks kept at a lumber yard southern California and into Arizona between Almost all of the early speculation about mined, however, that H5N1 had far from two earlier Japanese outbreaks. November 2002 and May 2003. Approximately 3.7 the source of H5N1 outbreaks pointed toward wild apparently not mutated before killing Thai poultry consumption fell million laying hens were killed to contain the birds, even though the disease appeared to spread the cats. In the avian form, H5N1 kills 50%. “Demand for chicken meat has Newcastle epidemic, but USDA investigators most rapidly long after the fall migrations were over about 70% of the humans it attacks, but dropped 40% in Jakarta,” poultry pro- believe it began among backyard fighting bird and before the spring migrations started. ducer Eko Sandjojo told Sari P. Setiogi flocks, advancing as gamecocks were transported “Migratory birds carry the disease,” and Multa Fidrus of the Jakarta Post. between fights. It apparently invaded commercial (continued on page 15) (continued on page 17) ANIMAL PEOPLE News For People Who Care About Animals
March 2004 Volume XIII, #2
(Kim Bartlett) Dolphin captures halted in Antigua & Barbuda, corrupt officials hit in Mexico ANTIGUA & BARBUDA; SING- Antiguan waters in the event that the current APORE; MEXICO CITY; TAIJI– – sources of supply are unable to provide this Resolving that, “The permission granted to number of animals per year,’ and a permit to Mr. John Mezzanotte to capture twelve dol- export these dolphins.” phins annually from Antigua waters is herby “The government was sold a dirty revoked,” the cabinet of Antigua & Barbuda and misleading bill of goods,” charged on February 11 signaled that at least some Watkins-Gilkes. “In public debate Dolphin small island nations which have historically Fantaseas managing director Arthur Bud stated favored marine mammal exploitation may be that they would employ more than 20 rethinking their position. Antiguans. How many Antiguans are “Further it is stated,” the cabinet employed two years later?” resolved, “that any importation or exportation Attorney John Eli Fuller in Nov- of dolphins into and from Antigua and ember 2003 sued the Antigua & Barbuda attor- Barbuda be in strict compliance with all inter- ney general, Mezzanotte, and Dolphin national obligations of Antigua and Barbuda.” Fantaseas on behalf of Watkins-Gilkes and the Caribbean developer John ABITPC. The Antigua & Barbuda cabinet Mezzanotte is among the promoters of Dolphin revoked the capture permit before the case Fantaseas, a swim-with-dolphins operation. went to court. According to longtime opponents of dolphin “While the main issue has been captivity Ric and Helene O’Barry, Dolphin resolved,” Watkins-Gilkes told A N I M A L Fantaseas started on Anguilla in 1988 with six PEOPLE, “it is unclear if the law suit will be dolphins imported from Cuba. Testing the dropped. There is [also] still the question of Sergeant Russell Joyce receives the Lewyt Award for Heroic & Compassionate Animals from market for expansion, three of the dolphins the wrongful importation of the three Cuban Marilyn DiToro of the North Shore Animal League America, for Fluffy [center]. were transferred to Antigua & Barbuda in dolphins. It is hoped,” she added, “that this December 2001. case will have a positive impact throughout G.I. pets banned as “biosecurity risk” Martha Watkins-Gilkes, public rela- the Caribbean islands.” BOSTON––Dogs and cats who help On February 9, 2004 the USDA tions officer for the 1,200-member Antigua & Antigua-and-Barbuda, together with U.S. military personnel endure the stress of Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service Barbuda Independent Tourism Promotion Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts-and-Nevis, St. serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are the latest ended an investigation of how mad cow dis- Corporation, and author of numerous books Lucia, and St. Vincent-and-the-Grenadines, urgent biosecurity risk to the United States, ease entered the U.S. from Canada. More than about Caribbean diving, objected that the consistently align themselves at the annual according to some bureaucrats, who are now than 30 million cattle are killed for meat in the Cuban dolphins were imported in violation of meetings of the International Whaling trying to keep the troops from bringing their U.S. each year, but the USDA tests only the Convention on International Trade in Commission in support of Japanese-led efforts companions home. 40,000 for the presence of the prions associat- Endangered Species. Meanwhile, summarized to weaken or rescind the 1986 moratorium on Comparisons are in order. Published ed with mad cow disease. The USDA exam- Ontario dolphin defender Gwen McKenna, commercial whaling, along with the Solomon accounts indicate that U.S. troops stationed in ined the brain of the cow who was identified as “Dolphin Fantaseas persuaded the Antigua & Islands in the South Pacific. All are recipients Iraq and Afghanistan during the past two years the first known U.S. carrier only because she Barbuda government to grant them a permit to of Japanese foreign aid. have brought home fewer than 100 dogs and was killed outside of the Vern’s Moses Lake capture ‘up to 12 dolphins annually from (continued on page 6) cats in total. None are known to have carried Meat Company slaughterhouse. The cow was any serious disease. killed on December 9. By the time she was Just a handful of dogs and cats are found to have had mad cow disease, on believed to have been imported from Iraq after December 22, her meat had already been dis- the 1991 Persian Gulf War. None of them car- tributed and eaten in at least five states. ried any serious disease, either. Eighty cows were imported from the Illegal imports of wildlife and same Canadian herd, but the USDA was wildlife parts into U.S., worth about $1 billion unable to find out what had become of 52 of in 1991, are now worth $3 billion, estimates them, including 11 who may have eaten feed the U.S. Department of Justice. Federal and containing the remains of other mad cows. state agencies have yet to even visibly slow the Feeding the remains of ruminants to other clandestine wildlife traffic, every item of ruminants was banned in 1997, but these 11 which is an uninspected, untested potential cows and the one who tested positive for mad biosecurity hazard. (continued on page 10) 2 - ANIMAL PEOP LE, March 2004
. . . barking to get my attention off her kids. But as they ran through the tangle of branches at my feet, I grabbed the little one first. He screamed, and mom barked even more desperately now. Holding him against my chest, I chased after his bigger brother. It was a good fifteen minutes before I caught him. When I put them both under my arm and carried them to my car, mom ran off in the direction I saw her come from when I was on the free- way. This was yesterday. I drove them to our hospital where they got warm baths, and their first solid food. Last night, I took their pictures for you . . . and my 4-year-old daughter, Meguire, insist- ed on holding the pups for you. Talk about proud! “Meggie” is with me like a shadow . . . and during the past two weeks, she’s talked her way into going on February 2004 a local rescue with me. Dear Partner, Meggie watches for the animals with binoculars to keep up I was in a rush to get to an early morning appointment in a her end of our rescue team. And it’s a total joy to answer her ques- remote part of the county. Getting up at 5 a.m. so I wouldn’t be tions about why I am doing something. She absolutely loves ani- late, I left a half-hour early in case of traffic . . . good thing! mals more than anything. Coming off a freeway ramp in the mountains, I always So when she insisted on coming along to meet the pups . . . ! scout the area below me, for animals in trouble . . . it’s a habit. I expect Meggie will be running things in a few decades, and the And while I look intently, I always pray that I don’t see animals will be lucky for it! any! I went out to look for more pups today, but there are only Well, yesterday wasn’t going to let me slide on by . . . and I these two. You can imagine what happened to the others, having w a s n ’t going to get to my appointment for a few hours . . . . to cross an open field like that . . . Coming off the freeway ramp, I saw a mother German . . . and why it’s so important that we continue this work shepherd . . . a rare purebred . . . trotting across a huge field, out in with all the energy we can muster. the open. Behind her were two little black puppies, and they were Thanks for teaming up with me . . . and being there for these bounding up and down to keep up with mom. two tired little angels. And for making Meggie’s life so special. In the rear was a stocky pit bull . . . clean, as if he recently For the animals, lived with someone. Mom was a wreck . . . muddy, shabby-coated and full of milk . . . but the pups looked healthy. She was a GOOD mom. I pulled off the ramp and onto a road. Then I parked and Le Leo Grillo, founder took off on foot after the dogs . . . running, to cut them off from reaching the freeway. But instead, they headed for thick woods. And when I caught up to them, the pups were near their earthen den, and mom D.E.L.T.A. Rescue was flanking me . . . PO Box 9, Dept AP, Glendale, CA 91209 Attention: Rescuers and Shelters Build your own inexpensive straw bale dog house for your pets’ maximum protection, comfort and fun! Here at D.E.L.T.A. Rescue, we invented a better housing system That’s why we now build the deluxe “stucco” version. Our mate- for our more than 859 dogs. Using 25 common bales of straw, and rials cost for this stucco version is about $400, while you can put up three sheets of plywood, two people can build a straw bale dog house the simple building for under $150. Good news! We put all the in under 10 minutes! This is the same simple structure that withstood building instructions for both versions on video tape for anyone to our terrible El Nino rains in 1998. The simple straw design can last use, or copy in its entirety. And it’s FREE! To help us help precious 20 years, but because we are a permanent sanctuary, our houses animals, besides our own 859 dogs and 552 cats, please get this must last longer. video today and pass it around!
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ANIMA L P EOPLE, March 2004 - 3 Editorial Factory farming toll rises in Asia “We are preparing to campaign against burying birds with influenza alive,” Voice-4- ply the protein needs of all the world with just a fraction of the use of land, water, and other Animals founder Changkil Park e-mailed from Seoul, South Korea, as the winter avian flu resources that now go into producing meat, but much that well-informed vegetarians mistake pandemic peaked, and frantic officials and poultry workers struggled to contain it by killing for common knowledge is still unknown to almost everyone else. Soy beans are native to all the birds believed to be at risk. “I hope ANIMAL PEOPLE will have some ideas for us Southeast Asia and tofu was invented there, yet the technology and commercial production about how animal advocates should view the massive inhumane treatment of birds,” Changkil methods that are increasingly establishing soy and tofu as U.S. and European dietary stables Park added, seeming to speak for thousands whose feelings ranged from shock to despair. are not yet widely known or used in most of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Finding any good in the often unspeakably cruel culling of more than 100 million An increasingly wide opportunity is developing in Southeast Asia to help demon- chickens and other birds is admittedly difficult. strate the potential of vegetarianism, embraced by choice, to people who might welcome an The World Bank has pledged to finance rebuilding the Southeast Asian poultry alternative to factory farming if they understood that “no meat” and “no hunger” can be com- industry, moreover, which will probably mean even more intensive promotion of factory farm plimentary ways of life. methods in the very near future. If Southeast Asian egg producers adopt the routine live macer- The cultural legacy of vegetarianism in much of Southeast Asia has long been asso- ation or burial of “spent” hens that has become standard in U.S. agribusiness, described else- ciated with religious asceticism and renunciation of worldly things, as among the vegetarian where in this edition, the World Bank involvement may help to institutionalize some of the followers of Isaiah, John the Baptist, Jesus, and St. Francis. The choice of Buddhist and cruelty that is now horrifying television news viewers throughout the world. Hindu monks and nuns to be vegetarian has often been misinterpreted by meat-eaters as repre- Along with the bad news about birds have come reports from Vietnam and senting an altruistic choice by the holy to leave their share of animal products to others in Guangdong province, China, that dog consumption increased during the avian flu plague. greater need. Thus there has not been much recognition that vegetarianism, associated by This is not because consumers who could barely afford to eat chicken once a week are now most people with deprivation of meat, can in truth be a choice of abundance. eating dogs instead. Rather, the relatively small numbers of Vietnamese and Guangdonians The argument that vegetarianism enhances personal health has meanwhile been rein- who can afford to eat dogs are apparently eating more, in the misguided hope that dog meat forced by the evidence that meat-eating dependent upon raising animals in unnatural concen- might fortify them against the deadly H5N1 flu virus variant. trations is adverse to public health––especially in Guangdong, where the four deadliest flu Despite the bad news, however, there is cause for cautious hope in many aspects of epidemics in recorded history emerged in 1918, 1957, 1968, and 1977. The argument for the the epidemic. At the very least the avian flu outbreaks vindicate animal advocates in opposi- collective benefit resulting from vegetarianism could have especially strong resonance in tion to factory farming, which incubated H5N1, and cockfighting, which helped to spread it, Confucian-influenced societies, which emphasize acting for the collective good. and reinforces virtually every argument for vegetarianism. Most significantly, many Southeast Asian leaders, news media, and ordinary citi- zens have acknowledged emotional distress over the bird-killing itself, as well as about the Fear and guilt huge economic losses from it. Some prominent officials have openly grieved for the birds, or Migratory wild birds have carried countless avian flu strains for millennia. at least specific pet birds. Some have put their careers and possibly their lives on the line to Southeast Asia, attracting by far the greatest congregations of migratory birds in the world, protect wildlife against mob killing, spilling over from attacks on nearby factory farms. with a warm, moist climate that makes every swamp a viral incubator, is the global flu hub. Even while defending the culling as essential to protect public health, and noting Every form of flu originated as an avian disease. Most strains afflicting humans have come to that failed agricultural vaccination apparently helped to create H5N1, countless Southeast us through domestic livestock, usually with pigs as intermediary between poultry and people. Asians have voiced the thought that there must be a better way to save human lives and liveli- Yet with a few dramatic exceptions such as the global flu epidemic of 1918, the hoods, if only they could find it. most deadly avian flus have rarely spread far, or fast, because until factory farming was intro- The avian flu pandemic of 2003-2004 will almost certainly not be the pivotal event duced to southern China as part of forced modernization under Mao tse Tung, sick wild birds that turns Southeast Asia and the world away from cruelly exploiting and eating chickens at a seldom fell or left their droppings where tens of thousands of stressed domestic animals with rate of consumption ten times greater than for all other warm-blooded animals combined. Yet already weakened immune systems could become carriers overnight. it may become a landmark event in bringing about policy-level reconsideration of linking The avian flu outbreaks in Southeast Asia and the smaller outbreaks of less threaten- human food security as closely to factory farming as has occurred during the past half century. ing strains in the mid-Atlantic states of the U.S. have in common that they exploded after the The rapid spread of avian flu in many forms among the poultry flocks of at least 12 viruses came into contact with unnatural concentrations of chickens, ducks, and geese. nations shows again, on the biggest scale so far, that factory farming is inherently unhealthy Certainly various avian flu strains including the deadly H5N1 strain soon attacked for both the animals involved and the people who work with them and eat them. Under politi- small free-roaming flocks of domestic birds as well, especially in Vietnam. Even in Vietnam, cal, economic, and cultural pressure to provide “a chicken in every pot,” decision-makers at however, H5N1 appears to have hit factory farms first, by many weeks, before infecting the every level are trying to duck that reality. Every method from genetic engineering to killing relatively scattered and isolated small flocks. animals with early stone age weapons has already been deployed to try to save factory farming The usual mechanism by which the virus spread into small flocks appears to have ––and not jus tlately. Authorities around the world have killed livestock by the millions at been the transport and exchange of birds in connection with cockfighting––a traditional pas- least seven times to control disease linked to factory farming since the 1996 British discovery time of undereducated rural poor people on every continent, typically also associated with that mad cow disease can cause the inevitably fatal Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease in humans. gambling, drug abuse, and organized crime. In Southeast Asia alone, Taiwan killed 3.8 million pigs, sheep, and cattle in 1997 That link, like the parallels in the Southeast Asian bird-killing to standard U.S. prac- due to hoof-and-mouth disease. Hong Kong killed 1.5 million poultry and caged pet birds in tice, is further explored elsewhere in this edition. Hong Kong in January 1998, after H5N1 was first identified as a killer of human children. Meanwhile, animal advocates must recognize through feelings of understandable Malaysia killed 800,000 pigs in 1999 to try to eradicate the Nipah virus. Also a killer of chil- horror, anger, and depression at how more than 100 million birds were killed that the cruelty dren, Nipah virus is now known to have crossed into pigs from fruit bats, after rainforest log- associated with it appears to have been driven almost entirely by panic and lack of readily ging and fires drove the bats into closer proximity to pigs in quest of food. Nipah virus apparent alternatives, in societies with low literacy and little awareness of how to prevent dis- became epidemic when it encounted pigs who were raised in huge concentrations. ease, but enduring fear of epidemics. Then came Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2002-2003, killing more than The rest of the world was relatively unaffected by the killer flus of 1957, 1968, and 900 people worldwide, mostly in China and Vietnam. 1977, but the wretched deaths of whole villages and urban neighborhoods were among the The high-volume killing undertaken in response to each disease outbreak is not only formative memories of many people now in Southeast Asian leadership positions. to protect enormous investments in infrastructure, though certainly that is a major motivation, H5N1 kills children, with a death rate of 78% among known cases. For several especially when the disease, like hoof-and-mouth, is not potentially deadly to humans. decades both governments and nonprofit agencies have sought fairly successfully to curb birth Factory farming is also seen as essential to food production, both in the U.S. and Europe, rates in rural Southeast Asia with the promise that modern medicine can ensure that enough where fewer than one person in 20 works in agriculture, and in Southeast Asia, where less children from small families will survive to adulthood that their parents need not fear destitu- than 50 years ago famines killed more than 20 million Chinese. tion if they focus their resources on birthing and raising just one or two offspring. Vegetarians typically are aware that beans and tofu made from soy beans could sup- When a disease sweeps through that strikes mainly children and makes modern med- icine look helpless, panic is not only predictable but inevitable. SEARCHABLE ARCHIVES: www.animalpeoplenews.org Birds were gassed and then buried or burned where the technology to gas them was available, but were merely buried alive with heavy machinery at most sites. The World Key articles now available en Español et en Français! Health Organization estimated that as many as 15,000 people inadvertantly exposed them- selves to H5N1 in Vietnam alone during hasty efforts to cull chickens without adequate equip- ANIMAL PEOPLE ment. Across Southeast Asia desperate people who lacked other means of quickly killing and News for People Who Care About Animals disposing of chickens while minimizing direct contact often resorted to burning chickens alive. Misplaced faith in fire as a cheap purgative was most evident in Bali, Indonesia. As Publisher: Kim Bartlett many as 4.7 million chickens died from H5N1 during a six-month official pretense that the Editor: Merritt Clifton epidemic was not avian flu. After weeks of further chicken deaths while promised govern- Web site manager: Patrice Greanville ment culls amounted mostly to gruesome photo-ops, officials burned 228,000 chickens alive Newswire monitor: Cathy Young Czapla on February 6, amid erroneous rumors that children were dying. The next day the Hindu hamlets of Bolangan, Utu, and Senganan, near the epi-center of the H5N1 outbreak, burned POB 960 another 2,500 infected chickens as part of a "Pecaruan Durmanggala purification ritual." Clinton, WA 98236-0960 “The ritual is aimed at purifying and cleansing the areas from the evil impact of avian influenza," a temple priest explained to Wahyoe Boediwardhana of the Jakarta Post. ISSN 1071-0035. Federal I.D: 14-175 2216 The horror of the mass killings, by whatever means, cannot be understated. Telephone: 360-579-2505. Almost immediately after the chicken burials and burnings in Thailand, many of the Fax: 360-579-2575. participants prayed for forgiveness of the suffering that they had inflicted on the chickens. E-mail: [email protected] Political leaders organized and funded the ceremonies. Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org Such rites are held to relieve human angst. They do nothing for the animals, and often reek of hypocrisy, as when the Dalai Lama led services for the pigs who were killed in Copyright 2004 for the authors, artists, and photographers. Taiwan in 1997. “Be kind to animals” was barely discernible, if at all, among his messages. Reprint inquiries are welcome. Yet some comparisons of attitude are in order. ANIMAL PEOPLE: News for People Who Care About Animals is published Religious figures have conducted similar rites for the millions of animals who were 10 times annually by Animal People, Inc., a nonprofit, charitable corporation dedicated to killed in Britain during the past decade to control mad cow disease and hoof-and-mouth dis- exposing the existence of cruelty to animals and to informing and educating the public of ease. Few if any of the slaughter participants have been reported among the worshippers. the need to prevent and eliminate such cruelty. ANIMAL PEOPLE is unaware of anyone seeking divine forgiveness for killing ani- Subscriptions are $24.00 per year; $38.00/two years; $50/three years. mals en masse to control disease in the U.S. ANIMAL PEOPLE is mailed under Bulk Rate Permit #2 from Clinton, A cynical view of the Thai rituals might hold that the worshippers were only relearn- Washington, and Bulk Rate Permit #408, from Everett, Washington. ing the use of religion to excuse atrocity. Yet the exercise of seeking forgiveness begins by Executive subscriptions, mailed first class, are $40.00 per year or $70/two years. confessing that whatever was done was wrong, even if the offender meant no evil and did not The base rate for display advertising is $8.50 per square inch of page space. know what else to do in a crisis. It is not to be confused with indifference or denial. Please inquire about our substantial multiple insertion discounts. Rising with the smoke from joss sticks and smouldering chicken carcasses may be The editors prefer to receive queries in advance of article submissions; unsolicit- growing recognition that factory farming should not be part of the future direction of Southeast ed manuscripts will be considered for use, but will not be returned unless accompanied by Asia––and the world. Animal advocates, by making our voices heard, have an unparalleled a stamped, self-addressed envelope of suitable size. We do not publish fiction or poetry. opportunity, indeed an obligation, to encourage and amplify this perspective. 4 - ANIMAL PEOP LE, March 2004 From Medallin bullfight protesters LETTERS We wish to tell everyone but we caught them and took them what happened when we marched to the police. The police immedi- on February 7 against the bullfights ately released them. We are con- Pit bull terriers in Medallin, Colombia. The anti- cerned about our well-being, as it is I agree that a ban on the riot squad blocked us. The police known that when someone does not breeding of pit bull terriers and injured several women and tried to agree with the powerful people of Rottweilers is unfortunately the right take our video camera. any country, that person can disap- thing to do. I am currently the We went to the govern- pear or even get killed. owner of two American Staffordshire ––Wolf ment to protest for our right to ––Corporacion RAYA terriers and I have been volunteering Clifton march peacefully. They approved Red de Ayuda los Animales to rescue pit bulls and Rotties for a our manifestations and expressed
HFA 6 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004 Dolphin captures halted in Antigua & Barbuda, corrupt officials hit in Mexico (from 1) Fantaseas, she held a senior position at O’Barry e-mailed after his second visit of the Mexican bust Not captive-born Bermuda Dolphin Quest. Hassell insists this is winter to the scene of the killing. “Panic- As many as 200 dolphins were cap- Louis Ng of the Animal Concerns a local project in Bermuda and has nothing to stricken dolphins were dragged ashore with tured in waters surrounding the Solomon Research & Education Society in Singapore do with Dolphin Fantaseas,” McKenna added. ropes. Beached animals accidentally beat each Islands in July 2003 for sale to exhibition and met with less official cooperation in January “There is very little information available on other up in the frenzy as they tried to get back swim-with-dolphins venues, during a lawless 2004, after establishing that at least three of the application. Hassell said that the dolphins into the water. Mothers and babies were sepa- interim between a failed coup attempt and the the endangered Indo-Pacific humpbacked dol- would be collected from a new aquarium rated by force. The trainers simply stood by arrival of Australian peacekeeping troops. phins kept at Underwater World Singapore which didn’t want its name known.” and watched as some of the dolphins, in an Photographers and videographers documenting were not born in captivity as Underwater Conventional oceanariums tend to effort to escape, got entangled in the capture the captures and the resultant deaths of several World declared on their import permits. keep just a handful of reliable performing dol- nets and suffocated. Some of these trainers are dolphins were chased and threatened, and in The Haw Park Corporation, the phins, and perhaps some non-performing members of the International Marine Animal one instance a videographer’s boatman was Underwater World parent firm, claimed when mates or offspring. Only a few dolphins Trainers Association,” O’Barry charged, rec- severely beaten, wrote London D a i l y it bought six dolphins from a Thai marine amuse multitudes. Keeping more dolphins ognizing them from past encounters. Telegraph correspondent Alex Spillius. mammal park in 1999 that all were captive- than necessary may be an economic liability. Representing the French organiza- The captures were organized by born, but the Thai facility first acquired dol- Swim-with facilities, on the other tion One Voice, Ric and Helene O’Barry Waves Consulting, apparently formed by phins in 1988. Four of the six imported dol- hand, are limited in income potential––at least obtained video footage of two westerners Christopher Porter, 34, a Canadian whose phins, one of them now deceased, were there- so far––mostly by the numbers of dolphins among the group. wife is reportedly a Solomon Islander. Porter fore too old to have been born in captivity. they can provide. The more dolphins the oper- “If dolphin captivity was not fueling previously handled marine mammals at Sea- The Singapore Agri-Food & ators have, the more time with dolphins they the dolphin slaughter by buying dolphins, the land of the Pacific in Victoria, British Colum- Veterinary Authority acknowledged that the can sell. This has created a greater demand for slaughter would have a very hard time surviv- bia, now defunct; the Vancouver Aquarium; paperwork on the transaction was incorrect, captive dolphins than ever before. ing,” said One Voice founder Muriel Arnal. and the Aquario di Genova in Italy. but contended that it was not in violation of Actually the slaughter is so political- Just before the Australian peace- CITES because the dolphins were brought in Trainers at Taiji ly and culturally entrenched, and the fishers so keepers arrived, Waves Consulting flew 28 for educational and breeding purposes, rather The good news in the situation is much prefer blaming dolphins for depleted fish dolphins to the Parque Nizuc swim-with com- than for commerce. Campaigning for the that the more familiar people become with dol- stocks instead of themselves, that the drive plex in Cancun, Mexico. Greenpeace alleged release of the dolphins since 2001, Ng told phins through either conventional oceanariums fisheries, like the annual Atlantic Canada seal that 33 dolphins were actually loaded aboard Lee Hui Chieh of The Straits Times that he had or swim-with facilities, the more likely they massacre, are likely to continue until the bal- the aircraft, and one dolphin soon afterward asked the CITES secretariat in Geneva, are to oppose whaling, killing dolphins for ance of national political interests quits favor- died at Parque Nizuc. Switzerland to investigate. meat, and fishing methods that are known to ing traditional practices in backward regions. “The International Fund for Animals Attracting more than 18 million visi- harm dolphins. In Japan right now, as in the But that might happen faster in both launched a thorough investigation, which tors since opening in 2001, Underwater World U.S. and Europe a generation ago, “save-the- Taiji and Atlantic Canada if selling dolphins proved that the operation constituted a gross is a major economic enterprise, whether or not whales” perspectives are rising parallel to the and seal byproducts did not produce at least violation of several national and international it acknowledges a commercial interest in dol- growth in attendance at as many as 49 marine the illusion that the massacres are lucrative. laws,” publicist Kerry Branon and Latin phin exhibition. It is, however, also a con- mammal entertainment venues––even though, American affairs director Beatrice Bugeda of ventional oceanarium, offering essentially the according to Ric O’Barry, none of them edu- West African capture? IFAW recounted on February 17, 2004. same combination of fish tanks and a marine cate visitors about marine mammal exploita- Others may also be cashing in, or “In November 2003, IFAW present- mammal show that Marineland of Florida tion of any kind. hoping to. E-mails from several different ed the results of its investigation to the introduced to the world in 1949, after 11 years The bad news is that most of the dol- sources, each forwarding information appar- Mexican authorities, demanding that charges of operating as a film studio. phins exhibited in Japan, and elsewhere in ently obtained by the marine mammal protec- be brought against those responsible for the Asia, appear to have been purchased from the tion organization Oceanium-Narou Heuleuk, import of the dolphins. [On January 22, 2004] $$ are in swim-with so-called “drive fisheries” of Taiji and Iki of Dakar, Senegal, claimed in late January The Ministry of Public Office, the equivalent The big money in marine mammal islands, off Japan. Dolphin-selling has put that a mass round-up of dolphins was antici- of a federal comptroller, admitted that both exhibition these days is in offering opportuni- serious money into the traditional roundups pated off Guinea Bissau, West Africa. the dolphin importation and permits were ille- ties to swim with dolphins. Sea World has and massacres of dolphins who are blamed by The first e-mail, dated January 23, gal, announcing actions against former deputy more-or-less cornered the market within the local fishers for the ever more acute scarcity of claimed that the captures were already started. environment minister Raul Arriaga and 27 U.S., where the operating requirements are over-exploited fish stocks. The next, dated January 26, said “Indications other current and former officials.” strict and obtaining dolphins has become rela- For example, Sakae Fujiwara of the are that the capture has not begun, but if it The dolphin transaction turned out to tively difficult, but swim-with operations are Elsa Nature Conservancy e-mailed in October occurs, it will take place in the Bissagos archi- be among the smallest of Arriaga’s alleged popping up almost more rapidly than dolphin 2003, the Ask Japan Corporation began devel- pelago. A caller who wished to remain misdeeds, at least in numbers of animals. defenders can count them. oping a planned “dolphin therapy” center at anonymous, who is a long-time insider and “In the course of reviewing govern- Soon after Gwen McKenna received Sanuki, in Kagawa prefecture, by purchasing has first hand knowledge of the situation, stat- ment records and other documents,” Branon confirmation from Watkins-Gilkes that two dolphins from Taiji. They later bought ed that the financier of this take is the same wrote, “IFAW discovered hunting permits had Antigua & Bermuda had revoked John three more, two of whom soon died, and person who was involved in the mass dolphin been illegally issued for countless species Mezzanotte’s capture permits, for example, formed a parallel nonprofit, the Japan Dolphin capture in the Solomon Islands.” across the country.” she learned and relayed to ANIMAL PEO- Assisted Therapy Association, in 2002. No confirmation was available for Altogether, the Arriaga administra- PLE that, “A dolphin display permit is being The project was delayed by difficul- any of this, nor for additional details supplied tion “issued illegal hunting permits leading to sought by a newly formed company called ty in securing investment capital late in 2003, by Oceanium-Narou Heuleuk. the slaughter of more than 2.5 million animals Bermuda Dolphin Oasis. Sources in Bermuda but that scarcely inhibited the bidding by oth- The Lisbon Zoo and the Portuguese over the last two years,” Branon charged. have informed me,” McKenna continued, ers at Taiji, reported Ric O’Barry. amusement park Zoomarine were unsuccessful “IFAW will be following these cases “that Lynn Hassell and her husband Martin are “About 50 dolphin trainers gathered in December 2001 in an attempt to get permits closely,” pledged Bugeda. “We are hopeful behind it. Hassell is the CEO of Dolphin in Taiji to select the best-looking of the cap- to import 10 dolphins from Guinea-Bissau. that this decision signals increased political Fantaseas and one of the largest shareholders. tured dolphins, allowing the rejects to be Not clear is whether any of the dolphins were will and vigilance regarding laws protecting She has lived and worked in Bermuda for slaughtered by the whalers. The capture and actually captured then. animals and the environment. many years. Prior to working for Dolphin selection process was appalingly violent,” ––M.C. Honolulu Zoo to keep orangutan Hog/dog rodeo like porn, says prosecutor HONOLULU––368 days new plan, although the zoo is city after Orangutan Foundation Inter- property, and that many legal and COFFEYVILLE, Ala- the most prominent hog/dog venue that in 2001 he sent a deputy to ask national announced that it would political obstacles may lie ahead. b a m a ––The legality of so-called of several openly operating is reput- Keahey if hog/dog rodeo promoters “build a state-of-the-art orangutan “I would feel much more “hog/dog rodeo” in Alabama will be edly that of H&H Kennels owner and participants could be prosecuted sanctuary at Kualoa Ranch in Oahu, optimistic if OFI had given owner- tested soon as result of arrests made Johnny Hayes, near Coffeyville. for cruelty, and was told that they Hawaii, for Rusti,” 24, brought to ship of Rusti to the Honolulu Zoo,” on February 21, 2004 by Clarke Coffeyville police chief were “not unlawful.” Hawaii from the defunct Scotch Goeggel added. County Sheriff Jack Day. Frankie Crawford and C l a r k e The next Saturday, wrote Plains Zoo in New Jersey in 1997, Honolulu Advertiser s t a f f Hog/dog rodeo, practiced County Democrat editor Jim Cox Mobile Register reporter Karen OFI founder Birute Galdikas writer Johnny Brannon pointed out chiefly in the rural South, consists had both repeatedly denounced Tolkkinene, “While country music announced a new plan. that Rusti, a sterilized hybrid of the of setting pit bull terriers against hog/dog rodeo and drunken parking played, Johnny Hayes was allowed Now Rusti is to occupy a Bornean and Sumatran orangutan purportedly feral pigs in an enclosed lot violence that often went with it, to preside over a pig chase for kids, 4,000-square-foot exhibit built subspecies, “has always had a hard arena. The dog who corners and but to no avail until a February 12, as well as a hog-catch for pit bulls. around a tall banyan tree near the time fitting in. Born in Seattle, his holds a pig fastest is the winner. 2004 investigative report by Mike After, he was allowed to announce tortoises at the Honolulu Zoo––the mother rejected him as an infant. Hog/dog rodeo was openly Rush of NBC-12 in Mobile. the winners. Then he was led away same zoo that evicted him last year He was bullied by other orangutans, promoted in both Alabama and Shown video similar to the in handcuffs” by Day and Assistant to replace his old habitat with a and was raised by a series of human Florida until May 1994, when then- footage that ended open hog/dog District Attorney Stephen K. lorikeet exhibit, after housing him foster parents before ending up at Florida attorney general Mike rodeo in Florida, Clarke County Winters “and charged with misde- for six years under what was to the Scotch Plains Zoo,” a for-prof- Butterworth ruled in response to District Attorney Bobby Keahey told meanor animal cruelty.” have been only a temporary it facility that was closed through videos of dogs mauling pigs at a site Rush that he had never prosecuted “Cruelty is like pornogra- arrangement until OFI could devel- the efforts of Marc Jurnove, in Hardee County that the practice Hayes and others involved because phy,” Winters told Tolkkinene. op a sanctuary. OFI is to remain founder of the International Society violates the state anti-cruelty law. Sheriff Day had never arrested them. “You know it when you see it.” Rusti’s legal custodian. for the Protection of Exotic Animal That left Alabama, where Day, however, told Rush Pamela Davis and Cathy Kind and Livestock, Inc., in Goeggel of Animal Rights Hawaii Plainview, New Jersey. Please make the most generous is a nonprofit, no- expressed skepticism that the latest “Earlier plans called for RescueCats, Inc. gift you can to help ANIMAL kill, OFI strategy will advance any far- Rusti to live in a sanctuary with up PEOPLE shine the bright light all-volunteer cat rescue group in ther than the last several. to 20 other orangutans, but it was Fayetteville, Ga. “It would be lovely to never built,” Brannon continued. on cruelty and greed! Your gen- have Rusti stay,” Goegel told ANI- Plans to keep Rusti at the erous gift of $25, $50, $100, In 2003 we placed 444 kittens MAL PEOPLE, “if a suitable Kualoa Ranch on O’ahu were even- $500 or more and cats in new loving homes. enclosure can be built. OFI’s track tually dropped under pressure from helps to build a world where caring counts. www.rescuecats.org record makes me wonder if this will Jurnove, Animal Rights Hawaii, Please help us continue our work by Please send your check happen. $200,000 doesn’t buy and Carroll Cox of Envirowatch, making a tax-deductible donation to: much these days,” she added, not- who found his proposed temporary to: ing that the Honolulu Zoo chimp accommodations inadequate. After RescueCats Inc. exhibit “cost over $1 million.” the previous OFI failures to build ANIMAL PEOPLE P.O. Box 142882 Both Davis and Goeggel permanent housing for Rusti, none P.O.Box 960 Fayetteville, GA 30214 pointed out that the Honolulu city had faith that any “temporary” Clinton, WA 98236 Here is my gift of: $10 $25 $50 $100 $250 $500+ council was not consulted about the quarters would really be temporary. ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004 - 7 COURT CALENDAR Activist “trespassers” fined $1.00 each MUNCIE, Indiana– – A p o l o g i z i n g County Farm Bureau and the Delaware exempts wildlife and does not include any FIRST AMENDMENT to Ball State University professor Abel Alves County Republican Party. Prosecutor Judy standard for determining whether animals are and artist Carol Blakney, his wife, Judge Calhoun is daughter of a Randolph County Officials of the Granite School wild or domesticated. Malloy began holding Wayne Lennington of the Delaware Circuit farmer and cousin of a Randolph County D i s t r i c t in Taylorsville, Utah agreed on pigeon shoots in 1987. Then-North Carolina Court in Muncie, Indiana on February 24, Farm Bureau official, Stabaugh wrote. February 3 to pay $82,000 to Utah Legal Governor James Hunt in 1998 signed into 2004 fined them each $1.00 for trespassing “This prosecution was a malicious C l i n i c attorneys Brian Bernard and J a m e s law a bill “written specifically to outlaw and released them without further conditions. effort to stifle dissent,” said Waterkeeper Harris Jr., in settlement of a January 2004 pigeon shoots,” said Fund for Animals A jury earlier convicted Alves and Alliance president Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ruling by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson of national director Heidi Prescott, but Granville Blakney of trespassing, for briefly viewing Aves and Blakney said they would Salt Lake City that the school district violated County Superior Court Judge James the Seldom Rest hog farm from a roadside in appeal to try to erase the convictions. the civil rights of P E T A members by calling Spencer Jr. in 2001 blocked enforcement by October 2002. The case was widely seen as a test police to break up a 1999 demonstration in finding the law unconstitutional. The North “Lennington said he couldn’t call of the concepts behind the draft “Animal & front of Eisenhower Junior High School. The Carolina Network for Animals c h a l l e n g e d the jury’s decision to convict ‘despicable.’ Ecological Terrorism Act” promoted in state PETA members organized the demonstration his right to do so. North Carolina Supreme But he indicated that is how he felt,” wrote legislatures throughout the U.S. by the after the school hung a banner promoting the Court Justice Sarah Parker in June 2002 Seth Stabaugh of the Muncie Star Press. American Legislative Exchange Council. The McDonald’s restaurant chain from a flagpole. affirmed that Spencer could delay enforcement “Several months before being draft act seeks to prevent photography and Boston Superior Court Judge pending the ruling by the Court of Appeals. accused of trespassing,” Stabaugh explained, videography of farms, in the name of fighting Janet L. Sanders on February 20 dismissed MURDER & MAYHEM “Blakney filed a complaint against Seldom terrorism and promoting bio security, but 39 charges filed against 12 activists, ages 18- Rest with the Indiana Department of Environ- with rhetoric indicating that the real target is 26, who protested in August 2002 outside the Pig farmer Robert Pickton, 53, of mental Management. IDEM accused [owner] anyone who might expose bad conditions. home of a Marsh USA insurance executive Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, held since Kaye Whitehead of housing pigs in an unper- A version of the draft act took effect because Marsh at the time held policies with February 2002 as sole suspect in the disappear- mitted structure,” and of allowing manure to in California on January 1, 2004. Six other Huntingdon Life Sciences. The activists ance of 64 women, and already facing 15 pollute a creek. Whitehead corrected the state legislatures considered similar bills in were charged with extortion, threatening, counts of murder, was charged in early Febru- alleged violations, but is believed to have 2003. Parallel bills have recently been re- stalking, and conspiracy. Most of the alleged ary 2004 with seven more murders, and is pursued the trespassing charges in retaliation. introduced in Missouri and introduced for the acts, Sanders ruled, consisted of constitution- likely to be charged with another nine if police Whitehead chairs the Delaware first time in Washington. ally protected acts of free speech. can identify the women’s remains before his case goes to trial. Pickton allegedly fed the Farmer Roger Baker, 61, of PIGEON SHOOTS women’s bodies into a woodchipper, then fed Ventongimps, Cornwall, U.K., was on CONVICTIONS The Pennsylvania Supreme Court them to his pigs. His victims have been named January 23, 2004 convicted of “affray” for The Washington State Court of on January 8, 2004 announced that it would by sifting tons of earth over which hog slurry dragging animal health inspector J o n a t h a n A p p e a l s in mid-January 2004 ruled that any not consider an appeal by P e n n s y l v a n i a was spread as fertilizer, to find chips of bone McCulloch, 27, into knee-deep manure, and preventable pain suffered by animals, from Legislative Action Network founder J o h n n a or tooth from which DNA can be extracted. then holding government veterinarian S u s a n “mild discomfort” to “mental uneasiness,” Seeton of the refusal of the Superior Court of Mark Scott Crosley, who operates P o t t e r ’s head down in the manure when “dull distress,” and “unbearable agony,” can Berks County to issue an injunction against a construction business from his brother’s Potter, 46, tried to help McCullogh. Sentenc- be enough to establish that a defendant is pigeon shoots held by the Pike Township Engedi Game Farm, near Kruger National ing was deferred. McCulloch and Potter were guilty of causing “unnecessary” suffering, as Sportsmen’s Association. A July 1999 P a r k, South Africa, has been held by police videotaping a dead lamb and starving cattle on required for conviction under the state anti- Pennsylvania Supreme court verdict that since February 9, along with his employees Baker’s land in February 2003 when he cruelty statute. The court reinstated the 2001 pigeon shoot promoters and participants could Simon and Richard Mathebula, for alleged- attacked them, they testified. Baker three convictions of Vern and Katonya be charged with cruelty halted the Labor Day ly beating former employee Nelson Chisale months earlier completed a nine-month jail Z a w i s t o w s k i, of Graham, for allowing two pigeon shoot held for 65 years in Hegins, but and throwing him to the lions at the Mokwalo sentence for hurling a pitchfork at Potter and horses to become severely underweight. the Berks County court held that pigeon shoots White Lion Project, 10 miles away. Charges police during a previous inspection. “The British Columbia Judge Wayne do not violate Pennsylvania anti-cruelty law if against fourth suspect Robert Mnisi w e r e court was told that Baker had 48 previous con- S m i t h on February 9 fined whalewatching “reasonable efforts” are made to prevent and dropped for undisclosed reasons on February vinctions. He had repeatedly breached a life guide Jim Maya, 64, $6,500 for too closely minimize the resultant animal suffering. 17. The four men were arrested after portions ban on keeping livestock,” imposed in 1999 approaching orcas off North Pender Island on The North Carolina Court of of Chisale’s skull and legs were found. after he served five and a half months in jail August 14, 2002. “Only a handful of such A p p e a l s on February 2 ruled that Granville Mokwalo co-owner Albert “Mossie” Mostert for starving animals, reported Richard Savill charges have ever been laid, and this is the County tobacco farmer John Malloy may host figured prominently in a 1997 expose of South of The Daily Telegraph. “The Royal SPCA first against a whalewatching guide in 14 pigeon shoots at which as many as 40,000 African canned lion hunting, produced by said he had been prosecuted for animal cruelty years,” wrote Kim Westad of the Victoria pigeons are killed, because the anti-cruelty Roger Cook of The Cook Report, a British more times than any other person since the leg- Times Colonist. “The fine is believed to be the law under which the shoots were forbidden ITV investigative magazine show. islation was introduced in 1911.” largest assessed in B.C. for the charge.”
ASPCA 8 - ANIMAL P EOPLE, March 2004 Pro-animal India pols shift alliances for election Horse advocate Ewing NEW DELHI––Former Indian buffalo, on the eve of regional festivals fined to the lower castes among Hindus,” minister for animal welfare Maneka at which, “Traditionally, animals are explained the Deccan Herald. Though testifies for slaughter Gandhi, serving in Parliament as an sacrificed on the altars of the deities and practitioners of animal sacrifice are a SPRINGFIELD, Illinois––Donna Ewing, 69, independent since 1996, on February 16 the meat is distributed among friends and small minority in most of India, they are founder of the Hooved Animal Humane Society in 1971 and joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, relatives in the community as a fulfilment politically potent in some regions of the rival Hooved Animal Rescue & Protection Society in with her son Varun. of vows,” explained Swati Das of the strategic importance to the Hindu nation- 2001, recently testified to an executive committee hearing Varun Gandhi was reportedly Times of India news network. alist BJP and allied parties, including the of the Illinois House of Representatives that horse slaughter expected to join Prime Minister Atal “Mass sacrifices were held in 88-year-old All India Anna Dravida for meat should not be banned. Bihari Vajpayee on the campaign trail defiance of the ban,” Das continued. Munnetra Kazhagam now led by “Humane societies became involved with wild preliminary to the April national election. “The argument [advanced by proponents Jayalalithaa. horses and stopped ranchers from killing or culling the wild The Hindu quoted “a party leader” as of sacrifice] was that the poor do not The BJP has historically tried horses, and the consequence has been that animals have anticipating that Varun Gandhi would have the resources to propitiate the gods to distract tension between Hindus who been kept in concentration camps at tremendous expense... make his debut as a political candidate in with [vegetarian food offerings] as is sacrifice animals and those who hold sac- billions of dollars, because the humane people said you can- the next election, after gaining behind- done by upper Hindu castes, and the rifice to be profane to the spirit of post- not kill our wild horses,” Ewing said. “They need to be the-scenes experience and making some only compromise is sacrifice.” Vedic Hinduism by playing up opposition controlled to a certain degree…If we don’t have a place public speaking appearances on behalf of This argument overlooks that to cow slaughter, practiced chiefly by where these animals, the unwanted horses, the old horses, other candidates this year. the cost of presenting a vegetarian feast is Muslims. the sick ... well, they can’t take the sick ones for human con- Joining the BJP was rumored to just a fraction of the cost of raising large This strategy was evident in sumption …There’s going to be a glut on the market. be a precondition for Mrs. Gandhi possi- animals such as buffalo to slaughter mid-December 2003 when the BJP gov- People will be turning their animals loose and I will be find- bly being reappointed to head the animal weight. However, supplying the ernment of Madya Pradesh banned all ing dying, starving horses more than I have been now. welfare ministry, which Mrs. Gandhi demand for animals to sacrifice is often cow slaughter, while Kali cultists in “I urge you to vote no on this bill,” Ewing contin- directed from 1998 until mid-2002. The used by farmers as a means of profitably Nadia district, West Bengal, killed goats ued. “We are the stewards of these animals. It is our oblig- ministry has reportedly been troubled disposing of surplus buffalo bull calves despite warnings from police, who ulti- ation to take care of them and to see to it that they have a ever since by indifferent leadership, but and other animals who are not otherwise mately did nothing about it. dignified exit. And the slaughterhouse, which I have visited Mrs. Gandhi told ANIMAL PEOPLE economically productive. At least 20,000 cocks, goats, and went outside and regurgitated, was extremely difficult that she was not hopeful. Jayalalithaa herself made no sheep, and buffaloes were sacrificed at for me to see, but it’s a reality of life that we cannot bury “I don’t think they will ever public comment as Tamil Nadu governor Khairaguda and about a dozen other vil- 200,000 [horses]. Burning them, we’re going to contami- give me that ministry [again],” Mrs. P.S. Ramamohan Rao introduced a bill to lages in western Orissa state during the nate the air. Something must be done, and to use poison to Gandhi said. “But we have two months repeal the 1950 act. first five days of 2004. More than 80 vil- euthanize these animals and to waste that protein when we before the April elections. Let’s see.” Mrs. Gandhi and Animal lages were expected to send animals for have cats and dogs, and we have the animals in the Mrs. Gandhi, who founded the Welfare Board of India vice chair Chinny sacrifice to an early February festival at zoos––this meat should be used.” national humane organization People for Krishna argued that animal sacrifice is Bommasmudra in Karnataka state, Of opponents of horse slaughter, Ewing said, Animals in 1984, was removed from the also forbidden by the 1960 federal approximately coinciding with the “The first thing they are going to do is say we cannot eat ministry after clashing simultaneously Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and Muslim celebration of the Feast of beef, we can’t eat turkey, we can’t eat anything. And I with the Indian biotech industry and pro- the 1972 Wildlife Protection Act. Thus Atonement, also known as Ramadan. don’t think it is up to us to legislate what people can eat.” ponents of animal sacrifice. the Tamil Nadu government could in the- However, leading Muslim Delivered on November 18, 2003, the taped testi- Often flamboyantly rivaling ory be sued for failure to prosecute prac- scholars Mufti Habibur Rahman and mony was obtained and disclosed by SHARK on January Mrs. Gandhi for recognition as an animal titioners of animal sacrifice even if the Maulina Mehmood Madani urged their 23, 2004. SHARK has repeatedly clashed with Ewing over advocate, albeit rarely with comparable 1950 state act is repealed. However, followers to sidestep the role of scape- her public defenses of rodeo. achievement, Tamil Nadu state chief invoking the federal legislation against goat by slaughtering only sheep, goats, Ewing and her daughter Ronda were fired as exec- minister and former film star Jayalalithaa animal sacrifice is legally tricky, because and camels, not cattle. utive director and horse trainer/office assistant of the on February 20 beat a pre-election retreat the Indian constitution guarantees free- Animal Welfare Board of India Hooved Animal Humane Society in June 2001, following from her August 2003 attempt to enforce dom of religion, and the right of worship coordinator Dayanand Swamy then prolonged friction with the board of directors over alleged the 1950 Tamil Nadu Animal & Bird tends to trump the constitutional require- directed volunteers and 500 police in an mismanagement and failure to designate a successor. Sacrifices Prohibition Act. ment that citizens have a duty to respect apparently successful blockade of the Ewing in April 2001 had filed two lawsuits against Jayalalithaa, who uses only animal welfare. Bommasmudra sacrificial venue. the board, after the board accused her of taking member and one name, had promoted strict enforce- Animal sacrifice in India “is “Till evening, not a single ani- donor lists in order to start a competing organization. ment to halt a scheduled sacrifice of 500 prevalent in village temples and is con- mal was sacrificed,” reported The Hindu. Rocket science failure may endan- ger C H E N N A I ––A February 23 cats, jungle squirrels, and mongoose. SPAY/USA rocket fuel explosion at the Dhawan Inside the jungle are several bodies of Space Center on Sriharikota Island killed water used by buffalo and thousands of (Kim Bartlett) six people and threw into chaos not only birds. Pulicat Lake,” on the island, “is the operations of the Indian Space the second largest saltwater lagoon in Research Organization but also an ambi- India. It is a famous feeding place for tious draft plan by Visakha SPCA flamingoes, painted storks, egrets, grey founder Pradeep Kumar Nath to revamp pelicans, grey herons, pintails, black- the spaceport animal control program. winged stilts, shovelers, teal, gulls, The explosion came three days terns, etc. Unfortunately,” Nath found, after Nath returned home to Visakhapat- “fishing people along the lake shoo away nam, 140 miles north, after a site visit. the birds and shoot them when their busi- “I was there to analyze the ness is down. There is no rainfall this stray animal problems faced by the 3,400 year in this region. The water has been engineers and scientists and their families illegally used to irrigate crops, and birds who live and work on Sriharikota and humans are left fighting for the fish Island,” Nathtold ANIMAL PEOPLE. and prawns that remain. “The Space Center invited us after their “Nellipatu,” nearby, “is anoth- controller came to the Visakha SPCA to er major bird paradise,” Nath said, “with see our activities, after trying other ways 326 vairities of birds coming. Both lakes to reduce their stray dogs, monkeys, and have been declared sanctuaries,” though cattle. He was unhappy,” Nath said, the sanctuary status is poorly enforced. “with how dogs are killed, and monkeys Nath also noted olive ridley also, and wanted to implement the ani- turtles nesting along the 30-mile stretch mal welfare laws. He took the first train of beach near the spaceport. to Visakhaptnam after learning from my In the inhabited areas, Nath brother’s wife about our work.” found, “The monkeys far outnumber the Nath had already heard, he dogs, as the dogs were killed until said, about massive dog-poisoning at December 2003. The disturbed balance Sriharikota, and “about the terrible way of species affords a classic example of the monkeys would be caught in a bunch the monkey population increasing when and hauled alive in a small gunny bag. the dog population lessens. I witnessed Recently 35 were stuffed into one bag where a single dog was challenged for and all of them died due to suffocation.” food near the dust bin by a group of 15 If you know someone else who might Nath had also heard about ille- monkeys and a battle ensued with mon- like to read ANIMAL PEOPLE, gal traffic in cattle culled from among keys having the distinct advantage.” please ask us to send a free sample. about 3,000 who roam “in the high secu- “It is a fantastic area with all rity zone of the actual premises of the the ingredients of biodiversity,” Nath ISRO. They enter into the VIP guest continued. “It could be a major eco- quarters located inside of this zone and tourism destination.” dirty their compound with dung,” Nath After the explosion, however, said, “which I feel is a blessing, but to Nath said he was, “Definitely worried. them it is a serious disturbance. There could be considerable delay due to “Sriharikota is a spindle-shaped investigations” into the cause of the dis- island on the east coast of Andhra aster, Nath anticipated, resulting in Pradesh, north of Chennai, which was tightened security that might inhibit ani- chosen in 1969 as the site of a satellite mal welfare work in sensitive areas. launch station,” Nath continued. “Ironically, when I was there I “Eucalyptus and casuarina plantation and put this question of accident to the space- scrub jungle cover most parts of the port personnel,” Nath remembered, “and island. The wildlife I saw included jack- they proudly said they had none so far. als, wild boars, Russell vipers, monitor This had to happen just at the time when lizards, hares, foxes, monkeys, jungle we were preparing to help the animals.” ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004 - 9 Ethiopian animal advocates lose jobs for exposing dog shooting ADDIS ABABA––Homeless Animal head of the Oromiya government, warned us counterproductive, as was the previous gov- homeless dogs in the Bale region. Protection Society of Ethiopia cofounders to leave HAPS,” at a staff meeting. ernment practice of poisoning dogs. In five years, according to the Efrem Legese and Hana Kifle were on January “I tried my best to tell about the EWCP program founder Claudio EWCP annual reports, it had vaccinated 1,475 23, 2004 suspended from their jobs at Bale importance of HAPS for the community, ani- Sillero contended that shooting homeless dogs dogs total. In October 2003, however, the Mountains National Park without pay, and as mals and Ethiopia,” Legese related. “He left was often necessary not only to prevent rabies, EWCP would claim to have vaccinated of February 23 imminently anticipated termi- shouting that he was going to fire us.” but also because the dogs might hybridize with between 2,000 and 2,500 dogs per year. nation notices from Oromiya Rural Land and Oromiya officials “also went to the wolves. Hybridization did happen on one Kifle in August 2003 photographed Natural Resource Authority director Siraaj HAPS Branch office in Dinsho and terrified known occasion, when the wolf population an Ethiopian wolf with an apparent bite wound Bakkalii Shaffee. our members by telling them that they would was near the lowest level on record. to the back of her head, who was 25 miles out- Their apparent offense, not spelled soon remove the HAPS signboard and Legese pointed out that shots fired at side any known wolf habitat and acting out in their letters of notification of suspen- announce it through the media,” Legese said. one dog scare all of the dogs into the bush, strangely. Believing the wolf to be rabid, sion, is that they shared information with The Bale Mountains National Park toward the wolves. Otherwise the dogs stay Kifle reported the incident to her superiors. ANIMAL PEOPLE and Radio Ethiopia about rabies outbreak jeopardizes the survival of the close to the peripheral villages. Kifle and Legese in late September the delayed and tactically inept response of the last wild population of Ethiopian wolves. It Legese argued that the sterilization 2003 told ANIMAL PEOPLE of the incident Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Organization occurred just as Legese and Kifle had warned and vaccination services offered to pet and and expressed worry that nothing was being and Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme since 2001 that an outbreak might, if efforts working dogs should be extended to the home- done to arrest a rabies outbreak which to an ongoing rabies outbreak at the park, as were not made to vaccinate and sterilize the less dogs, as is done successfully in many appeared among dogs and livestock several detailed in the November and December 2003 homeless dogs of nearby villages as well as the parts of India, Costa Rica, and other places weeks after Kifle saw the suspect wolf. editions of ANIMAL PEOPLE. few dogs who are claimed by specific people. with similar issues. The EWCP and Ethiopian Wildlife Dinsho town council chair Tessema Legese was the longtime Bale After ANIMAL PEOPLE published Conservation Organization acknowledged the Hailu, agitating to have homeless dogs in the Mountains National Park acting head of Legese’s guest essay “The dogs of Bale” in rabies outbreak in mid-October 2003. As well Dinsho region killed, precipitated the suspen- finance and administration. May 2001, ANIMAL PEOPLE p u b l i s h e r as introducing oral vaccination of the endan- sions and probable firings of Legese and Kifle Kifle, the first female to hold a posi- Kim Bartlett helped Legese and Kifle to form gered wolves, they recommended a resump- by writing to Siraaj Bakkalii Shaffee that they tion of authority at the park, was head of the HAPS, to seek funding to sterilize and vacci- tion of shooting homeless dogs. had “performed activities which can affect the park development and protection section. nate homeless dogs on their own, and ANIMAL PEOPLE in November fundraising process of the EWCP,” Legese The EWCP, sponsored by the Born arranged for them to take advantage of training 2003 published Kifle’s photo of the probably told ANIMAL PEOPLE. Free Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund, opportunities at the Dogs Trust in London, the rabid wolf, plus one of a series of photos “At the same time [EWCP veterinar- began sterilizing and vaccinating pets and 2002 International Companion Animal obtained by Legese of officials shooting at ian] Karen Laurenson promised financial sup- working dogs in the villages near Bale in 1999. Welfare Conference, and the All Africa dogs as they fled into the Bale Mountains port to the Oromiya government for the park,” Legese and Kifle assisted. Humane Education Summit in September National Park interior. Legese alleged. “Then, she came to Bale with In March 2001 Legese sent A N I - 2003. All of this was done while Legese and Radio Ethiopia sent a team to the [fellow EWCP veterinarian] Fekadu Shiferaw MAL PEOPLE an extensive compilation of Kifle were on unpaid vacation time. park a few weeks later, affirming the same and told the EWCP workers that ‘Hana and photographs, interviews with villagers, a Sillero moved to England in 2002 as essentials. Efrem are going to be fired from their work in videotape, and a detailed hand-drawn map, conservation director for the Born Free Legese and Kifle, with numerous the near future and HAPS will never work any documenting the presence and behavior of Foundation. He was succeeded in Ethiopia by dependents, were paid $285 per month. more in Bale on dogs.’” local homeless dogs. Legese expressed con- Stuart Williams. In July 2003 the EWCP Still working to improve the lot of A week later, Legese continued, cern that the EWCP practice of shooting at ceased sterilizing and vaccinating any dogs. homeless dogs, they may be contacted c/o “Siraaj Bakkalii Shaffee, the newly assigned homeless dogs was both pointlessly cruel and Williams claimed then that there were no
< n m h p @ - bestfriends.org>. April 25: Touched By An Animal & Cats-Are-Purr- sons-Too Benefit Lunch- eon, Chicago. Info: 773- 728-6336. (continued on page 11) April 25-27: Texas Fed. of Humane Soc. conf., Austin. Info: 512-282-1277;
The Watchdog monitors fundraising, spending, and The political activity in the name of animal and habitat pro t e c - tion—both pro and con. His empty bowl stands for all the bowls left empty when some take more than they need.
AMERICAN HUMANE REGROUPS AS HUMANE FARM ANIMAL CARE TAKES LEAD ON FARM CARE ENGLEWOOD, Colorado– – separate nonprofit corporation.” This entity standards exist to encourage farmers to do inspected to make sure they meet the require- American Humane on February 10, 2004 terminated on August 31, 2003. whatever they can be persuaded to do here and ments. If the UEP label explained this, there announced the hiring of former American Red now to ease the misery of farm animals, not to might be less consumer confusion.” Cross interim chief executive officer Marie HFAC standards define ideal conditions. HFAC does not pro- Belew Wheatley as president and CEO. Adele Douglass, Washington D.C. hibit debeaking, for instance, because under Other programs “At the Red Cross, Wheatley office director for American Humane from present market conditions, with present barn Amid the controversy, Tyson Foods served as a national disaster response officer,” 1986 to 2002, went on to found Humane Farm designs, few farmers of commercial scale Inc. on November 21, 2003 announced the wrote American Humane public information Animal Care. Backed by the American SPCA could comply. Once enough farmers meet the creation of an Office of Animal Well-Being at manager Anna Gonce. “Wheatley worked and the Humane Society of the U.S., as well first basic standards, more advanced standards the corporate headquarters in Springdale, with many volunteer organizations, including as numerous local and regional humane orga- can be introduced. Arkansas. The Tyson office emulates the American Humane, to care for animals affect- nizations, HFAC by the end of 2003 was Office of Animal Well-Being formed in 2000 ed by disasters.” already certifying beef, dairy, egg, broiler United Egg Producers by IBP Inc. after mishandling of beef cattle Ten days after introducing Wheatley, chicken, wool/mutton, pork, and turkey pro- United Egg Producers, an industry including live skinning at the IBP slaughter- American Humane announced receipt of a ducers––a wider range than any other humane front, meanwhile introduced an “Animal Care house in Wallula, Washington was extensive- grant of $50,000 from the U.S. Department of certification pprogram. On January 1, 2004, Certified” claim and logo. The UEP program ly exposed by the Humane Farming Education Fund for the Improvement of HFAC moved into larger quarters at 1043 enrolled 190 participants, but in July 2003 one Association and Seattle area news media. Education. Secured by Colorado U.S. Sterling Road, #204, Herndon, VA 20170; participant, Colorado Natural Eggs CEO Also, the National Pork Board start- Senators Wayne Allard and Ben Nighthorse 703-435-3883; fax 703-435-3981. Cynthia Szymanski, accused UEP in an open ed a Swine Welfare Assurance Program, and Campbell, the money will be used “to expand The HFAC poultry standards are letter of “false advertising and a blatant several Colorado beef ranchers founded the existing educational programs that help stu- similar to those promoted from 1983 to 2002 attempt to mislead egg buyers and consumers.” American Grassfed Association, to establish dents and communities learn to prepare for and by the now defunct Nest Eggs subsidiary of Compassion Over Killing took the and promote criteria for “grass-fed” as care for animals during disasters,” Gonce said. the Chicago-based Food Animal Concerns UEP “Animal Care Certified” program to the opposed to “grain-fed” cattle. The latter often The Wheatley hiring followed exten- Trust. FACT was a founding participant in the National Advertising Division of the Council spend most of their lives at feedlots. sive restructuring at American Humane that annual Summit for the Animals convocation of of Better Business Bureaus. Humane certification of farm prod- included the separate resignations in June 2003 animal rights organization heads, but activist On November 24, 2003, the ucts started almost a decade earlier in Britain, of former president and CEO Tim O’Brien and expectations have increased enough since then National Advertising Review Council, the but the efforts of Compassion In World former Film & TV Unit chief Karen Goschen, that the HFAC standards have been prominent- first level of Council of Better Business Farming to raise the industry standards suf- after the earlier departure of Free Farmed pro- ly criticized by United Poultry Concerns Bureaus review process, announced that fered a setback in November 2003 with a court gram founder Adele Douglass. founder Karen Davis, activist writer Eileen “NAD determined that the ‘animal care’ mes- verdict that the national Department for Longtime American Humane Film & Weintraub, Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary sage conveyed…was misleading and that con- Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is not in TV Unit staff member Karen Rosa succeeded cofounder Terry Cummings, Farmed Animal sumers concerned about the treatment of ani- violation of any law for allowing farmers to Goshen. Former Colorado Pork Producers Watch editor Mary Finelli, and Eastern Shore mals could reasonably take away the message restrict the diets of broiler hens raised for Council executive director Elena Metro was Sanctuary & Education Center founder Pattrice that the hens who produce the eggs in cartons breeding rather than meat. The broiler breed- hired in November 2003 to manage Free Le-Muire Jones. bearing the seal are treated to a more humane ers are kept on rations of about a third the size Farmed, which after almost a year of inactivi- “Our chickens do not have to be level of care than that which is afforded by the given to broilers raised for meat, because oth- ty must rebuild consumer recognition, indus- free-range. They can be barn-raised,” animal husbandry guidelines adopted by the erwise the hens become so big, so fast, that try participation, and credibility with animal Douglass told ANIMAL PEOPLE, “but they UEP. Consequently, NAD recommended that they lose their ability to stand before reaching advocates. are not raised on concrete floors. They have the use of the ‘Animal Care Certified’ claim be sexual maturity. If raised for meat they would Technically the current Free Farmed deep litter. For free range, there needs to be a discontinued.” be slaughtered after 41 days. program is not even the same program that lot of land, because field rotation has to be The UEP immediately appealed to British law required that as of Douglass started, George Washington done for the benefit of the chickens and the the National Advertising Review Board, January 1, 2004 all egg packaging was to University Law School professor Michael environment. As for what they eat, we do not whose verdict is pending. identify whether the eggs came from caged or Selmi told ANIMAL PEOPLE. The original allow any avian parts. We verify that on our “The UEP program is positive,” said free-range hens. In late December, CIWF Free Farmed program, Selmi said, “was cre- inspections.” Douglass. “It requires increased space reported, five of the 12 largest British super- ated and operated by Farm Animal Services, a Douglass pointed out that HFAC allowances, over time. It also has farms market chains were still not in compliance. 15-year-old puts bill to ban circuses on the ballot in a longtime Ringling stronghold D E N V E R ––Denver voters and affluent opposition. PETA in a on August 10 will be asked to approve lawsuit filed in May 2001 and refilled an initiative to ban circus perfor- after amendments in 2002 alleged that SHARK mances, placed on the ballot through Ringling and Feld Entertainment hired petitioning by Heather Herman, 15, the private security firm Richlin and Youth Opposed to Animal Acts, a Consultants to infiltrate and disrupt WANTS group she founded. PETA from 1989 until 1992. Herman is challenging Feld The spy job was allegedly YOU –– Entertainment, owners of the Ring- directed by Clair E. George, who was ling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey CIA deputy director of operations TO HELP BUILD Circus, in a Ringling stronghold. from 1984 to 1987. Responsible for “The Ringling circus has performed in all CIA covert activities, George was THE TERMINA- Denver since 1919,” noted Cindy convicted of lying to a Congressional TOR FLEET! Brovsky of Associated Press, “The subcommittee in 1987, but was par- city’s Barnum neighborhood is named doned in December 1992 by former after circus founder P.T. Barnum, President George H. Bush. Bush, who bought 760 acres in 1882 as a father of the current President, had SHARK is building two winter respite for his show…City offi- previously served as CIA director. more Tiger video trucks that will surpass even the unprecedented Tiger prototype that has for cials estimate the circus’ annual two- The infiltration came to light three years sent animal abusers nationwide running for cover. This is your chance to support week stint pumps $8 million into the when a spy tried to sell information the most effective educational concept in animal defense. local economy.” about the job to Progressive Animal Herman will be working Welfare Society founder Pat Derby, The next two Tigers will be even more advanced. One will prowl the East Coast, another will against ruthless as well as influential who was also an infiltration target. patrol the West Coast, and the third will roam in between. Derby sued Feld Entertainment in June 2000. Feld reportedly settled the The original Tiger has already addressed more issues than many animal advocacy groups will case by agreeing to retire several cir- ever tackle, including bullfights, rodeos, circuses, horse slaughter, vivisection, fur, cus elephants to the PAWS sanctuary canned hunts, dolphin massacres, dog-and-cat-eating, and the slaughter of kangaroos in and fund their upkeep. Australia. Most recently the Tiger had a huge role in ending bear abuse at Baylor University. Corporations, government agencies, whoever the target and whatever the issue, education BECOME A HUMANE is the key, and nothing educates the public like the Tiger. The videos the Tiger shows to the public are hard to watch, but the results are undeniable. EDUCATOR and bring humane education to I hope I can count on your support! your community. We teach you how. Animal author and profes- For more information: sional humane educator Michelle www.sharkonline.org [email protected] A. Rivera comes to you. Visit • www.Animals101.com and click SHARK on "shelters" link for complete P O Box 28 information, or call 561-747-1836. Catch the wave of the future and Geneva, IL 60134 teach your community to care Phone: 1-630-557-0176 • Fax: 1-630-557-0178 about animals. ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004 - 13 Home 4 the Holidays 2003 saved 261,000+ lives! Be a part of Home 4 the Holidays 2004. Log on to www.home4the holidays.com for more information. HOW REPUBLICANS USE HUNTING AS A “WEDGE ISSUE” WASHINGTON D.C. ––With U.S. federal elections Dakota. Those three states overwhelmingly favored U.S. His successor, Democrat Tony Knowles, suspended constitutionally mandated to be held on the first Tuesday of President George W. Bush in 2000. most of the lethal wolf control programs started under Hickel, November, it is a verity that the stretch drive of any campaign The partisan split between states where hunting is in but current Governor Frank Murkowski campaigned heavily on will coincide with hunting season, and that close races for seats steepest decline and those where it is of increasing influence is a pledge to reinstate wolf-culling. Upon election, Murkowski in Congress and state legislatures may be decided by whether or relatively new. Democratic office holders as well as packed the Board of Game with fellow Republicans known to not hunters descend from tree stands to cast ballots. Republicans have historically favored hunting. Until circa 1990 favor predator control. Already the incumbent Republican majorities in the polls found little difference in hunter preference between the Alaska voters approved ballot initiatives banning air- U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, and the greater number major parties and the voting patterns of other men in the same craft-assisted wolf hunting in 1996 and 2000, but the of statehouses are scrambling to lure hunter votes. Lacking the age group, region, and income bracket. Republican-dominated state legislature in 2002 passed a bill by chance to pass legislation, their fall challengers, mostly That changed after then-Yale University undergradu- senator Ralph Seekins (R-Fairbanks) that in effect deputizes Democrats, must rely upon image-building and promises. ate Wayne Pacelle introduced British-style hunt sabotage in hunters to participate in official wolf control work. Seekins in Few candidates are likely to actively seek support response to a 1986 deer cull at the Yale/New Haven Forest. February 2004 introduced a similar bill to promote aerial bear- from opponents of hunting, even though the number of active Hired by the Fund for Animals in 1989, Pacelle directed hunting in the guise of predator control. hunters in the U.S. has declined to just 13 million, representing dozens of hunt sabotages around the U.S. until 1994, when he Starting in January, hunters using aircraft to kill just 4.6% of the U.S. population. Approximately 10% of the joined HSUS as vice president for legislation. wolves may reach targets of 40 wolves killed near McGrath and U.S. population hunted a generation ago. Hunt sabotage in Britain caught on among disaffected 140 killed in the Nelchina basin before the Alaska Board of The Fund for Animals on January 22 distributed a list working class young men, who for more than a decade have Game meets from February 26 to March 10 to consider addi- of the 10 states in which hunting participation fell fastest from often turned upper class fox hunts into veritable class warfare. tional predator-killing measures. The McGrath hunters are 1991 to 2001. Included were Rhode Island, down 59%; In the U.S., however, hunters are primarily working class allowed to strafe wolves from their aircraft. The Nelchina Massachusetts, down 39%; California, down 39%; Delaware, males. The young men who in other demographic aspects most hunters are required to land first. down 39%; Illinois, down 31%; Iowa, down 26%; North resemble the British hunt saboteurs are in the U.S. the young Under Board of Game review will be proposals to Carolina, down 26%; Connecticut, down 21%; Ohio, down men who are most likely to hunt. extend aerial wolf hunting to the entire state; eliminating the 20%; and New Mexico, down 19%. Republican wise-use strategists found in hunt sabo- buffer zone around Denali National Park that inhibits trappers Eight of the 10 states favored Democratic presidential tage the “wedge issue” they needed to capture hunter votes as a from picking off the two resident wolf packs; allowing hunters nominee Al Gore in 2000, and are expected to favor the block. In 1986 only two states had anti-hunter harassment to shoot grizzly bears over bait; allowing hunters to kill mother Democratic nominee in 2004. Ohio and North Carolina are laws. By 1994, when the Republicans won control of the bears and their cubs; and legalizing the sale of bear parts. considered “swing states” that could go either way. House of Representatives for the first time in 42 years, claim- Among other items in the state-level Republican pork Urbanization and lack of places to hunt would appear ing the overwhelming majority of hunter votes, 48 states had barrel for hunters: to be factors in the decline of hunting in Rhode Island, anti-hunter harassment laws, and Hawaii later passed one. • R e p u b l i c a n - a u t h o r e d state constitutional amend- Massachusetts, Delaware, California, and Connecticut. Almost all of the anti-hunter harassment laws were introduced ments to enshrine a “right to hunt” cleared the Georgia senate Hunter access to land, season lengths, and bag limits on the by Republicans, often working from shared drafts. on January 26 and the Pennsylvania house on February 9. most often hunted species have all increased in the other five The coalitions formed to pass anti-hunter harassment Eleven states have adopted such amendments since 1996. states, which are still among the ten with the most hunters and legislation kept going, funded by national pro-hunting and pro- • Fifty-five of the 62 Michigan house Republicans in trappers per capita. Republican foundations. In November 1994 they began November 2003 approved a bill to reintroduce mourning dove Thus hunting is declining even in states with cultural enshrining “right to hunt” clauses in state constitutions. hunting, banned since 1905, but previously approved by the and political environments highly favorable toward hunters. Then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, tried Michigan house in 2000. The bill appeared to be dead in the Similar data included in the Humane Society of the to counter the movement of hunter votes toward Republicans by Michigan senate appropriations committee in early February U.S. publication State of the Animals: 2003 shows that rates of opening more National Wildlife Refuges to hunting, fishing, 2004, but senate Republican majority leader Ken Sikkema hunting participation have declined since 1980 in all states and trapping than any three presidents before him. But breach- arranged a vote to transfer it to the judiciary committee, headed except sparsely populated Montana, North Dakota, and South ing the sanctity of National Wildlife Refuges did not regain by dovehunting proponent Alan Cropsey. Democratic control of the House. The Prominent Democrats have also recently demonstrat- legacy of the Clinton effort is that ed support of hunting, notably presidential candidate John among the current 540 refuges, 311 Kerry, who shot two pheasants in a five-minute photo-op ANIMAL PEOPLE allow hunting and 280 allow trapping, “hunt” in Iowa at Halloween 2003, and Maine Governor John thanks you for your generous support! contrary to the belief of 78% of Baldacci, who quickly lined up in opposition to an initiative Honoring the parable of the widow's mite–– Americans that hunting on national seeking to ban bear hunting with bait, traps, or dogs. Maine in which a poor woman gives but one coin refuges is illegal, according to a 1999 Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting submitted 102,500 voters’ signa- to charity, yet that is all she possesses–– survey by Decision Research Inc. tures in favor of the initiative on January 27, more than twice we do not list our donors by how much they give, as many as were needed to place in on the November ballot. but we greatly appreciate large gifts ALASKA that help us do more for animals. Of all state level hunting POLITICAL NOTES issues, the most polarized along parti- The January/February 2004 edition of A N I M A L Frances Adams, Violet Aharonian, san lines may be predator control in PEOPLE reported that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney shot Wendy Aragon, Dianne & Michael Bahr, Alaska. The predation at issue is not ducks on January 5 with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Kelly Beard-Tittone, Robert Belsher, upon livestock, as in the Lower 48 S c a l i a in southern Louisiana, and noted that New Orleans Louis Bertrand, Best Friends Animal Society, where predator control is done mainly T i m e s - P i c a y u n e writer J.E. Bourgoyne, who reported on the Marie Bonham/Caesars Dog Grooming, to benefit ranchers, but rather upon expedition, failed to inquire about the propriety of Cheney and Robert Brock, John & June Caspersen, Jan Cejka, James Clark, wild moose and caribou. Alaskan Scalia fraternizing while Cheney’s refusal to disclose the mem- Gale Cohen-Demarco, Drs. Sharon & Don Cregier, Tawny Crist, hunters have howled for decades that bers of an energy policy task force that he convened is before Dave & Susana Crow, Gay Currier, Anne Galloway Curtis, heavily targeted moose and caribou the Supreme Court for review. That was before prominent legal Phyllis Daugherty/Animal Issues Movement, Diane Davison, Katherine Day, populations are well below their early ethicists overwhelmingly agreed that Scalia should withdraw Sherry de Boer, Rae Domingues, Joan Dow, Margie Ewald, Roberta Fagan, 20th century numbers because of com- from any pending case involving Cheney. Veronica Ferguson, Russell Field, Sylvia & Herb Forsmith, David & Carol Foster, Mindy Gardner, Joyce Gauntt, Muriel Geach, Margaret Gebhard, David Geier, petition from wolves and bears. Wrote Scalia to The New York Times, “I do not think Josephine Harchick, Margaret Hillers, William Holliday, Mr. & Mrs. Pieter Hye, Fulfilling a promise uttered my impartiality could reasonably be questioned.” Dr. Isis Johnson-Brown, Garland Jones, Susanne Kogut, Benjamin Landau, often by Republican candidates for the Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Kitty Langdon, Kenny and Sondra Langone, Mona Lefebvre, Jan Lifshutz, state legislature, then-Governor R e h n q u i s t told U.S. Senators who asked for a ruling that the Susan Lobonc, Tina de Boer Long Charitable Trust, Deanna Macek, Walter Hickel authorized land-and- Supreme Court does not have any formal rules or policy gov- Barbara Magin, Judy & Roger McClain, Barbara Menkes, Lola Merritt, shoot wolf hunting two weeks after the Lee More, Carrie Nutter, Alice O'Reilly, Damon Phillips, Richard Pollak, November 1992 election. (continued on page 14) Leslie Fay Pomerantz, Linn Pulis, Mr. & Mrs. John Pyner, Lynn Rasmussen/Animal Lovers Society, Adrienne Ruby, Kathy Ruopp, Bonny & Ratilal Shah/Maharani, Robin Shaug, Magda Simopoulos, Six Flags Marine World, Violet Soo-Hoo, Shirley Swain, Dee Tharpe, Margaret Tilbury, Ralph Turner, Mary Walsh, Josephine Wardle, Marie-Christine Whitman, Arlene & Melvin Yahre
We have rescued many dogs and cats, including this mother and her kittens. Your donation to our sanctuary fund will help us save many more from the terrible cruelty of the Korean dog and cat meat markets. We have bought the land to build Korea's first world-class animal shelter and hospital. A donor paid for the foundation with a promise to put on the roof if we can raise the money to build the middle. Your generous contribution can make this dream come true! Mark your donation for KAPS Shelter Fund, and send to: International Aid for Korean Animals / Korea Animal Pr otection Society POB 20600, Oakland, CA 94620 14 - ANIMAL PEOP LE, March 2004
Paul Siegel
POLITICAL NOTES: KUCINICH, NADER, HILLARY CLINTON (from page 13) erning recusal of Justices. Responded New York University S i n g e r of Animal Factories, now heading the Two Mauds vote even though Gore won the majority of votes cast. law professor Stephen Gillers, “This has exposed a gap in the F o u n d a t i o n ; Farm Sanctuary cofounder Lorri Bauston; The New York Post “Page Six” investigative gossip ethics rules. Scalia is the judge of his own case.” Veda Stram, long associated with the defunct Animals Voice column on January 19, 2004 confirmed a rumor first published Dennis Kucinich campaign spokesperson S u s a n magazine and the active
Cockfighters spread killer flu through S.E. Asia (from page 1) WHO spokesperson Bob Dietz unequivocally “Geese and ducks in Hong Kong are South China Morning Post Suraswadi told the Thai News Agency that told Keith Bradsher of The New York Times on imported from large, intensive poultry produc- Guangzhou correspondent Leu Siew Ying on while the risk of contracting avian flu from January 26. ers in Guangdong, China,” MacKenzie January 31 asserted, without quoting any wild birds was low, citizens should refrain “The path of the disease appears to reminded. This is where H5N1 is believed to experts, that free range poultry farms “could from feeding wild birds, including sparrows follow the north/south winter migration pattern have originated each time it has appeared. well be the weak link in Guangdong’s defense and pigeons. of birds such as swallows, plovers, terns, and Brown’s findings strengthened earli- against bird flu.” On January 30 deputy Bangkok gov- egrets, from as far north as Siberia to er reports from scientists at the National Allowing chickens to range freely, ernor Prapan Kitisin, whose administration Australia in the south,” added South China Institute of Animal Health in Japan, who Leu Siew Ying argued, means “they are tried unsuccessfully in 2003 to rid the central Morning Post correspondent Cheung Chi-Fai found a close relationship among the Viet- exposed to migratory birds and cross-infection city of dogs, followed Singapore in announc- on January 27––disregarding that H5N1 is not namese H5N1 virus, a version found in a from diseased birds on nearby farms. ing a mass pigeon cull. Kitisan also ordered yet known to have reached Australia. Guangdong goose in 1996, and a version that Quarantine measures look impressive on paper that guano be washed off the awnings covering “You have birds from all over the in 2003 killed a Hong Kong man who had and are being implemented at large farms,” outdoor food vendors’ stalls and vehicles. world coming to Asia. They stop for a rest, recently visited Guangdong. Leu Siew Ying wrote, “but there is little such Not so much as one speck of bird and they come into contact with other birds Flu virologist Richard Webby, of St security at smaller farms.” dirt actually associated pigeons with H5N1, and other animals and pass on their viruses,” Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Leu Siew Ying continued that biose- but the panic turned in their direction anyway. explained Chinese University microbiology Memphis, Tennessee, told MacKenzie that, curity was further jeopardized when small- On February 4, the China State professor John Tam Siu-lun. “We have a bucket of evolution going on… H5 scale poultry farmers sold manure as fertilizer, General Administration of Sport suspended all But Mai Po Nature Reserve conser- is circulating fairly widely somewhere, under ignoring that manure from large-scale training, races, exchanges, and sales of hom- vation manager Lew Young discounted the some kind of unusual selective pressure.” Southeast Asia poultry farms is distributed as ing pigeons between China, Thailand, Japan, speculation. “If wintering birds are responsi- “The explosion in variation,” fertilizer and pig and cattle feed in vastly the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan. The ble for the spread [of H5N1], we should have MacKenzie wrote, “coincides with the period greater volume, with correspondingly greater Beijing Homing Pigeon Association ordered seen it happen already, as they have been during which Chinese farmers have practiced likelihood of becoming a disease vector. more frequent disinfection and immediate arriving since September last year,” Young widespread vaccination of chickens against flu. “I am disgusted by academia, indus- clearance of excrement and feathers. The told Cheung Chi-Fai. In 2003, scientists who developed an try and government trying to blame wildlife for Shanghai Racing Pigeon Association grounded improved flu vaccine for poultry, including problems caused by intensive agriculture,” all 400,000 local homing pigeons. The Beijing Bad vaccines Robert Webster of St Jude’s, concluded that responded Farmed Animal Watch electronic association grounded more than a million. New Scientist correspondent Debora such vaccination “may be a serious problem news digest editor Mary Finelli in an e-mail to February would usually be the peak MacKenzie was another early skeptic. “The for human pandemic preparedness,” because ANIMAL PEOPLE. pigeon training time, in preparation for the currently circulating H5N1, like the related the vaccines “might mask disease signs while “Farmed animals are bred for pro- pigeon racing season, which begins in March. one that caused an outbreak in Penfold Park, allowing the birds to continue to shed virus.” duction traits at the expense of their immune More than 23,000 households in Hong Kong, in 2003, is unique in that it kills Therefore, Webster et al s u g g e s t e d systems,” Finelli continued, “and then are put Beijing and 8,000 in Shanghai keep racing ducks as well as a variety of other birds,” in the journal V i r o l o g y, “persistence of virus into prime disease generating conditions. To pigeons. Nationally, the China Association of wrote MacKenzie. “This might make it less infection in the presence of a flock immunity b l a m e H5N1 on wild birds [and free-range Carrier Pigeons claims 300,000 members. likely that wild birds are mainly responsible may contribute to increased virus evolution.” chickens] when megatons of manure from fac- “An official surnamed Yang with for carrying the virus over long distances.” The failed vaccination theory was tory farms is being spread all over cropland the bird flu control team under the Agriculture But MacKenzie in the February 11 reinforced a week later when the S h a n g h a i is a classic case of blaming the victims.” Ministry said researchers had yet to develop a edition of New Scientist focused on failed agri- Daily reported that 23-year-old college gradu- vaccine for pigeons, which should be different cultural vaccinations. ate Li Zhongcheng and his wife, of central Crows & pigeons from those used for consumer poultry at least “Earl Brown, a flu virologist at the Henan province, had been arrested for selling As suspicion of wild birds intensi- in dosage,” the Xinhua News Agency said. University of Ottawa in Canada, compared the 944 bottles of homebrewed avian flu-related fied, and H5N1 appeared at a duck farm about “Yang said Beijing had reported no genetic sequence of the virus isolated from a vaccines, of dubious quality, since 2001. 30 miles away, Shanghai barred bird-watchers pigeon infections and there was no scientific Vietnamese person who died of bird flu in They were almost certainly not the from three local nature reserves. proof to support the possibility of virus trans- January 2004 to other gene sequences,” only people with similar businesses. Hundreds Singapore environment ministry mission from pigeons to humans. However, MacKenzie reported, may have done the same thing, throughout spokesperson Satish Appoo told Emma Ross many advocate the eradication of pigeons “Five of the eight [DNA] strands Southeast Asia, where regulation of the phar- of Associated Press on January 29 that his because of the large amounts of excrement were 96% to 99% identical to an H5N1 flu maceutical industry is notoriously lax. department would escalate efforts to kill non- they produce,” the Xinhua News Agency virus found in duck meat smuggled from east- Bad vaccines produced for years in native Indian house crows, claiming to have acknowledged. ern China and intercepted in Taiwan in 2003. relatively trivial amounts by scattered individ- already reduced the crow population “from In other words, pigeon-haters seized The remaining three were 98% the same as uals could explain why so many chickens 120,000 in 2001 to about 30,000.” their opportunity, irrespective of the evidence. sequences obtained from a goose in Hong appeared to be so suddenly vulnerable, but Thai permanent secretary for natural In Thailand, where the pigeon-blam- Kong in 2000. could not fully explain why so many fell ill in resources and the environment Plodprasop ing began, pigeons were officially exonerated so many places and so short a time. (continued on page 16)
AR 2004 16 - ANIMA L PEOPLE, March 2004 Cockfighters & flu (from page 15) on February 17. “None of the pigeons that fly Indonesia, between half a million and 1.5 mil- over Bangkok’s skies have been found to be lion wild birds are sold each year.” infected with bird flu,” natural resources and Philippine provincial officials began environment minister Prapat Panyachatraksa warning the public to avoid contact with told The Nation. migratory storks from China circa February 1. When a crackdown on caged bird Storks & cranes trafficking came, of sorts, it consisted of a Storks and cranes, on the other February 9 announcement by Manila airport hand, were demonstrably afflicted. They were animal quarantine office chief Davinio also falling dead. But while they could poten- Catbagan that 353 lovebirds imported from the tially carry H5N1, experts observed, there Netherlands by way of Thailand on a Kuwait was no reason to believe that they already had. Airways flight had been gassed and burned. H5N1 “is a major threat to a number Imported without proper permits, of endangered bird species and I fear it could the lovebirds never left the aircraft, but could get a lot worse,” acknolwledged ornithologist have become infected when the doors were Chris Cook to South China Morning Post opened in Thailand, Catbagan said. Toyko correspondent Julian Ryall. “Right Wild bird trafficking elsewhere in now, 80% of East Asia’s white-necked cranes Southeast Asia drew almost no notice. are wintering in Japan,” Cook added. “It’s But Kasetsart University veterinary just a matter of weeks before the spring migra- teaching hospital faculty member Kaset tions start, and there’s no way anyone can Sutasha reinforced the Wildlife Conservation stop these birds from flying from one country society warning. to the next.” “The outbreak could be caused by “Test results showed three migratory the smuggling of birds from places such as Asian open-billed storks that died in Nakhon China and other countries bordering Sawan had H5N1,” wrote Ranjana Thailand,” Kaset told The Nation, adding that Gamecock. (Carroll Cox) Wangvipula of the Bangkok Post on February “The movement of fighting cocks, both in and that happened, Ghosh wrote, was that “A Samabuddhi of the Bangkok Post. 14, “but authorities said it was unlikely they out of the country, might also be a cause. Buddhist monk placed incense sticks in the On February 17, The Nation report- had carried this virulent strain from abroad. “We have found a large number of cane baskets and gave a last blessing to the ed, Chidchob exasperatedly ordered his staff “Hundreds of open-billed storks migratory birds who were poisoned or shot by more than two dozen fighting cocks” who to cull all fowl within 14 newly declared “red have died at Bung Boraphet swamp in Nakhon people who were frightened of the spread of were taken from Surat to be killed. Seventy- zone” epidemic areas within three days, or Sawan and Bangkok’s Lat Krabang district,” bird flu,” Kaset continued, but none of the seven gamecocks in all were seized that day else. Chidcob said that fighting cocks were the Ranjana continued, “where poultry infected dead birds that Kaset examined had H5N1. and hurled into an incinerator. H5N1 carriers in 13 of the 14 areas. with bird flu were found. An official said the Added Wildlife Conservation Somsak told Jintana Panyaavudh of One of the new “red zone” areas was mass death of storks had prompted the agricul- Society training and education coordinator The Nation that he felt pain at having to kill in Roi Et province, previously unaffected. ture ministry to demand that up to 20,000 Petch Manopawitr, “Normally migratory birds his own favorite pet fighting cock, to set a “We’ve found that one fighting cock contract- migratory open-billed storks be killed.” frequent wetlands, where you wouldn’t site a personal example of obedience to the law. ed the disease and later learned that its owner Nakhon Sawan forestry management poultry farm.” “In my life I have never killed any in fact smuggled it out of a controlled area to chief Vorawit Chue-suwan told Supamart animals,” said deputy prime minister Somkid avoid culling,” Chidcob told Uamdao Noikorn Kasem of the Bangkok Post that killing the Sparrows Jatusripitak, after killing his son’s pet ban- of Associated Press. remaining storks would be the only option if On February 12 Guangxi “senior tams. “I felt very terrible and kept thinking the carcasses proved to be carrying H5N1, but animal infection official” Bi Qiang and duck that I should not have raised the bantams. Cockers fight cops warned that the job would be difficult, as the farmer Huang Shengde predictably suggested However, I told myself that the chickens had Indonesia, which may have even storks would resist capture. that sparrows, the all-purpose Chinese avian to be culled to save people’s lives.” more illegal cockfighting than Thailand, had “A study is needed to find if the villains, might have infected the ducks near Around Phitsanulok, an epi-center already attempted a crackdown of sorts even storks caught the disease from chickens,’’ Dingdang who were the first birds in China of H5N1 outbreaks 600 miles north of before acknowledging that a seven-month los- Thai natural resources and environment minis- officially identified as ill with H5N1. Bangkok, nearly 4,000 cock breeding families ing battle against a “Newcastle” outbreak was ter Praphat Panyachartrak said. “This is the first time a Chinese offi- resisted compliance with cull orders. in truth an attempt to stop H5N1. Praphat refused to order that wild cial has pointed to a possible reason for “Apparently in favor of local people, Official reluctance to cull chickens storks be culled, Ranjana said, “without Dingdang’s infection,” wrote Jason Leow of livestock officials in Phitanulok have not in Indonesia after the H5N1 epidemic was rec- sound scientific proof that the storks were car- the Straits Times China bureau. asked police to set up a checkpoint to prevent ognized was widely attributed to the influence riers of the disease.” But Agence France Press revealed cocks from being smuggled out. The officials of major poultry producers, but major produc- Praphat pointed out that the open- the same day that, “A Vietnamese dealer of have not contacted the army to ask soldiers to ers in other nations were among the first to billed storks in Thailand migrate from fighting cocks has tested positive for bird flu.” catch the cocks,” the Bangkok Post reported. start culling, in hopes of halting avian flu Bangladesh, where avian flu outbreaks have Truong Trong Hoang, deputy direc- Amid the governmental deference to before the flu halted commerce in chicken occurred, but not involving H5N1 so far. tor of health information and education in Ho cock breeders, almost no one other than Thai meat and eggs. ``We’d better tell Bangladesh to Chi Minh City, said that the 22-year-old man Animal Guardians Association chair Roger Of perhaps greater concern to keep a close watch on the birds on their was admitted to the city Hospital for Tropical Lohanon ever mentioned in print that most Indonesian authorities, especially on Bali, the return,’’ Praphat added. The storks normally Disease on February 6. He later died. cockfighting is technically illegal in Thailand, hardest-hit island, was rioting that erupted on return to Bangladesh in May. Grudgingly, officials throughout under a 1982 Interior Ministry regulation January 23 in Denpasar, after Commander Southeast Asia began to recognize that game- adopted to endorce the 1935 Gambling Act. Agus Sugianto led a police raid on a cockfight Caged songbirds cocks were perhaps the most important of all The 1982 regulation limited cockfighting to at the Dalem Temple. Recalling the Chinese bird purges of vectors in transmitting H5N1 not only from about 70 then established pits in Chonburi, Cockfighting persists on Bali, the Mao tse Tung era, when sparrows were place to place but also––since gamecocks Nonthaburi, and parts of the Thai northeast. Papua, Maluku, and some other islands in the wrongly blamed for nine years of famine, often are kept in houses with humans, to safe- The H5N1 pandemic should have thin disguise of being a Hindu ritual called Wildlife Conservation Society vice president guard them against theft and tampering–– from slammed the brakes on efforts led by parlia- Tabuh Rah. of wildlife health Robert Cook on February 3 birds to people. mentary committee for agriculture leader Cockfighters and spectators told warned that, “In almost all cases, eradication Kamsung Propakornkaewrat to repeal the 1982 Jakarta Post correspondent Wahyoe schemes are not cost-efficient or effective Finally gamecocks regulation. Yet even as the virus spread in late Boediwardhana that, “Without prior warning, means to reduce disease spread, compared to While pigeons were purged despite November, Kamsung led a seminar on the police fired three shots before storming health education, sanitation, and controlling the absence of any evidence that they carried expanding cockfighting, and told Lohanon to into the hall, screaming loudly while beating animal movement.” either H5N1 or any other avian flu, game- shut up when Lohanon appeared, uninvited, and kicking everybody,” allegedly seizing the Cook, WCS field veterinary pro- cocks were not totally ignored. Technically, to address the hostile audience. gamblers’ money and cellular telephones. gram director William Karesh, and WCS all poultry were included from the beginning Cockfighting and transportation of After one cockfighting enthusiast director of hunting and wildlife trade issues in the Thai effort to purge H5N1. gamecocks were at last suspended nationwide “managed to scale the temple tower and sound Elizabeth Bennett recommended that wild bird Yet even as other birds were killed in Thailand on February 3. the alarm,” Boediwardhana wrote, “hundreds markets should be permanently closed by the thousands, Bangkok cock breeders Yukol Limlaemthong, director-gen- of villagers surrounded the temple and started throughout Asia, and that airlines should were unofficially allowed a grace period of eral of the Thailand Livestock Development throwing stones at the police,” who “hurriedly refuse to carry “large numbers of animals over several days to get their birds out of the city or Department, on February 10 told Saowalak left with at least 28 confiscated cocks.” large distances for commercial markets. The at least out of sight. Pumyaem of The Nation that all fighting cocks Four truckloads of cockfighters European Union has already banned the import Thai agriculture minister Somsak would soon have to be registered and certified, drove to the Denpasar police station to con- of pet birds from Asian countries where avian Thepsuthin claimed that his department had no and would have to be raised in confinement. front Senior Commander Komang Udayana. flu has been detected,” the WCS experts said. authority to kill gamecocks. ‘’Controlling the epidemic in the Udayana admitted ordering the raid and “The wild bird trade in Asia is con- “Only if the Natural Resources and capital is now beyond the ministry’s compe- claimed the confiscations of money and tele- ducted on an extremely large scale, and is Environment Ministry agrees to the culling of tence due to strong opposition from owners of phones were to preserve evidence of betting. highly fluid,” explained Bennett. “The one birds can we kill them,” Somsak said. fighting cocks, who keep hiding their birds Leading a province and a nation common theme is that wild birds are caught, “My ministry can deal only with away from livestock officials,’’ deputy agri- often torn by ethnic and regional strife, the sold and transported in very large numbers, birds who are not infected,” environment min- culture minister Newin Chidchob told Kultida governments of Bali and Indonesia undoubted- and that effective controls, both in terms of ister Prapat Panyachatraksa responded. laws and enforcement of those laws, are cur- After days of buck-passing, and GREYHOUND At Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc., rently weak across much of Asia.” after receiving direct orders from prime minis- we want America to be Added Karesh, “The birds are caged ter Thaksin Shinawatra to kill all chickens TALES a leader in compassion. in stressful, unnatural and often unhygienic within three miles of Bangkok epidemic areas, TRUE STORIES OF conditions during transport and in the markets, Somsak personally led several seizures of RESCUE, COMPASSION That means our universities where they stand beak to beak with both wild fighting cocks on January 30. AND LOVE must stop teaching cruel factory farming! and domestic birds, and are handled by “We will not let them do this. There edited by Nora Star, humans––all providing the ideal conditions for is no proof these cocks have bird flu. We are with introduction by Susan Visit www.RPAforAll.org transmission of disease.” going to eat them. That is better than letting Netboy. Learn more The WCS team noted that according them be suffocated,” cock breeder Surat about these animals and or request our 10,000 Years Is Enough to recent field investigations, “In Bangkok’s Boonchea, 64, told Straits Times T h a i l a n d how you can help them. campaign information pack. weekend market, on 25 weekends in one year correspondent Nirmal Ghosh. Send $15.95 to: alone, 70,000 birds representing 276 species Other gamecock breeders reportedly Responsible Policies for Animals from Asia, Australia, Africa and South did eat about 10 of their birds in public protest. Nora Star P.O. Box 891, Glenside, PA 19038 9728 Tenaya Way America were sold. In a single market in Java, But at Surat Boonchea’s facility all 215-886-RPA1 • [email protected] Kelseyville, CA 95451 ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004 - 17 H5N1 pandemic rages––worst factory farm disaster (from Australia escapes Poultry consumption in Hong Kong fell from to spread H5N1 than prevent it. The killing at missioner Preshanta Barua estimated that 150,000 birds per day to fewer than 35,000–– times resembled the bird purges waged from 10,000 chickens had died in 10 days. H5N1––officially less because consumers were scared, however, 1957 to 1962, when former dictator Mao tse Three days later, however, Barua M E L B O U R N E ––Australia has than because poultry imports were suspended Tung blamed sparrows for famines that killed told Sushanta Talukdar of The Hindu that only avoided H5N1 and other avian flu outbreaks, and 35,000 birds per day is all that local farm- more than 40 million Chinese people. 1,000 chickens died, and just 11 of the 800 so far, but has had some recent scares. ers produce. Vietnam suspended all poultry An erroneous report from Vietnam chickens kept at six farms in Dhubri proper. “Our rescue team did a big broiler sales and transport. that H5N1 had spread to pigs spread the may- “We might implement the state chicken rescue in January,” Patty Mark of “In the past when life was hard,” hem. Quoting “Ling Long, an official from Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals Act Animal Liberation Victoria told A N I M A L Guangzhou People’s Political Consultative the animal husbandry office in the Guangxi against any poultry farmer who would kill P E O P L E . “We got 55 birds out,” 40 of Conference chair Chen Kaizhi lamented to border city of Dongxing,” Agence France- large number of birds, which could send a them later euthanized due to illness and South China Morning Post reporter Leu Siew Presse reported that on January 17 local wrong message,” West Bengal state director injury, “and there were masses of dead bod- Ying, “we hoped for a disease among our authorities burned alive 800 pigs smuggled in of animal resources Swapan Dasgupta told ies in the shed,” Mark recounted. “All the chickens so that we got to eat chicken. When from Vietnam. Nirmalaya Bannerjee of The Times of India. dead birds we witnessed were unusual. We a chicken dropped its head, we said, `Good, The Guangzhou Daily played up This was just before word spread thought this guy was just a bad operator and now we get to eat the chicken.’ Now people reports about chicken culls, Associated Press that workers had apparently buried alive about failed to collect them daily, as some were are not allowed to eat diseased chicken.” writer Christopher Bodeen observed on 12,000 chickens at Alphonsus’ Social & very rotten. One TV station grabbed an Chinese Deputy Minister of Health February 2. Yet “At Guangzhou’s Chatou Agricultural Centre in Kurseong, West exclusive on the story,” Mark said, “then Qiang Gao, a vegetarian for 30 years, and Wildlife & Fowl Wholesale Market,” Bodeen Bengal. Opened in 1964, the site was among sat on it for two weeks when avian flu hit [in perhaps the most prominent vegetarian in wrote, “live ducks, geese, pigeons, and India’s first factory farms. Investigators found Southeast Asia] and then dropped it.” China, joined other national leaders in eating doves were still being sold, squeezed into no hint of avian flu among the carcasses. Most of the Animal Liberation chicken on television to help reassure the cages beside rabbits, cats, and dogs––all con- The culling procedures in most Victoria rescuers were older than typical panic-stricken public. Partly, the televised sidered delicacies in southern China. Vehicles afflicted nations were comparably crude. Live H5N1 victims, who tend to be under 20. meals were meant to maintain the public entered and left without being cleaned or burial using heavy equipment was the most However, said Mark, “Seven out appetite for chicken, as U.S. news media sprayed with disinfectant.” common killing method. Live burning, most of nine of us on that rescue had the usual reported. But they were also intended to help The only facility in China capable of openly practiced in southern China and Bali, sore throat, sinus problems, and sore eyes subdue vigilante action against healthy chick- isolating the H5N1 virus to confirm infections Indonesia, was next most often reported. afterward,” from the filthy air they breathe ens and other birds, both domestic and wild. was reportedly the National Bird Flu Refer- Some Vietnamese farmers locked their chick- inside poultry barns. Mobs led by poorly educated local ence Laboratory in Harbin, near the Russian ens in sheds to starve. Only Japan, Taiwan, officials were reportedly responsible for some border––almost as far from Guangdong as one and Singapore were able to gas all suspect H5N1 with scarecrows. “The scarecrows are poultry slaughters that were much more likely could fly without leaving China. birds. All three nations are surrounded by not intended to deter birds,” explained culture water and were therefore somewhat more iso- ministry spokesperson Hang Soth. “They are Cockfighting notes Panic in India lated from H5N1 than mainland neighbors. part of a long tradition of scarecrows intended Panic poultry killing erupted in India Vietnam and Thailand each killed to ward off disease or thieves.” Louisiana District Judge Charles during the first week of February without any about 36 million chickens, Indonesia killed 10 Myanmar denied having any H5N1. S c o t t on February 3 ruled that C a d d o clear evidence of an avian flu outbreak. To million, and China killed five million. Outside observers were skeptical. Parish Sheriff Steve Prator may not that point, India was the only nation bordering The poorest Southeast Asian nations enforce a local ordinance to halt cockfights on China to the north that had not been hit. killed far fewer, not necessarily because they Conflicting values at the ArkLaTex Game Club near Ida and Chickens are the animals most often eaten in had less disease. Keepers whose flocks repre- “Mass culling always raises a con- the Piney Woods Game Club near Vivian India, as elsewhere, but about half of all sented most of their resources often tried to flict between speedy dispatch and humane because cockfighting is legal in Louisiana, Indians are vegetarian, and India has few large hide birds. Even where compensation for slaughter,” observed Compassion In World one of only two states that allow it, and a poultry complexes. In addition, India has culled birds was paid, it was usually just a Farming chief executive Joyce D’Silva. “The local ordinance may not supersede state law. conspicuously less cockfighting than other fraction of value, and allegations flew about appallingly rough treatment of these chickens Alleged cockfighter Efrain Agui- southern Asian nations. officials demanding kickbacks. is a welfare scandal,” D’Silva said. l a r and a land owner not named by police The first Indian reports of chicken Laos had killed 40,000 chickens Changkil Park, founder of the South were arrested on February 2 after a brawl at deaths due to an unknown flu-like illness came through February 12 at farms surrounding Korean organization Voice-4-Animals, object- an illegal cockpit in Tepeyac, Mexico. One from 20 villages in the Dhubri distrct of Vientiane, the capital city. ed soon after the culling started that the man was beaten to death and six were shot Assam, bordering on Bangladesh, said BBC Cambodia killed 25,000 chickens, Korean agriculture ministry “failed to provide dead, including three men from one family Calcutta correspondent Subir Bhaumik. ducks, and swans. Farmers living along the an adequate system and guidelines to deal with and three brothers from another. According to Bhaumik, Dhubri district com- main roads from Vietnam tried to ward off (continued on page 18)
Defending Farm Animals ad 18 - ANIMAL PEOP LE, March 2004
H5N1 rages in S.E. Asia (from 17) WHO still worries about SARS GUANGZHOU, Guangdong– – relaxation of vigilance on January 31. Two the situation. Local officials were not given any Hong Kong Poultry Wholesalers & H5N1 pushed Sudden Acute Respiratory days earlier the British journal Science pub- equipment to kill humanely.” Retailers Association chair Steven Wong Wai- Syndrome out of the news, but China and lished a report that the SARS virus mutated Added Voice-4-Animals member chuen on February 9 accused Hong Kong secre- the World Health Organization remain con- from being able to infect only 3% of human Eileen Cahill in a commentary for the K o r e a tary for health, welfare, and food Yeoh Eng- cerned that it could resurge. contacts in November 2002 to infecting 70% H e r a l d , “Voice-4-Animals has evidence that kiong of restricting poultry imports and “using The fourth and last known SARS of human contacts by February 2003. almost all the birds exterminated during the public opinion to push ahead with a centralized case from a mid-December 2003 outbreak in Fear of SARS helped to achieve December cull in North Chungcheong were slaughtering plan” which would put live mar- Guangzhou was a 40-year-old medical doc- the December 30 adoption of a new national buried alive…It is too late to save them. The keters out of business. tor and hospital director named Liu, who wildlife protection law in South Korea. only thing we can do now is insist that the min- The Thai government on February 10 fell ill on January 7. Pronounced recovered According to a summary of the ister of agriculture acknowledge the cruelty and hosted a Buddhist ceremony to bless the spirits on January 18, he was confirmed as a new law provided by International Aid for ensure that minimum standards of decency are of the dead chickens. SARS case on January 24. Liu was believed Korean Animals, “From January 2005,” observed. PETA recommends gas slaughter, “More than 100 Buddhist monks to have become infected through his work. after a year-long phase-in, “illegal poachers while the Royal SPCA believes a veterinarian or chanted blessings for the birds in a merit-making The first known victim of the out- of wildlife and people eating wildlife will be other experienced person should train workers to ceremony at the Agriculture Ministry in break was 32-year-old TV producer Luo punished,” by “up to one year of imprison- break their necks for a quick death.” Bangkok,” the Straits Times of Singapore Jian, a self-described “environmentalist ment or a fine” of up to approximately “Burying chickens alive is not the reported, “before senior officials offered them a who is against the slaughter of living crea- $4,170 U.S. right way to do it,” agreed Thai Animal Guard- meal of fried chicken and chicken curry. The tures.” Luo Jian fell ill on December 16 “The law bans hunting amphibians ians Association chair Roger Lohanon. Lohanon rite is usually performed for dead people. The with the coronavirus found in civets, but and reptiles who were not included in the also favored skilled neck-breaking, he told ceremony followed a government-backed chick- swore he had never eaten or handled a civet. 1993 wildlife protection law” that it super- Prabit Rojanaphruk of The Nation, since en feast at a Bangkok park” three days earlier, Despite media reports that Luo Jian might sedes, the summary said. “Animals added Thailand lacks gassing equipment. “to encourage the public to eat chicken and help have been infected by wild mice or rats, the as protected species include moon bear, The Hong Kong-based Animals Asia the country’s ailing poultry industry.” source of his case remains unknown. water deer, wild boar, pit vipers, and bad- Foundation appealed to governments throughout Continued the Straits Times, “ T h e The second victim was waitress gers. Feral cats that have been responsible Asia “to close all live animal markets, to end mass slaughter violates Buddhist principles. The Zheng Ling, 20, who worked in a Guang- for disturbing the ecosystem will also be the trade and consumption of wild animals and ceremony was aimed at easing public guilt over zhou restaurant that served civet meat. classified as wildlife,” the translation dogs and cats, and to urgently address the killing the birds, government spokesman The third was a 35-year-old man, added. This enables wildlife officials to trap appalling conditions which millions of livestock Prompol Sod-Eiam said. of whom little has been disclosed. them. “However,” the translation finished, are forced to endure.” “We feel guilty because we are Recalling the 2002-2003 SARS “stray cats in the city will continue to be The Animals Asia Foundation quoted Buddhist,” Prompol told the Straits Time. “The outbreak, which also began with sporadic treated as pet animals by the Animal World Health Organization spokesperson Peter ceremony can make us feel relaxed. We apolo- cases in Guangdong, and killed 916 people Protection Law.” Cordingly as saying, “It might be time, gize to the souls of the dead chickens.” worldwide, officials ordered the killing of A proposed new South Korean although this is none of WHO’s business, that Thai public health minister Sudarat about 10,000 captive masked palm civets, animal protection law would keep penalties humans have to think about how they treat ani- Keyuraphan pledged to send psychiatrists and tanukis (“ raccoon dogs”), and hog badgers. in place for cruelty to pet dogs and cats, mals and how they farm them, how they market psychologists, along with health workers, to The International Society for according to IAKA, but would exempt dogs them––basically the whole relationship between counsel villagers who handled or helped to kill Infectious Diseases warned against any and cats who are raised for meat. the animal kingdom and the human kingdom.” potentially sick chickens. ––M.C. Did Plum Island lab introduce Lyme & West Nile viruses? Ebola exposure risk ORIENT POINT, N.Y.––The 850- an unknown condition that later turned out to the place for the biological division of its FORT DETRICK, Maryland–– acre Plum Island Animal Disease Center, just be West Nile.” chemical warfare branch during World War II. A National Research Council fellow doing off Long Island, operated by the USDA and Newly appointed Plum Island labo- Newsday once did a major piece about how in postdoctoral virology research at the U.S. the Department of Homeland Security, is ratory director Elizabeth Lautner told Bleyer the early 1950s the Army had plans to develop Army Research Institute for Infectious nominally the first line of defense for that “There have been significant upgrades to on Plum Island diseases with which to poison Diseases accidentally grazed herself with a Americans against zoonotic diseases associat- Plum Island since 9/11. We have increased the Soviet livestock. The Army insisted it never needle on February 11 while injecting mice ed with agriculture––like the avian flu H5N1. number of guards and have increased patrols to went ahead with the plan. Also, Newsday did with a weakened strain of Ebola virus. Now New York City corporate attor- every part of the island,” Lautner said. “We a piece, far less solid, suggesting that African Quarantined for 30 days on February 12, at ney Michael C. Carroll, 31, argues in a newly have done more extensive screening of poten- swine fever virus from Plum Island was possi- “Level Four” biosecurity, she remained free published book entitled Lab 257 - The tial employees as well as visitors,” Lautner bly used by the CIA to poison pigs in Cuba. of Ebola symptoms at least through February Disturbing Story of the Government’s Secret continued. “Visitors must have an escort at all “What the USDA has said,” 18, reported David Dishneau of the Plum Island Germ Laboratory, from William times. We have installed electronic surveil- Grossman summarized, “is that it is only Baltimore Sun. The researcher was trying to Morrow Inc., that accidents at Plum Island lance in sensitive areas.” involved in ‘defensive’ biological warfare, develop a vaccine for Ebola. Ebola victims may have introduced Lyme disease and West These precautions might keep human doing work to safeguard animals in the U.S. typically die after several days of high fever, Nile fever to the U.S. spies or saboteurs out, but would do little to from other nations.” diarrhea, vomiting, and both internal and “The first outbreak of Lyme disease help keep virus-bearing insects in. The USDA has been seeking funding external bleeding. occurred in Old Lyme, Connecticut, in 1975,” USDA spokesperson Sandy Miller since 1999 to upgrade Plum Island into a so- Carroll pointed out to Newsday staff writer Bill Hayes told Bleyer that she understood “Lyme called “Level Four” biosecurity lab. The only an animal research lab. Bleyer in a pre-publication interview. “Ten disease has never been studied on Plum large-animal facility in the world with that sta- Added Shane, “The USDA and miles southwest of Old Lyme you have Plum Island,” because “Lyme disease does not tus as of September 11, 2001 was in Australia. Department of Defense are studying a possible Island directly in the flight path of hundreds of affect livestock,” a disputed point. Hayes also Ironically, the Boston Globe f e a - lab to research zoonotic diseases. Although thousands of birds.” said that there was no West Nile virus at Plum tured the proposed upgrade on 9/11. The arti- Fort Detrick officials have assigned space on Carroll asserts that Plum Island was Island until after it hit New York City. cle drew little notice after the attacks that day the campus, no final decision on construction at the time breeding thousands of ticks, which “I don’t believe in coincidences,” on New York City and Washington D.C. has been made,” according to acting can transmit Lyme disease and were “impreg- responded Carroll. Since then the federal biodefense Agricultural Research Service associate nated with exotic animal viruses and bacteria.” Security at Plum Island has long research budget has expended from $305 mil- administrator Caird Rexroad. According to Carroll, government concerned critics including Mario Cuomo, lion per year to nearly $4 billion, B a l t i m o r e This leaves H5N1 research more-or- documents establish that in 1978 holes were formerly governor of New York state, and S u n reporter Scott Shane wrote on February less on ice. found in the roof and air filtration system at U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.). 11, 2004. But the biggest chunk of the new “Influenza kills annually about the lab and in the incinerator where infected “I’ve been on the island three times money, Shane said, is to be spent on building 50,000 people in this country,” University of animal carcasses were burned. The leaks came through the years,” environmental journalist a “national biodefense campus” at Fort Maryland Center for International & Security to light in 1978 after hoof and mouth disease Karl Grossman told ANIMAL PEOPLE i n Detrick, Maryland. This is to include replac- Studies biological warfare expert Milton escaped from one of the Plum Island buildings, 1998, soon after the island admitted reporters ing the existing U.S. Army biodefense unit at Leitenberg told Shane. “But we don’t put our infecting about 200 cattle, sheep, pigs, and for only the fourth time. Grossman had previ- Fort Detrick, at estimated cost of up to $1 bil- money into that. We’re putting billions of dol- horses who were kept outside. All were killed, ously visited with 1971 and 1978 press tours. lion; building a $105 million Integrated lars into a putative threat of disputed relevance lest the disease escape to the mainland. “It is a horrid scene,” Grossman Research Facility for the National Institutes of at a time when there is a shortage of flu vac- Of West Nile fever, first detected in continued, “with cattle and horses tethered in Health; and building a $120 million National cine and measles vaccine.” the U.S. in New York City in August 1999, stalls, dying. There has been a question,” Biodefense Analysis & Countermeasure Added Boston University environ- Carroll noted that, “Weeks before the first Grossman added, “of whether the place has Center to do “threat characterization” for the mental health professor David M. Ozonoff, human infection, very close to Plum Island, been doing biological warfare research involv- Department of Homeland Security. “Bioterrorism is hollowing out public health you had 18 horses on 13 horse farms on the ing animals. The USDA took over Plum All would do animal research. The from within. It is much more likely that bird North Fork [of Long Island Sound] dying from Island from the Army in 1954. The Army used Integrated Research Facility would be chiefly flu will kill millions of people than anthrax.” The 2004 ANIMAL PEOPLE Watchdog Report on Animal Protection Charities coming in spring, provides the background you need to make your donations most effective: $25, c/o ANIMAL PEOPLE, P.O. Box 960, Clinton, WA 98236. YES! I’M AN ____Please enter my subscription for one year (10 issues.) Enclosed is $24. ANIMAL PERSON! ____Please enter my subscription for two years (20 issues.) Enclosed is $38. ____Please enter my subscription for three years (30 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 2004 ANIMAL PEOPLE Watchdog Report on 101 Animal Protection Charities. Enclosed is $25. ____I want to help 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 Please make checks payable (in U.S. funds) to: ANIMAL PEOPLE, P.O. Box 960, Clinton, WA 98236-0960 A NIMAL PEOP LE, March 2004 - 19 How the U.S. kills sick & “spent” chickens SAN DIEGO––Calls to ed methods of killing both spent January 2004 that according to television stations and letters to hens and surplus chicks, according Little, “The AVMA is gathering newspapers indicate that Americans to guidelines posted by the South facts concerning the complaints” were mostly shocked by coverage of Dakota State University Department against Cutler, “and will hold a live burial and sometimes live incin- of Animal and Range Sciences. judicial hearing no earlier than eration of chickens in Souteast Asia “Carbon dioxide delivered February. If acquitted, Cutler will to stop the spread of avian flu via a mobile killing unit with an on- remain on the animal welfare board. H5N1––but live burial of chickens is board delivery system, cervical dis- If Cutler’s AVMA membership is also common here, to dispose of location, or instant maceration using suspended or revoked, he will be “spent” hens and surplus male a specially designed high-speed removed from the welfare commit- chicks from laying hen “factories.” grinder, are acceptable on-farm tee. If Cutler is censured or put on The U.S. egg industry kills slaughter methods when properly probation, it will be up to the judi- about 170 million spent hens and as performed,” says the SDSU poultry cial committee to decide whether he many as 235 million male chicks per management web site, in a state- remains on the welfare committee.” year. In 2002 about 111 million ment jointly attributed to Joy Mench Peggy Larsen has little spent hens were killed in U.S. and of the University of California at hope that the AVMA hearing will Canadian slaughterhouses. Nearly Davis and Paul B. Siegel of the result in anything good for chickens. 59 million hens, along with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. “The AVMA does not male chicks, were killed by other Mensch, director of the address the treatment of animals in means. That number is expected to U.C Davis Center for Animal Wel- factory farms,” Larsen reminded The wreckage of this Buckeye Egg Farm barn after a September 2000 increase by about 21 million in fare, more cautiously endorses live ANIMAL PEOPLE. “They sup- twister showed how the hens lived and died. (Mercy for Animals photo.) 2004, warned Poultry Times w r i t e r maceration at the CAW web site: port battery caging hens and keeping rious of all factory egg farms. November 2003, with a new shut- Barbara Olenik in September 2003. “Maceration in a high-speed grinder sows in gestation crates. They have Starting factory egg pro- down deadline of October 2004. “The USDA purchased results in rapid death, and is consid- had many chances to change their duction in Lower Saxony in 1971. Animal advocates mean- approximately 30 million spent hens ered a humane method for disposing policies,” Larsen continued. “For Pohlmann became the biggest egg while recalled how about one mil- a year through their canned boned of young chicks and embryonated years, [Albany, New York veteri- producer in Europe, but was barred lion hens died from dehydration, and diced chicken purchase pro- eggs. Only grinders specifically narian] Holly Cheever has presented from further production in Germany hunger, and exposure after a torna- grams, making it the largest market designed for disposal of poultry, scientific evidence that forced molt- in 1997 due to repeated violations of do hit some of the Buckeye barns in for spent hens,” Olenick explained. which have blades that turn at 5000 ing causes the needless death of pollution and occupational laws. September 2000. The Ooh-Mah- “However, in July 2003 the USDA or more RPM, should be used...The many hens at egg factories. I have In September 1994 Pohl- Nee Sanctuary in Hunker, Pennsyl- announced new specifications that grinder should be properly main- twice presented information on the mann also became one of the few vania rescued more than 1,000 hens fowl producers must meet…due to tained and must not be overloaded, injuries and deaths inflicted on factory farmers ever convicted of from the wreckage, about 400,000 complaints of bone fragments and as birds may be incompletely macer- calves during rodeo roping. The cruelty, for killing 60,000 hens who were rendered, and the rest––living injuries to consumers in the National ated under these circumstances.” Animal Welfare Committee has had salmonella at one of his German or dead––were bulldozed and buried, School Lunch Program.” never responded. This year the facilities by cutting off their water, local news media reported. United Egg Producers esti- AVMA inaction American Association of Equine food, and air conditioning. In early August 2003 Ooh- mated that the inability of many pro- The absence of specific Practitioners, under the AVMA The Pohlmann record in Mah-Nee was allowed to rescue ducers to meet the new specs would AVMA guidelines on live macera- umbrella, gave their annual humane Ohio was little different. At peak as 1,048 hens. Buckeye operations leave “13 million to 15 million spent tion and a broad exemption included award to the Professional Rodeo many as 14 million chickens pro- director Bill Leininger told C l e v e l - hens annually without a market.” in the AVMA Report on Euthanasia Cowboys Association.” duced up to 2.6 billion eggs per year and Plain Dealer reporter Fran Earlier, Olenick wrote, for “mass euthanasia” in event of Still, Larsen believes the at sites in four counties, amounting Henry that the company might have the Valley Fresh slaughterhouse in emergencies are at issue in continu- effort to hold Cutler responsible is to about 4% of the total U.S. egg to bulldoze or burn millions of oth- Water Valley, Mississippi, closed in ing controversy over efforts to con- worthwhile. “Because of the wood production volume––but Buckeye ers alive to meet the shutdown dead- anticipation of the new specs, leav- tain an outbreak of Newcastle dis- chipper killing,” Larsen said, “there was fined nearly $1 million during line. But it was essentially theatre. ing 22 million to 25 million spent ease that spread from fighting cocks are now many more people who the 1990s for a variety of air and In early February 2004 the Ohio hens per year to be killed elsewhere. to laying hens slightly more than a know what happens to spent hens. It water quality offenses. Department of Agriculture granted When there are no slaugh- year ago in southern California. was the first time I heard about it,” Pohlmann retired in 2002, operating permits for the Buckeye ter markets, explained A n i m a l “When a horrified neigh- she acknowledged, even though she and put his facilities up for sale. The barns to Ohio Fresh Eggs Inc., L i b e r a t i o n author Peter Singer and bor saw ranchers cramming live was once a USDA meat inspector. problems continued. In July 2003 owned by Orland Bethel and Don DawnWatch animal advocacy news- chickens into a wood chipper, ani- While the woodchipper Ohio authorities at last ordered Hershey, who bought the operation group host Karen Dawn in a mal advocates thought they had a furor raged, Ohio authorities lauded Buckeye to close each barn it from Pohlmann. They are to invest December 2003 commentary for the winning [anti-cruelty] case. Karen a series of business-as-usual resolu- “depopulated” of spent hens, begin- $60 million in improvements to Los Angeles Times, “Spent hens’ are Davis of United Poultry Concerns tions of problems involving spent ning in August, to achieve a com- reduce environmental hazards at one often packed into containers and led the push for prosecution,” wrote hens at Buckeye Egg Farms. plete shutdown by July 2004. of the four Buckeye sites. All of the bulldozed. Or they are gassed using Peter Singer and Karen Dawn. Begun in 1982 as Agri- Warning that this might barns may be restocked. carbon dioxide distributed unevenly “Unfortunately, a San General Inc. by German egg baron mean killing as many as 576,000 Not restocking the “depop- among tens of thousands of birds. It Diego deputy district attorney found Anton Pohlmann, Buckeye changed chickens per week, Buckeye ulated” barns was, all along, the is common for them to die slow, no criminal intent by the ranchers. names in 1998, but failed to shake a appealed, managing to delay imple- only evident departure from the painful deaths.” She concluded that they ‘were just reputation as perhaps the most noto- mentation of the order until mid- Buckeye routine. ––M.C. It is also increasingly com- following professional advice’ from mon for spent hens to be killed by two veterinarians. The ranchers live maceration, long the standard named Gregg Cutler as one,” Singer means of killing surplus chicks. The and Dawn continued. “Cutler denies remains are fed to pigs, cattle, or directly authorizing the use of a other chickens. The chicks are pul- chipper, but says he has no problem David Favre ad verized after as many as will fit are with it. He is on the animal welfare shoved into bags by “chick sexers,” committee of the AVMA.” who are typically low-paid and poor- Said Cutler to Jia-Rui ly educated young women working Chong of the Los Angeles Times, “If in an assembly-line environment. it is done properly with correct Job turnover, absentee- equipment, it is a humane way of ism, psychological trauma, and disposing of birds in an emergency.” substance abuse are common among United Poultry Concerns chick-sexers, ANIMAL PEOPLE has been demanding since March has been told by meat industry union 2003 that Cutler be removed from representatives, who have found in the AVMA animal welfare commit- trying to organize them that the tee, and unsuccessfully asked the Hit them with instability of the workforce is as for- American Association of Avian midable an obstacle as the consider- Pathologists to rescind an award it a 2-by-4! able employer hostility to unions. gave Culter for “outstanding contri- More than 30,000 “A macerator is just a butions to avian medicine.” fancy name for something that AVMA executive vice people who care about crushes and kills baby chickens. It president Bruce Little said at the animals will read is ugly and inhumane,” Vermont AVMA web site that, “It is this 2-by-4" ad. veterinarian Peggy Larsen told ANI- absolutely absurd and ludicrous to MAL PEOPLE. believe that any veterinary medical We'll let you have it Not even mentioned in the association...could or would advo- current edition of the A m e r i c a n cate throwing live chickens into a for just $68––or $153 Veterinary Medical Association wood chipper.” But Little has for three issues–– Report on Euthanasia (2000), live defended Cutler. or $456 for a year. maceration is nonetheless among the Veterinary Practice News generally approved and recommend- reporter Lori Luechtefeld wrote in Then you can let them have it. It's the only 2-by-4 to use in the battle for public opinion. ANIMAL PEOPLE 360-579-2505 20 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004 Where wolves, bears and people live together “People and wolves can live together,” says CLCP and similar organizations in promoting eco-tourism are Carpathian Large Carnivore Project director Christoph beginning to show Romanians that they can benefit from pro- Promberger. “What we have found is that carnivores can cope tecting wild habitat. extremely well with people.” Eco-tourism was so little known in Romania just Promberger has spent the past 10 years studying large seven years ago, when the CLCP began, that the Minister of carnivores in the southern Carpathian mountains and teaching Tourism did not even know the meaning of the term. livestock herders and beekeepers to use nonlethal techniques to After getting that straightened away, the CLCP faced control predation. Since 1995 Promberger and the CLCP have the difficulty of building up eco-tourism in Zarnesti, a commu- also introduced eco-tourism to a region which previously eco- nity well-situated as a base for wildlife observation, but lack- nomically benefited from wildlife only through hunting by the ing any tourism infrastructure to speak of. Previously a center Communist ruling elite––and not benefiting much, at that. of armament making, Zarnesti was literally closed off from the Promberger is now building the Carpathian Large world during the regime of deposed dictator Nicolai Ceausescu. Carnivore Center, to further establish the idea that the Piatra The program rapidly developed, underwritten by the Craiului National Park region in the southern Carpathians can World Wildlife Fund, the German outdoor apparel maker Jack become to Europe what the Yellowstone National Park region Wolfskin, the European Nature Trust, and the Liz Claiborne is to the U.S.––both a critical wildlife habitat and the chief eco- Foundation. Within just a few years Promberger and associates Nicolae Daramus, M.D., rescued these Romanian wolves nomic engine in an area with few non-extractive industries. had encouraged the opening of dozens of family-owned lodg- after their mother was poached. The Carpathian mountains are home to one third of ings, a horseback tourism center, and development of a sou- large carnivores and their habitat. One room representing the Europe’s large carnivores west of Russia. There are 3,500 venir trade, creating jobs for nearly 200 people. conflicts between bears and humans will show video of the wolves in Romania, a nation the size of Michigan. This is This involved cultural cognitive dissonance. famous bears of Racadau. almost as many wolves as exist in the entire U.S. There are “For several years we tried to help build a horse rid- In the forest surrounding the suburb of Racadau near 5,500 brown bears, nearly five times as many as there are of ing center in Zarnesti,” Promberger recalled in the 2002 CLCP the city of Brasov live bears who regularly scrounge for food their cousins, the grizzlies, in the U.S. Lower 48. Lynx are annual report, “which proved difficult due to the high initial out of the neighborhood garbage bins. This bear show became seen as often in the southern Carpathians as anywhere. investment costs, and due to a different understanding of ani- so well known that tourists regularly gathered outside in the Though Romania includes some of the most mal welfare among western horse-riding travel agencies (and street, waiting for the bears to appear. unspoiled wild beauty in Europe, with dense forest covering their clients) and the local perception of horses and the condi- Former CLCP staff member Annette Mertens in early more than a quarter of the nation, it suffers from some of the tions that were provided for them. After three unsuccessful 2003 counted 37 bears visiting the bins, up from 20 in 1998 worst environmental degradation as well. Logging, mining, attempts, and almost giving up, we finally found the right per- when she began studying them. Among the bears were cubs and agriculture have been the foundations of the Romanian son to operate the business, who built nice stables consistent and their potentially temperamental mothers. Some bears economy for as long as the nation has existed. Poverty, domi- with western standards for the horses.” became so accustomed to humans that they woud allow them- nation by more powerful neighbors, and political corruption The riding concession is now a success. selves to be touched and even take food from people’s hands. drove the use and abuse of Romanian resources almost without The new Carpathian Large Carnivore Center is to be There was even one report of a bear sleeping on an old mattress restraint during most of the 20th century. built on the other side of town, Promberger says, “so that peo- inside an apartment building. CLCP guide Dan Marin says the present Romanian ple don’t immediately flood the environmentally sensitive After analyzing the situation and the obvious dangers attitude towards the environment is a remnant of Communism. areas.” Construction is to start this spring, with a target com- caused by the bears’ close contact with humans, the CLCP sub- “People are not ignorant about it, but have neither a pletion date in 2005. The facility will stretch over 30 hectares mitted a plan to the city hall for the construction of bear proof negative nor positive attitude toward it. They are indifferent,” (about 75 acres), and will include a lecture hall, classrooms, garbage bins, which would ultimately persuade the bears to Marin believes. and spacious enclosures for bears, wolves, lynx , and exam- look elsewhere for food. The plan was rejected and instead a That cold indifference is starting to thaw, thanks in ples of their prey, to be obtained from zoos and game farms. bear hunt was organized. part to pressures from the European Union. The efforts of the There will also be exhibition halls describing the Mertens left the CLCP to pursue a Ph.d. in Italy. Promberger today shrugs off his disappointment. He Some good news from Romania, despite dog-killing and the remaining CLCP team members have become all too MATASARI, Gorj, Romania––A depressed coal The municipality is paying for nothing––not for euthanasia or accustomed to clashing with local governments and their some- mining village in the southwestern Carpathian mountains, electricity or water––because they said they had no money. So times illogical and corrupt decisions. Matasari does not even appear on most maps. Ute Langenkamp’s association (Tübinger Bürgerinitiative One of their biggest conflicts developed in 2000 Yet Matasari became infamous on February 9 when gegen Tierversuche, Uhlandstraße 20, 72135 Dettenhausen, when the regional government approved plans for a quarry on Romanian media and Internet activists publicized a city-spon- Germany) is paying for everything. the outskirts of Piatra Craiuli National Park. Quarry operations sored dog massacre that occurred there the preceding day. “I was so upset by the sight of over 3,000 healthy would have produced a stream of 40-ton trucks racing through The killing was in apparent direct contravention of dogs in a massive prison camp called Smeura––a former fox the Zarnesti valley every four minutes. Dust, noise, and blast- the Romanian national dog law adopted in 2002. fur farm––that I wanted to help Mrs. Langenkamp, who is ing could have polluted and destroyed the natural reserves, The shocked public response may herald a turnabout spending over 50,000 Euros a month just to keep her beloved ruining the eco-tourism program. in the Romanian attitude toward dogs. Dog massacres on a prisoners safe from death squads,” Smith continued. “The quarry has disappeared from our list of prob- much larger scale in Bucharest, the Romanian capital, were “In addition to the 3,000 dogs under her care in lems but our problems have not ended,” says Marin. widely praised by some news media just a few years ago, Romania, Mrs. Langenkamp has over the last three years The CLCP is now concerned about proliferating though decried by others. Killing on the Matasari scale might rehomed over 3,000 dogs in western Europe, mainly weekend cottages in the valley bordering the national park. never have attracted attention. Germany, and Pitesti killed several thousand dogs before Mrs. The narrow valley is an important wintering area for red deer Yet media raced to break the Matasari story. Langenkamp and her former partner Aurora Brizzi persuaded and the passage of the large carnivores who follow them, as Pro-TV said that 13 hunters killed “tens of dogs.” the municipality to stop the killing and bring the dogs they col- well as for shepherds, their livestock, and hikers. Informatia Gorjului reporter Mihaela Barceanu, an lected to Smeura. “The cottages will be devastating to tourism,” says eyewitness, said that eight hunters did the shooting, assisted “Despite the removal of some 10,000 dogs from the Promberger. “Now when a visitor leaves Zarnesti and goes into by welfare recipients and local officials, “who, armed with streets of Pitesti in the last six years there are still approxi- the forest and mountains, he first experiences this beautiful shovels and clubs, chased stray dogs from the apartment mately 3,000 dogs on the streets,” Smith observed. “This is valley. But if this construction continues he will leave Zarnesti blocks [where they lived in basements and communal areas] to proof that just killing and removing stray dogs does not work. and come upon another village of super luxury bungalows, and the hills, toward the guns.” Terrified children watched, So I have played the role of consultant and mediator. Under the scenery will be spoiled. In the last 10 years we have seen Barceanu wrote. The Matasari police did nothing. pressure from the local press, the mayor reluctantly signed our that probably about half of these valleys in Romania have been Fellow eyewitness Roxana Stoian of Impact In Gorj contract on January 26. Although the contract is with FPCC, destroyed. We said to the town hall, ‘If you take conservation furnished the most detail. “At 9 a.m. we heard the first shoot- my Romanian foundation, in association with AULIM, Ute’s seriously, than save this valley. Keep it as your capital.’” ing,” she wrote. Unemployed coal miners “hit with clubs the Romanian charity, AULIM will finance and manage the The CLCP did not form in 1993 to become involved poor dogs, to drive them toward the hunters,” who “snarled neuter/return program in Pitesti. in politics––but this has become an inevitable outgrowth of with satisfaction, as a sign that this was a pleasure. The suf- “There will of course be trouble,” Smith anticipat- studies begun initially just to understand how wolves and fering of animal lovers amused them a lot,” Stoian said. ed. “Councillors will complain that there are too many dogs humans interact. While the miners and hunters tried to flush dogs out, on the streets, even if those dogs have been officially adopted For centuries interaction consisted mainly of conflict Carmena Serbanoiu and two other representatives of the Pro by animal lovers and neutered by AULIM, and we will say we between sheep-killing wolves and shepherds. Animals shelter in Tg-Jiu, “caught in the middle, drove the are sorry, but those dogs have to stay for their natural lives in Shepherd Gheorghe Corca, for example, in 30 years dogs back to the apartment blocks,” Stoian said. their territory because otherwise they will be replaced by of sharing wolf habitat, has clubbed wolves and bears more “Pro Animals’ representatives wanted to find out incoming fertile dogs. I have yet to meet a mayor in Romania times than he can count on the seven fingers of his two hands. what was the legal base for organizing the dog hunt,” Stoian who understands that in order to solve the stray dog problem, The CLCP learned in surveying 30 shepherds’ camps added. “At the police station we saw that the County t h e carrying capacity of the streets must be occupied with that they had recently lost 79 sheep and lambs to large carni- Association of Hunters of Gorj agreed to organize this action neutered, vaccinated, and––to obey the new Romanian dog vores, primarily wolves. ‘according to the law,’ but without saying which law.” law––legally adopted dogs,” smith noted. To prevent wolf predation on sheep, the CLCP intro- Used to such incidents, and long active in trying to “FPCC has meanwhile signed a similar contract with duced electric fencing. It worked well enough that the prevent them, Elena Daniela Costin of the Romanian League the neighbouring towns of Mioveni and Calibasi, where the Romanian government purchased another 10 electric fences for in Defense of Animals e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE that, Renault Dacia factory has killed a lot of dogs in the past, and I the use of local shepherds, and continues working with the “It is less important to record how many dog massacres have will finance the neuter/return operation there,” Smith pledged. CLCP to improve the co-existence of wolves and shepherds. occurred, and in what cities, than it is to eliminate them by “I am trying to raise funds for a mobile clinic,” Promberger feels relatively happy about the successes sterilizing homeless animals to prevent overpopulation, and to Smith specified, “to be based in Mioveni but also to visit sur- of the CLCP, as it metamorphizes from field research into obtain a well-written animal protection law that we can use to rounding villages. This is because dog dumping, as soon as becoming a community institution. protect animals in court, whether the issue is dogfighting people hear of an animal shelter, sabotages our projects. “When I first came here, a lot of people felt like they allowed to go on in city pounds, as individual acts of abuse, E v e r y month between 10 and 50 dogs from Bucharest are were living in the Middle Ages because there were so many or mass killing by local authorities.” dumped in Campina,” where Smith first started helping wolves running around. They felt they had to change this in “ROLDA has been crying for a new animal protec- Romanian dogs, “so despite our having neutered and order to join the west. I said ‘No! You have to keep them tion law for more than more than two years,” Costin contin- returned 4,300 dogs in two years in Campina, we find more here.’ There was no sense of pride about this. Now people see ued. “The World Society for the Protection of Animals dogs every week and the municipality is so exasperated t h a t wolves as a heritage that western countries have lost.” promised to help us get such a law through Parliament, but they have illegally cancelled our exclusive contract. ––Chuck Todaro unkept promises do not help.” “Both the Pitesti and Mioveni projects will be super- [More about CLCP can be found at
knock over an elk, and drag a 1,000-pound steer into the zly to stay away from human habitat when it had no other True Grizz: woods for a snack. Why do they want birdseed? Bears take options for food. One idea was to take grizzlies far into the advantage of the most nourishing food available, whether it is back country where they could live in solitude. But today the Glimpses of Fernie, Stahr, Easy, Dakota, moose, ox, lily bulb, snail, crab, mushroom, hornet’s nest back country is a two-or-three-day walk for a human. For a and Other Real Bears in the Modern World or rotten carcass. They need to gain two to three pounds daily bear it is a jaunt. for months to give them enough energy to see them through What most people know about grizzlies is what they by Douglas H. Chadwick denning, which like snow can last half a year. Over winter a see on the cover of a wildlife magazine: a bear looming over a big male will lose 150 pounds of body weight. cowering human who is trying to defend himself. They don’t Sierra Club Books (85 2nd St., Historically grizzlies lived in the foothills and floors think of a human attacking a bear first with bullets and the bear San Francisco, CA 94105), 2003. of Montana, but as industry grew, real estate was developed, defending itself the only way it knows how. and recreation areas spread, grizzlies were pushed further Bears are motivated by a desire to not be harmed. It 176 pages, hardcover. $24.95 back into the mountains. Now bears eat whatever they can is difficult for many people to realize that a 400-pound bear Meet the bears: Fernie with her two cubs swim the find in the highlands. Huckleberries are a favorite and in good can be afraid of being hurt. Grizzly attacks are rarely predato- Hungry Horse Reservoir looking for food. Stahr opens a door years they eat 70,000 a day. But grizzly bears cannot reach ry, but are rather part of their repertoire of behavior intended to a screen porch and, surrounded by 50-pound bags of dog their historical prime weight by eating berries. Today females to keep them safe. food, naps on the couch. Dakota hangs out on a street corner weigh 300 pounds, males 500. Much that people believe is lore. Some bear legends in Whitefish, Montana so often she is named for it. In l998 the mountains once lush with huckleberry can be traced back to Lewis and Clark. Among the stories A few years ago these grizzlies would have been bushes were dry. The bears descended from the mountains to from the Louisiana Purchase expedition was the “grizzled” or killed. No questions. No second chances. Douglas Chadwick seek chockberries, service berries, and hawthorne fruits, pieback bears who could not be felled with one bullet or at in True Grizz tells how Montana is now trying to save the which were also scarce. And down the bears went for starchy times with even three or four. The legend grew and to the pub- bears with creative and innovative new methods. roots, wild grasses and mice, until they reached the bottom. lic the grizzly became the hairy New World dragon. Long gone is the era when grizzlies roamed from Here shrub lands had been replaced by rural lots. And people. Newspapers continue the saga with headlines: Kansas to the California coast, finding plenty to eat on the Humans and grizzly bears were now living on the same land. “Hiker mauled in Glacier Park.” What is more astounding is way: elk, bison, mule deer. Males may have weighed close Here was an open feast for grizzlies. Apple and that 100,000-plus hikers with varying levels of skill and intelli- to 1,000 pounds and females 600. plum trees hung heavy with fruit and livestock trotted in gence bumble through Glacier’s grizzly country unscathed. By l975 an estimated 99% percent of the grizzlies in fenced pastures. To hungry grizzlies it all smelled savory, A resident of Whitefish was wending his way home the Lower 48 had been killed. Standing shoulder to shoulder, along with the feed stored in barns and on porches for horses, late one evening after a night on the town. He met a grizzly on the remaining bears would barely have covered a used car lot. chickens, goats, and even llamas. Bears liked rabbit chow, the street who, the man said, came after him for several Because the public demanded that these fabled giants should dog nuggets and kitty kibble. Household garbage was a blocks. The man thanked his luck that he’d been able to keep survive, grizzlies were among the first species added to the favorite treat. ahead of the bear. But an average bear can outsprint a race U.S. endangered list. There were then 750 to 1,000 bears left The team would tell the bears, “No you can’t be horse. The bear clearly had no interest in catching the man, in the U.S. outside of Alaska. Today there are 1,000 to 1,300. here.” Then the next human would say, “How about a little and may have followed him just for amusement. With bears and humans sharing the same land, how garbage? Interested in a little grain?” Bears have a remarkable capacity for play, includ- do you keep a grizzly from walking into a house, lazing in Young bears would look to Mom and she’d say, ing––at times––interactive play with humans. For example, someone’s yard, or strolling through town? “It’s O. K. Here I’ll show you how to open it.” one afternoon a pair of grizzly cubs were given the run of the Today, in Whitefish, the Montana Bear Team tutors The greatest difficulty the team had in reeducating large yard and pond at the Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife grizzlies and people to live together. Tim Manley of the the bears was teaching humans to stop leaving food out. Center, whose owners train bears for movies. If people in the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department, biologists The Bear Team also knew it was hard to train a griz- yard paid too much attention to the pair, the 750-pound movie including author Douglas Chadwick, and Carrie Hunt with her star griz Tank, looking out from his pen, became restless. It Kerelan dogs, bred to fight bears, patrol the streets at night in was the job of author Chadwick’s son to pay attention to Tank. an old pickup truck looking for trouble. Once, while the boy sat with his back to the pen, talking with This night a call comes in about a bear unknown to the bear and idly tossing gravel at a can, he heard scratching the team hanging around someone’s yard. A bear without a sounds behind him. He turned and saw that Tank had scraped name means it hasn’t been in enough trouble to have one. This together odd bits of gravel on the pen’s floor and was pushing is an ideal bear to train. the pile out to him with a paw. And there in the dark shadows of a house a grizzly Stahr and her cubs couldn’t learn to stay away from hunkers over a bird feeder. Humans and dogs leap out of the human habitat and were sent to Washington State University at pickup. “Hey bear!” The dogs bark. Someone shoots the bear Pullman for captive use in studies of bear nutrition and psy- with a rubber bullet. “Cracker” shells explode near the target. chology. Fernie was shot by a hunter who mistook her for a They hope the bear will decide the attraction is not black bear. Dakota and her cubs went into the Whitefish worth the commotion and run off to resume life in the wild. If Range and denned near the headwaters of a creek that joins the not, the team will attach the dogs’ leashes to their belts and North Fork River. Dakota was a true success story. the dogs will charge ahead, pulling and snarling. “Grizzlies strengthen the spirit. They create wonder. Grizzlies, with their cousins the polar bears, are the They humble. They temper. They clarify and awaken. They strongest land predators in the New World. They can acceler- Ex-problem grizzlies at the West Yellowstone Bear Center. do me a world of good,” Chadwick ends. ate from zero to 30 miles per hour faster than a sports car, (Kim Bartlett) ––Suzanne Morrow The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature by David Baron W. W. Norton & Company (500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110), 2004. 277 pages, hardcover, $24.95. This amazing book explains how wild pumas near The Colorado Division of Wildlife began using aversive condi- ing to modify their lifestyles. I gave them the standard advice: Boulder, Colorado came to view humans as prey. The intrigu- tioning to let mountain lions know they had to stay away from keep cats inside, especially at night, don’t leave pet food out- ing story, however, is only the frame that David Baron uses to humans and civilization, blasting the cats with air horns and side, lock down your trash cans, and don’t feed any wild ani- painstakingly piece together a gigantic puzzle. shooting at them with rubber bullets, firecrackers, and bean- mals. However, when I moved from Austin two years ago, When a puma killed Boulder high school student Scott bags. The Division of Wildlife began capturing and relocating some people were still feeding deer in their yards, and small Lancaster in 1991, “everyone knew” that healthy pumas did not pumas found in urban settings. Pumas who were considered a pets continued to vanish. view people as prey––but Lancaster’s killer proved to be both real threat were killed. Both Colorado and Boulder wildlife We now live in a heavily wooded, hilly area not far wild and healthy. Baron explains the factors that caused this agencies increased efforts to teach residents to live safely from the center of Atlanta. We thought we had left the wilder- dramatic change in puma behavior. among potentially dangerous wildlife. ness behind us, so we were pleased and amazed by the variety When wild animals came to town in the Old West, Baron also cites examples of innovative aversive con- of birds in our neighborhood. We added birdbaths, planted they were shot. If they survived, they learned to avoid people. ditioning programs used by other organizations, agencies, and berry trees, and hung birdfeeders in our large backyard habitat. Baron relates many sad stories about the wholesale communities to keep wildlife and humans at a safe distance Before we knew it, the extra birdseed had caused an increase in slaughter of predators in the United States as humans increased from each other. He points out that the issues involving pumas the squirrel and chipmunk populations, resulting in an over in population, moved out into the wildernesss, and altered the have important implications for the Yellowstone region and abundance of snakes, including huge copperheads. I realized natural landscape. Mexican gray wolf recovery programs, as well as other efforts that I had flunked “Backyard Habitat Management 101” and Baron tells us that author Michael Johnson labeled new- to reintroduce predators to their former habitats. have since retired many of the birdfeeders. comers to western cities “New Westers.” “Old Westers believe Puma-related problems have not disappeared from the Baron concludes that, “The most critical element of the West was w o n . New Westers are concerned with how it Boulder area, but they have not escalated. The human inhabi- wildlife management in twenty-first century America will be was lost––or will be.” tants there, as a rule, still have great love and compassion for modifying the behavior of the most pervasive species of all. New Westers passed laws to prevent or limit killing all wildlife. However, when they see a puma in their yard or Reducing conflicts between people and wild animals will predators. Meanwhile the populations of many wild creatures, on their patio, many no longer reach for their camcorder. require controls on human actions: where we build our homes, including deer, have multiplied beyond pre-settlement norms. Instead, they scare the cat away with rubber buckshot. how we landscape our yards, the way we dispose of our trash Deer have moved into the suburbs to feast on well-maintained Baron never exaggerates the risks associated with and house our pets. People, especially those who live along yards and neighborhood handouts. Instead of feeding at dawn pumas. Very few people will ever be attacked by pumas. Yet the new frontier between civilization and wildland, must accept or dusk, they graze in broad daylight. When the Boulder-area if we do not do more to educate people about the potential dan- that they are participants in the natural world, not mere pumas noticed that the deer were moving to town, they fol- gers of close contact with any wild animal, more pumas and observers.” ––Ann T. Koros lowed and changed their hunting hours accordingly. people will be killed needlessly. New Westers moved to Boulder to be close to nature. The lessons I learned by reading The Beast Isolation is the worst cruelty Baron relates many fascinating tales of human/puma encounters in the Garden had many personal applications. "THEY HAVE to a dog. Thousands of in the Boulder area before Scott Lancaster’s death. Generally, We lived on a greenbelt in Austin for many years. NO VOICE - dogs endure lives not worth the inhabitants were thrilled to see pumas in their yards and did It was fascinating to look out my window and see living, on the ends of chains, not fear for their own safety. However, Boulder wildlife spe- a real life version of Animal Planet. However, I THEY HAVE in pens, in sheds, garages cialists Michael Sanders and Jim Halfpenny were concerned was constantly modifying our backyard habitat and basements. Who is about this trend. They began their own puma study, tracking after things I did had unforeseen consequences for NO CHOICE" doing something about this? the activity of the big cats. Sanders and Halfpenny soon real- the creatures who lived in the woods. Animal Advocates ized that puma urbanization was changing the rules of the When we first moved to the greenbelt, we is! game, and concluded it was a disaster waiting to happen. would see deer only at dusk and dawn. After a See how at Unfortunately, many other wildlife biologists at the time few years, they appeared during the day. Does www.animaladvocates.com. viewed Sanders and Halfpenny as alarmists and did not take the left their fawns in the safety of front yards while threat seriously. So, nothing much was done to discourage the they went off grazing. The deer multiplied and we Sign the petition. Join our pumas from moving to the suburbs. saw an increasing number of other animals––fox, cause. Read our "Happy When the Boulder pumas went to town, they carefully raccoons, armadillos, skunks, opossums, coy- Endings" stories of dogs observed the reactions of the humans they saw and decided that otes, even an occasional puma. rescued from lives of misery, the inhabitants were not to be feared. The lions first started to Then, pets began to disappear. I loved lis- and the laws we've had prey on pets and then on people. Scott Lancaster was killed tening to the calls of coyotes in the woods. Some passed. Copy and use our while jogging on a path near his high school in broad daylight. of my neighbors, unfortunately, did not. They ground-breaking report into Lancaster’s tragic death was a wake-up call to everyone. had moved out of the city, but they were not will- the harm that isolation does 22 - ANIMAL PEOP LE, March 2004 ANIMAL OBITS HUMAN OBITUARIES Stumpy, age 40+, an 80-ton preg- Richard Charter, 53, of Johan- Daniel Radziej, 33, was killed on nant North Atlantic right whale, familiar to nesburg, South Africa, drowned on February February 2 when the rented car in which he New England Aquarium, Woods Hole Ocean- 1, 2004 while trying to rescue a white water was riding hit a truck near Mariental, ographic Institute, and Center for Coastal rafting companion who had fallen into the Namibia. “Radziej, a German national, Studies researchers since 1975, was found Orange River near Glen Lion, and also recently moved [from Namibia] to South dead from a ship strike off Virginia in early drowned. “After a successful business and Africa, where he was to run a wildlife rescue February. Wrote Cape Cod Times staff writer sporting career, in which he captained the and training center in the Northwest Prov- Emily C. Dooley, “From 1975 through 2002 South African skydiving team, Charter set ince,” reported Africa News Service. there were 292 documented cases of ships Dogs Pongo, Tina, Cleo, Danny, about buying degraded farmland and rehabili- Radziej and his wife Catherine had fought the striking large whales across the globe. Of Willow, Gallagher, Gaston, Lacota, and tating it back to its natural beauty. His most Namibia Ministry of Environment and these, 38 strikes involved North Atlantic right A m a d e u s , and cats Lucinda, Danube, recent and ambitious project was Glen Lion Tourism since late 2002 over custody of a whales, according to the Large Whale ship Tawny, and T a r a , rescued pets of activist in the southern Kalahari,” recalled Chris male lion and a female leopard whom they Strike Database compiled by the National writer Jim Willis, died in a January housefire Mercer of the Kalahari Raptor Centre, raised from cubs. Their permits to keep the Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.” that razed Willis’ home in Avella, Pennsyl- “where Charter and his partner, entrepreneur big cats were revoked after the cats allegedly North Atlantic right whales are the rarest of the vania. Willis was away for the evening when Pat Quirk, bought 26 contiguous farms to mauled vistors to the Radziej farm. great whales, with only about 325 surviving. the fire started. create a private nature reserve of some 70,000 Namibian film maker Simon Wilkie, 42, C h a n c e, a severely injured pit bull hectares (about 180,000 acres) to p r o v i d e suffered face and chest injuries in the acci- Wolf #42, alpha female of the Druid pristine sanctuary for Kalahari wildlife and in dent. Driver Julika Kennaway, 38, a British Peak Pack in Yellowstone National Park, was terrier seized in a late January drug raid in Port St. Lucie, Florida, believed to have been used particular, the desert lion and black rhino. nature film director, escaped serious harm. found dead on February 3 atop Specimen We hope Charter’s untimely death will not Ridge after a fight with Mollie’s Pack, also as a “bait dog” to train fighting pit bulls, died Allison Brent Abell, 52, was from his injuries on February 3, 2004, despite end the Glen Lion project,” Mercer added, killed on February 12 by a black-maned called the Crystal Creek Pack. #42 became the “because of the need for suitable habitat into Druid Peak Pack alpha after killing her tyran- the efforts of local rescuers to save him. African lion he had raised from a cub at which rescued predators such as caracals, Cougar Bluff Enterprise, described by Becky nical sister, #40, who may have earlier killed R u t h, 26, and Kisii, 10, the last jackals and hyenas can be released.” one of #42’s first litters. Her more benign sis- two reticulated giraffes at the Hogle Zoo in Malkovich of The Southern Illinoisan as “an ter, #41, left the Druid Peak Pack in 1998 to Salt Lake City, died during the first weekend Gretchen Hersman, 53, activist exotic wildlife preserve that sheltered the become founding alpha female of the Sunlight in February. Ruth was euthanized due to an and visual artist, died on December 17, 2003 lion, eight pumas, a bobcat, and eight Basin Pack. Suffering from mange and a bro- irreparable compound fracture, cause of breast cancer at her home in West Branch, wolves. The exhibit license was issued in ken foot, #41 and another wolf recently left unknown. Kisii was euthanized the next day Iowa. Co-founding the Johnson County 2000 in his wife Kathie Abell’s name.” the pack. Seen feeding on a freshly killed calf after collapsing with symptoms of cancer . Humane Society in 1980, Hersman in 1996 Away at the time of the attack, Kathie Abell on private land on February 6, #41 was shot The zoo spent $50,000 to improve the giraffe became Midwest Regional Director for In arrived home to see the lion at large. As she by a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service agent on exhibit after Sandile, 7, a male, died from Defense of Animals, and answered the IDA did not know how to use the tranquilizer gun February 15. #42 and #41 were the last of the getting his neck tangled in a fence in January 1-800-Stolen-Pet Hotline. In recent years kept for such emergencies, she authorized 31 wolves brought to Yellowstone as part of 2002. Two other giraffes died in 1993 and Hersman chiefly investigated puppy mills and Hardin County sheriff’s deputies to kill the the 1995-1996 species reintroduction. 1994 after suffering disabling falls. gathered information about dogfighting. lion. Abell’s remains were found later. MEMORIALS H5N1 kills Thai zoo leopard; Beijing Zoo stops feeding live chickens to tigers B E I J I N G ––The avian flu H5N1 natural diet of raw beef and mutton, the old home to quarters separate from visitors. In loving memory of Polly Strand. killed an endangered clouded leopard on Malaysia Star and China Daily reported. Bird display sections have been closed for --Sherry de Boer January 27 at the Khao Khiew Zoo in Western zoo experts have for more health reasons” and “the keepers are keeping and the Tina de Boer Long Charitable Trust Chonburi province, Thailand, environment than a decade urged Chinese counterparts to the displays cleaner and not as crowded.” ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– minister Prabat Panyachatraksa confirmed on stop feeding live animals to carnivores. But other Chinese zoos demonstrat- In memory of all farmed animals February 13, after two weeks of rumors. The Chinese zoo directors, however, have seen ed that they still don’t understand how zoolog- who have suffered at the hands of man. leopard was fed mainly chicken carcasses. A live feeding as a gate attraction, contrary to ical education differs from circus entertain- Your lives do matter. white tiger also became ill, but recovered. lessons learned by most U.S. and European ment. To welcome the January 22 start of The ––Dianne & Michael Bahr The Khao Khiew Zoo and four other animal exhibitors generations ago, and have Year of The Monkey, the Forest Safari Park in ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– leading Thai zoos closed their bird exhibits defended the practice by insisting that live Shenyang dyed monkeys’ fur and the manes In memory of Coco, several days earlier, after 36 pheasants, pea feedings keep predators mentally fit. of wild horses in bright colors. The Nanning beloved dog of Beatrice Welles. fowl, and Siamese firebacks died at a rare bird Never approved of by the American Zoo offered free ostrich meat and peacock ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– menagerie in Suphan Buri province. Zoo Association, public live feeding was last soup, made from animals formerly on exhibit. In memory of Purr Box (12/3/87), Pin Lyvun, director of the Phnom documented in the U.S. in 1996, when the Both zoos are located in regional Prometheus (3/21/81), Friendl (10/30/87), Tamao zoo in Cambodia, told the Melbourne USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection centers of dog-eating and wildlife-eating, but Lizzie (5/8/84), Boy Cat (12/26/85), A g e that 56 wild birds had died there as of Service closed the Steel City Petting Zoo in shocked visitors still found their practices abu- Miss Penrose (11/18/98), Duke (11/1/98) February 15, and that the zoo had killed 400 Cottondale, Florida, after owner Romulus sive. Shenyang Wild Animal Protection and Blackie (9/9/96). parakeets after some of them died mysterious- Scalf allegedly fed live animals to alligators. Organization director Zhu Chengwei, Liaon- ly. The zoo thereafter closed its bird exhibits. “The peacocks at the Shanghai Wild ing University zoologist Liu Lingyu, and a The death of the clouded leopard Animal Park and the Beijing Badaling Safari beauty salon manager named Li who had was soon followed by menu changes at the Animal World, who used to strut around extensive experience with hair-dying all criti- Beijing Zoo––not well-appreciated by the first showing off their plumage, now are forced to cized the monkey-dying in statements to the observers. “Gone are the lions and tigers’ live stay in cages,” added the Malaysia Star a n d Xinhua News Service. chicken dinners,” lamented the Malaysia Star China Daily. “Turkeys at the Beijing Zoo–– Three visitors denounced making on February 11, in translation from the China believed to be particularly susceptible to the meals of zoo animals to the Chinese web news Daily. The big cats were switched to a more poultry virus––have been moved out of their service