Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage ELLOWSTONE Paid Y ANIMAL PEOPLE, The steam isn't all from geysers Inc. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK––Filmed in Grand Teton National Park, just south of Yellowstone, the 1952 POB 205, SHUSHAN, NY 12873 western classic S h a n e depicted stubborn men who thought them- [ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED.] selves reasonable in a tragic clash over limited range. Alan Ladd, in the title role, won the big showdown, then rode away pledging there would be no more guns in the valley. But more than a century after the S h a n e era, the Yellowstone range wars not only smoulder on, but have heated up. To the north, in rural Montana, at least three times this year armed wise-users have holed up for months, standing off bored cordons of sheriff’s deputies, who wait beyond bullet range to arrest them for not paying taxes and taking the law into their own hands. One of the besieged, Gordon Sellner, 57, was wounded in an alleged shootout and arrested on July 19 near Condon. Sellner, In February, U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents reportedly who said he hadn’t filed a tax return in 20 years, was wanted for backed away from searching an Idaho ranch for evidence in a poach- attempted murder, having allegedly shot a sheriff’s deputy in 1992. ing case, after the proprietor threatened to call a militia. A similar siege goes on at Roundup, where Rodney Skurdahl and But the Yellowstone region battles are waged with political four others are wanted for allegedly issuing a “citizen’s declaration clout more often than guns, and the showdowns usually come in leg- of war” against the state and federal governments and posting boun- islative offices. That doesn’t make the gunslingers less menacing. ties on public officials. At Darby, near the Bitterroot National Wildlife protection laws are so little supported in some areas that on Forest, elk rancher Calvin Greenup threatens to shoot anyone who March 8 it was Lemhi County sheriff Brett Barsalou who ran three tries to arrest him for allegedly plotting to “arrest,” “try,” and hang Fish and Wildlife agents off of Gene Hassey’s Idaho ranch. The local authorities. Greenup is Montana coordinator of the North agents were trying to execute a search warrant in connection with the ––K.B. American Volunteer Militia. (continued on page 6) ANIMAL PEOPLE News For People Who Care About Animals September 1995 Volume IV, #7 SHOWDOWN AT THE DOLPHIN PEN SUGARLOAF KEY, Florida––The first anniversary of the arrival of the dolphins Molly, Bogie, and Bacall at the Sugarloaf Dolphin Sanctuary came and went with no resolu- tion in sight of the impasse between Sugarloaf director of rehabilitation Ric O’Barry and oth- ers involved in the rehab-and-release effort. Brought from the former Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo on August 10, 1994, all three dolphins remain at Sugarloaf, for the time being, along with three former U.S. Navy dolphins whom O’Barry is preparing for release in a sepa- rate deal arranged by the Humane Society of the U.S. Aligned against O’Barry are Joe Roberts of the Dolphin Alliance, who negoti- ated the release of the dolphins from the buy- INSIDE ers of the Ocean Reef Club; Russ Rector of the Dolphin Freedom Foundation, a longtime advocate of dolphin releases who was exclud- NYU gives ed from the Sugarloaf project; dolphin train- ers Rick Trout and Lynn Stringer, originally LEMSIP chimps part of the Molly, Bogie, and Bacall rehab effort, who were dismissed last December ––Mary Bloom after clashing with O’Barry; Mary Lycan, to Coulson the former Ocean Reef Club trainer, whom Roberts brought to Sugarloaf last spring as Puppy mill sanctuary behaviorist; former Sugarloaf vet- Sealing their doom erinarian George Baker, who quit on June 5 because of what he called “poor communica- crackdown? tion, non-compliance, and blatant disregard Whale sanctuary may be last safe harbor of medical advice”; and a small army of GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE, in slowing down, a recovery.” other onetime staff, volunteers, and repre- Q U E B E C ––The Canadian government got Newswires around the world duly HSUS fires VP sentatives of some organizations which have the word about cod stocks on June 29, and it noted that, as Reuters put it, “Canadian sci- helped to fund the release project. wasn’t good. Having allowed northern cod to entists reported to the advisory Fisheries CDC WARNS: COYOTE Since March, increasing numbers be fished to commercial extinction before cut- Resource Conservation Council that stocks of of O’Barry’s critics have been trying to oust ting quotas and cracking down on foreign northern cod and other groundfish species PENS SPREAD RABIES him from the project. After the Ocean Reef dragnetters, Canada may have lost the greater showed no signs of recovery or rebuilding dolphins swam free twice, on June 3 and portion of its Atlantic fishery until at least a yet, despite three years of fishing bans. The June 5, accompanied on the latter date by the decade into the 21st century, if not forever. report noted that the Atlantic seal population HOG SLURRY ISN'T ALL youngest of the Navy dolphins, Roberts told Scrambing to shift the blame, and had doubled to 4.8 million since the 1970s, THAT STINKS IN N C media he planned to remove the dolphins hoping to revive the global market for seal and suggested that harp and grey seals were . from the Sugarloaf sanctuary, a former dol- pelts by way of tossing a bone to frustrated hampering the recovery of the stocks.” phin exhibition site, within a matter of days, fishers, Canadian fisheries minister Brian Objected biologist Hal Whitehead Ann Fields is sued and move them to a sea pen on the Indian Tobin claimed that evening on the CBC of Dalhousie University via the MARMAM River near their capture site. O’Barry, after Prime Time News that, “Whatever the role online forum, “If seals, who eat young cod, for alleged fraud initially saying he wouldn’t turn the dolphins seals have played in the collapse of ground- were affecting the populations, then there over to “unqualified” people, agreed to let fish stocks, seals are playing a far more should have been changes in the survival (continued on page 19) important and significant role in preventing, (continued on page 18) 2 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995 Editorial Prepare for post-pet overpopulation Any defunct gas station could become a vibrant example of a new age in animal An essential first step, already taken in San Francisco, San Diego, New York, care-and-control: a neighborhood humane outpost. Offering easy access and plenty of and St. Louis, is to get humane societies out of animal control. Since 1872, when the parking, ex-gas stations can’t keep lots of animals, but that isn't what they should do. Women’s Humane Society of Philadelphia became the first humane society to take a dog- Their showrooms can display cats in all the decorator colors; they have garages able to keep catching contract, humane societies have used donated labor and funds to provide essential adoptable dogs in spacious runs, and park a van for the night; and they have adequate public service––and have been taken for granted. Municipal governments, as in New office space for a small-scale operation, which could be either a satellite of a larger organi- Orleans four years ago, slash animal control funding in the belief that the people who care zation or an independent entity cooperating with other shelters of differing capabilities. most about animals will pick up the tab. They’ve been right, but that must stop. The van would be not just wheels, but an extension of the job. In normal configu- Humane work and animal control are parallel pursuits, requiring similar skills and ration, it would do animal pickup-and-delivery. A slide-in veterinary module would make facilities, yet serve different functions. Animal control solves animal-related problems for it a mobile neutering-and-vaccination clinic, or a rescue vehicle. taxpayers and voters. Humane societies promote the betterment of humanity through A humane outpost obviously couldn’t receive lots of drop-off litters and other encouraging kindness. Public institutions answer to the political majority. Humane soci- owner-surrendered animals. Nor could it house animals through a multi-day holding period, eties answer to the most concerned minority. or do any but emergency euthanasias. Those would remain the duties of central shelters. To introduce progress, humane societies must proceed beyond the level of service Likewise, a humane outpost couldn’t do law enforcement. But it might hold drop-offs tem- the average taxpayer will fund. They must inspire pursuit of an ideal beyond the acceptable porarily, for exchange with adoptable animals from a central shelter. It might also do com- minimum. As SFSPCA president Richard Avanzino realized at the outset of his drive to munity liaison for anti-cruelty and animal control officers working out of a larger office. end population control euthanasia in San Francisco, they cannot inspire the public with a A humane outpost would not be an animal shelter in the familiar sense. It would positive vision for animal care if they are known chiefly as death row for dogs and cats. exist not to collect, keep, or kill animals, nor to deal with pet overpopulation per se, the That image keeps many kindly people away from humane societies. Instead, they may feed main job of animal shelters for the past 120 years, but rather to facilitate responsible pet- homeless cats; abandon animals they can’t keep to “give them a chance”; become animal keeping in the post-pet overpopulation milieu, by arranging appropriate placements, help- collectors; and miss the word that their well-meant deeds may be inhumane, being afraid ing pets get essential care, and providing referrals for other services.