Month: February 2004

Wayne Pacelle on Democratic Front-Runners

In January, Wayne Pacelle released his impressions of the Democratic candidates for president.

Written before the first few primaries, Pacelle wrote that all of the Democratic candidates were relatively strong on issues important to Humane USA (HSUS’s political action committee). Of John Kerry, the frontrunner for the nomination, Pacelle wrote,

Senator Kerry was the co-author with former Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) of the successful effort to halt an annual $2 million subsidy for the mink industry – terminating a taxpayer give-away to the corporate mink industry. Kerry and Smith shepherded this amendment through the Senate during debate on the Fiscal Year 1995 Agriculture Appropriations Act, and they have repelled subsequent efforts by legislators aligned with the mink industry to revive the taxpayer boondoggle. Kerry has also been the co-author, with Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), of letters in recent years sent to the leaders of the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture Appropriations to increase funding for existing animal protection laws, including the Animal Welfare Act and the Humane Slaughter Act. Thanks in part to his leadership – and collaborating with the powerful senior member of the Appropriations Committee, Robert C. Byrd — the Congress has provided more than $26 million in new funds for animal protection programs in recent years.

Kerry has cosponsored almost every piece of animal protection legislation – including measures to combat cockfighting, bear baiting, canned hunts, puppy mills, the bear parts trade, the exotic pet trade, steel-jawed leghold traps, and the abuse of “downed” livestock – introduced on behalf of animals. A Washington Post profile of Senator Kerry, however, did create concern among animal advocates across the country. It reported that Kerry highlighted his interest in the hunting of mourning doves – an unusual activity to draw out at this stage of the campaign, given that dove hunting is illegal and enormously unpopular in both Iowa and New Hampshire, especially among Democratic activists.

As for Kerry’s only major competitor left standing, John Edwards, Pacelle wrote,

John Edwards of North Carolina immediately became a much-admired figure within the animal protection community by defeating incumbent U.S. Senator Lauch Faircloth, who was the chamber’s only operator of an industrial hog factory. Still in his first term in the Senate, Edwards has been a consistently reliable supporter of animal protection and regularly cosponsors animal protection legislation or supports our positions on key votes, such as banning canned hunts. He did, however, oppose the amendment to halt the use of leghold traps on national wildlife refuges. His general support for our positions is noteworthy because North Carolina’s agriculture, hunting, and animal fighting industries are larger and more vocal than those in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Florida – the states represented by the other senators vying for the Democratic nomination.

Source:

An animal friendly president? Press Release, Wayne Pacelle, Humane USA, Undated.

PETA Takes Protest to Petco Executive's Neighbors

In January, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals took its campaign against Petco to the neighborhood of Petco chief executive officer, Brian Devine.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, PETA members handed out fliers to Devine’s neighbors reading, in part,

Meet your neighbor . . . Please let him know you feel about the suffering and deaths of countless animals in his Petco stores.

The protesters included PETA coordinator Christy Griffin who dressed up in a parrot suit for the occasion.

In a press release on the action, PETA’s Daphna Nachminovitch said,

Brian Devine has ignored the suffering of animals in PETCO stores for years, while conditions have deteriorated. His neighbors have a right to know about his true nature.

Petco spokesman Don Cowan told the Union-Tribune,

We strive constantly to provide a safe, healthy and humane environment for companion animals in our stores.

Sources:


PETA takes protest into exec’s home turf. Frank Green, Union-Tribune, January 17, 2004.

PETA Takes Anti-Petco Campaign Straight To CEO’s Backyard. Press Release, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, January 15, 2004.

Allison Lance Watson Charge with Lying to Grand Jury

On January 14, Allison Lance-Watson — wife of Sea Shepherd activist Paul Watson — was arrested and charged with lying to a federal grand jury investigating a May 2000 arson at a Washington timber company.

Watson was called before a grand jury in October and given immunity from prosecution in order to compel her testimony.

During her grand jury testimony, Watson was asked about the use of a truck that the Watsons rented in May 2000 to haul equipment between Washington and California offices of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Specifically, Watson was asked whether the truck was always in Watson’s possession and whether she loaned it to anyone. Watson answered no to both inquiries. Then, she was asked whether or not Gina Lynn — an associate of Watson’s, was ever in the truck. Watson again answered no.

The problem for Watson is that the FBI has surveillance video tape of the truck at a Washington mini-mart only 12 miles and a few hours removed from the arson. The video tape apparently shows Lynn and animal rights extremist Joshua Trentor in the truck. Moreover, the occupants of the truck dumped five plastic bags full of clothes, ski masks, gloves, and a wrapper from a pair of bolt cutters.

Watson was released after posting bond. If convicted, she could face up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine.

Source:

Animal rights activist arrested. Paul Shukovsky, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 15, 2004.

PETA Angry Over Hillary Clinton's New Mink Coat

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals vented its displeasure at news that Sen. Hillary Clinton recently had a new mink coat made for her by Manhattan furrier Peter Duffy. PETA released a press release saying,

After several twists and turns, denials, and a cover-up, Senator Clinton’s staff has now admitted that she has a new fur coat. Perhaps she has forgotten that every year, millions of animals, including rabbits, minks, foxes, and raccoons, are trapped in the wild in barbaric steel-jaw leghold traps. Those who don’t freeze or starve are usually beaten to death, jumped on to crush their ribs and lungs, or suffocated. Animals, particularly mother animals anxious to reach their helpless young, have even been known to endure the pain of chewing off their own limbs in order to free themselves from traps. And of course, fur farms are just as hideous. After months of fear and being confined to crowded, filthy cages, suffering extreme weather conditions and unbearable stress, the animals are forcibly removed from the cages and killed by suffocation, neck-breaking, or genital electrocution. Sometimes, these methods only stun—not kill—the animals, who end up being skinned alive.

Apparently when originally contacted by PETA, Clinton’s staffers decided to claim that the coat was actually velvet — a story that was quickly contradicted in a number of New York-area newspapers.

In fact, Clinton staffers ultimately confessed in January that,

The senator has owned a mink coat for 25 years, and because it was worn, she traded it in.

Sources:

Hillary mink mystery solved. New York Post, January 19, 2004.

Urge Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to Stop the Violence. Press Release, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, undated.

Wisconsin's Mourning Dove Hunt Reports More Than 200,000 Birds Killed

In January, Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources estimated that the state’s recent mourning dove hunt resulted in about 202,000 of the birds being killed during the 60-day season.

A survey of hunters who bought small game hunting licenses found that 8 percent of hunters in the state participated in the mourning dove season, and that on average they killed 8 mourning doves apiece.

Keith Warnke, a game bird ecologist with the Wisconsin DNR, says that level of participation was roughly what the DNR expected and that the number of birds killed was sustainable. Warnke told the Associated Press,

I am confident that this level of harvest will not have a negative impact on the state’s dove population, and that the new dove hunting tradition will improve mourning dove knowledge and conservation in Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin Citizens Concerned for Cranes and Doves had its arguments against the hunt heard by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The group argues that when the Wisconsin legislature declared the mourning dove the state’s official symbol of peace in 1971, that it conferred special protections on the bird which the DNR failed to take into account in allowing the hunting season.

Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General P. Philip Peterson, countered that, “There is no link between what the Legislature did then and the authority the DNR so clearly has to set a season for mourning doves.”

The Wisconsin State Supreme Court is expected to rule before July 1 on the challenge to the hunting season.

Sources:

State’s first hunt culls 202,000 mourning doves. Associated Press, January 22, 2004.

Dove hunting opponents argue case to Supreme Court. Amy Rinard, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 15, 2004.

PETA Gets Under Alaskan State Senator's Skin

In January, Alaskan State Rep. Bruce Wehyrauch let People for the Ethical Treatment get under his skin with their anti-salmon message.

In the wake of a study of Scottish farmed salmon that claimed high levels of PBCs and other toxins were found in the farmed fish, PETA urged people to avoid eating fish. In a press release, for example, PETA said,

While eating fish is dangerous for our health, it is always fatal for the fish. A study published last year by the Royal Society confirms what many marine biologists have been saying for years: Fish feel pain, just as all animals do. Fish raised in captivity are confined in crowded, unnatural conditions that cause stress, infection and parasites.

‘Now more than ever, eating fish is like playing Russian roulette with your health’, says PETA Europe Director Dawn Carr. ‘The best way to ensure that you and your family won’t get sick is to go vegetarian.’

This bit of nonsense angered Wehyrauch who apparently did not think PETA had done enough to distinguish between farmed and wild salmon. So, he asked Alaska’s attorney general to investigate whether or not the state would have a legal basis for suing PETA for disparaging salmon in general, which could potentially harm Alaska’s valuable salmon industry.

This seems to be an ongoing problem for Alaskan politicians who choose to follow animal rights nonsense with homegrown stupidity.

Alaskan State Attorney General Gregg Renkes told the Juneau Empire,

The governor’s looking for every opportunity to distinguish Alaska salmon from farmed salmon. We’ll try to see if there is an action that could be filed; it doesn’t jump right out at you.

Of course, there isn’t any action Alaska can take to prevent PETA from saying that people should avoid eating fish, and they come across as idiots for floating the idea that there might be — and, in the process, lend PETA’s views far more legitimacy and credence than they deserve.

Sources:

PETA seafood ad vexes Wehyrauch. Masha Herbst, Juneau Empire, January 18, 2004.

PETA Distributes ‘Emergency Vegetarian Starter Kits’ at Borough Market’s Fish! Restaurant in Answer to Toxic Salmon Fears. Press Release, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, January 9, 2004.