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Putting People First / October 4, 1993
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PEOPLE'S BULLETIN
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     News and notices in the struggle against animal rights and eco-
     extremists

@1993 Putting People First
Permission to reproduce all or part of
an item id freely granted on the condition
that credit s given to Putting People First.

Putting People First is a nonprofit organization
of citizens who believe in rights for humans and
welfare for animals, and who oppose the goals and
tactics of "animal rights" and environmental extremism.

4401 Connecticut Avenue N.W.
Suite 310-A
Washington, D.C. 20008-2322
[phone]
======================================================================


BOCA RATON REJECTS ANIMAL BAN

     Although the issue was animal entertainment, humans provided the
amusement last week in Boca Raton, Florida.

     On September 29,the City Council voted 4 to 1 to reject a proposed
law that would have banned the display of animals in the city for public
entertainment.  In the end, Councilmember Betty Holland, who drafted the
ordinance, was its sole supporter.

     The final decision, which came shortly after midnight, took only 15
minutes, but came after four hours of emotional and sometimes bizarre
testimony by animal-rights activists, evoking Martians, slavery, crazed
elephants, Adolph Hitler, steel-jawed traps, torture, Star Trek and
capitalism.

     Putting People First coordinators Barbara Whiten, Bob Van Fleet,
Marty Martin, and Steve Kendall gathered a coalition of over 150 pet
owners, breeders, circus fans, and horse fanciers for the hearing.
Entertainment was provided by organ grinder Lenny Schendowich, known
professionally as "the Monkey's Uncle."



MOUNTAIN LION ATTACKS TEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL

     A mountain lion boldly invaded a busy campground and attacked a
10-year-old girl on September 19 at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park in San
Diego County, California, according to the Los Angeles Times.

     Moments later park rangers chased and killed the animal.  The
incident occurred on the first day the park reopened after the Labor Day
weekend, when a mountain lion scare had forced its closure.  Animal
rights activists criticized the decision to close the park as an
"overreaction."  It was the first time in its 60-year history that the
park was closed.

     The victim, fifth-grader Lisa Kowalski, suffered a bloody wound on
her buttocks and was taken to a hospital for a tetanus shot.  Henry, the
family dog, who is credited with driving the animal away, was also
attacked and suffered bloody neck wounds.

     The rangers, Earl Jones and Laura Itogawa, who shot the cougar
found the experience emotionally wrenching, according to the report.

"This goes against everything I believe," said Itogawa, tears
streaming down her cheeks.  She and Jones embraced each other for
support.

     Mountain lion attacks have increased dramatically since animal
rights activists succeeded in banning mountain lion hunting in
California.



PSYCHOLOGIST GROUP FILES AMICUS BRIEF

     The American Psychological Association (APA) filed in July an
amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief in the case of Progressive
Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) v. University of Washington before the
Supreme Court of the State of Washington.  APA's brief supports the
university's position that unfunded grant applications should remain
confidential.  APA's action was joined by the Washington State
Psychological Association.

     PAWS, an animal rights group, sued the university under the state's
public records disclosure statute to obtain access to a grant
application for a proposed study involving monkeys.  The proposal had
been submitted to - but not funded by - the National Institutes of
Health.  The scientists who submitted the grant application,
psychologist Gene P. Sackett, Ph.D., of the University of Washington and
veterinarian Linda Cork, DVM, of John Hopkins University, proposed to
examine the relationships between developmental brain abnormalities in
monkeys reared in isolation and self-abusing behavior, in an attempt to
understand and ultimately treat analogous behavior in children.  APA has
taken no position on the merits of the grant application.

     A lower court found partially in favor of PAWS and ordered that the
group be granted access to most, but not all of the information
contained in the grant application.  Both parties sought review by the
Washington Supreme court.

     In its brief to the higher court, APA, whose membership includes
the great majority of psychologists engaged in academic research in the
U. S., argues that permitting the disclosure of the contents of the
unfunded grant application would "(1) compromise the ability to conduct
certain research; (2) jeopardize the established intellectual property
rights of researchers; and (3) improperly subject scientists who submit
applications, and members of scientific review panels, to politically
motivated harassment."

     The brief also states that APA "recognizes that there is a
legitimate public interest in general information about research that is
actually supported by public funds.  However, it believes that the
disclosure of a grant application - prior to any commitment of public
funds - is premature and could be injurious."

     "What is at issue - and at stake - here is not just this one grant
application or just the interests of psychological science," said APA
Executive Director for Science William C. Howell, Ph.D.  "How the
Supreme Court of the State of Washington rules in this case could
seriously affect the initiation, the review, the funding and the
reporting of virtually all scientific research to the detriment of all
society."

-For more information contact:
     Doug Fizel, APA Public Affairs Office 202/336-5700


ABC, DODGE CAVE IN TO ANIMAL RIGHTS PRESSURE ON IDITAROD

     The United Conservation Alliance (UCA) has alerted conservationists
that ABC and Dodge have sided with animal rights extremists by
withdrawing support for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

     As a result, the prize purse for the 1994 race will shrink by about
25 percent, and overall event support will be reduced by nearly
$200,000.  Iditarod Race board president Matt Desalermos said that the
companies were pulling out because of pressure from the Humane Society.

     The withdrawal of these sponsors is surprising, says the UCA,
because ABC is the network home of Wide World of Sports and American
Sportsman, and Dodge has long promoted its trucks and sports-utility
vehicles as "Ram tough" for use by outdoor sportsman, farmers and
ranchers.

     In a letter to conservationists, Michael E. Berger, executive
director of UCA wrote, "Apparently these companies have concluded that
they have more customers in the animal rights community than among
hunters, fishermen and other responsible Americans who do not object to
outdoor sports."

     The UCA says that if sportsmen are disturbed by ABC and Dodge's
decision, they should contact their local Dodge dealer and ABC affiliate
station to press their displeasure and disappointment,and say that the
UCA brought this matter to their attention.

-For more information contact:
     United Conservation Alliance
     P.O. Box 820706
     Houston, TX  77282-0706
     Phone [phone]




SAGINAW COUNTY REJECTS HIGHER DOG LICENSES

     The Board of Commissioners of Saginaw County, Michigan, has
rejected a proposal by the County's Animal Control Advisory Committee to
raise licensing fees for neutered dogs from $5 to $7, and for unneutered
dogs from $10 to $35.

     The board's Courts and Public Safety Committee rejected the plan
after commissioners objected that raising license fees would only punish
owner s who properly tag their dogs, instead of attacking the real
problem of strays.  Commissioner Walter C. Averill III said, "You don't
have to have a dog fixed to take care of it."

     Saginaw County Humane Society President Melanie Jungerheld
disagreed, saying, "Just because your dog is in your yard doesn't mean
another dog won't climb the fence and mate with your dog."




FISH STORY PETA ATTACKS ANGLERS

Last April, Fund For Animals executive director Wayne Pacelle surprised
many when he broadened his attack on hunting, saying, "I personally
oppose fishing, too."  Now PETA has opened its own attack on
sportfishing, saying a hooked fish feels pain equivalent to "a human
having his hand impaled and being jerked off the ground by a hook
through flesh,"  according to Washington Times outdoors writer Gene
Muller.

     Maryland Tidewater Administration Director of Fisheries Pete
Jensen, a professional biologist, responds: "There is no scientific
evidence that suggests that fish even feel pain."

     Dr. Robert Bachman, a biologist who wrote his doctorate on the
behavior and life cycle of the brown trout in limestone creeks, says,
"Pain is a subjective term associated with animals with well-developed
neocortex, the thin, gray, outer layer of the brain.... As far as fish
are concerned, I say they do not feel pain."

     Dr. Jim Gilford, a biologist and former professor at Hood College
in Frederick, Md., says,"I say fish cannot feel pain in the only way we
know how to interpret it - the human sense.  They do very well after
being hooked, properly handled, then released.  It's foolish to suggest
otherwise."




BUAV ADVERTISING RULED DECEPTIVE

     The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled against
an advertisement by a group called the Anti Vivisection Agency (AVA).
The British patients' organization Seriously Ill for Medical Research
(SIMR) reports that the AVA ad was composed of "highly misleading or
simply untrue statements followed by an appeal for donations."

     The Research Defense Society (RDS) brought the ad to the attention
of the ASA, objecting to its false assertions that the laboratory use of
primates could lead to their extinction; that animal experiments were
pointless; and that the thalidomide tragedy was caused by animal
research.  The RDS also objected to the ad's use of a foreign photograph
to misrepresent British research.

-For more information contact:
     Seriously Ill for Medical Research
     PO Box 504
     Houghton Regis
     Dunstable, Bedfordshire  LU5 5YW




FISH STORY HOME ALONE, PART III

A British man has been cleared of charges of abandoning his pet fish in
Maidenhead, England.  The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals (RSPCA) charged David Sharod, a 31-year-old electrician, with
abandoning two fish in his home aquarium for three days.

     The charges were dropped after Sharod produced a book written by
one of the RSPCA's own experts that said it is safe to leave fish alone
for up to two weeks.  Fish expert Lydia Gold said the fish in question,
a South American sucking loach and sucking plec, "like to be left
alone... they enjoy peace and quiet."

     Sharod's legal fees topped $3,000.  British taxpayers shelled out
over $12,000 for the two-day hearing.  Sharod called the affair "a total
waste of time and money."



ENDANGERED "SPECIES"?

     Texas Wildlife reports that the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF),
with a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, has issued a report on the
Endangered Species Act (ESA), published in Conservation Biology.
According to EDF's figures, 70% of animals and 80% of birds listed as
"endangered" in 1985-91 were not "species" at all, but were subspecies
(e.g. northern spotted owl) or local populations (e.g. Florida panther)
of abundant species.  Moreover, as Ken Smith of the Washington Times
reported last year, 65% of the animals that are candidates for listing
are actually insects, arachnids, gastropods, bivalves, and crustaceans.

     Plans by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia to
destroy their samples of the smallpox virus (which has been eradicated
outside of the laboratory) might be a violation of ESA.  "It might help
illustrate the excesses of this law if someone were to petition to
protect the virus from extinction," comments one wag.  "This might help
inject a note of sanity as the renewal of the act is debated."

     If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were to deny a petition for
emergency listing of the smallpox virus, they would be vulnerable to a
lawsuit.




FEDERAL REGISTER REVIEW

     Mexican spotted owl.  The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a perfect
example of intractable government bureaucracy and the foolishness it
creates once it is set in motion.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS) announced it will not delist the Mexican spotted owl from the
list of threatened and endangered species.  It says a petition from the
Board of Directors of Apache County, Arizona did not present substantial
scientific or commercial information to warrant delisting.  The county
argued that the owl's listing would result in a loss of jobs and
negatively impact business, education, recreation and other human
concerns.  The feds responded that these concerns "are not relevant ...
and cannot be considered in making listing determinations."  Clarence
Bigelow, Apache County Manager told Putting People First that the ESA
spells trouble when species protection is "pursued to the exclusion of
humans."  Said Bigelow, "If this logic is pursued, its not just the
loggers that will be harmed.  Anyone who decides that a species should
be protected, even if its in downtown Washington, DC or New York City,
can shut down the place.  There is the potential of shutting down the
whole U. S." 58 Fed. Reg.49467 (Sept. 23, 1993).

-For more information on the Mexican spotted owl listing contact:
     Howard Hutchinson of the Arizona/New Mexico Coalition of Counties
     505/539-2692



     Increased grazing fees.  The Department of Agriculture, Forest
Service announced it has extended the public comment period for a
proposed increase in grazing fees and rangeland reform.  At the request
of the public and Western governors, the date has been extended from
September 13, 1993 to October 20, 1993. 58 Fed.  Peg. 48808 (Sept. 20,
1993).