From: wheeler@super.org (Ferrell S. Wheeler)
Subject: News Blurbs 6
Organization: Supercomputing Research Center (Bowie, MD)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 23:30:13 GMT


+ Florida officials report cases of animal abuse at dog and
horse race tracks have escalated since deregulation last July.
Legislatures are considering new regulations to return the
industry under state control.
 
+ A 32-year-old Wyoming woman, Terri Smith, was fined $500 and
sentenced to six months in jail or offered a suspended
sentence under the condition she never deal with any animals
in any way for the rest of her life after pleading guilty to
charges of animal abuse.  Fifty-two dogs were discovered
malnourished and kept in intense, filthy confinement in
Smith's presumed puppy mill operation.  One dog died, one
required a leg amputation, and the remaining will be available
for adoption.
 
+ Seven Alaskan guides, including a state Department of
Environmental Conservation official, were charged with leading
illegal hunting expeditions.  The crimes included hunting
animals with aircraft and snowmobiles, hunting animals the
same day they are seen from aircraft and exceeding kill
limits.  Among the victims were grizzly bears, moose, caribou,
and a wolf.
 
+ Hunter Robert W. Cook pleaded innocent to second-degree
manslaughter in the accidental shooting of a Connecticut
jogger.  Cook was shooting at deer on November 11th, then
noticed the jogger on the road with a neck wound.
 
+ Texas Governor Ann Richards is holding a $1,000 per person
fund-raising pheasant hunt for local supporters this Saturday.
 
+ A suspect in eastern Ohio's outdoorspersons serial killings
has been arrested, but not yet charged with murder.
Investigators consider Thomas Lee Dillon, 42, to be a
significant suspect in the sniper slaying of at least five
individuals.  Among the descriptions listed in the FBI's
profile of the killer were "May be impulsive in his shooting;
likes to hunt or fish; spends considerable amount of time in
these kinds of areas, normally driving, driving and more
driving" and potential alcohol or drug abuse.  Dillon is
described as a heavy drinker and bragged to co-workers of his
dog and cat shootings, that he claimed to register on his
calendar.
 
+ Due to growing popularity of the ostrich-farming industry,
the USDA is establishing thirteen additional ostrich egg
facilities to quarantine eggs that are imported primarily from
Africa. The stations will be located in New Jersey, Florida,
Arizona, and Texas.
 
+ An Ohio couple was fined $8,500 when chicken manure seeped
into a Darke County river killing nearly 50,000 fish.
 
+ Among items proposed by a bipartisan panel developing an
environmental blueprint for President-elect Clinton is to
toughen laws protecting endangered species, aggressive
implementation of the global warming treaty, and signing a
treaty to protect plants and animals.
 
+ In an ecological disaster that may prove worse than the
Exxon Valdez incident in Alaska three years ago, an oil spill
by Greek tanker Aegean Sea is killing wildlife along Spain's
northwestern coast.  The accident, believed to be the result
of negligence, has left an estimated 80,000 tonne oil slick
and is destroying delicate coastal ecosystems and threatening
birds, fish, and dolphins.  Over 1,000 birds have already been
smothered by the oil.
 
+ Under advisement from Japanese Fisheries officials, Japanese
fishers kept hidden from public view the slaughter of 280
dolphins.  On December 2nd, fishers forced dolphins ashore
then waited until dark to pierce their hearts with knives.
 
+ In defiance of the International Whaling Commission's
moratorium on commercial whaling, Norway announced plans to
permit the slaughter of hundreds of minke whales next year.
Environmentalists and animal protectionists are outraged over
Norway's resumption of whale slaughter and some have called
for a boycott of Norwegian products.
 
+ A Taiwanese couple was arrested for attempting to smuggle
thirteen rhino horns and nearly 3,000 pounds of deer antlers
into Taiwan.  The shipment, marked as glassware, was flow to
Taiwan from the Philippines and passed through New Zealand.
Fewer than 3,000 Asian rhinos remain due to slaughter for
their horns.  The maximum penalty the couple could face is one
year in prison and a $400 fine.
 
+ China is soliciting over $40 million in contributions from
foreign sources to aid their habitat restoration project for
the endangered giant panda.  The ten-year project will include
relocating 5,000 farmers and 18 timber companies in an effort
to reclaim nearly 47 percent of the giant panda's original
habitat.  Other animals to benefit from the protected area are
the golden monkey, red panda, and South China tiger.
 
 


Newsgroups: talk.politics.animals