From: wheeler@super.org (Ferrell S. Wheeler)
Subject: News Blurbs 8
Organization: Supercomputing Research Center (Bowie, MD)
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 16:28:25 GMT


+ Investigators report the vehicles General Motors used in
crash tests performed to obtain federal certification may have
been equipped differently than the millions of pickup trucks
actually sold to the public.  The National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration also states General Motors may not have
disclosed information pertaining to fuel tank leakage
resulting from crash tests.  A consumer safety group claims
fuel-fed fires in certain GM truck models have led to the
deaths of at least 300 people and is urging a recall.
 
+ Employees and volunteers of People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals report they were subpoenaed to testify before a
grand jury investigating a February firebombing, attributed to
the Animal Liberation Front, at Michigan State University.
PETA spokespersons stated a Montana woman and West Coast man
appear to be the grand jury's prime targets, although two top
PETA officials may also be targets. The group's lawyer
commented a few PETA members have refused to give testimony
without promise of immunity.
 
+ New Jersey SPCA investigators raided a pitbull training
operation where the animals were reportedly used for fighting
and baiting.  Officials arrested a mother and son relating to
the incident.  Thirty-four pitbulls, a semi-automatic shotgun,
and hypodermic needles were discovered during the raid.
 
+ Members of Greenpeace protested the meeting of European
Community fisheries ministers demanding an end to whaling and
a group of children presented a petition urging a whale
sanctuary be designated in European waters.  The European
Commission met to discuss a drastic reduction of fish quotas
due to shrinking populations.  The whale is also suffering
from the overfishing.  Greenpeace wants commercial whaling
officially banned by the European Commission before Norway
joins the Community.
 
+ A $167,000 price tag has been attached to an elderly,
ailing, one-eared black rhinoceros named Van Gogh, who resides
in a nature reserve near Johannesburg.  The fee would entitle
a hunter to stalk and kill Van Gogh.  Officials hope someone
accepts the offer quickly before Van Gogh dies of natural
decimating factors.
 
+ The fifth hunting-related death in Florida this year
resulted when a hunter shot at the sound of a gobbling turkey
and ended up killing another hunter who was using a turkey
call.
 
+ The groups Fund for Animals and Friends of Animals have been
running separate ads in USA Today, The Washington Times, The
New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times protesting Alaska's
planned aerial wolf kill program and are urging citizens to
boycott Alaska tourism.  The Friends of Animals' ad reads, in
part, that the wolf shoot "would be aimed at artificially
inflating herds of moose and caribou -- which already number
over a million -- to create a 'wildlife spectacle' attractive
to hunters and tourists."  Representatives of both groups
intend to boycott the governor's mid-January "Wolf Summit,"
scheduled after his office was flooded with protests over the
wolf kill announcement.