Digital Commons Network^™

Wcro Spring 1997

West Coast Regional Office

• The Great Floods of '97: New year begins on a wet and tragic note for people and animals in regions
• Legislative Update
• Cruelty in live-animal markets must stop
• Bay area dogfighters sentenced
• Attention, California and Nevada members! The HSUS needs your help to stop cruel trapping and hunting practices
• Oregon, Washington voters send strong message to hunters
• Finding balance (Eric Sakach)

Nest-Site Selection By Belted Kingfishers (Ceryle Alcyon) In Colorado, Sara Shields, Jeffrey F. Kelly

Habitat Assessment and Management Collection

Along the Cache la Poudre River in northern Colorado, belted kingfishers nested in relatively tall banks that lacked a toe. Kingfishers constructed burrows in soils that contained significantly less sand than was present at systematically sampled points. This finding conflicts with earlier findings that indicate kingfishers select sandy soils for burrow construction. Otherwise, the physical characteristics of banks used by belted kingfishers in Colorado were similar to those found elsewhere.

Hsus News Volume 42, Number 02

HSUS News 1989-92

• A bold initiative for a better world: agreement addresses wildlife protection, ecotourism in South Africa (Paul G. Irwin)
• Spotlight
• Survey reflects public concern about violence
• In Memoriam: Paul Tsongas
• Landslide year for wildlife: voters side with animals in six states (Wayne Pacelle)
• Inhumane, unsporting hunting practices: a primer
• Disney does an about-face: new park will not display wild elephants (Richard H. Farinato)
• A bad winter for bison: slaughter and weather take Yellowstone toll (Allen Rutberg, Ph.D.)
• Milestones in alternatives: awards, internet, and loan programs mark '96 (Martin L. Stephens, Ph.D.)
• In Memoriam: Rex L. Burch
• Animal minds (Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.D.) …

Development Of Piagetian Object Permanence In A Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg, Mark R. Willner, Lauren B. Gravitz

Sentience Collection

The authors evaluated the ontogenetic performance of a grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) on object permanence tasks designed for human infants. Testing began when the bird was 8 weeks old, prior to fledging and weaning. Because adult grey parrots understand complex invisible displacements (I. M. Pepperberg & F. A. Kozak, 1986), the authors continued weekly testing until the current subject completed all of I. C. Uzgiris and J. Hunt's (1975) Scale 1 tasks. Stage 6 object permanence with respect to these tasks emerged at 22 weeks, after the bird had fledged but before it was completely weaned. Although the parrot progressed …

Preference And Motivation Testing, David Fraser, Lindsay R. Matthews

Validation of Animal Experimentation Collection

Since the early 1970s, scientists have used preference tests (tests that require animals to choose between two or more different options or environments) as a means of answering questions about animal welfare. Preference tests have been used to establish animals' preferences for common housing options such as ambient temperature, illumination and preferred types of bedding and flooring; to improve the effectiveness of devices such as loading ramps and nest boxes; and to clarify how strongly animals avoid various aspects of confinement and methods of restraint.

To use preference research to answer questions about animal welfare, three issues need to be …

Personality And Attitudes Toward The Treatment Of Animals, Steve Mathews, Harold A. Herzog

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

The authors examined the relationship between personality and attitudes toward the treatment of animals by administering the Sixteen Personality Factor Inventory and the Animal Attitudes Scale to 99 college students. The personality scales were only weakly related to attitudes about animal welfare issues. Two personality factors, sensitivity and imaginativeness, were significantly correlated with attitudes towards animals. Gender and sensitivity explained 25% of the variance in attitudes, with most of the variance accounted for by gender.

Experience In Substrate-Enriched And Substrate-Impoverished Environments Affects Behaviour Of Pigs In A T-Maze Task, Michael Mendl, Hans W. Erhard, Marie Haskell, Françoise Wemelsfelder, Alistair B. Lawrence

Sentience Collection

Previous research showed that pigs reared in substrate-impoverished conditions performed a smaller proportion of their total behavioural repertoire in their home pens (showed lower behavioural diversity), than pigs reared in substrate-enriched conditions. This study examined whether these differences were the result of fundamental changes in behavioural organisation. A T-maze task was used to test the hypothesis that substrate-impoverished pigs are prone to develop fixed, unvarying behaviour which may underlie their reduced behavioural diversity. They were predicted to be poorer at reversing previous response patterns in the maze, and less able to alter their behaviour in response to a novel (distracting) …

Language-Naive Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) Judge Relations Between Relations In A Conceptual Matching-To-Sample Task, Roger K.R. Thompson, David L. Oden, Sarah T. Boysen

Sentience Collection

Three chimpanzees with a history of conditional and numeric token training spontaneously matched relations between relations under conditions of nondifferential reinforcement. Heretofore, this conceptual ability was demonstrated only in language-trained chimpanzees. The performance levels of the language-naive animals in this study, however, were equivalent to those of a 4th animal—Sarah—whose history included language training and analogical problem solving. There was no evidence that associative factors mediated successful performance in any of the animals. Prior claims of a profound disparity between language-trained and language-naive chimpanzees apparently can be attributed to prior experience with arbitrary tokens consistently associated with abstract relations and …

Harry F. Harlow And Animal Research: Reflection On The Ethical Paradox, John P. Gluck

Experimentation Collection

With respect to the ethical debate about the treatment of animals in biomedical and behavioral research, Harry F. Harlow represents a paradox. On the one hand, his work on monkey cognition and social development fostered a view of the animals as having rich subjective lives filled with intention and emotion. On the other, he has been criticized for the conduct of research that seemed to ignore the ethical implications of his own discoveries. The basis of this contradiction is discussed and propositions for current research practice are presented.

Institutional Animal Care And Use Committees: A Flawed Paradigm Or Work In Progress?, John P. Gluck, F. Barbara Orlans

Animal Welfare Collection

In his challenging article, Steneck (1997) criticized the creation of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) system established by the 1985 amendments to the Animal Welfare Act. He saw the IACUC review and approval of biomedical and behavioral research with animals as an unnecessary "reassignment" of duties from existing animal care programs to IACUC committees. He argued that the committees are unable to do the work expected of them for basically three reasons: (a) the membership lacks the expertise in matters relevant to animal research and care, (b) there exists an inherent and disabling conflict of interest, and …

Interactions Among Dogs, People, And The Environment In Boulder, Colorado: A Case Study, Marc Bekoff, Carron A. Meaney

Pets Collection

From September 1995 to April 1996 we studied interactions among dogs, people, and the environment in Boulder, Colorado. Data on behavioral disturbances by off-leash dogs who were accompanied by a person were collected with respect to dog-dog and dog-human interactions, dog-wildlife encounters, dogs trampling vegetation, and dogs entering and disturbing bodies of water. A questionnaire also was administered. Behavioral data showed that off-leash dogs generally did not travel far off trail, that when they did it was for short periods of time, and that they rarely were observed to chase other dogs, disturb people, chase wildlife, destroy vegetation, or enter …

A Scientific Conception Of Animal Welfare That Reflects Ethical Concerns, D. Fraser, D. M. Weary, E. A. Pajor, B. N. Milligan

Ethics and Animal Welfare Collection

Scientific research on 'animal welfare' began because of ethical concerns over the quality of life of animals, and the public looks to animal welfare research for guidance regarding these concerns. The conception of animal welfare used by scientists must relate closely to these ethical concerns if the orientation of the research and the interpretation of the findings is to address them successfully.

At least three overlapping ethical concerns are commonly expressed regarding the quality of life of animals: (1) that animals should lead natural lives through the development and use of their natural adaptations and capabilities, (2) that animals should …

Effect Of Room Arrangement And Blood Sample Collection Sequence On Serum Thyroid Hormone And Cortisol Concentrations In Cynomolgus Macaques (Macacafascicularis), Bryan L. Flow, John T. Jaques

Research Methodology and Laboratory Animals Collection

We evaluated the relationship, in cynomolgus macaques (Macacafascicularis), between rank for order of blood collection with serum concentrations of 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), free thyroxine (FT4), and serum cortisol. These relationships were determined for males and females that were housed in two room arrangements. For both room arrangements, males and females were housed separately. For room arrangement 1, macaques were housed on both sides of the animal holding room. The sides of the animal holding room were designated as side A or side B. Blood was initially collected from animals on side A, then from animals on side B. Animals …

Hsus News Volume 42, Number 01

HSUS News 1989-92

• An inspiration and a guiding force: John A. Hoyt has led the HSUS to an unrivaled position of preeminance (Paul G. Irwin)
• Spotlight
• Animals triumph in five states
• Who is the best "First"?
• Celebrating the Humane Spirit: HSUS honors John A. Hoyt, Maurice F. Strong
• A narrow escape for dolphins: friends in Congress save dolphin-safe label (Wayne Pacelle)
• The Olympics' bumpy ride: falls and injuries plague equestrian event (Marc Paulhus)
• Many hands help Fort Peck (Melissa Seide Rubin)
• Navajo Nation saga (Martha C. Armstrong)
• Pitting animals against animals: law enforcement official and animal protectionists seek to quell illegal cockfighting and …

Student/Teacher Conflict Regarding Animal Dissection, Jonathan Balcombe

Education Collection

No abstract provided.

Sow Preference For Types Of Flooring In Farrowing Crates, P. A. Phillips, D. Fraser, B. K. Thompson

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

A preference-testing apparatus was used to provide sows with continuous access to three identical farrowing crates, each with a different type of flooring. The crates radiated from a central hub area sufficiently large for sows to enter or leave any crate freely. In exp. 1, nine sows from a concrete-floored gestation room were offered crates over concrete, plastic-coated rod, and galvanized metal rod. In exp. 2, sows were pre-exposed for a period of 1 wk to one of the three floors before entry into the preference testing apparatus. Video recording was used to determine sow position from 3 d before …

Wcro Fall 1996

West Coast Regional Office

• Oregon, Washington voters to decide hunting issues
• Bay Area dogfighting operation raided
• Spotlight on Disaster: The Pacific Northwest Floods
• Plan to attend Expo '97 in Orlando
• Free advice for pet owners from The HSUS and the American Red Cross
• Cruel, illegal animal fighting contests on the rise (Eric Sakach)
• The HSUS helps launch "My Pet TV"
• Legislative Update
• WCRO training for probation case workers, Humane Officers
• WCRO welcomes new staff member
• Pet overpopulation is focus of state and local councils

The Power Of One: How The Individual Activist Can Make A Difference, Henry Spira

Articles

No abstract provided.

Companion Animal Populations In Massachusetts, Dorr Research Corporation

Demography and Statistics for Companion Animal Populations Collection

This report contains the findings of a marketing and opinion research study conducted for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals during October, 1996.

The research addressed a variety of issues associated with ownership of cats and dogs by Massachusetts households:

• Selected characteristics of owned cats and dogs
• Means of obtaining owned cats and dogs
• Spaying and neutering data on owned cats and dogs
• Frequency with which owned cats and dogs are outdoors
• Veterinary care of owned cats and dogs
• Degree of owner involvement with owned cats and dogs
• Opinions about overpopulation of cats and dogs

Some …

Hsus News Volume 41, Number 04

HSUS News 1989-92

• Decision Dday 1996 for wildlife: voters in seven states hold their wildlife's future in their hands (Paul G. Irwin)
• Spotlight
• U.S. House deals dolphins a lethal blow
• HSUS and the web
• Fund honors gorilla's act: Binti Jua is the hero in a zoo rescue (Richard H. Farinato)
• A march for the animals: activists converge on Washington, D.C. (Wayne Pacelle)
• Hunters' privilege: state wildlife agencies cling to the past (Susan Hagood)
• State agencies endorse "backyard" bow hunts (Allen Rutberg, Ph.D.)
• Extolling our ideals: conferences are forums for the HSUS mission (John A. Hoyt)
• The Ratite Craze (Richard H. Farinato and David …

Letter From Dan Glickman To Henry Spira, Dan Glickman

Farm Animal Campaign

In this regard, we are optimistic that the Animal Well-Being Task Group will continue to provide a useful forum for USDA, animal industry commodity groups, and animal protection groups to present their concerns about issues involving the care and treatment of farm animals and to develop workable solutions to problems. We welcome your continued input on this subject.

The First Step In The Case For Great Ape Equality: The Argument For Other Minds, Kristin Andrews

Psychology Collection

No abstract provided.

Hsus News Volume 41, Number 03

HSUS News 1989-92

• Unifying for action: an effective political force is born (John A. Hoyt)
• Spotlight
• HSUS is online!
• PMU Farms: an update
• Fifth Expo works its charm: attendees hear new ideas to help their work (Geoff Handy)
• Long-awaited progress for horses: federal law will help the slaughter bound (Trina Bellak and Marc Paulhus)
• Another state ballot victory: Californians reject trophy hunting of lions (Wayne Pacelle)
• Searching for solutions: report reveals extent of U.S. bear poaching (Suzy Sanders)
• To live and help to live (Anne Pearse Hocker)
• The Humane Society of the United States 1995 Annual Report
• Disaster saga: Weyauwega townsfolk learn a …

Wcro Spring 1996

West Coast Regional Office

• Cougars and bears in the cross hairs
• Cougars and public safety
• Hounding them to death
• Bear baiting: anything but sporting
• Vote "NO" on 197 -- your vote is crucial! (Eric Sakach)

Hsus News Volume 41, Number 02

HSUS News 1989-92

• The march of change: one step at a time: we must demonstrate our support for the cause of animal protection (Paul G. Irwin)
• Spotlight
• At Risk: Whooping Cranes
• Keiko: halfway home: Free Willy star begins a new life in Oregon (Mike Winikoff)
• "Alternatives" : a good year -- safety-testing procedures are in transition
• Protection close to home: new suburban wildlife program launched (John Hadidian, Ph.D.)
• Claws and all: living with your cat, your furniture, and your peace of mind (Rachel Lamb)
• Coming together: World Animal Awareness Week (Wayne Pacelle)
• Use of animals in laboratories: scientific and ethical issues (Michael Ball, …

Social Assemblages And Mating Relationships In Prairie Dogs: A Dna Fingerprint Analysis, Steven E. Travis, Con Slobodchikoff, Paul Kefan

Reproductive Behavior Collection

Mating system characterizations have been hindered by difficulties in accurately assigning parentage to offspring. We investigated the relationship between social assemblages and mating relationships in a territorial harem polygynous mammal, the Gunnison's prairie dog, using a combination of behavioral and molecular analyses. We demonstrate multiple paternity and an extraordinarily high incidence of extraterritorial fertilizations (i.e., 61% of all progeny), in combination with the existence of female kin groups. On this basis, we conclude that social assemblages alone provide a poor description of the Gunnison's prairie dog mating system, and suggest several potential reasons for the maintenance of territoriality in this …

How To Be An Activist, Henry Spira

Commentaries and Editorials

As part of Satya's on-going commitment to activism, we are pleased to offer a periodic column giving tips on more effective ways to bring about compassion This month, Henry Spira offers advice on getting your letters in print.

Bad Ethics, Good Ethics And The Genetic Engineering Of Animals In Agriculture, Bernard Rollin

Genetics Collection

Genetic engineers have been remiss in addressing ethical and social issues emerging from this powerful new technology, a technology whose implications for agriculture are profound. As a consequence of this failure, society has been uneasy about genetic engineering of animals and has had difficulty distinguishing between genuine and spurious ethical issues the technology occasions. Many of the most prominent concerns do not require a serious response. On the other hand, concerns about a variety of possible risks arising from genetic engineering of animals require careful consideration and dialogue with the public. Such concerns are an admixture of ethics and prudence. …

A Rodent For Your Thoughts: The Animal Model Strategy In Psychology, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Experimentation Collection

In this second of three essays, I describe how the early modern psychologists adopted the strategy of further transforming rats and other species into models of human thought, feeling, and behavior, and, particularly, of disorders of these - in effect taking "a rodent for your thoughts." In the third essay I will provide a critique and empirically-based evaluation of animal model research. Here I indicate what the model strategy in the biomedical sciences, properly understand, is intended to achieve and how, by contrast, particular models are presented to the public and funding agencies. Finally, I describe how they are utilized …

The Caring Sleuth: Portrait Of An Animal Rights Activist, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Animal Welfare Collection

The present study of the psychology of animal rights activists utilizes a qualitative analytic method based on two forms of data: a set of questionnaire protocols completed by grassroots activists and of autobiographical accounts by movement leaders. The resultant account keys on the following descriptives: (1) an attitude of caring, (2) suffering as an habitual object of perception, and (3) the aggressive and skillful uncovering and investigation of instances of suffering. In a final section, the investigator discusses tensions and conflicts arising from these three themes and various ways of attempting to resolve them.