Humane Society

What are your priorities where news is concerned? Why do you waste front-page space on "trash TV"? MTV stands for Moronic Television Viewing. The real front-page story was on Page 13. Human- itarian Penell Hopkins and Officer Troy Deshong came to the rescue of 33 horses being illegally transported to Canada for slaughter. They were packed into a trailer, not able to stand, and injured as well. As a member of the the Humane Society of the United States, I think this is deplorable.

John Taliaferro found himself in the midst of a howling mob when he went inside a North Philadelphia garage last April 23 to pass out some flyers. At first, he said, he thought the men were there for gambling or some kind of female entertainment. But he soon discovered that a dog fight was going on. As Taliaferro, a community activist and member of the Humane Society, was trying to get out of the place, the cops arrived and he was swept up in a raid along with some 80 other men accused of promoting an illegal dog fight.

It's an idea that has spread like wildfire among those horrified as sharpshooters authorized by the Fairmount Park Commission thin the deer herds in Pennypack Park and the Wissahickon. There is a more humane answer, they argue. Don't shoot the deer with bullets. Shoot them with contraceptive darts. The deer will not conceive, the herd will diminish. Except, researchers said, it's not nearly that simple. The vaccine is experimental and being used only in tests by the Humane Society of the United States.

The flagship store of the Burlington Coat Factory was the center of unwanted attention yesterday. Ten protesters from the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade and other animal-rights groups gathered outside the 75,000-square-foot store to demonstrate against the fur trade. The protesters, most in their late teens or early 20s, held placards showing mutilated animals as traffic roared by on Route 130. Every few minutes, a motorist honked in support. The protesters assembled about noon on the narrow strip of grass between the store and the road.

Ferrets get a bad rap. Any "ferret person" will tell you that. Including Kymberlie Barone, who has 22 of them. That's not counting the 40 or so others who are guests at her no-kill ferret shelter in Montgomery County. Barone will be showing off four of her personal ferrets - Sallie, Twiggy, Tangerine Twist and Tequila Sunrise - in the show rings tomorrow at the Ferret Expo in Pennsauken, N.J. About 300 of the tiny, often vilified relatives of the weasel will be competing in the expo, hosted by the American Ferret Association at the South Jersey Expo Center.

"It makes you feel very insecure. You feel like a dope standing there with just a script and earphones on, trying to make ape sounds. " - GLENN CLOSE, who provides the voice of a mother gorilla for an upcoming cartoon version of "Tarzan," on "Access Hollywood" Mystery solved. Here's the reason Broadway buddy Rosie O'Donnell was a no-show at the Tony Awards Sunday night. O'Donnell, who'd planned to present an award during this year's telecast, bailed at the last minute, citing a family emergency.

For more than 12 hours a gunman, holed up inside an apartment in Asbury Park, N.J., kept law enforcement officials at bay. Finally, Officer Robin Eckel of the Monmouth County Sheriff's Department made the call: Bring in Solo. Minutes later, gunshots rang out, and Solo, a decorated veteran, was fatally wounded. Now, in his memory, private groups in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and across the country are raising money to provide bulletproof vests for crime fighters like Solo.

A lawyer who happens to be the chairman of Camden County's Humane Society has taken on the case of an animal-control officer charged with cruelty. Richard Peer, with the Cherry Hill law firm of Fineman & Bach, said yesterday that the allegations against Steven Bordi were "without merit. " Bordi, president of the state Animal Control Officers Association, was charged March 23 in Camden Municipal Court with 12 counts of animal cruelty stemming from six incidents that allegedly occurred when he served as animal-control officer in Camden.

In Camden, a dog is set afire as a crowd watches. It is injured so badly its eyes are literally burned out of its head before an animal-welfare agent arrives and takes it off to be humanely destroyed. In Bucks County, a serial cat-killer stalks neighborhood pets. In Northeast Philadelphia, someone poisons stray cats living near an apartment complex. In North Philadelphia, a pit bull loses a fight and is hanged. Are these examples of a society entering an age of savagery?

Citing a lack of popular support, the New Jersey Fish and Game Council yesterday opted not to allow a black-bear hunt this year, which would have been the first such event in the state since 1971. Although many council members said a hunt was the best way to reduce the soaring black-bear population - blamed for raids on crops, birdfeeders and garbage bins and occasionally attacks on house pets in Warren and Sussex Counties in northwestern New Jersey - the group opted instead to educate residents of those areas on how best to avoid the animals.