How no-kill dog control came to Kolkata, India

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2003:

How no-kill dog control came to Kolkata,  India
by Debasis Chakrabarti,  founder,  Compassionate Crusaders Trust

Kolkata (Calcutta) is the largest truly no-kill city in the
world.  It grieves me beyond measure to think of the possibility of a
resumption of slaughter of street dogs.  I would like to share our
experience with everyone involved in this work,  because I believe
that the method we use is largely contributory to our success.
The first and perhaps most important precaution we took, was
to send letters to the municipal councillors,  informing them that we
have taken up this program,  explaining the benefits of it,  and
seeking their cooperation in calling us when they see an injured or
troublesome stray dog.  This won for us their instant approval and
smoothed the way considerably.

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Animal Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2003:

Bo,  formerly Worthless,  who inspired his person Tammy
Sneath Grimes to found the anti-chaining organization Dogs Deserve
Better,  was euthanized on April 25 “due to heart failure with
possible tumor complications,”  Grimes said.

Brutus,  24,  a black bear,  was euthanized on May 28 at the
Folsom city Zoo Sanctuary due to conditions of age,  a year after the
death of his twin sister Ursula.   Brutus and Ursula for many years
were the last animals left at the defunct and often flooded Royer
Park Zoo in Roseville.  Discovering them caged and alone,
then-16-year-old Justin Barker raised the first $25,000 of the sum
needed to move them to the Folsom Zoo,  where they enjoyed a markedly
better quality of life.

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Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2003:

Guy Mountfort,  97,  died on April 22 in Bournemouth,
England.   Honorary secretary of the British Ornithologists Union,
1952-1962,  and president 1970-1975,  Mountfort co-authored  A Field
Guide To The Birds of Britain and Europe,  a 1954 best-seller,  still
in print,  and wrote other books on nature themes including Portrait
of A Wilderness (1958),  which led eventually to the creation of
Donana National Park in Spain;  The Vanishing Jungle (1969) and
Saving The Tiger (1981),  which dealt with his role in founding
Project Tiger in India,  1968-1972;  and Rare Birds Of The World
(1988).   Mountfort in 1961 joined with Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust
founder Peter Scott,  zoologist Julian Huxley,  and British Nature
Conserv-ancy director general Max Nicholson to found the World
Wildlife Fund.  Mountfort served as WWF treasurer,  1961-1978,  and
thereafter as a vice president.

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BOOKS: For Bea

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2003:

For Bea:
The Story of the Beagle Who Changed My Life
by Kristin Von Kreisler
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam
(375 Hudson street, New York 10014), 2003.  190 pages.  $19.95,  paperback.

During an evening walk Kristin Von Kreisler encountered a
sick and exhausted stray beagle,  and could not just leave the dog
there. She took the beagle home and named her Bea.  She could not
understand why Bea was so strongly afraid of humans,  even those who
were friendliest.  What kind of past could have made her shake from
fear at any human contact?

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BOOKS: On Older Cats

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2003:

On Older Cats
by Judith Lindley
1stBooks (1663 Liberty Drive,  Suite 200,  Bloomington,  IN  47403),  2003.
302 pages.  $14.50,  paperback.

Judith Lindley was given her first litter of kittens 30 years
ago,  at age 20.  They won her heart. She had found her life’s work.
Lindley still devotedly nurses unwanted cats at the Animal Helpline
no-kill sanctuary,  where she and her family shelter older and
handicapped cats,  along with dogs,  rabbits,  geese and turkeys.
In On older cats Lindley shares her hands-on experience and
gives practical advice on the care of older cats.  Some cat guardians
may be confused by the multi-faceted scientific explanations she
gives of the physiological and psychological changes within older
cats,  but her practical tips will definitely be useful.

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BOOKS: They Shall Not Hurt Or Destroy

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2003:

They Shall Not Hurt Or Destroy
Animal Rights & Vegetarianism in the Western Religious Traditions
by Vasu Murti
Vegetarian Advocates Press (P.O. Box 201791,  Cleveland, OH 44120),  2003.
140 pages,  paperback.  $15.00.

They Shall Not Hurt Or Destroy author Vasu Murti traces the
struggle for animal rights and vegetarianism back to antiquity.  The
great prophets of Israel, Pythagoras,  and Plato spoke out against
slaughter.
The cause was then taken up by the early leaders of the Christian
church and their Jewish counterparts,  demonstrates Murti.
Separate chapters deal with Jewish, Catholic,  and
Protestant teachings,  from medieval times to the present.
Says the Jewish Talmud,   “Adam and many generations that followed
him were strict flesh-abstainers;  flesh-foods were rejected as
repulsive for human consumption.”

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How pygmies came to be on the bushmeat menu and memories of a primate researcher who worked in both the bush and the lab

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2003:

A Primate’s Memoir:
A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life
Among the Baboons
by Robert M. Sapolsky

Touchstone (c/o Simon & Schuster,
1230 Avenue of the Americas,
New York,  NY  10020),  2001.
304 pages,  paperback.  $14.00.

Eating Apes
by Dale Peterson
with afterword & photos
by Karl Amman
University of California Press
(2120 Berkeley Way,  Berkeley,
CA  94720),  2003.
333 pages,  hardcover.  $24.95.
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Reviews: One Last Fight

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2003:

One Last Fight:  Exposing the Shame
Directed & filmed by Erik Friedl.  Written by John Caruso.
Produced by the Anti-Cruelty Society (157 W. Grand Ave.,  Chicago,
IL  60610),  2002.
15-minute video.  $20.00.

The history of video exposes of dogfighting is less sordid
than dogfighting itself–but nothing is more sordid than dogfighting.
Commonly associated with dogfighting,  according to the
ANIMAL PEOPLE case files,  are pet theft;  stealing dogs,  drugs,
and money from humane societies;  child abuse and neglect;  pimping
and prostitution;  drug trafficking;  extortion;  arson;  rape;  and
criminal mayhem,  legalese for “torture.”

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Hancock still fighting for animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2003:

SACRAMENTO–Loni Hancock (D-Berk-eley) on May 1 withdrew a
Farm Sanctuary bill to ban the use of gestation crates for pregnant
sows.  Opposed by the California Farm Bureau Federation,  the bill
was three votes short of clearing the California assembly Agriculture
Committee.
The “Chronology of Humane Progress” published in the May
edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE stated that in 1976 the San Francisco SPCA
became the first U.S. animal control agency to halt killing animals
by decompression.  The precedent actually came in Berkeley,  across
San Francisco Bay,  on a 1972 motion by then-city councillor Loni
Hancock,  backed by fellow councillor Ron Dellums,  who has since had
a staunchly pro-animal record in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The history of the Berkeley bill was recounted by Lara Diana
Sukol in The Politics of Dogs in Berkeley,  1968-1972,  an M.A.
thesis presented to the history faculty at the University of Vermont
in March 2000.  Hancock moved to abolish the decompression chamber at
urging of a group called The Dog Responsibility Committee,  formed by
Myrna Walton,  Julie Stitt,  and Sukol’s parents,  George and Diana
Sukol.

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