Living next door to a pit bull

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
INDIANAPOLIS–An online poll conducted by WTHR-TV found 69%
community support for Indianapolis council member Mike Speedy’s
proposed At Risk Dogs ordinance, against 26% opposition and 5%
undecided.
The ordinance would require sterilizing pit bull terriers.
“1,988 people participated. With all of the critical
comments on the stories from pit bull fans, I’m surprised so many
voted in favor. Keep in mind our poll is not scientific, meaning it
would be easy to skew with coordinated effort,” said Sara Galer of
WTHR.

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Obituaries [May 2009]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
Victoria Wellens, 58, died of cancer on
March 28, 2009. Executive director of the
Wisconsin Humane Society since 1994, Wellens
arrived with no background in animal work, but
had worked in child welfare. She inherited
dilapidated premises, a factionalized and
demoralized staff, a high rate of shelter
killing, animal control contracts with 19
cities, and adversarial relationships with other
humane organizations and local media. Her first
action was to make the Wisconsin Humane premises
child-friendly. Eliminating sharp-edged
furniture, harsh language, and any activity or
posters that would easily upset a child tended to
produce a more comfortable environment for staff
and volunteers. Dropping the animal control
contracts, which Wellens saw as the source of
most of the stress within Wisconsin Humane,
Wellens helped the cities to form the Milwaukee
Area Domestic Animal Control Commission.

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Animal Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
Qannik, 8, a beluga whale, died from a bacterial blood
infection on March 27, 2009 at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in
Tacoma, Washington, his home since 2007. Qannik was the eighth
beluga to live at Point Defiance, where belugas have been exhibited
for about 25 years, and was the fourth to die there. His mother,
Mayauk, had two stillbirths at Point Defiance before she was
transferred to the John Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. There she
successfully birthed Qannik and a sibling. Qannik at Point Defiance
replaced Turner, 13, who died in 2006. Beethoven, 16, companion
to both Turner and Qannik, is to be returned to Sea World San
Antonio, his birthplace, where he will join the Sea World captive
breeding program. As none of the 34 other belugas now in captivity
in the U.S. need a new home, Point Defiance “has applied for three
California sea lions as part of the government effort to trap and
remove dozens of the animals, who are feeding on endangered salmon
on the Columbia River, reported the Tacoma News Tribune.

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“Extreme makeover” contest wins give shelter and sanctuary founders extreme headaches

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:

 

ST. LOUIS, Mo.; PHELAN, Calif.–Hoping to win a shelter
renovation through a makeover contest?
Stray Rescue of St. Louis, Rocky Ridge Refuge of Gassville,
Arkansas, and the Forever Wild Tiger Sanctuary of Phelan,
California all did. Each found that the outcome was not really what
was expected.
“I’m just glad it’s over and glad to be back on the streets
where I am most comfortable,” Stray Rescue founder Randy Grim told
ANIMAL PEOPLE. “One day we will have our shelter. The dog gods will
help.”
In June 2008 Stray Rescue won a $1 million shelter makeover
offered by the zootoo.com social networking web site. The makeover
contest required supporters of as many as 1,000 shelters competing
for the prize to go to zootoo.com, register, and vote, thereby
boosting zootoo participation.

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BOOKS: Saved: Rescued Animals & the Lives They Transformed

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:

Saved: Rescued Animals & the Lives They Transformed by Karin
Winegar. Photos by Judy Olausen.
Da Capo Press (11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142), 2008.
240 pages, hardcover. $25.95.

“I’m only one person working for animals,” says Stray Rescue
of St. Louis founder Randy Grim. “I’m no hero; this is not a job;
it’s what I am.”
Grim, the Maricopa County Sher-iff’s Department in Phoenix,
Arizona, and Randi Golub from Oregon are among the many dedicated,
brave and caring people featured in Saved: Rescued Animals & the
Lives They Transformed.

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BOOKS: Most Good, Least Harm

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:

Most Good, Least Harm by Zoe Weil
Simon & Schuster (1230 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10020),
2009. 192-page download; $14.00. 224-page paperback; $15.00.

Institute for Humane Education cofounder Zoe Weil’s latest
book, Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World
and a Meaningful Life prescribes seven MOGO principles –MOGO is
short for “Most Good”–to build a viable future for our children and
our planet.

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Rapid progress against Dutch vealers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
AMSTERDAM–The Dutch animal advocacy organization Wakker
Dier–“Awake Animal”–appears to be quietly making unprecedented
gains against the crated veal industry in the nation where it
originated.
“Within six months of Wakker Dier launching a peaceful
company-targetted campaign against ‘pale veal’–produced by keeping
male calves penned up, fed on low-iron milk diets–nearly all Dutch
supermarkets have stopped selling it,” reported Adriana Stuijt for
Digital Journal on March 15, 2009.
Recently retired after covering public health for the
Johannesburg Sunday Times and the Rand Daily Mail in South Africa,
now living in Dokkum, The Netherlands, Stuijt found that 14 leading
Dutch supermarkets chains “have all undertaken to stop selling the
pale veal within the next few months, because the Wakker Dier
publicity campaign created a high level of consumer awareness, and
people stopped buying it.”

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Another L.A. Animal Services chief quits

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:

LOS ANGELES–Ed Boks, general manager of the Los Angeles
Department of Animal Services since December 2005, on April 24 2009
advised Los Angeles mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa that he will
resign, effective on June 30.
Boks was ousted from his previous position as executive
director of the New York City Center for Animal Care & Control after
entertaining an offer from Los Angeles.
“I have an offer I’m considering and a couple of options I’m
thinking about,” Boks told ANIMAL PEOPLE on April 27, “but for the
next week or two I just want to free myself from Los Angeles’
relentless irrational oppressive nonsense.”
Boks, 57, was the fourth Los Angeles Department of Animal
Services chief to leave since 2003. The late Dan Knapp resigned
after a prolonged sick leave he attributed to job stress. His
successor, Jerry Greenwalt, retired after enduring months of
intense online criticism and demonstrations outside his home. Boks’
immediate predecessor, Guerdon Stuckey, was fired by Villaraigosa
after just 13 tumultuous months on the job, only days after
Villaraigosa took office. Villaraigosa had promised to replace
Stuckey during the mayoral election campaign, and had reportedly
hired Boks even before terminating Stuckey.

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European seal pelt import ban will hit fur trade already in decline

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
STRASBOURG–The European Parliament is likely to approve a
ban on the import of seal pelts at a May 5, 2009 plenary session,
but is expected to allow Canada and Norway to continue exporting seal
pelts through the European Union member nations to reach markets in
China and Russia.
The ban will also exempt seal products made “for cultural,
educational or ceremonial purposes” by the Inuit people of northern
Canada.
Information leaked to ANIMAL PEOPLE at deadline indicates
that the draft ban approved on March 2, 2009 by the European
Parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee was
amended before presentation to the plenary session to mitigate
concerns that Canada and Norway will appeal the legislation to the
World Trade Organization.

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