Dogs, disaster, and ABC

March 1, 2001 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:

AHMEDABAD, CHENNAI, THIRUVALLUR, VISAKHAPATNAM, India–Rocky the pet Pomeranian of Bhachau bank employee Narsinhbhai Bhati was among the first heroes of the January 26 earthquake that killed as many as 30,000 people in Kutch district, Gujarat state, India.

Away at a Republic Day celebration, Bhati ran back toward his home, but could not identify it among more than 500 rubble heaps where 600 houses had stood. Then he heard Rocky bark. Digging toward the barking, Bhati pulled his wife and two sons out of the debris, unconscious but expected to live. A daughter was dead.

Million hens killed in Ohio–– twister hits like forced molt

November 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000

COLUMBUS, Ohio––An estimated
one million battery-caged laying hens died
slowly from thirst, exposure, and starvation
or were reportedly crushed by bulldozers on
October 2 and 3 after two weeks of suffering,
following a September 20 tornado which
destroyed the water-and-feed systems serving
twelve 85,000-hen barns at the Buckeye Egg
Farm complex in Croton, Ohio.
The Croton complex is the biggest
of four owned by Buckeye, the fourth largest
egg producer in the U.S., formerly known as
AgriGeneral LP.
Ohio Department of Agriculture
spokesperson Mark Anthony told Mike
Lafferty of the Columbus Dispatch o n
September 21 that the trapped hens would
have to be killed and buried, burned, or rendered
as promptly as possible.
“And the process has to be done
humanely, too,” Anthony insisted. “These
chickens are not going to die of thirst.”

Disaster relief teams are fired up and burned out by hellish summer

October 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

HAMILTON, Montana––With at least five national
animal disaster relief teams now on the job, and increasingly
well-prepared local disaster relief plans covering most of the
more populated portions of the U.S., members of the United
Animal Nations’ Emergency Animal Services entered August
feeling a bit like Maytag repairmen: nobody calling, nothing
much to do except hold more seminars to train more help to
assist the 3,400 UAN-trained volunteers already available to
respond when all hell breaks loose.
”There have been no disasters where we were needed
so far,” UAN president Jeanne Westin remarked to ANIMAL
PEOPLE on August 7.
Thirteen western states were gripped by some of the
hottest droughts in years––but neither UAN nor any of the other
national animal rescue outfits do rainmaking.

“Impossible” rescue saves the penguins of Robben and Dassen islands

October 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – –
Christina Pretorius of the South African
National Foundation for the Conservation of
Coastal Birds on August 23 quietly closed the
former railway warehouse in Salt River that
for two month was a makeshift hospital for
22,000 oil-soaked penguins, who were aided
by 40,000 volunteers working in teams under
102 experts flown in from around the world.
More than 17,000 now clean and
healthy penguins had already been released to
follow 20,000 uncontaminated penguins home.
Another 2,600 penguins were still in special
care at other locations.
“If we can move 10,000 birds off in
three days, we’ve done as much as we can
do,” Western Cape Nature Conservation penguin
expert told Mike Cohen of Associated
Press back on July 3, 10 days after the
Panamanian bulk ore carrier Treasure sank
and spilled 1,300 tons of oil into the water
surrounding Robben and Dassen Islands.

Wildlife Waystation copes with red tape, green water––other no-kills struggle too

June 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

LOS ANGELES––Six weeks after the California Department of Fish and Game on April 7 ordered Wildlife Waystation to cease admitting visitors and taking in animals for either rehabilitation or lifetime care, the Waystation remained closed.

Founder Martine Colette told ANIMAL PEOPLE on May 21, however, that she was optimistic that alleged water handling problems were almost resolved and that a hail of other allegations amplified by seemingly everyone she ever had words with was close to blowing over––like all the other storms she has weathered while building the largest and perhaps oldest no-kill sanctuary for exotic wildlife in North America.

Bad publicity issued chiefly by L o s Angeles Times reporter Zantos Peabody and local internet activist Michael Bell had done the Waystation significant economic harm, but Colette was more concerned with the practical aspects of caring for more than 1,200 animals in the southern California spring heat while her water supply was limited.

Indonesian fires again threaten orangutans

April 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

JAKARTA––Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid pledged on March 8 that he would try to control as many as 500 fires set in Sumatra to clear forests for logging and planting. The fires became a public issue when smoke briefly engulfed Sumatra, as occurred for months in mid- 1997, when Borneo was covered as well.

Farmers and loggers raze the forest understory each spring and summer partly to save labor and make charcoal; partly to avoid meeting deadly snakes. Animals escaping the flames are often trapped or shot. Wild pigs and deer are hunted for meat; orangutans may be illegally captured for sale.

Ashta Nita Bustani, head of the Semboja Wanariset Orangutan Rehabilitation Project, told the Indonesian state news agency Antara in February that the 1997 fires cut the orangutan population of Borneo by about 30%. Bustani said that some orangutan refugees from the 1997 fires were still wandering outside Kutai National Park, seeking new habitat. His organization had reportedly relocated seven orangutans in the preceding week.

CATASTROPHE

April 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

Dorothy Reynolds, 84, of Jackson, Michigan, who founded the Jackson Animal Protective Association i n 1961, was on February 25 burnt out of her home of 41 years by alleged arson. She escaped with her two dogs and two cats, but must make extensive repairs with no insurance. Reynolds is receiving mail at P.O. Box 52, Addison, MI 49220.

Thirteen cats died, 13 cats and a dog survived, and two cats were missing after a February 28 fire gutted the home of Cleveland animal rescuer Chris Mohan– – who was fully insured, she told Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Michael Sangiacomo.

Lessie Davis, 54, identified by Michelle Crouch of Knight-Ridder Newspapers as “the only wildlife rehabilitator within 75 miles of Charlotte (N.C.) to take care of baby songbirds,” lost her uninsured home and clinic in January when an ice storm felled two trees on the roof. Davis may be contacted c/o Wild Care, P.O. Box 1049, Wingate, NC 28174.

Sharpe’s shelter survives shake

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

TAIPEI, Taiwan –The Taipei
Abandoned Animal Rescue Foundation
escaped serious harm in the September 20
pre-dawn earthquake that killed at least 2,101
people, injuring 8,700 and leaving at least
153 missing, presumed dead.
“The kennels and the dogs are faring
fine,” TAARF founder Mina Sharpe told
ANIMAL PEOPLE on September 22. “I’ve
taken care of the dogs in the dark for two
days. The kennel has no natural light, so
we’re relying on two flashlights to get things
done. The dogs are a bit more hyper than
usual, but other than that, all is okay. We
have a lot of shelves stacked high and precariously,
yet nothing fell,” despite the first
shock of 7.6 on the Richter scale and aftershocks
as strong as 6.8.

DISASTERSVILLE

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

RALEIGH, N.C.– – Disastersville
Center after Hurricane Floyd was expected to
be Jacksonville, Florida. It turned out to be
Greenville, North Carolina, and Manville,
New Jersey, as Floyd blew ashore on
September 16 more than 150 miles farther
north than predicted, skipped lightly over
Washington D.C., and then socked central
New Jersey, right at the fringe of the greater
New York City metropolitan area.
Some newscasters called Floyd less
deadly than anticipated, because it didn’t hit
the big cities. The 48 known human deaths
from Floyd were just a tenth of the estimated
toll from a comparable tropical storm that hit
the Mexican Gulf Coast three weeks later, triggering
floods and mudslides from Veracruz to
as far inland and above sea level as Puebla.

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