Books for children who love animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

A Place for Grace, by Jean Davies Okimoto, illustrated by Doug
Keith. Sasquatch Books (1931 2nd Ave., Seattle, WA 98101), 1993, 36 pages,
hardcover $14.95.
The amazing Grace of this story is a small stray dog on the streets of San
Francisco, who aspires to become a guide dog, fails the height requirement, and becomes a
hearing dog instead with the aid of Charlie, an astute human. Children, who are always
finding themselves too small to do things, will readily identify with Grace and will love
Doug Keith’s gently funny illustrations. But A Place for Grace isn’t just a good dog story.
It’s also a quick introduction to the duties, requirements, and training of hearing dogs, who
usually are clever mongrels, and, somewhat as an afterthought, to the world of the deaf.
If A Place for Grace has a fault, it’s that it presumes too much prior knowledge of deaf cul-
ture on the part of the very young readers. “Signing” pops up with no explanation of what it
is, although the sign alphabet appears on the cover liner, and there is relatively little discus-
sion of the difficulties of functioning in mechanized society without hearing. Fortunately,
many children will infer the essentials from the art. A must for school libraries!

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4-H, FFA seek to clean up image

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

4-H and Future Farmers of America
chapters in Ohio, Oregon, and Washington are
developing a criteria and curriculum for medal
competition in the areas of animal well-being,
quality control, and show animal ethics, under-
written with $95,000 from the USDA.
“It’s important for the livestock indus-
try to show the public that we care about the
well-being of meat animals,” says Ohio 4-H
extension agent Sherry Nickles, who adds that
the new medal categories will “open up another
opportunity for members who aren’t going to be
the grand or reserve champion.”

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ANIMAL HEALTH

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

IN THE VETERINARY CLINIC
Despite concerns about bites and animal-transmitted
disease, veterinary staff are as often hurt on the job by ordi-
nary slips, trips, falls, and lifting injuries, according to sta-
tistics supplied to ANIMAL PEOPLE by the American
Veterinary Medical Association Professional Liability Insurance
Trust. From 1988 through 1992, dog bites accounted for 16.3%
of claims, cat bites for 13.8%, kicks by horses and cattle for
5.2%, and all other injuries done by animals combined amounted
to just 4.1%––but slips, trips, and falls came to 17.2%, while
lifting totaled 16.2%. Three-fourths of the lifting injuries
involved lifting “small” animals, whose weight and ability to
struggle were probably underestimated by the injured. Average
costs per claim were $2,808 for animal-related lifting injuries;
$6,253 for other lifting injuries; $6,212 for slips, trips, and falls;
$4,174 for horse and cow-kicks; $1,527 for dog bites; and $678
for cat bites. Job safety statistics have apparently never been
compiled for animal control officers and shelter workers, but
similar ratios may apply.

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Agriculture

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on August 9
announced plans to hike grazing fees on 280 million acres
of public lands, from the present $1.86 per animal unit per
day to $4.28––still below market value, and half the $8.70
fee the House passed in July 1991, later killed by the
Senate. An earlier attempt by Babbitt to up grazing fees
was delayed by President Clinton until his budget cleared
Congress.
The European Commission on July 13 proposed
that horses in transport should be watered and fed every six
hours; calves under four weeks old, every eight hours; and
adult cattle every 16 hours. Horses and pigs would get 10
hours of rest after traveling 12 hours. If adopted, the new
rules will protect all animals traveling between member
nations.

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Horse Tips

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Reporters Rans Pierson of The New York Post and Phillip
Nalbone of the Wall Street Journal recently followed Phyllis Orrick of
the New York Press in amplifying ANIMAL PEOPLE’s April and
July/August exposes of the treatment of horses in making the estrogen
supplement Premarin. Up to 75,000 pregnant mares spend half of each
year catheterized for urine collection and confined to narrow stalls;
most of their foals are sold to slaughter. Their numbers could triple
when the manufacturer, Ayerst Organics Inc., completes expansion of
its urine processing plant in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. According
to Pierson, more than eight million American women take Premarin
for menopausal symptoms. Costing half as much as synthetic alterna-
tives made by Ciba Pharmaceuticals, Mead Johnson, and Abbott
Labs, Premarin holds 80% of the estrogen supplement market, and is
now the most prescribed drug in the U.S. An Ayerst spokesperson said
the number of horses involved is much lower than the 75,000 estimate
produced by longtime estrogen industry observer Tom Hughes of the
Canadian Farm Animal Care Trust, adding that the firm isn’t responsi-
ble for the fate of the foals anyhow. Medical columnist Zoltan Rona,
M.D., meanwhile argued in the July issue of Alive magazine that
menopausal women could avoid needing estrogen supplements by
avoiding meat and taking appropriate vitamins, minerals, and herbs.

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FUR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

“The American Veterinary
Medical Association considers the steel-
jaw leghold trap to be inhumane,” accord-
ing to a single-sentence policy statement
issued in mid-July, culminating years of lob-
bying by George Clements of the
Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing
Animals. The AVMA had long been reluc-
tant to oppose trapping because many mem-
bers wish to avoid being associated with ani-
mal rights militancy. At that, the words
“steel-jaw” were reportedly added under
pressure from the National Trappers
Association, which feared that the statement
might otherwise be taken to include padded
leghold traps and foot snares. This could
have been devastating to the fur industry
push to get padded leghold traps, snares,

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MIDWEST FLOOD RESCUE EFFORT: Forty days, forty nights, and still the rain kept pouring

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

MISSISSIPPI BASIN––Two
months of record rainfall that brought
record flooding in nine midwestern states
probably displaced more animals than
any high waters in North America since
the glaciers melted. Of the 791 counties
in the nine states, 421 were declared fed-
eral disaster areas. Clean-up and repairs
are expected to cost more than $13 bil-
lion. But animal rescuers didn’t dwell on
the immensity of the big picture. They
just pitched in however they could, wher-
ever they were, with whatever they could
scrounge by way of equipment and sup-
plies.

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COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Undercover probe nabs Wisconsin dog dealer; local judge lets him go
Circuit judge Donald Poppy, of
Calumet County, Wisconsin, on June 14
dismissed a felony cruelty charge against
USDA-licensed Class B animal dealer
Ervin Stebane, 72, for tying, shooting,
and disemboweling a dog he sold as meat.
Poppy claimed Wisconsin law allows peo-
ple to kill their own dogs in a humane man-
ner, called the slaughter humane, and
added, “If the legislature intended for peo-
ple not to kill dogs as food, the legislature
should pass such a law.”

Animal Health & Behavior

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

CDC goes to rat-@#$%
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention blame an unknown Hantaan virus probably
transmitted by rodents for causing flu-like symptoms that
killed 19 residents of the Four Corners region of New
Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado during May and
June. Most of the victims were Native Americans.
Hantaan viruses are typically transmitted through inhala-
tion, after becoming airborne with evaporated urine.
The transmission route for this as yet unidentified virus
has not been found, and investigators have been thwarted
by the reluctance of Navajo victims’ families, in particu-
lar, to speak either of the dead or of matters involving
their religion and rituals. However, Nevada paleoenvi-
ronmental researcher Peter E. Wigand, who seeks clues
to ecological history in ancient deposits of crystalized rat
urine, may have unwittingly provided a clue to the out-
break last January, before it actually occurred. Wigand

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