ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:
Citing fear of liability if they
should inadvertantly euthanize a pet, under
a new state law directed at pet thieves, the
Oregon Humane Society and Multnomah
County Animal Control now refuse to
accept cats brought to them by private citi-
zens and independent groups who trap ferals
and strays. The Portland-based group
Committed to Animal Protection,
Education, and Rescue charges, however,
that fundraising tactics are involved.
CAPER cites a letter from OHS staffer
Sharon Harmon, who wrote, “Despite the
services provided by OHS (to cats brought
in by independent rescuers), we received no
cash donations for their care. If we had
made contact with the owner or finder at the
time of surrender, by modest estimation, we
could have potentially realized $18,000 in
donations.”
The Lexington Humane Society
in Lexington, Kentucky, had a rough few
days in late September. Sept. 28, staffer
Kermit Ray Crawford, 23, pleaded not
guilty to second degree arson in connection
with a fire that destroyed an LHS truck on
August 23. Sept. 29, 50 protesters rallied
outside the shelter. One protester, Elaine
Robinson, said she was there because LHS
had euthanized a cat she surrendered
because he frequently got fleas.
Simultaneously, the Urban County Council
sent to committee for further study two ordi-
nances that would institute cat licensing at
$1.50 per cat per year, and prohibit cats
from running at large. LHS would be
responsible for enforcement. “We can’t do
it,” staffer Monique Winter told the council.
“We do not have the resources. We do not
have the money. We do not have the
space.”
A Los Angeles city councils u b-
committee is reviewing a proposal to require
all pet stores, breeders, and veterinarians to
issue licenses whenever they sell or treat
dogs and horses. The measure is intended to
improve the license law compliance rate.
Fundraising failures have forced
the Sherbrooke (Quebec) Society for the
Protection of Animals to dismiss director
Alain St. Martin, who twice entered the
Guinness Book of Records for marathon
stays in a portable dog cage set up at a local
shopping center to raise funds. The stunt
was a whopping success the first year, but a
bust the second, when fundraising from all
sources brought in only $45,000 of the
$100,000 the SPA said it needed.
The 123-year-old Women’s
Humane Society of Philadelphia, the first
humane society to take over municipal ani-
mal control and a longtime leader in com-
bining animal and child protection services,
will relocate to the town of Bensalem in
Bucks County next year. The shelter now
handles about 4,000 animals a year, down
from 11,000 circa 1985.
Fried’s Cat Shelter, a no-kill
facility in Michigan City, Indiana, was auc-
tioned for back taxes on October 9, with an
estimated 850 to 1,000 cats still inside. The
shelter was established about 20 years ago
but never legally incorporated as a nonprofit
institution by the late Hans Fried, a refugee
from Nazi Germany. Conditions at the shel-
ter were so bad in September that Chicago
cat rescuer Sue Lukas called it “cat hell,”
but members of a newsly established board
of directors said matters had improved more
recently.
Wildlife rehabilitators Warren
Klatt and Herman Paff of Toledo, Ohio,
were treated for PCB exposure Sept. 27 after
they rescued an oil-soaked Canada goose
from a retention basin at a controversial
toxic waste repository left behind by
Commercial Oil Services Inc. Just days ear-
lier, state employees shot 25 Canada geese
who landed in the retention basin because
they could not be safely removed and reha-
bilitated.
Post offices throughout the
Albany, N.Y., division were honored recent-
ly for raising the funds to save Olympia, a
bald eagle who was hit by a car on Douglas
Island, Alaska, in August 1991. With one
wing damaged beyond repair, the eagle now
resides at the Berkshire Bird Paradise in
Petersburg, N.Y. Funds left over have been
set aside for use in acquiring a mate for
Olympia.
The glue-trap maker D-Con Inc.
says the communities that buy the most
mouse traps per capita are Houston, Texas;
San Antonio, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa;
Salt Lake City, Utah; Boise, Idaho;
Baltimore, Maryland; Grand Rapids,
Michigan; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, both
of Oklahoma; and Indianapolis, Indiana.
Company spokespersons were unable to
explain why all but Baltimore are located in
midcontinent.
St. Paul, Minnesota, is pushing
ahead with a scheme to net pigeons down-
town and sell them to pigeon shooters. The
municipal government is “very sensitive” to
bad publicity, though,” according to Mary
Britton Clouse of the Animal Rights
Coalition, who urges that letters of protest
be sent to mayor James Scheibel, 347 City
Hall, 15 West Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN
55102.
“When East Berlin was red,”
writes Veterinarians for Animal Protection
founder Leo Lieberman, “there were no ani-
mal protection services. When the wall call
down they were inundated with many thou-
sands of feral cats. Germany does not per-
mit euthanasia of healthy animals.”
Lieberman is now trying to sell the German
people on spaying and neutering.
