WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN: Saving Children and Animals

November 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– The

press dispatches should have warned the

world. “Rivers and water holes have

dried up for the first time anyone can

remember, starving and burning to death

some 400 hippos,” Associated Press cor-

respondent Angus Shaw wrote from

Zimbabwe in mid-July. “Dead birds have

dropped out of shriveled trees, tortoises,

snakes, rodents, and insects have disap-

peared, and predators are killing more

weakened animals than they can eat… As

southern Africa suffers its worst drought

ever, thousands of animals have died and

officials are continuing to shoot many

more to feed the increasingly desperate

human population. The meat from the

culled animals has been targeted for chil-

dren showing signs of malnutrition.”

Seeking The truth about feral cats and the people who help them: NEW STUDY YIELDS CONTROVERSIAL FINDINGS

November 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

BOSTON, MASS. –– The leading cause of death among homeless cats may be

humane euthanasia. Homeless cat colonies exist in almost every American neighborhood––but

four out of 10 homeless cats live in just 6% of the colonies, and two-thirds live in only 16%.

Over half of all stray and feral female cats are pregnant at any given time. Yet attrition is so high

that despite local fluctuations, the national homeless cat population is remarkably stable.

These and other challenges to conventional thinking about homeless cats emerge from

data gathered by ANIMAL PEOPLE and the Massachusetts SPCA, in the first-ever national

survey of cat-feeders and cat-rescuers. The controversial nature of the findings and the complex-

ity of interpreting the data in light of experience became apparent when even the ANIMAL

PEOPLE editors strongly differed over what some of the numbers may mean.

A voiding roadkills: Secrets of animal behavior that can save your life!

November 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

You’re cruising near the speed limit late one night,

tired from a long drive. You catch a glint of eyes in your

headlight beams, a dark shape breaking from the shadows

to your right, an oncoming car to your left––

Do you jam on the brakes? Speed up to get past

before the animal bolts? Risk swerving? Take your foot off

the gas?

Combat pilots memorize silhouette cards and air-

craft specification sheets, in order to recognize every other

plane in the sky even if all they see is a fleeting glimpse of

something on radar. They need to know instantly what’s out

there: whether it’s hostile, how fast it can go, how far it

can shoot. At Mach 2, there isn’t time for second-guessing.

But at 60 miles an hour your car is outracing the

focal distance of your headlights even faster than a fighter

pilot outraces radar range. And like most other drivers, you

haven’t had any training in how to respond to an animal in

the roadway.

Rethinking Our Bargain With Cats by Jessica Bart-Mikionis

November 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

Growing up, I always wanted to be a cat. My

very first pet was a dog, though, named Heather. I

don’t remember her, nor the accident that killed her. I

was in my stroller, I have been told, with my mother,

when Heather bolted into the street perhaps in pursuit of

a cat and got hit by an oncoming car. A while later,

when I was three or four, came Mehitabel, named after

Don Marquis’ tale archie and mehitabel.. I remember

Mehitabel vividly. We used to explore the world togeth-

er, sleep together, and play hide-and-seek and tag, until

one time she ran under my legs, I stumbled and fell on

her, and broke her leg. I don’t think I was ever the same

after that. Mehitabel sported an elaborate splint for sev-

eral months, and my mother and I would support her

when she used her litter pan in the beginning of her recu-

peration.

BOOKS BRIEFLY NOTED

November 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

The Myth of Wild Africa:

Conservation Without Illusion,

by Jonathan Adams and Thomas

McShane. W.W. Norton & Co., 1992.

266 pages; hardback; $21.95.

Adams and McShane, both offi-

cials of the World Wildlife Fund, advance

the WWF view that only hunting and

“culling” marketable species can provide

impoverished African nations with suffi-

cient economic incentive to insure that the

animals will otherwise be protected. The

case of the African elephant demonstrates,

however, that the presence of a legal market

for wildlife parts in one nation only stimu-

lates poaching in others where there is no

BOOKS: Harmony With Horses

November 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

Harmony With Horses. By Maurice Wright.

J.A. Allen Horsebooks (1 Lower Grosvenor Place,

Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0EL, United

Kingdom). 1991. 127 pages. Inquire for current

U.S./Canadian price.

If more of us understood the generous and willing

spirit of horses, fewer horse people would approach them

as “a gladiator, not an educator,” as horsetamer John

Solomon Rarey put it nearly 150 years ago––and fewer ani-

mal rights activists would attack the use of horses for work,

pleasure, and performance. Strangely, however, despite

the prominence of horses in human culture since prehistory,

understanding horses hasn’t been a priority even for many of

those most involved with them. There was a gap of nearly

2,000 years between Xenophon’s instructions to cavalry

masters to treat horses gently, without whips, and the 1550

publication of Federico Grisone’s book on horse training,

which emphasized dominance, and became the basis for

many of the myths, misunderstandings, and downright cru-

elties afflicting horses today. It was only within the last few

years, for example, that the veterinary profession banned

“firing,” the medieval practice of applying hot irons or

caustics to an ailing horse. Tail-docking is still commonly

performed.

Fur

November 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

Fur Free Friday is November

27—the day after Thanksgiving, the tradi-

tional start of the peak fur sales season. Get

details on demonstrations in your region

from either Friends of Animals at 212-247-

8120, or Animal Rights Mobilization at

303-388-7120.

The Fur Council of Canada

announced a $1 million publicity blitz on

October 20, aimed at reviving the strug-

gling Canadian retail fur market––one of

the last markets left to the Canadian fur

industry, following the collapse of fur sales

in Europe and the U.S. The campaign

argues that furs are reuseable and

biodegradable, and that the fur trade is an

essential part of controlling animal popula-

tions––which contradicts earlier industry

claims that the majority of animals killed

for fur are ranched especially for the pur-

pose.

Bred and abandoned–– but now there’s hope for potbellied pigs! (and they even have mud to root in)

November 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

The headlines tell the story:

October 1, 1991, St. Louis Post-Dispatch––

‘Super Pig’ Credited With Saving

Banking Executive, Wife In Fire

October 30, 1991, The Daily Oklahoman––

Council Advised To Keep Pig Law

December 4, 1991, Detroit Free Press––

Pet Pig Prompts Court Confrontation

June 7, 1992, The New York Times––

This Little Pig’s Market Plunged

June 30, 1992, Los Angeles Times––

Pet Potbellied Pig Craze Goes Belly Up

Dogs And Cats

November 1, 1992 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

Starting in January and incorporated just

last July under the name Every Creature Counts, Lisa

Booker, Pat Peluso, and Joy Skow of Lyons, Colorado,

had rescued an estimated 400 cats among them by the end

of September, picking up strays and ferals from Loveland

to Denver. They practice a combination of neuter/release

and pick-up-for-adoption,

Eighteen of 38 cats whose pictures are on cat-

food boxes or cans in the supermarket closest to ANI-

MAL PEOPLE are orange toms.

« 1 2 3 4 »