Animal control & rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

“The Progressive Animal Animal Welfare Society is
attempting to reduce the population of homeless cats with a
specific campaign reaching out to low-income families,”
reports companion animal services director Scott Van
Valkenburg. “First, PAWS is offering neutering surgery for any
puppy or kitten under four months of age for $5.00––or we’ll fix
a whole litter for $10.00. On April 20, PAWS volunteers distributed
500 door hangers in low-income neighborhoods identified
by animal control officers as having many homeless cats. PAWS
is now asking social service agencies to promote our low-cost
neutering campaign, and is posting information about it in social
service offices.”
The Los Angeles SPCA and Ventura County Animal
Control reported on April 29 that “over 500 birds from private
sanctuaries and dozens of horses from residences” had been
evacuated from the path of a local brushfire.

One of the five kittens saved by the heroic cat
Scarlett from a March 30 fire in Brooklyn died on April 27 from
a lung infection. “He was the kitten who was probably most
exposed to fire and smoke,” said North Shore Animal League
medical director Bonnie Brown, DVM. Scarlett and the rest of
the litter, deemed recovered, were assigned for adoption on
Mother’s Day.
The first test of the new Chicago dangerous animal
ordinance was passed on May 3 when city-appointed hearing
officer Michael Goldrick upheld the classification of a Rottweiler
belonging to Mark Wettig and Sandra Budnik of Lincoln
Park––after several biting incients––as “dangerous” and therefore
requiring fulltime restraint as well as liability insurance.
Highlands, Keyport, Union Beach, and Howell,
New Jersey, have agreed to buy humane Tomahawk cat traps
and make them available to residents as loaners, to reduce homeless
cat numbers; the Associated Humane Societies is to provide
cat pickup and identification service.
True to her word as given at a March 11 meeting
with ferret fanciers, Humane Society of the U.S. director for
companion animals Martha Armstrong on May 6 issued a new
“bill of rights” for domestic ferrets, reversing longtime HSUS
opposition to ferret-keeping. HSUS now calls for observation
rather than euthanasia of ferrets who bite; open access to veterinary
care; cooperation of animal shelters and disaster relief agencies
with ferret rescue groups; protection from commercial
exploitation; and care standards that include out-of-cage exercise.
Eight days after Armstrong acted, the California Assembly
Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee approved a nonbinding
resolution––opposed by Governor Pete Wilson––that would lift
the state’s 1987 ban on ferrets. California and Hawaii are the last
states with ferret prohibitions.
Utah governor Mike Leavitt on April 28 signed into
law new anti-cruelty legislation, including a provision increasing
the maximum penalty for organizing a cockfight to a fine of
$2,500 plus a year in jail.
The Boston Housing Authority, Massachusetts
SPCA, and Animal Rescue League reportedly all deny knowledge
of a team of exterminators whom Mary Ellen McCormach
housing project residents claim have been seen fumigating and
sealing two basements where homeless cats dwell. Feeding the
cats is a popular pastime for the human project residents, who
routinely sabotage efforts to oust them.
Attorney Linda Ditmars, of Trenton, N.J., faxed to
ANIMAL PEOPLE, right at deadline, that the nearby city of
Camden had just adopted “a mandatory spay/neuter ordinance,”
but offered no details.
The Pan-Appalachian Animal Welfare Society, of
Poca, West Virginia, disbanded effective April 30, due to the
retirement of president Vickie Finlay and treasurer Alan
Handleman. Remaining funds were used to send the humane
education newspaper Kind News to local classrooms.
A California appellate court in mid-May reversed a
lower court ruling that a search warrant is not required to seize a
dog-at-large who runs into his/her home during pursuit. “We
don’t have time to get a search warrant in the vast majority of
these cases,” said Lieutenant Endel Jurman of the Pasadena
Humane Society and SPCA, who was the officer involved in the
disputed case. “A lot of dogs are going to get away