OBITUARIES

December 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1996:

Jim Cook, 37, founder of the Yoknapatawpha Exotic Animal Refuge in of Oxford,
Mississippi, “passed away this weekend while at work,” JES Exotics Sanctuary president Jill
Shumak faxed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on November 19. “We were devastated at the loss of this
awesome, wonderful man,” a longtime sufferer from juvenile onset diabetes who had undergone
installation of an insulin pump just two weeks earlier. Cook and David Mallory of the nearby
Ceder Hill Sanctuary in May bought 84 large exotic cats––46 African lions, 21 tigers, and various
others––at the foreclosure of property owned by Lawrence and Katherine Twiss, of
Philadelphia, Mississippi, who were recently convicted of cruelty for allowing the big cats and
other animals including bears to starve on an 800-acre rented farm. JES Exotics in October
accepted transfer of 10 of the cats.

Obituaries

BOOKS: The Pictorial Guide to the Living Primates & The Great Apes: Our Face in Nature’s Mirror

December 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1996:

The Pictorial Guide to the Living Primates
by Noel Rowe
Foreword by Jane Goodall. Introduction by Russell Mittermeier.
Pogonias Press (163 Town Lane, East Hampton, NY 11937-5000), 1996.
263 pages, paperback, $64.95 including postage from publisher.

The Great Apes: Our Face in Nature’s Mirror
by Michael Leach
Blandford, c/o Sterling Publishing Co. (387 Park Ave. South, New York, NY
10016-8810), 1996.
160 pages, paperback, $29.95.

Don’t judge these two books by
their covers. At a glance, The Pictorial
Guide to the Living Primates, with a lifesized
chimpanzee face on the cover, and The Great
A p e s, with a lifesized orangutan, would
appear to be head-to-head competitors in the
Christmas coffee-table book market––and
indeed they might be, but in each case the
physical format is misleading, their content
doesn’t even overlap to any noteworthy
degree, and if you’re trying to choose
between the two, choose both.

BOOKS: A Cat’s Christmas

December 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1996:

A Cat’s Christmas
by Stefanie Samek
Illustrated by Larry Ross
Dutton (375 Hudson St., New York,
NY 10014), 1996. 180 pages,
hardback, $14.95.

This is a fun little frivolity to tuck
in your pocket for dull moments, or stress
reduction breaks, or for a hostess gift all will
enjoy, probably on the spot. Author
Stefanie Samek’s previous book, Purring In
The Light: Near-Death Experiences of Cats,
I carried about inflicting aloud favorite bits
on all and sundry. One word of caution:
while Samek mostly spoofs the secular, the
pre-Christian, etc., the very devout might
disapprove of her use of some of the most
cherished old carols; but then, how much
harm could a small furry paw do after so
much crass commercialization? Samek
crams the 180 pages with stories, poems,
and songs given feline remake.

BOOKS: Rain Without Thunder

December 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1996:

Rain Without Thunder:
The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement
by Gary L. Francione
Temple University Press (1601 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19122), 1996.
366 pages, paper, $22.95.

In the climatic sense, rain without
thunder grows crops and wild habitat, as fog
turns to saturating sprinkle. Ancient forest
once marked the temperate latitudes, which
get the most rain without thunder, and these
regions remain densely forested, albeit now
mostly with second growth. Where thunder
usually coincides with rain, one instead finds
desert, eroded rather than irrigated by flashfloods.

BOOKS: CERTAIN POOR SHEPHERDS: A CHRISTMAS TALE

December 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1996:

CERTAIN POOR SHEPHERDS: A CHRISTMAS TALE by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
Simon & Schuster (Rockefeller Center, 1230 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10020), 1996. 126 pp., hardcover, $15.00.

Most noted for The Hidden Life of
D o g s and The Tribe of Tiger, in which she
observed domestic dogs and cats as if they
were wildlife, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas in
Certain Poor Shepherds tells the Nativity
story from the perspective of Ima the goat and
Lila the dog, guardians of one of the flocks
who saw the bright star in the east––along
with a great flight of angels who introduced
them to eating acorns––and commenced their
four-day journey to Bethlehem while their
human master slept.

BOOKS: Animals, Property and the Law

December 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1996:

Animals, Property and the Law by Gary L. Francione
Temple University Press (Broad & Oxford Streets, Philadelphia, PA 19122), 1995. 349 pages, paperback, $22.95.

Animals, Property and the Law argues that animals
have no rights under existing animal welfare laws. People may
think that laws prohibiting “unnecessary suffering” and requiring
“humane” treatment give animals certain rights, such as the
right to be free from cruelty and abuse, but in fact these laws
only prevent economically inefficient use of animal property.
This is because welfare laws (and animal welfare theory in general)
are based on ultilitarian principles of balancing the different
interests involved. The interests of animals, who are legally
considered property, without rights, are weighed to their
disadvantage against the interests of humans, whose rights
include the right to own and use animal property.

Law
Reviews

Activism

December 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1996:

The Orange County (California) Transportation Authority on November 19 paid former bus driver Bruce
Anderson $50,000 in settlement of the religious discrimination lawsuit he brought against the OCTA after he was fired in June
for refusing, as an ethical vegetarian, to pass out hamburger coupons as part of a promotion. In August the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that Anderson had been discriminated against on the basis of sincerely held
belief. The OCTA agreed, as part of the out-of-court settlement, to amend its employee handbook to clarify policies pertaining
to religious and personal freedom.

Eleven easy ways to get killed in the woods

December 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1996:

• An unidentified 12-year-old shotgunned
bowhunter Joseph P. Bordelon on October 5 in the Bogue
Chitto National Wildlife Refuge, near Slidell, Louisiana
––mistaking Bordelon, who survived, for a wild pig.
• On October 8, Todd Mercer, 24, of Lewiston,
Maine, tried to eject a shell from his duck gun and instead
killed hunting buddy Kevin MacDonald, 22, of Bath.
• Portland-area residents Kevin Lynn Gregory, 18,
David Allen Cook, 19, and Cory Alan Lewis, 18, were
arrested in early October and charged with two counts each of
aggravated murder. They are accused of taking fellow hunters
Ronald Cary Dunwoody, 36, and James William Boyles,
48, of Portland, to a Larch Mountain target shooting area and
using them for the targets.

Legal pitfalls & political traps

December 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1996:

ST. LOUIS––Legal otter trapping
for pelts commenced in Missouri
for the first time since 1937 on
November 20, 11 days after Judge
Robert H. Dierker of the 22nd Circuit
Court rejected the argument of state residents
Cecily Westerman, Ed Leonard,
Stan Slaughter, and the Animal Legal
Defense Fund that the otter season was
improperly authorized.
Dierker agreed that as
Missouri taxpayers, the three named
plaintiffs had standing to challenge the
regulation that established an otter season.
He also rejected Missouri
Conservation Commission arguments
that trapping is required to control the
otter population and prevent property
damage. “The record seems clear,”
Dierker wrote, “that the Commission
concluded in 1995 that there were
enough otters to accommodate commercial
trapping interests, and other reasons
to have a trapping season were at
best ancillary factors.”

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