OBITUARIES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

Patricia Nelson, 94, died on
August 31 in Rancho Bernardo, California.
Born in Columbius, Ohio, Nelson was
daughter of a prominent neurologist. She
never married and never had children of her
own, but devoted much of her life to children,
running a nursery school in San Diego
for more than 30 years. She took up animal
rescue after selling the nursery in 1971.
Nelson met Cleveland Amory, the late
founder of the Fund for Animals, “in 1984,
in the midst of the San Clemente goat rescue,”
Fund president Marian Probst recalled,
“when she offered five acres she owned in
Ramona, California, as a place we could
bring some of the goats for veterinary care
and subsequent adoption. In 1985, she gave
us the five acres, which became the core of
our now 13-acre wildlife rehabilitation center.
Chuck and Cindi Traisi, who volunteered in
the goat rescue, moved to Ramona from San
Diego to establish the wildlife rehab center,
and as they say, the rest is history.” Nelson
also helped to form and fund the Ramona Pet
Awareness League, circa 1991, and also
started the Animal Trust Foundation, which
is reportedly setting up an Internet site to help
rehome lost pets and place shelter animals.

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ANIMAL NECROLOGY

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

#103, an eight-year-old puma who
was due to give birth within two weeks to four
cubs, died on August 20 of “metabolic complications”
related to the pregnancy, according
to wildlife biologist David Shindle, who
did a necropsy for the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission. #103 was
the third to die among eight “Texas cougars”
who were translocated to the Big Cypress
National Preserve in 1995 to replenish the
depleted “Florida panther” gene pool. Both
“Texas cougars” and officially endangered
“Florida panthers” are subspecies of puma.

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REVIEWS: All the Little Animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

All The Little Animals
Directed and produced by Jeremy Thomas
Starring Christian Bale and John Hurt
Lions Gate Films (561 Broadway, Suite 12-B, New York, NY 10012), 1999

Scheduled for video release in
November, after an August theatre debut,
All The Little Animals invites comparison
with characters reminiscent of George and
Lenny in John Steinbeck’s 1937 novella O f
Mice And Men, a plot loosely paralleling
Charles Dickens’ autobiographical opus
David Copperfield, and climactic action
developing within the ruins of King Arthur’s
reputed stronghold along the Cornish coast.

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BOOKS: STERLING REFERENCES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

STERLING REFERENCES
Bears Of The World by Paul Ward & Susanne Kynaston
Bugs Of The World by George C. McGavin
Rodents Of The World by David Alderton
Seals & Sea Lions Of The World by Nigel Bonner
All from Blandford Ltd. (distributed by Sterling Publishing Co., 387 Park Ave.
South, New York, NY 10016-8810), 1999. 192-224 pages, paperback. $19.95.
Penguins: A Worldwide Guide
by Remy Marion
Illustrated by Sylvaine Maigret-Mondry
Also distributed by Sterling. 156 pages, hardcover. $22.95.

Among the wealth of new animal reference
works from Blandford Ltd. and Sterling
Publishing, the firm’s U.S. distribution partner,
there is one––Seals & Sea Lions Of The
World––whose value I can personally affirm
from having used a predecessor volume, The
Natural History Of Seals, an average of about
once a month for 10 years.

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BOOKS: The Save-A-Life Guide

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

The Save-A-Life Guide
Edited by Vicki Todaro
(3504 Fort Hunt Drive,
Arlington, TX 76016), 1999.

Sponsored by Ahimsa of Texas,
this 141-page looseleaf binder is a much
expanded second edition of a volume which
includes capsule descriptions and contact
data for all (or nearly all) Dallas/Fort
Worth-area animal shelters; fostering programs;
dog breed rescuers; cat clubs; rescue
groups for ferrets, rabbits, pigs, horses,
and birds; wildlife rescue and rehabilitation
programs; and various other organizations
which might help someone save an
animal in north/central Texas.
One might jump to the conclusion
that the Dallas/Fort Worth area is unusually
rich in resources for animals. It’s more the
norm, but few regions have anything like
The Save-A-Life Guide to facilitate liaison.

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BOOKS: Lootas, Little Wave Eater

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

Lootas, Little Wave Eater:
An Orphaned Sea Otter’s Story
by Clare Hodgson Meeker
with photos by C.J. Casson
Sasquatch Books (615 2nd Ave.,
Suite 260, Seattle, WA 98104), 1999.
48 pages, paperback. $12.95.

From 400 to 600 Alaskan sea otters
now inhabit the Washington coast, according
to the U.S. Geological Survey in a newly
released national biodiversity inventory. They
are the only sea otters who are now doing
well. Off Alaska, where sea otters were
abundant enough in 1997 that marine mammologist
James Bodkin suggested that they
could be hunted, numbers have fallen, apparently
because orcas who can’t find enough
fish to eat are eating sea otters instead.

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BOOKS: Beyond Evolution

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

Beyond Evolution by Michael W. Fox
The Lyons Press (123 West 18th St., New York, NY 10011), 1999.
256 pages, hardcover. $24.95.

“Few parents teach their children reverence for all
life, opening their hearts to the wonders and mysteries of wild
nature,” Humane Society of the U.S. senior vice president
Michael W. Fox laments on page 216 of Beyond Evolution.
“Few children now go out to hunt and trap and fish with their
fathers…It can be difficult to empathize with those who have
never learned why they must kill a deer swiftly with one arrow,
and not just for sport; and with those people who still eat other
animals without a second thought. But empathize we must to
help restore our collective humanity.”

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Prison kills prairie dogs to beat ESA listing

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

LAKEWOOD, Colorado– –The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on October 6
opened a 30-day comment period on a proposal
by the National Wildlife Federation
and other groups to list black-tailed prairie
dogs as a threatened species.
As announcement of the comment
period was anticipated, however, the
Federal Correctional Institute in Jefferson
County, Colorado, joined ranchers and
developers in the 10 states which have
prairie dogs in a rush to exterminate local
populations before they can be protected.
Observers estimated that Abash Exterminating
killed as many as 20,000 prairie dogs
at the prison––ostensibly because prisoners
might have enlarged their tunnels and used
them to escape.

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Australian, Canadian, U.S. high courts open refuges to native hunters

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

CANBERRA, OTTAWA, WASHINGTON,
D.C.––The Supreme Court of Australia on October 7 ruled 5-2
that the 410,000 recognized members of aboriginal tribes are
exempt from hunting and fishing license laws, under the
Federal Native Title Act of 1993, and may freely hunt even
protected and endangered species for personal use.
The Australian high court struck down parts of the
earlier Queensland Fauna Conservation Act on behalf of
Gangalidda tribe activist Murrandoo Yanner, who speared two
esturine saltwater crocodiles near Doomadgee in 1994 to create
the test case. The Yanner victory is expected to mean charges
will also be dropped against aboriginals who are charged with
illegally killing an extremely rare spiny anteater and an endangered
dugong, apparently also to set up test cases, as well as
against alleged aboriginal poachers of fish and seagull eggs.

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