Dogfight on the western front

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000

BRUSSELS––Germany, France, Italy, and
Britain are battling again in Belgium, and invading
bloody Americans are again ensnarled in the thick of it.
That’s American pit bull terriers this time.
Like the doughboys of World War I and the G.I.s of
World War II, they are said to be over-large, overdosed
on testosterone, and over here, looking for a fight.
This time they are seen as allies of neo-Nazis
and Huns––Attila’s Huns, who ravaged Europe from
434 to 453, when the notoriously reactive Attila’s brain
burst as he celebrated his honeymoon.
The Justice and Home Affairs Council of the
European Union on September 29 heard a German proposal
to ban throughout Europe the breeding or import of
any kind of “fighting dog,” defined as any member of
14 breeds with American pit bull traits. As well as the
American pit bull and Japanese tosa, who have been
banned in Britain and The Netherlands since 1991, the
German proposal would ban Rhodesian ridgebacks,
Neopolitan bulldogs, Staffordshire terriers, English bull
terriers, and bull mastiffs.

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HUMAN OBITUARIES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000:

Mary Warner, almost 90, died
recently at her home in Berryville, Virginia.
Originally from Minnesota, Warner won her
first reputation in animal protection by tracking
down horse thieves. She began investigating
dog and cat theft, she recalled in 1992,
only after she and her husband retired to
Virginia in 1974. “We finally got away from
the horse thieves,” she said, “and then our
dog was stolen, right out of our yard.”
Warner responded by founding Action-81, an
anti-pet theft advocacy group named for I-81,
the truck route used by Appalachian bunchers
to haul dogs to laboratories along the
Atlantic seaboard. For the rest of her life
Warner gathered pet theft reports, lobbied
animal protection groups to act on pet theft,
and hounded her elected representatives.

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ANIMAL OBITUARIES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000:

Misty II, 14, last grandfilly of
Misty of Chincoteague, and the only one with
the same color and markings, died from cancer
on August 24 at the farm of Keith and
Kendy Allen in Manheim, Pennsylvania. Her
remains were returned to Chincoteague Island,
Virginia, to be buried at the newly opened
Chincoteague Pony Center. The first Misty
rode to fame with the success of the children’s
book Misty of Chincoteague, by the late
Marguerite Henry. Misty of Chincoteague
made her one of the most successful writers of
horse stories ever, having already sold more
than a million copies by 1961, when it became
a hit film. Henry produced two sequels:
Stormy, Misty’s Foal (1963), about the mother
of Misty II, and Misty’s Twilight ( 1992 ) ,
about the last days of Misty, who died in
1972. But Misty II did not inherit an easy life.

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BOOKS: LOSING PARADISE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000:

LOSING PARADISE by Paul G. Irwin
Square One Publishers (16 1st St., Garden City Park, NY 11040), 2000.
224 pages, paperback. $14.95

Humane Society of the U.S. president
emeritus John A. Hoyt was a Baptist
minister who became a Presbyterian minister,
took over HSUS in 1970, and took home
more money in each of the next 25 years than
the total budgets of most humane societies
that actually save animals.
Hoyt in 1975 hired Methodist minister
Paul G. Irwin as his sidekick.

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BOOKS: Elephants, Foxes, Frogs, Salmon & Whales

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000:

Elephants: Majestic Creatures of the Wild
Edited by Jeheskel Shoshani, Elephant Research Foundation
Checkmark Books (c/o Facts On File Inc., 11 Penn Plaza, NY 10001), 1992,
updated 2000. 240 pages, hardcover, illustrated. $39.95.
Foxes by David Macdonald
Frogs by David Badger, photos by John Netherton
Salmon by John M. Baxter
(Each 72 pages, paperback, illustrated. $16.95.)
Minke Whales by Rus Hoelzel & Jonathan Stern
(48 pages, paperback, illustrated. $12.95.)
All from WorldLife Library
(c/o Voyageur Press, 123 N. 2nd St., Stillwater, MN 55082), 2000.

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BOOKS: Veterinary Ethics: An Introduction

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000:

Veterinary Ethics: An Introduction
Edited by Giles Legood
Contiuum (370 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017), 2000.
192 pages, paperback. $23.95

“The Reverend Giles Legood,” editor
of Veterinary Ethics, “is Chaplain and
Honorary Lecturer in Veterinary Ethics at the
Royal Veterinary College, University of
London,” the back cover warns––an example
of why one should not judge a book by the
cover, because Veterinary Ethics is neither a
sermon nor mere academic philosophizing.
The worst one might fairly say of
Legood and his contributing authors is that
they are not as entertaining as Bernard Rollin,
whose lectures at Colorado State University
and elsewhere over the past 20 years have virtually
created the field of veterinary ethics.

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VIGILANTE ACTIONS AGAINST DOGS WHO BITE CHILDREN

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000:

LIMA––One of the first public
animal rights demonstrations in Peru featured
an estimated 200 people marching
with dogs on leashes through the affluent
Lima suburb of Miraflores on July 21 to
protest the shooting of a 10-month-old
Staffordshire terrier named Venancio.
Venancio, the pet of march organizer
Hector Rospigliosi, on the evening
of July 1 reportedly rushed up to an 11-
year-old boy who was playing with a ball
in a public park. Barking loudly,
Venancio scared the boy, who according
to his father was bitten on the hand while
trying to keep possession of the ball. The
boy fled to his grandfather. The grandfather
fetched a handgun from his car.
Rospigliosi immediately leashed
Venancio, he told Associated Press correspondent
Rick Vecchio, and walked away,
calling the police as he did so on a cellular
telephone. The grandfather meanwhile
called the boy’s father on a cellular telephone
of his own. The father raced to the
scene, allegedly stopped Rospigliosi at
gunpoint, and shot Venancio just before
the police arrived.

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Dog attack deaths & maimings

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000:

Dog attack deaths & maimings
(most commonly involved breeds and mixes)
U.S. & Canada, 9/1982 to 10/ 2000

Compiled by the editor of ANIMAL PEOPLE
from a log of press accounts since 1982, this table
covers only attacks by dogs who have been kept as pets
and are of clearly identified breed type or ancestry.
Attacks by police dogs, guard dogs, and dogs trained
specifically to fight are also excluded. The “Attacks”
column includes all fatalities, maimings, and other
injuries requiring extensive hospital treatment.
“Maimings” includes permanent disfigurement or loss
of a limb. Listed are all of the breeds and clearly identified
mixes accounting for an average of more than one
human fatality or maiming per year.

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CALIFORNIA “HAYDEN LAW” DEBATE CENTERS ON PIT BULLS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000:

SACRAMENTO, Calif.––As fighting
dogs proliferate, what to do with any dog
of a reputed fighting breed is a growing
headache for animal shelters. Such dogs may
never attack anyone. Then again, they may be
surrendered or dumped to run at large because
they have bitten someone. Or, they may be
surrendered or dumped because they didn’t
attack on command.
If the history of a pit bull terrier,
Rottweiler, or similar dog is at all uncertain,
most shelters opt for quick dispatch to minimize
risk. Many opt for quick dispatch of any
“fighting breed” dog––if legally permitted.
Under the 1998 “Hayden Law,”
however, California shelters must hold all
impounded dogs and cats for at least five days,
if they are not suffering from painful illness or
injury, just in case an owner comes looking.

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