LETTERS [November 2001]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2001:
Letters
Tolstoy Center
We are glad to inform you that the Leo Tolstoy Center for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals held a press conference on October 4
that attracted more than 30 reporters and the Supreme Soviet deputies
of the Ukraine. We discussed stray dogs, animal experimentation,
bullfighting and other forms of animal fighting for entertainment,
factory farming, hunting, fur, circuses, zoos, and legislation
to protect animals’ rights.
On November 2 we hosted an inter-college conference at the
Kharkov teacher training college, attended by more than 300 students
from 12 academic institutions in Kharkov, Moscow, and Kiev.
We brightened the conference with anti-fur and anti-hunting
skits, an anti-fur fashion show, and dancing by famed Ukrainian
gymnast Helen Sljusarchik.
Appreciating your support and understanding,

–Igor Parfenov
President
CETA
Stepnaya str. 23
Malaya Danilovka
Kharkovskaya Oblast 62341
Ukraine
Phone: 380-576-358321
Fax: 380-576-331-825
<cry@3s.kharkov.ua>
Turkey update

Since you published my report about the shelter conditions
and lack of resources for dog and cat sterilization in Aliaga-Izmir,
Turkey, in your July/August 2001 edition, we have come a long way.
With donations and supplies sent by various organizations and
individual friends, we have succeeded in sterilizing more than 30
dogs and cats who live with lower-income families. This may seem
like little, but it is a start, and shows the townspeople what can
be done.
We have begun a campaign to either get a mobile neutering
clinic or find a place to rent in which to do dog and cat
sterilization on a regular basis. You and other foreign friends’
moral support have guided us.
Thank you–Animal People is a great resource for me and for
my friends in Turkey, who seek all kinds of info.
–Hulya Alpgiray
President
ASKOD
Oguven Tic.
Istikial Cad. #96-C
Aliaga, Izmir 35800
Turkey
<pupsi@superonline.com>
Save Valley

On page 15 of your Sept-ember edition you mentioned the
illegal occupation of the Save Valley Conservancy in Zimbabwe, which
seriously threatens the elephants. No one knows how many elephants
will be killed.
This is a great sadness for Care For The Wild, because we
moved 500 elephants in family groups from Gonarehou into the Save
Valley Conservancy in 1993. These elephants were to have been
lethally culled.
–Bill Jordan, DVM
Care For The Wild
1 Ashfords
Horsham Road
Rusper
West Sussex RH12 4QX
United Kingdom
Phone: 44-01293-871596
Fax: 44-01293-871022
<info@careforthewild.com>
<www.careforthewild.com>
Mt. Kenya

A Youth for Conservation desnaring team, partially supported
by the Bill Woodley Mount Kenya Trust, found during a recent 23-day
expedition into Mt. Kenya National Park that the eland species of
antelope no longer survives in the hot spots. Buffalo are the most
targeted animals, but no animals are spared, as the poachers’ snares
are indiscriminate. We urgently need to carry out community
conservation education, to promote sustainable alternatives to
bushmeat, as well as to continue desnaring.
We wish we could do more, but the going has been tough
without funds. My colleague James Kiplimo and I have decided to look
for part-time jobs and continue to serve Youth for Conservation as
volunteers. IFAW has offered Youth for Conservation $5,000 U.S. on
condition that we find another $5,000 to match it.
–Josphat Nyongo
Youth for Conservation
P.O. Box 27689
Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: 254-(0)2-606479
<y4c@alphanet.co.ke>
Zulus

Your extensive September coverage of Africa made good
reading, although I confess to finding it difficult to reconcile the
descriptions of the Zulus with the facts of current events and their
known history. Unhappily the dream of tourists flooding in to see the
many new game reserves will not materialise soon, as result of the
collapse of the air industries and the caution/paranoia displayed by
travellers. KwaZulu Natal is not a good place to visit at all any
more, with about 50% of the population infected with HIV, new
variations of deadly malaria, and so forth.
–Roger Gould-King
Brackendowns, South Africa
<whiskers@xsinet.co.za>

Describing the formation of the new Royal Zulu Reserve and
Biosphere, which will not allow hunting, ANIMAL PEOPLE quoted
former member of the South Africa parliament Nokwethemba Biyela, who
told Fiona MacLeod of the Johannesburg Mail & Guardian that,
“Animals like leopards and lions are signs from God. When the
animals were gone, there were no more signs. Hunting the animals
was a mistake.”
Rabies & killing dogs

We are still struggling with rabies here in Thailand. I have
seen six human cases this year, and have just been told that the
rabies problem on Flores Island, Indonesia, is still present.
There are no reported human cases, but rabies is still common among
dogs, who have not been effectively vaccinated after the killing of
some 500,000.
–Henry Wilde, MD, FACP
Professor of Medicine
Queen Savabha Memorial Institute
Thai Red Cross
1871 Rama IV Road
Bangkok, Thailand 10330
Phone: 662-252-6117
Fax: 662-254-0212

The Editor replies:

As ANIMAL PEOPLE pointed out in June 1998, the dog-killing
on Flores Island was never a serious effort to protect public health
in the first place. Mass vaccination was and is the only effective
way to do that.
Eradicating rabies from Flores, since it is an island,
should easily be accomplished, if vaccination is vigorously pursued.
But as with the dog-killing underway since April in
Bucharest, Romania (page one of this edition), and in Shenzen,
China, where more than 1,000 unlicensed pet dogs were killed in
November after two people died from rabies, the rabies threat in
Flores merely served as a pretext for authorities threatened by
economically and politically motivated unrest to make a show of force.
This is an ancient enough ploy that the Chinese have a
proverb to describe it, “Killing the dog to scare the monkey.”
It is high time that it was no longer tolerated by advocates
of either animals, public health, or civil liberties.
Attended Jaipur elephant workshop

I attended the workshop for mahouts and veterinarians in
Jaipur, India, organized by Help In Suffering, the Rajasthan
Tourism Development Corporation, and the Wildlife Trust of India,
with some IFAW assistance, as described in your September article
“Aid afoot for Jaipur elephants.”
The elephants we treated were suffering from foot rot,
lameness, cracked toenails [which can lead to foot rot in
elephants], and malnutrition, because too many of the mahouts do
not bother to find them green leaves in the Rajasthan desert climate.
Many of the elephants had huge abcesses on their bodies. Most had
corneal opacity, due either to lack of vitamin A or beatings.
There is a proposal to build an elephant village on 54 acres
of land in Jaipur, but it would also include commercial
establishments. I would hope that it might be like a sanctuary,
which would allow the elephants to enjoy some freedom. I feel very
sorry for these elephants, who carry people up to the Amber Fort on
their backs. I wish some organization would discourage these
elephant rides.
Help In Suffering trustee Christine Townend said her
organization will not charge to treat the elephants of Jaipur. She
is also doing great work for horses, camels, and street dogs.
–Kala Santha, DVM
Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka
<santhak@sltnet.lk>
Fix the one zoo in Albania

My letter published in your May edition seems to have
attracted the attention of the Municipality of Tirana and, to some
extent, that of the public. Thus the killing of stray dogs has for
the moment stopped.
Unfortunately, we must appeal to international opinion on
another issue here in Tirana: the condition of the Tirana Zoo, the
only zoo in Albania.
In 1999, through the initiative of Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe, financial support was obtained to
improve the miserable, unacceptable, depressed condition of the zoo
animals. The initiative looked very promising. In May 1999 I
visited the zoo with World Society for the Protection of Animals
representatives Trevor Wheeler and Victor Watkins. They recommended
that the animals kept in solitary confinement should be sent to other
zoos or sanctuaries in Hungary, Greece, and elsewhere. But today
the conditions at the zoo are much the same, and getting worse.
In my personal opinion, the habitats for the lions, the
tiger, birds of prey, and other species are far from acceptable.
The animals have only stinking barred cells. Yet the location of the
zoo is among the nicest parts of Tirana, and the space it occupies
is large enough to accommodate a good zoo and humane education
center. I do not seek a Tirana without a zoo, but rather a Tirana
with a quality zoo with a vast variety of animals, all treated
properly.
I hope that reader response to this letter will be as useful
as the response was to my letter regarding stray dogs in Tirana.
Your readers may address Tirana mayor Edi Rama, c/o the Municipality
of Tirana, “Sheshi Skenderbej,” Tirana, Albania.
–Ilir Kusi, DVM
Small Animal Clinic
Rruga “Sami Frasheri”
P. 11, Shk. 4, Apt. 28
Tirana, Albania
Phone: 355-4-261-878
<ilir_kusi@hotmail.com>
Chaining dogs

Chained, starved dogs are a blight on any community. Why
can’t officials see this? And do something? This problem is getting
worse all the time.
–Vivian Lindley
Centerville, Iowa

The Editor replies:
Humane societies and animal control agencies worked
throughout the 20th century to convince the U.S. public that allowing
dogs to run at large is inherently inhumane and irresponsible–a view
that 100 years ago had little following anywhere, but has now spread
throughout the developed world.
Unfortunately, public policymakers gained the incorrect
impression that if allowing dogs to roam is bad, then keeping them
chained must be good. This is despite the evidence accessible to
anyone’s eyes, ears, and nose that a chained dog tends to be an
unhappy, barking dog, trapped in a ring of filth, and despite the
growing heaps of data demonstrating that chained dogs are actually
more likely to kill or injure someone than free-roaming dogs, since
chaining exacerbates territoriality.
The humane community owes dogs a campaign against chaining,
waged with at least as much vigor as the campaign against running at
large.
Pakistan

We, the members of Voice Against Violence, Animal Rights
International of Pakistan, and publishers of Lord magazine condemn
the attack on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon–a heinous crime
against humanity in which thousands of innocent people died or were
injured. We are with the American people and their sympathizers who
love the creatures of God.
–Arif Mahmood Qureshi, Advoc.;
M.A. Babar Soakarno, Advoc.;
Members of Voice Against Violence
Lord magazine staff
133 Lodhi Colony
Multan, Pakistan
Phone: 92-61-221659
High salaries

The exorbitant salaries some executives and staff receive as
animal charity workers would seem to leave little of the donation
dollar for the animals! It is very discouraging to those who can
often barely afford their donations, but give money for the animals,
to know that our four-footed friends get so little of the money.
–Norma Faulkner
Honorary Secretary
Domestic Animal
Birth Control Society
P.O. Box 73
Canterbury
NSW 2193
Australia
<faun@ozemail.com.au>