BOOKS: Best Friends For Life

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

Best Friends for Life: Humane housing for animals and people
Doris Day Animal League (227 Mass. Ave. NE, Suite 100, Washington,
DC 20002), 2002. 40 pages, paperback. $2.95.

The price of Best Friends for Life is certainly right:
individual copies are free. Ordering is quick and easy: call
202-546-1761, or send an e-mail to <info@ddal.org>.
Jointly published by the Doris Day Animal League and the
Massachusetts SPCA, Best Friends for Life updates and greatly
expands a manual originally issued in 1996. The first edition
covered only the right of disabled people to keep pets in federally
assisted housing. The first half of this edition revisits that
subject, adding discussion of recent relevant court cases. The
second half presents information useful to any tenant, any landlord,
and any organization which deals with the problems associated with
keeping pets in rental housing.

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Fewer fighters, more dogs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

PUEBLO, Colorado–Issuing one of the stiffest sentences yet
given to a convicted dogfighter, District Judge Scott Epstein of
Pueblo, Colorado, on April 15, 2002 sent Brian Keith Speer to
state prison for six years.
Speer, 32, of Colorado Springs, is to serve 18 concurrent
three-year sentences for 18 felony counts of animal fighting, plus
three more years for his felonious mistreatment of one especially
badly injured pit bull terrier found in his possession during a June
2000 raid on his trailer home near Boone.

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Editorial: “Rescue” should not perpetuate the problem

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

Nine years ago, in April 1993, ANIMAL PEOPLE first brought
the plight of the Premarin mares and their foals to the attention of
the humane community.
Citing a previously unpublicized investigation by Tom Hughes
of the Canadian Farm Animal Care Trust, we pointed out that the
farms that gather the pregnant mares’ urine from which the estrogen
supplement Premarin is made typically keep the mares stabled and
connected to collection tubes from September to April each year.
Rarely were the PMU mares released for outdoor exercise then, and
their holding conditions now seem little different.

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Dalai Lama hits sport hunting

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

DHARAMSALA, India–Making perhaps his strongest statement
yet on behalf of animals, the Dalai Lama on March 29 reminded
Buddhists that sport hunting is contrary to the teachings of the
Buddhist religion.
The Dalai Lama had been asked to address the growth of trophy
hunting in Mongolia by Fund for Animals spiritual outreach director
Norm Phelps, who practices Tibetan Buddhism. Phelps outlined the
recent heavy investment of trophy hunting outfitters in promoting
safaris to kill argali sheep, snow leopards, Bactrian camels and
other species, many of which may not be legally hunted anywhere else.

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LETTERS [May 2002]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

Meat
After more than a quarter of a century as a vegetarian,
then vegan, I feel a need to expand that commitment, because my
sorrow and horror about the abusive treatment, genetic altering,
and cruel confinement, transport and slaughter of farmed animals has
only intensified over the years. When meat is served in my presence,
I now feel the need to somehow symbolically honor and acknowledge the
immense suffering that animal endured.
“Where there’s meat, I don’t eat,” came to me suddenly. I
will never again eat in a room in which meat is being served.
Know-ing this has brought me some measure of inner peace. I’m not
sure it is a politically sound decision, for it is surely wise to
encourage the offering of vegetarian/vegan alternatives. Yet to eat
contentedly in the presence of meat now feels to me like a betrayal
of the animal sacrificed.
“Where there’s meat, I don’t eat” is a one-person protest,
on behalf of those whose cries of protest were never heard, never
heeded. Even more so, this is something I am doing for myself.
When meat is present, I will still sit at the table and enjoy
myself and my friends, but I can only do so knowing that by not
eating, I am symbolically and publicly acknowledging the pain I
feel on behalf of those who suffered unspeakable and enduring horrors
to become the feast.
–Patty Finch
Phoenix, Arizona
<pfinch@Vview.org>
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Wildlife/human conflict–U.S., Canada, France, Australia, Uganda

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

Where did all the coyotes go?

A complaint to the Better Busi-ness Bureau filed in March
2002 by Laura Nirenberg, executive director of the Wildlife
Orphanage rehabilitation center in LaPorte, Indiana, alleges that
Guardian Pest Control, with offices in two Indiana cities plus
Illinois, defrauds customers by promising to relocate nuisance
animals and then kills them instead. According to the report forms
which all nuisance wildlife trappers are required to file with the
Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Guardian Pest Control in
2001 released 124 squirrels and 10 bats, but killed 80 chipmunks,
49 feral cats, 40 groundhogs, 126 moles, 10 muskrats, 43
opossums, 363 raccoons, and six skunks.

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San Francisco murder-by-dog defendant gets new trial

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

SAN FRANCISCO–San Francisco Superior Court Judge James
Warren on April 12, 2002 granted a new trial to attorney Marjorie
Knoller, who was convicted by a Los Angeles jury on March 21 of
second degree murder for the dog mauling death of her former neighbor
Diane Whipple.
Knoller, 46, was also convicted of manslaughter and keeping
a dangerous animal, as was her husband, fellow attorney Robert
Noel. Noel indicated that he would also appeal the jury verdict.

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SHARK files conspiracy suit vs. Wauconda

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

CHICAGO–The activist group SHARK on April 24 sued Illinois
associate judge for the 19th Judicial Circuit John T. Phillips,
state’s attorney Michael Waller, assistant state’s attorney Daniel
Shanes, the Wauconda County Chamber of Commerce, Wauconda police
chief Daniel Quick, and three current and former members of the
Wauconda County Sheriff’s Department, alleging that for nine years
they engaged in a criminal conspiracy to deprive SHARK members of
their civil liberties in connection with protests against the annual
Wauconda Chamber of Commerce rodeo.

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Anti-terror bill targets Yellowstone bison, elk herds

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK–The bison management wars along
the northern border of Yellowstone National Park may intensify with
the anticipated passage of the 2002 Farm Bill, if the joint
committee working to reconcile the different versions passed by the
U.S. Senate and House of Representatives accepts the inclusion of the
Animal Health Protection Act, added as a late amendment to the
Senate version by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).
The amendment purportedly was written to speed the USDA
response to epidemics in livestock, such as the hoof-and-mouth
outbreak that devastated the rural British economy in 2001, and also
to better enable the USDA to deal with bioterrorism.

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