Day: May 1, 2003

BOOKS: Bird Hand Book

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

Bird Hand Book
Photographs by Victor Schrager, text by A.S. Byatt
Graphis (307 5th Ave, 10th floor, New York, NY 100016), 2001.
128 pages, hardcover. $60.00.

Beautifully photographed, as one would expect from from
Victor Schrager, in sepia rather than stark black-and-white or the
often explosive color of the birds depicted, Bird Hand Book at first
glance appears to offer nothing more provocative than just 98 birds
perching on human hands, with a few words beside each bird by
novelist A.S. Byatt or quoted from someone famous.
“The slaughter of birds in the great shooting parties of the
Edwardian upper classes in Britain has been seen as a precursor of
the slaughter of the young men in the First World War,” Byatt erupts
unexpectedly on page 98, then extensively quotes Rachel Carson on
pesticide poisonings of birds.

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BOOKS: Whose Coat?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

Whose Coat?
by John Luksetich, illustrated by Patti Kern
Imagine Nation Press (P.O. Box 172, Lakewood, CA 90714;
<www.imagenationpress.com>), 2001. 26 pages, hardcover. $14.95.

Marketing is not Whose Coat? author/publisher John
Luksetich’s forte. First he was unable to find a commercial
publisher for Whose Coat? in 17 years of trying, even though it is
eminently marketable. Then, when he published Whose Coat? himself
in an attractive format that ought to sell, he forgot to put the
price on either the book, the promotional flyers he sent to ANIMAL
PEOPLE, or the first few pages of his web site–and he advertised it
as “animal rights” literature, the kiss of death in pursuing the
library and school markets that account for the two biggest shares of
children’s book sales. To most librarians and school personnel,
“animal rights” signifies “controversy” and “trouble”–and any
mention of ideology in reference to a children’s book usually also
connotes heavyhanded propaganda.

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BOOKS: Into the Woods

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

Into the Woods:
John James Audubon
Lives His Dream
by Robert Burleigh
with paintings by Wendell Minor
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
(c/o Simon & Schuster, 1230 Ave. of the
Americas, New York, NY 10020), 2003. 34
pages, hardcover. $16.95.

“John James Audubon was a famous early
American woodsman and artist,” explains Robert
Burleigh on the copyright page of Into The Woods.
“Despite his father’s objections, Audubon had to
follow his own special destiny. This story
consists of an imaginary letter in which Audubon
explains to his father why he has chosen the
unique life he leads. Quotations in script,
taken from Audubon’s journals, further emphasize
the profound world view of this remarkable man.”
On the concluding page Burleigh adds that
Audubon “came to America as a young man from
France in 1803. Already a talented artist, he
became fascinated with America’s wilderness and
its wildlife, especially birds. After failing
at several attempts to be a businessman, he
devoted the rest of his life to his artŠAlthough
Audubon hunted and often killed the birds he
drew,” Burleigh admits, “he had a keen
appreciation for wildlife and the environment.

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BOOKS: America’s National Wildlife Refuges

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

America’s National Wildlife Refuges:
a complete guide
by Russell D. Butcher
Roberts Rinehart Publishers in cooperation with Ducks Unlimited
(c/o Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 4501 Forbes Blvd.,
Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706), 2003.
714 pages. $29.95.

Published in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding
of the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge system, America’s National
Wildlife Refuges: a complete guide exists, like the refuges
themselves, in part because of funding from Ducks Unlimited.
Hunter/conservationists help to finance the acquisition of
wildlife refuges through taxes on hunting and fishing gear, as well
as through grants by organizations such as Ducks Unlimited and The
Nature Conserv-ancy–and view this as entitling them to have extra
say in how the refuges are managed.
Though many of the rest of us view the hunter/conservationist
contribution as at best inadequate reparations for the harm hunters
do to wildlife, public officials largely agree with the
hook-and-bullet set. Thus 311 of the current 540 refuges allow
hunting and 280 allow trapping, contrary to the belief of 78% of
Americans that hunting on national refuges is illegal, according to
a 1999 survey by Decision Research Inc.

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Animal obits

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

Emily the cow, 10, who escaped from a Massachusetts
slaughterhouse in 1995 and was eventually purchased by Sherborn Peace
Abbey founders Meg and Lewis Randa, died on March 31 from cancer.
Boston Globe correspondent Benjamin Gedan remembered her as “an
inarticulate but persuasive spokeswoman for vegetarianism.” Added
Meg Randa, “It’s easy to go to the grocery, but Emily put a face on
that packet of beef.”

Randy the dolphin, 11, “so-called because of his attraction
to women wearing rubber wetsuits,” according to Martin Lea of the
Dorset Echo, was reportedly hit and killed by a boat in Weymouth
Harbor, England, on April 3, 11 months after dolphin rescuer Ric
O’Barry warned that such an accident would happen and tried
unsuccessfully to steer him back to his former home near Cherbourg,
France, where he was known as Georges.

Obituaries

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

Franklin M. Loew, 63, died on April 22 after a three-year
battle with a rare form of neuroendocrinal liver cancer. “I come to
work but go home early because I tire out,” Loew e-mailed to ANIMAL
PEOPLE on February 2. “I’m in a clinical trial of thalidomide, of
all things, which has been shown to have anti-cancer properties,”
Loew added, seeming to enjoy the idea that he was himself now a lab
animal, participating in one of the voluntary trials of drugs in
terminal human patients that he had often mentioned as an accessible
option for “reducing, refining, and replacing” the numbers of
animals used in biomedical research. “The tumor has never caused me
any discomfort, but the chemo certainly has,” he concluded. Loew
communicated only briefly thereafter, to celebrate victories by the
Boston Red Sox. President of Becker College in Massachusetts since
1998, Loew “was hugely popular on campus,” recalled Becker provost
Bruce Stronach. “He knew many of our 1,000 students and every
employee by name, and never failed to greet all with a warm smile
and a hearty welcome. Dr. Loew was formerly president of Medical
Foods Inc. He held doctorates in veterinary medicine and nutrition,
and was a member of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of
Medicine. He was dean of veterinary medicine at both Tufts and
Cornell universities, was a division director at the Johns Hopkins

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Elephant captures & rampages spotlight habitat encroachment

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

PRETORIA, NEW DELHI, NAIROBI, SAN DIEGO, BANGKOK,
COLOMBO–Pretoria Regional Court magistrate Adriaan Bekker on April 7
found African Game Services owner Riccardo Ghiazza of Brits, South
Africa, guilty of cruelty to 30 young elephants in 1998-1999. The
verdict reportedly took Bekker four hours to read.
Convicted with Ghiazza, but on just two cruelty counts, was
student elephant handler Henry Wayne Stockigt.
Charges were dismissed against another handler, Craig
Saunders, and another company, African Game Properties Inc.
Captured in the Tuli district of Botswana during July 1998,
the elephants were transported to Brits for training and sale to
overseas zoos.

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People for Animals founds Delhi shelter for ex-laboratory monkeys

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

DELHI–Gautam Grover, president of the Delhi chapter of
People for Animals, has “started a shelter for monkeys called
Hanuman Vatika,” he recently wrote to ANIMAL PEOPLE.
“We get monkeys from research labs,” Grover explained.
“Most are old and deformed [from experimentation] and are incapable
of survival in the wild. We also have infants who have had a
terrible past,” Grover added. “For example an infant came to me
whose mother was killed by dogs. The infant was clinging to her,
crying. We called the infant Chiku. He now has a new mother, named
Basanti, and a new father, called Dharmender.”

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Vegetarian mandates

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

“Tourists visiting wildlife sanctuaries in Orissa state will
now have to turn vegetarian for the entire duration of their trip,”
Times of India News Network correspondent Rajaram Satapathy reported
from the Bengal coast city of Bhubaneswar in February.
“Concerned with rampant poaching, the state government has
banned cooking and eating non-vegetarian food in all 18 sanctuaries
in Orissa,” Satapaty elaborated. “The order, issued by the chief
conservator of forests, is being strictly implemented. Recently
more than 125 tourist vehicles, on a single day, were refused entry
into the Similipal Tiger Reserve because they were found carrying
meat and chicken for consumption.”

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