From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

The man who talks to dogs:
The story of America’s wild street dogs and their unlikely savior
by Melinda Roth
Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press (175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010), 2002. 232 pages. $24.95, hardcover.

“To be a stray dog in most major cities is to be a dead dog
walking,” believes Randy Grim, founder of Stray Rescue of St.
Louis. The dogs Grim and his team rescue may be few compared to the
many in need, but Randy believes in the value of every life, and
strives to save every dog he can, no matter how sick, estranged,
or aggressive.
Though Grim always loved animals, he used to have a “normal”
life, running a successful grooming shop. Bonnie changed his life.
She appeared one day in front of Grim’s shop: a pregnant stray, all
skin and bones, sick and crippled. She trusted Grim and followed
him.
Soon Bonnie gave birth to thirteen puppies. Unfortunately
Bonnie developed mastitis, and could not breast-feed her pups. For
six weeks Grim hand-fed all 13 pups, every two hours, twenty-four
hours a day. Puppy care left him no time for anything else. Most of
his friends turned away, but Grim continued until each of the pups
were weaned.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

Proudly Human
Compassion In World Farming [South Africa] c/o Humane Education Trust (P.O. Box 825, Somerset West, 7129,
South Africa; <avoice@yebo.co.za>), 2003. 20 minutes.
60 rand ($7.50), plus postage & handling (inquire).

Desert Dogs
Hilder Productions (1617 Taylor Gaines St., Austin, TX 78741),
2002. 42 minutes. $15/video, $20/DVD.

Produced by the same team who made the 15-minute video Saving
Baby Ubuntu, reviewed in the May 2003 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE,
Proudly Human presents a similar but farther reaching anti-meat and
pro-vegetarian message.
While Saving Baby Ubuntu offers a story suitable for grade schoolers,
Proudly Human may be preferred by teens.
Narrator Mantsadi Molotlegi, 23, is just far enough out of
her teens to have childhood memories of the last days of the South
African apartheid era. She observes that “The way we treat animals
has the hallmarks of apartheid–prejudice, callous disregard for
suffering, and a misguided sense of supremacy. I have a message for
my brother and sister South Africans,” she continues. “The struggle
is not over yet. Please join me,” she asks, “in putting things
right for the animals.”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

Wind-of-Fire:
The Story of an Untouchable
by Joan Beth Clair
Wind-of-Fire Press (P.O. Box 523, Berkeley, CA 94701), 1999.
150 pages, paperback. $10.95.

Portland (Oregon) Animal Affairs Ministry director Roger
Troen submitted to ANIMAL PEOPLE an effusive review of Wind-of-Fire:
The Story of an Untouchable, by Joan Beth Clair, which
unfortunately omitted any factual description of the content.
Raising hell on behalf of animals for more than 30 years,
sometimes taking hard lumps for it, Troen is an otherwise quiet
fellow who reads books. Suspecting that his critical judgement might
be better grounded than expressed, I read Wind-of-Fire myself.
Wind-of-Fire is a collection of vignettes centering on a dog
named Wind-of-Fire. Opening as a personal journal about the author’s
thoughts as she pursued a divinity degree in Berkeley, California,
during the early 1980s, Wind-of-Fire concludes as a tract arguing for
the incorporation of concepts about animal rights into Christianity.
“For those in the animal rights movement who have abandoned
their churches,” Troen wrote, “Wind-of-Fire may offer hope of
revival. Father Richard Mapplebeck-palmer, pastor of Grace
North Church in Berkeley, was inspired by Clair’s book to affirm the
religious worth of animals. He organized a discussion of the book
with members of his congregation.”

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