BOOKS: The Wilderness Family: At Home with Africa’s Wildlife

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

The Wilderness Family: At Home with Africa’s Wildlife by Kobie Kruger
Ballantine Books (c/o Random House, 299 Park Ave., New York, NY
10171), 2001. 381 pages, hardcover, $26.95.

The Wilderness Family, as published in the U.S. and Britain,
is actually two former South African best sellers combined under one
cover. The first book, Mahlangeni, appeared in 1994. All Things
Wild & Wonderful followed in 1996.
Both are autobiographical accounts of the lives of Kruger
National Park ranger’s wife Kobie Kruger and family.
Inspired by Born Free, the autobiography of the late Kenyan wildlife
advocate Joy Adamson, Kobus and Kobie Kruger in 1980 took over
management of the remote Mahlangeni ranger station, taking their
three young daughters with them into the bush.

REVIEWS: Living With Tigers

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

Living With Tigers
Discovery Channel Video (www.discovery.com), 2003.
Two hours. $19.95.

Among the many “sanctuary” projects involving tigers that
appear to have more entertainment and fundraising value than either
humane or conservation merit, possibly the most bizarre is the
effort of South African wildlife film makers John and Dave Varty to
“save” tigers by introducing captive-born specimens to the “wild” at
their game ranch.
The idea, supposedly, is to prepare the tigers and their
descendants to return to freedom in China, on the eve of the 2008
Olympic Games, if China can protect enough habitat and prey for the
tigers to survive.

BOOKS: Animal Control Management: A Guide for Local Governments

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

Animal Control Management: A Guide for Local Governments
by Geoffrey L. Handy
International City/County Management Association (777 North Capitol
St. N.E., Suite 500, Washington, DC 20002), 2001. 107 pages.
Order c/o <http:/bookstore.icma.org>.

Animal Control Management: A Guide for Local Governments has
been much expanded and updated since the 1993 report of the same
title on which the current edition is based, but the most
significant expansion is a broadening of mind, toward accepting the
roles of privately funded no-kill animal shelters and neuter/return
feral cat control.
Compiled by Geoffrey L. Handy and other personnel at the
Humane Society of the United States, Animal Control Management is
not an official HSUS publication, yet may be seen as the HSUS
“gospel” on animal care-and-control. At least until the next edition
appears, it will stand with the 2001 revision of the National Animal
Control Association Training Guide as “the book” for the animal
control field.

Reviews

BOOKS: Sea Turtles of the World

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

Sea Turtles of the World by Doug Perrine
Voyageur Press (123 N. 2nd St., Stillwater, MN 55082), 2003.
144 pages, 100 color photos, hardcover. $29.95.

The Voyageur Press standard of accuracy applies even to back
cover descriptions, to the point that improving on them can be
frustratingly difficult.
“Through vivid photographs and engaging text, Sea Turtles of
the World provides an in-depth look at the natural history and
conservation issues of these prehistoric-looking reptiles,” says the
back cover of this one, noting chapters on green sea turtles,
loggerheads, hawksbills, olive ridley and Kemp’s ridley turtles,
Australian flatbacks, and leatherbacks.
The only possible argument is that sea turtles are not just
prehistoric-looking. They are in fact prehistoric. Ancestral sea
turtles go back at least 200 million years, and many more varieties
have come and gone than are still with us.

BOOKS: Justice on Earth

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

Justice on Earth:

Earthjustice and
the people it has served
by Tom Turner
Chelsea Green Publishing
(distributed by Earthjustice,
416 17th St., Oakland, CA 94161), 2002.
224 pages, hardcover. $40.00.

Originating from a 1971 internal split within the Sierra
Club, Earthjustice called itself the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund
until 1997. Essentially an environmental law firm structured as a
nonprofit activist group, Earthjustice mostly sues government
agencies to seek enforcement of legislation including the habitat
protection provisions of the Endangered Species Act and Migratory
Bird Treaty Act.

Reviews

Bush policy & bushmeat

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

WASHINGTON D.C., NAIROBI– Wildlife
policy changes proposed in both the U.S. and
Kenya–and backed by much of the same
money–threaten to replace the principle of
protecting rare species with the notion that even
endangered wildlife should “pay for itself” by
being hunted or captured alive for sale.
The proposed amendments represent such an
extreme interpretation of the “sustainable use”
philosophy advanced since 1936 by the National
Wildlife Federation and since 1961 by the World
Wildlife Fund that even WWF endangered species
program director Susan Lieberman was quick to
denounced the U.S. versions.
“Money doesn’t always mean conservation,”
Lieberman told Washington Post staff writer
Shankar Vedantam. “To me, the theme is allowing
industry to write the rules.”

Four shelters serve Beijing

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

BEIJING–What Beijing dog and cat rescuers need most may be
PETsMART and a coordinated master plan like those required of U.S.
humane coalitions before they can apply for a Maddie’s Fund grant.
The U.S.-based PETsMART animal supply store chain does not
yet do business in China, despite persistent rumors that executives
are looking in that direction, and Maddie’s Fund does not fund
projects outside the U.S.
Just a few well-located adoption centers like the PETsMART
Luv-A-Pet adoption boutiques, however, could rehome almost every
animal now entering the four major Beijing shelters. Even if each
adoption center placed dogs and cats at just a fraction of the
typical U.S. volume, the cumulative effect would be to undercut the
pet breeding industry before it becomes big enough to produce a
greater surplus.
A Maddie’s Fund-like incentive, meanwhile, might encourage
the Beijing shelters to cooperate to maximize their strengths and
opportunities.

Asia
Tactics

Wild lions hunted to the verge of extinction

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

LONDON–Wild African lions have been hunted to the brink of
extinction, warn researchers Laurence Frank of the University of
California and David Macdonald of the Oxford University Wildlife
Conserv-ation Research Unit.
Frank, writing in the September 18 edition of New Scientist,
has investigated African lions, hyenas, and other large predators in
Kenya for more than 20 years. Macdonald, editor of the Encyclopedia
of Mammals, directed a recent five-year study of lion conservation
in Zimbabwe and Botswana.
The wild African lion population has fallen from 230,000 to
23,000 in under 20 years, said Frank. Cheetahs have fallen to
15,000 and wild dogs to 5,500 over the same time, but were far fewer
to begin with.
All are in trouble, Frank explained, but lions are declining
the most rapidly, as the most dangerous of the large African
predators and the species most coveted for a trophy.

Mute swan defenders make their voices heard in court

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on
September 17, 2003 agreed to withdraw all permits allowing state and
federal agencies to kill mute swans, settling a lawsuit brought by
the Fund for Animals.
The settlement agreement also requires the Fish & Wildlife
Service to withdraw the Environmental Assessment and Finding of No
Significant Impact that endorsed killing mute swans in 17 states.
“It began with an ill-conceived permit to kill mute swans in
Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, but now the outcome has national
implications for tens of thousands of these graceful and majestic
birds,” Fund for Animals president Michael Markarian said. “The
federal government has pulled the plug on Governor Robert Ehrlich’s
attempt to bow down to Maryland’s corporate polluters and the massive
factory farms–the real causes of damage to Chesapeake Bay–and to
turn defenseless swans into corporate patsies.”
The Ehrlich administration in July 2003 proposed opening a
hunting season on mute swans, which would require U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service approval. Meanwhile, characterizing the allegedly
non-native mute swans as a threat to the ecological integrity of
Chesapeake Bay, Maryland obtained U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
permission to kill up to 3,000 mute swans during the next 10 years.
That authorization is now revoked.

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