First regions with low-cost dog & cat sterilization are still making the most progress

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

The U.S. regions where the first low-cost and free dog and
cat sterilization programs started, between 30 and 50 years ago,
still are making the fastest progress in reducing the numbers of dogs
and cats killed in animal shelters.
The 13th annual ANIMAL PEOPLE projection of the U.S. shelter
killing toll shows that the rate of killing per thousand humans
appears to have fallen back to the low of 14.8 that was achieved in
2000-2001, after a steep rise in 2001-2002. Because the U.S. human
population and the numbers of dogs and cats kept by humans have all
increased, the current annual toll of about 4.38 million dogs and
cats killed in shelters is still about 180,000 higher than the toll
of five years ago.

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BOOKS: Christine’s Ark: the extraordinary story of Christine Townend and an Indian animal shelter

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

Christine’s Ark: the extraordinary story of Christine Townend
and an Indian animal shelter
by John Little

Macmillan Australia (1 Market Street, Sydney, Australia;
61-613-9825-1059; fax 61-613-9825-1054;
<www.panmacmillan.com.au>; <customer.service@macmillan.com.au>), 2006.
324 pages, paperback. $32.95 Australian.

Until I started to cry, neither the Sikh driver, Mr. Singh,
nor the unwanted sightseeing guide believed me when I said we wanted
them to take us to an animal shelter on the outskirts of the ancient
Indian city of Jaipur, instead of shopping for rugs.
Mr. Singh didn’t really speak English, but the tour guide
was fluent. Earlier that morning we had refused to ride an elephant
to the top of the Amer Fort, and they reluctantly arranged for a
jeep. At the temple atop the fort, we were deeply upset to learn
that a goat was being sacrificed inside, and refused to enter. At
the temple where pilgrims fed pigeons for good luck, we were pursued
by a legless beggar on a roller cart. The only experience we had
enjoyed that day was when a languor monkey jumped down from a parapet
in front of my son Wolf, who was only seven then, in 1997, ripped
a garland of marigolds off Wolf’s neck, and quickly climbed back to
the top of a parapet to eat the flowers. It was over in half a
minute. First we shrieked, startled, and then began to laugh. The
driver and guide were convinced we were crazy.

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BOOKS: Simply Vegan: Quick Vegetarian Meals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

Simply Vegan: Quick Vegetarian Meals
by Debra Wasserman
Nutrition section by Reed Mangels, Ph.D., R.D.
(updated 4th edition)
The Vegetarian Resource Group (PO Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203), 2006.
222 pages, paperback. $14.95

This excellent vegan cookbook was first published in 1991.
The need for an updated 4th edition testifies to its popularity.
The first half of the book includes appetizing vegan recipes of all
sorts: snacks, soups, side dishes, etc. The recipes are simple,
making for easy cooking.

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Coping with elephant moods

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

The debate over whether elephants can be kept safely and
humanely spread to China after a sick elephant named Qing Qing on
June 8, 2006 used his trunk to smash the head of 15-month Shanghai
Wild Animal Zoo attendant Li Guohoa, as Guohoa, 43, prepared to
clean the elephant’s food basin.
But zoos continue to believe they can somehow find ways to
resolve the many problems associated with elephant-keeping.
An elephant named Patna died from cancer in early May 2006 at
the Zagreb Zoo, in the capital city of Croatia. The keepers feared
they would lose Patna’s longtime companion Suma, too.
“Suma was refusing to eat, became uncommunicative, and
showed all the signs of a serious depression,” Zagreb Zoo director
Mladen Anic told Agence France-Presse.
Suma in early June blew stones through her trunk at five
musicians who came to the zoo to play classical music. “But as soon
as the concert started,” Anic recalled, “Suma leaned against the
fence, closed her eyes and listened without moving” through
compositions by Mozart, Vivaldi and Schubert. This inspired Anic
and staff to begin daily music therapy sessions.
“We are so glad that we can provide things that Suma really
enjoys,” Anic said.

PETA, Ringling clash in Austin

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

AUSTIN–Members of PETA and Action for Animals claimed on
July 6, 2006 that police improperly seized their videotapes and
refused to take a cruelty complaint that they sought to bring against
the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Activist Robert Hutton reportedly alleged that he saw blood
behind an elephant’s ear, possibly caused by use of an ankus, while
circus staff walked a group of elephants from a performance site to
the Ringling train.
Another activist, Karina Hilliard, “said she called 911 to
report that trainers made sexually harassing comments to her,” wrote
Susannah Gonzales of the Austin American-Statesman. “When police
officers arrived, Hilliard said, they accused Hilliard of lying
about the harassment so that police would respond to the previous
reports of animal cruelty. Hilliard denied the accusation and said
she did not know that complaints of animal cruelty had been made.”

Post-Hurricane Katrina pet custody cases challenge adoptions

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

BATON ROUGE–Pet custody cases arising out of the
post-Hurricane Katrina animal rescue effort are presenting a
nationwide challenge to some animal advocates who have worked for
decades to promote recognition of pets as family members, and to
strengthen anti-pet theft laws.
“People who first considered themselves foster caregivers now
say some Katrina pet lovers don’t deserve their animals back,”
summarized Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Kathy Boccella in a
mid-July profile of four cases that are expected to soon go to court.
“They cite failure to have animals spayed or neutered and not getting
rabies and heartworm prevention as evidence of unfit care.”
Also often mentioned by defendants in Katrina-related custody
disputes is that many people who were displaced by Katrina were
allegedly slow to begin searching for their animals. Most apparently
waited until they returned to their homes and found no trace of
missing pets before going to the Internet, many as first-time
Internet users.

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Executive changes at major regional humane societies

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

Longtime Massachusetts SPCA vice president Carter Luke has
been promoted to president, succeeding Larry Hawk. Luke has served
the MSPCA in various capacities under every MSPCA president since
Eric H. Hansen, the fourth president of the 138-year-old
organization, who was hired in 1942. Recruited from the American
SPCA in 2003, Hawk resigned in March 2006.
“Hawk increased revenue and took a more businesslike approach
to running the organization,” laying off 20 employees and
eliminating 32 vacant jobs, reported Sacha Pfeiffer of the Boston
Globe. Among Hawk’s first major actions was killing the
award-winning but money-losing Animals magazine, begun as Our Dumb
Animals by MSPCA founder George Angell.
However, Pfeiffer wrote, “several former MSPCA employees
said Hawk left after persistent concerns that his brusque management
style damaged morale without doing enough to improve the MSPCA
finances. Hawk also hired his wife and two children to do paid
consulting,” at total cost of $37,000, about 10.5% of Hawk’s own
salary, “and outsourced fundraising activities that resulted in
donations not being acknowledged. The MSPCA endowment has lost
nearly a third of its value since the late 1990s,” although Hawk
doubled direct mail expense, “and for years,” Pfeiffer wrote, “the
MSPCA has been violating its own spending policy by bypassing limits
on the percentage of endowment gains that may be used to pay
operating costs.”

N.J. coin can fundraiser fined

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

ELIZABETH, N.J.–New Jersey Superior Court Judge Thomas
Lyons on June 14, 2006 barred Patrick G. Jemas of Woodbridge, New
Jersey, from fundraising within the state, fined him $330,804, and
ordered him to help the state Division of Consumer Affairs to locate
and remove hundreds of coin collection canisters that Jemas placed in
businesses throughout New Jersey in the name of the “National Animal
Welfare Foundation.”
Lyons did not have the authority to dissolve the National
Animal Welfare Foundation, or to stop Jemas’ reported fundraising
activities in New York and Pennsylvania.
New Jersey Attorney General Zulima V. Farber and Consumer
Affairs Director Kimberly Ricketts alleged that Jemas “collected
$70,795 in canister donations, but spent $75,891 on fundraising,
payroll, meals, automobiles, printing, and other undefined areas.
In only one fiscal year,” they said, “did reported donations exceed
reported expenses.”

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New Animal Welfare Board chair hopes to eradicate rabies from India

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

CHENNAI–Major General R.M. Kharb, named chair of the Animal
Welfare Board of India on May 9, 2006, took office in June with a
pledge to “eradicate rabies from India by mass vaccination of stray
dogs, and further strengthen Animal Birth Control by encouraging
rehabilitation and adoption of stray dogs.”
Adoption has long been seen as unlikely in India, due to of
the abundance of street dogs, but “In the past two years, over 2,000
people have adopted homeless dogs from our center,” Pet Animals
Welfare Society president R.T. Sharma, of Delhi, recently told
Prashant K. Nanda of the Indo Asian News Service. “Besides Delhi,”
Sharma said, “the trend is prevalent in the Gurgaon and Noida
suburbs.”
To accomplish rabies eradication, Kharb and new vice chair
V.N. Appaji Rao outlined plans to increase the number of animal
welfare organizations supported by the Animal Welfare Board from the
present 2,200 to more than 10,000.

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