Letters [May 2007]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:
 
Cats & rabbits

I read with interest the March 2007 ANIMAL PEOPLE article
“When the cat is away,” about the feral rabbit population increasing
tenfold on Macquarie Island since the island feral cats were
exterminated in June 2000.
As a neuter/return volunteer, I have fought extremely hard to change
attitudes towards feral cats in a similar situation locally,
involving Robben Island, where former South African president Nelson
Mandela spent most of the 27 years that he was imprisoned for
opposing apartheid. The situation is dire.
–Rita Brock
Cat Assistance Team
P.O. Box 48157
Kommetjie
South Africa
082-806-3144
<rijo@icon.co.za>

 
Editor’s note:

John Kieser, who shot more than 100 cats, reducing the Robben
Island cat population to just two in February 2007, has been
reassigned to shooting the resident rabbits, who have lived on the
island for more than 300 years. Without the cats, the 3,000 rabbits
have no predator. Cape Town news media report that Kieser is also
likely to be asked to shoot 120 fallow deer who live on the island.
Vets in Pakistan
 
Vets Care Organization, in Pakistan, is engaged in animal
welfare of animals and uplift of the veterinary profession through
arranging seminars, field days, and free veterinary treatment camps.
These camps provide free clinical help and medicines to the
poor farmers, and enhance the professional skills of the
participating veterinary students.
Vets Care Organization organized our most recent free
treatment camp in the Ratu Chak village, Shakar Garh district,
Narowal, on March 18. The objective was to highlight the
importance of de-worming farm animals. More than 30 members of the
Vets Care Club at the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences in
Lahore attended.
The participants worked in three teams to de-worm and treat
buffaloes, cattle, sheep, goats, dogs and donkeys.
–Waseem Shaukat
Media Coordinator
Vets Care Organization
Assistant Editor
Veterinary News & Views
Room # D-31
Iqbal Hall
University of Veterinary
& Animal Sciences
Lahore 54000, Pakistan.
Phone: 92-334-972-0758
<drwaseemshaukat@yahoo.com>
 
Rat poison kills wildlife (can kill feral cats, too)

In response to lawsuits filed by the Natural Resources
Defense Council and others last year, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency is finally proposing to take small cardboard boxes
that contain candy-like colored pellets of rat poison off of our
supermarket shelves, to reduce the 20,000 annual reported incidents
of small children eating the pellets. If the EPA proposal takes
effect, rat poison will have to be sold in block form, in
tamper-resistant bait boxes.
Not addressed is the incidence of wildlife dying from eating
rodents who have been poisoned with the newest line of rodent
poisons, called “single feed” poisons, or “second generation
rodenticides.”
Eagles, peregrine falcons, endangered kit foxes, and other animals
are dying because it takes several days for each poisoned rodent to
die. During these several days, rodents can and do eat enough of
the poison to kill their natural predators.
The EPA has opened a 60-day comment period that expires on May 18, 2007.
We are asking the EPA to limit “single-feed” rodent poison
use to indoors only. This will limit wildlife exposure to only those
rodents who are poisoned indoors but die outdoors.
Ideally these five-times-more lethal rodent poisons should be
banned, but this step will save non-target wild lives.
As long as these poisons are placed near every dumpster
across our country, our environment will continue to be littered
with the bodies of rodents so toxic that they kill the animals who
eat them, and we will continue to lose endangered species for the
sake of killing a few mice and rats.
–Jamie Ray
San Francisco
Rescued Orphan
Mammal Program
(hotline)
415-350-WILD
<jamie_ray@comcast.net>
<www.sfromp.org>
 
Richard Schwartz

A testament to Animal People’s influence is that Richard H.
Schwartz, Ph.D., writes compelling letters for publication.
Richard H. Schwartz is the inspiring and erudite author of Judaism &
Vegetarianism and Judaism & Global Survival. The latter incisively
accentuates solutions to major issues including human rights, social
justice, ecology, climate change, hunger, world peace, and the
global imperative of vegetarianism. Judaism & Global Surv-ival is a
must read for people who care about the earth. Make certain to read
the 2002 Revised Edition.
–Brien Comerford
Glenview, Illinois
<Bjjcomerford@aol.com>
 
Statistical resource

I just wanted to tell you what a wonderful resource Animal
People has been for a project I’m working on about the scope of
euthanasia in shelters. The statistical work and data presentation
done through Animal People is first rate. It is really one of the
only continuous, reliable sources of information for estimating
numbers of stray, feral, and free-roaming cats, and understanding
the challenges and dangers they face.
Thank you so much for the work you folks have done over the
years, especially taking on this important and much-needed
quantitative role!
–Holly Anderson
Cornell College of
Veterinary Medicine
Class of 2010
Ithaca, N.Y.
<ha76@cornell.edu>
 
Correction

Eileen Weintraub was credited on page 16 of the April 2007
edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE for taking a photograph of Compassion
Unlimited Plus Action wildlife rehabilitator Saleem Hameed.
Weintraub tells us that the photo was actually taken by Savitha
Nagabhushan.