Month: June 2007

New shelter & animal protection law in South Korea

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
BOEUN, Korea–Korean Animal Pro-tection Society founder
Sunnan Kum formally opened a new KAPS shelter on April 15, 2007,
seven years after a donation of $25,000 from actor Danny Seo helped
her to acquire the land.
“Back in 1986,” Sunnan Kum recalled, “I purchased land in
Daegu,” her home city, “for the purpose of taking care of abandoned
dogs and cats for the first time. I had expected then that there
would not be so many abandoned animals. I used to believe that
anyone who encountered helpless animals would take care of them with
sympathy.
“I know that I was so naive and foolish to have had that
belief,” she continued. “I found many cats and dogs suffering in
extreme starvation and thirst all over this country. Warm-hearted
people would often bring me such animals instead of selling them to a
market. In no time, my land was fully occupied by cats, dogs, and
even wild animals.”

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Bullfighters seek cultural shield

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
LISBON– The Spanish-based
pro-bullfighting Platform for the Defence of the
Fiesta Nacional debuted just in time to give a
publicity boost to the International
Anti-Bullfighting Summit held in Lisbon,
Portugal, three weeks later.
PDFN director Luis Corrales in late April
2007 introduced half a dozen artists, actors,
and other celebrities who pledged support for his
petition to the United Nations Educational &
Scientific Organization seeking World Heritage
status for bullfighting.
UNESCO recognition, if conferred, would
amount to an internationally influential
declaration that bullfighting is an art form of
global significance.
Corrales claimed to have 1,300 Spanish
signees on a petition favoring bullfighting. He
told Barcelona correspondent for The Independent
newspaper group Graham Keeley that he hopes to
attract 5,000 signees by year’s end.

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Editorial feature: Moral leadership, big groups, & the meat issue

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

 
Exemplifying moral leadership consists of
departing from typical conduct to demonstrate
standards of behavior which may never be fully
met by most people, yet will be respected,
appreciated, and emulated to whatever degree
others find comfortable and practical.
This is risky business. To lead, one
must step beyond the norms, taking the chance of
ostracism that comes with being different.
Trying to be “better” than most people
incorporates the risk of being perceived as
“worse,” especially if the would-be moral
exemplar is asking others to take the same risk.
Hardly anyone chooses to be considered a
“deviate,” a word which literally means only
varying from routine patterns of conduct, but
connotes perverted menace.
But mostly the behavior and qualities of
moral leadership are not consciously chosen in
the first place, and are not exhibited as the
outcome of an intellectual process.
Despite the labors of moral
philosophers–and editorialists–the study of
behavioral evolution strongly suggests that the
components of “morality” evolved out of the
intuitive gestures and responses associated with
social cooperation. Humans did not invent
codified moral behavior to make ourselves
different from each other; rather, the effort
was to make behavior more standardized, more
predictable, more conducive to social harmony.
“Thou Shalt Not Kill,” “Thou Shalt Not
Steal,” and “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,”
for instance, all seem to have unwritten
antecedents in the social norms of many species
much older than humanity.

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Dogs down, monkeys up in India

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
BANGALORE, HYDERA-BAD–Faster up a tree or the side of a
building than a feral cat, biting more powerfully and often than any
street dog, able to leap over monkey-catchers at a single bound,
and usually able to outwit public officials, rhesus macaques are
taking over Indian cities.
The chief reason is the recent drastic decline in street dogs.
The ecological role of Indian street dogs is threefold. As
scavengers, street dogs consume edible refuse. As predators,
street dogs hunt the rats and mice who infest the refuse piles. In
addition, as territorial pack animals, street dogs chase other
scavengers and predators out of their habitat.

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Pet food scare may bring trade reform to China

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
BEIJING–Furor over the deaths of cats and dogs who were
poisoned by adulterated and mislabeled Chinese-made pet food
ingredients may have protected millions of people as well as animals
worldwide.
Chinese citizens themselves, and their pets, may be the
most numerous beneficiaries of new food safety regulations introduced
by the Beijing government on May 9, 2007.
With 1.5 billion citizens, China is the world’s most
populous nation–and also has more than twice as many pets as any
other nation. Officially, China had more than 150 million pet dogs
as of mid-2005. China is also believed to have from 300 to 450
million pet cats, but the Chinese cat population has never been
formally surveyed.

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Virginia dogfighting case embarrasses pro football

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
WASHINGTON D.C.–Sixty-six pit bull terriers seized from a
15-acre property in Surry County, Virginia owned by Atlanta Falcons
quarterback Michael Vick on April 25, 2007 upstaged the signing
eight days later of a landmark federal anti-animal fighting bill.
Signed by U.S. President George Bush on May 3, 2007, the
bill created federal felony penalties for transporting animals across
state lines to fight. Previously a misdemeanor, the offense now may
be punished with up to three years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Vehemently opposed by gamecock fighters and breeders, the
bill had received more coverage as it moved through Congress than any
other recent animal-related bill not having to do with endangered
species.
But the signing of animal fighting bill was relegated to
bottom paragraphs of coverage of the Vick case, the most recent and
sensational of a string of incidents involving alleged fighting dogs
and professional athletes–especially football players.
No one had been charged yet in the Vick case, as of May 28.
At least six agencies at the federal, state, and local levels were
reportedly reviewing the evidence to determine whether crimes had
been committed, and if so, what charges should be filed against
whom. From six to 10 people, including Vick, had been mentioned
in news reportage for having some possible involvement.
The case heated up on May 27, after the ESPN program Outside
The Lines broadcast an interview with a source identified as a
confidential police informant, who claimed to have witnessed Vick
participating in dogfighting-related activity, beginning in 2000,
when Vick played for Virginia Tech.

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Obituaries

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
Hugh Holbrook Tebault II, 89, died on May 10, 2007 in
Alameda, California. Tebault was introduced to humane work by his
mother, a close associate of Edith Latham, who founded the Latham
Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education in 1918. Tebault
headed the Latham Foundation from 1953 to 1998, and also served on the
American Humane Association board of directors for many years,
beginning in 1968. The Latham Foundation is now headed by his eldest
son, Hugh H. Tebault III. Early Latham projects included sponsoring
Kind Deeds Clubs, publishing a school newsletter called The Kindness
Messenger, and hosting essay contests and poster competitions. Tebault
II began exploring the use of electronic media to promote humane
education by hosting a radio program, then in the 1950s produced the
Brother Buzz television program on KPIX Channel 5, San Francisco,
which became The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz, syndicated nationally
in the 1960s. In the 1970s Tebault II produced another nationally
syndicated TV show called Withit, which in 1975 produced an influential
episode about animal-assisted therapy. After helping to organize two
national conferences on animal-assisted therapy, Tebault II in 1981
formed the Delta Committee as a project of the Latham Foundation. A
year later the committee evolved into the Delta Society, an independent
organization that promotes animal-assisted therapy, now based in
Renton, Washington.

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BOOKS: Where The Blind Horse Sings

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

Where The Blind Horse Sings by Kathy Stevens
Skyhorse Publishing (555 Eighth Ave., Suite 903,
New York, NY 10018), 2007.208 pages, hardcover. $22.95.

What, if anything, do most of us know about the
personalities of the animals raised for slaughter?
Pigs, cows, sheep, and chickens are not colorless,
characterless creatures, emphasizes Catskill Animal Sanctuary
founder Kathy Stevens. Rambo, for example, is a sheep whose
intelligence and communication skills are an inspiration to all who
work with him.

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BOOKS: Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007

Dog Days:
Dispatches from Bedlam Farm
by Jon Katz
Villard (c/o Random House, 1745 Broadway,
New York, NY 10019), 2007.
288 pages, paperback. $23.95.

Those who have read Jon Katz’s previous books and followed
his journey to Bedlam Farm will welcome this sequel.
As usual Katz writes with passion. Heart-warming stories of
the interaction among him, the dogs, and all the other animals of
Bedlam Farm offer lessons to urban dwellers who live remote from
nature and a natural way of life.
Apart from the familiar border collies, who feature in
Katz’s earlier books, Dog Days introduces two recent bovine
arrivals, Elvis the steer and Luna the cow.

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