Death of largest gopher tortoise ever found draws notice to Florida live burial policy

October 2, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007

FORT MYERS, Fla.– Phoenix, the largest gopher tortoise
ever measured, at least 60 years old according to Gopher Tortoise
Conservation Initiative coordinator Sarah Shannon, died on April 28,
2007 in care of Amanda Ebenhack of South Florida Reptile Rescue.
Hit by a backhoe on a Fort Myers construction site, Phoenix
was left for dead and buried circa February 28. “Two weeks later,
he emerged and scared the crap out of all of them,” Ebenhack told
Kevin Lollar of the Fort Myers News-Press. “He was taken to another
rescue center, then to me. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I could
barely lift him. Nobody believed he was a gopher tortoise.”
Noted Craig Pittman of the St. Petersburg Times, “For 16
years, Florida officials have let developers bury tortoises alive
and pave their burrows, in exchange for money to buy land for
tortoises elsewhere. Because of their low metabolic rate, tortoises
can take months to suffocate,” Pittman noted. “By this year, the
pay-to-pave program had issued permits to bury more than 94,000
tortoises. Now the species is in sharp decline. Tortoise experts
blame the permitting program. State wildlife officials have decided
to end the program by July 31, prompting a rush by developers to
beat the deadline,” Pittman added. “The permits have no expiration
date, so developers can use them at any time in the future. ”

How adaptive species became “invasive”

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
How adaptive species became “invasive”
Commentary by Merritt Clifton

“Exotic species,” “alien species,” and “invasive species”
are semi-synonymous terms which to most people may seem
insignificantly different.
Each is a metaphor for species not indigenous to their
habitat: non-native species, to introduce yet another term, less
rich in connotation.
Yet obscure as the distinctions among “exotic,” “alien,”
and “invasive” species may be, the terms are different enough to
have inspired environmental advocacy groups and government agencies
to spend millions of dollars in recent years to bring first “alien”
and then “invasive” into vogue.
Behind the linguistic politics is the belief that terminology
tends to shape attitudes. Thus, at about the same time that the
Natural Resources Defense Council began banging the drums about
“invasive” species, In Defense of Animals began to push use of the
term “guardian” rather than “owner” to describe a person who keeps a
pet.

Obituaries

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
Janet Regina Hyland, 73, died on
October 9, 2007 from breast cancer in Sarasota
Florida, 50 years after the start of a
successful six-year struggle against ovarian
cancer. Hyland married Glen Edward on July 2,
1954. Hit by a drunk driver just 37 days later,
he died after eight years in a “persistant
vegetative state,” recalled longtime friend
Vasudev Murti, of Oakland, California.
Originally Catholic, Hyland became an
evangelical Protestant because Catholicism does
not ordain women. Beginning seminary studies in
1955-1958, she completed a masters degree in
theology more than 25 years later. Ordained by
the Assembly of God in 1984, she worked in
prison ministry and with migrant farmworkers.
Hyland became an ethical vegetarian in 1973. Her
first book, The Slaughter Of Terrified Beasts:
A Biblical Basis for the Humane Treatment of
Animals, appeared in 1988. It was revised and
reissued in 2000 as God’s Covenant With Animals.
Her second book, Sexism is a Sin: The Biblical
Basis of Female Equality, appeared in 1995.
Also in 1995 Hyland founded a periodical, Humane
Religion, which she continued until 1998.

Obituaries

BOOKS: How To Raise Chickens

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:

How To Raise Chickens
by Christine Heinrichs

How To Raise Cattle
by Philip Hasheider

How To Raise Horses
by Daniel & Samantha Johnson

Voyageur Press (Galtier Plaza, Suite 200, 380 Jackson St., St.
Paul, MN 55101), 2007. 192 pages each, paperback, illustrated.
$19.95 each.

The utilitarian titles and the Future Farmers of America logo
on the covers of How To Raise Chickens, How To Raise Cattle, and
How To Raise Horses conceal and camouflage a wealth of indications
inside about how profoundly animal advocacy is beginning to influence
animal agriculture.
Much of the standard advice about animal care, housing, and
equipment is little different from the advice offered by similar
volumes for generations. Yet almost every page of How To Raise
Chickens and How To Raise Cattle adds concessions, qualifications,
and arguments in response to the challenges presented by animal
advocates.

BOOKS: Thought to Exist In The Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:

Thought to Exist In The Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos
by Derrick Jensen, with photos by Karen Tweedy-Holmes
No Voice Unheard (P.O. Box 4171, Santa Cruz, CA 95063), 2007. 143 pages, paperback. $19.95.

Hallmarks of hate literature are that it draws a distinction between us and them, asserts that all of them are like the worst of them, and concludes that none of them should be tolerated.
Many an insightful critique of zoos has appeared in recent decades, but Thought to Exist In The Wild is not among them. Thought to Exist In The Wild is essentially hate literature. Author Derrick Jensen hates zoos, all zoos. Acknowledging little significant difference among zoos, Jensen traces the origins of modern zoos to Roman spectacles, likens zoos to pornography, and argues that zoos exist chiefly to celebrate the human conquest of nature.
Roman spectacles certainly had parallels, on a much smaller scale, in the baiting and other animal torture that made the Tower Menagerie notorious for many of the 600 years that it existed in London as the most prominent proto-zoo in Europe. In 1832 the Tower Menagerie animal collection was transferred to the newly opened London Zoo. The London Zoo, populated by rare species from British colonies, was more-or-less ancestral to most major zoos today.

Monkeys blamed for fatal fall by New Delhi deputy mayor

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
NEW DELHI–New Delhi deputy mayor Sawinder Jeet Singh Bajwa
died on October 20, 2007 from head injuries reportedly suffered when
he fell from a balcony at his home while trying to avoid aggressive
rhesus macaques.
Whether that is really what happened, however, is unclear.
“Baiwa fell while reading a newspaper on the terrace at about
7:00 a.m., according to his family,” reported Times of London Delhi
correspondent Jeremy Page. “They said they thought he had been
attacked by monkeys and lost his balance while trying to chase them
away.”

Why did the Central Bureau of Investigation raid the Animal Welfare Board of India?

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
CHENNAI, MUMBAI, MYSORE, DELHI, THIRUVANATHAPURAM–One of
the noisiest and farthest-reaching scandals in the often
controversial 47-year history of the Animal Welfare Board of India
may prove to be less about corruption and bribery, when the Central
Bureau of Investigation concludes months of digging, than about
pursuit of mostly symbolic tribute by some AWBI appointees, and
redress of injured pride by some who have been rebuked.
Disputes over the allocation of grant money, partisan
politics, and enforcement of laws governing livestock transportation
and slaughter have become involved.
Yet–from statements and copies of inside correspondence
obtained by ANIMAL PEOPLE–pursuit of public stature and vengeance
for past frustrations and humiliations appears to have most visibly
motivated the persons whose charges instigated CBI raids on several
animal welfare organizations, the homes of their officers, and the
Animal Welfare Board of India offices in Chennai.

Recall bid for funding shelter

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
Gwyn Foro, the only member of the Surprise City, Arizona
town council who did not face recall in 2005, is now facing possible
recall for making two allocations of $10,000 to Maricopa County
Animal Care & Control, which serves the community. Other
councillors have already abolished the discretionary fund from which
Foro made the allocations.
Foro is daughter of Lynda Foro, founder of an organization
called Doing Things For Animals, which presented the No Kill
Conference series 1995-2001, and published a directory of no-kill
shelters. Doing Things For Animals became a subsidiary of the North
Shore Animal League America in 2000, and was absorbed into the Pet
Savers Foundation after Lynda Foro left in 2002.

Christine Townend retires

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
“I have retired as a trustee of Help In Suffering after 17
years of almost full-time voluntary work,” Christine Townend
e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on October 22, 2007. “Jack Reece,” the
Help In Suffering senior veterinarian, “will take over as a trustee
in my place.” Townend and Animal Liberation author Peter Singer
cofounded the Australian animal rights group Animal Liberation, now
Animals Australia, in 1978. Townend in 1992 succeeded founder
Crystal Rogers as head trustee of the original Help In Suffering
hospital and shelter in Jaipur, India, and later expanded the
organization to run a second hospital in Darjeeling, in the
Himalayan foothills. She received a lifetime achievement medal from
the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust in 2006.

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