Puppy mills now an issue in China

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

HONG KONG, BEIJING, MELBOURNE –Humane societies and mass
media a world away from the U.S. joined U.S. counterparts in autumn
2007 denunciations of puppy mills.
Hong Kong SPCA spokeswoman Rebecca Ngan Yee-ling complained
to Simon Parry of the South China Morning Post that “The public is
encouraged to buy pedigree dogs by certain movies, as well as by the
influence of celebrities bringing their pedigree dogs into the
limelight.” She described pet shops as “an area of vast concern in
terms of animal welfare,” and noted that at times more than 40% of
the dogs arriving at the Hong Kong SPCA shelters are cast-off
purebreds.
Ngan blamed the influx of purebreds for a slump in adoptions
of mongrels, dropping total dog adoptions from 876 in 2003 to 751 in
2006, while the animal control shelter operated by the Agriculture,
Fisheries, and Conservation Department in fiscal 2007 killed an
average of 941 dogs a month, up from 875 a month in 2006.

Read more

BOOKS: Wolves & The Last Wild Wolves

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Rain Forest by Ian McAllister
University of California Press (2120 Berkeley
Way, Berkeley, CA 94704), 2007. 192 pages,
hardcover. Illustrated, with DVD. $39.95.

Wolves: Behavior, Ecology & Conservation
Edited by L. David Mech & Luigi Boitani
University of Chicago Press (1427 E. 60th St.,
Chicago, IL 60637), 2007. 472 pages,
paperback. Illustrated, with DVD. $30.00.

Appearing about six months after Wolves:
Behavior, Ecology, and Conserv-ation, The
Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Rain Forest
variously supports, reverently cites, and
indirectly disputes key arguments put forward by
the authors of the former. Author Ian McAllister
passionately believes, as a scientist, that the
British Columbia coastal habitat of the two wolf
subspecies he studies should not be logged
because the wolves might not survive the
transformation of their territory.
McAllister is infuriated by the attitudes
of humans who hunt and trap wolves, especially
trophy hunters and those who blame wolves for
depleting “game” after disrupting the habitat for
economic exploitation.

Read more

Big puppy mill raids “barked up the right tree” for mass media

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Raids on alleged puppy mills in at least
five states closely followed the November 1, 2007 launch of a Humane
Society of the U.S. pre-holiday media blitz against lax regulation of
dog breeders.
A five-month HSUS investigation found more than 900 active
dog breeders in Virgina, of whom only 16 held USDA permits to breed
dogs for sale across state lines, summarized HSUS publicist Leslie
Porter.
“To sell puppies to pet stores, breeders with more than
three breeding females are required by federal law to have a
license,” Porter said. “The HSUS investigation found that many
breeders are violating this law,” often by selling directly to the
public through web sites.
An HSUS undercover team “documented puppy mills throughout
the state,” Porter said, “including in Hillsville, Jewel Ridge,
Atkins, Ferrum, Staunton, and Lynchburg, and pet stores who buy
those dogs, including in Fredericksburg, Ashland, Midlothian and
Waynesboro. The HSUS found dogs being harmed and abused; laws being
ignored, and consumers being duped over and over again.”

Read more

Editorial feature: Adding consideration to compassionate acts

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

 
Expressing either compassion or moral consideration toward
animals probably started just as a matter of feeding and befriending
a dog, and eventually bringing the dog into the family.
The first Neanderthal who tossed scraps to a dog just beyond
the circle of firelight, 60,000 to 100,000 years ago, probably had
no notion of extending a philosophical concept of personhood to other
dogs, other animals, the Cro Magnons who were just beginning to
push into Neanderthal territory, or even to rival Neanderthal bands.
There was just this one dog, who was hungry, who had perhaps
traveled with the family for some time, and might have helped the
family to avoid or fend off predators–and this night, the family
had extra food. This one dog, or her puppies, might have attracted
either compassion or moral consideration in response to the dog’s
contributions to the family, and probably was the beneficiary of
both, mingled with recognition that having dogs around could be
helpful in cave bear country.
Much closer to our own time, the Yellow Dog of Crypt Cave,
Nevada, lived and died about 6,360 years ago. The hunter/gatherers
who buried the yellow dog with flowers, in a woven mat, lived much
like the Neanderthals. Early in life the yellow dog suffered a
badly fractured leg. Though useless for working or hunting, the
dog was fed for years afterward, and was eventually buried as a
family member, among centuries of ceremonially buried human remains
and the less well preserved remains of other dogs, who also appear
to have been cherished companions.

Read more

Prince Harry dodges the bullet as suspect in harrier shootings

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
LONDON–Prince Harry of Britain and two
companions on November 6, 2007 escaped
prosecution for allegedly killing two hen
harriers, but the shotgun blasts suspected to
have been fired by the royal hunting party helped
to blow the cover off the pretense by shooting
estate operators that they practice wildlife
conservation.
“Norfolk Crown Prosecution Service has
advised Norfolk Police there is insufficient
evidence to prosecute anyone over the shooting of
two hen harrier birds, a protected species, at
Sandringham on October 24, 2007,” a Crown
Prosecution Service spokesperson said in a
prepared statement.
“The bodies of the hen harriers have not
been found and there is no forensic or ballistic
evidence. Witnesses also heard unexplained
shooting in the area before the three suspects
said they were present at the scene, so other
people cannot be ruled out,” the CPS
spokesperson added. “The three suspects, who
were interviewed by police, all denied that the
birds were killed by them.”

Read more

Guest column: Death by economics

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
Guest column:
Death by economics
by Melanie Jackson
In the world of animal welfare the decision to terminate an
animal’s life is often based on economics rather than the animal’s
overall health and welfare needs.
To avoid depleting budgets more than the seasonal rhythm of
animal control contract payments, donations, and revenue from
adoption and surrender fees can be expected to replenish, shelters
have for decades typically maintained limits on how long an animal
may be held. If the animal is not adopted within that rigid time
period, or transferred to a rescue organization that can focus on
placing hard cases, the animal will be killed to make room for
another animal.

Read more

BOOKS: Good Dog. Stay.

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

Good Dog. Stay.
by Anna Quindlen
Random House (1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019), 2007. 82
pages, hardcover, illustrated. $14.85.

Probably every reader who has ever had and lost a beloved dog
will love Good Dog. Stay. The book is an expansion of one of Anna
Quindlen’s most popular Newsweek columns, memorializing her Labrador
retriever Beau, who grew up with her children and lived to the age
of 15.
Most readers will be people who have loved dogs, and by way
of intensifying reader identification with Quindlen’s thoughts, the
book designers have extensively illustrated the book with photographs
of dogs of many different breeds. Whatever kind of dog a reader has
had is likely to be represented.

Read more

Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
George Vedder, 91, of Monroe, Connecticut, died on
November 18, 2007 in nearby Bridgeport. An engineer/gunner on a
B-24 bomber during World War II, Vedder worked after the war as an
assembler of aircraft engines. Retiring in 1975, Vedder became a
feral cat feeder. In 1991 Vedder teamed with Kim Bartlett and
Merritt Clifton to trap, sterilize, vaccinate, and release the
many feral cats who inhabited a supermarket parking lot beside the
Monroe offices of the Animals’ Agenda magazine, where Bartlett was
editor and Clifton was news editor. The surgeries were done by
Arnold Brown, DVM, of Trumbull. The project expanded to eight main
locations in northern Fairfield County, and became the first
well-documented U.S. demonstration of neuter/return feral cat
control, honored by the Town of Monroe Police Department for
keeping a raccoon rabies outbreak from crossing into cats. Designing
and building many of the traps used in the project, Vedder continued
to promote and practice neuter/return for the rest of his life.

Read more

Washoe chimpanzee

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
Washoe, 42, died on October 30, 2007 at the Chimpanzee and
Human Communications Institute, on the Central Washington University
campus in Ellensburg, Washington. Captured in Africa as a baby,
Washoe was raised by Allen and Beatrix Gardner of the University of
Nevada at Reno, 1966-1970. Beginning in 1967 they taught her
American Sign Language. Graduate student Roger Fouts and his wife
Deborah eventually took over and continued the project, first in
Oklahoma, then at Central Washing-ton University after 1980. Though
Washoe’s linguistic ability was disputed, she is generally
recognized as the first chimp to learn human linguistic skills,
developing a vocabuary of about 250 words. She went on to teach
American Sign Language to three other chimpanzees–Tatu, 31,
Loulis, 29, and Dar, 31, who all still live at the Chimpanzee and
Human Communications Institute.

1 2 3 4