BOOKS: Elephants & Ethics

October 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)

Elephants & Ethics:
Toward a Morality of Coexistence
Edited by Christen Wemmer & Catherine A. Christen
Johns Hopkins University Press (2715 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218), 2008. 483 pages, hardcover. $75.00.

We have been defining our relationships with the elephants for as long as we have been people, opens John Seidensticker in his preface to Elephants & Ethics: Toward a Morality of Coexistence. When discussing the ethics of human/elephant relationships, he adds, we should keep in mind a historical reality: In any confrontation, elephants almost always lose.
Seidensticker in the next several paragraphs traces the 3,000-year retreat of wild elephants from Beijing to the Myanmar border. As rice cultivation enabled the rise of civilization in China, the conversion of former lowland forests to paddies steadily reduced elephant habitat.

Indian states act finally on behalf of captive elephants

October 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)
MYSORE, THRISSUR Acting on complaints filed by the Bangalore-based Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilition Centre and by Compassion Unlimited Plus Action, also of Bangalore, Mysore Division deputy conservator of forests Shashwati Mishra on October 28, 2008 seized three elephants from a Great Bombay Circus encampment in Mysore, due to alleged neglect of foot ailments.
Forestry department officials said they had decided to shift the elephants on the basis of a report submitted by veterinarians of the Mysore zoo, who had inquired into the matter, The Hindu said. The elephants were transported to Bannerghatta National Park for treatment.
The elephants were taken into custody 12 days after Kerala principal chief conservator of forests T.M. Manoharan seized a three-year-old elephant named Kannan from the Mavelikara Evoor Sri Krishna temple in Mavelikkara.
The plight of Kannan came to light last week when two youngsters captured on their mobile phone cameras scenes of mahouts brutally torturing the elephant, reported The Hindu. The visuals were passed on to TV channels and forests minister Binoy Viswom issued instructions for an enquiry.

BOOKS: Reprises of Born Free

October 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)

The Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton
Simon & Schuster, 1230 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10020), 2008. 279 pages, paperback. $23.00.

The Parrot Who Thought She Was A Dog by Nancy Ellis-Bell
Harmony Books (c/o Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019), 2008. 245 pages, hardcover. $23.00.

Of Parrots & People by Mira Tweti
Penguin Group USA (375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014), 2008. 300 pages, paperback. $25.95.

Behind The Daily Coyote, The Parrot Who Thought She Was A Dog, and an entire genre of similar books which since 1960 have reshaped public opinion about wildlife stands the ghost of George Adamson and the influence of Pat O Neill, a Kenyan who later inherited the Broadlands equine stud farm near Cape Town, South Africa, and converted it into the Kalu Animal Trust.

Rhino babies bring hope to Zimbabwe

October 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)
WEDZA, Zimbabwe Two bottle-fed orphaned Zimbabwean black rhino babies may live happily ever after, if the uneasy power-sharing pact between president Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai brings stability and economic recovery to the nation.
Signed on September 15, 2008, the agreement was jeopardized as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press by Mugabe s determination to retain control over key cabinet posts. Members of Mugabe s ZANU-PF party still roam the countryside, poaching wildlife, intimidating political opponents, looting aid convoys and invading farms, claiming privilege as war veterans whether or not they had anything to do with the revolution that brought Zimbabwe into being and brought Mugabe to power in 1980.

BOOKS: Puddles on the Floor

October 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)

Puddles on the Floor
by Lorena Estep
illustrated by
Tamara Ci Thayne
Crescent Renewal Resource (P.O. Box 23, Tipton, PA 16684), 2008.
22 pages, paperback. $15.95.
(Also sold as CD, $9.95.)

Puddles on the Floor is an exquisitely illustrated story for children about a beagle who is isolated outdoors on a chain after he is not properly house-trained. Artist Tamara Ci Thayne, known until mid-2008 as Tammy Grimes, founded the anti-chaining organization Dogs Deserve Better in 2001. Author Lorena Estep is her mother.
The book, a CD edition of the story, and several accessory items are sold with the dual purpose of educating children about dog care and raising funds and volunteer help for Dogs Deserve Better.

Bovine TB, badgers, dogs, cats & cattle politics

October 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)
LONDON Unable to persuade the public and environment secretary Hilary Benn to cull badgers to control bovine tuberculosis in cattle, the British Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs is touting findings that bovine TB is also now occurring in cats and dogs, who may pass the disease on to humans.
Bovine TB was confirmed in forty-two British cats in 2005-2007, up from 15 in the preceding seven years, according to DEFRA data released in October 2008.
Given that these cases were only identified through post mortems or clinical intervention, the data suggests far greater levels of transmission than we have previously seen, said National Farmers Union animal health and welfare advisor Catherine McLaughlin.
Until one knows with some certainty how these cats got infected, it is scary but not meaningful, responded Martin Hugh Jones, livestock moderator for the ProMed electronic bulletin board maintained by the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

Studies refute pretexts for deer hunting

October 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)
COLUMBUS, Ohio; WASHINGTON , D.C. Two of the most common pretexts for deer hunting in late October 2008 took a hit from data published by researchers who had no intention of discouraging hunting.
At least 31 states rationalize efforts to promote deer hunting by claiming an urgent need to kill more deer, to prevent deer/car collisions and protect biodiversity, supposedly harmed by too many deer devouring plants.
The Highway Loss Data Institute and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported that the number of people killed in deer/car crashes rose from 101 in 1993 to 150 in 2000 and 227 in 2007.

WSPA president loses bid for Parliament

October 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)
OTTAWA Canadian voters on October 14, 2008 re-elected the Conservative national government headed by prime minister Stephen Harper, an outspoken defender of the Atlantic Canadian seal hunt, but the voters of the Beauharnois-Salaberry district in Quebec for the third time rejected Conservative candidate Dominique Bellemare.
Bellemare, board president of the World Society for the Protection of Animals since June 2008, was previously defeated in the 1997 and 2004 Parliamentary elections. He received 20.2% of the vote, placing a distant second in a five-candidate race to Claude Debellefeuille of the Quebec nationalist Bloc Quebecois, who received 50.1%.

Montreal SPCA sues SPCA International to try to get back web name

October 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)

MONTREAL Proceedings in a lawsuit filed by the Montreal SPCA to try to recover the use of the domain name <spca.com> from SPCA International have been delayed because the plaintiffs are having difficulty finding valid legal addresses at which to serve notice on some of the defendants, plaintiff s attorney Pierre Lessard told ANIMAL PEOPLE on October 24, 2008.
Served as of the original scheduled court date in October were Pierre Barnoti, who was executive director of the Montreal SPCA from 1994 until July 2008 and is founder of SPCA International; SPCA International itself, incorporated in Delaware since 2006; Raouf Dallala of Montreal, who according to the lawsuit acted as consultant for over 10 years to the Montreal SPCA during Barnoti s tenure, and was paid during that period fees of over $500,000 ; former Montreal SPCA board members Howard Sholzberg and Michel Poulos; the Montreal firm Magi Graph Concept Inc.; the New York City firm Quadriga Art Inc., currently acting as a fundraising intermediary for the benefit of SPCA International, according to the lawsuit; and the Virginia firm Network Solutions, identified as registrar for the domain names <spca.com> and <spcamontreal.com>.

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