N.Y. sues Angel’s Gate

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.)

ALBANY–New York state attorney general Eric Scheiderman on September 26,  2012 filed a lawsuit seeking the dissolution of the Angel’s Gate animal hospice in Delhi,  New York,  for allegedly failing to file accountability reports since 2008.  Moving to rural Delhi from Long Island after being fined $800 for noise violations in 2007,  Angel’s Gate founder Sue Marino was in May 2012 charged with 22 cruelty counts,  as a result of a PETA probe which followed visits and warnings from at least three other animal charities since 2009.

Spillover: Animal Infections & The Next Human Pandemic

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.) __________________________________________

BOOKS Spillover:  Animal Infections & The Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen W.W. Norton and Company (500 5th Ave.,  New York, NY  10110),  2012.  592 pages,  hardcover.  $28.95 __________________________________________

Among the very first postings to ProMED-mail,  the listserve for the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases now reaching more than 60,000 animal and human health experts per day,  was an October 1994 letter to The New York Times by Barbara Hatch Rosenberg,  then director of the Federation of American Scientists Biological Program. Read more

Romancing the Dog: The Struggle To Make A Pound Dog Happy in Beverly Hills

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.)

Romancing the Dog: The Struggle To Make A Pound Dog Happy in Beverly Hills by Marion Zola Planet Publishing (distributed by Amazon.com),  2012.  331 pages. $12.98 paperback.
Among the most ancient of Indian proverbs is that “Whenever a human is unhappy,  God sends a dog.” .
The first and most important point to understand about dog behavior,  at least from my perspective,  is that almost all dogs are instinctively and contagiously happy and anticipatory,  unless someone is actively trying to make the dog unhappy.  Even then,  most dogs will defy the effort.  Seldom have I met a dog,  no matter how dire and painful the dog’s circumstances,  who did not demonstrate hope that everything would be better soon,  seemingly crediting humans with the ability to work miracles.  I have even met street dogs,  variously suffering hideously from mange,  cancer,  and bones broken by automobiles,  with no evident reason to think well of any human,  who tried to comfort the people who euthanized them. Read more

I’m a good dog: Pit Bulls, America’s Most Beautiful (and most Misunderstood) Pet

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.)

I’m a good dog Pit Bulls,  America’s Most Beautiful (and most Misunderstood) Pet by Ken Foster Viking Studio (c/o Penguin USA, 375 Hudson St.,  New York, NY 10014),  2012. 143 pages,  paperback.  $25.00.
. The major question in assessing I’m a good dog,  by Ken Foster,  is deciding whether Foster sincerely believes his many misrepresentations,  most of which occur by omission. Read more

Irish pols protect hare coursing

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.)

MULLINGAR,  Ireland--The Irish Council Against Blood Sports welcomed recent announcements by Jimmy Deenihan,  minister for arts, heritage,  and the Gaeltacht,  that he would ban hunting curlews and Kerry red deer.
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The council  warned,  however,   that Deenihan’s July 2012 suggestion that he might also ban shooting hares “is believed not to be to save hares from being shot to death but rather to help make it easier for coursers to find hares for their blood sport.  Earlier this year,”  the Irish Council Against Blood Sports reminded, “pro-coursing Deenihan pledged to coursers,  ‘Whatever I can do for coursing while I am in this job,  I will certainly do it.'” Read more

Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.)

Obituaries
“I come to bury Caesar,  not to praise him.  The evil that men do lives after them.  The good is oft interred with their bones.”–William Shakespeare
Kelly Ann Rada,  DVM,  38,  medical director for Humane Ohio, died unexpectedly of an unknown cause on September 26,  2012.  Rada became acquainted with Humane Ohio founder Aimee St. Arnaud while volunteering to assist feral cat neuter/return projects while attending the Ohio State University School of Veterinary Medicine. After graduating in 2002,  Rada served as shelter vet for the Capital Area Humane Society in Columbus,  Ohio,  and the Flagler Humane Society in Palm Coast,  Florida.  Founding a practice called Shelter Vet to Go,  Rada participated in dog and cat sterilization campaigns organized by animal charities from Jacksonville to Miami.  Rada relocated Shelter Vet to Go to Toledo in 2010.  As well as working for Humane Ohio,  Rada was a consultant for the Lucas County Dog Warden’s office and did sterilizations and vaccinations for the Lucas County Pit Crew,  a pit bull rescue agency.  “I briefly worked with her on a Florida microchipping issue and she was tremendously helpful,”  recalled Janet Winikoff,  director of education for the Humane Society of Vero Beach & Indian River County.  Several people at my shelter knew her when she helped our shelter in 2006 during an outbreak of canine flu.”  Humane Ohio has established a memorial fund in Rada’s name to help sterilize and treat feral cats,  and help send University of Florida and Ohio State University veterinary students to receive dog and cat sterilization training from the Humane Alliance,  in Asheville,  North Carolina. Read more

The Vegan Police: the Vegan Outreach perspective

 

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.)
Politics,  personal conduct,  and the Vegan Police:  the Vegan Outreach perspective by Matt Ball,  cofounder,  Vegan Outreach http://whyveganoutreach.blogspot.com/ 
Having been prompted to do some broader thinking about the status of animal advocacy in the past year,  including contrasting the AR-2012 conference in Washington D.C. with past AR conferences, I have a somewhat different perspective on the issues raised by the editorial in this October 2012 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE,  “Politics, personal conduct,  and the Vegan Police,” compared to my concerns when we were starting Vegan Outreach in the 1990s.

Buddhism & the meat question

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.)

by Wolf Clifton

A recent activist letter-writing campaign protested against a chicken teriyaki dinner hosted by a west coast Buddhist temple.  As a Buddhist and a vegetarian,  I was appalled at the notion of a Buddhist establishment condoning and actively supporting the slaughter of chickens.  Even more appalling was learning that this event was by no means an anomaly.  Dozens of Buddhist temples have recently hosted chicken teriyaki dinners–especially on the west coast,  but all over the U.S. and Canada. Read more

EDITORIAL: Politics, personal conduct, & the Vegan Police

 

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.)

Long before the Scott Pilgrim comic series introduced the Vegan Police duo,  a male hippie and an apparent Buddhist monk who metamorphized into a more conventionally police-like pair in the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World;  long before there was a Vegan Police blog site discussing the interface of race,  politics, gender,  and diet;   and decades before the term “vegan police” entered mainstream usage,  the vegan police vigorously critiqued animal advocacy. Read more

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