A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:
CHICAGO––Feral cat neuter/return advocates are apprehensive of an ongoing study of the ecological effects of feral cats, funded by the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, after foundation president and WGN radio hunting program host Charlie Potter blamed feral cats for a continent-wide decline of bobwhite quail. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:
AGRA, India––“In an all night anti- poaching rescue operation based on intelligence provided by Wildlife SOS, four young male sloth bears were seized from poachers in the Sahibganj district of Jharkhand on the Indo-Nepal border,” Wildlife SOS cofounder Geeta Seshamani e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on February 19, 2013. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:
Editorial feature: Gun control, “boomers,” & the future of hunting by Merritt Clifton & Kim Bartlett
“In the matter of gun control, our main concern is rightly for the human victims of mass shootings,” wrote veteran journalist Dick Meister on January 18, 2013 for California Progress Report. “But what of the other defenseless animals who die at the hands of humans? What of the hunting rifles that are cited as legitimate simply because they are not rapid-fire weapons, the guns that are used by hunters to kill so many of our fellow beings in the name of sport? Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:
Obituaries
“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.” ––William Shakespeare
C. Everett Koop, 96, U.S. surgeon general 1982-1989, died on February 27, 2013 in Hanover, New Hampshire. Born in Brooklyn, Koop was admitted to Dartmouth College in Hanover at age 16. He studied medicine at Cornell Medical School in upstate New York, served an internship at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia and a surgical fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania hospital, then studied pediatric surgery for a year at Boston Children’s Hospital. Becoming only the seventh pediatric surgery specialist in the U.S., Koop returned to Philadelphia to become surgeon-in-chief at Children’s Hospital. Founding the first neo-natal surgery unit in the U.S. and cofounding the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, Koop in The Right to Live, The Right to Die (1976) warned against “a progression of thinking in this country from liberalized abortion to infanticide to passive euthanasia to active euthanasia, indeed to the very beginnings of the political climate that led to Auschwitz, Dachau and Belsen.” Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:
SANTA CRUZ, California––The Animal Legal Defense Fund and Stop Animal Experimentation Now on January 17, 2013 asked Santa Cruz County Court for a permanent injunction ordering Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc. to cease violating the federal Animal Welfare Act by allegedly neglecting goats used to produce antibodies. The lawsuit was filed three days after the Animal Welfare Institute asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to revoke the Santa Cruz Biotech permits to deal in live animals, and asked National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins to require Santa Cruz Biotech to submit a statement of compliance with the Animal Welfare Act as a condition for supplying antibodies to NIH-funded researchers. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:
Pat Derby, 69, founder of the Performing Animal Welfare Society, died from throat cancer on February 15, 2013 at her home on the ARK 2000 sanctuary she built near San Andreas, California. “Ed Stewart, her partner of 37 years, was by her side,” said the PAWS death announcement. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:
RENO, Nevada––The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on February 1, 2013 issued new policy directives governing wild horse roundups.
“At all times, the care and treatment provided by the BLM and contractors will be characterized by compassion and concern for the animal’s well-being and welfare,” ordered BLM assistant director for renewable resources and planning Edwin Roberson. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:
New adoption center gives embattled Fresno humane community a point of pride
FRESNO, Calif.––Celebrating a rare “good news for animals” event in a city which has had little to celebrate, the Cat House on the Kings and the Petco Foundation on February 15, 2013 together opened a new 1,500-square-foot adoption center inside the Fresno Petco store.
Founded in 1990 by Lynea Lattanzio of Parlier, in rural Fresno County alongside the Kings River, the Cat House on the Kings is the oldest and most successful of many local “no-kill” organizations trying to knock down a rate of animal control dog and cat killing which––though less than half of what it was 10 years ago––remains among the highest in the U.S., more than three times the current national average. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:
Ousted In Defense of Animals executive director takes dossier to state attorney general’s office
SAN RAFAEL, California––Four executive directors and founder Elliot Katz have left the top management position at In Defense of Animals since 2009. Joe Haptas, the IDA executive director since July 2012, was suspended by the board on February 9, 2013, and responded on February 12, 2013 by demanding the resignations by 6:00 p.m. of the entire board of directors––Natalie Kaminki, attorney Michael Yadegari, and Marilyn Kroplick, the child and geriatric psychiatrist who has served as board president since November 2011. Read more