REVIEWS: Tools for humane work
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:
New from Doing Things For Animals,
POB 2165, Sun City, AZ 85372-2165:
When Bob Frank of the Society of St. Francis
needed help to find homes for the last of the hundreds of
animals left behind by the demise of Ann Fields and her
Love & Care for God’s Animalife shelter in rural
Alabama, he picked up the 1995 No-Kill Directory, edited
by Lynda Foro, and started calling. It worked. Now
the 1996 edition is out, thicker than ever with approximately
250 listings. Price: $15.
From the American Humane Association,
63 Inverness Drive E., Englewood CO 80112-5117:
The Case for Early Neutering: a tool for com –
panion animal population control. Video and handbook,
$14.95 together; $3.95 per extra copy of the handbook.
Organizations trying to sell their own staff, board,
or funding source on early neutering will find this video
and handbook useful. Portions might be excerpted for
public education, but graphic scenes of surgery will be
more than most people want to know. The handbook
will, however, provide quick answers to whatever questions
the public may ask. A rave comes from Jessica
Bart-Mikionis, executive director of the Bennington
County Humane Society in Shaftsbury, Vermont. In
1990, BCHS had a euthanasia rate of 73%, near the
national average. In 1995, however, Bart-Mikionis
reports, a year after beginning to promote early neutering,
“We received fewer animals than ever on record in
our 36-year history.” Puppy intake crashed, while kitten
intake continued to grow slightly, “and for the first time
were able to place more animals into loving, permanent
homes” than were euthanized. “With 704 animals placed
in 1995, our adoption rate climbed to 50%, up from 26%
only five years ago,” when 402 animals were adopted,
out of 1,664 received. “Correspondingly,” BartMikionis
adds, “our euthanasia rate was down to 47%.”
A Training Guide for Recognizing and
Reporting Child Abuse for animal control officers and
humane investigators. $20/single copy; $50/5 copies;
$80/10 copies. This guide can be hard reading: it
includes photographs illustrating the tell-tale marks of
common forms of child abuse––exactly what an animal
control officer or humane investigator needs for reference
when trying to intervene in a child abuse case. Thorough
yet concise, this guide is appropriate for both desk use
and as the basis of in-service training seminars.
Final Report for a Limited Cultural
Assessment of the Pet Overpopulation Crisis in the
Colorado Hispanic/Latino Community summarizes the
findings of a series of focus group meetings recently convened
by AHA in an attempt to improve minority outreach.
These findings could be valuable to any organization
serving a substantial Spanish-speaking population.
Underscored are the need to provide transportation for
pets as part of a low-cost neutering program, since many
lower-income people don’t have cars; the lack of accurate
humane information published in Spanish; and the
need to integrate humane services and education into
Spanish-speaking culture.
