What did the Prophet Mohammed really say about dogs?

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

Commentary by Merritt Clifton
CAIRO–Will the status of dogs rise in the Islamic world as
improved sanitation eliminates street dog habitat, the threat of
rabies recedes, and rising affluence enables more people to keep
pets?
Or, is prejudice against dogs so thoroughly built into
Muslim culture that the Middle East will remain the part of the
inhabited world with the fewest pet dogs per capita, despite having
the longest recorded history of keeping dogs?
Cairo, Damascus, Istanbul, Karachi, Tehran, Kuwait, and
Dubai all appear to have reached approximately the socio-demographic
transition point at which dog-keeping began exponential growth in the
U.S. and more recently China, and began more restrained growth in
western Europe.

Veterinarian works under fire to help Baghdad residents keep pets alive

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

BAGHDAD– “People in Baghdad still want to look after animals
despite everything,” 26-year veterinarian Nameer Abdul Fatah told
Agence France-Presse in early January 2008.
“More Muslims keep dogs as pets than is generally believed,”
Fatah added. “There are many expensive dogs like Pekinese in the
city. People keep them inside at home, and don’t take them for
walks because of the danger” associated with life in a war zone.
Trained in small animal medicine in East Germany, Fatah,
46, often treats animals who have been injured in the sectarian
strife that has torn apart Baghdad since the 2003 U.S. invasion. He
acknowledged that “The windows of my car were blown out once, when I
was driving to examine a client’s dog, and another time I got bad
wounds in the leg from shrapnel. But I was never the target,” Fatah
stipulated.

Rescuers try to stay alive in Lebanon

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

BERUIT–Beruit for the Ethical Treatment of Animals cofounder
Marguerite Shaarawi and shelter manager Jason Meir hoped at the
Middle East Network for Animal Welfare conference in December 2007
that Lebanon and their efforts might soon return to normalcy.
Subsequent disappointments including a January 15, 2008 car
bomb attack on a U.S. Embassy vehicle that killed three bystanders
and wounded 21 .
“There has been a drastic increase in bombings over the last
month,” BETA e-mailed to supporters. “Lebanon is without a
president since November, and elections have been delayed more than
ten times. This greatly affects us. Currently we are caring for
more than 350 dogs and cats. Bombings and insecurity make our work
difficult.”
[Contact BETA c/o <www.betalebanon.org>.]

Dogfights in Kabul

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

A panoramic New York Times photo of a Kabul dogfighting arena
believed to be the largest in Afghan-istan, published on December 8,
2007, showed 367 spectators, 30 dog handlers, and 12 dogs. Kabul
is a city of four million people. If 25% of Kabul dogfighting fans
were present, participation could be estimated as about four people
per 1,000, or 0.4% of the human population.

API wildlife director Camilla Fox returns to school to help coyotes

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
PRESCOTT, Arizona–Camilla Fox, the 10-year director of
wildlife programs for the Animal Protection Institute, is now
pursuing a master’s degree at Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona
as recipient of the first Christine Stevens Wildlife Award,
presented by the Animal Welfare Institute. AWI founder Stevens
headed the AWI from 1951 until her death in 2002.
The $10,000 award “aims to advance research in the
often-overlooked area of non-lethal wildlife management,” explains
the AWI web site.
Fox at API waged prominent campaigns on behalf of many
species, but coyotes were of special concern to her. Her father
Michael W. Fox is a prominent researcher of canine history, a
longtime syndicated veterinary columnist, and a former vice
president of the Humane Society of the U.S., “who did field
research studying the behavior of wild canids, so I always had them
around me while I was growing up,” Fox recalls.

Shelter intake of pit bulls may be leveling off

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

The numbers of pit bull terriers and Rottweilers in U.S.
animal shelters may have leveled off since 2004, after a decade of
explosive increase, but are not falling, according to single day
shelter dog inventories collected by ANIMAL PEOPLE during the second
and third weeks of January 2008.
ANIMAL PEOPLE compared the data to single-day dog inventories
collected in June 2004 from 23 U.S. animal control and open admission
shelters, then housing 3,023 dogs.
Of the dogs in 2004, 23% were pit bulls or close mixes of
pit bull; 3% were Rottweilers or their close mixes; and 17% were
other purebreds. Counting pit bulls and Rottweilers but not their
mixes, plus purebreds, about 33% of the shelter dog population
appeared to have been purpose-bred, as opposed to products of
accidental breeding. The pit bull and pit mix percentage had
increased fivefold since ANIMAL PEOPLE did a breed-specific survey of
shelter dogs in 1993.

Donkey Sanctuary & SPANA help in Sudan

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
ABU SHAWK, Sudan–While most international aid groups
working in North Darfur focus on helping displaced humans, the
Donkey Sanctuary and Society for Protection of Animals Abroad are
saving their asses–a top priority for the 27,000 displaced families
now filling the Abu Shawk refugee camp, if they are ever to return
to their pre-war way of life.
“Donkeys are the most valuable assets for the people in the
region of Darfur,” Donkey Sanctuary representative Mohamed Majzoub
Fidiel told the Middle East Network for Animal Welfare conference in
Cairo in December 2007.

AVAR merges with Humane Society of the U.S; API merges with Born Free USA

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
SACRAMENTO–The city of Sacramento, California, within just
two days in mid-January 2008 lost two of the three national animal
advocacy organizations that have long been based there. Their
offices are still in Sacramento, but now as branches of
organizations based in Washington D.C.
The Animal Protection Institute, founded in 1968 by former
Humane Society of the U.S. California office director Belton Mouras,
merged with Born Free USA, the U.S. arm of the British-based Born
Free Foundation. Mouras later founded United Animal Nations, also
based in Sacramento.

Cheaper wheels mean less horsepower

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

NEW DELHI, CAIRO–The future of more than 50 million working
donkeys worldwide and millions of horses and bullocks may be affected
by explosive growth in motor vehicle acquisition.
Indian car acquisition, already growing at 20% per year, is
expected to accelerate with the January 2008 introduction of a car
priced at just $2,500, made by Tata Motors Ltd., the leading car
and truck maker in India. Ford just two days earlier announced plans
to invest $875 million in expanding small car production capacity in
India.
Motor vehicle acquisition in China is increasing almost as
fast, and the boom is spilling over to other parts of Asia.
The environmental and socio-economic effects of the spread of
motorized transport have received much attention from governments,
academia, and mass media, but the implications for animal welfare
have been mostly overlooked.
First-time Asian car buyers are believed to be typically city
residents, stepping up from scooters and motorcycles. But the $500
scooters and $1,500 motorcycles that the inexpensive new cars replace
will become half-priced used vehicles, competing for buyers with new
lines of Indian and Chinese-made 110-cc. motorcycles sold for as
little as $450.

Working Animals

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