No more live birds sold at San Francisco farmers’ markets

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

SAN FRANCISCO–Live bird sales ended at the Heart of the City
Farmers’ Market on May 27, 2011–the only one of the three San
Francisco farmers’ markets at which live birds were sold.
Two vendors, Raymond Young Poultry and Bullfeathers Quail,
were notified on May 3 that live bird sales would no longer be
allowed. “The market has announced that it plans to expand 25% and
is seeking new vendor applications, so we can look forward to the
area that was previously filled with abused animals and filth to be
used for something better!” exulted Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender
Compassion founder Andrew Zollman, 43, who with fellow live market
protester Alex Felsinger, 25, had picketed the twice-weekly market
for about two years.

Fundraising turf war brings California groups’ complaint against the ASPCA

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
EL CERRITO, California– Alleging “unfair and deceptive
fundraising practices which harm local humane societies and SPCAs,”
the State Humane Association of California on May 3, 2011 filed a
complaint against the American SPCA with the California Office of the
Attorney General.
Explained State Humane Association of California executive
director Erica Gaudet Hughes, “The complaint alleges that ASPCA
capitalizes on, and intentionally reinforces, the widely held
mistaken belief that it is a parent or umbrella organization to the
thousands of humane societies and SPCAs across the country.

Far from Fukushima, helpers find themselves near the eye of the storm

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

TOKYO, ST. LOUIS–Six thousand miles
from the earthquake, tsunami, and triple
nuclear meltdown that hit northeastern Japan on
March 11, 2011, and six weeks after the crisis
began, Kinship Circle executive director Brenda
Shoss and Best Friends Animal Society community
relations specialist Troy Lea remained on
post-disaster overload in late May, even though
they never left their home offices near St.
Louis, Missouri.
Shoss, of University City, used Skype
telephone calls, Facebook, and e-mail to
coordinate animal rescue efforts involving 10
Kinship Circle volunteers and about 30 volunteers
from other organizations in the vicinity of the
stricken Fukushima nuclear reactor complex.

Editorial feature: Slaughtering animals, crime, & societal health

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
Phillip Danforth Armour (1832-1901) is
today remembered only for the meatpacking company
he founded, but in his own time was lauded for
allegedly contributing to the progress of
civilization by moving animal slaughter out of
sight, smell, and sound of women, children,
and decent men.
Born into an upstate New York farming
family, Armour drove barge-hauling mules
alongside the Chenango Canal in his teens, then
walked all the way to California at age 19 to
join the Gold Rush. He soon discovered that more
gold was to be made by starting a Placerville
butcher shop than in mining.

Indian judge rules that wild birds held by vendor must be set free

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

AHMEDABAD, India–Gujarat High Court Justice M.R. Shah on
May 12, 2011 ordered the release to freedom of 494 parrots, doves,
pigeons, lovebirds, dogs, and rabbits who were seized by Surat
police on May 30, 2010 from vendor Abdul Jalal Kadar Sheikh.
The animals have been held at an animal hospital for almost a
year at Sheikh’s expense while he pursued a series of appeals,
expected to continue. “The manner in which the birds are kept in the
small cages, with their wings and tails cut, wings taped together,
and rings put on their feet–nothing can be more heinous,” Shah
said. “It is the fundamental right of a bird to live freely in the
open sky. The only order which can be passed in such circumstances,”
Shah ruled, “would be to set the birds free.”

National Zoo bird researcher is charged with attempting to poison feral cats

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
WASHINGTON D.C.–Alley Cat Allies and
Alley Cat Rescue on May 26, 2011 asked the
Smithsonian Institution to suspend National Zoo
Migratory Bird Center researcher Nico Dauphine.
Dauphine was charged three days earlier with
attempted animal cruelty for allegedly trying to
poison feral cats. If convicted, Dauphine could
be fined up to $1,000 and could be sentenced to
180 days in jail.
Dauphine denied the offense in a brief
statement issued by her attorney.

BOOKS: The Animal Shelter

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
Humane education classic:

The Animal Shelter by Patricia Curtis
Lodestar Books (c/o E.P. Dutton), 1984.
164 pages, hardcover. $13.95 original price.

The Animal Shelter, by Patricia Curtis, introduced a
generation of young people to humane work.
“I wrote The Animal Shelter 28 years ago, so it is badly
out-of-date,” Curtis told ANIMAL PEOPLE in May 2011, seemingly
surprised to be looked up and asked about it after all this time. “I
hope things have improved since then, both in the numbers of animals
surrendered to shelters and in the condition of shelters. My
impression is that the book got a mixed reception,” Curtis
continued. “I hope it did some good. Some shelters wrote to me that
they were grateful that I had drawn attention to their problems. But
some people couldn’t handle the truth as I tried to tell it.

BOOKS: In Bear Country

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

In Bear Country by Jake McDonald
(Originally published as Grizzlyville: Adventures In Bear Country,
HarperCollins Canada, 2009.)
Lyons Press (246 Goose Lane, Guilford, CT 06437), 2010.
272 pages, paperback. $19.99.

Winnipeg journalist Jake McDonald shines in his eighth book,
In Bear Country.
His story begins on the night of August 13, 1967. Grizzly
bears, in two separate and apparently unrelated attacks, miles
apart, killed Glacier National Park employees Julie Helgeson and
Michele Koons as they camped with friends.

BOOKS: Snowball’s Antarctic Adventures

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

Snowball’s Antarctic Adventures
by Tim Ostermeyer
Ostermeyer Photography (1813 Country Brook Lane,
Allen, TX 75002), 2011. 48 pages, hardcover. $18.95.

Snowball’s Antarctic Adventures, a new children’s book from
photographer Tim Ostermeyer, is about penguins. Odd-shaped birds,
penguins do not lift off and fly like the swallows and swifts who are
among their closest relatives. Instead they alternate between
swimming astonishing distances at astonishing speeds and waddling
around the ice flapping their stubby wings. Sometimes they lie on
their bellies and slide on the ice.

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