Getting the show off the road

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
Dancing bears, monkey acts, and big
cats leaping through hoops of fire are almost
history now in India, where such acts appear to
have started in Vedic times, spreading
throughout the world.
Some dancing bears, monkeys, and circus
lions, tigers, and leopards are still on the
back roads, or are stashed in sheds by
exhibitors who imagine that the Wild Life
Protection Act of 1972 might be repealed or
amended, but for most the show is over.
The Supreme Court of India turned out the
lights on May 1, 2001. Six years later, the
significance of the Supreme Court ruling against
traveling animal shows is just becoming evident,
as the possible foundation of a paradigm shift in
Indian and perhaps global attitudes toward
keeping wildlife in captivity.

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Iditarod musher not charged for beating dogs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

ANCHORAGE–Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters on
March 19, 2007 told news media that 2002 and 2003 Iditarod dog sled
race runner-up and 1999 Yukon Quest winner Ramy Brooks, 38, of
Healy, Alaska, would not be investigated or charged with cruelty
for allegedly beating his team about 90 miles from the end of the
2007 Iditarod.
Twenty-two miles from the end, one of Brooks’ dogs, named
Kate, died. A necropsy on the three-year-old dog was inconclusive,
race marshall Mark Nordman told Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen.
“Brooks admitted to spanking each of his 10 dogs with a trail
marker after two refused to get up and continue running outside the
checkpoint of Golovin on the Bering Sea coast,” reported Associated
Press writer Jeannette J. Lee.

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Animal Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
Duke, reportedly 19, also called Jake, and called “Doogie”
by Dogs Deserve Better founder Tammy Grimes, died on March 1, 2007
at the home of a foster caretaker. Grimes on September 11, 2006
took Duke, who was seriously debilitated according to veterinary
reports, from the yard of Steve and Lori Arnold, of East Freedom,
Pennsylvania, after the Central Pennsylvania Humane Society failed
to return calls about his condition. Unknown to the callers, a
humane officer had been assigned to investigate the case. Grimes,
who is also a part-time assistant web site developer for ANIMAL
PEOPLE, was charged with theft, receiving stolen property, criminal
mischief, and criminal trespass. The case, which made national
headlines, has yet to be tried. “Video of Doogie’s condition at the
time of his rescue has been viewed over 43,000 times on You Tube,”
Grimes said.

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Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

 

Sara Whalen, 64, died of cancer on March 19, 2007 in
Horton, New York. “The Pets Alive founder broke her back trying to
move a pony she had rescued and brought to her Wallkill sanctuary,”
wrote Kristina Wells of the Middletown Times Herald-Record. “Doctors
using a rod to stabilize her back discovered a tumor had started in
her lungs and spread.” Recalled Debra West in a 1995 New York Times
feature, “Whalen’s mission to rescue stray animals began in 1972,
when she inherited a golden retriever from a dying neighbor. She
credited the dog with saving her son Adam as a toddler, when he
strayed into the woods near her home.” Remembered Wells, “Whalen
took in the throwaways–ill, injured, neglected and abused cats,
dogs, horses, even potbellied pigs,” and she took in homeless
people at times, too, including Maggie Cogan, featured in an
award-winning documentary about her life in New York City’s Central
Park with a collection of dogs. Cogan returned to Central Park five
weeks later. “Whalen’s love for animals began in her youth, growing
up in Binghamton,” recounted Wells. “Her brother Bill Seiden
recalled that as a teenager she tackled a state trooper who shot a
black Labrador who had been hit by a car.” Whalen’s ex-husband,
insurance executive Leo Whalen, bought the former Ravenwood Kennels
for her, their two sons, and 47 dogs as part of a 1986 divorce
settlement. Often financially struggling, and nearly foreclosed in
both 1989 and 1995, Whalen operated Pets Alive as a no-kill shelter
before the idea was popular. In recent years she often counseled and
encouraged others, worldwide, who were starting no-kill
organizations. “At Pets Alive, she found homes for some, but not
all,” Wells wrote. “The unwanted, unadoptable always lived out
their days in peace, with her. Bill Seiden spoke about his sister’s
work with the kind of admiration that led him to establish an animal
rescue of his own in Avon, Connecticut.” Often providing news tips
to ANIMAL PEOPLE, assisting with several investigations, Whalen in
April 2001 called to confirm that for half a day she had walked
around an employee who died on the job, while doing his work as well
as her own. Why? Because, Whalen admitted, even though he
appeared to be napping on paid time, she did not want to wake him.

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Surprising NAIA conference speakers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
PORTLAND, Oregon– Known in recent years for opposition to
international animal adoption programs, the National Animal Interest
Alliance has announced a 2007 conference speakers roster that may be
most notable for including speakers usually heard at mainstream
humane conferences.
Founded in 1993 by Port-land dog breeder Patti Strand,
author of a 1992 book called The Hijacking of the Humane Movement,
the National Animal Interest Alliance has in the past featured such
speakers as tuna fishing and fur trade representative Teresa Platt;
Joan Berosini, wife of former Las Vegas orangutan trainer Bobby
Berosini; Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council attorney Marshall
Meyer; and biomedical researcher Adrian Morrison. Each has been a
longtime board member.

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BOOKS: Turtles of the World

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

Turtles of the World
by Franck Bonin,
Bernard Devaux,
& Alain Dupré
Translated by
Peter C. H. Pritchard
Johns Hopkins University Press (2715 North
Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218), 2006. 416
pages, with 300 color photos & 320 color maps.
$50.00.

“For many years Franck Bonin, Bernard
Devaux, and Alain Dupré have traveled the world
together to study turtles in their natural
habitats,” says the Johns Hopkins University
Press flak sheet of the authors of Turtles of the
World, an encyclopedic inventory of nearly 300
turtle species which was by reputation the most
comprehensive ever produced even before Peter C.
H. Pritchard translated the French text into
English, to reach a broader audience.

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BOOKS: Silent Victims: Recognizing and Stopping Abuse of the Family Pet

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

Silent Victims:
Recognizing and Stopping Abuse of the Family Pet
by Pamela Carlisle-Frank & Tom Flanagan
University Press of America (4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 220,
Lanham, MD 20766), 2006. 296 pages, paperback. $39.95.

Social scientist Pamela Carlisle-Frank and Tom Flanagan, a
Boston police officer turned humane officer, in Silent Victims pull
together information from a broad range of sources, seasoned by
practical experience, which might usefully be on the required
reading list for anyone aspiring to a career in social work or law
enforcement–but for what specific class?
Few universities teach humane law enforcement, or the
sociology of animal rescue. Newly hired humane officers these days
often have some formal law enforcement training, and many of the
best humane society crisis counselors have background in social work.

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BOOKS: Kathryn & the Runaway Zoo

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

Kathryn & the Runaway Zoo by William B. Catton
Vantage Press Inc. (419 Park Ave. S., New York, NY 10016), 2007.
140 pages, paperback. $11.95.

Kathryn, a 13-year-old passionate animal lover, is a
frequent visitor to the local zoo, which houses the largest
collection of animals in America, and is owned by one Mortimer
Farrington, known to all as an “ill-tempered and arrogant skinflint.”
Because of her way with animals she is offered a part time
job after school and weekends. She is, however, horrified at the
outdated, cramped conditions of the zoo, and seeks improvement by
writing to Farrington, asking him to consider refurbishing the zoo
in order to give the animals more space. He refuses, so she writes
to the newspapers, which infuriates him.

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BOOKS: What Every Pet Owner Should Know

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

What Every Pet Owner Should Know
by Karen Halligan, DVM
Harper Collins Publishers Inc. (10 East 53rd St.,
New York, NY 10022), 2007. 312 pages, hardcover. $24.85.

Karen Halligan, director of veterinary services for SPCA/LA,
is well-known to television viewers through her frequent appearances
on animal-related programs.
What Every Pet Owner Should Know comprehensively addresses
the whole range of potential problems faced by pet owners, including
how to reduce veterinary bills by taking preventative measures such
as cleaning a pet’s teeth; what pet to choose for one’s particular
needs and circumstances; the ins and outs of pet insurance; and
especially, how to recognise illness and address it.

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