BOOKS: The Ocean At Home: An Illustrated History of the Aquarium

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

The Ocean At Home:
An Illustrated History of the Aquarium
by Bernd Brunner
Princeton Architectural Press
(37 E. 7th Ave., New York, NY 10003), 2005.
144 pages, hardcover. $24.95.

Originally published in German, printed in China, newly
reissued in English, The Ocean At Home is a surprisingly fascinating
in-depth study of a seemingly esoteric topic whose evolution in the
19th and early 20th centuries paralleled the rise of the humane
movement, anti-vivisectionism, and human awareness of ecology.
Even before Charles Darwin produced On The Origin of Species,
the 19th century brought an explosion of interest in nature study,
especially among the fast-growing middle classes of Europe after the
Industrial Revolution removed large numbers of people from routine
daily immersion in raising plants and animals.

Animal obituaries

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

Norman, 15, the pet pig for whom the White Pig Bed &
Breakfast vegan retreat in Schuyler, Virginia, was named, died on
September 18, 2006.

Sher Khan, 22, the oldest hybrid African/Asiatic lion in
India, died on September 24 at the Tata Steel Zoological Park in
Jamshedpur. The Central Zoo Authority in December 2004 ordered that
all of the 300 hybrid lions in Indian zoos should be sterilized, to
keep the captive Asiatic lion population genetically distinct. The
Chatbir Zoo in Punjab had bred nearly 100 hybrid lions.

Obituaries

BOOKS: Black Market: Inside the Endangered Species Trade in Asia

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

Black Market: Inside the Endangered Species Trade in Asia by Ben Davies
EarthAware Editions (17 Paul Drive, San Rafael, CA 94903), 2005.
173 pages, paperback. $29.95.

A pictorial account of the trade in Asian endangered species,
Ben Davies’ book Black Market is shocking, sickening and depressing,
yet also challenging, inspiring, well-researched, authentic, and
thought-provoking.
More than a harrowing litany of ghastly animal abuse, Black
Market offers some hope for the future by examining possible
responses, including the work done by dedicated conservationists and
animal advocates.

BOOKS: First Light: Animal Voices in Concert

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

First Light:
Animal Voices in Concert
by Ardeth DeVries
Publishing Works (c/o Revolution Booksellers,
60 Winter St., Exeter, NH 03833), October 2006
186 pages, paperback. $15.00.

First Light is a collection of short stories about dogs and
an African elephant named Sonny, who was orphaned by herd-culling in
Zimbabwe circa 1980, was sold to a zoo in New Mexico, was
eventually deemed incorrigible, and was sent to the Popcorn Park
Zoo, a rescue facility run by the Associated Humane Societies of New
Jersey, in 1989. He died in early 2001.
The stories are told largely through the mouths of the
animals themselves, including Zippy, a little terrier who rescues
birds and finds time to teach inter-species communication, and
Angus, a blind shelter dog whose caring guardian was able to give
him the gift of sight. Angus lives with author Ardeth DeVries and
joins DeVries at benefits for animal charities near their home in
Coupevlle, Wasington.

Reviews

BOOKS: Coyotes and Javelinas

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

Coyotes and Javelinas
by Lauray Yule
Look West Series (Rio Nuevo Publishers,
451 N. Bonita Ave., Tucson, AZ 85745), 2004.
64 pages, hardcover, illustrated. $12.95.

Not reviewing these now time-tested and still in print titles
promptly on publication two years ago was a goof occasioned by
whatever cat knocked the unopened envelope containing them down into
the false bottom of a filing cabinet.
Written for a classroom audience, Coyotes and Javelinas
present a positive view of two of the most resourceful and unjustly
maligned animals in the west. Former Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
staffer Lauray Yule came to know and appreciate coyotes and javelinas
from first-hand observation and experience. While Coyotes and
Javelinas are not first-hand narratives, neither are they mere
simplified natural history texts. In addition to biological
information, Yule describes the cultural roles of her animal
subjects.
Read more

BOOKS: Stealing Love: Confessions of a Dognapper

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

Stealing Love: Confessions of a Dognapper by Mary A. Fischer
Harmony Books (231 Broad St., Nevada City, CA 95959), 2006. 288
pages, hardcover. $23.00.

Stealing Love: Confessions of a Dognapper is the
autobiography of investigative reporter Mary A. Fischer, a poignant
story of a sad and lonely life. Rescuing abused dogs is both
incidental to, and symbolic of, her own family history.
Fischer was the second daughter of a dysfunctional family.
When she was four years old, her mother had a breakdown following
the death of her own mother, and was committed to a mental
institution by her father, a selfish, inconsiderate rake.
Fischer paints a harrowing picture of life in an American
asylum when psychiatry was still relatively new: “No experimental
therapy was seen as too bizarre.” Shock therapy was the norm,
“with electrode pads in a metal headband on her temples, a nurse
flips a switch and 140 volts of electricity crackle through her
temporal lobes like a thunderbolt of lightning.”

BOOKS: Freeing Keiko: The Journey of a Killer Whale from Free Willy to the Wild

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

Freeing Keiko: The Journey of a Killer Whale from Free Willy to the Wild
by Kenneth Brower
Penguin Group (375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014), 2006. 288
pages, hardcover. $26.00.

Freeing Keiko is a biography of the captive orca whale who
rose to stardom as “Willy” in the Hollywood movie Free Willy! and
sequels. Author Kenneth Brower, son of the late Earth Island
Institute founder David Brower, had uniquely privileged access to
effort to rehabilitate Keiko for release, from the 1993 beginning of
Earth Island Institute negotiations to obtain Keiko from the Mexico
City aquarium El Reino Aventura until the Humane Society of the U.S.
took over the project shortly before Keiko finally broke from human
feeding and supervision in September 2002 and swam to the coast of
Norway to spend the last 15 months of his life.
Captured off Iceland in 1979, Keiko spent two years at
Marineland of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Sold to El Reino Aventura in
Mexico City, he remained there until 1996, when the Free
Willy/Keiko Foundation formed by Earth Island Institute moved him to
a newly built super-sized tank at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. More
than 2.5 million visitors came to see him before he was airlifted to
a sea pen in the Westmann Islands of Iceland in September 1998, to
learn again how to be a wild whale.

BOOKS: Writing Green: Advocacy & Investigative Reporting About the Environment in the Early 21st Century

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

Writing Green: Advocacy & Investigative Reporting About the
Environment in the Early 21st Century
by Debra Schwartz, Ph.D. Apprentice House
(www.apprenticehouse.com), 2006. 179 pages, paperback. $18.95.

In absence of animal issues specialists on the staffs of most
news media, environmental beat reporters produce about half of all
mainstream news coverage pertaining to animals, with the rest
scattered among beats including farm-and-business, general
assignment, local news, lifestyles, and even sports. Conversely,
about half of all environmental beat reporting involves animal
issues, albeit mostly pertaining to wildlife habitat and endangered
species.
Exactly half of Writing Green examines how Ocean Aware-ness
Project founder David Helvarg, Tom Meersman of the St. Paul Pioneer
Press, and Paul Rogers of the San Jose Mercury News produced
award-winning exposes of oceanic oil drilling, the impacts of
invasive species in the Great Lakes, and federal grazing subsidies,
including extermination of predators by USDA Wildlife Services.
Helvarg, Meersman, and Rogers are all longtime ANIMAL
PEOPLE readers and occasional sources, as are several other Writing
Green contributors. Humane concerns were not among the topics of
their award-winning work, but I am aware through direct acquaintance
that most of the Writing Green contributors take humane concerns into
consideration, among many other values and pressures, when they
write about animals. They often do not reach the same conclusions
that animal advocates would. Yet understanding how they evaluate
their material could be quite valuable to animal advocates who are
seriously trying to be more influential to the world beyond the
already persuaded.

Elephant birth control introduced in India

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
About a dozen female elephants among the 30 elephants used
for patrol work by the West Bengal Forest Department are soon to
receive birth control implants, senior department official P.T.
Bhutiya told news media in mid-September 2006.
“Our department is suffering a budget cut, so we have been
asked to only maintain those elephants who are useful, and introduce
birth control amongst the whole population,” Bhutiya said. The
forestry department herd formerly produced three or four offspring
per year.
Of the estimated 400 elephants left in West Bengal, about
65-80 are captive work or exhibiton animals.

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