BOOKS: The Cat Guru

December 1, 2004 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

The Cat Guru
by Naina Lepes
Ibis Press (c/o Nicolas-Hays, Inc., P.O. Box 1126, Berwick, ME
03901), 2004. 149 pages,
paperback. $16.95.

This charming little book tells the story of a gentle and
spiritual woman who attends an ashram in India, and allows a family
of feral cats into her life.
This spontaneous course of compassionate conduct leads her
into the hectic routine of foster-parenting, which in turn takes her
closer to spiritual enlightenment.
Analyzing her reactions to the accidents and adventures which
befall the cats, author Naina Lepes moves into the dimensions of
psychology and self-realization.

Reviews

BOOKS: If You Tame Me

December 1, 2004 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

If You Tame Me:
Understanding our Connection with Animals
by Leslie Irvine
Temple University Press (1601 N. Broad St., Philadelphia,
PA 19122), 2004. 240 pages, paperback. $19.95.

If You Tame Me is an unusual title for an interesting
investigation into the lives of animals. Concentrating on dogs and
cats, Irvine uses sociological techniques to decode the mysteries of
animal behavior, and then discusses our relationship with animals.
Irvine’s theme is that people care for their companion
animals as intensely as we do because animals, like people, have
individual personalities that she refers to generically as “selves.”
This allows them to interact and connect with individual humans in a
way that would be impossible for an inanimate object.

BOOKS: Believe: A Horseman’s Journey

December 1, 2004 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

Believe: A Horseman’s Journey
by Buck Brannaman & William Reynolds
The Lyons Press (246 Goose Lane, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT
06437), 2004. 178 pages, hardcover. $27.95.

Moviegoers will remember the film The Horse Whisperer, and
in particular, the dramatic scene where Tom Brooker, played by
Robert Redford, brought a troubled horse gently down into a prone
position. Buck Brannaman, the cowboy/trainer who inspired the film,
has followed up his best-selling book The Faraway Horses with this
account of his efforts to help thirteen horses and their people.
Each subject tells his or her own story, prefaced by
Brannaman’s comments.
All thirteen stories emphasize that a complete and satisfying
relationship between horse and rider cannot be based upon domination,
but rather must be based upon mutual trust and empathy. The rider
must learn to recognize subtle signs which compassionate people are
able to read once they accept their horses as equals, with complete
personalities.

BOOKS: The Other End of the Leash

December 1, 2004 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

The Other End of the Leash:
Why we do what we do around dogs
by Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D.
The Random House Ballantine Publishing Group
(1745 Broadway MD 18-2, New York, NY 10019),
246 pages, paperback. $13.95.

The Other End of the Leash opens up a
whole new way of looking at animal behavior.
After reading it, I can quite understand how
much difficulty a dog must have in trying to
understand the garbled way we go about
dog-training.
“So here we have two species,” writes
Patricia B. McCon-nell, “humans and dogs,
sharing the tendencies to be highly visual,
highly social, and hardwired to pay attention to
how someone in our social group is moving, even
if the movement is minuscule. What we don’t seem
to share is this: dogs are more aware of our
subtle movements than we are of our ownŠ Surely
it would be a good thing if we knew what we were
saying.”

Human obituaries

December 1, 2004 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

Terry Melcher, 62, a board member of both the Doris Day
Animal Foundation and the Doris Day Animal League since inception,
died of cancer on November 19, 2004 in Beverly Hills, California.
“The son of actress and singer Doris Day and her first husband, the
trombonist Al Jorden, Melcher was known for his role,” primarily
as a record producer, “in shaping the sounds of the folk and surf
music scenes in California,” wrote Jeff Leeds of The New York Times.
Melcher worked with the Beach Boys, the Byrds, the Mamas & the
Papas, and Ry Cooder at various times; was executive producer of
The Doris Day Show, 1968-1972, and a later program called Doris
Day’s Best Friends.

Francis Lynn Holland, 56, animal control supervisor in
Fallon, Nevada, died suddenly on December 3, 2004 at the Washoe
Medical Center in Reno.

Obituaries

Dog-cooking conviction

November 1, 2004 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

HONG KONG–Eastern Court Magistrate Julia Livesay on October
19, 2004 fined Chan Yuk-sim, 44, the equivalent of $220 U.S. for
killing and cooking a dog on February 8 on Mount Davis.
Seeing her and two unidentified men butchering the dog,
nearby resident Leung Chui-wa called police officer Lee Pak-kuen,
who caught the suspect and seized the dog carcass. The men were not
found. It was the first dog-eating case in Hong Kong since 1999,
reported Felix Lo of the South China Morning Post.

Asia
Law

Editorial feature: Fundraisers and pro-animal strategy

November 1, 2004 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Editorial feature: Fundraisers and pro-animal strategy

Before responding to any of the
fundraising appeals you receive from animal
charities this holiday season, take several
steps to ensure that your donations do the most
they can:

1) Prioritize the issues and projects you wish to support.
2) Avoid splitting your donation budget
so many ways that all you do is give the
organizations back the money they spent during
the year to solicit you. Focus on the few
charities you know best and for which you have
the highest regard.
3) Do not donate to any charity you only know from mailings.
4) Look up each charity in the 2004
ANIMAL PEOPLE Watchdog Report on 121 Animal
Protection Charities, to be sure that you are
fully informed about policies that it may have
but not advertise. For example, none of the
major environmental groups oppose hunting, and
many actively promote it. PETA actively opposes
no-kill sheltering and neuter/return of feral
cats and street dogs. Many other groups may not
take the positions that you expect. [The
Watchdog Report, a handbook published each
spring, is still available from us at $25/copy.
We include all of the biggest animal and habitat
charities, all of those we are often asked
about, selected leaders in specialized areas of
particular concern, and worthwhile foreign
charities whose programs ANIMAL PEOPLE
representatives have personally verified.]

REVIEWS: Species Link: The Journal of Interspecies Telepathic Communication

November 1, 2004 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Species Link: The Journal of Interspecies Telepathic Communication
Quarterly, $25/year, c/o Anima Mundi Incorporated
(P.O. Box 1060, Point Reyes, CA 94956; <www.animaltalk.net>.)

A skeptic might ask why telepaths need a periodical, when
they have telepathy.
Why do any of us need paper and filing cabinets, when we
have computers?
Telepathy alone, if it existed, might be sufficient to
share ideas, contact information, and details of coming events,
but even the most powerful communicating mind might become cluttered
and confused if obliged to archive and organize the sort of
information gathered and shared for 56 editions so far by Species
Link editor Penelope Smith.
Further, not everyone interested in telepathy is a telepath–yet.
Smith and others believe “animal communication” can be taught and
learned. Many of the Species Link participants believe that they are
telepaths, but some do not. Many others hold a more practical and
quantifiable perspective on how wordless communication with animals
occurs.

Reviews

PETA tells Aussies to back away from sheep’s behinds

November 1, 2004 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

SYDNEY–Long resisting animal welfare reform, Australian
sheep trade defenses may be unraveling, after PETA yanked the thread
of the New York City-based outdoor fashion retailer Abercrombie &
Fitch in October 2004 with the threat of a boycott hitting Australian
wool goods.
Australia exports about $3 billion U.S. worth of wool per
year, competing against synthetic fibres largely on the cachet of
being a natural product. Market surveys show that consumers who
prefer “natural” also prefer “cruelty-free.” Thus U.S. retail fur
sales fell by half in three years of intensive anti-cruelty
campaigning, 1988-1991, while furriers’ defense of fur as
“natural” largely failed.
Marketing a rival product to fur, the wool industry tried to stay
inconspicuous, and mostly succeeded. Within the animal rights
movement, only Christine Townend in her 1985 book Pulling The Wool
argued that the wool industry also should become a priority
target–until now.

Farm Animals

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