BOOKS: The New Work of Dogs & The Dogs of Bedlam Farm

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Two books by Jon Katz–
The New Work of Dogs:
Tending to life, love, and family
2003. 237 pages, paperback. $13.95.

The Dogs of Bedlam Farm:
An Adventure with Sixteen Sheep,
Three Dogs, Two Donkeys, and Me
2004. 260 pages, hardcover. $22.95.

Both from Random House (1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019).

 

“Bedlam” is defined by the Columbia Encyclopedia as “a place,
scene, or state of uproar and confusion.”
The term derives from a Cockney corruption of the name of the
Bethlehem Hospital, the most prominent mental institution in Britain
from as early as 1329, and definitely after 1403, until 1930.
From 1670 until 1770, Bedlam supported itself by collecting
admission fees from those who wished to view and perhaps torment the
lunatics. Among the first successes of the organized humane movement
in Britain was securing passage of the 1774 Madhouse Act. This
introduced medical inspection and oversight of madhouses, to try to
keep a fast-growing private madhouse industry from perpetuating the
abuses that occurred at Bedlam.

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Frogs, chemicals, & talk of confused gender identity shake up bureaucrats

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

ST. PAUL–An apparent attempt to muzzle University of
California at Berkeley biologist Tyrone Hayes instead enabled him to
tell the world in October 2004 that frogs, toads, and salamanders
appear to be abruptly disappearing due to the effects of atrazine.
Atrazine, an endocrine-disrupting herbicide, is used on
two-thirds of the cornfields in the U.S. and 90% of the sugar cane
plantations. Popular with farmers for 45 years, it may be the
most-used farm chemical worldwide. Residues can persist in soil for
more than a year and in groundwater for longer, but by comparison to
paraquat, a leading rival herbicide, atrazine breaks down
relatively quickly, and is safer for applicators and field workers
who may have accidental exposure.
Unfortunately, Hayes testified at an October 26 Minnesota
Senate hearing, even low levels of atrazine “chemically castrate and
feminize” male frogs, fish, and some other wildlife.
Atrazine may also trigger prostate cancer in male humans,
Hayes said, citing studies of men who work in proximity to it and
the results of laboratory testing on various mammal species.
“Hayes was invited to speak to the Minnesota Senate
Environment and Natural Resources Committee after Minnesota Pollution
Control Agency commissioner Sheryl Corrigan withdrew an earlier offer
for him to make the keynote speech at an agency-sponsored
conference,” explained Dennis Lien of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

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Ric & Helene O’Barry return to Taiji

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Representing the French group One Voice, dolphin defenders
Ric and Helene O’Barry returned to Taiji, Japan on October 27, 2004
to again witness and document the annual massacre of dolphins, who
are driven into a shallow cove and hacked to death after some are
selected for live sale to oceanariums and swim-with-dolphins resorts.
The O’Barrys, who also helped to document the Taiji
slaughter in 2003, said the fishers were joined this year “by about
20 young people in wetsuits. Some displayed the logos of the Taiji
Whale Museum, World Dolphin Resort, and Dolphin Base. All of these
facilities are located in Taiji,” but are believed to export
dolphins abroad.
The fishers argue that the killing and captures protect fish stocks.
“It seems the fishermen have simply fished themselves out of
a job,” observed Paul Kenyon, director/producer/reporter of a
November 8 BBC special entitled Dolphin Hunters. “But, back in
Taiji, the hunt is going ahead,” Kenyon continued. “The activists
trying to stop them are likely to be exclusively outsiders. That is
not necessarily because the Japanese support the trade. During the
three weeks we were[in Japan], we found no one outside the dolphin
hunting towns who even knew that dolphins are eaten. So, perhaps the
challenge is not to change minds, but to inform them.”

BOOKS: Partners In Independence

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Partners In Independence:
A Success Story of Dogs and the Disabled
by Ed & Toni Eames
Barkleigh Productions, Inc.
(6 State Road #113, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050), 2nd edition 2004,
revised. 232 pages, paperback. $19.95.]

Ed and Toni Eames, of Fresno, California, are blind people
who have spent half a lifetime trying to make the world a better
place for disabled people who rely upon service dogs.
Partners In Independence describes what life is like for
people who cannot see or have only limited vision, and how guide dogs
transform their lives. Ed and Toni Eames describe the lives of guide
dogs, how they are bred and raised, how they are trained, how they
are paired with their human companions, and what happens when either
partner, human or canine, dies.
The first guide dog school in the U.S., The Seeing Eye, was
established in 1929, inspired by work done in Germany with blinded
World War I veterans. Initially the German Shepherd dog was the dog
of choice for guide work, but most trained guides today are
Labradors and golden retrievers.

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Poacher Veerappan killed in India

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

CHENNAI–Koose Munisamy Veerappan, 52, the most wanted
poacher and wildlife trafficker in the world after sometime elephant
ivory and rhino horn trafficker Osama bin Laden, was killed on
October 18 in an hour-long shootout with members of the Tamil Nadu
Special Task Force. Killed with Veerappan were his close associates
Sethukuzhi Govindan and Madegowda, and Tamil separatist guerilla
Sethumani, also known as Sethumalai.
The STF unit caught Veerappan in an ambush at about 11 p.m.
on the road between the towns of Padi and Papparapatti in the jungle
of Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu, near the Karnataka border.
Introduced to elephant poaching at age 10 by another poacher
of note, Selvan Gounder, Veerappan killed his first human at age
17, took over the gang at age 18, was briefly jailed for murder at
age 20, but was bailed out by a Tamil separatist politician, and
went on to kill as many as 2,000 elephants, along with uncounted
thousands of blackbuck, monitor lizards, languors, and tens of
thousands of fish. His favorite fishing method was reputedly
dynamiting ponds.

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BOOKS: Working Dogs: True Stories of Dogs & Their Handlers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Working Dogs: True Stories of Dogs & Their Handlers
by Kristin Mehus-Roe
with photos by Keith May
Bowtie Press (3 Burroughs, Irvine, CA 92618), 2003.
240 pages, paperback. $21.95.

Kristin Mehus-Roe offers a thorough introduction to the use
of dogs in hunting, herding, helping the disabled, providing
emotional therapy, pulling sleds and other vehicles, performing as
entertainers, detecting contraband, guarding, tracking, and
rescuing.
Among these 12 common canine jobs, Mehus-Roe lists hunting
first, because it evolved first. Dogs probably hunted and scavenged
in loose partnership with other species for millions of years before
humans evolved, much as coyotes and jackals continue to hunt and
scavenge in partnerships of convenience with badgers, crows,
baboons, and big cats. Typically the canines help to corner the
prey, let the other species do the most dangerous part of the
killing, then share the remains.

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BOOKS: Dogs Don’t Bite When a Growl Will Do

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Dogs Don’t Bite When a Growl Will Do
by Matt Weinstein & Luke Barber
Berkeley Publishing Group (c/o Penguin USA, 375 Hudson St., New
York, NY 10014), 2003. 282 pages, hardcover. $19.95

Playfair Inc. management consulting firm founder Matt
Weinstein and philosophy professor Luke Barber have compiled 67 short
lessons on how to make one’s life happier by adopting or adapting
some canine philosophy.
The book could also be called “67 lessons in being Zen like
your dog.” Each lesson starts with an observation about canine
behaviour, and then extrapolates it to human habits. Using the dog
story to expose a common social or psychological flaw in humans,
Weinstein and Barber reveal how silly and futile many cherished human
beliefs and habits are. Ancient wisdom is quoted in support of the
ways of the canine Zen masters:
“Celebrate your life every moment that you have. No event in
life is too small to celebrate. Live fully. Love and laugh
wastefully. Take pleasure in the little things. Play and roll on
your back in the park. Forgive even if you cannot forget–grudges
only make you unhappy.”
We can learn from dogs to be receptive, playful,
optimistic, easily satisfied, sensitive, faithful, curious, and
compassionate. –Chris Mercer & Bev Pervan

Feral cats, urban wildlife, and species survival amid human enterprise

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

TNR Past, Present, & Future:
A History of the Trap-Neuter-Return Movement
by Ellen Perry Berkeley
Alley Cat Allies (1801 Belmont Rd. NW, Suite 201, Washington, DC
20009), 2004.
100 pages, paperback. $16.00.

The Raccoon Next Door: Getting Along With Urban Wildlife
by Gary Bogue
illustrated by Chuck Todd
Heyday Books (POB 9145, Berkeley, CA 94709), 2003. 142 pages,
paperback. $16.95.

Win-Win Ecology:
How the Earth’s Species Can Survive In The Midst of Human Enterprise
by Michael L. Rosenzweig
Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016), 2003.
209 pages, hardcover. $27.00.

Ellen Perry Berkeley’s 1982 volume Maverick Cats, especially
the 1987 reprint, is justly credited with introducing appreciation
and understanding of feral cats to the U.S. humane movement. Focusing
on the ecological roles of feral cats, Berkeley included a
description of neuter/return feral cat population control, then
known to be widely used only in Britain.

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Marine mammals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Whaling

Humane Society International, a division of the Humane
Society of the U.S., on October 18 sued the Japanese whaling firm
Kyodo Sepaku Kaisha for allegedly illegally killing 428 whales since
2000 in the name of scientific research within the Australian Whale
Sanctuary. The sanctuary was created, on paper, by the Environment
Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act of 2000, and adjoins the
Southern Oceans Whale Sanctuary declared in 1994 by the International
Whaling Commission. Japan does not recognize either sanctuary. The
suit against Kyodo Sepaku Kaisha is reportedly preliminary to seeking
an injunction asking the Australian government to enforce the
sanctuary bounds.
The suit was filed on the same day that Mali, landlocked in
the Sahara desert, joined the IWC, apparently with Japanese
support. Japan has acknowledged using development aid to persuade
small nations to join the IWC and support the Japanese position.
The HSI lawsuit was also filed one week after a trawling crew
doing research for the Tasmanian Aquaculture & Fisheries Institute
accidentally netted and drowned 14 dolphins, raising suspicion,
because of the ease with which the accident happened, that the
Australian Fisheries Management Authority and Department of the
Environment may be overlooking much greater numbers of dolphins
killed accidentally by commercial fishers.

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