New Kenya Wildlife Service chief is hired away from IFAW

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

NAIROBI-Michael Wamithi, who opened the East Africa office
of the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Nairobi in 1999 and
had headed it ever since, was on November 27 named to succeed Joe
Kioko as chief of the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Kioko retired on Novem-ber 21, after one year as director.
Previously, Kioko was assistant director under preceding directors
Nehemiah Rotich, Richard Leakey, and David Western.
Wamithi before joining IFAW was for 14 years a KWS staffer,
in posts including warden of Nairobi and Amboseli national parks,
assistant warden of Tsavo National Park, and assistant director of
KWS intelligence.

Zimbabwe mob cruelty continues

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

HARARE-Communications from the embattled Zimbabwe National
SPCA have been few since soon after the Robert Mugabe regime
intensified censorship of outbound mail and e-mail in September 2002,
but brief messages received and forwarded by contacts in other parts
of the world indicate that Meryl Harrison and team are still doing
what they can to relieve animal suffering.
Animals kept by Zimbabweans of European descent continue to
be targeted for abuse by pro-Mugabe mobs, London Daily Telegraph
correspondent Peta Thorneycroft wrote on December 17.
At Forrester Estates, owned by German citizen Heinrich von
Pezold, wrote Thorneycroft, “Several hundred head of cattle were
recently driven into an artificial lake to drown. Others were penned
into paddocks, in searing heat, to starve. The cattle were sent to
their excruciating end by about 20 hysterical farm workers,
encouraged by government supporters. Police were unable to say if
anyone was arrested, at a time when a beef shortage is imminent and
almost half the population is on the brink of starvation.”
Little or no meat was salvaged. The carcasses were burned.

Free online vet help

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

The Merck Veterinary Manual, considered the single most
comprehensive reference on animal care, is now accessible at no
charge c/o <www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp>.
Covering 12,000+ indexed topics, with more than 1,200
illustrations, the manual may be electronically searched by topic,
species, specialty, or disease.

Medicine

Tongdaeng the street dog reawakens Thai sense of duty toward animals

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

BANGKOK–For the second time in five years a street dog has
grabbed the attention and affection of Thailand, reminding Thais
that kindness toward animals is a national tradition as well as a
Buddhist teaching and moral obligation.
Among modern nations, only India has a longer documented
history of acknowledging duties toward animals. At that, the
difference is slim. The animal-loving Indian emperor Asoka sent
missionaries to Thailand to teach Buddhism in the third century B.C.,
only 250 years after the Buddha died.

BOOKS: Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals and the Call to Mercy

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

Dominion:
The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals and the Call to Mercy
by Matthew Scully
St. Martin’s Press (175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010), 2002.
464 pages. $27.95 hardcover.

In November of 1998 I received a copy of
an article from the National Review. As editor
of Humane Religion, a bi-monthly journal, I was
used to getting all kinds of clippings from our
readers, negative and positive. And when I saw
this was taken from the very conservative
National Review, I was sure it was going to be
disheartening, at best. But I couldn’t maintain
that attitude. The article began with the
statement “Respect for God’s creatures should be
a conservative impulse.”

MSPCA in a labor dispute

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.–Rowley Memorial Animal Hospital, a
branch of the Massachusetts SPCA, has “demanded that newly hired
certified veterinary technicians not be part of” Service Employees
Union Local 285, and that vet techs already on the job “be given an
option to leave the union,” according to Springfield Valley Advocate
reporter Chris Kanaracus.
In addition, the MSPCA is asking Rowley staff to pay 10% of
their health insurance premiums, now entirely paid for them. Local
285 representative Tim Oppenheimer noted that while the MSPCA lost
money in 2001, all six of the top-paid MSPCA officers received
substantial raises, including president Gus Thornton, due to
retire, whose pay was boosted 18% to $258,400.

BOOKS: Welfare Ranching

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

Welfare Ranching:
The Subsidized Destruction of the American West
edited by George Wuerthner and Mollie Matteson
Island Press, (P.O. Box 7, Covelo, CA 95428), 2002.
346 pages. $75.00 hardback, $45 paperback.

As a southerner now living in the West, I am intrigued by
the similarities between what is happening today to the Western
cattle culture and what happened more than a century ago to the old
Southern plantation culture.
Both were products of an entrepreneurial spirit that
exploited people and the environment for economic gain. Both
developed romanticized veneers that appealed to Americans trying to
formulate a national identity–but Southern genteel society attempted
to mimic European aristocracy, while the rugged individualism of
pioneering Westerners symbolized, to some degree, an escape from
Old World trappings.

BOOKS: Sightings: The Gray Whales’ Mysterious Journey

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

Sightings: The Gray Whales’ Mysterious Journey
by Brenda Peterson & Linda Hogan
National Geographic Society (1145 17th St. NW, Washington, DC
20036), 2002. 286 pages., hardcover. $26.00.

Defenders of gray whales migrating along the Pacific coast of
Mexico, the U.S., and Canada won two important court decisions
within 18 days as 2002 closed and 2003 began.
First, on December 20, a three-judge panel of the Ninth
U.S. circuit Court of Appeals ruled in San Francisco that Makah
tribal treaty rights granted in 1855 do not supersede the intent of
Congress in enacting the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The verdict
requires the National Marine Fisheries Service to conduct an
extensive environmental impact review before authorizing the Makah to
hunt any more gray whales.

BOOKS: From The Horse’s Mouth

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

From the Horse’s Mouth
by Eugene Davis
Rhoman Books (1708 21st Ave. S., #146, Nashville, TN 37212),
2002. 181 pp, paperback. $14.99.

In this novel, Tennessee Walking Horses talk and dream about
their lives. Unfortunately, their lives are filled with horrible
abuse by men who care only about the financial rewards of winning at
competition. The book is rich with history and facts about the world
of Tennessee Walking Horses.

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