REVIEWS: Pet Food

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Pet Food
Investigative report by the Animal
Protection Institute of America,
free from API (916-731-5521 or
POB 22505, Sacramento, CA 95822).
16 pages, 1996.

The Animal Protection Institute
holds that the $9-billion-a-year pet food
industry is committing legal consumer fraud.
“Regulation of the production of pet food is
almost nonexistent,” API charges, calling
“for new state and federal regulations that set
standards similar to those of foods for
humans, truthful labeling of pet food ingredients,
and prosecution of pet food companies
who falsely advertise the health benefits of
their product.”
The API view may be debated––but
even if commercial pet food is generally good
for pets, opposite to the API contention, it’s
hard to argue against more accountability.

BOOKS: Making A Killing: An End-Of-The-World Black Comedy

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Making A Killing: An End-Of-The-World Black Comedy
by William M. Johnson.
The Book Club Guild (25 High Street, Lewes, Sussex, U.K.); 1996.
382 pages, 15 pounds. (U.S. price not yet announced.)

The world’s high muckety-mucks—thinly
disguised caricatures of Ronald Reagan, the
Pope, the British royal family, and various
minions—hold a summit on strategy to save
the world, in politically troubled but picturesque
Caribbean San Pimente.
Through a series of painfully protracted
scenarios, we are informed that the game plan
is sustainable exploitation: conserve the plants
and animals that humans find economically
useful, and let “nature take its course” with
the rest, even if it means extinction. The more
monetarily useful plants and animals will be
“made to pay their own way,” as profits from
their harvest and use go toward sustaining
them, and of course to genetically designing
better and more productive breeds.

BOOKS: American Nature Writing 1996 & The Soul of Nature

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

American Nature Writing 1996
selected by John A. Murray.
Sierra Club Books (730 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109), 1996.
300 pages. $15.00 paperback.

The Soul of Nature: Celebrating the Spirit of the Earth
edited by Michael Tobias and Georgianne Cowan.
Penguin Books (375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014), 1996.
298 pages. $11.95 paperback.

A collection of 29 short features,
including a few poems, American Nature
Writing celebrates “the best American nature
writing” of the year. Contributors to this edition
include Jimmy Carter, E.O. Wilson,
Jennifer Ackerman, Frank Stewart, and Barry
Lopez, but the reputations of the authors
exceed the quality of the content. More sentimental
than either passionate or insightful,
American Nature Writing reads rather like a
Reader’s Digest anthology—condensed,
somewhat chirpy, a little bland.

BOOKS: Counting on Calico and Calico Picks A Puppy

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Counting on Calico and Calico Picks A Puppy
both by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes
Charlesbridge Publishing (85 Main Street, Watertown, MA 02172-4411),
1995, 1996. $6.95 each, oversized paperback.

Children love Counting on Calico
and Calico Picks A Puppy, from the introduction
of Calico the Cat by “Squeaker of
the House” Willy Whiskers to the very last
drawing in the brightly illustrated set, showing
cat and dog together. Though these
books have a rudimentary plot, and are
drawn as richly as any story-book, they are
in fact manuals on cat and dog basics, the
things every child should know before getting
a pet. The information is accurate; the
format and scale of the art are conducive to
group read-alouds. Humane educators will
particularly appreciate that after admiring
various purebreds, Calico finally settles on
a mixed-breed puppy, noting that mongrels
often combine the best traits of both parents.

Crimes against wildlife

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

June 12, 1996 was a day to
remember in the international fight against
wildlife traffickers:
• In Chicago, bird smuggler
Tony Silva, 36, was jailed pending sentencing,
after prosecutors Sergio Acosta a n d
Jay Tharp argued that he was likely to jump
bail. Silva, who ran a wild-caught bird
smuggling ring while posing as an outspoken
foe of the wild-caught bird traffic, in January
pleaded guilty to reduced charges of conspiracy
and tax evasion, but on May 17 sought
unsuccessfully to withdraw the plea, after
former Playboy Mansion animal keeper
Theodora Swanson, 36, in April drew a
lighter sentence for conviction on contested
charges than her confederates got after copping
pleas.

COURT CALENDAR

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Pet theft
The Oregon Court of Appeals o n
May 18 overturned a $100,000 defamation
award to former laboratory animal supplier
James Joseph Hickey, issued by a Linn
County Circuit Court jury in July 1994 against
his godmother Merthal Settlemier, over
remarks she made to the ABC television program
2 0 / 2 0 in a 1990 episode about pet theft
called “Pet Bandits.” Hickey lost a similar suit
against ABC, heard in federal court. The
appellate court ruled that Hickey, as a public
figure, had the burden of proving that Settlemier’s
claim that his animal care was “inhumane”
was false, and that he “presented no
evidence that the conditions defendant
described did not exist on the day she visited.”

Vegan fired for not pushing meat

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

COSTA MESA, California––Bus
driver Bruce Anderson, 38, an ethical vegan
for two years and a five-year employee of the
Orange County Transportation Authority,
was ordered off his bus in mid-route on June
4 and fired from his $16.60-an-hour job on
June 7 for refusing to hand out coupons to
riders good for free hamburgers at Carl’s Jr.
restaurants.
“I told them that I don’t eat dead
cows and no one else needs to, either,”
Anderson recounted to Los Angeles Times
reporter David Haldane. “I told them that I
wouldn’t support Carl’s Jr. in slaughtering
cows. I’m paid to drive a bus, not sit there
and hand out coupons for something I don’t
believe in.”

The faithful do sheep

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Traditional celebrations of the Islamic version of the
Feast of Sacrifice were held in more U.S. and European communities
than ever before this year––and apparently provoked
more protest, too.
More as a matter of custom than of religious teaching,
the feast is marked by male heads of households slashing
the throats of sheep, reprising Abraham’s slaughter of a ram
instead of his son Isaac, who is said to have been sire of both
the Hebrew and Arab people. Extra meat is supposed to be
given to the poor, but so many sheep are killed at pilgrimage
sites that most of the meat reportedly goes to waste.
In France, Islamic leaders called Brigitte Bardot
“racist” for her annual criticism of the practice. Responded
Bardot, “If tomorrow Muslims stop slitting sheeps’ throats, I
will find them the most wonderful people in the world.”

Dogged pursuit

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

HOPKINTON, Mass.––Louise Coleman, founding
director of Greyhound Friends, is the only alleged dog
thief ever honored with the Peace Abbey’s Courage of
Conscience award, accepted from the multi-faith vegetarian
organization at a commemorative ceremony in Sherborn,
Massachusetts, on February 16.
But Coleman and friends may also be the only
alleged dog thieves who ever did the deed in front of television
cameras, with the full cooperation of law-and-order.
Six months later, related crossfiled lawsuits are
still before the Superior Court in Montreal, Quebec, and
may be far from trial. Dog breeder Richard Valiquette, of
Ste. Sophie, Quebec, contends eight of his dogs were taken
illegally last December 19 by Coleman, Greyhound Friends
volunteer Fred Fontaine, and Linda Miranda of the Frontier
Animal Society, located in Beebe, Quebec.

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