Eyebrows raised over mink trade claims

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2009:

 

HALIFAX–Photographers who have tried to focus on caged mink
know they are in constant motion, even within a wire box barely
bigger than they are. Anyone who ever handled a mink knows they are
slippery as a mammal can be, likely to wriggle in any direction and
inflict a deep bite to any exposed flesh. Fur farmers usually handle
live mink only to kill them, and wear heavy gloves when they do.

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Animal charities cut back programs in response to global recession

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2009:

 

Downsizing to close a reported $32
million income shortfall in fiscal 2009, the
International Fund for Animal Welfare on October
18, 2009 closed the IFAW bear rescue center in
Pan Yu, China. The last five resident bears
were trucked 1,260 miles from southern Guangdong
province to the Animals Asia Foundation bear
sanctuary at Chengdu, in central Sichuan.
“We agreed that IFAW would pay for the
transfer, and that we would then take over all
expenses related to the care of the bears,”
Animals Asia Foundation founder Jill Robinson
told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “I have no idea what is
becoming of the vacated Pan Yu sanctuary,”
Robinson added.

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Dealing with deer–and appreciating them

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2009:

 

At this writing hunting seasons are open on Virginia
whitetailed deer in every state that has any. Whether the season is
“rifle” or “archery,” “buck” or “antlerless,” open or limited to a
specific locale, there is no state that has Virginia whitetailed
deer in which reducing and limiting the growth of the deer herd is
not a stated management goal, even where the management plan is
still likely to accelerate herd growth.
This happens whenever and wherever so many bucks are killed
that each adult doe has food enough over the winter to produce twin
fawns.

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Hot car death of Richmond SPCA director’s dog may have helped to lower summer 2009 hot car death toll

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

 

RICHMOND, Va.–The Richmond Animal Care & Control Division
on August 28, 2009 announced a finding that “no willful intent was
found” in an investigation of the death of Louie, a 16-year-old deaf
and blind cocker spaniel/poodle mix who died of heatstroke on August
19, 2009 after being left in the back of Richmond SPCA director
Robin Starr’s station wagon.
Starr’s husband, Ed Starr, stated that he put Louie into
the vehicle as his wife prepared to return to work after a 10-day
vacation, but forgot to tell her that he had. Robin Starr found
Louie when she started to go to lunch at noon. “Louie died around
midnight after veterinarians were unable to restore the pet’s kidney
functions,” reported Jeremy Slayton of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

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Obituaries [Sept 09]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
Danny Bampton, 9, of St. Charles County, Missouri, was
killed on August 19, 2009 when hit by a car. “Investigators say the
boy was riding with his mother when he saw an injured duck in the
road and asked her whether he could save it. After she pulled the
car over, Danny hopped out and put the duck in a roadside culvert on
the south side of the highway. When he tried to cross back over the
rural, two-lane road to his family’s car, Danny was struck by a
westbound Subaru Legacy driven by Alayna R. Hitz, 18, of
Wentzville. He died at the scene,” wrote Joel Currier of the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch. ANIMAL PEOPLE reminds readers that the safe way
to rescue animals from roadways is from the side of the road that the
animals are on, using one’s vehicle to block traffic, with four-way
flashers on.

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Not vaccinating beyond rabies hot zone leads to more human rabies deaths on Bali

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

 

TABANAN, Bali–The rabies situation on
Bali “remains dire,” assessed International
Society for Infectious Diseases ProMed forum
moderator Craig Pringle on September 15, 2009.
“Little progress appears to have been
achieved in containing the outbreak,” agreed
fellow ProMed moderator Tam Garland on September
18.
The most recent human victim, Ni Ketut
Sari, 47, died on September 14. “She got bit
by her own dog,” who “was suddenly destroying
her kitchen” on July 20, reported the Bali Post.
“She was rushed to the health clinic in Kediri
and got a tetanus shot,” but was not given
post-exposure rabies vaccination–apparently
because her home in Tabanan was outside the
radius of officially acknowledged rabies cases.
“According to her husband Ketut Sunarta,”
the Bali Post said, “a few weeks after being
bitten she was scared of water and wind, but was
always thirsty and shivered.”

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BOOKS: Dogged Pursuit

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

Dogged Pursuit: My year of competing Dusty,
the world’s least likely agility dog by Robert Rodi
Hudson Street Press (c/o Penguin, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY
10014), 2009.
288 pages, hardcover. $24.95.

Dusty the Sheltie spent his early life tied outside a
trailer. He endured savage Midwestern winters, blistering hot
summers, and crippling isolation. Demented teens pelted him with
stones. Food and water were probably scarce. He probably never saw
a veterinarian. Somehow he found refuge with Central Illinois Sheltie
Rescue.
Chicago resident Robert Rodi and his dog Carmen, also a
Sheltie, were newcomers on the agility circuit. Carmen won a few
novice awards, encouraging Rodi to pursue more challenging courses.
He enrolled in weekly classes to hone their skills, but hip
dysplasia abruptly ended Carmen’s short but potentially successful
agility career.

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Animals key in Le murder & Dugard kidnap cases

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut; ANTIOCH, Calif.– Animals were 

central to two of the most sensational crimes against humans coming
to light in late summer 2009.
Yale University lab animal technician Raymond Clark III, 24,
was on September 18, 2009 charged with killing Annie Le, 24, a
pharmacology Ph.D. candidate. Le disappeared on September 8. Her
remains were found on September 13–scheduled to have been her
wedding day–hidden behind a wall in the lab where she and Clark both
worked.

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Animal obits

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

 

Hugo Bear, recalled as “one of our most beloved rescued
dancing bears at the Agra Bear Sanctuary” by cofounders Kartick
Satyanarayan and Geeta Seshamani, died on August 7, 2009.

Emi, 21, a Samatran rhino who was imported to the
Cincinnati zoo in 1995, died on September 5, 2009. Her first of
three calves, Andalas, born in 2001, was the first Sumatran rhino
bred in captivity since 1889.

KM04, a puma blamed for killing 15 bighorn sheep in seven
months in southwestern Arizona, was shot on September 2, 2009 by
state wildlife staff, under pressure from conservationists and
trophy hunters.

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