BOOKS: The Gerbil Farmer’s Daughter

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

The Gerbil Farmer’s Daughter
by Holly Robinson
Random House (1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019),
2009. 304 pages $23.00, hardcover.

Publisher’s Weekly says that author Holly Robinson
“intersperses her compelling narrative with accounts of gerbil
mayhem, managing to milk a great deal of humor and pathos out of the
rodent that eventually became a common children’s pet.”
Gassing “extra inventory” as her father, Navy commander and
gerbil farmer Donald Robinson calls the victims, is not my idea of
compelling. Rather, it is disturbing and cruel–and so is much of
the rest of Holly Robinson’s account.
Holly Robinson grew up around pets, but how her family
treated them was questionable even by the standards of her childhood
in the 1960s and 1970s.

Reviews

BOOKS: Animal Migration

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

Animal Migration: Remarkable Journeys in the Wild by Ben Hoare
University of Calif. Press (2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA
94704), 2009. 176 pages, 200 color illustrations. $34.95,
hardcover.

Though recognized by humans for far longer than recorded
history has existed, there is still no universally accepted
definition of just what migration is.
“Animals make all kinds of different movements–short and
long, seasonal and daily, regular and once in a lifetime, highly
predictable and seemingly random,” explains Animal Migration author
Ben Hoare.
Hoare in Animal Migration explores the often mysterious
migratory patterns of at least 50 different species of birds,
reptiles, amphibians and insects. Most migrate as a necessity of
survival, in search of food and water, mates, and/or safe places
to lay eggs. When threatened, they move to avoid predators.
Climate chance or bad weather may force migration, or migration may
be caused by a combination of factors.

BOOKS: Horses & The Horse

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

The Horse: A miscellany of equine knowledge
by Ian Whitelaw & Julie Whitaker
MacMillan (175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010), 2007.
244 pages, illustrated. $19.95 hardcover.

Horse by Elaine Walker
Reaktion Books Ltd. (33 Great Sutton St., London EC1M 3JU, U.K.),
2008. 216 pages, illustrated. $19.95 paperback.

The Horse, by Julie Whitaker and Ian Whitelaw, is an A to Z
compendium of information about equine history, anatomy, grooming,
health, behavior, and dressage, among other topics, with even a
touch of Hollywood thrown in. Short paragraphs carry the reader on a
fascinating journey, starting with the origins of the horse.
American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899)
uncovered equine fossils in Nebraska, Wyoming and the Dakotas.
“Marsh determined a clear line of equine descent,” say Whitaker and
Whitelaw. An excellent chart on page 17 outlines this order,
including the contributions of the Ecocene equids Mesohippus,
Hypohippus, Megahippus, and Dinohippus. These were also ancestral
to the donkey, the zebra, and the Asiatic ass.

BOOKS: All My Patients Have Tales

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

All My Patients Have Tales:
Favorite Stories from a Vet’s Practice
by Jeff Wells, DVM
St. Martin’s Press (c/o MacMillan (175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10010), 2009.
240 pages, illustrated. $24.95 hardcover.

“A sharp pain shot up my arm,” Dr. Wells says as he describes
a frantic feline named Henry, one of his first patients. “The
familiar sensation of warm blood washed over my palm.” The unhappy
cat sank his teeth into the vet’s index finger during the examination.
So began Jeff Wells’ intriguing career as a country
veterinarian. A graduate of the Iowa State University College of
Veterinary Medicine, Wells worked first at a private clinic in South
Dakota, and later in Colorado, assisted by a short young woman
named Jenny who appropriately wore overalls and boots to work.

BOOKS: The Smartest Animals on the Planet

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

The Smartest Animals on the Planet: Extraordinary Tales of the
Natural World’s Cleverest Creatures
by Sally Boysen & Deborah Custance
Firefly Books (P.O. Box 1338, Ellicot Station, Buffalo, NY
14205), 2009. 192 pages, illustrated. $35.00, hardcover.

Ohio State University in February 2006 retired to Primarily
Primates a colony of seven chimpanzees kept since 1983 by researcher
Sally Boysen. Opposing the transfer, Boysen allied herself with
PETA. Ensuing litigation, ended by settlement in August 2009, led
to Friends of Animals annexing Primarily Primates later in 2006, and
appears to have cumulatively cost Primarily Primates, FoA, and PETA
approximately $1 million.
While all this was underway, Boysen was apparently writing
The Smartest Animals on the Planet.

“One free bite” common law premise is overturned in Ohio & Texas

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
COLUMBUS–Ruling against the centuries-old “one free bite”
presumption of common law, the Ohio Supreme Court on August 26,
2009 upheld the constitutionality of a Youngstown ordinance that
defines a vicious dog as any dog who has “a propensity, tendency or
disposition to attack, to cause injury to or otherwise endanger the
safety of human beings or other domestic animals,” or any dog who
“attacks a human being or another domestic animal without
provocation.”
The Youngstown ordinance breaks from common law in that it
does not require a prior history of dangerous behavior to define a
dog as vicious. The Youngstown ordinance itself is not
breed-specific, but it implements an Ohio state law which defines
pit bull terriers and other fighting breeds as inherently vicious.
The Ohio Supreme Court upheld the state law in 1991.

U.S. Marine Corps pit bull, Rottweiler, & wolf hybrid ban is now in effect

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

HEADQUARTERS MARINE CORPS,
Virginia–Residents of U.S. Marine Corps base
housing worldwide have until October 11, 2009 to
meet new requirements for keeping any pit bull
terriers, Rottweilers, or wolf hybrids they
already have. No resident of Marine Corps
housing has been allowed to acquire any new dog
of these breeds since August 11, 2009.
Signed by Major General Edward Usher,
deputy commandant of installations and logistics
worldwide, the Marine Corps order was finalized
nine days after Trista Talton of the Marine Corps
Times published excerpts from a draft version and
predicted that it might take effect in September.

Southern California sanctuaries survive wildfires

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
LOS ANGELES– Winds gusting over 50 miles per hour drove the
second major wildlife in the Los Angeles area in less than a month
south from Fillmore toward the city of Moorpark as ANIMAL PEOPLE went
to press on September 22, 2009. Evacuations of large animals were
ordered in three areas believed to be in the path of the fire.
Ironically, the animals included some of the more than 600
horses who were moved earlier from the path of the 160,000-acre
Station Fire, east of Los Angeles, a few weeks before. The Station
Fire on September 22 was reportedly 94% controlled, after ravaging
the Angeles National Forest for four weeks, but threatened to blow
up again due to the wind storm.
“Some horses were taken to the Santa Anita racetrack,”
ahead of the Station Fire. “Others were trucked to a community
college in the San Fernando Valley. Others were transported north to
Ventura County. The Los Angeles Equestrian Center, in Burbank,”
accepted 330 evacuated horses, wrote David Finnigan of Agence
France-Presse.

Disasters strike abroad

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
An electrical fire razed the Qatar Animal Welfare Society on
September 3. The founders evacuated more than 100 animals, but 35
dogs, cats, rabbits, and a possum were killed. “All QAWS now has
is the surviving animals and the collars they were wearing,” said an
appeal e-mailed to supporters. Updates were posted at <www.qaws.org>.
Torrential rains meanwhile inundated much of the Istanbul
region of Turkey. “Besides human casualties, there are many animal
casualties,” reported Linda Taal of the Dutch-based organization
Actiezwerfhonden (Action for Dogs), which assists several Turkish
animal aid projects.
“The dogs in the forest shelter are doing okay,” Taal
continued, referring to the facility at the Kemerburgaz landfill
that ANIMAL PEOPLE profiled in July/August 2001, “but thousands of
strays were drowned, and one shelter was flooded, with at least 130
animals killed. Flooding at a vet clinic killed 40 animals.”
Earlier, Typhoon Morakot damaged 10 animal shelters in two
counties of Taiwan, which among them housed about 1,000 dogs. About
100 dogs were drowned or were missing, the Central News Agency said
on August 10.

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