BOOKS: Witness to Extinction How We Failed to Save the Yangtse River Dolphin

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

Witness to Extinction
How We Failed to Save the Yangtse River Dolphin
by Samuel Turvey
Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York,
NY 10016), 2008.
224 pages, paperback. $29.95.

Samuel Turvey, born in Lohja, Finland, as a child enjoyed
a rare sighting of the Lake Saimaa seal. Landlocked by receding
glaciers about 9,500 years ago, the Saimaa seal has adapted to
living in fresh water. At the time, researchers believed there were
barely 100 left. The population rose to 280 in 2005, but has since
dropped to 260.
“Getting entangled in fishing nets is the biggest single
cause of death. If we get rid of that, the Saimaa seal could
probably survive global warming,” World Wildlife Fund representative
Jari Luukkonen recently told Terhi Kinnunen of Agence France-Press.
Turvey grew up to earn a Ph.D. in Chinese paleontology, but
inspired by his Saimaa seal encounter, felt impelled to try to
discover the fate of the baiji, the Yangtse river dolphin, last
known to exist when the last captive baiji died in 2002.

BOOKS: The Fatwa of Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi on Slaughter & Transport of Animals

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

The Fatwa of Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi on Slaughter & Transport of Animals
Egyptian Society of Animal Friends (30 Korshed St. /Rd. 293, New
Maadi, Egypt; <asherbiny@infinity.com.eg>;
<www.animalfriends.info>, 2008.

ANIMAL PEOPLE noted in a June 2008 cover article on the
resumption of live animal exports from Australia to Egypt that even
if Egypt fails to enforce secular law governing animal transport and
slaughter, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the Chief Imam and Shaikh of
al-Azhar, Egypt, had issued a fatwa, or religious opinion, meant
to reinforce the observance of the intent of the hallal slaughter
laws, meant to minimize animal suffering, that are central to
Islamic practice.
The Egyptian Society of Animal Friends has now published the
fatwa as a handbook, also including the “Five Freedoms” and
Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare.

BOOKS: Breaking the Chain: Teaching kindness & compassion to animals through art & creative writing

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

Breaking the Chain:
Teaching kindness & compassion to animals
through art & creative writing
Edited by Bari Mears & Deb White.
Free download: <www.pacc911.org>

“A dog named Joey is tethered by a chain day after day,
night after night in his owner’s back yard. Harriet, a very clever
cat, moves next door and takes an immediate interest in Joey’s
plight. How does the story end?”
Thus Maricopa County Animal Care & Control volunteer Debra J.
White annually introduces more than 2,000 third graders to an
exercise combining creative writing with humane education. Some add
drawings to their work. Starting at two schools in 2004, White
within a year reached 15 schools, and after five years coordinates a
project that has begun attracting national notice.

Art
Reviews

Exposé leads to exit of Atlanta shelter director

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:
ATLANTA–Fulton County Animal Control
director Jere Alexander resigned on November 3,
2008 after an exposé of shelter conditions by
Randy Travis of Fox 5 TV. She was succeeded on
an interim basis by 30-year county shelter worker
Herman Swann.
“Alexander worked for Barking Hound
Village, the company that last March acquired
the $2.1 million contract to manage the shelter,”
reported Jeffry Scott of the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution.

BOOKS: Animal Welfare in Islamic Law

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

Animal Welfare in Islamic Law by Kristen Stilt
94 pages. Hard copy: <mona@esmaegypt.org>
PDF: <stilt@northwestern.edu>

It would be difficult to review Animal
Welfare in Islamic Law more thoroughly, or to
praise it more strongly, than is already
accomplished in the preface by Al Azhar
University professor of Islamic law Abd Allah
Mahbrook Al-Najjar. The professor is a member of
the Council of Islamic Research at Al Azhar
University, which is widely viewed as the most
eminent institution of Islamic scholarship.
According to Abd Allah Mahbrook
Al-Najjar, Animal Welfare in Islamic Law author
Kristen Stilt “supported what she wrote that is
related to the principles of Islamic law with
sound legal rules from the Qur’an and the
Prophetic Sunna. She was faithful in her
treatment of these sources, interpreting them
correctly…Nothing in the book deviates from the
Islamic Sharia or contradicts its principles.”

BOOKS: Long Distance Transport & Welfare of Farm Animals

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

Long Distance Transport & Welfare of Farm Animals
Edited by Michael C. Appleby, Victoria Cussen,
Leah Garcés, Lasley A. Lambert & Jacy Turner
CABI Publishing (2001 Evans Road, Cary, NC
27513), 2008. 450 pages, hardcover, $150.

“Most people interested in animal welfare
would agree that transporting livestock destined
for slaughter across either an ocean or a
continent is a practice that should be
discontinued,” writes Colorado State University
animal science professor Temple Grandin in her
foreword to Long Distance Transport & Welfare of
Farm Animals.

Reform begins at one of India’s oldest humane societies

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

KAKINADA–The 102-year-old Kakinada SPCA, among the oldest
western-style humane societies in India, has “had its working
committee abolished by district collector and ex-officio president
Gopalakrishna Dwivedi, owing to detection of irregularities in its
functioning,” The Hindu reported on December 3, 2008.
Founded with a gift of 98 acres by the Maharajah of
Pithapuram, the Kakinada SPCA was expected to support itself by
making use of the land, but only two acres remain.
Part of the role of a “district collector” in India is
ensuring that nonprofit organizations fulfill their public trust.
Any humane society calling itself a Society for the Protection of
Animals is now required to include the local district collector as
ex-officio president. The dissolution of the Kakinada SPCA working
committee is among the first reported consequences of the newly
mandated board structure.

Alleged Mississippi puppy millers charged with felony child abuse & manslaughter

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

NEW ALBANY, Miss.–Attorney Tony Farese of Ashland,
Mississippi, told Patsy R. Brumfield of the Northeast Mississ-ippi
Journal on November 10, 2008 that no plea bargain is imminent on
behalf of alleged puppy millers and accessories to manslaughter Janet
Lee Killough Barreto, 37, and Ramon Barreto, 31. But Farese,
representing the Barretos, “did not deny he was offered a deal” by
Union County assistant district attorney Kelly Luther, Brumfield
said.

Pennsylvania SPCA resumes animal control

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:
PHILADELPHIA–Effective on January 1, 2009, the
Pennsylvania SPCA will resume providing animal care and control
services to Philadelphia, after a six-and-a-half year hiatus. But
the new animal care and control contract will pay the Pennsylvania
SPCA $2.89 million, more than three times as much money as the
$790,000 contract that the charity relinquished in 2002.
“The Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Association has
provided services since 2002,” reported Dafney Tales of the
Philadelphia Daily News. “An audit released in October by the City
Controller’s Office found numerous problems with PACCA, including
insufficient software and phone systems, and failing to properly
handle bite cases. PACCA chief executive Tara Derby admitted to
failures, in a written statement, but said that many were
corrected,” and attributed other shortcomings to insufficient
funding.

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