A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
By Merritt Clifton
Two days after Dutch animal advocate and rescuer Nathalie Klinge addressed the ICAWC conference in Barcelona about her observations of dog population control in Romania, I tested her findings by doing 1,500 kilometers of dog-censusing in Romania myself. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
Police in Montgomery, Alabama on October 1, 2013 took custody of the last 16 of at least 386 pit bulls who were impounded after raids in August 2013 on an alleged multistate dogfighting ring. Thirteen defendants, from Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas, are facing related charges. Initiated by the Auburn, Alabama police department, the investigation and impoundments were assisted by at least 15 humane organizations, both locally and nationwide. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
GEORGETOWN––A nationally heralded attempt to make Delaware a no-kill state ended ignominiously on November 14, 2013 with the closure of the Safe Haven no-kill shelter in Georgetown, the euthanasia of 19 pit bulls who flunked behavioral screening, and the evacuation of 22 more dogs, mostly pit bulls and pit mixes, by the American SPCA. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
PORTSMOUTH––The Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services has fined the Portsmouth Humane Society $1,250 for releasing sterilized feral cats, who were recorded in the PHS shelter tracking records as having been adopted by executive director Jenn Austin and four other staff members. “I felt that these cats were not legitimately adopted and remained in the custody of the facility,” VDACS veterinarian Dan Kovich told Tim Eberly of the Virginian-Pilot. “State investigators, tipped off by a former employee, issued three violations last month to the Portsmouth shelter, which has the contract to serve as the city’s animal pound,” Eberly wrote. “Austin acknowledged that she and her staff have been personally adopting feral cats and releasing them for about a year and a half.” Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
CLAYTON, Georgia––A Rabun County grand jury on September 6, 2013 returned a 60-count felony indictment against Lowanda “Peanut” Kilby, former director of the Boggs Mountain Humane Shelter. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
The Dog Who Danced by Susan Wilson St. Martin’s Griffin (175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010), 2013. 328 pages, paperback. $14.99.
The Dog Who Danced is not just a novel about a dog, though it centers on a lovable Sheltie named Mack. It’s a drama about a woman’s desperation to find her lost dog, with twists and turns that include family turmoil, the sting of failed relationships, a teen’s inability to cope with his mother’s unsettled lifestyle, and a couple’s tragic loss of their only child. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
Rotten by Michael Northrop Scholastic Books (store.scholastic.com), 2013. 256 pages, hardcover. $17.99.
As a child I was enthralled by dog stories, including Eric Knight’s Lassie, Come Home, Jack London’s Call of the Wild, and the entire Albert Payson Terhune series of books about collies. My favorite dog stories were set in different places, but had in common dog protagonists whose comfortable bourgeois lives were disrupted, pitching them, alone, into a cruel outer world. On the surface, the stories were mainly about dogs, but the larger message concerned the positive personal attributes that dogs can demonstrate to people. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
Devoted: 38 Extraordinary Tales of Love, Loyalty and Life with Dog by Rebecca Ascher-Walsh National Geographic Society (1145 17th St. NW, Washington, DC 20036), 2013. 160 pages, hardcover. $19.95.
Devoted: 38 Extraordinary Tales of Love, Loyalty and Life with Dog is as sweet and compelling as any book I have ever reviewed for Animal People about our unique relationship with dogs. Author Rebecca Ascher-Walsh invites us into the lives of 38 outstanding dogs and their people, and describes what makes them special. The stories of Effie and Cheyenne are two examples. Read more