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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BOOKS: All My Patients Have Tales

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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Dogs unchained by the book this time

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
TIPTON, Pa.–Three years after seizing a chained dog without
a warrant, and paying a high price for it, Dogs Deserve Better
founder Tammy Ci Thayne on September 6, 2009 freed four dogs from
chains and did it all by the book.
Receiving an anonymous tip that “at least two starved,
chained German shepherds were abandoned at a property in Centre
County near Tyrone, Pennsylvania,” Ci Thayne recounted, she
“journeyed to the location to assess the situation and document the
neglect” on September 5, “armed with camera, food, and water.” She
found not only the two German shepherds, “covered in fleas, with fly
strike on their ears and lacking food and water,” but also “one
blind and deaf Pomeranian in a pen with only a crate for shelter,
and a chained black Lab/border collie mix.”

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All-India dogs thrive at Chennai exhibitions

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

CHENNAI–Nature selected the humble All-India street dog as
the best-suited dog for the Indian environment at two of the most
renowned Indian dog shows, in a manner no exhibitor wanted.
“Heat and humidity took a toll at the Madras Canine Club’s
championship show, where a Rottweiler collapsed and died due to
dehydration and two mastiffs were hospitalized,” reported Shalini
Umachandran for the Times of India on September 14, 2009.
“We had a vet and emergency facilities available, but we
were informed too late,” said Madras Canine Club committee member
Sanjay Reddy.
The show included 350 purebed dogs, many of them reportedly
visibly suffering. “As the afternoon progressed, German shepherds
and golden retrievers lay panting on sheets, St. Bernards rolled in
the mud while handlers tried to groom them, Great Danes stood
patiently as owners squirted water to keep them cool, and
Chihuahuas, miniature Pomeranians and pugs looked exhausted,”
Umchandran wrote.

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Busting puppy mills vs. busted budgets

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
LANSING, MI; WASHINGTON D.C.– Impoundments of dogs from
alleged puppy mills are coming at a pace, entering the last quarter
of 2009, that could top 10,000 for the year–up from about 8,000 in
2008 and 3,000, then the most on record, in 2007.
Many of the seizures are enabled by the passage of new
legislation regulating conditions at dog breeding facilities, at pet
stores, and in transit. The impoundments are in turn attracting the
attention of lawmakers, bringing further regulatory reinforcement.
Among the last acts of the 2009 California legislature was
sending to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger “The Responsible Breeder
Act of 2009, ” limiting the number of dogs and cats an individual or
business may keep to breed for the pet market.
“Arizona, Indiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington passed
legislation [earlier] this year to address puppy mills. In 2008,
Virginia, Louisiana and Pennsylvania passed similar laws,”
recounted Humane Society Legislative Fund president Mike Markarian,
celebrating the passage of a second round of legislation in
Pennsylvania.

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[Editorial] Time to stop declawing, ear-cropping, & tail-docking

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

 

Declawing cats and ear-cropping and tail-docking dogs have in
common that they are frequently performed surgical mutilations,
lucrative for veterinarians who are willing to do them, which convey
no benefit whatever to the animals.
The exception is when cats and dogs fall into the hands of
humans who may mistreat them further if the animals fail to conform
to the humans’ sense of aesthetics.
Then, in theory, the cat whose paws have been cut at the
bone equivalent to the first knuckle of the human hand will be less
likely to be dumped at a shelter for scratching furniture. The dog
whose ears are disfigured and whose tail no longer visibly wags a
greeting will somehow become a more desirable pet.

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U.S. Marines may follow Army in banning pit bulls from all bases

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2009:
CHERRY POINT, N.C.–A draft order excluding pit bulls,
Rottweilers, canid/wolf hybrids and mixes of those dogs from being on
“any Marine Corps installation, at any time” may be added to the U.S.
Marine Corps Housing Management Manual as early as September, Marine
Corps Times writer Trista Talton reported on August 2, 2009.
“The rise in ownership of large dog breeds with a
predisposition toward aggressive or dangerous behavior, coupled with
the increased risk of tragic incidents involving these dogs,
necessitates a uniform policy to provide for the health, safety and
tranquility of all residents of family housing areas,” stated the
draft order, posted on a web site operated by Marine Corps Air
Station Cherry Point in North Carolina, Talton said.

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