Cracking the case of the pet food killer

May 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:

PORTLAND, Oregon–As many as 39,000 American dogs and cats
may have been injured or killed by pet foods contaminated by
melamine, a chemical formerly considered safe, during the three
months or longer that the tainted food was in distribution.
Banfield Pet Hospitals, operating 615 veterinary clinics
around the U.S., produced this preliminary estimate from information
on client visits, from December 2006 through mid-March 2007. During
that time the Banfield hospitals handled more than one million animal
visits, and saw a 30% increase in cases of cats suffering from
kidney failure.
The data suggests that three out of every 10,000 cats and
dogs who ate the contaminated pet food developed kidney failure,
Banfield told Associated Press.
Receiving consumer complaints about pet foods allegedly
poisoning healthy dogs and cats, Menu Foods Inc. ordered test
feedings. After 16 cats and dogs died from kidney failure during the
laboratory test feeding, Menu Foods on March 16, 2007 recalled 60
million cans of dog and cat food. A Canadian firm with U.S. plants
in Emporia, Kansas, and New Jersey, Menu Foods supplied products
to at least seven different companies, who sold Menu-made pet food
under more than 100 brands.

BOOKS: Silent Victims: Recognizing and Stopping Abuse of the Family Pet

April 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

Silent Victims:
Recognizing and Stopping Abuse of the Family Pet
by Pamela Carlisle-Frank & Tom Flanagan
University Press of America (4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 220,
Lanham, MD 20766), 2006. 296 pages, paperback. $39.95.

Social scientist Pamela Carlisle-Frank and Tom Flanagan, a
Boston police officer turned humane officer, in Silent Victims pull
together information from a broad range of sources, seasoned by
practical experience, which might usefully be on the required
reading list for anyone aspiring to a career in social work or law
enforcement–but for what specific class?
Few universities teach humane law enforcement, or the
sociology of animal rescue. Newly hired humane officers these days
often have some formal law enforcement training, and many of the
best humane society crisis counselors have background in social work.

BOOKS: What Every Pet Owner Should Know

April 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

What Every Pet Owner Should Know
by Karen Halligan, DVM
Harper Collins Publishers Inc. (10 East 53rd St.,
New York, NY 10022), 2007. 312 pages, hardcover. $24.85.

Karen Halligan, director of veterinary services for SPCA/LA,
is well-known to television viewers through her frequent appearances
on animal-related programs.
What Every Pet Owner Should Know comprehensively addresses
the whole range of potential problems faced by pet owners, including
how to reduce veterinary bills by taking preventative measures such
as cleaning a pet’s teeth; what pet to choose for one’s particular
needs and circumstances; the ins and outs of pet insurance; and
especially, how to recognise illness and address it.

BOOKS: Fox & Cat

March 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:

Fox, by Martin Wallen, & Cat, by Katherine M. Rogers
Reaktion Books Ltd. (33 Great Sutton St., London
EC1M 3JU, U.K.), 2006. 206 pages each,
paperback. $19.95.

Fox and Cat are the most recent editions
to a Reaktion Books series now including 21
titles.
Martin Wallen, an English professor at
Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, presents
not a book about fox behavior by an expert on
animals, but rather a study of the relationship
between fox and human as gleaned from books,
history, and film. Although Wallen offers a
taxonomical look at the fox family tree, he
mostly deals with myths, folk tales, and
allegories.

Pet market bombings & dog abuse reflect the low price of life in Iraq war zone

March 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:

BAGHDAD–Who bombed the Ghazil pet market? Four times? Why?
The anonymous perpetrators of the Ghazil mayhem against both
humans of animals may pretend to motives rooted in religion and
ideology.
Yet, killing and maiming both Sunnis and Shiites, of both
genders and all ages, along with countless animals of multiple
species, the Ghazil bombings exhibited the same depraved disregard
for others’ lives as the alleged deeds of former U.S. Army private
first class Steven Dale Green.
Green, 21, is soon to stand trial in U.S. federal court in
Kentucky, facing the death penalty, for allegedly leading four
other soldiers in the March 12, 2006 gang rape and murder of Abeer
Qassim Hamza, 14. First, testified the other soldiers, Green shot
her parents and her five-year-old sister. Then, after the rapes,
Green shot Hamza several times in the head at close range, and set
her hair on fire before fleeing the scene.

Dog attacks raise issues for lawmakers

January 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2007:
At least 32 U.S. communities adopted or
considered adopting breed-specific dog control
legislation in 2006, responding to attacks
involving pit bulls and Rottweilers.
The debate over whether possession and
sale of pit bull terriers, Rottweilers, and
possibly other dog breeds should be restricted to
protect public safety is in essence a debate
about possibly the oldest of all philosophical
questions vexing lawmakers.
Since Biblical times opinions have
conflicted as to whether laws should seek to
prevent harm by forbidding potentially injurious
behavior, or merely punish those whose behavior
results in actual harm.

Are pit bulls the problem, or their people? Study raises the question

January 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2007:
CINCINNATI–The view that pit bull terriers get into trouble
chiefly because the wrong people have them was reinforced on November
16, 2006 when a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of
Interpersonal Violence revealed that among a sampling of 355 people
who keep pet dogs, all who keep pit bulls turned out to have had
some sort of trouble with the law.
Thirty percent of the people in the sampling who had been
cited at least once for failing to license a pit bull were found to
have had at least five criminal convictions or traffic citations.
Only 1% of the people who keep dogs with a low risk of being involved
in an attack legally defined by Ohio municipal ordinances as
“vicious” had five or more convictions or traffic citations, the
researchers found.

Chinese president Hu Jintao halts canine confiscations

January 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2007:
BEIJING–Chinese President Hu Jintao in late November 2006
personally “intervened to end a national crackdown on dogs,”
reported Jane Cai of the South China Morning Post, who made the
action known to the world on December 13.
“One petitioner said Mr. Hu’s chief secretary told her that
the president had read her two petitions, signed by more than 60,000
people, calling for an end to the campaign,” Cai wrote. “She said
Mr. Hu was unhappy about the complaints and international media
coverage of the campaign, and had put a stop to the program late
last month,” about four weeks after it started. “A government
official confirmed Mr Hu had ordered a halt after reading the
letters,” Cai continued.

Safe Air Travel for Animals Act questioned

December 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
BOSTON–Eighteen months after the Safe Air Travel for Animals
Act took effect, five years after becoming federal law, observers
are beginning to ask whether it serves any useful purpose.
The law requires airlines to report losses or deaths of pet
animals in transit, previously reported voluntarily.
“Since June 2005,” wrote Boston Globe reporter Peter J. Howe
on November 3, 2006, “airlines have reported only 74 pet incidents,
involving roughly just 0.01 percent of all animals carried in cargo
holds during that period, a review of reports filed at the U.S.
Transportation Department found.”

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