Valentines from the un-chain gang

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2005:

The 3rd annual Dogs Deserve Better “Have a Heart for Chained
Dogs” campaign delivered 3,061 Valentines, dog treats, and
anti-chaining brochures on February 14. The Valentines were made by
29 school groups, five Scout troops, three institutions for the
mentally handicapped, a therapy dog group, and individuals
including Bar Mitzvah candidate Andrew Moskowitz of Florida, said
Dogs Deserve Better founder Tammy Sneath Grimes.
Galveston County Animal Services manager Michele Reynolds,
of Galveston, Texas, paid her staff $1.00 for each chained dog
whose address they sent in, Grimes said.
Grimes in March 2005 joined the ANIMAL PEOPLE staff as
associate web producer.
Through the efforts of retired elementary school teacher
Connie Davie, profiled on April 1 by Sarah Newman of the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, Creve Cour, Missouri in January 2005 became the 60th
U.S. city in recent years to restrict how long dog may be chained.
Davie, like many others winning passage of anti-chaining ordinances,
brought to the task demonstrated commitment to both child and animal
welfare. About a third of all fatal dog attacks on children involve
dogs whose territoriality has been accentuated by prolonged chaining.

BOOKS: The Cat Who Came In From The Cold: A Fable

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

The Cat Who Came In From The Cold: A Fable
by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Ballantine Books (c/o Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY
10019), 2004. 103 pages, hardcover. $15.95

This fable takes place thousands of years ago, in the
forests of southern India, and is aimed more at children than at
adults. Billi, a wild cat, lives with his feline family. Tragedy
strikes and Billi finds himself alone. He decides to take a journey
of discovery through India.
His journey takes him into many villages and to meetings with
other animals such as dogs, a parrot, and a cow. He has seen the
attention that these animals get from their human keepers, and
wonders what it would be like to have the pleasure of being part of a
human family. He questions them about their lives with humans,
trying to get a better perspective on life as a domestic animal.
Billi eventually chooses a family and joins them.

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BOOKS: If You Tame Me

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

If You Tame Me:
Understanding our Connection with Animals
by Leslie Irvine
Temple University Press (1601 N. Broad St., Philadelphia,
PA 19122), 2004. 240 pages, paperback. $19.95.

If You Tame Me is an unusual title for an interesting
investigation into the lives of animals. Concentrating on dogs and
cats, Irvine uses sociological techniques to decode the mysteries of
animal behavior, and then discusses our relationship with animals.
Irvine’s theme is that people care for their companion
animals as intensely as we do because animals, like people, have
individual personalities that she refers to generically as “selves.”
This allows them to interact and connect with individual humans in a
way that would be impossible for an inanimate object.

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BOOKS: The Other End of the Leash

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

The Other End of the Leash:
Why we do what we do around dogs
by Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D.
The Random House Ballantine Publishing Group
(1745 Broadway MD 18-2, New York, NY 10019),
246 pages, paperback. $13.95.

The Other End of the Leash opens up a
whole new way of looking at animal behavior.
After reading it, I can quite understand how
much difficulty a dog must have in trying to
understand the garbled way we go about
dog-training.
“So here we have two species,” writes
Patricia B. McCon-nell, “humans and dogs,
sharing the tendencies to be highly visual,
highly social, and hardwired to pay attention to
how someone in our social group is moving, even
if the movement is minuscule. What we don’t seem
to share is this: dogs are more aware of our
subtle movements than we are of our ownĊ  Surely
it would be a good thing if we knew what we were
saying.”

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BOOKS: The New Work of Dogs & The Dogs of Bedlam Farm

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Two books by Jon Katz–
The New Work of Dogs:
Tending to life, love, and family
2003. 237 pages, paperback. $13.95.

The Dogs of Bedlam Farm:
An Adventure with Sixteen Sheep,
Three Dogs, Two Donkeys, and Me
2004. 260 pages, hardcover. $22.95.

Both from Random House (1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019).

 

“Bedlam” is defined by the Columbia Encyclopedia as “a place,
scene, or state of uproar and confusion.”
The term derives from a Cockney corruption of the name of the
Bethlehem Hospital, the most prominent mental institution in Britain
from as early as 1329, and definitely after 1403, until 1930.
From 1670 until 1770, Bedlam supported itself by collecting
admission fees from those who wished to view and perhaps torment the
lunatics. Among the first successes of the organized humane movement
in Britain was securing passage of the 1774 Madhouse Act. This
introduced medical inspection and oversight of madhouses, to try to
keep a fast-growing private madhouse industry from perpetuating the
abuses that occurred at Bedlam.

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BOOKS: Partners In Independence

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Partners In Independence:
A Success Story of Dogs and the Disabled
by Ed & Toni Eames
Barkleigh Productions, Inc.
(6 State Road #113, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050), 2nd edition 2004,
revised. 232 pages, paperback. $19.95.]

Ed and Toni Eames, of Fresno, California, are blind people
who have spent half a lifetime trying to make the world a better
place for disabled people who rely upon service dogs.
Partners In Independence describes what life is like for
people who cannot see or have only limited vision, and how guide dogs
transform their lives. Ed and Toni Eames describe the lives of guide
dogs, how they are bred and raised, how they are trained, how they
are paired with their human companions, and what happens when either
partner, human or canine, dies.
The first guide dog school in the U.S., The Seeing Eye, was
established in 1929, inspired by work done in Germany with blinded
World War I veterans. Initially the German Shepherd dog was the dog
of choice for guide work, but most trained guides today are
Labradors and golden retrievers.

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BOOKS: Dogs Don’t Bite When a Growl Will Do

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Dogs Don’t Bite When a Growl Will Do
by Matt Weinstein & Luke Barber
Berkeley Publishing Group (c/o Penguin USA, 375 Hudson St., New
York, NY 10014), 2003. 282 pages, hardcover. $19.95

Playfair Inc. management consulting firm founder Matt
Weinstein and philosophy professor Luke Barber have compiled 67 short
lessons on how to make one’s life happier by adopting or adapting
some canine philosophy.
The book could also be called “67 lessons in being Zen like
your dog.” Each lesson starts with an observation about canine
behaviour, and then extrapolates it to human habits. Using the dog
story to expose a common social or psychological flaw in humans,
Weinstein and Barber reveal how silly and futile many cherished human
beliefs and habits are. Ancient wisdom is quoted in support of the
ways of the canine Zen masters:
“Celebrate your life every moment that you have. No event in
life is too small to celebrate. Live fully. Love and laugh
wastefully. Take pleasure in the little things. Play and roll on
your back in the park. Forgive even if you cannot forget–grudges
only make you unhappy.”
We can learn from dogs to be receptive, playful,
optimistic, easily satisfied, sensitive, faithful, curious, and
compassionate. –Chris Mercer & Bev Pervan

Right-to-pet verdicts

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

The California State Court of Appeal on September 3 made
binding on all trial courts in California an August 25 ruling that a
homeowners’ association “no pets” rule may be overridden by a
resident’s documented need for a companion animal. The Court of
Appeal held that an animal need not have special skills or training
to be a therapeutic helper to the clinically depressed, and
reinstated an award of $18,000 in damages made in 2002 to Ed and
Jayne Elebiari by the California Fair Employment & Housing
Commission. Both clinically depressed, they adopted a shelter dog
in April 1999 at the recommendation of their therapists. The dog
helped them, but the Auburn Woods I Condominium Association obliged
them to give him to a friend in June 1999. The Elebiaris relapsed
into depression and relocated to Rochester, New York, where they
adopted another dog. The California Department of Fair Employment &
Housing sued the condo association on their behalf in February 2001.

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BOOKS: The Craggy Hole In My Heart & The Cat Who Fixed It

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

The Craggy Hole In My Heart & The Cat Who Fixed It
(Over the edge and back with my dad, my cat, and me)
by Geneen Roth
Harmony Books (Harmony Books, 231 Broad St., Nevada City, CA
95959), 2004. 238 pages, hardcover. $21.00.

“Although not every present-day pattern in our lives can be
traced back to our childhoods, the imprint for love–who and how we
love, and what we recognize as love –can,” says self-help writer
Geneen Roth.
“To some people love means being left, being anxious, being
constantly on the edge, and this pattern plays out with frustrating
consistency throughout their relationships. To others love means
being wanted, being seen, being cherished–and their relationships
reflect exactly that.
“Our earliest experiences of being known or ignored, being
held or left alone, being welcomed or criticized, being told we
were too much or not enough, create the architecture for love in our
nervous systems and limbic brains and effects us for the rest of our
lives.”

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