BOOKS: Canine Courage: The Heroism of Dogs

June 2, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2004:

Canine Courage: The Heroism of Dogs by Tiffin Shewmake
PageFree Publishing, Inc. (109 S. Farmer St., Otsego, MI 49078),
2002. 199 pages, paperback. $15.00.

Since the January/February 1999 introduction of the Lewyt
Award for Heroic & Compassionate Animals, sponsored by the North
Shore Animal League America, the inside back covers of ANIMAL PEOPLE
editions announcing the awards have become the pages probably most
often clipped and posted on the walls of humane societies.
Although the awards occasionally honor heroic cats, most of
the winners are dogs.
But is there really such a thing as canine heroism,
involving dogs who consciously choose to go “above and beyond the
call of duty,” or are heroic dog incidents explicable by ordinary
canine behavior such as instinct, pack cohesion, or a desire for a
person’s approval?
Tiffin Shewmake seeks traits to explain the origin of canine
heroism, and speculates that although the extent of heroic potential
may vary from one dog to another and one breed to another, it
probably grew out of a number of allied traits such as altruism,
empathy and helpfulness, all traits selected through long
interaction with humans. As people favored the puppies of dogs who
were loyal, helpful, selfless, or brave, over time the traits
producing these qualities came to become in effect a genetic
predisposition toward heroism.

Storm over dogs & cats in the Carolinas

May 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2004:

Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C.–Hurricanes
often hit the Carolinas, raining dogs and cats.
But they rarely blow so far inland and never rage
so long as the storms over animal control policy
underway for almost a year now, driven by fatal
maulings, dogfighting incidents, and rising
awareness that the region has one of the highest
rates of shelter killing in the U.S.–and the
world, since despite recent progress in reducing
the numbers, the U.S. stills kills more dogs and
cats per 1,000 residents than most other nations.
A federal grand jury on April 27, 2004
indicted pit bull terrier owner Roddie Philip
Dumas, 29, of Charlotte, North Carolina, for
possessing crack cocaine with intent to sell,
using and carrying a firearm during a drug
trafficking offense, being a convicted felon in
possession of firearms and ammunition, and
intimidating and interfering with a U.S. mail
carrier, reported Charlotte Observer staff
writer Gary L. Wright.

BOOKS: Disposable Dogs

May 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2004:

Disposable Dogs by Steve Swanbeck
White Swan Publishing
(1 Green Hill Road, Chester, NJ 07930), 2004.
197 pages, paperback. $11.95.

“The old blind German shepherd with tumors all over her body
sat alone in the shelter and waited. The chances of Bralie being
adopted was as remote as her vision,” begins Steve Swanbeck,
describing how the dog was about to be euthanized when she was
rescued by Noah’s Bark Pet Rescue.
After months of loving care and expensive veterinary help,
Bralie recovered to the point that she could be taken to a pet
adoption fair at a nearby town. “Dad, its Bralie!” said a little
boy, and the dog went crazy, howling and whining and wagging her
tail. She was reunited with her family.
The father explained how fireworks had frightened Bralie,
who leaped the garden fence and got lost. They visited their local
shelter without success and had eventually given up hope of ever
seeing Bralie again.
Bralie’s story is typical of the 70 true short stories–make that
truncated stories–in this little book. These could make wonderful
bedtime tales for children.
–Chris Mercer & Beverley Pervan

BOOKS: Dog Is My Co-Pilot

May 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2004:

Dog Is My Co-Pilot: Great Writers on the World’s Oldest Friendship
from the editors of The Bark. Crown Publishing Group (299 Park Ave.,
New York, NY 10171), 2003. 304 pages. Hardcover, $ 25.00.

The Bark magazine began as an eight-page newsletter in 1997,
aimed at persuading the civic authorities in Berkeley, California to
legalise exercising dogs off-leash at a local park.
Through this campaign the founders, Claudia Kawczynka and
Cameron Woo, discovered the emergence of a new dog culture in
America, and set out to explore it.
Kawczynka and Woo in Dog Is My Co-Pilot present essays,
articles and short stories about dogs and dog people by 42 different
contributors. The content is grouped into four sections, entitled
“Beginnings,” “Pack,” “Lessons,” and “Passages,” but the breadth
of vision and style of writing makes the distinctions arbitrary and
unnecessary. Philosophy is too broad to be shoe-horned into
compartments, and some of these writings are as philosophical as Zen.
Among the more memorable passages may be a discussion of the
common allegation that childless people who are crazy about their
dogs (or cats) are sublimating their desire for children. Responds
Ann Patchett, author of four novels including The Patron Saint of
Liars, “I imagine there are people out there who got a dog when what
they really wanted was a baby, but I wonder if there aren’t other
people who had a baby when all they really needed was a dog.”

Developments in dangerous dog law

May 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2004:

DENVER–Colorado Governor Bill Owens on April 21, 2004
signed into law a bill which allows dog attack victims to sue the
legal owners of the dogs “regardless of the viciousness or dangerous
propensities of the dog or the dog owner’s knowledge of those
tendencies,” but prohibits breed-specific municipal ordinances.
Previously Colorado operated under the “one free bite”
standard established in English Common Law, holding that a dog may
not be considered dangerous if the dog had not previously attacked
someone.
Recognizing that the “one free bite” standard is of little
practical use in trying to prevent harm by dogs whose first bite may
be fatal, several states have recently tried to introduce stricter
liability standards.
However, the New York state Court of Appeals in February
2004 ruled in a 4-2 split verdict that a Rottweiler mix who facially
disfigured Matthew Collier, 12, in 1998 could not have been
considered a potentially dangerous dog, even though the dog was
normally kept away from visitors, because the dog had not previously
bitten anyone. The dog attacked Collier while held on a leash by
owner Mary Zambito, who was attempting to introduce the dog to the
boy.

“Must look at reality if we are to help pit bulls”

April 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

Thanks for addressing the need to address the burgeoning pit
bull terrier problem realistically. Trying to perpetuate the myth
that pit bull terriers are “just another dog” is not only naive, but
is a buy-in to the dog fighters’ agenda.
Organized fighters have historically openly paid attorneys
and lobbyists to assure that only generic “dangerous dog” legislation
is passed. That way no one interferes with their breed-specific
“sport,” and they continue to exploit pit bulls as their victims.
It is untrue that other breeds would automatically take the
place of pit bulls in dogfighting. No other breed has the “gameness”
and blind loyalty of the pit bull. No other breed will drag his
bloody body on three broken legs across a ring to continue combat.
No other breed will continue to try to attack when his face is
completely ripped down to the dental structure or his entrails are
falling from his belly.
No other breed has the stoicism that will keep him from
biting a human in the pit when his flesh is hanging from its body,
and he is screaming in agony.

Editorial: Bring breeders of high-risk dogs to heel

January 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

On January 5, the first regular business day of 2004, New
York City Center for Animal Care and Control director Ed Boks and
actress-turned-animal advocate Bernadette Peters tried to make pit
bull terriers more adoptable by announcing that henceforth they would
be offered for adoption as “New Yorkies.”
The scheme lasted less than three days.
Having worked long and hard to rehabilitate the image of New
York City, the tourist industry wanted no part of any potential
association with gangs, drugs, and hostile behavior.
“I think it would create a bad image for New Yorkers,” public
relations executive Howard Rubenstein told Heidi Singer of the New
York Daily News. “Our bark is worse than our bite. With pit bulls,
their bite is worse than their bark.”
Representing media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, casino baron
Donald Trump, hotelier Leona Helmsley, and New York Yankees owner
George Steinbrenner, among others, Rubenstein, 67, is among the
acknowledged New York City power brokers. When Rubenstein speaks,
City Hall listens.
Animal shelter experts around the U.S., called for comment,
remembered the 1996 attempt by the San Francisco SPCA to re-invent
pit bulls by calling them “St. Francis terriers.”

North Shore alumni set adoption records on opposite coasts

January 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

SAN DIEGO, NEW YORK CITY –Home 4 The Holidays 2003,
rehoming 263,200 dogs and cats worldwide, boosted Helen V. Woodward
Animal Center executive director Mike Arms’ lifetime total of
adoptions facilitated to more than one million. Starting in humane
work with the American SPCA in 1967, Arms for 20 years directed the
North Shore Animal League adoption program.
Relocating from New York City to Chula Vista, California, Arms took
over management of the Helen V. Woodward Animal Center in 1998, and
initiated Home 4 The Holidays in 1999.
The North Shore Animal League rehomed as many as 44,000
animals at peak and averaged more than 40,000 adoptions per year in
the early 1990s. North Shore still places more animals in homes than
any other single-site animal adoption agency in the world, but has
averaged just over 22,000 rehomings per year during the early 2000s.
The slower pace has enabled North Shore to sterilize all animals
prior to adoption since 2001, a goal that eluded North Shore during
Arms’ tenure despite the expenditure of millions of dollars to expand
the veterinary facilities and staff. Placements of older animals
have increased; placements of puppies and kittens are markedly down,
reflecting the steep reduction nationally in puppy and kitten births
and shelter surrender rates.

More death-by-dog cases charged

January 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

DENVER–The Elbert County (Colorado) Sheriff’s Department on
January 14, 2004 recommended charges of criminally negligent
homicide and unlawful ownership of dangerous dogs against Jacqueline
McCuen, 32, and William Gladney, 46. Their three pit bull
terriers on November 30, 2003 killed horse trainer Jennifer Brooke,
40, as she walked to her barn at about 7:00 a.m.
Her partner, Bjorn Osmunsen, 24, noticed at about 10:00
a.m. that she had not returned. He and another person, not named by
media, went to look for her. Osmunsen and the unidentified person
were chased back indoors. Seeing that the dogs were covered with
blood, Osmunsen called 911, then tried again to find Brooke, and
was also mauled.
Soon afterward neighbor Lynn Baker stepped outside.
“The next thing I know,” Baker told Denver Post staff
writers George Merritt and Jim Kirksey, “I’m being attacked by three
pit bulls. One was leaping for my throat as one was dragging me down
by my hand.”
Kicking the dogs back, Baker climbed into the back of his
pickup truck and yelled for help. While another family member placed
the second of many calls to 911, Baker’s son Cody, 16, attempted a
rescue with a 12-gauge shotgun. He wounded two of the dogs with bird
shot, enabling Baker to get into the cab of the pickup truck, drive
to Cody, and take the shotgun. Baker then shot the third dog, who
continued to attack.

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