Category: Companion Animals

Chinese dog-killer sent to labor camp

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

BEIJING, HONG KONG– “A Wuhan man was sentenced to 18 months
in a labor camp for poisoning more than 80 pet dogs, the Chutian
Metropolis Daily reported circa December 15, 2003. “The man had
been poisoning the dogs and selling them to local restaurants. A
farmer was detained for supplying the rat poison.”
Reprinted by other news media throughout China, the brief
item indicated the fast-rising status of dogs in much of a nation
which remains deeply divided among fear of dogs, love of dogs, and
the belief that dogs are to be eaten.
The significance of the Wuhan case includes acknowledgement
that enough dogs are kept as pets that a criminal can make a business
of stealing them; acknowledgement that killing pet dogs is a crime
warranting punishment as severe as is typically given for poisoning
pets in the U.S.; and the implication that the dog meat business is
not law-abiding and respectable. Also of note is that the offender
was convicted of killing the dogs, not of harming people who might
have eaten their meat.
In some parts of China a citizen might still be officially
praised for killing 80 pet dogs, but not now in Wuhan– and, since
the state-controlled Chinese media tend to publish news to make a
point, maybe not in the future anywhere.

Read more

Sterilizing dogs and cats in rural Argentina

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

PARANA, Argentina–A caption on page 6 of the December 2003
edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE misattributed to the Buenos Aires-based
Asociacion para la Defensa de los Derechos del Animal a photo showing
a volunteer using a wheelbarrow to return a spayed dog to her home.
The photo was actually sent by Grupo Platero, of Parana,
300 miles northwest.
Formally founded in 1730, about 200 years after Spanish
explorers first encountered indigenous settlements in the region,
and named after the piranha fish for whom the Rio Parana was also
named, Parana served as the first capitol of the independent nation
of Argentina from 1852 until 1862. Parana is still the capital of
Entre Rios province, but had no municipal animal shelter until the
city health department started one in 1965.
Like most city shelters, the Parana shelter killed most
impounded animals until 1994.
Sisters Lucrecia and Veronica Mors, and a deceased friend,
formed Grupo Platero in 1978. In 1985 the Parana shelter began a pet
sterilization program. From 1993 through 1998 Group Platero
augmented the city program by hiring a veterinarian to visit the
barrios, sterilizing homeless animals and the pets of the poor
without charge. This enabled the Parana shelter to cease killing
strays. The Grupo Platero program ended when the sisters could no
longer afford to pay for surgeries.

Read more

BOOKS: The Story of the African Dog

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

The Story of the African Dog
by Johan Gallant
University of Natal Press (Private Bag X01, Scottsville 3209, South
Africa), 2002. 124 pages, paperback. $29.50

“The African dog, or Africanis,” declares the back cover of
The Story of the African Dog, “is the original domestic dog of
southern Africa, whose ancient origins can be traced back to the
prehistoric wolf packs of Arabia and India. This unique and
fascinating study recreates for us the journey of the dog’s primitive
canine ancestors.”
Author Johan Gallant seems to accept the prevailing dogma
that dogs evolved and were first domesticated in Asia. ANIMAL PEOPLE
believes that dogs actually domesticated humans, as much as humans
domesticated dogs, and that this actually occurred many times in
different places over thousands of years, as early humans and dogs
traveled and foraged together much as baboons and jackals still do
today.
Either way, the bond between dogs and humans gained
particular strength in Africa. The anti-dog prejudices of the
Central Asian “rabies belt” prevail today in northern Africa, but in
much of sub-equatorial Africa even the poorest people tend to accord
to dogs a status above other animals, and the family dog is often a
source of pride.

Read more

Letters: Conservation group experts urged dog shooting in Ethiopia

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

Not “euthanasia”

I am a great admirer of Virginia McKenna and Will Travers,
who started the Born Free Foundation. In the early 1960s a screening
of the film Born Free was the first major fundraiser of the Blue
Cross of India, with which I have been associated since its founding.
Over the years I have often been surprised and disappointed
to hear so-called animal advocates use the term “euthanasia” to mean
anything ranging from killing one’s pet to the mass slaughter of
animals, whether in pounds or in the wild. “Euthanasia” means mercy
killing and is only justified when it means putting a suffering being
out of its misery when the being is in severe pain which is likely to
endure.
The slaughter of the dogs at Bale Mountains National Park in
Ethiopia can be called culling or killing or worse, but not
euthanasia. I am surprised at the Born Free Foundation calling it
so.
From a personal viewpoint, reflecting neither the official
position of the Blue Cross of India nor that of the Animal Welfare
Board of India: species have gone extinct since life began. Humans
as thinking and rational beings have a responsibility to avoid
speeding up this process and to help slow it down where possible
without causing collateral damage. We cannot play God by deciding to
slaughter one set of animals in favor of another.
The Born Free Found-ation’s position on these issues should
be made clear when it solicits funds from the public.
–S. Chinny Krishna, Chair
Blue Cross of India
and Vice Chair
Animal Welfare
Board of India
Ministry of
Environment
& Forests
Government of India
1-A Eldams Rd.
Chennai
Tamil Nadu 600018, India
Phone: 91-44-234-1399
Fax 91-44-234-9801
<drkrishna@aspick.com>

Clueless

I am amazed that with homeless dog populations around the
world in virtually every developing country, the “experts” remain so
clueless about their niche and how to “manage” them. Shooting at any
animal will drive the animal further away into more remote areas.
The homeless dogs around Bale Mountains National Park should
have been vaccinated for rabies years ago: they are more of a risk
factor than owned animals.
–Julia N. Allen, PhD., DVM
c/o Emergency Management Veterinary Services
3618 39th Ave West
Seattle, WA
Tel/Fax: 206-281-0988
<DrJNA@att.net>

Chaining

I am alarmed at all that has been going on in Ethiopia with
the dogs and the wolves, including that chaining dogs for life was
recommended by government officials and conservationists as a
solution to the problem.
Vaccination and sterilization are what is needed, not
keeping dogs chained. Domestic dogs need to be part of the family,
their pack, and not be chained out as though they are not living
beings deserving of care and respect.
I urge anyone who recommends chaining to cease, and would be
happy to send educational materials in English or Spanish to Ethiopia
for use in community education.
–Tammy Sneath Grimes, founder
Dogs Deserve Better
P.O. Box 23
Tipton, PA 16684
877-636-1408
<www.dogsdeservebetter.com>

[This letter was also sent to Ethiopian officials and to the
Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program, which is financially supported
by the Born Free Foundation and World Wildlife Fund.]

Taiwan toughens anti-dog meat law

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

TAIPEI–Taiwanese legislators on December 16, 2003 approved
stronger regulations against killing and selling dogs and cats for
human consumption.
The anti-dog-and-cat-meat measures were adopted among a package of
strengthening and clarifying amendments to the Animal Protection Law
of 1998, and were introduced with 56 co-sponsors from multiple
political parties, according to the China Post of Taiwan.
“Lacking real teeth, the old regulations only prohibited the
butchering and sale of pet meats,” without providing means of
enforcement, the China Post said.

Read more

Beijing Public Security Bureau opens shelter to public

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2003:

BEIJING–The Beijing Public Security Bureau has opened the
city animal control shelter to the public and has begun adopting out
dogs for the first time, Association for Small Animal Protection
founder Betty Zhao e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on November 6, 2003.
The PSB has also begun accepting volunteer help. Zhao
recently mobilized 18 volunteers [above] to groom dogs for adoption
display. As dogs are still relatively scarce in Beijing, Zhao
anticipated that all of the groomed dogs would soon find homes.
Most dogs picked up in recent months are believed to have
been pets who were dumped at large during the SARS panic, often by
terrified neighbors rather than by the animals’ caretakers.
Until now, there was little way for Beijing residents to
reclaim lost dogs. Most dogs found at large were simply killed.
The PSB policy changes coincide with moving into a new building.
“The cages are decorated with cartoons [to welcome human
visitors], with a bowl for water and a bowl for food inside each
cage,” Zhao said. “It is easy for the staff to do clean-up. But
the dogs still have to stay in a cage. We have recommended that they
should establish a place for the dogs to run.”

BOOKS: The Pawprints of History:

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

The Pawprints of History:
Dogs and the course of human events
by Stanley Coren
The Free Press (1230 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10020), 2002. 322 pages. Hardcover, $26.

Documentation of dogs’ roles in the
course of human events rarely appears in school
history texts.
Stanley Coren establishes in The
Pawprints of History, however, that dogs have
been enormously influential, not only in helping
humans to survive in prehistoric times and
perhaps in shaping our social structure, but
also through interventions of various sorts in
political and military affairs.
For example, dogs saved the lives of
people of historical stature including Napoleon,
the Fifth Dalai Lama, and Alexander the Great.
Dogs also provided emotional support and
encouragement at critical times to Abraham
Lincoln, Isaac Newton and Mary Stuart, Queen of
Scots.

Read more

Regulations regarding dog & cat freedom

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

Persuaded by testimony from Peaceable Kingdom founder Liz
Jones, plus about 20 other neuter/return practitioners, the
Pennsylvania Game Commission on October 8, 2003 voted unanimously to
drop a proposal to amend a regulation forbidding the “release of
house cats” so as to prohibit the release of any dogs or cats,
including ferals, “into the wild.” The amendment was pushed by the
American Bird Conservancy.

Palm Beach County, Florida, on August 19 adopted a bylaw to
prohibit tethering dogs outside from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., effective on
September 1 and subject to review in early 2004 by the county animal
control advisory board–which reportedly plans to recommend a total
ban on tethering.

Wichita, Kansas, in early September became at least the
28th U.S. municipality to restrict dog tethering, adopting a bylaw
that limits tethering to no more than one hour at a time.

Read more

Yellowknife and Connecticut incidents feed the “humane relocation” debate

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories, Canada–Overcrowded
with 64 dogs seized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police from
itinerant rescuers Harry and Pat Shermet, the 12-cage Yellowknife
SPCA on September 16, 2003 sent 25 puppies to the Edmonton SPCA.
First Air donated the 650-mile flight. The Great Slave
Animal Hospital donated the required vaccinations.
“We’re glad to help,” Melissa Boisvert of Edmonton SPCA
told Nathan VanderKlippe of the CanWest News Service.
The Edmonton SPCA had only six dogs in its 60 kennels before
the puppies arrived, a legacy of successful pet sterilization and
rehoming.
The Yellowknife rescue exemplified both the promise and the
problems associated with transferring shelter animals to match supply
to demand. The Shermets actually had almost the same idea, after
they were evicted from the cabin where they had amassed 66 dogs in
three years. Loading all the dogs into a trailer on September 5,
the Shermets hoped to find homes for them in Manitoba, but were
intercepted by the RCMP in Rae, just 100 miles down the road. Six
dogs escaped and two were shot during the ensuing chaos.

Read more

1 … 39 40 41 42 43 … 99