Category: Companion Animals

Jordan hero dog dies for love and freedom

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

ZARGA, Jordan–A teaching of strict fundamentalist Islam is
that it is the duty of brothers to keep their sisters “pure” by
isolating them from contact with unrelated men prior to arranged
marriage. A three-year-old German shepherd named Big Joe recently
defeated that custom by carrying secret correspondence several blocks
back and forth between a man identified only as “Thamer” and a woman
whose identity news media concealed. Big Joe on January 11 carried
the man’s marriage proposal to the woman and fought off her brother
when he tried to intercept it, but the brother fatally beat him with
a large stone. The father of both the woman and her brother approved
of the marriage, perhaps in appreciation of what the loyalty,
bravery, and resourcefulness of Big Joe implied about him.

Rocky Mountains “Witch hunts & wildlife” panic is resolved

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

SALT LAKE CITY, DENVER– A 13-month two-state panic over
alleged cat mutilations by purported sadists officially ended on
August 1, 2003, when police chief Ricky Bennett of Aurora,
Colorado, told news media that, “There are definite signs and
markings that all were caused by predators.”
Twenty-nine of the 46 cats who were supposedly mutilated in
Colorado were found in Aurora, but the panic actually began after
the remains of a dozen cats with similar injuries were found in the
same Salt Lake City neighborhood from which Elizabeth Smart, 14,
was kidnapped on June 5, 2002.
Smart was recovered alive on March 12, 2003. David Brian
Mitchell, 49, and his wife, Wanda E. Barzee, 57, are charged
with kidnapping Smart from her Salt Lake City bedroom, raping her,
holding her prisoner until their capture, and attempting to kidnap
Smart’s 18-year-old cousin.
Mitchell’s stepson Mark Thompson, who helped bring Mitchell
to justice, told Newsweek that Mitchell had a history of cruelty to
animals “He shot our dog in front of us. He killed our bunny and
made us eat it,” Mitchell recalled.

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Jordan hero dog dies for love and freedom

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

ZARGA, Jordan–A teaching of strict fundamentalist Islam is
that it is the duty of brothers to keep their sisters “pure” by
isolating them from contact with unrelated men prior to arranged
marriage. A three-year-old German shepherd named Big Joe recently
defeated that custom by carrying secret correspondence several blocks
back and forth between a man identified only as “Thamer” and a woman
whose identity news media concealed. Big Joe on January 11 carried
the man’s marriage proposal to the woman and fought off her brother
when he tried to intercept it, but the brother fatally beat him with
a large stone. The father of both the woman and her brother approved
of the marriage, perhaps in appreciation of what the loyalty,
bravery, and resourcefulness of Big Joe implied about him.

“Animal rights” vs. “wise-users”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

DENVER–Colorado state representative
Mark Cloer (R-Colorado Springs) on Valentine’s
Day 2002 withdrew a bill which would have
redefined pets as companion animals rather than
property, by way of enabling petkeepers to seek
punitive damages rather than just the replacement
value of an animal in cases of abuse and
veterinary malpractice.
The intent of the Cloer bill was to
extend the definition of veterinary malpractice
to include unnecessarily frequent vaccination.
Although modern anti-rabies vaccines provide
protection for three years or more, many vets
still “remind” petkeepers to get annual
vaccinations as a way to get the pets into their
clinics for the general examinations that often
discover health conditions in need of treatment.
The redefinition of pets as companion
animals coincided with the goal of In Defense of
Animals’ effort to get legislative bodies to
replace the term “owners” in pet-related
statutes with “guardian.”

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G.I. pets banned as “biosecurity risk”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004:

BOSTON–Dogs and cats who help U.S. military personnel endure
the stress of serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are the latest urgent
biosecurity risk to the United States, according to some
bureaucrats, who are now trying to keep the troops from bringing
their companions home.
Comparisons are in order. Published accounts indicate that
U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan during the past two
years have brought home fewer than 100 dogs and cats in total. None
are known to have carried any serious disease.
Just a handful of dogs and cats are believed to have been
imported from Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. None of them
carried any serious disease, either.
Illegal imports of wildlife and wildlife parts into U.S.,
worth about $1 billion in 1991, are now worth $3 billion, estimates
the U.S. Department of Justice. Federal and state agencies have yet
to even visibly slow the clandestine wildlife traffic, every item of
which is an uninspected, untested potential biosecurity hazard.

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Greece considers new national animal control law in anticipation of 2004 Olympic furor

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2003:

ATHENS-Greek deputy agriculture minister Fotis Hadzimichalis
on December 19,  2002 introduced a proposed national animal control
bill which according to Agence France-Press “would discourage Greeks
from abandoning their animals,  while allowing local authorities to
collect,  sterilize,  and in certain cases kill stray dogs.”
Hadzimichalis told Agence France-Presse that,  “This is the
practical answer to those who malignly accused our country of
creating crematoria for strays ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games.”
The proposed law reportedly stipulates that dogs found at
large will be vaccinated,  sterilized,  held for a reclaim period,
and then be returned to the capture point if deemed healthy and not
dangerous.  Those suffering from incurable illness or infirmity and
those considered dangerous will be killed.

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WPIX settles libel claim over dog meat expose

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

NEW YORK, N.Y.–The Tribune Co., owner of both WPIX-TV
Channel 11 in New York city and the Long Island Newsday newspaper,
announced in Newsday on January 11 that it had “reached a settlement
over a series of controversial stories that examined if dog meat was
popular in New York,” aired by Channel 11 reporter Polly Kreisman on
November 19-20, 2001.
“The agreement said that WPIX-TV aired the stories in 2001
along with footage of Ju Ho Kim and his wife Roslyn Kim, selling
what a WPIX-TV spokesman said was a mix of canine and coyote meat to
a Humane Society of the U.S. investigator,” Newsday continued. “The
Kims said in a civil lawsuit that the stories by reporter Polly
Kreisman hurt their business and harmed the Korean American
community. ”

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Bad-mouthed cats may have Bartonella bacteria

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2002:

Chronic gingivitis and stomatitis in cats, resulting in
tooth loss and inflamed gums, may be caused by Bartonella–the
bacteria that causes “cat scratch fever” in humans, after the
bacterium is transmitted into the bloodstream by cat claws that have
been licked by infected cats.
Cats can transmit Bartonella to other cats by scratching,
biting, spitting, hissing, sneezing, or even eye-licking in
connection with social grooming.

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Dog law updates

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

Dog attacks

Police in Melbourne, Australia, confirmed on September 6
that a charge of reckless conduct would be brought against a
defendant believed to be alleged illegal marijuana grower Debra Susan
Marks, 39, of Moe, for the February 1999 fatal mauling of her
former landlord, Holocaust survivor Leon Tarasinski, 75. Director
of public prosecutions Paul Coghlan recommended the charge in April
2002, after a three-year campaign by Tarsinski’s widow Shelley, 62,
and the Crime Victims Support Association. The prosecution will be
the first attempt in Victoria state to win a criminal conviction for
a fatal dog attack, and the second attempt anywhere in Australia.
Giovanni Pacino, 35, of Western Australia, was convicted of
manslaughter in 1998 after his Rottweilers killed neighbor Perina
Chokolich, 85, but his conviction was reversed on appeal.

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