BOOKS / Four-Legged Miracles: Heartwarming Tales of Lost Dogs’ Journeys Home

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

Four-Legged Miracles:   Heartwarming Tales of Lost Dogs’ Journeys Home   by Brad & Sherry Hansen Steiger St. Martin’s Griffin (175 Fifth Ave.,  New York,  NY 10010),  2013.  264 pages,  paperback.  $14.99.

Animal lovers are familiar with the 1943 classic Lassie Come Home,  in which an impoverished rural family sells their cherished collie to a Scottish nobleman,  but the collie returns to the boy she loves. Four-Legged Miracles is a compilation of amusing,  inspirational and sometimes tearful real-life “Lassie” stories.   Read more

Some New Zealand bird conservationists favor cats

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

WELLINGTON,  New Zealand––Forty-eight percent of New Zealand households keep cats,  the highest rate of cat-keeping in the world,  according to the New Zealand Pet Food Manufacturers Association. But prominent New Zealand birders disagree over whether free-roaming pet cats and feral cats have much to do with losses of rare bird species. Economist Gareth Morgan argues that cats should be eradicated from New Zealand through universal sterilization and non-replacement. Read more

BOOKS / The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs are Smarter Than You Think

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

The Genius of Dogs:  How Dogs are Smarter Than You Think  by Brian Hare & Vanessa Woods Dutton (c/o Penguin USA,  375 Hudson St.,  New York, NY 10014), 2013.  367 pages.  $37.95/hardcover or $14.95 paperback.

Publicity for The Genius of Dogs alleges that co-author Brian Hare has done more than anyone else to change human appreciation of the intelligence of dogs.  This overlooks the influence of more than 150 years of highly popular fictional Lassie stories,  originating with The Half-brothers,  by Elizabeth Gaskell in 1859, and countless real-life feats of resourceful intelligence performed by Lassies named after the fictional dogs,  including the rescue and revival of a “drowned” British sailor in 1915 and the rescue of a drowning boy from Lake Ontario in 1936.   Read more

Veterinarian comments about dog licensing, pit bulls, & street dog parasites

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

Your January/February 2013 editorial “Pi,  Dorothy,  and the qualities of humane leadership” gave me stuff to ponder that I hadn’t seriously considered before,  such as the emphasis on adopting one’s way out of shelter euthanasias versus the likely better bang for the buck approach of focusing even more than currently on spaying and castrating. Read more

Maryland legislature adjourns without repealing pit bull ruling

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

ANNAPOLIS,  Maryland–– The 2013 Maryland state legislature adjourned on April 8,  2013 without passing a bill meant to “abrogate” an April 2012 state Court of Appeals ruling that “When an attack involves pit bulls,  it is no longer necessary to prove that the particular pit bull or pit bulls are dangerous,”  for a victim to claim damages from whoever possesses the dog or dogs. Read more

Triple murder follows dogfighting raids that net 62 suspects and 120 pit bulls

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

Walking inside,  the unidentified man found the bodies,   and a two-month-old baby girl  beneath Carter’s arm.  “It looked as if she was protecting the baby when she was killed,”  Oneida County Sheriff Jeff Semrad told media. Sheriff’s deputies found 64 pit bulls chained in two dog yards.  Both dog yards were visible in photographs taken from two county highways intersecting near the scene,  and found 38 marijuana plants, with a cumulative street value estimated at $95,000.  Bruce Christensen,  brother of Brent,  told media that Brent had served prison time for drug-related offenses.

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BOOKS: The Heartbeat at Your Feet

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:

The Heartbeat at Your Feet:
A Practical, Compassionate
New Way to Train Your Dog
by Lisa Tenzin-Dolma
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
(4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706), 2012.
180 pages, hardcover or e-book. $32.00 in either format.

The Heartbeat at Your Feet is advertised as “the first book to
reveal how you can fully understand and communicate with dogs and how
you can easily eliminate any behavior problems based on new information
about animal behavior.”

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BOOKS: The Cat Whisperer

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:

The Cat Whisperer:
Why Cats Do What They Do –
And How to Get Them to Do What You Want
by Mieshelle Nagelschneider
Random House (1745 Broadway, New York,
NY 10019), 2013. 297 pages, hardcover. $25.00.

Feline perceptions and responses differ far more from those of
humans than do the perceptions and responses of dogs. Thus, while most
dogs train humans to understand their needs relatively easily,
misunderstandings of cat behavior may be the most common reason why cats
who once had homes land in shelters.

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