A feel-good story in the Adirondacks

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

CORINTH, N.Y.––Adopting out 1,500 to
1,700 animals a year, or roughly one for every 10 year-
round residents of Saratoga County, Adirondack Save-
A-Stray is easily the best-known enterprise in Corinth,
New York, population 2,700. Founder Meredith Fiel,
perhaps the best-known person in town, makes sure of
that, spending $500 a month to advertise in every paper
from Schenectady to Ticondaroga, and Rutland,
Vermont, to Lake Luzerne.
“If you don’t get out word about what you
have,” she states, “people aren’t going to know.”
Since 1991, Fiel has also contributed a popular
biweekly pet care column to the Glens Falls P o s t
S t a r––and just this year she commenced a weekly half-
hour interview program, “Hot Topics,” on the Corinth
country music radio station, WZZM 93.5. “It doesn’t
have anything to do with animals,” she insists. “The
focus is local current affairs.” But Adirondack Save-A-
Stray gets frequent mentions.

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Animal control & rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Sara Lohnes, 11, and Necia Crucetti, 10, of Hoosick
Falls, New York, dashed down an overgrown railway embank-
ment the morning of February 20 to free Sport, a husky/shepherd
mix belonging to neighbor Tim Stratton, 10, whom vandals had
tied to the tracks in front of an oncoming train. Police chief Royal
Howard said suspects would be questioned. The dog was reported
missing 20 minutes before the girls found him. Another dog was
killed the same way in the same vicinity several months earlier.
The Animal Regulation Department in Sonoma
County, California, received a record 202 reports of neglected
and starving animals in January, three times as many as in January
1994, supervising officer Bob Garcia reported on February 26.
Most of the cases involved harsh weather, including flooding.

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Innovation

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

“By the end of 1995, the Progressive
Animal Welfare Society shelter will stop killing
healthy, adoptable dogs and cats,” executive direc-
tor Craig Brestrup announced on February 24. He
pledged to accomplish this through increasing adop-
tion promotion, beginning to offer free and low-cost
neutering to the public, expanding use of foster care,
and introducing an “outplacement” program to assist
people who must for some reason give up a pet.
“Animals deserve better from us than a painless
death,” Brestrup continued. Other changes at PAWS
include “a mostly new shelter staff,” and a promise
that, “While the PAWS phone system will continue
to offer voice mail and recorded messages, your calls
will be answered by a knowledgeable, friendly, hon-
est-to-goodness real person.” Founded in 1967, the
PAWS shelter serves King County, Washington.

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California, Nevada humane enforcement under attack

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

SACRAMENTO, RENO–
Humane societies in California and Nevada
are battling state bills that could cripple
humane enforcement. California AB 1571
would strip humane societies of all law
enforcement authority. Nevada SB 45 would
impose a “Livestock Owners’ Bill of Rights.”
Introduced by Assemblyman Louis
Caldera of San Mateo, AB 1571 was
“authored” by aide Dan Reeves at request of
Pat Moran, lobbyist for the Police Officers
Research Association––apparently, by the
expedient of doing a computerized search of
state laws and striking out every reference to
“humane society” and “humane officer,”
regardless of context.
According to Moran, the intent was
to respond to “outlaws who are harassing
people all over California.” He cited the
examples of Barbara Fabricant of the
Humane Task Force and James McCourt of
Mercy Crusade, who were targets of recent
exposes by Josh Meyer of the Los Angeles
T i m e s. Fabricant recently touched off a
statewide furor for holding a blind man’s dog
for five months during a cruelty investiga-
tion. The charges were eventually dismissed.

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Against mandatory cat licensing, by Richard Avanzino and Pamela Rockwell

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:
Can licensing wipe out homeless-
ness, raise the status of the underprivileged,
eliminate the budget crisis, and make people
more caring and responsible? Few would
believe these claims, if made about a pro-
gram to license people. Yet, when it comes
to cats, we are asked to believe all these
claims are true: according to proponents,
mandatory cat licensing will put an end to
the problem of stray and abandoned cats,
raise the status of felines, increase funding
for budget-strapped animal control agencies,
and make cat owners more responsible.
Unfortunately, licensing cats, like licensing
people, won’t do any of these things.

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Games with graphics

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

BOSTON––Is the Massachus-
etts SPCA running huge deficits––or earn-
ing enough profit to neuter every home-
less dog and cat in the state for free?
The financial statement sent to
members indicates the MSPCA lost $2.5
million in 1992 and 1993, but IRS Form
990 filings show gains of $2.7 million.
Divided among the 150,000 dogs and cats
taken in by Massachusetts shelters each
year, the $5.2 million gap could provide a
neutering subsidy of $34.66 per animal.

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BOOKS: The Pet Professional’s Comparative Reference Guide To Premium Dry Dog Food

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

The Pet Professional’s Comparative Reference Guide To Premium
Dry Dog Food, by Howard D. Coffman. PigDog Press (427-3 Amherst St.,
Suite 331, Nashua, NH 03063-1258), 1994. Looseleaf. $54 includes shipping.
If you want a shopping cart hand-
book to tell you what to feed your pet, The
Pet Professional’s Comparative Reference
Guide To Premium Dry Dog Food may not
serve your purpose: Howard D. Coffman
avoids value judgements. If you have a pro-
fessional interest in dog nutrition, however,
you may find it indispensible. For instance, it
tells which leading dog food derives most of
its fat content from sunflower oil rather than
the ingredients that provide its name and fla-
vor. It tells which brands include the contro-
versial preservative ethoxyquin. It provides
the Association of American Feed Control
Officials’ definitions of every common dog
food ingredient. It makes assessing offal con-
tent possible––and it refutes the rumor that
certain brands of kibble popular with most
dogs are really just pelletized cat poop.

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Cats not guilty

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:
A year-long study of feline predation
commissioned by the Petcare Information
Advisory Service, an Australian pet industry
front, found that from April 1993 to April
1994, the owners of 1,550 cats were able to
verify the killings of only 4.76 animals per cat.
Only 2% of the cats killed Australian native
mammals; 7% killed native birds; 17% killed
native reptiles and amphibians; and 41% killed
only introduced species, mostly mice, rats,
and rabbits. Of the cats in the sample, 40%
were kept in at night; 94% were neutered.
The study refutes the 1988 findings of Dr.
David Paton of Adelaide University, who
reported after a study of 700 cats that they
killed an average of 32 small animals per year
apiece. Paton responded to the new data by
asserting that perhaps Australian cats are
runnng out of native widlife to kill.

REVIEWS: Cats of Practical Books

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

The Definitive Anthology of Distinguished Feline Verse: Immortal Poems by the Cats of
the Major Poets, by Henry Beard. Villard Books (201 East 50th St., New York, NY 10022), 1994.
96 pages, illustrated. $12.95.
That Henry Beard! The author of French for
Cats, a mini-masterpiece that every cat-lover surely knows
well, Beard has just outdone himself, and everyone else,
and undone anyone who attempts to read his latest aloud
without cracking up. He has rollicked through the classic
poems of the English language with the abandon, the non-
chalance, the grace and distinction turned to a sort of dig-
nified whoopee of the sedatest of cats romping through a
catnip field. Beard would have us believe the poems in
Poetry For Cats were written by the cats of major men and
women of letters. Perhaps. I mean, purrhaps. In that
case, however, the poets purloined the styles of their pets.
Surely.

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