ANIMAL HEALTH

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

The Farm Bureau, Cattleman’s Association, and

Eastern Milk Producers Cooperative are backing a New York

state bill to let farmers vaccinate their own cattle against rabies,

as is allowed in 36 other states including the adjoining states of

Vermont and Pennsylvania. The bill is opposed by the New York

Veterinary Medical Society. The farm groups claim it would help

curb rabies by cutting vaccination costs. The veterinarians

respond that vaccinations improperly done provide no protection.

The tick-borne disease tularemia has reappeared in

southeastern Pennsylvania, a decade after causing two human

fatalities in the same area. The disease usually hits rabbits,

killing them within four hours; both the Pennsylvania victims had

just killed and dressed rabbits. Tularemia can also kill dogs and

cats who have contact with infected rabbits.

Guest column: Let’s cut a deal on feral cats

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

by Petra Murray

New Jersey Pet Overpopulation Solutions

To catch and kill or to neuter and release

are issues we have been battling over for quite

some time now. Many of us feel very strongly in

support of one approach or the other, and most

likely will not convert to the other viewpoint––so

where do we go from here?

I think it really has to sink in just how

enormous the feral cat problem is. We are talking

of somewhere between thirty and sixty million cats

nationwide––10 to 20 times as many cats as are

handled by all shelters and rescue groups combined

right now. If these numbers really hit us in the

face, we must acknowledge that even if we were

in 100% agreement over how to deal with this situ-

ation, we’d have our hands full for a very long

time. Without compromise and joint cooperative

effort, we can’t begin to make serious headway.

Editorial: No tears for this croc––well, cayman

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

The call came late November 16. Westchester Wildlife Sanctuary rehabilitator

Barry Rothfuss needed help in placing a five-foot-long, cross-tempered female cayman, a

close relative of a crocodile, who’d spent her whole life in a pet store aquarium. He’d taken

her in to keep the proprietor from shooting her, as she’d grown too dangerous to handle.

“I can keep her maybe 24 hours,” Rothfuss explained, his six-month-old daughter

in his lap and the cayman nearby, her mouth held shut with duct tape. “I’m not set up to

keep a high-risk animal, or any animal who needs a heated environment, and I don’t know

anything about caymans, but I thought I could at least give her one more chance.”

Two years ago Rothfuss spent a month dodging the law with a few dozen orphaned

raccoons he had immunized against rabies. The New York wildlife department had ordered

rehabilitators to euthanize all raccoons in their possession, ostensibly to slow the spread of

rabies. Rothfuss hid out until he could get the message across that his raccoons were no

threat––and wound up appointed to the state advisory commission on rabies.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY MEET LISA

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana– –

Legislation In Support of Animals recently

gave the New Iberia City and Parish Council

until January 1 to make a firm commitment

to reforming their pound––or else.

“We have reached the limit of our

patience,” said mild-mannered LISA

founder and executive director Jeff Dorson,

sounding a lot more like Clint Eastwood than

he looks.

The ultimatim brought a three-part

expose of pound conditions in the local

newspaper. On December 10, New Iberia

reached an amicable agreement with LISA to

better separate animals in the pound, house

fewer per cage, provide fiberglas resting

boards, clean the cages more often, hire an

answering service to handle off-hours emer-

gency calls, and promote adoptions through

the New Iberia Humane Society.

Pit bull murder rap a national first

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

CLEVELAND, Ohio––After nine

hours of deliberation, a Cleveland jury on

November 23 convicted unemployed welder

Jeffrey Mann, 36, of murder for siccing a pit

bull terrier named Mack on his live-in girl-

friend, Angela Kaplan, 28, during a quarrel

on the night of September 2, 1992.

Following mandatory sentencing guidelines,

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court

Judge Linda Rocker imprisoned Mann for 15

years to life.

It was the first-ever U.S. murder

conviction in which an animal figured as the

weapon. Mack bit Kaplan more than 70

times, almost exclusively on the undersides

of her arms. Afterward, she bled to death on

a living room sofa while Mann purportedly

slept in the family bedroom.

COURT CALENDAR

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

Crimes against wildlife

Hong Kong authorities confiscat-

ed $20,000 worth of rhinoceros horn in a

series of late October raids on apothecaries,

following leads provided by the London-based

Environmental Investigation Agency. But the

raids may have come too late to save rhinos in

the wild, as fewer than six remain in protect-

ed areas of Zimbabwe, according to wildlife

veterinarian Dr. Michael Kock, who could

find only two in a two-week aerial search.

There were 3,000 when Zimbabwe achieved

native sovereignty in 1980. Kock sawed the

horns off about 300 rhinos a year ago, trying

to make them worthless to poachers, but dis-

covered that even the nub left behind after

dehorning will fetch $2,400 U.S. Kock says

he has evidence that the Asian poaching car-

tels are actively trying to “kill every rhino,”

because, “If they eliminate the rhino, the value

of the horn will skyrocket. They can sit on a

stockpile for 10 years; they know there is

always going to be a market.”

Animal Control & Rescue

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

Wildlife biologist Carol

Crane, president of the Calvert

Animal Welfare League in St.

Leonard, Maryland, has published

a survey of shelter intake and

euthanasia rates in 21 of the 23

Maryland counties, which include

95% of the state population. Her

findings “further confirm new

national estimates that animal care

and control facilities are not han-

dling as many dogs and cats as was

thought previously,” according to

Phil Arkow of the Peggy Adams

Animal Rescue League in West

Palm Beach, Florida. Arkow and

Andrew Rowan of Tufts University

have recently published estimates

that population control euthanasias

of dogs and cats probably don’t

exceed six million a year––half the

Is leukemia still #1 disease threat to cats?

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

Shelter Cats Screened Cats FeLV+ %

Americ an SPCA (NY) 20,000+ 400/500 >2.5%

Anti-Cruel ty Society (Chicago, IL) 3,600 “few”

Bennington County Humane Society (VT) (“we want adoptors to take cats to a vet)

Bloomington Animal Control (MN) (“costs too much”)

Knoxville County Humane Society (TN) 30 0 0

Mari n Humane Society (CA) 1,500 30/40 >2.5%

North Shore Animal League (NY) 20,000 400/500 >2.5%

Progressive Animal Welfare Society (WA) 1,125/1,500 25/30 >2.0%

Birds

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

The last four of the first

eight California condors to be

returned to the wild were recap-

tured November 9 for relocation

from the Sespe Condor Sanctuary

to the Los Padres National Forest,

far to the north. Three condors

released at Sespe since January

1992 were killed in collisions with

power lines, while a fourth was

poisoned by drinking antifreeze.

Racing Stockcar Assoc-

iates Inc. is attempting to build a

dirt racetrack in a former sand quar-

ry beneath Bake Oven Knob,

Pennsylvania, site of one of North

America’s longest maintained rap-

tor obervatories.

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