Katrina fraud sentence

April 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
Donald D. Chambers, 40, of Amherst, Ohio, on January 30,
2009 was sentenced to serve a year in prison, was fined $1,000, and
was ordered to pay $62,124 in restitution to the Best Friends Animal
Society, of Kanab, Utah. Chambers on October 24, 2008 pleaded
guilty to defrauding Best Friends by taking 28 dogs rescued after
Hurricane Katrina, plus $1,000 apiece for their care and feeding,
on the promise to find adoptive homes for them.
“The relationship between Chambers and Best Friends began
when he presented himself as Don the Dog Guy, who had a kennel and
training facility in Lorain County,” wrote Cleveland Plain Dealer
reporter Donna Miller. “He traveled to Best Friends’ sanctuary and
spent time with the dog trainers there.”

Australian Bushfire Victims

March 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2009:

Chris Towie, M.D. 53, was killed by bushfire on his land
at Reedy Creek, near Broadford, Australia, on February 7, 2009.
“It is believed he was trying to save his animals,” reported the
Melbourne Herald-Sun. Partially deaf, Towie was known for
confronting bureaucracy on behalf of immigrants, the disabled, and
the disadvantaged, and for demanding that more be done to fight
methadrine addiction. Animals were also among his priorities.
“Every animal he found he took home,” Broadmeadows medical clinic
manager Cheryl Ferguson told Carol Nader of the Melbourne Age. The
animals whom Towie died defending reportedly included several camels,
emus, horses, a pony, five dogs, and many birds.

Hell & high water hit Down Under

March 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2009:
MELBOURNE–Dozens of fast-spreading bushfires, many of them
believed to have been set by arsonists, killed countless animals
and hundreds of humans who tried to save their homes and animals in
drought-stricken northeastern Victoria state, Australia during the
first weekend of February 2009.
Among the first 181 known human fatalities were five
prominent animal advocates and two young sisters who tried
unsuccessfully to evacuate their horses [see page 18]. More than 200
rural Australians were missing in a burned region larger than
Luxembourg, pending searches of rubble that remained smouldering for
as long as a week.

Trying to help animals in Gaza

January 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2009:
GAZA–Networking with animal rescuers near Gaza, in both
Palestine and Israel, collecting money for animal relief in the
combat zones, ANIMAL PEOPLE president Kim Bartlett helped to start a
rescue effort less than 10 days after the shooting began on December
27, 2008–long before there was any clear sign of when the fighting
might end, despite rumors that Israel would pull back troops from
Gaza before the January 20, 2009 inauguration of new U.S. President
Barack Obama.
“We are now working with the Israeli charity Let The Animals
Live to help us get medicine and supplies into Gaza,” reported
Palestine Wildlife Society executive director Imad Atrash. “There
some of our friends with the ministry of agriculture, the veterinary
department, and with other nonprofit organizations will help us,”
Atrash hoped.

Dogs among the heroes of the Mumbai attacks

January 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2009:
MUMBAI, India–Among the most popular heroes of the
three-day terrorist rampage through Mumbai that started on November
26, 2008 are the street dog Sheru, the sniffer dog Jessica, and
the therapy dogs Goldie and Onet.
At least 170 people were killed and 230 were wounded by 10
heavily armed men believed to be Pakistanis, who are believed to
have hijacked a boat to reach Mumbai, killing the crew. On arrival,
they shot up the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, the Taj
Mahal and Oberoi-Trident hotels, a Jewish outreach center, and a
restaurant, and left bombs in two taxi cabs.

Monsoons bring floods from Himalayas to the Bengal coast

September 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:
KOLKATA, VISAKHAPATAM–Increasingly violent monsoons
battered India yet again in August and September 2008, afflicting
millions of humans and animals in regions below the Himalayas from
northern Bihar to central Arunchal Pradesh, and as far south as
Srikakulum, halfway down the Bengal coast.
The Visakha SPCA in Visakhapatnam sent animal relief missions
from northern Andhra Pradesh, as it did after previous monsoon
floods and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
“We are in touch with our people at Srikakulum,” founder
Pradeep Kumar Nath e-mailed. “We are doing rescues wherever possible
and shifting [animals to safety] wherever necessary.”
The Visakha SPCA has itself been hit several times by
cyclones in recent years.

Hurricanes Gustav & Ike test federal pet evacuation mandate

September 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:

HOUSTON, NEW ORLEANS– Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, hitting
the Gulf Coast barely more than a week apart in September 2008,
brought the first major test of the Pets Evacuation and
Transportation Standards Act, passed by Congress in 2006.
The PETS Act was passed after evidence surfaced that many of
the human fatalities attributed to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 resulted
from people refusing to evacuate because they could not take pets
with them. The purpose of the PETS Act is to ensure that provisions
for pet evacuation are incorporated into regional disaster planning.
“Three years after pet owners were reduced to tears while
being forced to leave their dogs and cats in neighborhoods affected
by Hurricane Katrina, emergency response officials are taking
extraordinary care to ensure animal safety,” wrote Alex Branch of
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Livestock took biggest quake hit

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
CHENGDU–The most numerous sentient victims of the May 12,
2008 Sichuan earthquake were livestock. Fourteen million chickens
and rabbits, 3.8 million pigs, 178,000 goats, and 60,000 cows died
in collapsed or inaccessible barns, the Chinese agriculture ministry
updated on June 4, nearly doubling the estimate of pig losses.
Sichuan pig slaughter will drop 10% in 2008 due to the
earthquake, the agriculture ministry estimated.

BOOKS: Dogs Gone Wild After Hurricane Katrina

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:

Dogs Gone Wild
After Hurricane Katrina
by Theresa D. Thompson
Tate Publishing (127 E. Trade Center Terrace, Mustang,
OK 73064), 2008. 127 pages, paperback. $14.99.

In the age of “instant” book publishing to commemorate major
events–and cash in while public interest is highest–Dogs Gone Wild
is oddly enough the first book about the Hurricane Katrina animal
rescue effort to reach ANIMAL PEOPLE, arriving nearly three years
after Katrina inundated much of New Orleans and devastated the Gulf
Coast from Alabama to Texas.
It is not the rescue memoir one might anticipate. Author
Theresa Thompson is a retired medical secretary, recently widowed,
who lives in Upper Marlboro, Mary-land. She was not directly
involved in the animal rescue. Neither was her sister, Charlotte
Brown, who sent Dogs Gone Wild to ANIMAL PEOPLE.

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