A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:
Letters
Bringing cats inside
The September 2013 ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial feature “Successful neuter/return must recognize reality” quoted Humane Society of the U.S. president Wayne Pacelle using the phrase “community cats” to include stray and abandoned cats, but my understanding was that when the Best Friends Animal Society introduced the use of “community cats” in 2009, they intended for the phrase to replace “feral.” Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
I read the September 2013 ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial feature “Successful neuter/return must recognize reality” with interest and agree with much of what you say, especially the bit about how difficult it is, probably impossible, to transfer a privately funded neuter/return project successfully to municipal funding and management, as we tried to do here in Oradea, Romania. But one important point occurs to me. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
Letters
Economics & truth
I am delighted that Edwin Wiek and his wife Jansaeng Sangnanork of the Bangkok charity Wildlife Friends have been cleared of all of the spurious charges pending against them since February 2012, as reported in your September 2013 edition. That the first court to hear the case could automatically believe that the words of a government official could be assumed to be true without checking is indeed laughable. Here in India the police, wildlife officials, and other government officials, including the Central Bureau of Investigations have been found to be economical with the truth on many occasions. ––S. Chinny Krishna, vice chair, Animal Welfare Board of India, Chennai, India <drkrishna@aspick.com> Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
Letters
ACC&D coverage
Many thanks for the ANIMAL PEOPLE coverage of the 2013 Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs conference––very useful. I will post a link, since we often get questions about “why still surgery?” ––Robert Blumberg Friends of the Tsunami Animal-People Alliance 34 Maximo Court Danville, CA 94506 < rblumberg73@yahoo.com> Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
In 1989 I drove from Illinois to Montauk Point, New York to indulge in shark fishing, then my favorite pastime. I had no idea that a detour to the small town of Hegins, Pennsylvania would change my world forever. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
We are extremely concerned about the implications of the recently published California Sheltering.org “white paper” formally titled Charting a Path Forward: Achieving California’s policy to save all adoptable and treatable animals. The paper never even pays lip service to the prevention of unwanted litters. In addition, shelters are encouraged to turn away even healthy, friendly cats rather than run the risk of ever having to euthanize any. Recommends the white paper on page 29: “Best practice: No healthy cat, regardless of temperament, should be admitted by an animal shelter if the admission of that cat would cause the death of that cat or another cat in the shelter…This recommendation also applies to private humane organizations that take in animals.” Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July-August 2013:
Letters
Corrections: Saving Baby
The printed version of Debra J. White’s May/June 2013 review of the book Saving Baby: How a woman’s love for a racehorse leads to her redemption, by JoAnne Normile with Larry Lindner, contained several errors which were corrected in the electronic editions. Normile was 43, not 36, when she became involved in horse racing. She was 36 when she got her first horse, seven years earlier. The review misattributed to Normile a direct quote which came from another trainer who was trying to talk Normile into using the illegal drug in question. Normile did not use the drug. The horse Baby suffered an irreparably broken leg, as the review mentioned, but did not “crash” as the term is used in horse racing, as he did not fall. The incident allegedly occurred due to a poorly maintained track surface. Normile is the founder of the national racehorse rescue organization CANTER, not just a volunteer. The last 104 pages of the 263-page book focus on how Normile founded and built the organization. But the horse Scarlett, mentioned in the review, was not among Normile’s rescues. ANIMAL PEOPLE apologizes for the many mistakes.—The Editor
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Sacrifice, rhino horn poaching, & elephants
Concerning the May/June 2013 ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial feature “Ag-gag laws & changing frameworks of perception,” the message to be conveyed is that killing––either for food or for religion––is wrong. Unfortunately, when I talk to Hindus about animal sacrifice, they ask why the Government of India grants the annual Bakri Id holiday for Muslim animal sacrifices. And I cannot ask Muslims why because this is politically incorrect. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May/June 2013:
About Experiencing Animal Minds
Debra J. White’s review of Experiencing Animal Minds, in the March 2013 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE, came to my attention at just about the same time as I received my copy of the book. I was shocked to see the sentence in the review which states, “Mount Royal University psychology professor Alain Morin in a chapter entitled ‘What Are Animals Conscious Of?’ asserts that ‘Wild animals have never been observed worrying and do not seem to experience sleeping difficulties as a result.” In the actual essay Professor Morin begins this sentence, on page 249 of the book, with the caveat, “To the best of my knowledge wild animals …” Read more