From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

CHICAGO–“Between 2000 and 2005, Illinois residents filed
3,282 complaints about animal welfare licensees to the state
Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Welfare,” wrote Chicago
Tribune staff reporter John Biemer on February 14, citing
information obtained by activist Cherie Travis. The Bureau of Animal
Welfare supervises pet stores, shelters, pounds, and breeding and
boarding kennels.
“Just three of the 3,282 cases resulted in hearings,” Biemer
continued, “and each time those actions were deemed unwarranted.
Further,” Biemer noted, “Illinois has just seven investigators to
check into complaints and make annual visits to the premises of 1,809
licensees.”
Said American SPCA representive Ledy VanKavage, “There’s no
way in hell that just seven people can deal with that kind of
caseload.”
Added Biemer, “When they find a licensee is not complying
with state law, they have only two punitive options: they can
either revoke or suspend the license. Those actions create a big
problem: what do you do with the animals?”
A bill introduced by state representative Patti Bellock
(R-Hinsdale) would enable the Bureau of Animal Welfare to levy fines
ranging from $200 to $1,000 for violations not deemed severe enough
to warrant license revocation or suspension.

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

The California Office of the Attorney General on February 14
ordered Wildlife Waystation founder Martine Colette to reimburse the
Waystation $64,128 for the care of her personal horses.
“Colette can deduct that amount from $140,000 the Waystation
owes her from personal loans she made when the sanctuary was in
financial trouble,” wrote Los Angeles Daily News staff writer Kerry
Cavanaugh.
“Also,” Cavanaugh said, “the Attorney General’s Office
ordered the Waystation to correct information on its web site that
said the refuge employs two part-time veterinarians, when in fact
the Waystation has two vet techs.”
The orders concluded a three-year audit of the Waystation by
the Charitable Trust Division of the California Department of Justice.

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

Brenda Barnette, executive director of Tony LaRussa’s Animal
Rescue Foundation in Walnut Creek, California since mid-2003,
resigned suddenly at the end of January 2006 after the death of her
mother. Previously development director for the San Francisco SPCA
and executive director of Pets In Need in Redwood City, California,
Barnette at Tony LaRussa’s doubled program spending, halved
overhead, and reduced the remaining debt owing for a $16 million new
shelter from $6 million to $3 million. Adoptions during her tenure
increased from 456 before the new shelter opened to more than 1,800
in 2005.

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

Monk parakeets are not the only feral parrots in the greater
New York area– just the most abundant.
Mitred conures have been reported at large in New York City
since 1984. A pair of mitred conures in 1988 nested in the eves of a
house in the Rosedale section of Queens, New York. They had four
surviving offspring, and the flock had increased to 30 by 1994,
Marc Morrone of Parrots of the World told Long Island Newsday then.
“People think they are going to freeze to death, somebody
lost them, or that they have gold in their trees,” Morrone said,
advising that the birds should be left alone.
Though still few, the mitred conures now seem to be
permanent residents.
A cockatiel, either feral or an escapee, had the dubious
distinction of being the first New Jersey bird known to be infected
with the mosquito-born West Nile virus–which in North America has
most often hit crows. Caught alive in Middletown, New Jersey, in
July 2000, the cockatiel died later at a Staten Island veterinary
clinic.

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