BOOKS: Homer’s Odyssey

October 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

Homer’s Odyssey by Gwen Cooper
Bantam Books (1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019), 2009. 296
pages, paperback. $15.00.

South Florida resident Gwen Cooper, already keeping two
rescued cats, Scarlett and Vashti, answered a call about Homer, a
scrappy black kitten without eyes. Would she adopt him? The
veterinarian’s office had barely finished describing Homer’s plight
when Cooper caved in. Shrugging off disability, Homer sharpened his
other senses, learning to snag flies in midair and to stack
cockroaches in piles, then meow for Cooper’s attention.

BOOKS: Animal Magnetism

October 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

Animal Magnetism by Rita Mae Brown
Ballantine Books
(1745 Broadway, New York,
NY 10019), 2009.
233 pages, paperback. $16.00.

Rita Mae Brown, best-selling author and fox hunter, in
Animal Magnetism shares poignant memories about the dogs, cats,
horses, and occasional other animals in her life and the lives of
her family members. After writing a seven-volume series of murder
mysteries set within a fox hunting club, none of which bring anyone
to justice for murdering foxes, Brown follows Ted Kerasote and
several other longtime defenders of hunting in presenting herself as
an animal lover–possibly because that’s where the money is.

BOOKS: Astro: The Steller Sea Lion

October 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

Astro: The Steller Sea Lion by Jeanne Walker Harvey
Sylvan Dell Publishing (612 Johnnie Dodds, Suite A2
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464), 2010. * 32 pages, paperback. $8.95.

No one knows how the baby sea lion washed upon the shore in
Morrow Bay Harbor, near San Luis Obispo, California, in December
2008. A scientist who saw the abandoned pup took him to the Marine
Mammal Center in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge
from San Francisco. Staff and volunteers named the sea lion Astro.
At ten months of age, when Astro was healthy enough for
release into the Pacific, he was fitted with a satellite tag so that
the Marine Mammal Center could monitor his travels. Astro was
returned to the beach where he was found, but the sea did not
interest him. Neither did the other sea lions lingering on the sand.
Astro waited for two days for his human friends to return for him.

BOOKS: Pukka: The Pup After Merle

October 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

Pukka: The pup after Merle
by Ted Kerasote
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(215 Park Ave. S., New York, NY 10003), 2010.
197 pages, hardcover. $18.95

Outdoor writer Ted Kerasote, until 2007,
was best known for his 1994 volume Bloodties, a
culture-based defense of hunting if the victims
are eaten. But Kerasote rejected trophy
hunting, which made him not much more popular
within the hunting industry than among animal
advocates.

BOOKS: The Backyard Bird Lover’s How-to-guide

October 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

The backyard bird lover’s ultimate how-to-guide
by Sally Roth
(Rodale Press, 33 East Minor Street, Emmaus, PA 18098), 2010.
316 pages, paperback. $21.99.

I know very little about birds except that the feeder outside
my trailer needs refilling every few days and I hear lots of
chirping. After reviewing Sally Roth’s new book, The Backyard Bird
Lover’s Ultimate How-to-Guide, I know a lot more about my feathery
friends. Roth knows birds and shares her vast experience as a
naturalist, writer and gardener. Roth introduces species including
the scarlett tanager, indigo bunting, and gray catbird, describes
what they eat, and offers recipes for birdseed mixes. “Catbirds get
corny,” for example, is a blend of suet, peanut butter, cornmeal,
wheat flour, apples, and sunflower chips.

BOOKS: Do Fish Feel Pain?

September 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2010:
(published October 5, 2010)

Do Fish Feel Pain?
by Victoria Braithwaite
Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave.,
New York, NY 10016), 2010.
194 pages, hardcover. $29.95.

Victoria Braithwaite, a professor of fisheries biology at
Pennsylvania State University and a visting professor at the
University of Bergen, Norway, had no idea in 2003 that she was
about to make a discovery that would change her life, the direction
of her field, and the perception that much of humanity has of fish.
Braithwaite certainly did not foresee, as an animal researcher,
that she would open a whole new direction in animal advocacy. Even
three years later, when Braithwaite summarized her work in an op-ed
essay for the Los Angeles Times, she was surprised by the intensity
of the response she drew from readers.

BOOKS: The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick’s dogs and their tale of rescue & redemption

September 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2010:
(published October 5, 2010)

The Lost Dogs:
Michael Vick’s dogs and their tale of rescue & redemption
by Jim Gorant
Gotham Books (375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014), 2010.
287 pages, hardcover. $26.00.

The Lost Dogs, like a Three Stooges film, should open with
the warning, “Don’t try this at home, kids.”
Yes, the American SPCA, Best Friends Animal Society, and
several other partner organizations were able to avoid euthanizing 47
of the 51 pit bull terriers who were confiscated from football star
and dogfighter Michael Vick in April 2007. About two-thirds of the
dogs were eventually placed in homes; the rest remain in sanctuary
care.

BOOKS: Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat

September 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2010:
(published October 5, 2010)

Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat:
Why It’s So Hard to Think Straight About Animals by Hal Herzog
HarperCollins Publishers (10 East 53rd St., New York, NY 10022),
2010. 324 pages, hardcover. $24.99.

“When I first started studying human/animal interactions, I
was troubled by the flagrant moral incoherence I have described in
these pages,” concludes Western Carolina University psychology
professor Hal Herzog in Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat.
Examples include “vegetarians who sheepishly admitted to me they ate
meat; cockfighters who proclaimed their love for their roosters;
purebred dog enthusiasts whose desire to improve their breed has
created generations of genetically defective animals; hoarders who
caused untold suffering to the creatures living in filth they claim
to have rescued. I have come to believe that these sorts of
contradictions are not anomalies or hypocrisies,” Herzog states.
“Rather, they are inevitable.”

BOOKS: How Shelter Pets Are Brokered for Experimentation: Understanding Pound Seizure

September 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2010:
(published October 5, 2010)

How Shelter Pets Are Brokered for Experimentation:
Understanding Pound Seizure
by Allie Phillips
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
(4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706), 2010. 220
pages, hardcover. $34.95.

American Humane Association director of public policy Allie
Phillips has in How Shelter Pets Are Brokered for Experimentation
written by far the best researched report on pound seizure to appear
between book covers since the late Animal Welfare Institute founder
Christine Stevens contributed a long chapter about it to Animals &
Their Legal Rights (1990).

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