REVIEWS: Species Link: The Journal of Interspecies Telepathic Communication

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Species Link: The Journal of Interspecies Telepathic Communication
Quarterly, $25/year, c/o Anima Mundi Incorporated
(P.O. Box 1060, Point Reyes, CA 94956; <www.animaltalk.net>.)

A skeptic might ask why telepaths need a periodical, when
they have telepathy.
Why do any of us need paper and filing cabinets, when we
have computers?
Telepathy alone, if it existed, might be sufficient to
share ideas, contact information, and details of coming events,
but even the most powerful communicating mind might become cluttered
and confused if obliged to archive and organize the sort of
information gathered and shared for 56 editions so far by Species
Link editor Penelope Smith.
Further, not everyone interested in telepathy is a telepath–yet.
Smith and others believe “animal communication” can be taught and
learned. Many of the Species Link participants believe that they are
telepaths, but some do not. Many others hold a more practical and
quantifiable perspective on how wordless communication with animals
occurs.

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BOOKS: The New Work of Dogs & The Dogs of Bedlam Farm

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Two books by Jon Katz–
The New Work of Dogs:
Tending to life, love, and family
2003. 237 pages, paperback. $13.95.

The Dogs of Bedlam Farm:
An Adventure with Sixteen Sheep,
Three Dogs, Two Donkeys, and Me
2004. 260 pages, hardcover. $22.95.

Both from Random House (1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019).

 

“Bedlam” is defined by the Columbia Encyclopedia as “a place,
scene, or state of uproar and confusion.”
The term derives from a Cockney corruption of the name of the
Bethlehem Hospital, the most prominent mental institution in Britain
from as early as 1329, and definitely after 1403, until 1930.
From 1670 until 1770, Bedlam supported itself by collecting
admission fees from those who wished to view and perhaps torment the
lunatics. Among the first successes of the organized humane movement
in Britain was securing passage of the 1774 Madhouse Act. This
introduced medical inspection and oversight of madhouses, to try to
keep a fast-growing private madhouse industry from perpetuating the
abuses that occurred at Bedlam.

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BOOKS: Partners In Independence

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Partners In Independence:
A Success Story of Dogs and the Disabled
by Ed & Toni Eames
Barkleigh Productions, Inc.
(6 State Road #113, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050), 2nd edition 2004,
revised. 232 pages, paperback. $19.95.]

Ed and Toni Eames, of Fresno, California, are blind people
who have spent half a lifetime trying to make the world a better
place for disabled people who rely upon service dogs.
Partners In Independence describes what life is like for
people who cannot see or have only limited vision, and how guide dogs
transform their lives. Ed and Toni Eames describe the lives of guide
dogs, how they are bred and raised, how they are trained, how they
are paired with their human companions, and what happens when either
partner, human or canine, dies.
The first guide dog school in the U.S., The Seeing Eye, was
established in 1929, inspired by work done in Germany with blinded
World War I veterans. Initially the German Shepherd dog was the dog
of choice for guide work, but most trained guides today are
Labradors and golden retrievers.

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BOOKS: Working Dogs: True Stories of Dogs & Their Handlers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Working Dogs: True Stories of Dogs & Their Handlers
by Kristin Mehus-Roe
with photos by Keith May
Bowtie Press (3 Burroughs, Irvine, CA 92618), 2003.
240 pages, paperback. $21.95.

Kristin Mehus-Roe offers a thorough introduction to the use
of dogs in hunting, herding, helping the disabled, providing
emotional therapy, pulling sleds and other vehicles, performing as
entertainers, detecting contraband, guarding, tracking, and
rescuing.
Among these 12 common canine jobs, Mehus-Roe lists hunting
first, because it evolved first. Dogs probably hunted and scavenged
in loose partnership with other species for millions of years before
humans evolved, much as coyotes and jackals continue to hunt and
scavenge in partnerships of convenience with badgers, crows,
baboons, and big cats. Typically the canines help to corner the
prey, let the other species do the most dangerous part of the
killing, then share the remains.

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BOOKS: Dogs Don’t Bite When a Growl Will Do

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Dogs Don’t Bite When a Growl Will Do
by Matt Weinstein & Luke Barber
Berkeley Publishing Group (c/o Penguin USA, 375 Hudson St., New
York, NY 10014), 2003. 282 pages, hardcover. $19.95

Playfair Inc. management consulting firm founder Matt
Weinstein and philosophy professor Luke Barber have compiled 67 short
lessons on how to make one’s life happier by adopting or adapting
some canine philosophy.
The book could also be called “67 lessons in being Zen like
your dog.” Each lesson starts with an observation about canine
behaviour, and then extrapolates it to human habits. Using the dog
story to expose a common social or psychological flaw in humans,
Weinstein and Barber reveal how silly and futile many cherished human
beliefs and habits are. Ancient wisdom is quoted in support of the
ways of the canine Zen masters:
“Celebrate your life every moment that you have. No event in
life is too small to celebrate. Live fully. Love and laugh
wastefully. Take pleasure in the little things. Play and roll on
your back in the park. Forgive even if you cannot forget–grudges
only make you unhappy.”
We can learn from dogs to be receptive, playful,
optimistic, easily satisfied, sensitive, faithful, curious, and
compassionate. –Chris Mercer & Bev Pervan

Feral cats, urban wildlife, and species survival amid human enterprise

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

TNR Past, Present, & Future:
A History of the Trap-Neuter-Return Movement
by Ellen Perry Berkeley
Alley Cat Allies (1801 Belmont Rd. NW, Suite 201, Washington, DC
20009), 2004.
100 pages, paperback. $16.00.

The Raccoon Next Door: Getting Along With Urban Wildlife
by Gary Bogue
illustrated by Chuck Todd
Heyday Books (POB 9145, Berkeley, CA 94709), 2003. 142 pages,
paperback. $16.95.

Win-Win Ecology:
How the Earth’s Species Can Survive In The Midst of Human Enterprise
by Michael L. Rosenzweig
Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016), 2003.
209 pages, hardcover. $27.00.

Ellen Perry Berkeley’s 1982 volume Maverick Cats, especially
the 1987 reprint, is justly credited with introducing appreciation
and understanding of feral cats to the U.S. humane movement. Focusing
on the ecological roles of feral cats, Berkeley included a
description of neuter/return feral cat population control, then
known to be widely used only in Britain.

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BOOKS: The Craggy Hole In My Heart & The Cat Who Fixed It

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

The Craggy Hole In My Heart & The Cat Who Fixed It
(Over the edge and back with my dad, my cat, and me)
by Geneen Roth
Harmony Books (Harmony Books, 231 Broad St., Nevada City, CA
95959), 2004. 238 pages, hardcover. $21.00.

“Although not every present-day pattern in our lives can be
traced back to our childhoods, the imprint for love–who and how we
love, and what we recognize as love –can,” says self-help writer
Geneen Roth.
“To some people love means being left, being anxious, being
constantly on the edge, and this pattern plays out with frustrating
consistency throughout their relationships. To others love means
being wanted, being seen, being cherished–and their relationships
reflect exactly that.
“Our earliest experiences of being known or ignored, being
held or left alone, being welcomed or criticized, being told we
were too much or not enough, create the architecture for love in our
nervous systems and limbic brains and effects us for the rest of our
lives.”

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BOOKS: Animal Rights

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2004:

Animal Rights:
A very short introduction
by David DeGrazia
Oxford University Press
(198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016), 2002. 131 pp., paperback. $9.95.

In just 116 pages George Washington University professor
David DeGrazia reviews the different schools of thought within the
animal rights movement, and then examines three of the more
contentious issues: meat eating, zoos, and biomedical research.
De Grazia presents the concepts, arguments and counter
arguments as well as possible within the constraints of brevity.
morality of animal rights.
–Chris Mercer & Bev Pervan

BOOKS: The Case for Animal Rights

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2004:

The Case for Animal Rights, 2004 edition
by Tom Regan
University of Calif. Press
(2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94704), 2004.
425 pages, paperback. $21.95.

Moral philosophy tends to cause the general reader to either
fall asleep or develop a headache.
Knowing this, Tom Regan in 2002 produced a demystified,
simplified version of his 1983 volume The Case for Animal Rights,
entitled Empty Cages. That is the book for the general reader.
The Case for Animal Rights, 2004 edition is primarily a
textbook for moral philosophy students. Regan responds in an updated
preface to some of the criticisms of the first edition.
Most thoughtful people consider how much they should adjust
their lifestyles to avoid causing animal suffering. Typically this
judgement proceeds from personal intuition. But beliefs coming from
such a subjective and emotional origin are not necessarily convincing
to others, and do not provide a consistent approach to resolving
moral conflict when the resolution must be translated into public law
or policy.

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