Category: Reviews

BOOKS: The Secret Life of Dog Catchers

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

The Secret Life of Dog Catchers: An animal control officer’s passion to make a difference by Shirley Zindler 2270 Gravenstein Highway South,  Sebastopol,  CA  95472 https://www.createspace.com/4096859?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026 250 pages,  paperback.  $18.00.

One New Year’s Day,  rain flooded Rohnert Park,  California.  The county animal shelter was closed,  but Sonoma County animal control officer Shirley Zindler worked emergency calls.  “Muddy, rapidly rising water swirled and eddied around the small sandbar where the old dog lay,”  recalls Zindler in The Secret Life of Dog Catchers.  The senior dog, wet and cold, had obviously struggled to pull herself onto a dry sliver of land as the raging creek almost swallowed her up.  Sizing up the precarious situation,  Zinder realized there was a nearby fire station.  Within minutes four firefighters arrived in a truck and pulled the dog to safety. Read more

BOOKS—Unleashed: The Phenonena of Status Dogs and Weapon Dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

Unleashed:  The Phenomena of Status Dogs and Weapon Dogs   by Simon Harding The Policy Press,  U. of Bristol (c/o U. of Chicago Press,   427 East 60th St.,  Chicago,  IL 60637),  2012.    286 pages,  hardcover.  $100.60;  Kindle $23.72.

I first saw an American Staffordshire,  better known as a pit bull,  during a 1989 visit to Baltimore.  Three youths had stolen a cocker spaniel and were encouraging their three unleashed pit bulls to tear the spaniel apart alive.  The spaniel tried desperately to escape,  but was held on a short leash.  By the time I reached the scene,  the spaniel had collapsed,  possibly dead.  The youths kept kicking the remains,  and the AmStaffs kept attacking.  By the time the cops caught up with them,  they had disposed of the evidence.  They laughed in the cops’ faces:  “Man, you’ll never find that dead dog, and anyway we’re juvies––you can’t touch us.” Read more

BOOKS: Saving Baby: How a woman’s love for a racehorse leads to her redemption

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From Animal People May-June 2013—

Saving Baby:  How a woman’s love for a racehorse leads to her redemption by JoAnne Normile with Larry Lindner  Powder Point Publishing (P.O. Box 530,  Hingham,  MA 02043),  2013.    263 pages,  paperback.  $15.00.

JoAnne Normile entered horse racing relatively late in life,  at age 43,  seven years after convincing her husband to move from urban Detroit to rural Michigan,  where they could keep horses.  

By the end of the 1980s they had two horses.  They entered the racing circuit in 1992 with Normile’s beloved Baby.   Read more

BOOKS / The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs are Smarter Than You Think

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

The Genius of Dogs:  How Dogs are Smarter Than You Think  by Brian Hare & Vanessa Woods Dutton (c/o Penguin USA,  375 Hudson St.,  New York, NY 10014), 2013.  367 pages.  $37.95/hardcover or $14.95 paperback.

Publicity for The Genius of Dogs alleges that co-author Brian Hare has done more than anyone else to change human appreciation of the intelligence of dogs.  This overlooks the influence of more than 150 years of highly popular fictional Lassie stories,  originating with The Half-brothers,  by Elizabeth Gaskell in 1859, and countless real-life feats of resourceful intelligence performed by Lassies named after the fictional dogs,  including the rescue and revival of a “drowned” British sailor in 1915 and the rescue of a drowning boy from Lake Ontario in 1936.   Read more

BOOKS: How Animals Grieve

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

How Animals Grieve   by Barbara J. King University of Chicago Press (1427 E. 60th St.,  Chicago,  IL  60637),  2013.  179 pages,  paperback.  $25.00

How Animals Grieve author Barbara J. King asks,  “Is it outlandish to write of animal love?”  No,  of course not.  Some animals love and grieve differently from humans,  but their expressions are real,  and many animals grieve exactly as humans do. Read more

DOCUMENTS: U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook, 2012 edition

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook,  2012 edition ($195 member download;  $295 non-member download;  $20 extra for printed copy.) American Veterinary Medical Association,  1931 North Meacham Road, Suite 100,  Schaumburg,  IL 60173. 186 pages,  paperback.    AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals:  2013 edition Free download from:   https://www.avma.org/KB/Policies/Documents/euthanasia-highres.pdf

The American Veterinary Medical Association charges from $195 to $315 for the U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographic Sourcebook,  2012 edition,  depending on the membership status of the customer and the format in which the book is provided,  but the AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals:  2013 edition are free for the downloading. Read more

BOOKS & DOCUMENTS: CITES at 40: Perspectives, trade patterns & future prospects

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

CITES at 40:  Perspectives,  trade patterns & future prospects,   compiled by United Nations Environment Programme  World Conservation Monitoring Centre Free download from <www.unep-wcmc.org>

Created in 1973 by the United Nations,  the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora tracks and regulates commerce in about 34,000 species.  About 3% are listed on Appendix I,  meaning that they are endangered,  or Appendix II,  meaning that they are threatened.  CITES compliance is voluntary.  Individual nations may invoke trade sanctions against violators,  but CITES itself has no enforcement mechanism.   Read more

DOCUMENTS: Guns, Excise Taxes, & Wildlife Restoration

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

Guns,  Excise Taxes,  & Wildlife Restoration by M. Lynne Corn & Jane G. Gravelle Congressional Research Service Free download from <www.crs.gov>

“As result of the recent debate over guns,  gun rights,  and gun-related violence,  there has been a marked increase in sales of many weapons as well as ammunition,”  opens this succinct five-page resumé of the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Program.   Read more

BOOKS: Humane education classic

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

Humane education classic The Universal Natural History:  Natural History in Anecdote by Alfred H. Miles,  Profusely Illustrated With Colored Plates Dodd Mead & Co.,  New York.  1895.  385 pages.

Clinton,  Washington,  where ANIMAL PEOPLE receives mail,  was named in 1883 by Civil War veteran Edward C. Hinman,  who came from Eagle Township in Clinton County,  Michigan.  Hinman “built a hotel and a dock, supplying steamships with wood and water,”  local histories recount.  From 1885 to 1896,  Hinman ran the local post office from a general store located kitty-corner from the present post office.   The building still exists,  but has long been vacant. Read more

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