Category: Reviews

BOOKS / Stolen Apes: The Illicit Trade in Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bonobos & Orangutans

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

Stolen Apes:  The Illicit Trade in Chimpanzees,   Gorillas,  Bonobos & Orangutans by Daniel Stiles,  Ian Redmond,   Doug Cress,  Christian Nellemann,   & Rannweig Knutsdatter Formo United Nations Environment Programme Free download from  <http://www.un-grasp.org/news/121-download>

Kenyan wildlife photographer Karl Amman in March 1996 and March 2000 ANIMAL PEOPLE guest columns recounted how the international conservation establishment ignored his warnings and supporting documentation about the emerging illicit great ape traffic.  Only habitat issues were taken seriously; associating the decline of nonhuman primates with hunting and meat-eating,  as Amman did,  was denounced as allegedly exhibiting an unscientific preoccupation with the fates of individuals,  as opposed to species. Read more

BOOKS / The Lost Whale: The True Story of an Orca Named Luna

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

The Lost Whale: The True Story of an Orca Named Luna by Michael Parfit & Suzanne Chisholm St. Martin’s Press (c/o MacMillan,  175 Fifth Avenue,  New York,  NY  10010),  2013. 329 pages,  hardcover.  $25.99

The Lost Whale is a compelling story of a lost orca,  or killer whale,  who as an infant in 2001 somehow became separated from his pod,  the family that he depended on for survival. Read more

BOOKS: Horse Sanctuary

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2013:

Horse Sanctuary  by Allison Milionis Photos by Karen Tweedy Holmes Universe (300 Park Avenue South,  New York,  NY  10010),  2013. 255 pages,  hardcover.  $40.00.

Horse Sanctuary offers more than 250 exquisite photos of horses at 13 facilities listed here for the interest of readers who may donate to one or more them and wonder what they look like:

The Blackburn Correctional Complex training center operated by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation in Lexington,  Kentucky;  the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary in Hot Springs,  South Dakota; the Catskill Animal Sanctuary,  in Saugerties,  New York;  the Equine Sanctuary,  in Ojai,  California;  Equine Voices Rescue & Sanctuary,  in Green Valley,  Arizona;  Front Range Equine Rescue,  in Larkspur,  Colorado; the Horse Harbor Foundation,  in Poulsbo,  Washington;  the Last Chance Corral in Athens,  Ohio;  Lope Texas,  in Cedar Creek,  Texas;  Lucky Horse Equine Rescue,  in Bolton,  Massachusetts;  Nokota Horse Conservancy,  in Linton,  North Dakota;  Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue,  in Tehachapi,  California;  and Save Your Ass Long Ear Rescue,  in South Acworth,  New Hampshire. The accompanying text uncritically describes the work of each facility.  Horse-lovers will love it,  but Horse Sanctuary is at best just a coffee table treatment of the issues involved in horse rescue.  Several of the profiles are seriously misleading.   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: For Love of Dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:

For Love of Dogs
by Animal Rescue League of Iowa, Inc.
Landauer Publishing Co. (3100 NW 101st St., Suite A, Urbandale, Iowa
50322), 2012. 208 pages, paperback. $24.95.

For Love of Dogs is a companion book to For Love of Cats, also
produced by the Animal Rescue League of Iowa. It is just as well
written and informative as the book on cats.

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BOOKS: The Heartbeat at Your Feet

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:

The Heartbeat at Your Feet:
A Practical, Compassionate
New Way to Train Your Dog
by Lisa Tenzin-Dolma
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
(4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706), 2012.
180 pages, hardcover or e-book. $32.00 in either format.

The Heartbeat at Your Feet is advertised as “the first book to
reveal how you can fully understand and communicate with dogs and how
you can easily eliminate any behavior problems based on new information
about animal behavior.”

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BOOKS: The Cat Whisperer

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:

The Cat Whisperer:
Why Cats Do What They Do –
And How to Get Them to Do What You Want
by Mieshelle Nagelschneider
Random House (1745 Broadway, New York,
NY 10019), 2013. 297 pages, hardcover. $25.00.

Feline perceptions and responses differ far more from those of
humans than do the perceptions and responses of dogs. Thus, while most
dogs train humans to understand their needs relatively easily,
misunderstandings of cat behavior may be the most common reason why cats
who once had homes land in shelters.

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Zoobiquity: What animals can teach us about health and the science of healing

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2013:

Zoobiquity:  What animals can teach us about health and the science of healing   by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D. & Kathryn Bowers Knopf (1745 Broadway,  New York,  NY 10019),  2012.  308 pages,  hardcover.  $26.95.

 

Animals have long been involved in human health care,  as sources of purported medicines,  subjects of experiments,  and as witches’ familiars. “The idea that animals have healing powers reaches back to the dawn of human civilization,”  explains Creighton University medical historian Carrie E. Muffett,  M.D.,  on the Creighton pet-assisted therapy web site.  “The Mayans, for example,  believed that each of us is given a ‘soul animal’ to serve as a protective guide in earthly life.  The Egyptian deity Anubis,  physician of the gods,  bore a canine head.  Read more

BOOKS: Training the Best Dog Ever

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2013:

Training the Best Dog Ever by Dawn Sylvia-Stasiewicz & Larry Kay Workman Publishing (225 Varick St.,  9th floor,  New York,  NY 10014),  2012. 287 pages,  paperback.  $14.95

Training the Best Dog Ever is the paperback release of a manual originally published in 2010 as the Love That Dog Training Program. Co-author Dawn Sylvia-Stasiewicz,  who died in January 2011,  was renowned as trainer of three water spaniels for the late Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy,  and of Bo,  the current White House dog. Read more

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