BOOKS: Superman for the Animals

April 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

Superman For The Animals by Mark Millar

drawn by Tom Grummett & Dick Giordano

D.C. Comics / Doris Day Animal Foundation

Sold as a bonus item, packaged with Batman: Gotham Adventures, Superman Adventures, Impulse, Hourman, and Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. comic books, Superman For The Animals is the Doris Day Animal Foundation’s attempt to reach adolescent and teenaged males––the age/gender subcategory most closely associated with violence against animals, both legal (for example, high-volume “varmint” shooting) and illegal, and for that matter, violence against humans and each other.

Reviews

BOOKS: Animal Underworld

April 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

ANIMAL UNDERWORLD:
Inside America’s Black Market for Rare and Exotic Species
by Alan Green and the Center for Public Integrity
Public Affairs (250 West 57th St., Suite 1321, New York, NY 10117), 1999. 320 pages, hardcover. $25.00.

I have been waiting since November 29, 1999, for the American Zoo Association to respond to my repeated inquiries as to just what it intends to do to discourage member institutions from exporting animals to wildlife parks in China which feed live animals to carnivores. The AZA non-response was among our January/February 2000 feature topics.

I have been annoying the AZA for more than 20 years with exposes of animal transactions contradicting the intent of the AZA Code of Ethics that zoo animals should not be dispatched to abusive situations, either directly or indirectly; should not be bred other than to sustain zoo populations without wild capture; and should not, under normal circumstances, ever leave the AZA-accredited loop.

BOOKS: Humane how-tos

March 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2000:

Trap, Neuter, & Return: A Humane Approach to Feral Cat Control Video from Alley Cat Allies

(1801 Belmont Road NW, Suite 201, Washington, DC 2009), 1999. 42 minutes. $16.00.

How To Control Beaver Flooding Edited by Sharon T. Brown, M.A., and Joseph W. Brown, Ph.D. Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife (146 Van Dyke Rd., Dolgeville, NY 13329), 1999. 12 pages. $2.00 each, bulk rates available.

Can You Turn A Wolf Into A Dog? Commonly Asked Questions About Having Wolves and Hybrids as Pets by Pat Tucker & Bruce Weide Wild Sentry (POB 172, Hamilton, MT 59840), 2000. 24 pages. $2.00 each, bulk rates available.

BOOKS: The Rainbow & Other Stories

March 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2000:

The Rainbow & Other Stories by Maneka Gandhi Puffin Books (India ), 1999.

Distributed in the U.S. by the Jiv Daya Committee (1718 E. Jeter Road, Bartonville, TX 76226.)

68 pages, hardcover. Illustrated.

Offered as premium for $30 donation to help the People for Animals street dog project in Bombay; the Jiv Daya Dharma Donkey Sanctuary and Education Center, also in India; and spay/neuter projects by Ahimsa of Texas

As federal minister for social justice and empowerment in India since August 1998, a portfolio which includes oversight of animal welfare, Maneka Gandhi holds the most influential public office attained by any outspoken animal rights advocate.

BOOKS: Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home

January 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home and other unexplained powers of animals

by Rupert Sheldrake

Crown Publishers (201 East 50th St., New York, NY 10022), 1999.

350 pages, $25.00, hardcover

Spend enough time around animals, of any species, and after a while an observant person will discover that they frequently know some things well before humans. Some of this has a simple explanation: most mammals and birds have keener hearing than humans, most mammals also have a sharper sense of smell, and cats and many other mammals have built-in night vision. Rats even see in the ultraviolet spectrum.

But some other phenomena are harder to explain. One is how come many dogs and some cats seem to know when a favorite person is coming home, and occupy a characteristic greeting location not used at other times, even when the person may still be aloft in an airplane or just getting ready to leave work. Even harder to explain is how come such animals are often able to anticipate unusual changes in the person’s schedule.

BOOKS: The Camel’s Nose

January 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

THE CAMEL’S NOSE: Memoirs of a Curious Scientist

by Knut Schmidt-Nielsen

Island Press (1718 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20009), 1998.

339 pages. $24.94 hardback.

“It has been said that the primary function of schools is to impart enough facts to make children stop asking questions,” Knut Schmidt-Nielsen opens in a passage quoted by more than just a few of his reviewers. “Some, with whom the schools do not succeed, become scientists.”

In his preface, Schmidt-Nielsen elaborates, “This is a personal story of a life spent in science. It tells about curiosity, about finding out and finding answers. The questions I have tried to answer have been very straightfoward, perhaps even simple: Do marine birds drink sea water? How do camels in hot deserts manage for days without drinking when humans could not? How can kangaroo rats live in the desert without water? How can snails find water in the most barren deserts? Can crab-eating frogs really survive in sea water?

BOOKS: The Emperor’s Embrace

December 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1999:

The Emperor’s Embrace:
Reflection on Animal Families and Fatherhood
by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Pocketbooks (c/o Simon & Schuster, 1230 Ave. of the Americas,
New York, NY 10020), 1999. 253 pages, hardcover. $24.00.

At the recent No Kill Conference in
Chicago, I told seven fellow participants in a
round-table discussion group about an extraordinary
old feral tomcat named Bull, whom we
sheltered for the last two years of his life.
Bull, immensely popular with almost all other
cats but deeply mistrustful of humans, came
to our notice because he fed and looked after
two kittens through a Connecticut winter in
the wrecked car that was his former home.
Three of the seven No Kill conferees,
all of them veteran feral cat rescuers, had
also encountered cases of tomcats feeding and
protecting kittens––exactly opposite to the
stereotype of tomcats as kitten-killers.

REVIEWS: All the Little Animals

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

All The Little Animals
Directed and produced by Jeremy Thomas
Starring Christian Bale and John Hurt
Lions Gate Films (561 Broadway, Suite 12-B, New York, NY 10012), 1999

Scheduled for video release in
November, after an August theatre debut,
All The Little Animals invites comparison
with characters reminiscent of George and
Lenny in John Steinbeck’s 1937 novella O f
Mice And Men, a plot loosely paralleling
Charles Dickens’ autobiographical opus
David Copperfield, and climactic action
developing within the ruins of King Arthur’s
reputed stronghold along the Cornish coast.

BOOKS: STERLING REFERENCES

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

STERLING REFERENCES
Bears Of The World by Paul Ward & Susanne Kynaston
Bugs Of The World by George C. McGavin
Rodents Of The World by David Alderton
Seals & Sea Lions Of The World by Nigel Bonner
All from Blandford Ltd. (distributed by Sterling Publishing Co., 387 Park Ave.
South, New York, NY 10016-8810), 1999. 192-224 pages, paperback. $19.95.
Penguins: A Worldwide Guide
by Remy Marion
Illustrated by Sylvaine Maigret-Mondry
Also distributed by Sterling. 156 pages, hardcover. $22.95.

Among the wealth of new animal reference
works from Blandford Ltd. and Sterling
Publishing, the firm’s U.S. distribution partner,
there is one––Seals & Sea Lions Of The
World––whose value I can personally affirm
from having used a predecessor volume, The
Natural History Of Seals, an average of about
once a month for 10 years.

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