BOOKS: The Save-A-Life Guide

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

The Save-A-Life Guide
Edited by Vicki Todaro
(3504 Fort Hunt Drive,
Arlington, TX 76016), 1999.

Sponsored by Ahimsa of Texas,
this 141-page looseleaf binder is a much
expanded second edition of a volume which
includes capsule descriptions and contact
data for all (or nearly all) Dallas/Fort
Worth-area animal shelters; fostering programs;
dog breed rescuers; cat clubs; rescue
groups for ferrets, rabbits, pigs, horses,
and birds; wildlife rescue and rehabilitation
programs; and various other organizations
which might help someone save an
animal in north/central Texas.
One might jump to the conclusion
that the Dallas/Fort Worth area is unusually
rich in resources for animals. It’s more the
norm, but few regions have anything like
The Save-A-Life Guide to facilitate liaison.

BOOKS: Lootas, Little Wave Eater

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

Lootas, Little Wave Eater:
An Orphaned Sea Otter’s Story
by Clare Hodgson Meeker
with photos by C.J. Casson
Sasquatch Books (615 2nd Ave.,
Suite 260, Seattle, WA 98104), 1999.
48 pages, paperback. $12.95.

From 400 to 600 Alaskan sea otters
now inhabit the Washington coast, according
to the U.S. Geological Survey in a newly
released national biodiversity inventory. They
are the only sea otters who are now doing
well. Off Alaska, where sea otters were
abundant enough in 1997 that marine mammologist
James Bodkin suggested that they
could be hunted, numbers have fallen, apparently
because orcas who can’t find enough
fish to eat are eating sea otters instead.

BOOKS: Beyond Evolution

November 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

Beyond Evolution by Michael W. Fox
The Lyons Press (123 West 18th St., New York, NY 10011), 1999.
256 pages, hardcover. $24.95.

“Few parents teach their children reverence for all
life, opening their hearts to the wonders and mysteries of wild
nature,” Humane Society of the U.S. senior vice president
Michael W. Fox laments on page 216 of Beyond Evolution.
“Few children now go out to hunt and trap and fish with their
fathers…It can be difficult to empathize with those who have
never learned why they must kill a deer swiftly with one arrow,
and not just for sport; and with those people who still eat other
animals without a second thought. But empathize we must to
help restore our collective humanity.”

BOOKS: The Way of Compassion & A Vegetarian Lifestyle

October 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1999:

The Way of Compassion:
Survival Strategies for a World in Crisis
Edited by Martin Rowe
Stealth Technologies (POB 138, Prince St. Station, New York, NY 10012), 1999.
244 pages, paperback, $16.95.

A Vegetarian Lifestyle:
A way of life which causes no creature of land, sea, or air
terror, torture, or death
Edited by Diana Ratnagar and Ranjit Konkar
Beauty Without Cruelty – India (4 Prince of Wales Drive, Wanowrie,
Pune 411 040, India), 1999. 474 pages, paperback, no price listed.

“In June 1994,” The Way of
Compassion editor Martin Rowe opens, “my
colleague Beth Gould and I began a magazine,”
distributed in free bundles at New
York City restaurants and health food stores,
“called Satya. The word itself means ‘truth,’”
Rowe continues, “and it is one of the fundamental
precepts of the Jain religion of India.
The Jains believe in radical nonviolence, and
attempt to live that way as much as possible.”
The Way of Compassion assembles
many of the most memorable essays, book
excerpts, and interviews published by Satya
through 1998.

BOOKS: Nature’s Keepers

October 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1999:

Nature’s Keepers: On the Front Lines
of the Fight to Save Wildlife in America
by Michael Tobias
John Wiley & Sons (605 3rd Ave., New York, NY 10158), 1999.
238 pages, hardcover, $24.95.

Poachers were the undisputed heroes
of cops-and-robbers with a wildlife motif for
at least the first 700 years they existed as a
genre. Only late in the 20th century has the
Robin Hood image of the poacher tarnished,
to the point that recent renditions of the Robin
Hood legend––like the animated version from
Walt Disney Studios and the live-action version
starring Kevin Costner––have utterly
ignored his reputation as a deerslayer, gillnetter,
and master of the snare.

BOOKS: Stickeen & Dr. White

October 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1999:

Stickeen: John Muir
and the Brave Little Dog
by John Muir
as retold by Donnell Rubay
Illus. by Christopher Canyon
Dawn Publications (14618 Tyler Foote
Road, Nevada City, CA 95959), 1998.
Paperback, $7.95.

Dr. White
by Jane Goodall
Illustrated by Julie Litty
North-South Books (1123 Broadway,
Suite 800, New York, NY 10010),
1999. Hardcover, $15.88.

The 19th-and-early-20th-century
conservationist John Muir and contemporary
primatologist Jane Goodall achieved comparable
stature in advancing human understanding
of animals and nature, largely in lost
causes––Muir trying to save the last wild
places in the American west, Goodall trying
to save wilderness in Africa.

BOOKS: Men & Whales

September 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

Men & Whales
by Richard Ellis
542 pages, 400+ illustrations, paperback. $30.00. 1991.

Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex
by Owen Chase
144 pages, paperback. $12.95. 1821.
Both from The Lyons Press (123 West 18th St., New York, NY 10011), 1999.

Available in paperback for the first
time are two classic works on the subject of
whales and whaling––Men & Whales, the
encyclopedic history of the human/whale relationship,
by Richard Ellis, and Shipwreck of
the Whaleship Essex, by Owen Chase, the
true narrative of a survivor of the event that
would be among the primary inspirations for
Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. With
the Chase narrative are two briefer accounts
of the same incident by other survivors.

BOOKS: Grey Owl

September 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

Grey Owl: The many faces of Archie Belaney
by Jane Billinghurst
Kodansha America Inc. (575 Lexington Ave., New York,
If you are interested in how live- NY 10022), 1999. 145 pages, illustrated. $22.00, hardcover.

A sticker affixed to the cover of
Grey Owl: The many faces of Archie Belaney
announces that his life is soon to be featured
in “A Major Motion Picture by Richard
Attenborough.” Pierce Brosnan was apparently
cast in the leading role after the book
went to press.
The incorrect but dramatic capitalizations
echo Grey Owl’s own style, as one of
the first and most successful of the many
members of the Wannabe Tribe who have presented
themselves, over the years, as bearers
of a largely fictitious Native American ecological
wisdom.

Reviews

BOOKS: My Year of Meats

September 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki
Penguin Putnam Inc. (375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014), 1998.
366 pages, hardcover. $23.95.

If you are interested in how live-stock are treated by those who raise them, or
in how meat is viewed culturally in Japan and
America, then read this unexpectedly hip
novel. It touches on the evils of commercial
television and advertising agencies, bigotry,
spousal abuse, and of course, the meat
industry. But it’s mainly a morality tale centered
on the world of advertising and one person’s
epiphany and redemption.
Told in the first person by one Jane
Takagi-Little, the daughter of a Minnesotan
father and a Japanese mother, who is an upand-coming
TV series coordinator, the book
is a real page-turner. Sponsored by “BEEFEX,”
a (fictitious) American beef export and
trade syndicate, the TV series is designed to
convince Japanese housewives that meat
should be a part of every big meal: that
“Meat is the Message.”

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