Category: Reviews

MOVIE REVIEWS: The Hunter

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:

The Hunter Starring Willem Dafoe, Frances O’Connor, & Sam Neill. Directed by Daniel Nettheim. Adapted from novel The Hunter by Julia Leigh. Porchlight Films, 2011 (Australia). U.S. release on April 6, 2012.

By Kim Bartlett & Wolf Clifton A year after release, the 2012 film The Hunter remains worth a second look. Based on the novel The Hunter by Julia Leigh, the film version stars Willem Dafoe, Frances O’Connor, and Sam Neill. Dafoe, a mercenary, hunts the last living thylacine, or “Tasmanian tiger,” on assignment from a biotech company that hopes to isolate, identify, and somehow use the toxin that thylacines are said to have used to paralyze prey. Read more

BOOKS: For Love of Cats

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2013:


For Love of Cats by Animal Rescue League of Iowa, Inc. Landauer Publishing Co. (3100 NW 101st St., Suite A,  Urbandale, Iowa 50322,  2012.  160 pages,   paperback.  $21.95.

 

For Love of Cats,  presented by the Animal Rescue League of Iowa,  draws upon years of shelter experience with cats and making successful adoptions of cats,  beginning with what to consider when choosing a cat.  Factors include age,  gender,  and whether the cat is a purebred or a rescued stray. Read more

BOOKS: Experiencing Animal Minds

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2013:

Experiencing Animal Minds:  An Anthology of Animal-Human Encounters Edited by Julie A. Smith & Robert W. Mitchell Columbia University Press (61 West 62nd St.,  New York,  NY  10023),  2012.   380 pages.  $19.24/Kindle,   $105.00 hardcover,   $35.00 paperback.

Experiencing Animal Minds is a fascinating collection of 21 essays by animal researchers and academic scholars. Many of the authors discuss how animals interact with each other and with humans,  including United Poultry Concerns founder Karen Davis.   Read more

BOOKS: Dogs of Courage

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2013:

Dogs of Courage: The heroism and heart of working dogs around the world by Lisa Rogak Thomas Dunne Books (175 Fifth Ave.,  New York,  NY 10010),  2012.  269 pages,  paperback.  $14.99.

Dogs of Courage: The heroism and heart of working dogs around the world begins with Ebony,  a hyperactive giant schnauzer.  Mike and Melenda Lanius,  who own a cleaning business called MoldBlasters,  send Ebony to a training academy to learn to sniff out mold.   Ebony now works for a living,  no longer bored or hyper. Read more

BOOKS: Knowing Horses

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2013:

Knowing Horses: Q&As to Boost Your Equine IQ by Les Sellnow & Carol A. Butler Storey Publishers (210 Massachusetts Museum of  Contemporary Art Way,  North Adams,  MA 01247),  2012. 249 pages,  paperback.  $14.95.

What a marvelous book,  I said to myself, after reading Knowing Horses, Q&As to Boost Your Equine IQ.  As a city kid,  I knew little about horses until moving west in 1997.  Authors Sellnow and Butler answer basic questions about working with horses,  horse care,  horse racing, wild horses,  horse breeds,  and horse behavior.   Read more

BOOKS: Getting to Zero: A Roadmap to Ending Animal Shelter Overpopulation in the United States

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Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:04:15 +0000

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2013:

Getting to Zero:  A Roadmap to Ending Animal Shelter Overpopulation in the United States 2012.  90 pages,  paperback:  $28.95.

Replacing Myth With Math:  Using Evidence-Based Programs to Eradicate Shelter Overpopulation 2010.  138 pages,  paperback.  $19.95 Both by Peter Marsh Town & Country Reprographics:  230 N. Main St., Concord, NH 03301.  Free downloads from: www.shelteroverpopulation.org

 

Getting to Zero:  A Roadmap to Ending Animal Shelter  Overpopulation in the United States could be described as Animal Sheltering Statistics & Economics 1-A,  and should be required reading for everyone aspiring to direct a humane society,  animal control agency,  or dog and cat population control program of any sort––or to make informed judgments about animal shelter management and funding. Read more

BOOKS: Chasing Doctor Doolittle: Learning the Language of Animals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:

Chasing Doctor Doolittle: Learning the Language of Animals by Con Slobodchikoff. Ph.D. St. Martin’s Press (c/o MacMillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010), 2012. 308 pages, hardcover, $25.99.

“My parents left Russia around the time of the Communist Revolution, and made the trek across Siberia to live in exile in China,” opens Con Slobodchikoff. “I was born in Shanghai…Then my family moved to the U.S. and I was enrolled in school in San Francisco.”

Slobodchikoff at age five slowly learned his third of three languages that have not even an alphabet in common, while his teachers presumed that he was stupid, disobedient, or afflicted with a speech impediment. Read more

BOOKS: Snow Leopard: Stories from the Roof of the World

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2013:

Snow Leopard:  Stories from the Roof of the World Edited by Don Hunter Univ. Press of Colorado (5589 Arapahoe Ave.,  Suite 206-C,  Boulder, CO 80303),  2012.  216 pages.  Hardcover $26.95,  e-book $21.95.

Don Hunter,  who assembled Snow Leopard:  Stories from the Roof of the World,  acknowledges inspiration and help in arranging publication from wildlife ethologist Marc Bekoff,  co-editor of the 2008 anthology Listening to Cougar. Like Listening to Cougar,  Hunter’s anthology collects first-person recollections of encounters with a seldom-seen big cat–but,  while thousands of people per year catch at least fleeting glimpses of a puma,  mere dozens see snow leopards. Read more

BOOKS: All My Patients Kick & Bite

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2013:

 

All My Patients Kick & Bite: Favorite Stories from a Vet’s Practice by Jeff Wells,  DVM St. Martin’s Griffin (175 5th Ave.,  New York,  NY 10010),  2012.  246 pages,  paperback.  $14.99.

 

Rural Colorado veterinarian Jeff Wells in All My Patients Kick & Bite follows up his 2009 hit All My Patients Have Tales, which was also subtitled “Favorite Stories from a Vet’s Practice.”  Chiefly treating livestock,  especially sheep and horses,  Wells is among many vets aspiring to reprise the success of British veterinarian James Alfred Wright (1916-1995),  who began his practice in 1940,  and published the first of his 14 books written as “James Herriot” in 1970.   Read more

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