Book Reviews

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

Track of the Cat, by Nevada Barr. G.P.

Putnam’s Sons (200 Madison Ave., New York, NY

10016) 1993, 238 pages, $19.95 hardcover.

“When is a cougar not a cougar?” asks National Park

Service Ranger Anna Pigeon, the heroine of this mystery

novel. Anna discovers the corpse of fellow park ranger Sheila

Drury while on a routine expedition searching for signs of

mountain lions. Drury has apparently been killed by one of

the big cats, but there are inconsistencies, which only Anna

seems to recognize. The authorities order the inevitable hunt

for the killer cat, and a lactating female cougar is blamed and

sacrificed. Anna, a native New Yorker who is more at home

with the desert wildlife of the Texas outback than with people,

is outraged and begins to probe. The plot twists and turns,

and the suspense carries through the last page. A bonus for the

animal person is that the book, written by real-life park ranger

Nevada Barr, is totally “animal rights” while being blessedly

bereft of philosophizing.

––Kim Bartlett

BOOKS: Pets and the meaning of life

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

Yes Virginia ...There IS A Pet

Heaven: Understanding Your Older

Dogs and Cats, by Corienne “Corky”

Jones. Pebbles Publishing (POB 1432,

Beaverton, OR 97075-1432), 1991, 144

pages, paper, $12.95 plus $2.00 postage.

Corienne Jones sums up her

approach to caring for older pets in mantra-

like fashion several times during the course of

her book:

BOOKS: Seeking the truth of whales

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

The Year of the Whale, by Victor B. Sheffer.

Scribner, 1969. 244 pages, paperback, out of print.

Gone Whaling, by Douglas Hand. Simon &

Schuster (Rockefeller Center, 1230 Avenue of the

Americas, New York, NY 10020), 1994. 223 pages,

$22.00 hardback.

Published 25 years apart, The Year of the Whale

and Gone Whaling came to ANIMAL PEOPLE, the former

at a library book sale and the latter for review, within 24

hours of one another. Victor Sheffer’s faintly fictionalized

account of the first year in the life of a sperm whale might be

remembered as the book that saved the whales, except that it

isn’t remembered at all despite the acclaim it received on pub-

lication, including the Burroughs Medal for the year’s best

book about natural history. Douglas Hand’s exploration of

the growing human fascination with orcas owes ancestry to

Sheffer’s work, even though the odds are good that Hand

hasn’t ever heard of Sheffer, much less read him. Though

FILM REVIEWS

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Early-Age Spay/Neuter, distributed by Cats In

Need of Human Care (POB 431, Pomona, CA 91769,

attn. Tiffany Curry). $10.00, or $13.00 including addi-

tional information for veterinarians.

“I began early-age neutering in early 1988,”

recalls veterinarian W.M. Mackie in a commentary distrib-

uted with the Early-Age Spay/Neuter video. “By the summer

of 1989, the Coalition for Pets in Los Angeles assigned

Phyllis Daugherty to video me in a show-and-tell. It is an

amateur production,” Mackie acknowledges of the newly

released product. But the technical faults don’t get in the way

of the message. “The purpose,” Mackie continues, “is to

show my anesthesia protocol and to demonstrate that the skill

required is not extraordinary. Shown quite clearly is that

recovery of youthful patients is quick.”

Summer Book Reviews

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The Cats of Thistle Hill, by Roger Caras.

Simon & Schuster (1230 Ave. of the Americas, New

York, NY 10020), 1994. 236 pages. $22 hardcover.

An excellent book for youngsters who demand to

know why they cannot have as many pets as they like, The

Cats of Thistle Hill is a melange of feline biographies,

information about the origins of the species and current

breeds; hints on the care, feeding, and behavioral problems

of cats; and anecdotes about the other animals on Thistle

Hill Farm, which seems to be less a farm than an animal

refuge. Roger Caras, now president of the American SPCA

and formerly an ABC television personality, apparently

maintains the fiction of farming as a front for animal rescue.

BOOKS: New wildlife titles

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The Zoo Book, by Allen W. Nyhuis. Carousel

Press (POB 6061, Albany, CA 94706-0061), 1994. 288

pages, 79 photos. $14.95 paperback.

Exhaustive but not definitive, The Zoo Book will give

zoogoers a general idea of what to expect at approximately 100

institutions, including 53 major U.S. zoos plus many aquariums,

foreign zoos, and other venues for observing captive wildlife.

Assessing each zoo from a tourist’s perspective, The Zoo Book

unfortunately gives good ratings to some whose animal holding

conditions and programs for the benefit of wildlife are poor to

mediocre. It also overlooks most small zoos. This justly penal-

izes the notorious roadside zoos, but may also tend to steer visi-

tors away from some outstanding small zoos, such as the

revamped collection at Watertown, New York, where a few

REVIEWS: North Atlantic Humpback Whales

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

N o rth Atlantic Humpback Whales, recorded by Paul

Knapp Jr. Compass Recordings (POB 8173, Bridgeport, CT

06605), 1992. $10.00.

As the do-wop chorus behind Paul Winter, Mannfred Mann,

Country Joe and others, whales have a CV comparable to that of the little-

known Diana Love, who sang on even more hit albums than the Beatles

before getting a star billing in her 29th year of rock-and-roll. Paul Knapp

Jr., an active member of Cetacean Society International, rectifies the

musical injustice to whales with his tape North Atlantic Humpback Whales.

The whales sing uninterrupted and unspliced on side A, picking up a back-

ground chorus of popping and crackling pistol shrimp on side B.

BOOKS: The Best Cat Ever

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The Best Cat Ever, by Cleveland Amory. Little Brown & Co.,

(1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020), 260 pages, $19.95 hardcover.

The Best Cat Ever, the third and final

volume of Cleveland Amory’s trilogy which also

includes The Cat Who Came for Christmas and The

Cat and the Curmudgeon, eulogizes Polar Bear and

the warm relationship Amory enjoyed with him for

15 years. Since an aging, arthritic cat, however

personable, cannot supply enough material alone

for an entertaining book of this length, Amory

includes a lot of gossipy humor about his school

days and Harvard years, recalled as he takes Polar

Bear to his major reunions. He recounts for us also

his career as a TV critic, his attempts to endure the

Duchess of Windsor as an employer for the biogra-

phy she wished him to write, and similar tidbits.

BOOKS: Keeping and Breeding Cockatiels, and Popular Parakeets: Australasian and Asian Species in Aviculture

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Keeping and Breeding Cockatiels, and Popular Parakeets: Australasian and

Asian Species in Aviculture, both by Dulcie and Freddie Cooke. Sterling Publishing

Co. (387 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10016-8810), 1987, updated 1993, and 1989,

updated 1993, respectively. 159 and 149 pages, $14.95 each, paperback.

A newcomer to birdcare would not be

well-guided by these books, which are oriented

toward aviculture in England. Their contents are

essentially identical. Each addresses basic avian

health, nutrition, and reproduction. Each contains

a chapter on avian disease by veterinarian Alan

Jones. Each omits much important information.

The need for companionship, integral to a bird’s

well-being, is overlooked almost entirely, as are

the avian needs for routine, consistency, and

security. Avian behavior is not addressed at all.

« 1 … 87 88 89 90 91 … 95 »