How to keep mange out of shelters

January 1, 2001 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2001:

Accompanying ANIMAL PEOPLE on shelter visits in the Chennai area was Ved Joshi, DVM, from far distant Himachal Pradesh, who rode the train for two days in each direction to discuss opportunities to take an advanced course of study in wildlife medicine in the U.S. this fall. Joshi would then return to India to teach others.

Joshi turned out to be a most valuable escort, because he knew an inexpensive way to keep mange out of animal shelters. “The insecticide Malathion can be safely used for mange control when recommended doses are employed on the animal and premises,” Joshi explained at each stop. “The product we use is Cythion, which contains 50% Malathion as its active component. The recommended dilution ratio for a dog-dipping solution or cleaning cages and floors is one part of Malathion to 1,000 parts of water, i.e., one millilitre of Malathion to each one litre of water. The
dog’s entire body is dipped in the solution until the hair and skin are wet, and the dog’s head is treated by sponging the solution over the head and face. Infections by sarcoptic and psoroptic mange mites will be cured with a single dip. Two or three dips, seven to ten days apart, should be sufficient for treatment of demodectic mange; however, while demodectic mange is not contagious, it is very hard to completely cure, and it can recur later. Collars, leashes, and bedding materials should also be dipped in the solution, to eliminate all possible sources of infection. Each newly arrived dog should be dipped before admission to the kennels to prevent reinfection outside.

“This dip will control other ecto-parasites, such as ticks and lice,” Joshi advises, “and can also be used with cattle,
buffalo, sheep, and goats.” If any animal accidentally ingests enough dip to become ill, a relatively rare occurrence, Joshi recommends administering atropine sulphate at a ratio of from 0.2 to 0.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. “A fourth of the dose should be given intravenously and the rest by the intramuscular route,” Joshi advises.

A shelter in India can be kept mange-free with Malathion dips and cage-and-floor-washing for as little as 50 rupees (under $1.00 U.S.) per week.

Editorial: Keeping P.T. Barnum at bay

December 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2000:

Starting on page 13 is our 11th annual “Who gets the money?” feature, outlining in
statistical summary form where the lion’s share, the dog’s share, and much of the rest of the
money donated to animal protection goes, how it gets used, and who gets paid what amount
for making the major spending decisions.
The numbers help in comparing charities, but are not the whole story.
Consider a seemingly simple matter: trying to compare the needs of nine of the bestknown
care-for-life sanctuaries in the U.S. by measuring their budgets against the numbers of
animals they keep.
Best Friends has the most animals, at about 1,800, and may have the most dogs and
cats. But Best Friends does adoptions. DELTA Rescue, with about 1,400 animals, almost
certainly has more hard-case dogs and cats in lifetime care.
Both Best Friends and DELTA Rescue also have farm animals, but far fewer than
Farm Sanctuary, which in recent years has usually had about 1,000, divided among facilities
in New York and California.

Level of Abstinence

November 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000:

There are two ways to present veganism. One is by implying that a vegan must seek out and avoid all traces of animal products.

The second way is to present veganism by saying that vegans do not have to put pressure on themselves to avoid all byproducts.

Our conversations used to go somewhat like this:

Potential Vegan (PV): Oh, so you’re a vegan. I know some – one else who is vegan. You know, I really think it’s terrible how they treat the animals, but I could never do it.

Vegan: Really, why is that?

Why Calgary has almost as many off-leash parks as dog bites

October 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

CALGARY––As an ex-cop, before
becoming director of Calgary Animal Services
back in 1975, soon-to-retire Jerry Aschenbrenner
believes strong laws and consistent
enforcement are the keys to his success.
And Aschenbrenner has been successful.
Since 1984, Calgary Animal Services
and the Calgary Humane Society have
between them never killed more than 12.8
dogs and cats per 1,000 human residents of
their service area––and that peak was reached
15 years ago, when the big-city norm was
more than twice as high. Even now the norm
is 16.6. Calgary comes in at 5.2.
Although the numbers compare well
to those of San Francisco and other no-kill
cities, Aschenbrenner and the Calgary
Humane Society don’t tout Calgary as having
achieved no-kill animal control. CHS, handling
cat impoundment under contract to CAS,
still kills about 4,000 cats per year, some of
whom might be saved with a Feral Cat
Assistance Program as vigorous as the one in
San Francisco. But Aschenbrenner sees that
on the agenda.

SHELTERING AND THE VALUE OF WELCOMING COMPANY

October 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

WALTHAM, Massachusetts– – ” It
has often been observed,” New Hampshire
state neutering program architect Peter Marsh
told Spay/USA conference attendees recently,
“that people tend to resemble the animals they
choose as companions. I submit,” Marsh
added, “that people who rescue feral or abandoned
or abused animals also tend to resemble
the animals they choose, not in physical
appearance but in the psychological sense.
“Just as feral or abandoned animals
or animals who have been abused tend to be
frightened and furtive,” March continued, “so
we ourselves are often frightened and furtive,
and fear the public will think badly of us
because we have too many animals, or must
euthanize some animals. We don’t invite people
into our shelters because we think they
won’t understand what they see. Therefore
they don’t understand why we can’t give lifetime
care to every animal someone dumps on
us, or why we are always stressed out and
blaming pet keepers for being irresponsible––
and we don’t get the help we need to change
things. I further submit,” Marsh finished,
“that it is time we opened the doors.”

Editorial: The advantages of being seen

October 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

From Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent Paul Salopek came word on August
6 that brothers Antonio and Luis Faceira of Angola are working with Wouter van Hoven of
the University of Pretoria Center for Wildlife Management in South Africa to restore
wildlife to the 3.5-million-acre Quicama National Park, near the capital city of Luanda.
Each a military general in the regime headed since 1979 by President Jose Eduardo
Santos, the Faceira brothers have fought Jona Savimbi and his UNITA insurgency for 25
years. Altogether, counting the last years of Portuguese rule, Angola has been almost continuously
at war since 1961.
Both sides have reputedly ravaged wildlife––for meat, target practice, and
money. Salopek mentioned reports of government officials strafing antelope from helicopters.
Craig Van Note, executive director of the World Wildlife Fund trade-monitoring
subsidiary TRAFFIC, in 1988 accused UNITA of killing as many as 100,000 elephants
over the preceding 12 years, in order to trade ivory for arms with the former apartheid government
of South Africa.

Editorial: Introducing a different needle

September 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2000:

A gathering of moment to the future of humane activism on behalf of dogs, cats,
and wildlife occurred on stage at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, on July 8,
brought together by Esther Mechler of Spay/USA.
Meeting for the first time––with animal advocates and with each other––were
immunosterilant researchers Richard Fayrer-Hoskins, Ph.D., of the University of Georgia;
Terry Nett, Ph.D., of Colorado State University; and Stephen Boyle, Ph.D., of the VirginiaMaryland
Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.
University of Florida at Gainesville researcher Julie Levy, DVM, founder of
Operation Catnip, made the introductions. Operation Catnip surgically sterilized 1,575 feral
cats in its first year, Levy explained, and then picked up the pace. It is an all-volunteer project,
depending like thousands of others on donated resources. It can do more than most
because Levy herself is a veterinarian. But like everyone else, she must earn a living. There
are limits to the number of cats she can fix, even when others catch the cats, return them to
their habitat after surgery, and monitor their well-being for the rest of their lives.
As a vet, Levy continued, she soon realized surgical sterilzation is an awkward and
expensive stopgap. Surgery works, having hugely reduced unwanted animal births and animal
control killing wherever it has been made affordable. But surgery still takes more veterinary
time, training, and equipment than many places have to offer.

CAGE-RATTLING VISIONS OF ANIMAL RIGHTS, FROM APES TO DOGS

July 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2000:

Rattling the Cage
by Steven M. Wise
Perseus Publishing (10 East 53rd St., New York, NY
10022), 2000. 362 pages, hardcover. $25.00.

Visions of Caliban
by Dale Peterson & Jane Goodall
University of Georgia Press (330 Research Drive,
Athens, GA 30602), 1993, 2000.
379 pages, paperback. $18.95.

The Orangutans
by Gisela Kaplan & Lesley J. Rogers
Perseus Publishing (10 East 53rd St., New York, NY
10022), 2000. 192 pages, hardcover. $23.00.

The Social Lives of Dogs
by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
Simon & Schuster (1230 Ave. of the Americas,
New York, NY 10020), 2000.
256 pages, hardcover. $24.00.

CAN HUMAN-RAISED CHIMPS FIND HAPPINESS?

July 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2000:

Experiments of markedly contrasting
intent in raising young chimpanzees are underway
at the Primarily Primates sanctuary in San
Antonio, Texas, and the New Iberia Primate
Center on the campus of the University of
Louisiana at Lafayette.
In San Antonio, Primarily Primates
president Wally Swett is trying to hand-raise two
young chimps whose mothers were too psychologically
and physically scarred by use in biomedical
research to be able to rear them. His goal
is to produce happy, healthy adults who will be
able to live without maladjustment for the rest of
their lives in a sanctuary setting.
The first infant chimp, Deeter, is a
male who “was born at Primarily Primates on
May 28, 1999, after his mother Betty, a former
member of the NASA colony at Holloman Air
Force Base in New Mexico, arrived pregnant,”
Swett explains. “Sadly, Betty had deformed
breasts and couldn’t feed him.”

« 1 … 23 24 25 26 27 … 48 »