Further thoughts about service dogs

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

Further thoughts about service dogs
Commentary by Merritt Clifton

In November 1993, when the use of service dogs other than to
guide the blind was still quite new to most of the public, ANIMAL
PEOPLE devoted a cover feature to the legal and philosophical issues
involved, including the perspectives of leading figures in the
animal rights movement as to whether training dogs for human service
constitutes exploitation. We followed up several times, until the
precedents recognizing the use of hearing dogs, seizure alert dogs,
and various other now common uses of service dogs appeared to be
clearly established, and ethical objections to the use of service
dogs were no longer commonly voiced.

Struggle for humane euthanasia continues in U.S., Philippines

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

An employee of the Lincoln County Animal Shelter in
Lincolnton, North Carolina escaped serious injury on October 20,
2009 when a newly installed gas chamber exploded. The man had just
killed several dogs. “Carbon monoxide was clearing out of the
machine when a fireball, propelled by pressure, blew open the door
of the gas chamber, burning the man and slamming the chamber door
into him,” reported Diane Turbyfill of the Gaston Gazette.
North Carolina Coalition for Humane Euthanasia secretary
Michele King, of Garner, North Carolina, forwarded to ANIMAL
PEOPLE a purchase order which she said “shows that the gas chamber
was formerly used in Reidsville, at Rockingham County Animal
Control,” where King said it “leaked repeatedly and was finally
removed. The same gas chamber company, Cutting Edge Fabrication in
Gastonia, sold another used gas chamber to Iredell County last
year,” King added. “That chamber also later exploded,” on July 22,
2008, with 10 dogs inside at the time.

BOOKS: Bombproof

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

Bombproof: A true story of second chances
by Leana Beasley & Stephen Sawicki
L’Universe Inc. (1663 Liberty Drive,
Bloomington, IN 47403; www.iuniverse.com),
2009.
288 pages, paperback; $18.95. E-book download: $6.00.

Bronson, a young Rottweiler mix, almost
died at a Washington animal shelter. But a dog
trainer for the Prison Pet Partnership Program at
the Washington Corrections Center in Pierce
County sensed something special about Bronson,
formerly known as Bruce, as she scouted the
shelter for candidate dogs to be trained by
inmates to assist the disabled. Sergeant Barbara
Davenport, master canine trainer for the
program, chose to give him a chance.”

Florida busts chase pens

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

FORT WALTON BEACH–The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation
Commission in mid-November 2009 concluded ten months of both
undercover and aerial surveillance of unlicensed chase pens by
charging 12 people with buying and possessing live foxes and coyotes
without having permits, and issuing citations to 46 people who
brought dogs to pursue the foxes and coyotes.
There are six legal chase pens left in Florida, where dogs
may be released to harass and attack foxes and coyotes who cannot
escape from the pens, though they may have hiding places. The foxes
and coyotes must be vaccinated against rabies, and must come from
rabies-free states.

Letters [Oct 2009]

October 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2009:

Sacrifice in Nepal

The largest open air animal sacrifice in the world will start
on November 24, 2009. Can you picture 7,000 young buffalo being
rounded up and killed by a thousand drunk men carrying large knives?
A festival where 200,000 animals are killed to please a goddess?
This will happen, if nothing is done to prevent it, at the
Gadimai Festival in Bariyarpur, Bara District, Nepal. The festival
is held every five years. The mass sacrifice turns the entire area
into a bloody marsh.
Read more

Letters

Dogs & cats off the job–rats storm flooded Manila

October 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2009:

MANILA–Rats may leave a sinking ship, but not a flooded city.
Humans, the pets they could carry, work animals, and many
street dogs fled Manila, Rizal, and their suburbs by the thousands
after tropical storm Ketsana dumped a typical month’s worth of rain
in only nine hours on September 26, 2009.
Cats and dogs who were not evacuated and found no escape
routes climbed to high places, if they could, above the torrents,
but water spilling over 80% of the Manila metropolitan area kept most
of them wherever they ended up for at least the next four days, when
the flood began receding. Some were stranded for weeks. Much of the
metropolis was left to the rats and mice–and the Philippines are
known for rat and mouse biodiversity, with 62 native mouse and rat
species. Many are found in the greater Manila area, along with
non-native but ubiquitous Norway rats and at least three problematic
species who were accidentally imported from mainland Asia.

Obituaries [Oct 09]

October 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2009:

Gayle Kegin Hoenig, 68, died on September 19, 2009 in
Aspen, Colorado, from complications of a stroke suffered in January
2009. A licensed wildlife rehabilitator since 1984, Hoenig operated
a private wildlife sanctuary at her home in Colorado Springs; did
extensive wildlife education, “especially about bats,” recalled
friend Marcia Davis; contributed articles to The Ark, published by
the Britsh-based organization Catholic Concern for Animals; and was
active in support of the Zimbabwe National SPCA and Zimbabwe Wildlife
Conservation Task Force. “Gayle devoted her life to animal welfare.
She worked tirelessly for the prevention of cruelty to animals. Her
death is a tragic and irreplaceable loss,” e-mailed Zimbabwe
Conservation Task Force chair Johnny Rodrigues.

Obituaries

What to call cats, & why their name matters

October 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2009:
What to call cats, & why their name matters
Commentary by Merritt Clifton

In the beginning of the mass media era was just the word
“cat.” Cats were on the land and over the land, but cat-related
controversies were as seldom seen as cats themselves, in an urban
ecology then dominated by ubiquitous street dogs. From the debut of
rotary-printed newspapers in the mid-19th century, cats by any name
were not a visible problem for more than 60 years. The sum of
reportage and editorial attention to cats in the entire 19th century
was slight: just 192 items published in U.S. newspapers mentioned
“stray cats,” according to NewspaperArchive.com, which makes
accessible the newspaper holdings of the Library of Congress. “Alley
cats” were mentioned 32 times. The term “feral cat” was not used at
all.

Animal obits

October 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2009:
Titus, 35, the “Gorilla King” of Volcanoes National Park in
the Virunga mountains in Rwanda, died on September 14, 2009 of
injuries apparently suffered in a fight with another silverback
gorilla. Most of Titus’ family were killed by poachers, reported
Edmund Kagire of the Kigali New Times. Abandoned by his mother,
after she was attacked by the surviving silverback, Titus was
accepted into an all-male gorilla band. They were eventually joined
by five females. When the first dominant silverback showed signs of
age, Titus dethroned him, and went on to sire more offspring than
any other known mountain gorilla. Featured in the film Gorillas In
The Mist, based on the life of primatologist Dian Fossey, Titus was
buried near Fossey, who named him, at the Karisoke Research Center.

Obituaries

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