A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
Taipei, Taiwan––A new rabies strain identified in Taiwanese ferret badgers may have the potential to exponentially increase the risk of rabies transmission by dogs. But even if the new rabies strain does not behave in dogs as it does among ferret badgers, it has ignited unprecedented public controversy in Taiwan over the value of animal testing. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
In 1989 I drove from Illinois to Montauk Point, New York to indulge in shark fishing, then my favorite pastime. I had no idea that a detour to the small town of Hegins, Pennsylvania would change my world forever. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
We are extremely concerned about the implications of the recently published California Sheltering.org “white paper” formally titled Charting a Path Forward: Achieving California’s policy to save all adoptable and treatable animals. The paper never even pays lip service to the prevention of unwanted litters. In addition, shelters are encouraged to turn away even healthy, friendly cats rather than run the risk of ever having to euthanize any. Recommends the white paper on page 29: “Best practice: No healthy cat, regardless of temperament, should be admitted by an animal shelter if the admission of that cat would cause the death of that cat or another cat in the shelter…This recommendation also applies to private humane organizations that take in animals.” Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
Beautiful Old Dogs Edited by David Tabatsky, with photos by Garry Gross St. Martin’s Press (c/o MacMillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010), 2013. 144 pages, hardcover. $17.99.
Beautiful Old Dogs features photos by fashion photographer turned dog photographer Garry Gross (1937-2010), matched with literary contributions by prominent dog-loving New Yorkers or former New Yorkers. Most are contemporary, including Anna Quindlen, Ally Sheedy, Doris Day, Dean Koontz, and Marlo Thomas, but the playwright Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953) is also represented, celebrating the endearing qualities of aging pets. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
NILGIRIS, Tamil Nadu, India––Vaccinating 60,000 dogs in 30 days at 10 rabies hot spots around India, Mission Rabies exceeded its preliminary target by 10,000 and kept right on rolling. Mission Rabies “will continue for three years, with a goal of vaccinating two million Indian dogs,” said Worldwide Veterinary Services founder Luke Gamble, who set for himself the goal of eradicating rabies in India while visiting Nilgiris as the star of a veterinary television show in 2009. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
By the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI-Canada), under the leadership of Environment Canada, Bird Studies Canada, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Nature Canada, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Wildlife Habitat Canada | Free download: www.stateofcanadasbirds.org and Avian Conservation & Ecology 8(2). Free download: www.ace-eco.org/vol8/iss2/art1
Alleged an October 1, 2013 media release from the American Bird Conservancy, “A new study from the government of Canada that looked at more than 25 human-caused sources of bird mortality has found that domestic cats, both feral and owned, are the leading lethal threat to birds in the country.” Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
Vikrant Singh Yadav, 25, a bank clerk in Khwaspur village, Haryana state, India, was killed on August 25, 2013 while chasing a truck believed to be driven by cattle rustlers who were taking cows to be illegally slaughtered.
Police and the local cow protection society Gae Bachao Samiti had reportedly been tipped that the rustlers were hauling cattle. Yadav trailed the alleged rustlers’ truck on a motorcycle, with other Gae Bachao Samiti members following in a car. After police waved the truck through a checkpoint but briefly detained Yadev, he resumed the pursuit at high speed. He apparently caught the truck, but was then either run over or hacked to death with an unidentified weapon, according to conflicting accounts. The truck drivers escaped. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
Obituaries
“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.” –William Shakespeare
Donald Low, M.D., 68, died of a brain tumor on September 18, 2013 in Toronto. Co-author of nearly 400 peer-reviewed articles for scientific and medical journals, Low was best known for advising against panic responses to zoonotic disease outbreaks, including occasional appearances of raccoon rabies in Toronto, and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), which hit 375 Torontonians in 2003, killing two and causing 27,000 people to be quarantined. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
John Holt, 82, founder of the Australian Small Animal Veterinary Association, founding editor of the Australian Veterinary Practitioner journal, and a past president of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association, died on June 24, 2013 in Mount Wilson, Australia. Read more