REVIEWS: Three views of Red

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:
Three views of Red

Directed by Tygve Allisten Diesen & Lucky McKee. Produced by Norman
Dreyfuss & Tygve Allister Diesen.

Starring Amanda Plummer, Brian Cox, Kim Dickens, Kyle Gallner,
Noel Fisher, Richard Riehle, Robert Englund,
Shiloh Fernandez, and Tom Sizemore.

Released to theatres in August 2008; DVD released in October 2008.
Red, adapted by screenwriter Steph-en Susco from a 1995
novel of the same title by Jack Ketchum, begins with a crime of a
sort that many readers of ANIMAL PEOPLE have encountered, and often
will have personally investigated, prosecuted, or otherwise
responded to as animal advocates.
Red has evoked varied responses from people who care about
animals. Novelist Arthur Winfield Knight, a retired film critic,
wrote to bring Red to the attention of ANIMAL PEOPLE after seeing it
with his wife Kit, who is still an active film critic. ANIMAL
PEOPLE president Kim Bartlett and artist Wolf Clifton watched Red at
Knight’s recommendation, and took different views of it.

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BOOKS: The Rhino With Glue-On Shoes & Trust Me: I’m not a veterinarian

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

The Rhino With Glue-On Shoes
& other surprising stories of zoo vets and their patients
Edited by Lucy H. Spelman, DVM and Ted Y. Mashima, DVM
Delacorte Press (c/o Random House,
1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019), 2008.
Hardcover, 310 pages. $22.00.

Trust Me: I’m not a veterinarianŠNo Dog Before His Time!
James D. Schwartz
Next To Kin Foundation (5954 S. Monaco Way, Centennial, CO 80111), 2008.
324 pages, paperback. $15.99.

The Rhino With Glue-On Shoes and Trust
Me: I’m not a veterinarian could scarcely
present more contrasting views of the veterinary
profession.
Twenty-eight zoo vets in The Rhino With
Glue-On Shoes recall their most memorable
patients. Each appears to work in the tradition
of All Creatures Great & Small author James
Herriot, authentically fond of animals and quick
to respond to any crisis involving any sort of
animal, from sea dragons to gorillas and polar
bears.

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Obituaries [Dec. 2008]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

 

Right: Ray Fadden about 50 years ago with his pet porcupine
Needles. “Dad had the knack of picking up Needles,” recalls son
John Fadden. “One evening when the light wasn’t good, he picked up
a wild porcupine by mistake. He wondered why he put up such a fuss.
He even put him in his huge chicken wire-covered teepee cage. Later,
the real Needles roamed home, and Dad realized his mistake. Needless
to say he let the other one free, and he hurried away as fast as he
could, which wasn’t too fast, as you know. When he was young,
Dad had an un-descented skunk too,” John Fadden added. “The skunk
lived in his camp/shack in back of the house, he told me.”

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BOOKS: A Template for Change

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

A Template for Change by Carolyn Menteith
Jointly published by
Dogs Trust and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home
Free download from <www.tnrdogs.com>.

A Template for Change succinctly presents
the case for introducing neuter/return to replace
catch-and-kill dog control, and describes every
aspect of how to do neuter/return, based mostly
on the work of Robert Smith in Oradea, Romania
and Istanbul, Turkey.
As a free download, the price is right
for anyone anywhere. Introduced at the October
2008 International Companion Animal Welfare
Conference, A Template for Change is already in
use worldwide– but this excellent handbook
contains one serious flaw.

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BOOKS: Savage Humans & Stray Dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

Savage Humans & Stray Dogs
by Hiranmay Karlekar
Sage Publications (www.sagepublications.com), 2008.
275 pages, paperback.

Savage Humans & Stray Dogs author Hiranmay Karlekar has
reported about socio-political affairs and animal welfare for leading
Indian news media since 1963, writing in both English and Bengali.
As a columnist for The Pioneer, a nationally circulated newspaper,
Karlekar helped to curtail the dog pogroms that broke out in
Bangalore and elsewhere in Karnataka state after two children were
killed by dogs in early 2007. Karlekar is now a member of the Animal
Welfare Board of India.
Savage Humans & Stray Dogs opens with an attempt to provide a
definitive account of what actually happened in Bangalore. Karlekar
may not have seen the extensive ANIMAL PEOPLE coverage, but cites
many of the same sources, and appears to reach similar conclusions.

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BOOKS: The Forgotten Horses

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2009:

The Forgotten Horses
Photographs by Tony Stromberg
New World Library (14 Pamaron Way,
Novato, CA 94949), 2008.
192 pages, hardcover. $45.00.

The Forgotten Horses is dedicated “To
unwanted horses, both domestic and wild. To the
unsung heroes at equine rescue organizations and
sanctuaries all over the world who have taken it
upon themselves to honor, defend, care for,
and support unwanted horses and animals–it is
their life, their livelihood, and their
homecoming.”

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BOOKS: Witness to Extinction How We Failed to Save the Yangtse River Dolphin

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

Witness to Extinction
How We Failed to Save the Yangtse River Dolphin
by Samuel Turvey
Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York,
NY 10016), 2008.
224 pages, paperback. $29.95.

Samuel Turvey, born in Lohja, Finland, as a child enjoyed
a rare sighting of the Lake Saimaa seal. Landlocked by receding
glaciers about 9,500 years ago, the Saimaa seal has adapted to
living in fresh water. At the time, researchers believed there were
barely 100 left. The population rose to 280 in 2005, but has since
dropped to 260.
“Getting entangled in fishing nets is the biggest single
cause of death. If we get rid of that, the Saimaa seal could
probably survive global warming,” World Wildlife Fund representative
Jari Luukkonen recently told Terhi Kinnunen of Agence France-Press.
Turvey grew up to earn a Ph.D. in Chinese paleontology, but
inspired by his Saimaa seal encounter, felt impelled to try to
discover the fate of the baiji, the Yangtse river dolphin, last
known to exist when the last captive baiji died in 2002.

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BOOKS: The Fatwa of Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi on Slaughter & Transport of Animals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

The Fatwa of Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi on Slaughter & Transport of Animals
Egyptian Society of Animal Friends (30 Korshed St. /Rd. 293, New
Maadi, Egypt; <asherbiny@infinity.com.eg>;
<www.animalfriends.info>, 2008.

ANIMAL PEOPLE noted in a June 2008 cover article on the
resumption of live animal exports from Australia to Egypt that even
if Egypt fails to enforce secular law governing animal transport and
slaughter, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the Chief Imam and Shaikh of
al-Azhar, Egypt, had issued a fatwa, or religious opinion, meant
to reinforce the observance of the intent of the hallal slaughter
laws, meant to minimize animal suffering, that are central to
Islamic practice.
The Egyptian Society of Animal Friends has now published the
fatwa as a handbook, also including the “Five Freedoms” and
Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare.

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BOOKS: Breaking the Chain: Teaching kindness & compassion to animals through art & creative writing

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

Breaking the Chain:
Teaching kindness & compassion to animals
through art & creative writing
Edited by Bari Mears & Deb White.
Free download: <www.pacc911.org>

“A dog named Joey is tethered by a chain day after day,
night after night in his owner’s back yard. Harriet, a very clever
cat, moves next door and takes an immediate interest in Joey’s
plight. How does the story end?”
Thus Maricopa County Animal Care & Control volunteer Debra J.
White annually introduces more than 2,000 third graders to an
exercise combining creative writing with humane education. Some add
drawings to their work. Starting at two schools in 2004, White
within a year reached 15 schools, and after five years coordinates a
project that has begun attracting national notice.

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