BOOKS: Cats & Dogs in the Louvre

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

Cats in the Louvre
by Frederic Vitoux &
Elisabeth Foucart-Walter

Dogs in the Louvre
by Francois Nourissier &
Elisabeth Foucart-Walter

Flammarion (c/o Rizzoli New York, 300 Park
Avenue South, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10010),
2008.
Each 80 pages, hardcover, illustrated; $19.95.

Elisabeth Foucart-Walter, chief curator
of the painting department at the Louvre art
museum in Paris, has teamed with Académie
française member Frédéric Vitoux and Académie
Goncourt president François Nourissier to produce
Cats in the Louvre and Dogs in the Louvre. The
substance of these twin volumes emerges from
Foucart-Walter’s eye for the animals in the
corners, backgrounds, and occasionally the
foregrounds of some of the Louvre’s most famous
works.

Art
Reviews

Wildlife Direct leaders express conflicting views of South African elephant policy

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

NAIROBI, JOHANNESBURG–Wildlife Direct chief executive
Emmanuel de Merode on May 1, 2008 partially blamed a new South
African elephant management policy for the poaching massacre of 14
elephants in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, just six
weeks after Wildlife Direct founding chair Richard Leakey endorsed
the policy.
“The upsurge in elephant killings in Virunga is part of a
widespread slaughter across the Congo Basin,” de Merode told Agence
France-Presse, “and is driven by developments on the international
scene: the liberalisation of the ivory trade, pushed by South
Africa, and the increased presence of Chinese operators who feed a
massive domestic demand for ivory in their home country.”
Reported Agence France-Presse, “The killings were announced
as South Africa lifted a 13-year moratorium on elephant culling,
raising concern about a return to the international trade in ivory
seen in the 1970s and 1980s, Wildlife Direct said.”‘

Starving a dog as “art” brings pressure on Nicaragua to adopt a humane law

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras–Costa Rican shock
artist Guillermo “Habacuc” Vargas may become a
real-life Central American counterpart of the
Ancient Mariner, whose fictional excess and
punishment helped an entire society to consider
how to respond to cruelty toward animals.
More than two million people have signed
Internet petitions denouncing Vargas. Thousands
have pledged to ensure that he will not escape
his past.
“As part of an exposition in Managua,
Nicaragua, in August,” summarized Rod Hughes of
Costa Rica News on October 4, 2007, “Vargas
allegedly found a dog tied up on a street corner
in a poor Nicaragua barrio and brought the dog to
the showing. He tied the dog, according to
furious animal lovers, in a corner of the salon,
where the dog died after a day. The exhibition
included a legend spelled out in dog food reading
‘You are what you read,’ photos, and an incense
burner that burned an ounce of marijauna and 175
‘rocks’ of crack cocaine. In the background,
according to reports, the Sandista national
anthem was played backward.

Death of filly Eight Belles mars the Kentucky Derby

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
LOUISVILLE–Eight Belles, 3, a filly trained by Larry Jones
and ridden by jockey Gabriel Saez, 20, charged home second in the
Kentucky Derby on May 3, trailing undefeated Big Brown by four and a
half lengths, but broke both her front ankles seconds later while
“galloping out” around the first turn, and was euthanized where she
fell.
“There was no way to save her. She could not stand,”
trainer Larry Jones told Associated Press racing writer Beth Harris.
“Galloping out” is the post-race slowdown of the field.
Racehorses are stopped gradually to avoid pile-ups and injuries.
“She didn’t have a front leg to stand on to be splinted and
hauled off in the ambulance,” said track veterinarian Larry
Bramlage. “In my years in racing, I have never seen this happen at
the end of the race or during the race.”

Obituaries [May 2008]

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
Appaji Rao, 71, vice chair of the Animal Welfare Board of
India since 2005, died of a sudden heart attack on April 20, 2008
in Chennai. A graduate of the Madras Veterinary College, Rao
“volunteered at the Blue Cross of India from 1964-1966 and was our
first veterinary volunteer,” recalled Blue Cross of India chief
executive Chinny Krishna. “He joined the Madras Veterinary College
as a lecturer,” Krishna said, “and rose to head the department of
epidimeology.” Retiring in 1995, Rao continued to assist the Blue
Cross of India and other animal welfare charities. For the Animal
Welfare Board, Rao helped to produce draft rules for fish keeping,
dog breeding, and animal euthanasia, “recently finalised and sent
to the Ministry of Environ-ment & Forests for notification,” Krishna
said. “He was also the moving force,” Krishna added, “behind the
workshop for a rabies-free India held in 2006, and for drawing up
the protocols for Animal Birth Control. Rules for temple and captive
elephants he formulated were to be released by the Governor of
Rajasthan” during the week of his death. Among Rao’s last acts was
to telephone Idduki SPCA chief executive A.G. Babu, asking him to
seek an injunction from the High Court of Kerala “against the
indiscriminate killing of stray dogs [by municipal dogcatchers] all
over Kerala,” Babu posted to the Asian Animal Protection Network.
The injunction was granted, Babu said on April 26.

Obituaries

Hunters hit foreclosed pets

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
Grand Rapids–Pressured for just one weekend by the
pro-hunting U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, the 182-store Meijer retail
chain on April 28, 2008 bagged a pet photo contest meant to benefit
the Foreclosure Pets Fund, a project of the Humane Society of the
U.S.
“Meijer Inc. ducked after finding itself in the crosshairs,”
reported Shandra Martinez of the Grand Rapids Press.
Founded in Grand Rapids in 1932, Meijer now operates stores
throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. The
Meijer contest was to donate $1.00, up to $5,000, for every entry
in the online photo contest.

“Bard of rescue” Jim Willis convicted of dog theft

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
WILMINGTON–Jim Willis, 52, author of several
much-circulated poems and short essays about animal abandonment and
rescue, was on March 20, 2008 convicted of felony dog larcency in
Pender County, North Carolina, and sentenced to do 75 hours of
community service, spend two years on probation, and keep no more
than one pet, reported WECT-TV6 of Wilmington.
The case was one of two filed in 2007 in which neighbors
accused Willis of stealing dogs whom he said he had rescued. One dog
was recovered at a Wilmington home where Willis temporarily resided.
The charges involving that dog were not prosecuted, North Carolina
Voters for Animal Welfare founder B.B. Knowles told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
The conviction, in a case involving an elderly dog who was
well-known and well-liked in her neighborhood, according to Pender
Post staff writer Jefferson Weaver, was Willis’ second within less
than a year, with a variety of other cases pending.

New AVMA elephant standards may help the working elephants of India

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
SCHAUMBURG, THRISSUR, BANGALORE–Far from India, and
perhaps not even thinking of Indian temple elephants, the American
Veterinary Medical Association executive board on April 12, 2008
issued a new policy on the humane treatment and handling of elephants
which may eventually influence the care of more working elephants in
India than the entire elephant population of the United States.
“Elephant handlers and veterinarians generally use two tools
in handling and training elephants, tethers to restrict movement
temporarily, and a shaft with a blunt hook near one end known as a
guide,” explained a May 6, 2008 AVMA press release.
The “guide,” in India, is called an ankus, and in the U.S.
is more commonly called an elephant hook.
“Elephant guides are husbandry tools that consist of a shaft
capped by one straight and one curved end,” states the new AVMA
policy. “The ends are blunt and tapered, and are used to touch
parts of the elephant’s body as a cue to elicit specific actions or
behaviors, with the handler exerting very little pressure. The ends
should contact but not tear or penetrate the skin. The AVMA condemns
the use of guides to puncture, lacerate, strike or inflict harm
upon an elephant.

Cat-skinning in Switzerland

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
GENEVA–How many cats are skinned for fur in Switzerland?
Probably not nearly as many as the thousands or even tens of
thousands recently alleged to media by Tomi Tomek, founder of the
Swiss group SOS Chats, and Patricia Dolciani, president of the
French Society for the Protection of Animals in Thonon-les-Bains,
near the Swiss border–but enough to shock Europe as the trade comes
to light.
“As far as we are aware, only a couple of dozen cat furs are
produced annually in Switzerland,” Swiss Federal Veterinary Office
spokesperson Marcel Falk told Tony Paterson of the London Independent
in April 2008.

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