BOOKS: The Holocaust & the Henmaid’s Tale

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

The Holocaust & the Henmaid’s Tale

Lantern Books (1 Union Square West, Suite 201, New York,
NY 10003), 2005. 138 pages, paperback. $30.00.

Karen Davis, founder and president of United Poultry
Concerns, concludes that, “The Holocaust epitomized an attitude, the
manifestation of a base will. It is the attitude that we can do
whatever we please, however vicious, if we can get away with it,
because we are superior and they, whoever they are, are, so to
speak, just chickens. Paradoxically therefore, it is possible,
indeed it is requisite, to make relevant and enlightening
comparisons between the Holocaust and our base treatment of non-human
animals. We can make comparisons while agreeing with the approach
taken by philosopher Brian Luke towards animal abuse. Luke writes:
“My opposition to the institutionalized exploitation of
animals is not based on a comparison between human and animal
treatment, but on a consideration of the abuse of animals in and of
itself.”
Davis’s philosophy is well-argued and closely reasoned, so
that by the time she reaches her conclusion–that there is a Nazi
within all of us–the reader has already arrived there.

BOOKS: Fund-Raising for Animal Care Organizations & Humane University

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

Fund-Raising for Animal Care Organizations
Edited by Julie Miller Dowling

Humane University (c/o Humane Society of the U.S., 2100 L St. NW,
Washington, DC 20037), 2005. 184 pages, paperback. $44.95.

Fund-Raising for Animal Care Organizations is the second in a
Humane University how-to series that began with Volunteer Management
for Animal Care Organizations, by Betsy McFarland. Much of
Fund-Raising for Animal Care Organizations overlaps and closely
parallels the fundraising information included in the ANIMAL PEOPLE
handbook Fundraising & Accountability for Animal Protection
Charities, available in PDF format free for downloading at
<www.animalpeoplenews.com>, under “important materials.”
Thus in reviewing Fund-Raising for Animal Care Organizations
for the ANIMAL PEOPLE audience, the $44.95 question is whether the
HSUS take on the topic offers enough additional information to be
worth the cost.
The answer is probably yes for U.S.-based organizations that
already raise more than $100,000 per year, but no for smaller
organizations and those based abroad.
The ANIMAL PEOPLE handbook, albeit shorter, includes more
information about simple, basic approaches to fundraising that any
organization, anywhere, can use right away.

Coastal pastures became better habitat for sea cows than cattle

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita between them submerged as much as
a third of the cattle grazing land in Louisiana. Rainfall from Wilma
perpetuated conditions that had Debra Barlow of Hopeful Haven Equine
Rescue wishing for an ark.
“We are a horse rescue organization, but have opened our
arms to include all the livestock we can help,” Barlow e-mailed to
Brenda Shoss of Kinship Circle, whose daily bulletins throughout the
fall 2005 hurricane season made her the unofficial dispatcher for
rescue efforts from Alabama to Texas.
“We have rescued emus, cattle, horses, you name it,”
Barlow continued. “The rescued animals have been put in holding pens
since they can’t graze the saltwater-saturated alfalfa fields. The
salt content made the animals dehydrated and delusional. We are
hoping to flush the saltwater absorbed out their systems with feed,
clean water and hay.”
“The Army used helicopters to search for thousands of cattle
feared stranded in high water, amid reports that more than 4,000 may
have been killed in Cameron Parish alone,” Associated Press reported
after Rita hit.

Hurricanes Stan, Tammy, Wilma, & unnamed twisters add to catastrophe

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

WEST PALM BEACH–Hurricane Wilma, after Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita, might have seemed anticlimactic to those who were not hit
by it. To those who were, including Pegasus Foundation program
officer Anne M. Ostberg, whose organization specializes in assisting
humane work in island nations, it was the real thing.
Wilma hit the west end of Grand Bahama island on October 24,
displacing as many as 4,000 people and their animals. The Humane
Society of Grand Bahama suffered only damaged fencing, Ostberg
e-mailed, based on a report from director Elizabeth Burrows, but
needed urgent help to feed and water displaced animals.
“The Bahamas Humane Society in Nassau sent inspector Carl
Thurston to Grand Bahama on November 1 to spend four days assisting,”
Ostberg said. “Inspector Thurston also delivered supplies and
equipment. Humane Society International provided some funding to
Bahamas Humane, and the Pegasus Foundation wired $1,000 to the Kohn
Foundation, a Colorado charity that acts as a fiscal agent for the
Humane Society of Grand Bahama.
“At this end,” Osteberg added, “the barn at the Pegasus
Foundation’s animal sanctuary in Florida lost part of its roof, but
the animals and people were unhurt. The building where our West Palm
Beach offices were located was badly damaged, but again, no one was
hurt.”

Wildlife in the hard-hit Gulf region is most imperiled by human activity

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

Hurricane Katrina first hit wildlife along the east coast of Florida.
“About 200 loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings born on
Hutchinson Island were unable to crawl through deposits of sea grass
washed ashore by the storm,” Palm Beach Post staff writer Kimberly
Miller reported. “Beachgoers from Delray Beach south found about two
dozen hatchlings that experts believe made it into the water, but
were spit back worn out onto the beach by the waves.”
Treated for dehydration and exhaustion by the Gumbo Limbo
Environmental Complex in Boca Raton and the Marinelife Center in Juno
Beach, most were returned to the sea within days.
There they encountered a new threat. After hurricanes the
National Marine Fisheries Service often suspends the requirement that
shrimpers must use turtle exclusion devices (TEDS) on their nets,
because floating debris often fouls TEDS and tears nets.
The timing of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma meant
that the TED rule was continuously suspended from September 26 to
November 23.
Meanwhile, as Katrina roared westward, about 50 sea turtle
nests were destroyed along the Alabama coast. Habitat for the
endangered Alabama beach mouse and red-cockaded woodpecker was also
destroyed.

Visakha SPCA digs out after floods, fights disease outbreaks

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

VISAKHAPATNAM–Already hit by flooding after a September
19 cyclone, the Visakha SPCA was inundated twice more by further
cyclones before the end of October.
Monsoon rains and occasional cyclones are part of the normal
weather cycle along the Bay of Bengal, but fall 2005 brought the
region triple the usual rainfall.
The impact was felt as far south as Chennai, where the St.
Thomas Mount Animal Birth Control Center was badly damaged by flash
flooding, Blue Cross of India chief executive Chinny Krishna told
ANIMAL PEOPLE, and part of the Blue Cross shelter at Guindy was
briefly awash.
“Fortunately, thanks to our volunteer Shanthi, all animals
in the lower-lying enclosures were moved out to the main building,”
Krishna said.
The Visakha SPCA began clean-up and rebuilding at the same
time as extending emergency aid to surrounding areas, then had to
start over after the destruction of a retaining wall by the first
flood allowed a second and third flood.

Carmody caught with clothes on

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

CAREW–Animal Rights Action Network campaigns coordinator
John Carmody, 23, may be the most often exposed activist in
Ireland, but ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim Bartlett did manage to
photograph him–twice–with all his clothes on.
A more typical portrayal would show Carmody hunched over his
laptop computer wherever he can connect, e-mailing the
effervescently upbeat ARAN newsletter around the world, coordinating
countless events and demonstrations on behalf of half a dozen
international advocacy groups, and answering his cell telephone
every five minutes.
Effectively a fulltime animal rights activist since age 16,
Carmody takes clerical and sales jobs when he must to make ends meet.
The laptop is ARAN’s only “office,” other than Carmody’s bedroom,
at his parents’ home in Carew, a Limerick suburb where goats and
horses graze in green strips, and where, he insists, some
neighbors at times drag horses indoors.

Europe

Betting on all but the dogs

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

DELEVAN, DAYTONA, LACONIA–The 15-year-old Geneva Lakes
Greyhound Track in Delavan, Wisconsin ended live racing on November
6, 2005, with telecasting of races at other tracks due to end in
December.
About 450 of the estimated 1,000 dogs housed at Delavan were
offered for adoption by the local chapter of Greyhound Pets of
America, formed in 1989. Greyhound Pets of America is the largest
U.S. greyhound rescue group to be partially subsidized by the
greyhound industry.
Of the five greyhound tracks opened in Wisconsin during the
early 1990s, only the Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha is still
operating. Geneva Lakes Greyhound Track general manager blamed the
closures on competition from Native American gambling casinos. The
casino operators have managed to keep the Wisconsin greyhound tracks
from expanding into other forms of gambling.
The Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission on October 13 rejected an
application from the National Cattle Congress to reopen the Waterloo
Greyhound Park, closed in 1996, as hub of a riverboat casino
complex.

Irish SPCA looks to a new era

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

KEENAGH, County Longford–When man bites dog, that’s news,
so when Irish SPCA chief executive Helen Dolan hit and killed a stray
dog with her sport utility vehicle on October 21, 2005, the
incident swiftly became tabloid and television news all over Ireland.
Dolan did not discourage the publicity. Instead Dolan took
the occasion to warn pet keepers to keep their animals secure during
the Halloween season, when the Irish traditionally detonate
fireworks to scare ghosts, mostly scaring dogs and cats instead.
Dolan also dispensed tips about avoiding roadkills and finding lost
dogs.
Hired in January 2005, Dolan brought to the Irish SPCA a
global background in hotel management and fundraising for education,
a lifelong love of dogs and horses, and no formal experience in
humane work.
In less than a year, Dolan’s flair for fundraising and
publicity has rattled quite a few cages. Some elder Irish animal
advocates grumble about Dolan’s rapid rise to national prominence.
Others say she is just what animal welfare in Ireland needed–a
charismatic young leader who isn’t afraid to spend money in order to
attract it, seizing the opportunity for humane work in Ireland to
grow with the fast-rising Irish economy.

Europe

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