Letters [Sep 2005]

September 1, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

PETA in N.C.

I read and re-read your July/August 2005
article “PETA staffers face 62 felony cruelty
counts in North Carolina.”
A central aspect of the case is the
pervasive arrogance underlying so much PETA
behavior -“We know best, the opinions of others
don’t count, we are not interested in your
ideas, we don’t listen to you but we do want
your money.”
Profound and constant arrogance comes through again and again.
-Irene Muschel
New York, N.Y.
<benirv@hotmail.com>

Letters

Confusion of names befuddles bequests

September 1, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

Hunter Vernon D. Lybolt Jr., 57, of
Forest, Virginia, born and raised in New York,
unmarried with no children, siblings, or living
parents, died in July 2004, leaving his
$600,000 estate to the “Bedford County ASPCA
Animal Shelter.” The estate is now claimed by
the Bedford Humane Society, the county-managed
Bedford Animal Shelter, the New York City-based
American SPCA, and a coalition of 13 relatives.
As result of a similar case, in which
the Royal SPCA of Great Britain received £250,000
from a Scots estate, the Scottish SPCA recently
surveyed 10,000 donors and found that 87% had
mistakenly donated to the RSPCA. Founded in
1839, one year before the former London Humane
Society became the RSPCA, the SSPCA endured a
cash flow crisis in 2002 that had the trustees
threatening to lay off staff and close seven of
13 regional rescue centers.
Hoping to clear up the confusion, the
SSPCA on August 1, 2005 introduced new colors
and a new logo.

Shelter killing drops after upward spike

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

The numbers of dogs and cats killed in U.S. animal shelters
appears to have resumed a 35-year decline after a brief spike upward,
according to the 12th annual ANIMAL PEOPLE review of shelter exit
data. The overall rate of shelter killing per 1,000 Americans now
stands at 15.5.
Shelter killing is coming down in all parts of the U.S., but
progress remains most apparent where low-cost and early-age dog and
cat sterilization programs started first, decades ago, followed by
aggressive neuter/return feral cat sterilization, introduced on a
large scale during the early 1990s.
Regions with harsh winters that inhibit the survival of stray
and feral kittens were usually killing more than 100 dogs and cats
per 1,000 humans circa 1970. The U.S. average was 115, and the
Southern toll (where known) soared above 250.
Current regional norms vary from 3.6 in the Northeast to 27.5
along the Gulf Coast and 29.2 in Appalachia.
The Northeast toll is as low as it is partly because most
animal control agencies in Connecticut still do not actively pick up
cats, although they were authorized to do so in 1991–but even if
Connecticut agencies collected two or three times as many cats as
dogs, the overall Northeast rate of shelter killing would be less
than 4.5 dogs and cats per 1,000 humans.

BOOKS: Wild Dogs: past & present

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

Wild Dogs: past & present
by Kelly Milner Halls
Darby Creek Publishing
(7858 Industrial Parkway, Plain City, OH 43064), 2005. 64 pages,
hardcover, illustrated. $18.95.

Addressing children, Kelly Milner Halls in Wild Dogs pleads
for appreciation and tolerance of coyotes, dingoes, dholes, foxes,
wolves, and other wild canines. Often persecuted as alleged
predators of livestock, each in truth preys much more heavily on
rodents and other so-called nuisance wildlife.
Wild Dogs is overall a unique and fascinating look at dogs
and dog relatives who predate humanity. Tracing the evolution of
dogs, Milner Halls points out that each variety of living wild dog
is a remnant of the evolution of current domestic pet dogs, and
observes that contrary to stereotype, not all primitive dogs are
ferocious carnivores. Many routinely consume some plant food. The
mild-mannered maned wolf of southern South America is especially fond
of fruit.
Much more could have been said about primitive dogs, humans,
and our influences on each other, had Milner Halls not been obliged
to work within a set length limit.

BOOKS: First Friends

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

First Friends
by Katherine M. Rogers
St. Martin’s Press
(175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010), 2005.
263 pages, paperback. $24.95.

The title is carefully chosen for this
history of the interaction of dogs and humans.
Note that it is “First Friends’” and not “Best
Friends.”
Katherine M. Rogers, in this erudite and
sometimes repetitively thorough treatise on the
use and treatment of dogs in English and
classical literature, deals in depth with the
two extremes: dog lovers and dog detesters.
“For some people dogs are no more than
beasts, and it is fatuous, if not impious,”
Rogers writes, “to value them in anything like
human terms.”
Rogers places herself between the two
extremes, adopting the phrase “dog interested,”
meaning that she believes dogs should be well
treated but that it is better for both dogs and
humans if dogs are kept a subordinate place.

BOOKS: One Small Step: America’s First Primates in Space

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

One Small Step: America’s First Primates in Space
by David Cassidy & Patrick Hughes
Penguin Group (375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014), 2005.
135 pages, paperback plus DVD documentary. $19.95.

One Small Step presents the history of
the early U.S. space program, focusing on the
“chimponauts,” who preceded humans into orbit.
Then-U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower had one
question, according to David Cassidy and Patrick
Hughes: “If I put humans in space, are they
going to die? Will their hearts stop beating?
Will their blood stop flowing? Or will they be
so sick that they just can’t do anything?”
Video documentarian Cassidy’s
investigation, turned into a book by Hughes,
reveals not only how many animals were sacrificed
in the cause of space exploration, but also how
carefully their suffering was concealed from the
public. Chimpanzees grimacing in agony were
depicted by the Air Force-compliant media as
“smiling with enjoyment.”

BOOKS: Meat Market: Animals, Ethics & Money

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

Meat Market: Animals, Ethics & Money
by Erik Marcus
Brio Press (244 Blakeslee, Hill Road, Suite 5, Newfield, NY 14867), 2005.
273 pages, hardcover. $21.95.

Erik Marcus writes crisply in this book about the evils of
factory farming. He disposes of common misconceptions and
exaggerated arguments, frequently employed both by industry
apologists and Animal Rights activists. His logic is clearly
expressed and his prose flows tightly. In fact the book is so easy
to read that it would make an excellent text book for humane
education and animal law courses.
Marcus examines the transformation of animal agriculture
since 1950 and analyses the growth of factory farming at the expense
of small family-owned farms.
Aiming squarely at urban activists who have no clear
understanding of farming methods, he introduces us to the life of a
layer hen, describing in harrowing detail her tortured life. Then
he does the same for broiler chickens, pigs, dairy cows, and beef
cattle.

BOOKS: Animals: Why They Must Not Be Brutalized

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

Animals: Why They Must Not Be Brutalized
by J.B. Suconik
Nuark Publishing (30 Amberwood Parkway, Ashland, OH 44805),
2002. 160 pages, hard cover. $28.00

Suconik’s book is basically a moral treatise against the
arguments commonly used to support vivisection. Give us the whole
balance sheet, he implores vivisection apologists, not just an item
from the profit and loss account. Then we can accurately determine
the legitimacy of the whole enterprise.
Don’t just argue, for example, that without biomedical
research on animals we can forget about a cure for AIDS. Tell us how
much it will cost, how many animals will be used, how cruel are the
procedures and what are the alternatives.
Sure, if you spend millions tormenting animals for years you
are bound to learn something, sooner or later. But if better ways
exist, then the millions spent on vivisection will have been
wastefully employed.

BOOKS: Clara’s Grand Tour & General Howe’s Dog

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

Clara’s Grand Tour
by Glynis Ridley
Atlantic Monthly Press (841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003), 2004.
222 pages, hardcover. $22.00.

General Howe’s Dog
by Caroline Tiger
Penguin Group (375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014), 2005.
192 pages, hardcover. $18.95.

Historical scholars Glynis Ridley and Caroline Tiger each
happened across an intriguing mention of an animal while
investigating other events of the mid-18th century. Each
reconstructed the story of the animal, as best she could from
surviving documentation. Each produced a book about her findings,
with remarkably different results.
Ridley produced an award-winning account of the travels and
influence of a young female Indian rhinoceros, Clara, whose mother
was killed by hunters in Assam, India, circa 1738-1739. Hauled
overland to Calcutta, Clara was raised to adulthood in the home of
Dutch East India Company director J.A. Sichterman, initially as a
household pet. Outgrowing her quarters, Clara was sold in early
1741 to Dutch sea captain Douwemont Van der Meer. Van der Meer
sailed to Leiden with her.

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