Elephant retirement progress

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

SAN FRANCISCO, DETROIT–The former San Francisco Zoo
elephant Tinkerbelle, 38, was moved on November 28, 2004 to the
Performing Animal Welfare Society refuge near San Andreas. Her
companion Lulu, also 38, slower to learn the transport procedure,
is to be moved in December.
The American Zoo Association is to decide in March whether to
penalize the San Francisco Zoo for retiring the elephants outside of
the AZA-accredited system, but on December 2 withdrew a similar
objection to the planned retirement to PAWS of the Detroit Zoo
elephants Wanda, 46, and Winky, 51.
The AZA had threatened both the Detroit and San Francisco
zoos with loss of accreditation for not keeping the elephants in
captive breeding programs, but agreed to retiring the Detroit pair
after a test showed that Wanda might have been exposed to a viral
disease which can kill young elephant calves.

Poacher Tauzin III loses in Louisiana

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

NEW ORLEANS–Louisiana election officials on December 9
certified that Democrat Charlie Melancon of Napoleonville won by 569
votes in the race to succeed 12-term Republican incumbent U.S.
Representative Billy Tauzin Jr.
An avid blood sports enthusiast, Tauzin Jr. retired
expecting son Billy Tauzin III to succeed him–but on February 29,
2004, Tauzin III and companion Anthony Giardina were fined for
trapping 46 nutria without a permit and trespassing, just two months
after Tauzin finished probation for drunk driving. Backers joked
that Tauzin III had established credentials as a “good old boy,” but
more than 57,000 voters didn’t think that was reason enough to vote
for him.

Court Calendar

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

Initiative victories upheld

The U.S. Supreme Court on November 15 rejected without
comment a petition seeking to overturn the initiative ban on
cockfighting approved by Oklahoma voters in 2002. Spokespersons for
the United Gamefowl Breeders Association indicated that since the ban
has withstood all appeals, they will lobby to reduce the penalties.
Louisiana and New Mexico are the last states to allow cockfighting.

A three-judge panel of the Washington state Court of Appeals
in Tacoma on December 7 upheld initiative laws I-655, which in 1996
banned baiting bears and restricted hunting bears, pumas, and
bobcats with dogs, and I-713, which in 2000 banned body-gripping
traps and use of Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide to poison wildlife.
The pro-hunting and trapping front Citizens for Responsible Wildlife
Management contended that both measures illegally violated the public
trust by transferring control of wildlife management away from the
state government.

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BOOKS: The Tower Menagerie

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

The Tower Menagerie: The Amazing 600-Year History of the
Royal Collection of Wild & Ferocious Beasts Kept at the Tower of London
by Daniel Hahn
Tarcher/Penguin (375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014), 2003. 260
pages, hardcover. $26.95.

Before city-hosted nonprofit zoos existed there were
for-profit menageries. Before there were menageries, there were
spectacles, featuring fights to the death among captive beasts whose
ferocity was tested on dogs and prisoners.
Centuries before the modern history of England began with the
Norman Conquest in 1066, before William the Conqueror began building
the Tower of London as his royal residence, spectacles and
menageries emerged and evolved in almost every civilization. As only
monarchs could afford to acquire much more than a single dancing
bear, presenting spectacles and menageries reinforced royal status
from ancient times onward.
The Tower Menagerie, the most enduring of menageries and
spectacle venues, was reputedly begun by King John (1199-1216).
Written records of it date from the 1235 arrival of several gift
leopards, followed by lions and a polar bear, who fished in the
Thames.

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Stealth riders attack wild mustangs and migratory birds

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Stealth riders attached to the “Consolidated
Appropriations Act, 2005″ on November 18, 2004 crippled two of the
oldest U.S. federal animal protection statutes.
The 3,600-page, $388 billion appropriations act, HR 4818,
was ratified in final form and sent to U.S. President George W. Bush
for his signature on December 6.
Buried deep within it, Section 142 in effect repealed the
1971 Wild and Free Ranging Horse and Burro Protection Act, virtually
mandating that wild horses and burros must be sold to slaughter.
Section 143 excised 94 bird species from the 1918 Migratory
Bird Treaty Act.
The HR 4818 riders followed four years after similar tactics
permanently excluded rats, mice, and birds from the definition of
“animals” protected by the 1971 Animal Welfare Act.
The effect of the three repeals is that even before the Bush
administration moves to roll back the “critical habitat” provisions
of the Endangered Species Act, as demanded in late November by the
Western Governors Association, animals have less federal protection
now than in 1974, when the ESA was adopted.

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BOOKS: The Cat Who Came In From The Cold: A Fable

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

The Cat Who Came In From The Cold: A Fable
by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Ballantine Books (c/o Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY
10019), 2004. 103 pages, hardcover. $15.95

This fable takes place thousands of years ago, in the
forests of southern India, and is aimed more at children than at
adults. Billi, a wild cat, lives with his feline family. Tragedy
strikes and Billi finds himself alone. He decides to take a journey
of discovery through India.
His journey takes him into many villages and to meetings with
other animals such as dogs, a parrot, and a cow. He has seen the
attention that these animals get from their human keepers, and
wonders what it would be like to have the pleasure of being part of a
human family. He questions them about their lives with humans,
trying to get a better perspective on life as a domestic animal.
Billi eventually chooses a family and joins them.

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BOOKS: The Cat Guru

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

The Cat Guru
by Naina Lepes
Ibis Press (c/o Nicolas-Hays, Inc., P.O. Box 1126, Berwick, ME
03901), 2004. 149 pages,
paperback. $16.95.

This charming little book tells the story of a gentle and
spiritual woman who attends an ashram in India, and allows a family
of feral cats into her life.
This spontaneous course of compassionate conduct leads her
into the hectic routine of foster-parenting, which in turn takes her
closer to spiritual enlightenment.
Analyzing her reactions to the accidents and adventures which
befall the cats, author Naina Lepes moves into the dimensions of
psychology and self-realization.

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BOOKS: If You Tame Me

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

If You Tame Me:
Understanding our Connection with Animals
by Leslie Irvine
Temple University Press (1601 N. Broad St., Philadelphia,
PA 19122), 2004. 240 pages, paperback. $19.95.

If You Tame Me is an unusual title for an interesting
investigation into the lives of animals. Concentrating on dogs and
cats, Irvine uses sociological techniques to decode the mysteries of
animal behavior, and then discusses our relationship with animals.
Irvine’s theme is that people care for their companion
animals as intensely as we do because animals, like people, have
individual personalities that she refers to generically as “selves.”
This allows them to interact and connect with individual humans in a
way that would be impossible for an inanimate object.

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BOOKS: Believe: A Horseman’s Journey

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

Believe: A Horseman’s Journey
by Buck Brannaman & William Reynolds
The Lyons Press (246 Goose Lane, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT
06437), 2004. 178 pages, hardcover. $27.95.

Moviegoers will remember the film The Horse Whisperer, and
in particular, the dramatic scene where Tom Brooker, played by
Robert Redford, brought a troubled horse gently down into a prone
position. Buck Brannaman, the cowboy/trainer who inspired the film,
has followed up his best-selling book The Faraway Horses with this
account of his efforts to help thirteen horses and their people.
Each subject tells his or her own story, prefaced by
Brannaman’s comments.
All thirteen stories emphasize that a complete and satisfying
relationship between horse and rider cannot be based upon domination,
but rather must be based upon mutual trust and empathy. The rider
must learn to recognize subtle signs which compassionate people are
able to read once they accept their horses as equals, with complete
personalities.

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