A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003–
Barcelona, Spain, instituted
high-volume sterilization of dogs and cats in
January as cornerstone of a no-kill animal
control policy. Since 2000 the Barcelona city
shelters have reduced their killing of stray dogs
from 72% of intake to 36%, and have reduced
their killing of stray cats from 89% to 27%,
Agence France-Press reported.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003–
ATLANTA–The Atlanta Humane Society, managing the Fulton
County Animal Control shelter as well as its own facilities since
1974, on March 20 returned animal control duties to the county.
After rejecting bids on the animal control contract from the
Southern Hope Humane Society of Cobb County and a newly formed
for-profit company called Synergy Management Services, deputy county
manager Terry Todd reached an 11-day temporary agreement with
Southern Hope at 5:40 p.m. on March 20, and agreed to buy $350,000
worth of animal control equipment from Atlanta Humane.
“A panel of county staff recommended Synergy Management” as
the preferred new longterm animal control provider, wrote Ty Tagami
of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Synergy Management “promis-ed a
smooth transition by hiring the Atlanta Humane pound director,”
Tagami said.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003–
Benjamin Moore, 28, of Richmond, California, who left
neighbor Shawn Jones, 10, for dead after Moore’s three pit bull
terriers mauled Jones beyond recognition in June 2001, was sentenced
on March 14 to serve six years plus eight months in federal prison on
a plea bargain for possession of cocaine with intent to sell. Moore
will not be prosecuted for Jones’ mauling because no applicable
charge would carry a stiffer sentence than he received on the drug
conviction.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003:
SAN DIEGO–Cockfighters are blamed for the worst outbreak of
Newcastle disease to hit the U.S. in 30 years. Agriculture officials
had ordered the killing of more than three million chickens on 20
California ranches through March 19, in futile efforts to contain
the spread of Newcastle. Other cases were reported on the Colorado
River Indian Reservation in Arizona, and were suspected in a
backyard flock near Goodyear, Arizona.
More than 12 million chickens and other poultry were killed
to control the worst-ever U.S. Newcastle outbreak, discovered in
California in 1971 but eventually afflicting most states with
significant poultry industries. That outbreak, costing poulry
producers and taxpayers $56 million, arrived with wild-caught
parrots.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003:
CINCINNATI, CHICAGO, DAYTON–The pet food manufacturer Iams
and Procter & Gamble, owner of Iams since 1999, took a public
relations beating from PETA on March 25-26 over alleged substandard
conditions at an unidentified contract laboratory.
PETA senior vice president Mary Beth Sweetland stated at a
March 25 press conference that undercover video taken at the lab,
which she refused to name, shows animals in “small, barren cages,
some for up to six years.”
Stating that “The lab is not in Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana,”
Sweetland said that animals there “are not given a resting board off
the cement floor when the temperature is less than 50 degrees, as
required by federal regulations,” reported Cliff Peale of the
Cincinnati Enquirer.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003:
SALT LAKE CITY–Karen Dawn of Pacific
Palisades, California, was not surprised to
read in the March 24 edition of Newsweek that
accused kidnapper and rapist David Brian Mitchell
had a history of cruelty to animals. As an
active distributor of online action alerts, via
<www.dawnwatch.com>, Dawn long since became
familiar with the frequent association of
violence toward animals with violence toward
humans–especially women and children.
Dawn was surprised, however, that the
linkage involving Mitchell seemed to be so little
remarked by news media–and unrecognized by the
Salt Lake City police.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003:
The Raven Who Spoke With God by Christopher Foster
Singing Spirit Books (4127 Ash Ct., Loveland, CO 80538), 2001.
148 pages, paperback. $12.95.
Joshua, The Raven Who Spoke With God, is more-or-less kin
to Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the title-bird of the 1973 best
seller by Richard Bach, reissued to renewed success in 1995. Those
who like spiritual bird stories seem to be as enthralled with Joshua
as they were with Jonathan, judging from the many rave reviews
published elsewhere.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003:
Chronology of humane progress
(Part 1 of two parts: from Moses to Walt Disney)
by Merritt Clifton
1300 B.C. — Hebrew law as proclaimed by
Moses includes provisions for humane slaughter
and care of work animals.
740 B.C. — Rise of Isaiah, the most
prominent of the Hebrew vegetarian prophets, and
the prophet who most emphasized opposition to
animal sacrifice.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003:
Sonya Fitzpatrick, The Pet Psychic:
What the animals tell me by Sonya Fitzpatrick
Berkley Pub Group (c/o Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson St.,
New York, NY 10014), 2003. 272 pages, hardcover. $21.95.
The Pet Psychic is just too dumb to finish.
In childhood, Sonya Fitzpatrick claims, she had a hearing
impairment that made her relate better to animals and made her more
aware of her psychic/telepathic powers. Then one holiday her father
cooked her pet geese. Fitzpatrick became so traumatized that she
turned off her communication with animals, and didn’t start again
until she was an adult.