One orca freed, ten to be caught and sold

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2002:

VANCOUVER,  B.C.;  SEA OF OKHOTSK–The orphaned orca A-73,
who followed the Seattle/Vachon Island ferry boats throughout the
spring in southern Puget Sound,  was captured,  treated for minor
ailments,  taken back to the A-pod home waters in the Johnstone
Strait,  and reunited with the pod in mid-July 2002,  at total cost
of $800,000.
The greatest part of the expense was borne by the Nichols
Brothers boatyard in Freeland,  Washington,  whose jet catamaran did
the hauling.

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United States legislative roundup

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2002:

California Governor Gray Davis in mid-July signed into law a
bill by state assembly member Virginia Strom-Martin (D-Duncans Mills)
which encourages human services personnel to report any suspected
cases of animal abuse they may encounter on the job.  Animal cruelty
investigators are already required to report any suspected cases of
child abuse that they discover.  The Strom-Martin bill was introduced
to mandate cross-reporting,  but was amended to be non-binding after
child welfare agencies testified that the cumulative cost of the
extra paperwork would be about $200,000 statewide per year.

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Veggies and soy cut breast cancer risk–new studies

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:

 

LONDON, NEW YORK–Frequent consumption of soya milk and
tofu, the curded form of tofu favored in cooking, may reduce the
risk of breast cancer, the British charity Cancer Research U.K.
announced on July 6, 2002, citing findings from a study of 406
women living in Singapore.
Working in partnership with the U.S. National Cancer
Institute and the National University of Singapore, Cancer Research
U.K. scientists found that the women who ate the most tofu were 60%
less likely to develop the forms of high-density breast tissue most
associated with developing breast cancer. The findings were reported
the the peer-reviewed journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and
Prevention.
Often used in place of cow’s milk and meat products, soya
milk and tofu are staples of vegan and vegetarian diets in the U.S.
and Britain.
The study was the second in recent months to link
vegetarianism with reduced risk of breast cancer.
The International Journal of Cancer in May 2002 published a
study of 717 South Asian women who had emigrated to Britain, 240 of
whom subsequently developed breast cancer while 477 did not.
Isabel dos Santos Silva, M.D., and colleagues at the London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that “lifelong
vegetarianism may be associated with a reduction in the risk of
breast cancer through its association with a higher intake of
vegetables and (legumes).”

Islamic zoos & Chinese animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:

DEN HAGUE, JAKARTA, KABUL, AMMAN, LAS VEGAS– Mohammed,
reputedly fond of cats, might have given his special blessing to a
cat who found herself locked inside a minaret at a mosque in Den
Hague, The Netherlands, on July 26 after Friday prayers. The cat
summoned help by somehow switching on the minaret sound system and
amplifying her meows along with Turkish music throughout the downtown
area, the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad reported. Her people
recognized her voice and called the police, but the key to the
minaret was not found until Sunday.

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Prairie dogs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The National Wildlife Federation on June 26,
2002 asked the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to protect blacktailed
prairie dogs throughout its holdings,  but continued to withhold any
denunciation of the 2002 Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation “gopher”
derby,  which killed more than 63,000 blacktailed prairie dogs and
Richardson’s ground squirrels.
The SWF is an affiliate of the Canadian Wildlife Federation,
which shares programs and policies with NWF.
Seven other U.S. conservation groups in early July asked the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list whitetailed prairie dogs as a
threatened species.  Utah and Mexican prairie dogs are already listed
as a threatened species,  and the Fish and Wildlife Service has
acknowledged that blacktailed prairie dogs are eligible for listing,
but has not assigned them a high priority on the waiting list of
candidate species.
Pressured by ranchers and prairie dog shooters,  the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission on July 24 voted 5-1 against protecting
prairie dogs on state lands.

Sanctuarians respond to July/August features

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:

Dharma donks

Thank you for including an item about our Dharma Donkey
Sanctuary activities in Sagroli village, south Maharashtra, India,
in your July/August 2002 edition.
On June 28, the day before our third annual donkey health
care and education camp, the police of nearby Biloli village
apprehended and jailed six men who were allegedly stealing donkeys
for slaughter at an infamous slaughterhouse just across the state
border in Andra Pradesh. As soon as we heard the news, we went to
meet the police. They were very excited that we came, and I took
lots of photos of the police captain, his staff, and the two
policemen who actually caught the donkey-nappers.

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U.K. Mammals Trust says “Yankee animals, go home!”

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2002:

LONDON–Great Britain from the time of Queen Elizabeth I
through the reign of Queen Victoria energetically exported favored
livestock and wildlife species throughout the British Empire.
Rabbits and foxes were sent to Australia and New Zealand,
starlings and house sparrows to the U.S.–but now Britain is on the
receiving end of introductions,   especially from the U.S.,  and some
conservationists view the new arrivals as threats to the national
character.
David Macdonald and Fran Tatter-sall of the Mammals Trust
reported in May 2002 that the population of native English water
voles fell by 90% during the 20th century,  due to habitat
competition and predation by introduced American mink.
Macdonald and Tattersall also blamed the recent decline of
native red squirrels on the success of introduced American grey
squirrels,  and lamented that DNA analysis of native British pine
martens showed the presence of at least two American pine martens in
their gene pool.

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LETTERS [September 2002]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:
 
Education

It occurred to me that math should be
part of the humane education curriculum.
For example, if there are 500 female and
500 male dogs in a town whose mayor kills 499 of
the females and 499 of the males, and the
surviving female and her female offspring have
two female and two male puppies twice a year,
who survive disease, accidents and the mayor’s
death squads to reproduce at the same rate, how
many dogs will there be after five years,
assuming that there is plenty of edible rubbish
for the dogs to eat and plenty of water to drink?
If the carrying capacity of the habitat
is 3,000 stray dogs and the mayor hires someone
to kill 2,500 of them each winter, how many dogs
will there be within six months?
Another question could be on rabies: if
70% of the dogs in town are vaccinated against
rabies, and a rabid dog is dumped on the edge of
the town, will rabies spread throughout the town?
If we can communicate to the next
generation the basic math of animal population
control and disease control, we will have much
less difficulty in advancing sterilization and
vaccination in the future, in place of the
present endless cycle of cruel and ineffective
killing.
–Robert Smith
<Robert.Smith@TangoFashions.com>

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No-kill success and fiscal reality collide in Reno

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:

Succeeding the No-Kill Conference, after seven annual events
that transformed the ambitions of the global animal care and control
community, will be the much less provocatively named Conference on
Homeless Animal Management and Policy, convening in Reno on August
22, 2002.
Retiring the term “no-kill” in deference to the sensitivities
of conventional shelter directors, CHAMP hopes to attract a broader
constituency to learn new approaches, and join the worldwide trend
away from accepting high-volume killing of homeless animals as an
inevitable part of animal control and humane work.

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