BOOKS: American Nature Writing 1996 & The Soul of Nature

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

American Nature Writing 1996
selected by John A. Murray.
Sierra Club Books (730 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109), 1996.
300 pages. $15.00 paperback.

The Soul of Nature: Celebrating the Spirit of the Earth
edited by Michael Tobias and Georgianne Cowan.
Penguin Books (375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014), 1996.
298 pages. $11.95 paperback.

A collection of 29 short features,
including a few poems, American Nature
Writing celebrates “the best American nature
writing” of the year. Contributors to this edition
include Jimmy Carter, E.O. Wilson,
Jennifer Ackerman, Frank Stewart, and Barry
Lopez, but the reputations of the authors
exceed the quality of the content. More sentimental
than either passionate or insightful,
American Nature Writing reads rather like a
Reader’s Digest anthology—condensed,
somewhat chirpy, a little bland.

BOOKS: Counting on Calico and Calico Picks A Puppy

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Counting on Calico and Calico Picks A Puppy
both by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes
Charlesbridge Publishing (85 Main Street, Watertown, MA 02172-4411),
1995, 1996. $6.95 each, oversized paperback.

Children love Counting on Calico
and Calico Picks A Puppy, from the introduction
of Calico the Cat by “Squeaker of
the House” Willy Whiskers to the very last
drawing in the brightly illustrated set, showing
cat and dog together. Though these
books have a rudimentary plot, and are
drawn as richly as any story-book, they are
in fact manuals on cat and dog basics, the
things every child should know before getting
a pet. The information is accurate; the
format and scale of the art are conducive to
group read-alouds. Humane educators will
particularly appreciate that after admiring
various purebreds, Calico finally settles on
a mixed-breed puppy, noting that mongrels
often combine the best traits of both parents.

Crimes against wildlife

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

June 12, 1996 was a day to
remember in the international fight against
wildlife traffickers:
• In Chicago, bird smuggler
Tony Silva, 36, was jailed pending sentencing,
after prosecutors Sergio Acosta a n d
Jay Tharp argued that he was likely to jump
bail. Silva, who ran a wild-caught bird
smuggling ring while posing as an outspoken
foe of the wild-caught bird traffic, in January
pleaded guilty to reduced charges of conspiracy
and tax evasion, but on May 17 sought
unsuccessfully to withdraw the plea, after
former Playboy Mansion animal keeper
Theodora Swanson, 36, in April drew a
lighter sentence for conviction on contested
charges than her confederates got after copping
pleas.

COURT CALENDAR

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Pet theft
The Oregon Court of Appeals o n
May 18 overturned a $100,000 defamation
award to former laboratory animal supplier
James Joseph Hickey, issued by a Linn
County Circuit Court jury in July 1994 against
his godmother Merthal Settlemier, over
remarks she made to the ABC television program
2 0 / 2 0 in a 1990 episode about pet theft
called “Pet Bandits.” Hickey lost a similar suit
against ABC, heard in federal court. The
appellate court ruled that Hickey, as a public
figure, had the burden of proving that Settlemier’s
claim that his animal care was “inhumane”
was false, and that he “presented no
evidence that the conditions defendant
described did not exist on the day she visited.”

Vegan fired for not pushing meat

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

COSTA MESA, California––Bus
driver Bruce Anderson, 38, an ethical vegan
for two years and a five-year employee of the
Orange County Transportation Authority,
was ordered off his bus in mid-route on June
4 and fired from his $16.60-an-hour job on
June 7 for refusing to hand out coupons to
riders good for free hamburgers at Carl’s Jr.
restaurants.
“I told them that I don’t eat dead
cows and no one else needs to, either,”
Anderson recounted to Los Angeles Times
reporter David Haldane. “I told them that I
wouldn’t support Carl’s Jr. in slaughtering
cows. I’m paid to drive a bus, not sit there
and hand out coupons for something I don’t
believe in.”

The faithful do sheep

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Traditional celebrations of the Islamic version of the
Feast of Sacrifice were held in more U.S. and European communities
than ever before this year––and apparently provoked
more protest, too.
More as a matter of custom than of religious teaching,
the feast is marked by male heads of households slashing
the throats of sheep, reprising Abraham’s slaughter of a ram
instead of his son Isaac, who is said to have been sire of both
the Hebrew and Arab people. Extra meat is supposed to be
given to the poor, but so many sheep are killed at pilgrimage
sites that most of the meat reportedly goes to waste.
In France, Islamic leaders called Brigitte Bardot
“racist” for her annual criticism of the practice. Responded
Bardot, “If tomorrow Muslims stop slitting sheeps’ throats, I
will find them the most wonderful people in the world.”

Dogged pursuit

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

HOPKINTON, Mass.––Louise Coleman, founding
director of Greyhound Friends, is the only alleged dog
thief ever honored with the Peace Abbey’s Courage of
Conscience award, accepted from the multi-faith vegetarian
organization at a commemorative ceremony in Sherborn,
Massachusetts, on February 16.
But Coleman and friends may also be the only
alleged dog thieves who ever did the deed in front of television
cameras, with the full cooperation of law-and-order.
Six months later, related crossfiled lawsuits are
still before the Superior Court in Montreal, Quebec, and
may be far from trial. Dog breeder Richard Valiquette, of
Ste. Sophie, Quebec, contends eight of his dogs were taken
illegally last December 19 by Coleman, Greyhound Friends
volunteer Fred Fontaine, and Linda Miranda of the Frontier
Animal Society, located in Beebe, Quebec.

Religion & animals

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

The first deed of the shortlived Hindu fundamentalist
government of India, inaugurated May 24 only to
resign five days later, was to introduce a bill to ban cow
slaughter. Killing cows is against the Hindu religion, practiced
by 750 million Indians, but 110 million Moslem citizens
eat beef. Paradoxically, though Moslems are only 14%
of the total Indian population of 930 million, 10% of all the
Moslems in the world live in India; only Pakistan has more.
The Shaolin Temple, in central Henan province,
C h i n a, on June 6 won a lawsuit against the Luohe Canned
Food Factory, which had used actors depicting the Buddhist
monks of Shaolin in a TV plug for ham. Devout vegetarians,
the Shaolin monks devised and still teach the martial art of
kung-fu to avoid using lethal weapons in self-defense.

Hopi eagle sacrifice offends Navajo

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

WINDOW ROCK, Arizona––Members of the
Hopi Tribe must report their eaglet and hawk gathering activities
every five days to federal judge Earl Carroll and the
Navajo Nation until June 30, Carroll ruled on June 13, reaffirming
his May 8 preliminary verdict––and may take no
more than 12 golden eaglets and two red-tailed hawks from
Navajo land.
Carroll also refused a Hopi request to drop individual
criminal complaints against each of 11 Hopis who were
cited on May 2 for collecting two eaglets at Twin Horn Butte
without a permit from the Navajo Fish and Wildlife bureau.
The Hopi had asked Carroll for unlimited eaglet and
hawk gathering privileges. At issue were the customs and
ceremonies surrounding traditional Hopi eaglet and hawk sacrifice,
abhored by many Navajo, which may have begun
before recorded history in connection with Hopi resistance to
Navajo predation. The Hopi, descended from the cliffdwelling
Anasazi, are the northernmost people of the Aztec
linguistic family. The Navajo, related to the Shoshone, were
nomads before European settlement, who frequently raided
Hopi villages. The Navajo were and are by far the larger and
politically more powerful tribe.

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