BOOKS: Going Home—Finding Peace When an Animal Dies

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

Going Home:  Finding Peace When an Animal Dies  by Jon Katz
Random House (1745 Broadway,  New York,  NY 10019),  2011.  166 pages,  hardcover.  $22.00.

Going Home is a guide for grieving animal owners that thrusts itself into a very crowded field.  An Internet search at Amazon.com turns up at least 250 titles under “pet loss.”  And Jon Katz’s fictionalized book is far from original.  According to Katz,  the incidents in Going Home did happen,  but he “changed names and personal characteristics” of people involved.  So the stories Katz tells may not have actually happened as Katz relates them. Read more

Among African Apes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:


Among African Apes
Edited by Martha M. Robbins & Christophe Boesch
University of California Press
(2120 Berkeley Way,  Berkeley,
CA  94704),  2011.  196 pages,  hardcover.  $29.95.

A series of essays and memoirs by field researchers,  Among African Apes both intrigues and troubles the reader.  Editor Martha M. Robbins says her life is often perceived as glamorous. It is not. Sometimes Robbins and her colleagues sit for hours just waiting for animals to appear. Collecting and then analyzing data is tedious work. Read more

BOOKS: The Exultant Ark

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

The Exultant Ark
by Jonathan Balcombe
Univ. of Calif. Press
(2120 Berkeley Way,
Berkeley,  CA  94704),  2011.
214 pages,  hardcover.  $34.95.

Jonathan Balcombe begins The Exultant Ark by examining the range and depth of animals’ feelings.
That animals feel pain,  though disputed by some people in animal use industries,  is well studied and documented.  As Balcombe summarizes,  animals in pain “shriek or bellow,  they avoid and retreat from the sources of pain.”
Less understood is animal pleasure.  The pleasure of animals obviously differs in some ways from what we experience while laughing through a funny movie.  Yet animals do experience pleasure,  Balcombe explains,  supporting his contentions with stunning color photographs.  Eight sections cover play,  food,  touch, courtship/sex,  love, comfort,  companionship,  and a variety of other pleasures. An interpretation accompanies each set of photos. Read more

BOOKS: Gabriel’s Angels—The story of the dog who inspired a revolution

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

Gabriel’s Angels:
The story of the dog who inspired a revolution
by Pam Gaber
Gabriel’s Angels, Inc.
(1550 E Maryland Ave.,  Suite 1,
Phoenix,  AZ 85014),  2011.  Paperback,  $19.99.

My adopted dog Luke died in 2010.  Earlier,  Luke and I were a therapy team with Gabriel’s Angels from 2001-2008.  Gabriel,  the founding dog,  slobbered on my cheek a few times and I think the organization is super.

Gabriel’s Angels:  The story of the dog who inspired a revolution is founder Pam Gaber’s memoir of how she and Gabriel and a chance visit to a group for abused children led her to start an organization that changes the lives of maltreated children.  A former business executive,  Gaber became unhappy with travel,  endless meetings,  and conference calls.  One day in 1999 she quit and began her new career as a volunteer at the Crisis Nursery in Phoenix, nurturing abused and abandoned children.  The Christmas party approached and Gaber asked executive director Marsha Porter for permission to bring her one-year-old Weimaraner to the party. Initially Porter wavered,  then said “Why not?” Read more

NACA memorial wall

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

OLATHE,  Kansas--The National Animal Control Association is to dedicate a Memorial Wall & Gardens on October 1,  2011 at the NACA corporate office.

“The NACA Memorial Wall & Gardens is a permanent display/tribute to remember and honor NACA members employed as animal control officers who have died in the line of duty,”  said NACA executive director Johnny Mays.

“The wall will display the names of these fallen animal control officers.  The gardens will serve as a backdrop for the wall,  providing a serene and private area to reflect on the loss of these fallen members and to honor their memory.”

Matt Pepper leaves Memphis to take Albuquerque top post

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

MEMPHIS--Memphis Animal Shelter director Matt Pepper resigned effective on August 12,  2011 to become director of Albuquerque Animal Services,  beginning in mid-September.

Pepper,  35,  was hired by the city of Memphis in March 2010 to succeed Ernest Alexander,  who had headed the shelter since 2007. “Before landing in Memphis,” recalled Amos Maki of the Memphis Commercial Appeal,  “Pepper served as head of Caddo Parish Animal Services in Shreveport,  Lousiana.  When he took over at Caddo in 2008,”  Mako noted,  “that shelter’s director,  veterinarian and two others had been terminated amid accusations of mismanagement.”
This was almost the same situation that Pepper inherited in Memphis. Read more

Defending the Defenseless: A guide to protecting and advocating for pets

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

Defending the Defenseless:
A guide to protecting
and advocating for pets
by Allie Phillips
Rowan & Littlefield
(4501 Forbes Blvd.,   Suite 200, Lanham MD 20706),  2011.
272 pages,  paperback.  $34.95.


Defending the Defenseless:  A guide to protecting and advocating for pets is well researched,  albeit a bit verbose,  but offers nothing new for those who work in the animal field. What progressive shelter manager doesn’t know the benefits of foster care and promoting adoptions?  Thousands of shelters now transport animals to save lives,  especially after disasters. This technique came into vogue after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.  Just about everyone involved in animal rescue knows the misery of puppy mills,  a frequent topic of media exposés and fundraising appeals for more than 50 years. Read more

Best Friends to run shelter for Los Angeles

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

LOS ANGELES--“The Best Friends Animal Society’s proposal to run our vacant Northeast Valley Animal Shelter as a high-volume adoption center and spay/neuter facility passed today in City Council 11-1,”  Los Angeles Animal Services general manager Brenda Barnette e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on August 16,  2011.

Built in 2008,  the $19.5 million Northeast Valley Shelter was never fully staffed because budget cuts left L.A. Animal Services without the additional $3.3 million per year that full staffing and full-scale operation would have cost.  “A proposal to open it with staff taken from six other shelters would have reduced hours and service” throughout the Los Angeles city shelter system,  and would have increased shelter killing “by as many as 10,000 animals a year,” said Los Angeles Daily News staff writers Rick Orlov and Dana Bartholomew. Read more

Dogs saved from meat smugglers in Thailand

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

BANGKOK–Accused dog trafficker Noppadon Chaiwangrot, 40, allegedly released 600 dogs into a forest on August 11,  2011 when he realized that police were about to intercept his five-truck convoy.

Then,  “After police chased the trucks,”  the Bangkok Nation reported,  “a worker threw dog cages down,  seriously injuring the animals.”   One truck was stopped in Na Thom province and the other four in Si Songkhram,  on their way to meet a ship that was to have hauled the dogs down the Mekong River for sale to Vietnamese meat markets.   Three drivers,  one of them Vietnamese,  were criminally charged.  Two drivers escaped,  but surrendered to police after the first three were released on bail. Read more

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