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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS
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NOVEMBER 2005
LETTERS
PetSmart & live animal sales
Regarding PetSmart’s Luv-A-Pet Adoption Centers, described in your September 2005 edition, and the October 2005 letter from PetSmart Charities vice president Susana M. Della Maddalena, I sincerely appreciate all that PetSmart Charities does for dogs and cats, but implore PetSmart to reconsider selling other animals as merchandise.
Birds, reptiles, fish and small mammals deserve the same respect as dogs and cats. Petco, pressured by PETA and other animal rights groups, in April 2005 agreed to stop selling large parrots. Should we now campaign against PetSmart?
––Tami Myers
The Angry Parrot, Inc
P.O. Box 442
Thorndike, MA 01079
Phone: 413-283-5039
<Tami@thebeakretreat.com>
<www.theangryparrot.org>
Editor’s note: PetSmart Charities, a subisidiary of PetSmart, has no part in deciding what PetSmart stores sell. PetSmart Charities executives have for at least eight years urged PetSmart to extend to other species the philosophy that dogs and cats should be adopted, not sold. A shrill response from some small mammal advocates several years ago appeared to halt discussion of experimentally offering small mammals for adoption rather than sale. Petco, partnering with the House Rabbit society, in mid-2004 began offering rabbits for adoption at selected stores.
Rehovot
With reference to your September article “Israeli rescuers remove about 400 animals from Gaza,” no mention was made of the Rehovot Society for the Protection of Animals. Using our rescue van, donated by the Royal SPCA of Great Britain, and members’ own cars, we brought many cats and dogs to safety. On September 3, 2005 we and Let The Animals Live had an adoption day for the rescued animals. All of our rescued dogs, some dogs already in our care, and six cats found new loving homes.
––Mrs. V. Santar
Rehovot SPA
POB 1067
Rehovot 76110, Israel
Phone: 972-8-9445497
<www.israelpets.org>
Marvin Mackie, DVM
In your October 2005 article on the QuickSpay DVD you misspelled Dr. Mackie’s last name. For future reference, it’s W. Marvin Mackie, DVM.
––Janet Ashley
Administrative Manager
Animal Birth Control
450 Arcadia Drive
San Pedro CA 90731
Los Angeles, Calif.
<Spaydvm@aol.com>
We have known and appreciated Dr. Mackie’s work for many years, but also misspelled his name in our September 2005 article “Who invented no-kill?” Apologies!
Disaster planning
In the February 2001 edition of DVM News, accessible at <www.dvmnews.com/dvm>, I described under the heading “Pet rescue is people rescue” the plan we developed in Sonoma County, California to rescue pets in a disaster. It details a cooperative response among the American Red Cross, animal control, and our local veterinary association, and has helped rescue many animals in Sonoma County. I feel this plan should be implemented nationally, immediately, but my efforts to raise awarness of it so far have fallen on deaf ears.
––Eugene Kravis, DVM
Santa Rosa, California
Phone: 530-496-3511
<ekravis@excite.com>
AVMA position on foie gras
Your September 2005 article “AVMA refuses to condemn foie gras” is a sad reflection of the veterinary profession. In August 2003 the Israeli Supreme Court banned the practice of force-feeding geese to make foie gras, based on expert veterinary testimony and on pathological evidence obtained from force-fed geese at post mortem. If this documented evidence was good enough for the Israeli Supreme Court, it should be good enough for the AVMA.
––Andre Menache, BSc(Hons), BVSc, MRCVS, FRSH
Veterinary Surgeon & past general manager of NOAH
(Israeli Federation of Societies for the Protection of Animals)
Scientific Consultant to Animal Aid
The Old Chapel, Bradford Street
Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1AW, U.K.
<andre@animalaid.co.uk>