ANIMAL PEOPLE is the
leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage
of animal protection worldwide. Founded in 1992, ANIMAL PEOPLE has
no alignment or affiliation with any other entity.
Pete
Publishing (P.O. Box 282, Tyngsborough, MA 01879), 2005.
128 pages, paperback. $12.98 c/o
<www.eternalanimals.com>.
The Animal Prayer Guide is written with the firm conviction that
animal beings are just as worthy as humans of the attention, concern,
and blessings of their Creator.
The author does not try to bolster this position with Biblical or theological
arguments: for her it is a faith-based fact. She offers hope, comfort,
and practical suggestions to help deal with the everyday challenges that
face animals and their human companions.
There are prayers for lost animals, for those confined in shelters, and
for those who are sick and in need of healing. Along with prayers addressed
to particular situations, the author has provided pertinent scriptural
references and heart-warming anecdotes, along with quotations from such
diverse sources as William Blake and Abraham Lincoln. There are also celebratory
prayers and rituals that include animal companions in the observance of
holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.
The Animal Prayer Guide includes a section that can be used in
a blessing-of-the-animals either individually, with a few friends, or
as part of a church service.
Finally, there are prayers and reflections for a memorial service that
not only commemorates the life of a companion who has passed on, but also
offers scriptural promises that the parting is only temporary and there
will come a time when “[God]will wipe away every tear....there will
be no more death or crying or mourning or pain because the old order of
things has passed away.” —J.R. Hyland
[J.R. Hyland is founder of Humane Religion, <www.Humane-Religion.org>,
an educational and outreach organization, and is author of God’s
Covenant With Animals, Sexism Is A Sin and The Slaughter of Terrified
Beasts.]
Nobody's
Pets
by
Debra White
Four
Footed Friends (P.O. Box 25736, Tempe, AZ 85285), 2001. $8.95, paperback.
Nobody'Pets is a tale about shelter dogs and cats, told by the
animals themselves, through longtime Maricopa County Animal Care &
Control volunteer Debra White. The book begins with two men breaking into
an animal shelter at night to steal the animals with the intention of
selling them to labs for use in experiments.
The stolen cats and dogs escape and find their way home after many adventures.
The dialogue among the animals is unconvincing, partly because there is
little character development. There is also little atmosphere because
the place descriptions are superficial.
It is unfortunate that the book is disjointed and lacking in depth, as
the author’s heart is in the right place. —Beverley
Pervan
Editor’s note:
Thousands of dogs and cats have been stolen for sale to labs, chiefly
through fraudulent adoption of free-to-good-home animals, but breaking
into shelters to supply labs has no documented precedent. In truth, pounds
contiue to provide as many animals to labs as they want, either for free
or at nominal cost. This practice has been outlawed for 20 years or more
in 13 states, but continues in Jackson, Michigan, for example, despite
active local opposition since the early 1960s.
Shelter break-ins are, however, a growing problem.
Sacramento city animal control chief Hector Cazares, previously animal
control chief for San Diego County, recently told Sacra-mento Bee staff
writer Mareva Brown that over the years he has seen a pattern to shelter
break-ins.
“Almost always, it’s been [to take] a condemned animal,”
Cazares said, “and it’s almost always a pit bull terrier.”
Only one exception turned up in the ANIMAL PEOPLE dog and cat theft files
from the past half dozen years. That was the theft of three chow-mix puppies
from the Colorado Humane Society in February 2004. Convicted perpetrator
Ryan Turtura, 20, on April 29, 2005 accepted a 10.5-year plea bargain
sentence for setting the puppies on fire, killing two of them, and giving
methamphetamines to two teenaged girls.
Quentin, a shelter dog, in August 2003 survived the St. Louis Animal Regulation
gas chamber, was adopted by Stray Rescue founder Randy Grim, and became
an icon of the no-kill movement.
Grim himself became a icon of the no-kill movement about a year earlier,
through the publication of a biography, The man who talks to dogs,
by Melinda Roth.
In Miracle Dog, Grim tells his own story. Like our colleague Cicely
Blumberg, here in Cape Town, South Africa, Grim devotes his life to helping
orphaned, injured, and lost dogs in the bad parts of town.
Among the most telling parts of Miracle Dog are Grim’s observations
of how people reacted to Quentin’s sudden celebrity status. Grim
recounts that 700 people wrote to him offering to take Quentin for adoption.
When they were told, “Sorry, he is staying with me, but won’t
you please save another dog from the gas chamber,” there were no
takers.
Writing from their homes, the letter-writers could say “No”
more easily than the small army of people who lined up for hours at the
North Shore Animal League in 1996 to try to adopt Scarlet the cat and
her surviving kittens, after Scarlet rescued the kittens one by one from
a blazing building. Hundreds of other animals were adopted by the people
who came for Scarlet and her kittens, but were persuaded, as much by the
homeless animals as anyone else, to take others in need.
When Randy and Quentin flew to New York City to appear on NBC with host
John Walsh, a stretch limo was waiting for them.
“We could sure use the money the limo cost to support more dogs
at the shelter,” Grim says––though the limo might have
been the least costly way to get him to the studio on time in a city where
many cabs do not carry animals.
“Two weeks ago,” Grim writes, “nobody on this earth
gave a damn about this beyond-lovable little guy. Now his arrival at the
airport merits Fox News coverage.”
Grim exposes other anomalies in shelter rescue: the hostility of many
animal control officers to the no-kill movement, the often callous indifference
at official levels toward animal suffering, and how the Humane Society
of Missouri, once among the more progressive humane organizations in the
U.S., under the present administration refuses to cooperate with local
no-kill humane societies to apply for a Maddie’s Fund grant that
would help the St. Louis area transition to no-kill animal control.
On the appalling condition of typical animal shelters, he quotes ANIMAL
PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton: “If you keep dogs and cats in a facility
that looks like a jail and smells like a cesspool, dogs and cats all over
town will be treated like prisoners on a chain gang, because the condition
of your facility sends the message that you think this is okay. If you
treat dogs and cats as if they are honored guests, the community standards
will rise to your standard. This has been proven time and again.”
Grim ends with a passionate plea for cities to adopt no-kill policies.
“No-kill promotes educational programs, spay and neuter programs
for the poor, progressive adoption events, and, most importantly, community
involvement and hope. I am often asked what one person can do,”
Grim summarizes. “My answer is: a lot. A story like Quentin’s
should compel all animal lovers to unite and work toward one common goal––to
stop the killing.”
Grim emphasizes that dogs are not just throwaway items: they are all potential
Quentins, who deserve love and loyalty.
New
World Library (14 Pamaron Way, Novato, CA 94949), 2001. 295 pages, paperback.
$14.95.
We have read many books by people who claimed to be able to converse with
animals. None have been so difficult to dismiss as hocus-pocus as this
one.
Kincade presents herself as a psychic who uses her gift to communicate
with animals and their departed spirits. Anticipating initial skepticism
on the part of the reader, Kincade recounts how she too moved from being
a skeptic to becoming a believer.
Then she discusses the different forms that telepathy can take, namely
clairvoyance (telepathy with images), clairsentience (telepathy of feelings
or sensations), and clairaudience (being able to hear the voices of the
animals speaking in English).
Kincade uses transcendental meditation to put herself into communication
with animals. Transcendental meditation has been practised for so long
by so many people, and the benefits therefrom are so well documented,
that it is not easily debunked.
Once the mind is uncluttered of random thoughts and anxieties, and the
metabolism is slowed, a state of blissful tranquility occurs. It would
not be surprising if someone with psychic skills could use the meditative
mind to heighten her sensitivity to images, thoughts, and sensations projected
by other living beings.
Thereafter, difficulties of interpretation and understanding arise, and
Kincade discusses these with disarming frankness.
For us the final chapter, about what Kincade calls “starlight vision‚”
is of particular interest. Here Kincade pulls quantum physics and telepathy
together to construct a well-written and credible philosophy of compassion
for animals.
Do we euthanase a suffering and terminally ill companion animal, or do
we let him go naturally? Kincade tells us what she believes the animals
say on the subject.
What happens to our souls after death? Do we just dissolve into a pool
of collective consciousness? No! says Kinkade, asserting that, “The
soul of every living creature remains intact, individual, unique, conscious
and observant long after death.”
Does Kincade believe in reincarnation? Yes.
Is it cruel to keep cats indoors all their lives to protect them from
traffic and other city hazards? Yes‚ says Kinkade. Animals need
natural surroundings.
This is more than just an aesthetic preference. Kinkade believes that
we derive life energy from plants and other living things. People who
perform violent acts upon animals, she believes, will accumulate bad karma.
So too do those who do so indirectly by eating or using animals who have
been killed cruelly.
As she puts it, “When we disassociate, we give our power away: to
the media, the meat industry, the slaughterhouses, the cosmetic tycoons,
the rendering plants. This is precisely why most people are not clairsentient
and clairvoyant. This is why most people cannot use Gestalt, remote viewing,
and their starlight vision. There are too many aspects of ourselves we
don’t want to see and don’t want to feel. When we disassociate,
we shut out the truth in an attempt to shut out the pain.”
We are still uncomfortable with the assertion that animals and their spirits
can converse freely, using the English language, with humans. This goes
far beyond the scope of our own no doubt limited experience and imagination.
But in all other respects this book made fascinating reading, and gives
practical guidelines to people who wish to develop their own psychic abilities.
Stewart,
Tabori & Chang (c/o La Martiniere Groupe, 115 West 18th St., New York,
NY 10011), 2005. 144 pages, hardcover. $18.95.
Susan Marino founded and runs the Angel’s Gate Animal Hospice at
her home on Long Island. Her nursing career, allied to a dedication and
commitment to unselfish giving of love, has given her the ability to care
for the countless ailing and injured animals who are carried to her door.
Her door is open to all animals, regardless of species, and here they
find a loving sanctuary until death eventually claims them.
Getting Lucky is beautifully bound in glossy paper with color portraits
of the animals the book introduces. Each gets a chapter. The result is
somewhat processional, as one animal after another is paraded before the
reader. But the stories are charming and well written, centering around
a Great Dane called Lucky. The thematic binding thread is that all life
is precious, and should be preserved as long as the animal would want
it. Terminally ill animals are not euthanized but instead are nursed until
death occurs naturally.
“All of the animals at Angel’s Gate are special, but some,
like Lucky, commandeer you in an indescribably wrenching way: it’s
as if you share the same heart. And when their time begins to wane, your
emotions can push aside a lifetime’s worth of wisdom. All you want
is more––one more minute, one more day, one more furry nuzzle,
one more look into those knowing eyes.”
One tale which touched me was that of a young school boy. Sixth grade
students were hatching Peking ducklings in an incubator as a class project.
When the boy asked what would happen to the ducks when they outgrew the
science project, he was horrified to be told that they would be slaughtered.
“Tim decided on the spot that that was not an acceptable option.
So he called around for days trying to find a refuge for the fledgling
ducks. Finally he found me. He told me his sad story, concluding quietly,
‘Will you take my ducks?’ What do you think I said?”
But when Tim arrived at Angel’s Gate, driven there by his dad, he
didn’t have the four ducks that he had described to me over the
phone. No, he had 24 ducks! Not only had he called on all his classmates
to round up all the other imperiled ducklings that had been reared in
other classes, but he had created such an uproar at the school that the
administration had vowed never to incubate any eggs, Peking or otherwise,
ever again.”
What this and the other stories tell me is how many adults treat animals,
especially the sick or injured, as throwaway pets, and it takes a child
to remind us of our moral duty to all sentient beings.
