Edited with Introduction, Afterword, & Notes by Shelley Fisher Fishkin University of California Press https://www.ucpress.edu/ 325 pages, hardcover. $27.50. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Wrote Ed Duvin, whose 1989 Animalines newsletter essay “In The Name of Mercy” prophesying “no kill” animal sheltering is widely considered a classic of humane literature, to ANIMALS 24-7 a few days […]
Video helps nab alleged killer of “Rescue Ink” star Al “Alley Cat” Chernoff
Surveillance video may accomplish something that the six episodes of “Rescue Ink” did not: an arrest leading to the conviction of a suspect PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania––A decade after his brief heyday as one of the stars of the short-lived “reality TV” series Rescue Ink, Al “Alley Cat” Chernoff died on November 4, 2019 as the […]
“Dog Fighting Awareness”: what the ASPCA ignored
Busts plummet as pit bull advocacy has all but legalized dogfighting NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.––Designated National Dog Fighting Awareness Day by the American SPCA, April 8, 2019 and the next several days appear to have passed without a single dogfighting bust or other noteworthy event pertaining to dogfighting occurring anywhere in the United States. […]
Who is the “outlier” now?
Something changed on Groundhog Day Did you ever see the film Groundhog Day, in which actor Bill Murray lived the same day over and over until he made some of the right ethical choices? We had already seen much of the humane cause leadership endlessly repeating unethical conduct, at the expense of animals, volunteers, and […]
Pit bulls, “outliers” & Humane Society of the U.S. prez Wayne Pacelle
Pits kill four people in five years within 15 minutes of Pacelle’s family home, but he calls us insanely aggressive A 10-year-old girl in Bridgeport, Connecticut will require multiple surgeries over the next several years to repair damage inflicted on July 18, 2017 by a family member’s pit bull. The pit bull first attacked a […]
“We face a humane education crisis!” says HSUS historian Unti
Orphan cause was foundation of the animal advocacy movement (See also HSUS bails out of humane education; ASPCA & AHA already did.) SEATTLE, Washington––To see overt cruelty to animals––and humans––today, one need only go to Facebook or search on the Worldwide Web. No sort of cruelty or misery is far from view, despite the efforts of […]
How “Quality of Mercy” Swallowed the humane movement (part 2)
1963 history sidestepped controversies that revitalized the cause (See also Quality of Mercy Part 1.) By the end of the era in humane work that William Alan Swallow most thoroughly chronicles in Quality of Mercy (1963), an era coinciding with the 40-year career of Swallow’s longtime close associate Eric H. Hansen (1903-1965), most mainstream U.S. […]
New York Police Department eclipses ASPCA humane law enforcement stats in first full year on the beat
NEW YORK CITY––Rescues of New York City animals from cruelty and neglect and arrests of alleged offenders all soared in 2014, the first full year since the American SPCA began turning the lead role in humane law enforcement over to the New York Police Department. Impoundments of abused and neglected animals nearly tripled, from circa […]
Review: Monsters & Miracles: Henry Bergh’s America, by Gary Kaskel
Monsters & Miracles: Henry Bergh’s America by Gary Kaskel Infinity Publishing (1094 New DeHaven St., Suite100, W. Conshohocken, PA 19428), 2013. 383 pages, electronic & paperback formats. $10.95. Henry Bergh, who founded the American SPCA in 1866, remains such an influential and legendary figure that a succinct biography of Bergh fills nearly half of […]