Shave and a Hysterectomy
    When Leona Flynn-Hudson of Gateshead, England, left her Persian cat, Courtney, at the veterinarian's for a trim, the vet took a little too much off--the inside. Instead of merely clipping a few mats from Courtney's belly, the vet spayed her.
    After the vet, who works at the White Lion Veterinary Clinic in South Hetton, Tyne and Wear, refused Flynn-Hudson's request for compensation, she took her complaint to a lawyer.

The Mirror

 

Blue Ribbon Day
    Actors and Others for Animals, a Los Angeles-based humane organization, has introduced an animal-awareness pin to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The pin, which is designed to raise consciousness about animal suffering across the globe, is composed of a blue ribbon background on which a puppy and kitten are overlaid. Actors and Others commissioned the pin to underscore its commitment to ending animal cruelty, neglect, and abuse, and to provide other animal lovers with a means of expressing their concern over the plight of helpless creatures. Individuals may obtain the pin by making a $5.00 donation to Actors and Others, who will in turn use the funds to further their work on behalf of less fortunate animals.
    Earl Holliman, president of Actors and Others for Animals, believes the animal awareness pin will foster dialogue about critical issues such as pet overpopulation, cruelty to animals, and humane alternatives to animal testing. "Many people are simply not aware of the animal abuses that go on every day right under our noses," says Holliman. "We're hoping that once they become aware suffering is occurring, they will become actively involved in finding compassionate solutions."
    Founded in 1971 by the late actor Richard Basehart and his wife, Diana, Actors and Others provides veterinary subsidies, humane education programs, pet-assisted therapy, cruelty intervention, disaster relief, and adoption referrals. The non-profit organization has been responsible for altering more than 150,000 animals throughout its quarter century of humane work, responding to more than 300 calls for assistance every day. Celebrity supporters include Betty White, Ed Asner, Dennis Franz, Jack Lemmon, Edward James Olmos, Angie Dickinson, Bea Arthur, Ed Begley, Jr., Rue McClanahan, Mariette Hartley, Paula Poundstone, Connie Sellecca, John Tesh, and Carroll O'Connor, among many others.
    Anyone interested in obtaining the animal awareness pin should send his or her name and address, along with a $5.00 donation, to Actors and Others for Animals, P.O. Box 33473, Granada Hills, CA 91394. Persons interested in obtaining information about other ways to support the organization's efforts should call 818-755-6045.

PR Newswire

 

As a Kitten up a Tree
    The bright lights of Los Angeles have been blamed for ruining many a life, but now those lights can put one in the W column. Just before dawn on Thursday August 14, a one-year-old, domestic-shorthair cat named Tammy ended a week-long retreat high in a 60-foot evergreen tree on Gain Street in the East Valley section of Los Angeles. During her stay in the tree, people who live along Gain Street gathered often at the foot of the evergreen, hoping to coax Tammy back to earth. Even though Tammy was meowing as though she were hungry, the residents' efforts failed. Then on Wednesday evening August 13 television news crews arrived to record Tammy's plight. Fascinated by the bright lights and a homeless man known to neighborhood residents simply as "Fred," Tammy agreed to leave her perch after Fred had used a resident's extension ladder to climb within a couple of feet of Tammy. Fred did not hang around to bask in the spotlight himself, but Gain Street residents described him as "a good, kind-hearted soul."

Los Angeles Times

 

Perfect Sleeper
    An 11-year-old Russian blue cat named Simon survived 22 days without food or water trapped under a box spring sealed in a packing crate. Simon's incarceration began when his owners, Army Lieutenant Colonel David Hampton and his wife, Rebecca, moved from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to Fort Adams, Rhode Island. Unbeknownst to the family, who thought he had gone AWOL, Simon had apparently taken refuge in the crate at some point during the proceedings. His presence went undetected for three weeks until David Hampton got around to opening the crate containing the box spring. When he removed the box spring, there was Simon, bedraggled and bony (he weighed only six pounds) but still alive.
    Mrs. Hampton rushed Simon to Newport Animal Clinic, where veterinarian Randal Wirth gave him intravenous liquids. ""The cat was very perky, very bright and alert, purring about, jumping out of the cage to get at the food we were serving him," Wirth told one reporter.
    Despite being dehydrated, Simon appeared to be in good shape, Wirth said, explaining that "the body has enormous mechanisms for reserving fluid and using other body tissues for energy."
    It also helps if that body, as Simon's did, carries a little extra padding. The fortunate cat weighed 12 pounds when his ordeal began. He lost an average of 4.4 ounces a day while he was boxed in.

The Providence Journal-Bulletin

 

Left Coast Follies
    The city of San Francisco, often accused by its critics of being mentally fog bound, has hit the reef again. A "sustainability plan," drafted by public nannies and approved by the city government in July, gets in people's faces and meddles in their lives to an extent that should not be tolerated in a country that calls itself the land of the free. Under the proposed new-regime regulations the city would put the lid on perfume and after-shave worn in public places; mandate the introduction of organic dinners in schools; force home owners to plant a tree outside their houses whenever they sell them; strong-arm companies and government departments into denying free parking to employees who drive to work; ban smoking in bars; and systematically exterminate stray cats because, in the city almightys' opinion, they are destroying birds and other wild creatures.
    Distress animal lovers, led by the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, denounced the plan to poison stray cats, calling it "misguided" and arguing that the animals should be vaccinated and altered, then "placed in loving homes."
    The city, as many bullies will, backed down and dropped from its buttinsky plan a direct reference to "eliminating" the cats. In another concession, San Francisco's official definition of "sustainability" was extended to include "the rights of the earth's non-human beings"--even those, we presume, who would tamper in the lives of others.

The Vancouver Sun

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