Animal Studies Commons^™

Special Report On Trapping

Special Reports

The steel jaw trap is one of the cruelest devices invented by man. It can be hidden under grass along a well-trodden animal path, under water, or among the leaves of a tree. When triggered by an animal's weight, the heavy steel jaws spring shut over a paw or a leg with such force that bones are sometimes broken. Some leghold traps contain sharp steel teeth that pierce all the way through flesh and muscles.

The Development Of Social Interaction, Play, And Metacommunication In Mammals: An Ethological Perspective, Marc Bekoff

Ethology Collection

Analysis of the dynamics of the ontogeny of social interaction is of critical importance in order that behavioral development may be comprehended in its own right, and the relationship between infant and adult behavior understood. In this review, general concepts of behavioral development in mammals are discussed and analyzed, and the many variables that are involved are considered. When it is impossible to control or observe the social interaction of the developing organism in its natural environment, captive subjects should be used. There is increasing evidence that results obtained with the latter are related to social organization observed in the …

Special Report On Hunting

Special Reports

The Humane Society contends that the use of amateur hunters to reduce an overabundant deer herd does not conform with the principles of sound wildlife management. The Humane Society is strongly opposed to any method of culling herds of deer that does not deliver an instant and reasonably merciful death.

Special Report On Zoos

Special Reports

In many ways, The Humane Society has become the Ralph Nader of the zoo world, spurring into action the individuals or municipalities who own zoos, the staffs who operate them, the taxpayers who are in the end responsible for their existence, and the federal officials who are now required to ensure that they meet certain standards.

Grooming Behavior And Competitive Dominance In The Albino Rat, Irwin M. Spigel, Susan Trivett, David Fraser

Social Behavior Collection

An experiment sought to compare dominance manifested in water competition under two levels of deprivation, with grooming activity in a non-deprived state. While competitive dominance was significantly related to motivational level, grooming emerged as a more stable indicator of social ascendance, and did not require prior manipulation of a biological state. The implications of this observation for broader aspects of social motivation arc discussed.

Systematic And Evolutionary Implications Of Parthenogenesis In The Hymenoptera, C. N. Slobodchikoff, Howell V. Daly

Entomology Collection

Two types of parthenogenesis, arrhenotoky and thelytoky, exist in the Hymenoptera. Arrhenotoky, the development of males from unfertilized eggs, is present in all wasps and bees. Thelytoky, the development of diploid females from unfertilized eggs, is present in a few species. Two types of thelytoky, apomixis and automixis, are known. Most thelytokous Hymenoptera are automictic. No meiosis, only mitosis, occurs in apomixis. Meiosis does occur in automixis, allowing crossing-over and segregation of genes. Advantages of thelytoky are that heterotic combinations become fixed, gene loss is reduced, and reproduction requires only a single individual. One advantage of arrhenotoky is that genetic …

Special Report On Animal Overpopulation: Breeding Surplus Dogs And Cats Causes Suffering

Special Reports

Overbreeding has created a surplus of nearly 50 million dogs and cats. These animals are unwanted and homeless. Some of them--the lucky ones--will get a quick, merciful death at humane society shelters. Most, however, haven't even the hope of being reached and protected from suffering in the 3,000 or more communities without humane societies. Instead, they roam the country--starving, thirsting, suffering from disease and injury.

This is suffering on a massive scale. Many factors contribute to it. Commercial interests like pet shops, for example, are partly to blame in suggesting there is money in breeding puppies and kittens. Veterinarians who …

Cruelty For Fun, Cleveland Armory

Animal Welfare Collection

No abstract provided.

Protection For Animals In Biomedical Research, F. L. Thomsen

Laboratory Experiments Collection

Our conclusion from all of this work and study is that not just a small part, but that most of the suffering undergone by laboratory animals in "unnecessary" under the terms of the pain provisions of the Rogers-Javits bill. Granted, it will take some time and effort to bring about the necessary interpretations of these provisions. The Act, when passed, offers us the medium through which to obtain such interpretations.

This unnecessary suffering results mostly from the indifference, and from the inertia and the lack of proper scientific training and technical knowledge, of many of those conducting laboratory animal experiments …

Our Challenge And Our Opportunity, Coleman Burke

Animal Welfare Collection

The other day you probably all read of the death of Gavin Maxwell, who produced that delightful "Ring of Bright Water." He said, "Stage one on the way to understanding human beings is an understanding and affection for animals." Fit this in with the statement from Proverbs. Actually, Gavin Maxwell was more intrigued in his life by animals than by people. And I know there are others here who are. And I accept that. I'm not critical of it. I rejoice that there are people who are more intrigued with animals than with people.

But I have a very deep …

Protection Of Wildlife, Leonard Hall

Conservation Collection

There seems to be, and I'm sure it is true with all of you, a feeling that the time has come when we must expand our area of concern to include wild birds and animals, as well as the domestic animals and pets which are part of our interest today.

On the basis of this assumption, I'd like to cover the following points in my discussion. First, all those sound and logical reasons to include a broad interest in wildlife in the program of the humane society. Second, some specific areas and problems that might engage our interest and action. …

Extension Of Community Programs For Animal Protection, Milton B. Learner

Animal Welfare Collection

My discussion today will cover the development and extension_ of humane activities at the state and local levels. This will include the work of a state federation, a comparison between federations and HSUS branches, and the cooperation in national programs by both-while extending such activities to the grassroots local societies. Whatever authority this speaker can muster on these subjects has been gained essentially, it must be remembered, during his tenure as President of the Indiana Federation of Humane Societies.

A state federation of humane societies is quite impressive in nomenclature. It implies united action, resulting in the exercise of power …

Problems In Transportation Of Animals, Alice M. Wagner

Animal Welfare Collection

This afternoon we are considering the problems involved in the transportation of animals. Undoubtedly we have all had people problems as we travel by car, train and by air, and with the increase of travel things seem to be growing worse instead of better. I commuted from my home in New Jersey to Philadelphia for 18 1/2 years - a round trip of five hours - so I know plenty of things that can happen in transportation and commutation.

So it is with animals. An increasing number of animals are being shipped - shipped as pets, shipped as meat animals, …

Symposium On Livestock Problems, John C. Macfarlane, F. J. Mulhern

Agribusiness Collection

Part 1 - John C. Macfarlane

Livestock, animals raised in confinement, animals in large numbers shipped to other countries, and, of course, those cattle, calves, sheep, swine, goats, poultry and horses raised for the purpose of supplying meat for human and animal consumption will present problems that will increase in importance as long as they exist.

Humane problems involving livestock are a hundred times more important and much more complex today than they were a hundred years ago. What can societies do to prevent or reduce this reservoir of potential cruelty? I think we can do many things.

Part 2 …

The Humane Movement And The Survival Of All Living Things, Roger Caras

Conservation Collection

Conservation and the humane movement are Siamese twins. They are inseparable. I beg you to keep this in mind, to think about this, because there is an explosion coming in the conservation movement. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, a great conservationist and humanitarian, is leading the fight now for a teach-in that is going to take place in colleges across this country early next year--early in 1970. Students and teachers are going to sit and talk about nothing but ecology and a crash program of awareness. We are heading for national and international catastrophe and it will soon be on …

The Challenges Of Leadership, R. J. Chenoweth

Animal Welfare Collection

When a great and demanding need exists in any field of endeavor, it is a historical fact that men of intelligence, integrity and goodwill will find a way to fill that need. Like a rudderless ship, in 1954, the American humane movement was drifting without course or compass in a sea of indifference to animal welfare and outright cruelty for man's personal gain. National animal welfare work had languished for years; there was little direction to humane work at the state and local levels. The humane movement had become, in the eyes of an apathetic public, synonymous with cat and …

Use Of The Legislative Process In Protecting Animals, Hugh Mcnamee

Laws and Legislation Collection

The statements that I shall make in this address are based upon experience gained by me as a lawyer, and as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. That experience was applied to the successful pioneer attempt to enact the Ohio Rodeo Law of which I was the author and the pilot. Ohio is the first state in which a law has been passed to prohibit certain cruelty practices prevalent in rodeos and thus virtually eliminate them as a medium of public entertainment.

The origin of legislation is in some comprehension of a condition that needs correction by law. …

How Can We Best Help Laboratory Animals Now?, Oliver Evans

Laws and Legislation Collection

No abstract provided.

Our Pet Population Explosion And Operation Spared, Kay Clausing

Pets Collection

All humane societies are dedicated to preventing cruelty and suffering. No society can effectively prevent cruelty unless it makes spaying compulsory for all females released for adoption and talks spaying to every owner of a female. Even if the home is a good one in every other respect, if a female is permitted to produce even one litter, the humane society is simply delaying or postponing cruelty. In fact, it is perpetuating it. When the female (which your society otherwise placed so carefully) has a litter, often its owners are not qualified to judge what constitutes a good home. In …

Estimates Of Heritability Of Beef Cattle Performance Traits By Regression Of Offspring On Sire, C. J. Brown, Maximo Gacula

Genetics Collection

Data used in this study were taken from performance test records of Hereford, Aberdeen-Angus and Shorthorn sires and their progeny that were raised and performance tested at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station during the years 1951 through 1962. Heritability estimates based on regression of offspring on sire were obtained from 201 male progeny belonging to 20 sire groups. The estimates obtained were 0.19±0.19 for 120-day weight, 0.27±0.13 for initial test weight, 0.93±0.18 for test daily gain, 0.43± 0.18 for feed consumption, 0.41±0.25 for feed conversion, 0.15±0.15 for type score, 0.37± 0.14 for final test weight, and 0.79±0.18 for production index.

Animal Shelter Programs And Policies, Edwin J. Sayres

Animal Welfare Collection

A discussion of policies and programs that, ideally, should be followed by humane societies in the operation of shelters and the limitations that are imposed by finances, local circumstances, and other factors is a substantial undertaking. I would like, first, to give you some background information about St. Hubert's Giralda and hope that what I have to say will contribute something to people confronted with the problems of shelter management and animal control programs.

Our methods and approach were basically acquired from material available through national and state organizations in this field. We are especially indebted to the Union County …

Report On Present Condition Of The Humane Movement, R. J. Chenoweth

Animal Welfare Collection

Perhaps I should say right at the beginning that I can find just as many sad, discouraging, and frustrating things as the next man in the daily routines of humane work but about the humane cause and the humane movement I am an incorrigible optimist. There are problems, but we have a record of solving and surmounting problems. There is cruelty and there is suffering, demanding of us unremitting work, but I do solemnly believe that we are steadily, exhilaratingly making progress.

I think, in fact, that the first great premise of this meeting, a conviction implicit in the fact …

The War Against Surplus Breeding, Irene Castle

Puppy Mills Collection

Almost the whole humane movement is snowed under and overwhelmed by the still mounting flood of surplus cats and dogs. The surplus turns our shelters into sordid slaughterhouses. It distorts and perverts the thinking of many even of our very best people. Hundreds of our societies are kept permanently on the edge of bankruptcy by the single problem of taking in and disposing of cats and dogs which are homeless or unwanted simply because of the immense surplus of such animals.

It is so easy for all of us to throw up our hands and denounce veterinarians for the high …

Humane Education, Lillian Maude Mathewson

The purpose of this thesis is to present an analysis of the developement and present status of humane education in the United States, its administration, aims, and methods. The field of humane education has this peculiarity, that while it has gained almost universal recognition as an important element in the child’s experience, it has as a general rule been provided not by the school itself but by an outside agency in cooperation with the school authorities. The reference is to the work of numerous state and city humane societies who have carried on as a part of their activities a …

The Humane Movement In The United States: 1910-1922, William J. Shultz

This study attempts to continue for the brief period from 1910 to 1922 Professor Roswell C. McCrea's descriptive survey of the Humane Movement in the United States, which covered the distinctive features of legislation and organized efforts for animal and child protection. Professor McCrea gave an outline presentation of the historical background and development for at least a generation prior to 1909-1910. While making free use of Professor McCrea's materials and in some cases restating his conclusions, I have made no attempt to cover the same ground, but have begun this study with the year 1909-1910 where he left off.