BRENDA LOOPER
501 PETS

Dog (and other animal) lovers can be forgiven if they’re a little bookish next month.

The Arkansas Literary Festival, to be held April 8-11, has invited an author and an illustrator, each noted for children’s books featuring dogs and other creatures.

Rich Davis of Siloam Springs has been a professional artist for over 25 years, and has illustrated several books, including the beginning-reader series written by Cari Meister about a dog named Tiny, and the 2001 book Scat, Cats! by Joan Holub. His 2005 book with Kersten Hamilton, Firefighters to the Rescue, was chosen to be distributed worldwide by the Dolly Parton Imagination Library literacy program.

Dori Hillestad Butler of Coralville, Iowa, is the author of 22 picture books, chapter books and novels for children. Her latest work, The Buddy Files, is a chapter-book series for first- through third-graders about a dog that solves mysteries; the first three books in the series are to be released this month. She and her dog, Mouse, are registered pet partners working as a therapy team.

Animal lovers are welcome at the festival, but their critters will have to give it a pass, as none of the event sites allow animals. (Festivalgoers who feel guilty can get Rex a treat on the way home.)

The festival will be held on the Central Arkansas Library System’s main campus in Little Rock and multiple downtown venues. Festival organizers say a detailed schedule will be posted later this month at www.arkansasliteraryfestival.org

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

When a stray dog or cat is brought into the North Little Rock Animal Shelter from outside the city limits, a green tag will distinguish it from those brought in from within the city.

“The county ones go down first before the North Little Rock dogs and cats,” Billy Grace, North Little Rock’s Animal Control director, said of having to euthanize those that aren’t adoptable as pets and aren’t claimed by an owner within a few days.

In 2009, North Little Rock’s animal shelter in Burns Park took in 1,863 dogs and 1,148 cats from North Little Rock, Grace said. Another 656 dogs and 116 cats were brought in from the county, for a total of 3,783 animals.

There is no Pulaski County animal shelter and other cities in the county turn away animals that come in from outside their city limits. North Little Rock is the only one that will take them, Grace said, leading to a higher euthanasia rate in North Little Rock.

North Little Rock put down 873 dogs and 738 cats last year. The rest were reclaimed by owners or adopted. All pets must be spayedor neutered before being released by the shelter.

“We’re taking them in from the south part of the county and the north part of the county,” Grace said. “It puts a strain on us. … It would help if other animal shelters would just open their doors and stop turning animals away.”

All cities within the county have spay-and-neuter programs and licensing requirements aimed at controlling the population of dogs and cats, but that still leaves too many strays free to reproduce, Grace said.

When Little Rock was building its Little Rock Animal Village that opened in August 2007, the city offered to add on a section for county use if the county would pay for it. Little Rock officials have said the county didn’t respond in time to be included.

As it is, Little Rock’s Animal Village took in 5,426 dogs and cats in 2009, all from within Little Rock, Director Tracy Roark said. The number was slightly down from 2008’s total of 5,662 . The center doesn’t break down numbers between dogs and cats, he said.

“We’re funded by the taxpayers of Little Rock,” Roark said of taking only Little Rock animals. “The general improvement fund built this and it was built for the citizens of the city.”

Little Rock voters paid for the $1.7 million shelter by approving a 2003 bond issue, and residents donated an additional $5,000 for supplies to open the facility.

Pulaski County does help subsidize North Little Rock by paying $47.50 per animal if it’s brought in by a county officer. There is no charge if a stray is brought in by a resident.

The money goes into North Little Rock’s general fund, as does other revenue from dog and cat licenses and fees, budgeted at $75,000 this year. The general fund provides the shelter’s 2010 budget of $617,355.

“The more they collect, the more it helps to offset the expenses,” North Little Rock Finance Director Bob Sisson said.

Grace, though, said the county payments don’t solve the problem of the swelling number of dogs and cats within the county and its cities.

“Today there’s 10 times too many strays,” Grace said.“Later on there will be 20 times too many.

“Somebody has to take them in because every one that’s left out there is another one that’s going to reproduce. That’s why we do it.”

Marilyn Hall, a shelter staff member in North Little Rock, said she remembered an afternoon when someone walked into the shelter with 42 puppies.

“Nobody understands how busy this place is unless they come spend a day here and see it for themselves,” she said.

Mayor Patrick Hays of North Little Rock said he has talked with Grace about the shelter’s concerns and hopes to try to work out a better solution.

“I realize that Little Rock has 120 square miles to cover and we have 54 and a half,” Hays said. “However, we may initiate some conversation with other jurisdictions to see if there is a better way to work together to really attack the root cause of the problem, which is having too many animals out there.”

“There’s no good thing about euthanizing animals,” Hays added, “except that if we didn’t, there would be more animals out there living a life of disease and hunger.”

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TAIJI, Japan — The gala crowd in Los Angeles cheered as The Cove won the best documentary Oscar with its grisly portrayal of dolphin hunting. Half a world away, residents of the small Japanese village shown in the film abhorred the attention and said it won’t end their centuries-old tradition.

In Taiji on the rocky coast of southwest Japan, residents gathered in whale eateries with names like “Tail” and rolled their eyes Monday when told of Oscar laurels for the film, which they see as yet another biased foreign take on their culture.

The village of 3,500 people has been hunting dolphins and whales since the early 1600s. It calls itself “Whale Town” and has a massive pair of whale statues looming over the main road. “The Cove” refers to Taiji and its dolphin fishing as “a little town with a really big secret,” but local councilman Hisato Ryono said there is nothing to hide.

“Everyone around here knows about it. The water nearby turns red during the hunt. The actual killing is done in a concealed area because it is unpleasant to look at, as is true of killing cows or pigs or any other animal,” said Ryono, who says he was tricked into appearing in the film.

“This is a close-knit group of fishermen. The more they feel squeezed, the more they will close off to outsiders. They won’t stop this hunt because of such pressure,” Ryono said.

The Japanese government allows about 19,000 dolphins to be killed each year. Taiji hunts about 2,000 dolphins every year for meat — less than other places — but is singled out in part because of its “oikomi” method of herding and killing them near the shore.

Dolphins, in addition to being food, are also recognized in Taiji as crowd pleasers with their playful natures, leading to odd contrasts. Taiji fishermen capture some to sell to aquariums, and the area is dotted with ocean cages offering dolphin bonding sessions. “Dolphin Base” charges 2,000 yen ($22) for a 20-minute session less than half a mile from the cove where hundreds of the animals are stabbed and dragged ashore in the annual hunt.

Like most residents of Taiji, the dolphin trainers repeatedly avoided talking to a foreign reporter — one young woman ran away when asked her opinion. At the nearby Dolphin Resort, a modern hotel complex with its own dolphin pool, manager Kiyo Ikeda agreed to be interviewed, as long as there were no questions about dolphins.

“We really don’t get many foreign guests at this hotel,” she said.

Many Taiji residents said they would no longer speak to foreign visitors on the record, after years of what they felt were one-sided articles and gory pictures shown out of context.

After the movie won, the town government issued a short news release.

“There are different food traditions within Japan and around the world,” the statement read. “It is important to respect and understand regional food cultures, which are based on traditions with long histories.”

The documentary, directed by Louie Psihoyos, follows Ric O’Barry, a trainer for the 1960s “Flipper” TV series who says he became an activist because of a suicidal dolphin in his charge. The film team broke into a restricted area to set up cameras that captured the slaughter.

The Cove has not yet been released in Japan, but it will start showing here in June at 20 to 30 theaters nationwide. It was shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October, where viewers gave it mixed reviews.

Several Japanese who appear in the film, including Ryono the councilman, and Tetsuya Endo, an associate professor at Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, say they were lied to about its subject matter beforehand.

Endo, clearly angry when reached by telephone Monday, said he is considering legal action.

“I feel that they should have declined the award,” he said.

Japanese government officials defended the fishermen’s right to hunt dolphins and called the film unbalanced.

“There are some countries that eat cows, and there are other countries that eat whales or dolphins,” said Yutaka Aoki, fisheries division director at the Foreign Ministry. “A film about slaughtering cows or pigs might also be unwelcome to workers in that industry.”

Katie

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(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo)

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

A Judsonia man is challenging the constitutionality of a year-old animal-cruelty law that makes the ownership of fighting chickens a felony.

Jerry Myers is worried that his hobby will get him arrested, his attorney, John Ogles, said. Myers raises chickens that are typically used in cockfighting, Ogles said, although the attorney wasn’t immediately able to describe the particular breedMyers favors.

“These aren’t Tyson chickens,” the attorney said.

Myers is asking Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza to strike down the state law. Myers doesn’t use the chickens for cockfighting, which is illegal, Ogles said.

But Myers is concerned that authorities will arrest him under Arkansas Code Annotated 5-62-120, which bans all animal fighting, according to the three-pagelawsuit filed Wednesday. The law makes it a crime to sell, buy, possess or train an animal for the purposes of fighting. A conviction carries a maximum six years in prison.

However, Prosecuting Attorney Chris Raff of White County, which comprises Judsonia, said he doesn’t have any animal-cruelty cases pending and hasn’t prosecuted any since the General Assembly expanded the animal-cruelty laws last year. He said he doesn’t know Myers.

While the law, passed in 2009, maintained misdemeanor animal-cruelty charges for abuse involving most animals, it also created a first-offense felony penalty for the torture of dogs, cats and horses, and outlawed all animal fighting, including cockfighting. It also carries a five-year sentenceenhancement for abusing an animal in the presence of a child.

Animal fighting and aggravated cruelty are each Class D felonies, carrying penalties of up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

In his suit, Myers claims the law violates his right to privacy under the Arkansas Constitution and is too vague to be enforced. He denies training the chickens to fight, saying their aggressiveness is genetic.

“Plaintiff does not train the chickens because it would be like herding cats. It would be impossible,” the lawsuit states. “The chickens are genetically born to fight and there is nothing plaintiff can do to preventthe chickens from fighting.”

In a response, the Arkansas attorney general’s office disputes that Myers has grounds to sue, countering that he hasn’t been affected by the law, despite his claims that “litigation [against him] is pending or threatened.” Myers also has not claimed to be doing anything wrong, according to a 14-page brief by Assistant Attorney General Mark Ohrenberger.

“[Myers’ lawsuit] leads the reader to conclude that Myers condemns animal fighting and would like nothing better than for his chickens to behave peacefully, but he is simply incapable of exerting that level of control over his poultry,” the filing states. “In other words, Myers has merely alleged that he owns aggressive chickens, nothing more.”

No hearings have been set. Ogles said he is redrafting the lawsuit to address other arguments made by the state for the suit’s dismissal.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — One hundred sheriff’s deputies and 400 part-time deputies were laid off. Narcotics and gang units were disbanded. Helicopters were grounded.

K-9 police dog units remained on the job.

To absorb more than $30 million in losses, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department had to focus almost exclusively on answering emergency calls, but police dogs and their handlers survived the cuts. It’s a scenario that is playing out among the thousands of K-9 teams across the U.S. that have survived deep budget cuts to stay on the job.

In part that’s because dogs are winning the popularity contest. In a few towns where K-9 dogs were cut, citizens rallied to raise money to keep the animals at work. They’ve even had help from celebrity friends like Ozzy Osbourne, who donated a K-9 dog to the Muncie, Indiana, Police Department in September.

But there are other advantages to keeping animals on the job. They protect the officers they work with, do jobs that people can’t and use bites, not bullets.

“When you look at the tremendous savings in man-hours that are achieved by using trained dogs to search for suspects or victims or narcotics or explosives, it’s very easy to recognize the fact that they are the probably the most cost efficient tool we have,” said Officer Bill Cassell of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Dogs can run faster, get into tighter spots and look more menacing than most humans. Plus they have stronger noses, better hearing and better vision, at least under low light conditions.

“They are so valuable, so important to what police officers do,” said Pamela Reid, vice president of the ASPCA’s Animal Behavior Center in Urbana, Illinois.

In San Diego, police eliminated 12 dogs from its K-9 corps to save around $500,000 of the $15 million it had to cut. But the department still has 27 dogs on the force in a city where a use-of-force panel recommended more K-9 units because of the number of people being shot by officers.

That was 20 years ago, and things have changed, said Assistant Chief Bob Kanaski.

“I don’t expect to see a rise in officer-involved shootings,” he said. “We’ll miss the dogs, no doubt about it. We’ll have to use different tactics to slow things down until we get the dogs there.”

Cleveland, Ohio, reduced its K-9 unit in 2004 when the department lost 252 jobs, but the dogs were all reinstated, said Tom Ross, recording secretary for the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association.

To a street officer, the benefits of a dog are immeasurable, Ross said. “If they (suspects) think you’re going to let that dog go, it’s going to influence their decision (to run or surrender),” Ross said.

No K-9 in the country has more job security right now than Nitro, the lone K-9 at the Aberdeen, Washington, Police Department. Nitro was laid off in May as police struggled to wring every last cent from a shriveling budget, Chief Robert Torgerson said.

But the German shepherd was back two months later because the department received $14,000 in donations from around the country and a $43,000 check from the philanthropic Tamaki Foundation in Seattle. That was enough to buy a new dog vest, the department a new K-9 car and guarantee Nitro four more years on the job, Torgerson said.

“It was great. We were blessed,” Torgerson said.

The Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, Police Department laid off their three dogs one year ago, Chief Leo Sokoloski said, when town fathers chose to eliminate them instead of the department’s 26 sworn and civilian personnel. It saved $5,000 to $6,000, the chief said.

A lot of people heard about it and sent money. Several thousand dollars came in.

“But in the interest of fairness to the good will of the people, we sent the money back with gratitude. The council’s decision was not to reimplement the program,” Sokoloski said. “We decided it was prudent to wait and see if the economy gets better.”

A K-9 dog costs between $10,000 and $20,000, and must be trained along with its handler, said Sacramento Deputy Brian Amos. Even so, dogs are the “cheapest employee that any agency will ever have,” said Russ Hess, director of the United States Police Canine Association.

“He only works for the love and his food,” he said.

Every department in the country is cutting everything they can, said Jeff Meyer, the publisher of Police K-9 Magazine in Lakewood, Colorado, but you don’t see the public support for other programs the way you do for the dogs.

Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s foundation has donated money to that city’s police department for K-9s and equipment. He also donates a dog to all the cities where the Steelers play each year.

The 22 K-9 teams with the St. Paul, Minnesota, Police Department became mini celebrities when their unit was featured in an Animal Planet cable television series.

“It was one of the first opportunities for people to see what police dogs do, not only here, but across the country, every day,” Sgt. Paul Dunum said.

Dunum said he is constantly amazed by what the dogs do. One of the best things is winning over people.

Money, Dunum said, can’t buy that kind of good will.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FULTON, Texas — A former Air Force sentry dog handler in Vietnam has one last mission.

He’s working with others to honor military canines with a national monument.

“Our war dogs deserve recognition for the lives they saved,” said Larry Chilcoat, who patrolled the combat perimeter of Camp Cameron, Vietnam, throughout 1969 with a German shepherd named Geisha.

“It’s been 40 years, and I have a beautiful wife and granddaughter, but I don’t carry their pictures,” said Chilcoat, 62. “But I still carry a photo of Geisha; she changed my life.”

“I love my family,” Chilcoat said, “but Geisha was my lifeblood in a jungle nightmare, and we both relied on each other day and night to survive.

“She heard things I didn’t and let me know, and I knew she would die to protect me.”

Military dogs saved more than 10,000 lives in Vietnam, according to the U. S. War Dog Association. More than 200 of about 4,000 dogs that served in Vietnam, died while on duty, the Fulton retiree said.

Chilcoat is one of three former military dog handlers who received Pentagon approval in January for a proposed Military Working Dog National Monument.

The veterans presented plans for a bronze pedestal with a soldier and four dogs, designed by Brian Rich, of Fairfax Va. He’s the uncle of a Marine dog handler, Cpl. Dustin Jerome Lee, who was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade on March 21, 2007, in Fallujah, Iraq.

Lee’s bomb sniffing dog, Lex who was wounded, later was adopted by Lee’s family, said Rich, 35, a graphic artist and former Marine.

“It’s helped my family with the loss of my nephew, and motivated me to design the monument,” Rich said.

Chilcoat said Pentagon officials loved the design.

He, project founder John Burnam of Bethesda, Md., and Richard Deggans of Plano are taking back a clay model in mid-April being made by bronze sculptor Paula Slater, of Hidden Valley Lake, Calif.

Chilcoat, Burnam and Deggans, who are among more than 10,000 Vietnam War dog handlers, met through the Vietnam Dog Handlers Association. Their push to honor their dogs led to then-President George W. Bush signing legislation in 2008 for a monument, to be built and maintained with private donations. A location is tentatively planned at Fort Belvoir, Va. They have raised about $20,000 of an estimated cost of about $850,000.

Pigeons, dolphins, horses and other animals have served in wars since World War I, said Burnam, 62, who served in the Army from 1966 to 1968. But no animal has done as much as the dog, which has served as sentries, scouts, trackers and patrol leaders, he said.

Burnam and his scout dog led infantry patrols.

Burnam knows firsthand the dogs, like his scout dog that led infantry patrols, deserve recognition.

“We were the tip of the spear, detecting sounds and movement in the jungles, that led to ammunition caches, underground tunnel complexes, and entrenched enemies,” he said.

“If the dog’s body goes rigid, they cock their head, perk ears, fix their eyes, you know it’s dangerous,” he said. “You certainly don’t want to go where the dog doesn’t want to go. They saved my butt from enemy fire several times.”

In one incident his dog alerted as they led a patrol into a clearing, he said.

“We hit the ground — ambushed by enemies in bunkers,” he said. “We laid behind a 10-inch diameter tree trunk, with enemies firing in front of us, and our guys firing over our heads. If we would have moved either direction, they would have blown the hell out of us.”

Before Donald Ellis was buried last week at Oakland Cemetery in Monticello, his healthy 2-year-old Yorkie was euthanized and put to rest alongside him.

Ellis’ sister, Marilyn Mc-Daniel of Star City, said the family wanted to fulfill her brother’s desire to be buried with his pet, Tom Tom.

“Donnie said if he should ever die, he wanted his dog to go with him because nobody would love him like he did,” McDaniel said. “He loved that dog very much.”

It’s rare for a pet to be euthanized for the sole purpose of burial with its owner, funeral home employees, veterinarians and humane society officials said.

“I’ve been here four years,and I’ve never heard about that, thankfully,” said Martin Montorfano, a spokesman for the Humane Society of America.

Generally, after a person’s death, his pets are sold, put up for adoption, cared for by friends or family, or given to animal-rescue groups. In some cases, the pet owner will set aside money in a will to help a new owner care for the animal, said Barbara Hodges, veterinary consultant to the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association.

Hodges said there is nothing illegal about euthanizing a healthy pet for any reason.

Bob Boerner, who handles animal issues for the National Conference of State Legislatures, also said he knows of no state with a law prohibiting the euthanization of healthy pets.

Veterinarians refer to the practice as convenience euthanasia, although some refuse to do it for moral reasons.

In the case of Ellis and Tom Tom, veterinarian Jason Ross of the Star City Animal Hospital euthanized the dog after first pleading with the family to let it live, said Ruby Burton, director of the Humane Society of Southeast Arkansas.

Ross followed through with the family’s request because he feared that the dog would be killed anyway in a less-humane way, she said.

A message left for Ross on his cell phone was not returned Wednesday.

Burton said Tom Tom was buried at the foot of Ellis’ plot. Burton was not at his funeral.

Chuck Dearman of Stephenson Dearman Funeral Home in Monticello, which handled Ellis’ arrangements, said the funeral home has had a few requests in the past to have pets euthanized and buried alongside their owners.

“You don’t see it very often, but it’s the family’s call if they want to contact their veterinarian and have a pet put to sleep,” Dearman said. “If it is the person’s request to have that done, we certainly can’t stand in the way of it.”

Sherry Glover, executive secretary of the Arkansas Veterinary Medical Examining Board, said owners can have pets euthanized for any reason but that this case was odd because the dog was so young.

“Generally, the veterinarian should do what the family asks,” Glover said.

Bill Booker, president of Roller Funeral Homes with more than two dozen locations statewide, said he has never heard of a family burying a pet alongside a human, much less a family euthanizing a pet for burial near a human.

“I’m not familiar with it … but from a funeral perspective, funeral people are trying to honor the wishes of the deceased and cooperate with the families if at all possible,” said Booker, who also serves on the Arkansas Cemetery Board.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — Neil Patrick Harris is the narrator of a PBS documentary exploring the bond between service dogs and those they help.

Harris recorded the narration this week for Through a Dog’s Eyes, which is set to air next month.

The film details how dogs learn to serve people with disabilities and how animals and humans are paired. An Iraqi veteran who became a quadriplegic after a car accident and a 6-year-old with cerebral palsy are among those featured in the film.

The How I Met Your Mother star says he was impressed by the strong emotional connection between the service animals and those who rely on them. He owns two dogs.

Through a Dog’s Eyes debuts April 21 on PBS stations.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENO, Nev. — Beware of the large, burping cow at the Wilbur D. May Museum.

The new “Animal Grossology” exhibit there is not for the faint of heart, nor for those who would back away from an automated cow that burps. The exhibit focuses on all things poop, pee and bodily-fluid related.

Want to know why dogs smell other dogs’ rear ends? Want to know why bird poop is white? Want to know why some animals have white blood?

This exhibit could be for you — adult or child.

“The exhibit is geared for children ages 3 to 12, and so far, everyone that has come has loved it,” said Bill Ware, a recreation specialist with Washoe County Department of Regional Parks and Open Space. “I think the parents learn just as much as kids do.”

He said some children who recently visited brought along vomit bags in case they became too grossed out.

The exhibit encompasses three rooms of the museum. The burping cow can be found in David’s Discovery Room, named after David May, a relative of Wilbur D. May.

Visitors will also find one of the most popular displays, the “Penguin Game,” in this room. In the “Penguin Game,” participants must match four piles of poop to the animals that excreted them. A cat hairball exhibit in David’s Discovery Room shows how hairballs are coughed up.

“The reason animals are gross, basically, is for defense or recognition reasons or because maybe that’s how they eat,” Ware said. “It could be for any reason.”

In the Double Diamond Room, things get really gross. There, visitors will find another popular exhibit, called, “Sense of Scent,” which focuses on scent identification. Participants must identify four scents they squeeze out through tubes. Those scents won’t be revealed here — but they will completely gross you out.

In the main room, the exhibits feature the Darwin’s Frog, the dung beetle and slimy sea creatures. Also in this room is a large submarine that children can enter once they remove their shoes. Children can look through the portholes, steer the submarine and exit through an eel slide out the back.

The exhibits at “Animal Grossology” are hands-on and interactive. Some, such as the dung beetle game, feature computer technology. Others require the participation of several people in entertaining question-and-answer games.

“My favorite exhibit was probably the submarine,” said Eric Maria-Calvo, 11, a fifth-grader who recently visited the museum with Bud Beasley Elementary School classmates from Jason Shipman’s class. “It was really fun to slide down the slide.”

Saturday might be the best time to visit the museum because no school groups will be there then. Tours also are available, but teachers’ and parents’ groups must request those in advance.

The Wilbur May Foundation and the Reno News and Review are the main supporters of the exhibit.

“We found out that this exhibit was about to be retired, and we wanted to get it before it went away,” Ware said. “Out of all the exhibits that are out there, this is the most educational. There are others that are as educational, but none that are as much fun.”

Or as gross.

Heidi Avery, 37, of Reno, recently visited “Animal Grossology” with her mother’s home-schooling group and her children Hannah, 7, Robbie, 5, and Isabel, 3.

“This a good opportunity for (the kids) to come in and see all the bugs and see all the disgusting things we tell them not to talk about at home,” she said.

And how exactly did she sum up the exhibit?

“It’s gross,” she said.