A collection of unique and heart-warming stories from the life of an RSPCA rescue worker. Janie Ritson shows us the full and wondrous lives of those animals neglected and forgotten. A new talent from Authonomy, HarperCollins' own talent-spotting website, Janie Ritson writes about her and her husband's eventful experiences as RSPCA rescue workers. Their encounters range from the truly poignant to the utterly hilarious, including a lovesick macaw, a tea-stealing goat and a sheep who thinks she's a dog. Janie manages to capture the difficult emotions that every animal lover must go through when faced with a mistreated creature. From heartbreak and sadness to love and joy, she shows us the colourful lives led by wild animals and pets alike, even those that have been abandoned by the very people who were supposed to care for them. A story of family and how animals can effect people's lives in the most wonderful ways, Hoping for a Home is an inspiring collection for all animal lovers and owners.

This is a practical and comprehensive everything-you-need-to-know guide to chicken breeds for anyone who keeps chickens, is considering keeping chickens or aspires to keep chickens. Comprehensive content features over 70 breeds which reveals how, as well as being useful, chickens are interesting and colourful characters. This guide includes essential practical information on feeding, housing and welfare as well as easy-to-use keys to selecting the most suitable breeds. Chickens make great pets - they are low maintenance living on the scraps that you throw away, and are easy-going, plus they thrive in small urban areas and backyards.

Dale Portman's insightful storytelling is a heart-warming affirmation of the bond between human and dog. This collection of crime and rescue stories by the retired park warden and dog trainer highlights the vital role dogs play in saving lives, upholding the law and recovering bodies. Portman describes the escapades of Canadian Rockies park warden Alfie Burstrom and his canine partner, Ginger -- the first certified avalanche search team in North America -- as well as his own adventures tracking down criminals and missing persons with his German shepherd, Sam. Reading these stories of working dogs will give you a new appreciation of the important roles they play and how they really are our silent heroes.

Elsevier's Dictionary of Nature and Hunting" contains terms covering the following fields and subfields:

A. Plants and Ecosystems: Species, Cenoses
B. Animals: Species
C. Domestic Animals: General, Dogs, Horses, Cattle and Poultry
D. Hunting and Fishing: Game Names, Arms, Trapping, Methods.

It includes 5,594 terms, both scientific and common, in English, French, German and Russian and in Latin (for the generally accepted biological terms for European and North Asian plants and animals).

The dictionary was developed with the help of Russian specialists - scientists from the Severtsov Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, officials from the Union of the Hunters and Fishers of Russia, and French colleagues from various organizations dealing with environment protection and natural resources: OMPO (Oiseaux Migrateurs du Palearctique Occidental), ANCGE (Association National des Chasseurs du Gibier d'Eau), ONC (Office National de la Chasse) and CIC (Conseil International de la Chasse et de la Protection du Gibier).

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The last U.S. Army mules were formally mustered out of the service in December 1956, ending 125 years of military reliance on the virtues of this singular animal. Much less glamorous than the cavalryman's horse, the Army pack mule was a good deal more important: from the Mexican War through World War II, mules were an indispensable adjunct to army movement. The author has exhaustively researched the ubiquitous yet nearly invisible army mule. Through his work we learn a great deal about military procurement, transport, and supply, the bedrock on which military mobility rests.

From bears on the Renaissance stage to the equine pageantry of the nineteenth-century hunt, animals have been used in human-orchestrated entertainments throughout history. The essays in this volume present an array of case studies that inspire new ways of interpreting animal performance and the role of animal agency in the performing relationship. In exploring the human-animal relationship from the early modern period to the nineteenth century, Performing Animals questions what it means for an animal to “perform,” examines how conceptions of this relationship have evolved over time, and explores whether and how human understanding of performance is changed by an animal’s presence. The contributors discuss the role of animals in venues as varied as medieval plays, natural histories, dissections, and banquets, and they raise provocative questions about animals’ agency. In so doing, they demonstrate the innovative potential of thinking beyond the boundaries of the present in order to dismantle the barriers that have traditionally divided human from animal. From fleas to warhorses to animals that “perform” even after death, this delightfully varied volume brings together examples of animals made to “act” in ways that challenge obvious notions of performance. The result is an eye-opening exploration of human-animal relationships and identity that will appeal greatly to scholars and students of animal studies, performance studies, and posthuman studies. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Todd Andrew Borlik, Pia F. Cuneo, Kim Marra, Richard Nash, Sarah E. Parker, Rob Wakeman, Kari Weil, and Jessica Wolfe.

John Berger famously said that "in the last two centuries, animals have gradually disappeared." Those who share his view contend that animals have been removed from our daily lives and that we have been removed from the daily lives of animals. This has been the impetus for a plethora of representational practices that, broadly conceived, work to fill in the gap between humans and animals. Ironically, many of these may ultimately intensify the very nostalgia, distance, and ignorance they were devised to remedy. Animals on Display presents nine lively and engaging essays on the historical representation and display of nonhuman animals. Looking at a wide range of examples, many of them now little known, the essays situate them in their historical and sociocultural contexts, while speaking to the ongoing importance of making animals visible for the arrangement and sustenance of human-animal relations. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Brita Brenna, Guro Flinterud, Henry A. McGhie, Brian W. Ogilvie, Nigel Rothfels, and Lise Camilla Ruud.

In A Field Guide to Cows, John Pukite provides all the facts?so even the novice can identify and get to know America?s fifty-two breeds of cattle. Every entry in this entertaining yet completely usable book features an illustration that highlights each breed?s most easily identifiable traits, such as coloration pattern and body shape. The book includes a checklist of breeds so the die-hard cow watcher can keep track of sightings, a list of essential garb and gear for cow watching, a glossary of terms, a listing of breeder associations, and more. Fascinating cow trivia is interspersed throughout. Informative, amazing, and amusing, A Field Guide to Cows is the indispensable companion for would-be cow tippers, farmers, city folk, agriculturalists, interstate drivers, 4-H?ers, vacationing families, and everyone who likes to moo at cows.
Cow Facts
There are approximately 350 squirts in a gallon of milk
Old cows in India have their own nursing homes
From 1866 to 1895 cowboys drove about 10,000,000 cattle out of Texas

Some reviewers call "Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia the best reference work on animals ever published. Others call it the legacy left to us by famed zoologist and animal lover, Bernhard Grzimek. The original set, published in Germany in the late 1960s, is internationally renowned for its scientific reporting, coverage and illustrations, and serves as a major point of reference for researchers and students studying the animal kingdom. Thorough articles familiarize readers with animals found everywhere on the globe, detailing their life cycles, predators, food systems, overall ecology and much more. Thomson Gale proudly presents the first completely revised and updated version of this acclaimed set in 30 years. Staying true to the original scientific pedigree, our new editions of "Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia are sure to serve the needs of students at every academic level.

The nineteenth century was the golden age of the horse. In urban America, the indispensable horse provided the power for not only vehicles that moved freight, transported passengers, and fought fires but also equipment in breweries, mills, foundries, and machine shops.

Clay McShane and Joel A. Tarr, prominent scholars of urban life, here explore the critical role that the horse played in the growing nineteenth-century metropolis. Using such diverse sources as veterinary manuals, stable periodicals, teamster magazines, city newspapers, and agricultural yearbooks, they examine how the horses were housed and fed and how workers bred, trained, marketed, and employed their four-legged assets. Not omitting the problems of waste removal and corpse disposal, they touch on the municipal challenges of maintaining a safe and productive living environment for both horses and people and the rise of organizations like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

In addition to providing an insightful account of life and work in nineteenth-century urban America, The Horse in the City brings us to a richer understanding of how the animal fared in this unnatural and presumably uncomfortable setting.