Animals

They're not called barns. They're not called sheds or sties, coops or pens, either. The places where most of the chickens, cows, and pigs we eat come from are called CAFOs. That stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, and it says more than a little about how farming in North America has changed over the last 50 years. Food, Inc., Robert Kenner's alarming documentary, says plenty more about the industrialization of food production and delivery systems and how it has affected our health, environment, and economy.

Lower Makefield Township supervisors have put the bite on barking dogs by authorizing the police department to issue citations to their owners. At their meeting Monday night, the supervisors amended the animal nuisance ordinance to cover excessive noise caused by continuously barking dogs. Previously, the ordinance, which includes only dogs and horses, required only that owners clean up after their animals and prevent them from running free. According to township Police Chief Charles Ronaldo, the amendment was prompted by complaints from residents who contend that barking dogs are disturbing the peace.

CANCEL MY trip to Kathmandu! I find your picture of a man getting ready to chop the head off of a young animal in the name of religion disgraceful. These animals look to be very young and I don't see anyone preparing them for dinner. Heads and bodies are lying everywhere. In a country of poverty, can't these animals be used for food? Why any religion sacrifices living creatures is beyond me. As a member of PETA and the USHS, I protest this kind of behavior. Joe Hamilton Philadelphia

THE advent of Easter and the phenomenal popularity of "The Passion of the Christ" bring to the fore Jesus' powerful message of love and compassion. How can Christians reconcile this message with subsidizing the agony of billions of animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses? Cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens, and other animals raised for food are sentient beings who share many of our own feelings of joy, love, sadness, and pain. Yet from birth they are caged, crowded, drugged, mutilated and manhandled in today's factory farms.

An open season on hunters is an idea suggested by Cleveland Amory as a way of keeping down the growing number of hunters in this country. Amory insists that he is only thinking of what's best for the hunters themselves when he suggests that some of them should be harvested every year. If their ranks are not thinned out, he says, they'll become so numerous that food supplies for them will be inadequate and many of them will die of starvation. Amory wants the hunting of hunters to be carried out in a civilized way. For instance, if someone bags a hunter, Amory does not feel that the dead hunter should be tied to the roof or hood of the hunter hunter's car when being brought back from where it was shot.

Autistic children from the Center for Autistic Children and the Project Learn School in Mount Airy had a chance to meet a variety of animals yesterday when representatives of Busch Gardens and Sea World visited the center on Conshohocken State Road. Relating to animals is believed to help autistic children form relationships with people.

RE THE LETTER about the cats and dogs that don't pay taxes: These animals didn't ask to be here. A homeless person chooses that life when he or she turns down a shelter that would take them in. When you read what some of these humans do to animals, it's sickening - and, in case you don't know it, they are the same ones killing and torturing humans. You should move because it's an insult to say you're from Philadelphia if you actually feel that way about animals. Sandy Ward Philadelphia

Christina Smallet (left) and Christie Bush, Camden County College vet-tech students, take blood sample at the Humane Society

Monica Wall, 3, with mom Barbara (left) and grandmom Dolores Whitehead, checks out the creche animals at Old First Reformed Church, 4th and Race streets, last night. The famous live-animal Nativity scene is on display through Dec. 28.

THE CITY OF Philadelphia (once again) should be ashamed of itself. Money for investigation (in which the data was skewed), planning and implementation of bike lanes, which hardly anyone wants - yes! Money for two rounds of fireworks on New Year's Eve - yes! Money for the Mummers - yes! Money to save poor defenseless animals - hell, no! Makes perfect sense to me. It makes me sick! Denny Braccia, Maple Shade, N.J.

The cracks in Delaware County's tenuous animal-control plan are widening. Some municipalities, chafing under the cost and inconvenience of shipping their strays to Chester County - in an arrangement brokered by the Delaware County Animal Protection Board - have approached a local pet store to take in their stray dogs and cats, the owner said. Michael Gill of We Love Pets, in Media and Springfield - which has been tied to the puppy-mill industry - said he could do the job for less and had looked into applying for a state kennel license.

By Jerry Buckley Within three weeks of starting as chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania SPCA, I was deeply involved in the tragic cases of Hercules and Chloe, dogs who were set on fire and severely burned. When Hercules was found in North Philadelphia, the pit bull puppy was more flesh than fur, suffering from burns covering more than 75 percent of his body. Chloe died after being doused with accelerant and set aflame. This heartbreaking on-the-job training showed me exactly what I would need to know to help the countless vulnerable and voiceless animals entrusted to our care.

Have some presummer fun as the Ninth Annual Sugar Cane Festival, hosted by Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha and cosponsored by Peco, returns on Saturday with a day of information and activities on Fifth Street between Berks and Norris Streets. The day will offer community presentations, face painting, animals from the Philadelphia Zoo, and more. Performances include the Kensington CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts) Drum Corps, Fuego Dance Company, urban pop duo Domino Saints, and singer Franco Olivo.

A LITTLE MORE MAGIC, a little less action, and the animated adventure "Epic" might have better lived up to its title. The movie is adapted from William Joyce's lavishly illustrated books about the invisible army of enchanted creatures who live within a forest and keep it alive. The creative team from the "Ice Age" movies takes Joyce's starting point and layers over it the story of jaded teen MK (Amanda Seyfried) forced to spend the summer with her estranged father (Jason Sudeikis)

Next time you go for a walk in the country, or in the park, or in your garden if you have one, watch out for the teensy-weensie folk dressed like Robin Hood, zipping through the blades of grass, whooshing this way and that on the backs of hummingbirds. Watch for the talking micro-snails and slugs, too, the jolly caterpillars and sinister Boggans with their pointy teeth and animal cowls, and the beautiful faerie princess-type - you definitely don't want to step on her. Or, you could just go see Epic , a hyperactive CG cartoon, very loosely adapted from children's book author and artist William Joyce's The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs.

Q: Our dog will sometimes come into the bedroom and be startled at the sight of herself in our mirrored closet doors. Sometimes she'll even bark. Other times she takes no notice of her reflection at all. Does she recognize that it's her? Or think it's another dog? A: The answer is actually a little more complex. In psychology circles, the mirror test is considered an important evaluation of self-awareness in animals and a sign of the normal development of cognitive skills in children.

Pennsylvania Ballet revived Carnival of the Animals on Thursday at the Academy of Music, and it continues to be a delightful, colorful piece that, like ballet, transforms characters into other beings. Written and narrated on stage by John Lithgow, and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon to music by Camille Saint-Saëns, Carnival is the story of a boy, Oliver Pendleton Percy the Third (the personable Lucas Tischler, notable in winters past as both Fritz and the Nutcracker Prince)

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Sumeth Budhraja is a 40-year-old golf nut from Bangkok, a 3-handicap with a nice short game. In October, he won a local tournament at Siam Country Club in Pattaya, a beach resort about 70 miles south of the capital city. He shot 78 in the first flight. Barclays, the international finance monolith, sponsored the tournament. First prize: a trip to the Masters. Budhraja is a Sikh, bearded and pleasant, so proud of his heritage that he not only wore a blue turban on Thursday but also a T-shirt that explained the reasons why he wore it. (Final reason: It makes him look good.)

THURSDAY they treated me like an animal. OK - I'm an animal every day, and you are, too, so don't be giggling behind your hairless paw. You may think you're something special, but to biologists you are an animal, a mammal to be precise. Yes, yes, you have a really big brain, but most of it you don't use. Yes, yes, you have an opposable thumb, a high order of communication and the ability to theorize, but, really, you're just an animal. Thinking about animals leads to the zoo, and this is a big weekend for the Philadelphia Zoo, America's first.

The Rutgers basketball scandal bounced into the political arena Monday, with Gov. Christie calling the coach an "animal" even as he disagreed with Democratic calls for hearings and the dismissal of another top official. The Republican governor repeatedly expressed support for Rutgers President Robert Barchi as he fielded more than a dozen questions about the topic in his first appearance before reporters since videos showing Coach Mike Rice throwing basketballs at players and using anti-gay slurs went public last week.