Green, Alan 1950-

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GREEN, Alan 1950-

PERSONAL: Born 1950.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Public Affairs, 250 West 57th St., New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: AlterNet, founding editor.

AWARDS, HONORS: Worth Bingham Prize.

WRITINGS:

The Directory of Athletic Scholarships, Putnam (New York, NY), 1981.

(With Bill Hogan) Gavel to Gavel: A Guide to the Televised Proceedings of Congress, Benton Foundation (Washington, DC), 1982. (With Larry Kahaner) The Phone Book: The Most Complete Guide to the Changing World of Telephones, Penguin (New York, NY), 1983. (Editor, with Joel Makower) Instant Information, Prentice Hall (New York, NY), 1987.

Justice for All: A Guide to the Supreme Court of the United States, Benton Foundation, 1987.

(With Andy Clark) Athletic Scholarships: Thousands of Grants and over $400 Millions for College-bound Athletes, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1994.

Animal Underworld: Inside America's Black Market for Rare and Exotic Species, Public Affairs (New York, NY), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS: Award-winning investigative reporter Alan Green, with the support of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit center that studies ethics-related issues, investigated the trade in exotic animals in the United States. To fit together the pieces of this complex puzzle, Green conducted hundreds of interviews and studied trade documents from forty-eight states. He reported the results of his study in Animal Underworld: Inside America's Black Market for Rare and Exotic Species. According to Green, mainstream zoos and amusement parks—as well as research laboratories—dispose of surplus animals in unethical ways, hiding their activities with a trail of incomplete and confusing paperwork. Eventually many of these exotic animals end up at unlicensed petting zoos, at private hunting facilities, in the hands of private pet owners, and on grocery store shelves as exotic meat or health supplements such as aphrodisiacs. In many cases, these former zoo or laboratory animals suffer cruelly from neglect and abuse.

A Kirkus Reviews critic justified Green's "pull-nopunches style" because Green has "done the legwork" with his thorough research. In the view of Booklist reviewer Grace Fill, Animal Underworld is "a must for concerned animal lovers." Calling the work a "major feat of investigative reporting," a Publishers Weekly reviewer remarked, "Green's important eyeopening report could spark a national debate." "This shocking book is an eye-opener that belongs in every collection," wrote a Library Journal commentator.