Once safely into
springtime, we’re also UN-safely into tick and mosquito season, which many of
us have good reason to dread. For those
who are prey to these jumping and flying pests -- the nicest word for them -- here’s
useful info about why they’re proliferating and how to combat them. (Right, this is a blog about animals, but we definitely
don’t like or welcome all of them!)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/well/mosquitoes-ticks-lyme-disease-protection.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_hh_20180504&nl=well&nl_art=1&nlid=20760274emc%3Dedit_hh_20180504&ref=headline&te=1
Collectively speaking
No room in my last post, about two confusing black birds, to mention
other names for crows and ravens: collective nouns. If you see a number of
crows, for instance, sure, you could refer to them as “a flock of crows,” and be
accurate. But more poetically, you could refer to them as “a murder of crows.” Doesn’t that add a nice sinister note?
As for a mundane “group of ravens,” try “an unkindness of . . .” or “a
conspiracy of ravens” -- much more colorful. That wording better suggests connections
like Hitchcock’s movie The Birds or
Poe’s poem “The Raven.”
Shades of the collective noun “clowder” for a group of cats, right? Another option there, btw, is “clutter” of
cats, which seems especially apropos now, in the thick of kitten season. And
for many of us ailurophiles, “a pounce of cats” says it too.
Safer flights, we hope
Safer flights, we hope
After
a series of mishaps and one death for pets involved with United Airlines, the
company has announced new policies and customer requirements for pet air
transportation. Aimed at improving the safety of the travel experience for animals, they
take effect Monday, June 18, and will be modified as needed afterward. This link leads you to all that, and more.
Tell it to the . . . Gov!
Please keep up
the pressure with frequent polite phone calls to Governor Murphy: remind
him of his pledge to end New Jersey’s bear hunts. 609-292-6000.
In an earlier stage of our development most human groups held to a tribal ethic. Members of the tribe were protected, but people of other tribes could be robbed or killed as one pleased. Gradually the circle of protection expanded, but as recently as 150 years ago we did not include blacks. So African human beings could be captured, shipped to America, and sold. In Australia white settlers regarded Aborigines as a pest and hunted them down, much as kangaroos are hunted down today. Just as we have progressed beyond the blatantly racist ethic of the era of slavery and colonialism, so we must now progress beyond the speciesist ethic of the era of factory farming, of the use of animals as mere research tools, of whaling, seal hunting, kangaroo slaughter, and the destruction of wilderness. We must take the final step in expanding the circle of ethics.-Peter Singer, philosopher and professor of bioethics (1946- )
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Love the bird picture!
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