Not your usual end-of-year appeal

This will be an appeal, or three appeals really, but there’s nothing traditional about them!

                                                                                             H. Marcoux pic

• First, please care for animals who still need and deserve homes for the holidays and beyond.


• Be alert to cats and dogs who need rescue and love, as well as the warmth a home would offer. You might check your area animal shelter and ask around: does anyone know of a needy homeless pet during this season of giving?  


• Second, assemble a pet disaster kit.    

Yes, this winter-holiday hubbub will die down, and yes, you’ll get past all the shopping, wrapping, visiting and festivating.  Then, before the next extreme event of any kind can happen -- and you know one of them is bound to affect you, me and us at some time! -- this appeal:  please make time to assure your pets’ safety before disaster strikes. 

Take it in steps: (1) Through Friday, January 3, 2020, just think about a disaster kit for your pets. And then, (2) assemble it.  (How?  you say.  Easy.  The ASPCA poster below will guide your thoughts now, and then later, your actions.) 

          ......... ASPCA Pet Disaster Preparedness Plan ..........

 Tips to keep companion animals safe in time of disaster

Never Leave Your Pet Home Alone
The safest place for your pet is with you, so if you must evacuate, take your animals along.
Check Boarding Place
Make sure it’s not in a flood plain and will be attended throughout a storm. Ask if crates are available for transport and if they have an evacuation plan – and get their emergency contact number.
Ask For Help
If you live in a high-risk area, arrange ahead of time for you and your pet to ride out the storm with friends in safe zones. Or check with hotels in safe areas to see if they will permit you to stay there with your pet.
Have Carriers Ready
Make sure travel carriers are safe, the right size, and easily available. And make your pet’s carrier a fun and safe place throughout the year by adding treats, toys and meals on a routine basis.
Have Medication Plan Ready
Talk to your veterinarian about medication options if your pet is fearful of thunder or travel.
Prepare a Travel Kit
Include food, water, bedding, towels, medical supplies, bathing supplies, flea/tick control and leashes – and have enough of everything to last two weeks.
Provide Plenty of ID
Do not assume your owner tag will immediately reunite you with your pet. If your neighborhood is evacuated and phone lines are down, or your pet is lost during travel, it may be months before you are contacted. Include several forms of ID on your pet’s collar, including a temporary tag with the phone number of a friend or relative outside your immediate area.
Microchip Your Pet
Make sure your chip is registered and that the contact information is updated. Keep current photos. Always have current photos of your pet with you – they can greatly aid in reuniting you with a lost pet. Report a loss immediately. If you become separated from your pet during a storm or evacuation, report it immediately to area humane societies, law enforcement and animal control agencies.
Volunteer
If you are untouched by a natural disaster, your volunteer time may be invaluable in helping those less fortunate.                          
                                                 .......... ASPCApro.org  ..........

 ·    Third, and most important if the two earlier appeals are to happen: please take good care of yourself, to take better care of animals!

Wishing animals and people a happy, healthy 2020!  (Will return early next year.)

                                                                                                                                                                               Dodo pic

  

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Your comments are always welcome.  Simply go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com.  

‘Culture’ can kill -- in Puerto Rico & everywhere

Cockfighting will soon end in Puerto Rico.  As of Friday, Dec. 20, the island’s “national sport,” declared to be part of its culture, will be illegal.

Needless to say, myriad Puerto Ricans who raise fighting birds and make a living off their deaths, are not happy.  Some have vowed to continue cockfighting underground.  Others have decried their livelihood loss.  Many have argued that the values of people on the mainland are being imposed on PR.

  

Finally reaching a longtime goal -- ending all spectator sports that pit animals against each other (think dog fights) -- the Humane Society of the US (HSUS) had long lobbied Congress for this prohibition, built into last year’s federal farm bill.  

Kitty Block, HSUS president, said, "Cruelty is not culture . . .  it's important to look at what [cockfighting] is, and what it's doing to the animals.   These are birds that are armed with weapons, and they slash eyes out . . . it's a brutal blood sport that should've gone a long time ago."

But, claimed some of those who raise and care for their birds (or the ones with potential, anyway), cockfighting is a “gentleman’s sport”!  To which Block responded, “Tossing animals into a ring to tear each other apart is anything but gentlemanly.”

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/cruel-sports/cockfighting/

“It’s part of our culture!” has been the protective cry of inhabitants to all those trying to stop the clubbing of baby seals in Canada for their fur. This hideously cruel centuries-old practice continues today despite protests from around the world, some countries’ banning of imported seal skins and even a drop in demand.  

“It’s part of our culture!” animal hunters and trappers have cried over the years.  And they’re still at it.

Accompanying the rising death toll for horses involved in horseracing, “It’s part of our culture!” the owners, gamblers and fans still cry -- in spite of 37 horse deaths at California’s Santa Anita racetrack alone since the end of last year.

Here’s a heartbreaking fact: “[M]any of the horses have seen so little of life they’ve never eaten a carrot.  Thoroughbreds die at the track, and . . . they all die young.”  Is that a fair fate for horses?  Is that what they’re alive for -- at too young an age being forced to race, to suffer injuries, to be put down?  

But “Years are expensive in the Thoroughbred industry, and years are what horses need,” says Sally Eckhoff, who knows and loves horses, and who wrote “These Horses Are Too Young to Die.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/opinion/sunday/horse-racing-early-deaths.html

What’s the beef?

The competition between beef and beef-substitutes is heating up.  So quickly successful have the ersatz burgers (the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Burger) become that beef producers are now fighting to halt those companies from describing their products as “meat.”  And raising questions about their healthfulness.   

Meanwhile, the beef-free substitutes are being gobbled up.  Two recent periodical articles have broken down the issues, and if you want to know more, I suggest the New York Times story linked below or the longer New Yorker article (“Value Meal,” September 30, 2019).

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/well/eat/fake-meat-vs-real-meat.html?te=1&nl=well&emc=edit_hh_20191205?campaign_id=18&instance_id=14271&segment_id=19300&user_id=a360dad7b26df61ea65737080d3deedd&regi_id=2076027420191205

A winsome relief

               Narwhal                        Dodo pic

With NJ’s notorious bear hunt starting up again this week, so needlessly and unfairly, let’s close on a happier note, about a puppy -- but not your usual puppy, adorable as s/he would be.  This sweet brown pup was born with an extra tail, short and soft although not waggable, on his head.

A rare birth defect, the half-size tail isn’t harming him and may stay right where it is, say those caring for the little guy.  For now, “Narwhal,” named for the whale variety with a unicorn-like horn in front, is just having puppy fun.   

https://newsletters.thedodo.com/t/ViewEmail/d/5F5F6CCDEA04CED32540EF23F30FEDED/083127FDFB36BBC9A0F01D70678E0DEE

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Your comments are always welcome.  Simply go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com.  

New & unfinished animal business

In an important first for animals in the US, a federal ban on animal cruelty, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT), was signed into law on Nov. 25.  From the Washington Post:

“The bipartisan bill, which passed the House and Senate earlier this year, will outlaw purposeful crushing, burning, drowning, suffocation, impalement or other violence causing “serious bodily injury” to animals. Violations could result in a fine and up to seven years’ imprisonment.

“Advocates say the Pact Act . . . will fill crucial gaps in national law, which bans animal fighting as well as the making and sharing of videos that show the kind of abuse the Pact Act would criminalize.

“All states have provisions against animal cruelty, said Kitty Block, president of the Humane Society of the United States, but without a federal ban, it’s hard to prosecute cases that span different jurisdictions or that occur in airports, military bases and other places under federal purview . . . ”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/11/25/most-animal-cruelty-isnt-federal-crime-that-changes-monday-when-bipartisan-bill-becomes-law/   

2^nd chance dogs were catalysts

                  Oliver        WP pic

In my Oct. 7 post, I cited a Washington Post article that had traced all the dogs rescued from Michael Vick’s dog fight ring 12 years ago.  Since then, some of the organizations that had favored euthanizing all such dogs changed their views because of how well the Vick dogs did after rehab.   

So I invited specifics on just how animal organizations have changed their stand on this topic.  Here’s the response from Brian Hackett, HSUS-New Jersey State Director, State Affairs (bhackett@humanesociety.org):

Regarding dog fighting victims: The Vick case created an opportunity for organizations like Bad Rap in CA to evaluate each dog individually and make determinations based on their behavior.  They then were allowed to pull the adoptable dogs and work to find them homes.

                            Audie                                 WP pic

 It was a groundbreaking time both in terms of an organization advocating for the placement of the adoptable dogs but also in terms of law enforcement and prosecutors being willing to allow them to be transferred.  Until that case, it was the policy of many shelters and national orgs, including HSUS, to euthanize all dogs from fighting cases.

This was partially a lack of education about their behavior, partially that there were so many other dogs being euthanized at the time for space, and partially liability concerns.  Now, HSUS and many other orgs assess each individual from these cases so that the adoptable dogs can be placed.

We also now advocate for changing state or local laws that require euthanasia of dogfighting victims – I did just that by working hard earlier this year with Best Friends to repeal that law on our books and revise the dangerous dog law, so now only 8 states remain to do so and NJ is no longer one (Gov. Murphy signed this bill into law earlier this year) . . .

Senior pets may be the neediest

So it’s December, and even though “national adopt a senior pet month” has ended, it’s hard for me to stop pitching the idea -- no, the need! -- to adopt older pets.  I didn’t hear from anyone who did so last month so I'll just hope it happened.

As for me, I followed my own advice and visited the Trenton Animal Shelter, where I volunteered for a few years a while ago.  Cats in residence were older than 2.  I’ll check on dogs’ ages next time, gather more info and then report in.

“My face may be white but my heart is pure gold. There is no shame in growing old.”  That quote tugs on the heart strings, doesn’t it?  So does this sad, sad story of Cinnamon, a cat abandoned at age 17, then fostered in a loving place where she ever-so-slowly forgave and came to trust humans again. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq2dn5R1p7I

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