Selected shorts, for better & worse, about animals

 Stoic swimmers

Watch ducks or geese glide serenely through winter waters and wonder: aren’t they freezing?   Same with birds, who may be OK around the bird feeder in the sunshine, but how do they stay warm during cold, dark nights?

A newspaper story about birds’ “cool tactics” for surviving freezing winter helped me feel better.  In fall, they grow extra feathers (think winter jacket), and they shiver when temps drop – as we do.  They trap air by puffing out their feathers, creating cozy layers of warmth around themselves.   And they may huddle together to share heat.

Most extreme, some birds lower their body temps as much as 50 degrees – coming closer to air temp than their normal 105 degrees – into a state of “torpor.”  Though they conserve heat and energy that way, they can’t move during torpor so they’re more vulnerable to predators. 

We can help birds fight the cold with backyard brush piles or old Christmas trees to hide in.  With holes at the bottom and perches inside, roost boxes also shelter them.  Bird feeders offer winter energy, while heated bird baths provide drinking water and feather-cleaning material. 

   

But what about those ducks and geese, with their cold, wet bottoms?  (Note: feathers protect water birds from near-freezing water.  They keep their feet from freezing by using a counter-current heat exchange system between the arteries and veins in their legs.) 

   

No hero he

“Congratulations to Jeff Melillo on harvesting this outstanding black bear.”  If not for the “harvesting” word – a tired euphemism for “killing” – you might think Melillo did something good for the bear. 

Wrong.  He killed the 700-pound animal, and with that murderous feat, he set a new world record for “the largest bow-harvested black bar in North America.”  Gee, what a guy. 

                                                                        APL/Bill Lea pic

"Pursuing bears with bow and arrow is a passion of mine,” Melillo said in the Times of Trenton story last week.  He thanked the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) and the United Bow Hunters of NJ for their support and the effort they put into managing the black bear population in New Jersey.

“Managing” – as in needlessly, cruelly killing.

Clearly, Melillo deserves this year’s Dubious Distinction award.   And the DFW continues to earn unqualified censure for its “leadership” in hunting innocent wild animals in this state. 

A true ‘bad sport’

Advice to those hoping for long, healthy second lives: don’t come back as a race horse.  Why?  Because race horses are dying at unprecedented and unconscionable numbers, when even one fatality is one too many for the so-called “sport of kings.”

California’s Santa Anita track continues to be the wrong place for race horses to be (as if they should be anywhere!)  Two horses died in two days of racing there over the MLK Jr. three-day weekend, bringing the January total to four euthanized horses.   Last year, 37 horses died at Santa Anita. 

For the bigger, far more horrifying horseracing picture, see this Washington Post story from last fall.  You'll “read it and weep.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-staggering-toll-in-dead-horses-makes-it-clear-its-time-to-outlaw-horse-racing/2019/10/08/b0f97a06-e52c-11e9-a331-2df12d56a80b_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1

Good news times 2 

First, after three years of animal welfare lawsuits and lobbying Congress, then a Congressional order, “The US Agriculture Dept. [has] restored to its website [unredacted] animal welfare inspection  reports . . .” for “nearly 10,000 zoos, circuses, breeders, research labs and Tennessee walking horse shows that were publicly available on Jan. 30, 2017 – days before they were purged – as well as those [reports] generated since.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/02/19/usda-reposts-animal-welfare-records-it-purged-its-website-2017/?utm_campaign=wp_animalia&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_animalia

Second, the “animal shelter bill,” which will establish (long-needed) requirements for operation and oversight of NJ animal shelters, is back, amid high hopes for its passage this time around. 

Introduced in 2017 by Senator Linda R. Greenstein (D-14), it has since been amended and it’s ready to go.  Greenstein will re-introduce the bill – now S1834 – on Monday, Feb. 24, which is also when the legislation text will be available online.  (Go to njleg.state.nj.us, then enter the bill number and click search.)

Much more to follow!

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