At this time of year, media coverage focuses on school starting, especially now, with Covid debates raging. But it’s also a season when animal advocates plunge even deeper into activism. Hunting season is imminent, or in one reprehensible case, already underway.
True to its mission and past practice, the Animal Protection League of NJ has lots going on to benefit animals, including the state’s geese, deer and black bears. While some towns are interested in habitat modification, most reportedly don’t want non-lethal approaches – a disappointing turn of events, even when APLNJ does site visits and helps with habitat changes.
Details on many of these initiatives to follow . . . !
From a deer friend
· Gardener alert! Do
you believe in “deer-proof plants”?
Truth is, there’s no such thing.
Even though specified perennials, annuals and trees may be labeled
“deer-resistant,” some deer are hungrier than others!
· Numbers of fawns were aided before and during Hurricane Ida
– from Jersey shore lagoons, after being injured and even one with his head
stuck in a plastic trick or treat bucket.
· Male deer shed the “velvet” covering their antlers once it has done its job: providing nourishment and protection to the antlers so they “mineralize” – grow big and strong. This process signals the start of “the rut,” or deer-mating season.
Information like this about our native
deer appears in a newsletter called The Bleat (alluding to the sound
baby deer make to call their moms). The
publication is produced by Kimberly Nagelhout, a long-time deer advocate,
activist for non-lethal deer programs and member of the Animal Protection
League of NJ.
Her commitment to deer shows in her
related activities – from notable wildlife photography to the creative way she
credits helpers and donors to her projects: “deer friends” and volunteers get a
“4-hoof salute,” and “The Buck Stops Here.”
Take a look at The Bleat here: https://conta.cc/3zN8Abg. This link will also lead to the next
edition. 
Kim Nagelhout treating a fawn
Felines’
‘new’ life stages
New
guidelines for defining cat life stages have been released by the American
Association of Feline Practitioners and the American Animal Hospital
Association. Recommended by a task force
of feline medical experts, the guidelines are intended to help veterinarians tailor
their health-care plans for cat patients depending on both their biological and
lifestyle needs.
The new feline life stages are Kitten –
Birth to 1 year; Young Adult – 1 to 6 years; Mature Adult –
7 to 10 years; enior – 10 years and older; End-Of-Life –
Any age.
Lots 'wrong with this picture'!
Starting this month, the National Park Service is allowing four 5-day “lethal removal operations” this year on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park. Translated, that means 12 selected volunteer hunters will be allowed to kill one bison each during his/her “operation” period.
An estimated 60 million bison once
ranged from the Yukon all the way to Mexico. History shows that they were nearly
decimated. And now, in a national park where
hunting is prohibited, nearly 50 bison will
be killed as a result of a “bison herd reduction environmental assessment.”
The writer of the opinion column linked below protests the cull “for such intolerable offenses as foraging, drinking, defecating,
wallowing and kicking up some dirt, these native animals are treated throughout
the study as a constant disturbance, as if the ideal of management were sterile,
picture-perfect scenery instead of a lived-in ecosystem.” https://tinyurl.com/vv86r9u2
Sorry to hear there are no "deer proof plants". That's what I've long suspected.
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