It's time to recognize long-time stellar 'friends of animals'

Besides all the “festivating” underway right now, with holidays quickly coming and going, this is also the traditional time when many publications recognize the year’s stand-outs, both people and events.   

I’m eager to salute two outstanding people and a notable (and noble!) event –  a 40 year-old one, in fact.  

First, here’s to Angi Metler.  Forty years ago this year, Metler co-founded the Animal Protection League of NJ (first known as NJ Animal Rights Alliance), the only truly state-wide organization founded in NJ, for NJ animals – and still going strong.  

A few years later, Janine Motta joined her, taking on whatever roles were necessary.    

For each of these women, APLNJ has been her life’s work.  And what a job they’ve done!  Through dramatically changing times, including humans’ attitudes toward animals, numerous successes and crises, APL has soldiered on, with unflagging idealism and determination.

Virtually untiring since 1983, Executive Director Metler has led efforts on many fronts to grow the organization, while Projects Director Motta leads and aids members’ efforts.

And yet, in its leaders’ typical self-effacing fashion, the organization’s holiday greeting card focuses exclusively on its “dedicated and compassionate membership.” (That would be anyone who agrees with its mission, and pitches in!)   

APLNJ’s vision, Metler says in the card, is “simple”: “A world where animals no longer suffer at the hands of humans, but are free to live their own lives.”  Its mission is “to create a compassionate society.  Working with the public, policy makers and government officials, we advocate for lifestyle changes, programs, policies and laws that promote nonviolent coexistence with animals.”  (aplnj.org/about/).

Such ambitious moral goals deserve all the support – including financial support – they can get. (Visit APL’s website – APLNJ.org -- for a more complete idea of the organization’s advocacy activities.  And then, I hope, contribute to their success.)  Click on the “Ways to Give” page and review all the options, including especially the teal-colored “DONATIONS” box.  

You will do immeasurable good for animals by helping support activists fighting for them -- for 40 years.  Please do it now!

Winter re-viewed

Autumn will soon give way to winter for us, as well as for Margaret Renkl.  Now, dependably, her essay provides many reasons to appreciate winter for “its cold silence and its lonely darkness.”               https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/opinion/seasons-nature-winter.html

 

                                                AnimalBeat II returns in early 2024.

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Elephants forever! But only we can make it happen

                                                                                     AMNH image

It’s up and running: “The Secret World of Elephants” at New York’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).  And of course, readers, I hope it’s part of your plans for the next couple months.    

The museum’s 7-minute video about elephants should spur attendance at this exciting exhibition that covers the 60 million year-evolution of the elephant family, showing ancient and modern elephants via casts, fossils and life-size models: meet a woolly mammoth and see a dwarf elephant, just 4 feet high at the shoulders!     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTbLHV7lDV8

Elephants, those marvelous creatures who have played major roles in human history, are endangered (at best) and facing extinction (at worst).  For many years, humans’ mad desire for ivory and the resulting slaughter of elephants for their tusks have been largely to blame. 

Maternal love

And in some places now, elephants and farmers are competing for living space and food crops that are grown by and for people, but that also mightily appeal to elephants.  Less conservation-minded and hungry themselves, angry farmers may kill the elephants who eat up their crops.

Conservationists work diligently to combat such threats to elephants, starting with the poachers who kill for tusks and profit and the countries where ivory is still a valuable commodity.  They’ve also devised wise ways to deter elephants from raiding gardens.   

Illustrating another way to minimize elephant loss, the Humane Society of the US recently applauded Canada, where “landmark regulations” that ban trade in elephant ivory . . . as well as imports of hunting trophies . . . . take effect early January, ’24.  If wildlife hunters can’t bring home their “trophies” to brag about, they may be less inclined to hunt.     https://tinyurl.com/39tdd8ck   

Elephants have been extolled for numerous behavioral wonders (that humans could learn from!).  Physically, they’re also marvels.  

Only consider their trunks – far stronger and more versatile than they may look.  An elephant’s (boneless) trunk can weigh up to 300 pounds and lift 700 pounds, yet thanks to remarkable musculature, it’s amazingly flexible. 

Gabon landscape with elephant

Fusing elephants’ upper lip and nose, trunks can be used for -- take a breath! -- “everything from drinking water, foraging, bathing, smelling, exploring, tossing dust and mud onto their bodies, picking up and manipulating objects, blowing objects away or sniffing them in, signaling aggression, producing sounds, tactile contact with other elephants,” and more.  (Thanks for these specs to the Performing Animal Welfare Society [pawsweb.org]).

Till I get there to see for myself, I can only hope that “Secret World of Elephants” includes effective pitches to savor and protect elephants -- animals who deserve to live forever!

 Canned that idea!

After my total failure to inspire readers to creatively re-purpose the numerous jangling metal cat-food cans, I’ll propose a better, more worthy idea now and see if it flies: 

how about a pet ambulance to take pets to an animal hospital when their families can’t?  

Some loving pet parents simply don’t drive or can’t drive in dark or bad weather, while desperate to get a pet with major health issues to care-providers right away.  That's a job for . . . a pet ambulance! 

Maybe this idea already exists somewhere.  If it does, I hope a reader who knows will tell us about it.  Please comment!    

‘Hay is for horses!’

Community cats (those who live outdoors, formerly known as “feral cats”) can be woeful sights, especially in cold, icy weather.  How can we make life more comfortable for them?

Think “straw”! Then go get some (see link below) for bedding and put it in the cat shelter(s) you plan to position outside.  Once you know that straw traps heat and repels moisture, what else do you need to know?  

As for the shelter itself, I’ve seen wooden ones and heard of using big Styrofoam boxes (lidded, of course), firmly positioned in sheltered spots – shelter the shelter! -- with as entrance hole cut into one side.

Voila: cozy cats!  

https://tinyurl.com/3fcnpd5e

 

                            They're after leaves but capable of pulling down branches                PAWS image

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Pity poor puppy mill pets & the people who love them

Decades ago, eager to bring home our first family dog, we went straight to the pet store at a nearby mall and soon walked out with a buff cocker spaniel puppy.  He was darling and we were thrilled . . . until one ailment after another afflicted him.

It soon grew to frequent vet visits, multiple medications and regular baths with special shampoo. The (inevitable) end was horribly sad.

There were puppy mills then, as there are now, often supplying pet stores with poorly-bred animals from overworked and undertreated females, often violating whatever guidelines and ground rules may have been in place.

Finally, people and the media are waking up to the perils of puppy mill pups.  Today's Times of Trenton included coverage of legislators’ determination to do better – for the animals themselves and unwitting buyers.

Last Sunday’s Times had showcased a special report, “Sick puppies, healthy profits” (linked below), about both animal and human pain and financial loss connected with puppy mills.  Forewarned is . . . happier families with happier pets.   https://tinyurl.com/m6db63ff

Vetting the cats – yes!

Soon after “Linda” and I met, the subject of cats came up, and she told me about her own cat’s recent vet visit – the first with Linda in 6 years– a new experience for both of them.  

Aware of how often my 2 cats are vetted, I was astonished.  When Linda reported that her cat was deemed ‘fine” by the vet, more astonishment, prompting me to check on “official” recommendations for how often pet cats should be seen by a vet.  (I looked for online info from the American Veterinary Medical Assn. and the American Assn of Feline Practitioners, besides recalling what I’d “always” been told.)

Once a year was the most common advice, with twice yearly or more suggested for older cats, and still more often for a cat with health issues.

A cat parent simply can’t tell just by looking whether a feline is OK; furthermore, cats are known for hiding signs of ill health.  And too, teeth can tell a tale, as can results of blood and urine tests.

Bottom line: pets and vets belong together!

Some horseshoe crabs spared harvesting

It wasn’t enough that they’re primordial creatures who have lived through one animal extinction after another; nor enough that substitutes exist for their use as bait by fishermen and their blue blood in biomedical testing. 

It took threatened shorebirds – red knots, specifically -- who need horseshoe crab eggs to fuel their long migration journeys.  And so female horseshoe crabs of the Delaware Bay won’t be harvested for a season.  Once again, Reed’s Beach on the bay will host the egg-laying and bird-feasting.   

Welcome back, everyone!

Diagnosis by Dodo

Since Jersey joined Billy and me, I’ve mentioned his frequent  (screeching? screaming? caterwauling? sound effects? – take your pick) and searched for reasons and cures.  Theories abounded.  So did suggestions for what to do about it.  None worked.

Major oral surgery to clean up his toothlessness didn’t change it, nor did more and more time in a loving home after life as an outdoor cat, or vet’s or Jackson Galaxy’s or friends’ ideas.

Then roaming around YouTube recently, I came upon a Dodo story about “Donut,” a cat who screams at his parents -- and why.  I didn’t yell it, but I sure thought it: “Eureka!” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9GUSe0o328

I’ve known for a while that Jersey's at least partially deaf.  That’s where Donut’s story surprised me: he too is deaf – and he “talks” so loud all the time because he can’t hear himself at a normal sound level!

Simple, right? 

But . . . that suggests a treatment question: should I shout to Jersey so he’s sure to hear me?  Now, to avoid startling him if his back is turned, I walk more heavily and speak extra distinctly while approaching, before I touch him.

We’ll see (hear?) how it goes.

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Non-human animals: Their eyes have it

                                        They were here before us -- the animals --

                                        and we were once them.

                                        Without understanding we watched the sunrise

                                        and the coming of night,

                                        registered the changing of seasons

                                        and dew on leaves that brushed our flanks.

                                        We, the animals,

                                        knew feelings, had a memory,

                                        exchanged sounds and visual cues,

                                        but did not know

                                        what came before

                                        or ask what was to come.

                                        . . .

                                        We were once them,

                                        and now are their custodians.

                                        They know we are different

                                        and their eyes tell us to keep our promise.

                                        . . . .

                                        from "The Animals," by Geoffrey Lehmann

 

“They know we are different.”

For countless numbers of wild animals in the world, there’s no doubt that some human animals have chosen to forget their promise: they capture, torture and kill the others, often boasting about their “skill” and comparing body counts with one another. 

Trophy hunters had cause to celebrate this year: first, inflated numbers of bear incidents provided by officials in charge added weight to calls for resuming the hunt.  Then NJ Gov. Phil Murphy made the hunt official again, lying in the process.  

The result: 330 NJ black bears were killed in six days last month -- and the opportunity for slaughter will continue for six more days in December.  In taking up a primitive pursuit to kill innocent animals, trophy hunters readily ignore any pangs of moral principle or compassion.  Shame should set in, but that’s unlikely: hunting is a sport, after all!

“We were once them, and now are their custodians.”

Deer, though widely admired, are also widely hunted.  And, invariably, media stories urge drivers to protect them during what is their mating season, when deer “are looking for love, not traffic,” as this year’s pitch put it.

Extra careful driving in fall may be, for some human animals, their only humane act on behalf of deer (and to be honest, for themselves too, since they would also be involved in the vehicular mayhem that could occur!).  To avoid a head-on crash, don’t swerve left to avoid hitting a deer, and don’t swerve right, to avoid a ditch, tree or pole. 

Best advice: drive slowly enough to look out for deer along the shoulder.  With time for it, a long honk of the horn might frighten them away from the road.  And too, slow down at “deer crossing” signs and remember that more deer usually follow the first one to cross because they typically move single file in family groups.

“their eyes tell us to keep our promise.”

There’s a continuum of us, the “human animals,” that ranges from those who treat their fellow (wild and domesticated) animals well – who keep their promise! – to the human animals who shamelessly abandon their promise to non-human animals.  (We know them: hunters, trappers, laboratory scientists, officials more intent on profit and pleasing hunters than much else . . . .)

Among the human animals who honor their beginnings with the first animals, a certain kind of individual and organization often stands out: those who act alone or with others who have organized to advocate for animals they were once one with – and in spirit, still are.

Do it now!

Help manage the booming cat population by getting cats spayed or neutered – and riding there in style!  Buy one or more $5 tickets to the “Rescue Rocks Raffle,” sponsored by the Animal Protection League of NJ (APLNJ).  

Including three prizes and a chance to help selected animal rescues, the drawing’s set for Nov. 21, with winners notified soon after.  Cats will be transported in APL’s KittyKab.   

Please remember:  send a self-addressed stamped envelope with payment ($5/ticket) to APLNJ, PO Box 186, Glen Gardner, 08826.

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'Help needed': our NJ bears, a DC dog & horses everywhere

It took high-level lying and false numbers for both bear population and bear incidents, as well as a Fish and Game Council with hunters in 6 of its 11 seats, establishing public policy for New Jersey!  No wonder bear hunts have resumed here, despite the great majority of residents against it.

Continuously fighting against bear hunts, the Animal Protection League of NJ (APLNJ) gets anti-hunt and pro-wildlife information out to people through banner protests, billboards and outreach events like tabling.  And two pending lawsuits call for reforming the makeup of the Fish and Game Council and challenging the emergency rule used in the 2022 bear hunt.

Right whale

However, the Murphy administration has acted in bad faith by not trying a single nonlethal method APL has suggested.  Even worse, the governor continues to lie about this issue on his “Ask the Governor” show.   

Major APL efforts, as well, have gone into saving endangered right whales off NJ’s coast, with pitifully little positive response from our elected federal officials.  Given the current political climate, among other obstacles, legislators appear more sympathetic toward fishermen than toward the imperiled right whale – ignoring the Endangered Species Act in the process.

Canada goose

The organization is also winding down on its geese site visits around the state – working, with some success, to win approval for non-lethal methods of dealing with the birds.  APL plans a publication with cutting-edge methods to reduce conflicts and deter geese from nesting.  (More on that valuable guide to follow as it comes closer to reality.)

Helping a dog succeed

For a long time, I’ve read the work of columnist Frank Bruni, appreciating his responses to political and other issues.  But after he adopted Regan, a lovely and loved black and white dog, I grew even more attentive because then Bruni often included her in whatever he wrote.

His take on Regan, their happy relationship and sometimes on dogs in general has been both warm andinformed.  That’s why I paid special attention to his thoughts on President Joe Biden and his latest pet dog in the White House: Commander, a German shepherd who bit at least 11 people before being moved to another address.

Commander

Here’s Bruni’s reaction to the story’s sad ending, including his thoughts on how a happy ending could have happened.          https://tinyurl.com/2skzhy3z       

More horse abuse

Beyond the myriad cruelties horses already endure (don't even think about race horses!), here are two equine abuses that frequently lack enough publicity and protests to be halted. 

Remember those Budweiser Clydesdale horses featured in Anheuser-Busch ad campaigns?  For unknown reasons, the company had long practiced docking (think “amputating”) their tails.

Now, though, that practice has ended, apparently because of criticism leveled at A-B by PETA and other animal welfare organizations.  Obviously, horses’ tails serve a couple of important purposes.  Further, the docking process causes physical pain to the draft horses and Clydesdales involved. 

With the end of horse tail-docking, Anheuser-Busch is claiming that the safety and welfare of its “beloved Clydesdales” is its top priority . . . now.            https://tinyurl.com/yckbdwhs

Walking's a pain

                     A soring step                              HSUS pic

What if this regularly happened to your feet: First, your lower legs would be covered with caustic chemicals, then plastic-wrapped to "cook" into your flesh.  Next, you'd have to weat heavy high-heeled shoes to hide the hard objects jammed into your tender soles, along with metal chains that keep knocking against your sored ankles. 

Your walk would become an artificial high-stepping gait, with every step painful.

This is what happens to horses who are involuntarily part of show circuits for Tennessee Walking Horses and related breeds.  Efforts to halt the practice have been insufficient and intermittent, although lately hope for reform has grown. 

With proven failure by the industry’s self-policing, the USDA may now appoint trained, objective inspectors who should make a significant difference for horses.  We’ll see.   https://tinyurl.com/4225mau3 & https://tinyurl.com/45fucm52

Newbie no more

Jersey

Jersey Summers marked his first anniversary last Sunday: for this 2nd cat in the family, it's been one year since adoption day, when he was estimated to be 9 years old.  So his anniversary also became his 10th birthday.  Congratulations to all of us!   

Elephants in your heart?

If you care about keeping elephants in our world, here’s a wonderful short video thanking you for that belief and for any help you’ve given.  It will warm your elephant-loving heart!      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Belw3YGKyqo

                                                                                    AMNH image

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Bears in jeopardy, looking at platypuses, a cat's job & elephant show coming

NJ black bear 

That Gov. Phil Murphy has once again gone back on his word to stop black bear hunts in New Jersey, and that his latest deceptive decision is based on false numbers and a false sense of urgency has already been said, although it bears repeating, for our bears’ sake. 

On this and many other issues, Murphy is not to be trusted.  Problem is, he can call the shots.  So now, as the Animal Protection League of New Jersey (APLNJ) says,

“We understand Governor Murphy acted in bad faith and showed his true character when he reinstated the bear hunt.  This fact does not preclude us from exposing the lies, the sham, and the truth.”

APLNJ urges those against this latest projected assault on our black bears – the great majority of NJ residents! – to make their voices heard.  Start this way: Tweet on X: @GovMurphy #SaveNJBears.  Tell him to do the right thing and cancel the hunt.  Last time, the “emergency" hunt, the bear population estimate and the bear complaints were a sham that led to the deaths of 114 bears: Lives for trophies!

On APL’s website (APLNJ.org), scroll down past the opening about whales to the “New Call to Action for the Bears” and click on the bear advocacy page to read expert opinion on bears from the Bear Group, an APLNJ program.  Talking points there are invaluable arguments against bear hunts here.   

Platypus protection   

It started with the first nautical-history novel (Master and Commander) in Patrick O’Brian’s series set during the Napoleonic wars and following the lives of a ship’s captain and ship’s surgeon – two good friends.  Fascinated, I sailed through all 20 books. 

In one of them, I joined Stephen Maturin, surgeon, naturalist and spy, in meeting up with a platypus – a strange creature wholly new to both of us.  Unaware of the secret weapon the male platypus possesses – a protective poison spur on his heels -- Dr. Maturin was stung and seriously injured, requiring long recovery time.  

Startled by that event, I looked into platypuses.  Yikes!  Hoping that as native to Australia, they stay there -- or at least the males do.     

With a duck bill, webbed feet and waterproof fur, the aquatic platypus suggests a strange composite animal.  It ranges in length from 15-24 inches and weighs from nearly 2 to more than 5 pounds.

Dog-as-platypus  

Platypuses are the only mammals able to produce poison and just one of two living “monotremes”—creatures that lay eggs rather than bearing live young.  (Also from down under, the echidna, or spiny anteater, is the other.)  Like other mammals, platypuses have fur and produce milk to feed their young.

‘Billy the Great’

Since Jersey joined us last October, my reference to either family cat has usually been to him, the insistently unique newbie in the family.  But this time, Billy gets the spotlight because he too has unique qualities . . . like being a life-long “great white (and black) hunter.”

Believe me, “great” in this context is accurate.  While now 16-½ years old and slowing down a bit (though not in his devotion), Billy has always been the in-house pest-exterminator, a job he does matter-of-factly and with vigor. 

 Billy Summers

It began, and continues, with flies.  Let one manage to get inside and Billy is on duty till he dispatches it (yum!).  Same with uninvited crawling bugs.  

A few days ago, his reach exceeded his grasp: Before I even saw it, Billy dove at a grasshopper right outside our front screened-door, which I was opening.  He was inside and the ’hopper was outside, with four free inches between them.

My closing the door killed Billy’s dream, even though he scrabbled at the area for a frustrated while longer.  Happily, I didn’t have to witness his handling of the grasshopper.  Or vice versa!     

                                                               African elephant                                   AMNH image

Merely the space devoted to them here would leave no doubt that I love elephants and fear for their future.  And now, answering my unprayed prayer, New York’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) -- site of the recent, much-extolled “Sharks” exhibition -- announces “The Secret Lives of Elephants.”

Opening in mid-November, it allows us time to plan a visit and reserve tickets.  And you can be sure that regular reminders about this great-sounding show will appear in blog posts here.

Elephant ear of the botanical kind

 

Insects & other animals just soldier on

Marked by undependable, unseasonable and violent weather, the summer of ’23 was notably un-lovable, with catastrophes taking place seemingly everywhere in the world: fires, merciless heat, extreme storms, earthquakes, dam breaks and floods added to the “usual” crime and virus rates, and (understandably?) continuing mental health issues.    

Howdy Doody in transit

No wonder the media often opted to dwell on oddities and frivolities like the 2,200-pound pet steer being taken for rides in a converted police cruiser, with his colossal horns dominating the windshield area.  https://tinyurl.com/ycyb5zc3  Or the “portrait” of the Mona Lisa painted on the side of a barn. https://tinyurl.com/2b77zn6w   Such pastimes were welcome changes from topics like politics and even weather.

But then, to my great disappointment, there were no takers to my previous-post appeal for creative constructions from cat food cans.  Other cat parents simply must still be emptying those cans and tossing them, without any glowing light bulbs to motivate them toward greatness. 

One huge summer success came earlier this month: the Insect Festival that Mercer County’s master gardeners put on once again.  Despite muggy weather, these committed people – many dressed as butterflies or bumble bees – displayed insects of all kinds (good and bad), staffed stands with information about related topics and were on hand to answer the myriad questions I overheard while wandering around, amazed and appreciative. 

If you didn’t get there this year, please: vow now to be there next September! 

And speaking of sharks (weren’t we?!), here’s an image from the recent exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) that I couldn’t fit in earlier.  Since it’s still summer and some lucky people are still swimming, here’s a humbling comparison for anyone who works out in deep open water.

                                                                                         AMNH imge

An ancient species, sharks are now in decline for a well-known reason: the Anthropocene, of course: the “current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment” – or, more simply: the age of human destruction of virtually all things good and beautiful.  https://tinyurl.com/4vfzmjtb

Another needlessly threatened and declining ancient species is one New Jersey beach-goers know well: the horseshoe crab.  What people don’t commonly know is that for decades these crabs have been “harvested” so their blood can be used for testing injectable medicines and implants for toxins.

Horseshoe crab

And that practice continues today, even though alternative synthetic tests are available.  Sure, it can be hard to change practices long in use, but this one can and should be stopped if for no other reason than respect for horseshoe crabs, who have survived for so long in a world increasingly dangerous for them. https://tinyurl.com/cmfh5we8

It doesn’t stop there either: They're also killed for food in Asia, besides for their blood, as well as used for bait by fishermen and fertilizer by growers.  There it is again: Dominionism, or humans acting on the belief that the world is theirs to use as they wish, to despoil. 

Armadillo

False entitlement!    https://tinyurl.com/3btzcuf7

But take heart! There’s a flip side to all the horror going on now, and our believing that's true could start with reading this column by a stubbornly positive woman who writes so convincingly: 

“I can’t tell you how much delight I take in watching a young animal’s deep pleasure in existence, enjoying the power of its beautiful young body in a beautiful old world. . . 

“The fallen world — peopled by predators and disease and the relentlessness of time, shot through with every kind of suffering — is not the only world.  We also dwell in Eden . . . ." https://tinyurl.com/yk6ucdjk

After reading it, do you agree?  

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Selected end-of-summer animal news briefs

Cricket

Despite fewer fireflies in my area this season, the summer singers are coming on strong, and I’m happy to hear them.  Among the insect carolers, cicadas are day-timers, while crickets and katydids perform at night.  (Grasshoppers are often mentioned as chorus members too, but I don’t know when they get going or how they sound.) 

Insects are the big attraction at a September 9 festival all about these creatures we couldn’t do without.  An area event (Pennington, NJ), the festival guarantees fascination, if you trust my reactions in previous years.  A standout to me was a live Madagascar hissing cockroach (2-3 inches long), among other attractions. 

Madagascar hisser

So much for positive terrestrial news.  Meanwhile, in coastal waters off New Jersey, (many) pods of (many) dolphins have been reported.  With growing activism to protect right whales in the same waters, the dolphin presence is happy news. 

Then there are sharks, featured in my last post here as threatened, rather than threatening.  Of course, this was bound to happen: One shark missed the memo, and soon after, a woman swimming off Rockaway Beach, Queens was badly bitten by a shark.  (She has had surgeries and will survive.)  https://tinyurl.com/mvs5z65b

Two more aquatic news briefs: First, the American Museum of Natural History, where I recently went for the shark exhibit, is showing a film on blue whales – the world’s largest animals -- on its big screen.

Blue whale

For serious whale-ophiles content to watch it on home devices, it’s also available on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR1vVqk2BZY

And, following up on coverage here of the long-extinct colossal shark, the megalodon, still another ancient and extinct sea creature made news recently: a giant whale closer in appearance to a manatee than to whales as we think of them, who lived some 39 million years ago. 

Thought to rival blue whales in weight if not appearance, Perucetus is believed to represent “an early branch in the evolutional tree of whales,” with a small head, paddle-like tail, big, barrel-shaped middle and the look of tiny arms.  Like “a mammoth manatee,” it’s theorized to have “drifted lazily through shallow coastal waters” – a dramatic contrast to today’s sleek, fast-swimming divers, the blue whales. https://tinyurl.com/939v93s6

Ancient, extinct whale

For me, the most surprising fact in the story was that whales evolved from dog-sized land mammals about 50 million years ago: wholly aquatic whales came after that.

Maui disaster, black bears, animal hero & poor pigs  

Maui is on our minds since the horrific wildfires there.  Human interest stories all over the place, and finally one about Maui’s animals, including pets.  Everything happened so fast and, for many people, so inescapably – all even moreso for island animals.  Here’s one early overview.   https://tinyurl.com/chkp6jrh

Closer to home (and New Jerseyans’ hearts), another animal made the news recently: New Jersey’s black bears.  With the announcement that bear hunts will resume, Gov. Phil Murphy totally abandoned any semblance of his pre-election pledge to stop them.  There’s so much to say and do about Murphy’s political treachery, all bound to start next month.  Be ready!

"Life" for many pigs

Two newspaper columns this summer deserve mention and being read.  The earliest, about Peter Singer, described how long this philosopher-professor-activist-author has been writing and acting on behalf of animals.  His story and its results are worth knowing about and utterly awe-inspiring.  (His newest book, Animal Liberation Now [“The definitive classic renewed”] is available.)   https://tinyurl.com/3b7ues84

The second column is about pigs, mercilessly victimized by humans . . . forever, it seems.  Long before chickens came to be seen as “people food,” pigs were on the menu.  Their lives today are described in this column: https://tinyurl.com/ya7v56hz

Take a break!

To make the most of season’s end, savor summer singers while you can (We’ll really miss them next January!), enjoy dolphins at the shore and do your favorite things.  Time-out time for me starts right now -- back next month.

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