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