Past, present & future: for the animals!

My last blog post, in June, suggested that after a summer time-out, I would pick up again around Labor Day.  But I didn’t do that, mainly because by then, I had realized that after eight years of researching and writing AnimalBeat II (with nearly 300 posts) on top of three years producing (the original) AnimalBeat (animalbeat.blogspot.com), with nearly 440 posts, I was blogged out!  

It's time for me to find different ways to advocate for animals and therefore, time for my blog to end – which happens with this post.

What’s a blog post about animals without a few links to more information about animals?  So here they come . . .

First of all, this 2-minute video about an animal I especially love: an elephant baby who’s tired and hungry, and lets his mom and the world know how he feels:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zICTe8smK-4

Then, aware of how bird numbers are diminishing, disastrously so, a journalist and farm-owner decided to “kill” his farm to help birds.  This article describes why and how.   

Meadowlark

https://tinyurl.com/5n8zt9d7

Next, something I’ll keep track of (and hope you will too): The Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which is described as “the only US Federal law that regulates the treatment of (certain) animals in research, teaching, testing, exhibition, transport, and by dealers.” 

This law has been amended numerous times since its passage in 1966 (as humans become more humane, I like to think!).  In fact, it was growing outrage over a stolen dog’s tragic experience that helped foster AWA.   

An excellent overview of this law, as it gradually became more humanely inclusionary, is included in the fall issue of All Animals, from the Humane Society of the US. 

https://www.humanesociety.org/news/animalwelfareact

Jersey 

Since no blog post of mine would be complete without a report on my dear little cat, Jersey Summers (soon to mark his second year in my family): he’s just great -- a rescue cat himself, he has in fact taken a leading role in rescuing me!  With physical impairments that don’t hold him back, he is a model for me, by living his best life: companionable, playful, loving -- and loved.  

Finally, I hope you will follow, join and contribute to the countless worthy activities of the Animal Protection League of NJ (APLNJ.org), the only state-based statewide organization whose members have been so admirably effective in their work for animal welfare for more than 40 years.  

The same goes for media news about animals, both domestic and wild: “Elephants, chickens and pigs; pangolins, whales, tigers and sharks . . . and beloved pets of all kinds.”  Make that your mantra too -- so

Pangolin

much to learn, so many to help! 

My thanks to those who unstintingly helped with AnimalBeat II technical problems.  And to those who shared the blog, whether talking it up, sending links to other “animal people” or mounting posts for them to read. 

Most of all, thanks to everyone who has read this blog: For the animals!

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A summer round-up: weather, issues, pleasures!

And so, spring has now deferred to a major heat wave, heralding summer.  Happily, though, before the wilting weather began, I noted some first-for-the-season animal sightings -- 4 caterpillars, 1 chubby groundhog, wasps flitting in and out of the birdbath (backyard birds too), bunnies, a hummingbird (but only at a friend’s feeder – not yet visiting my trumpet vine) & a peacock (thanks to Hamilton’s Grounds for Sculpture).  

Then on a recent day at the beach I logged seagulls and other shore birds – while looking in vain for land (and sand) animals, as well as dolphins and other marine creatures. 

But the full summer-shore population will soon re-appear – including one of my favorites, horseshoe crabs.  On earth for 300 million years, these "living fossils" predated dinosaurs.  Only now are their numbers dropping because people use them for bait and fertilizer, draw their blood for medicine tests  and destroy their eggs through development. 

Covid – how?

Now a bit of unfinished blog business: the subject of Covid and the lingering, debated questions about its origin.  Was it started in a Wuhan lab accident?  Or transmitted to humans from an infected animal in the Wuhan market?  The strident arguments on each side recently prompted a NYTimes columnist to review both origin theories; take your pick!    https://tinyurl.com/mwzubbm5

Sick, not fun

In our would-be enlightened world, some inhumane humans still engage in animal-killing contests.  You read it right: animal-killing contests, perverted as that (accurately) sounds.  Photos accompanying media stories about these competitions often show truck beds filled with bodies of animals, often coyotes. 

Although seven states have outlawed such contests, New Jersey has not. Actions to stop the hideous cruelty are described as “a growing national movement,” so come on, NJ:  Ban them! 

https://aldf.org/project/banning-killing-contests-new-jersey/

‘Read it & weep’

A “powerful new book” takes readers through the historical stages of Americans’ sympathy for animals that began in the late 19^th century.  Attending a bull fight in Seville, a man was horrified by both the treatment of the animals and the “degrading effect of such violence on spectators, especially children."  In 1866, that man founded the ASPCA.

And on from there, through the reprint of Black Beauty, the story of a sorely abused working-class horse (shades of EO, the sad, sad 2022 movie about a donkey), as well as descriptions of how stray dogs were once treated in NYC, how live rabbits were used in med school classes and how millions of birds died so their feathers could decorate women’s hats.  

And further on, through decades of selective sympathy for animals, bringing us today to the plight of “food animals and other mistreated species” that deserve concern and action.   

Our Kindred Creatures: How Americans Came to Feel the Way They Do About Animals (Knopf) is the work of journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy.

SOG = save our geese

This is the month when countless NJ Canada geese will experience hideous deaths: being gassed when
they can’t fly away to escape.  The Animal protection League of New Jersey (www.aplnj.org) will sponsor a banner protest on Saturday, June 29, objecting to this treatment.  Please save the date and be there!    https://conta.cc/4bFLO7Y

A time out

“Summer afternoon -- summer afternoon; to me they have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” 

Henry James said it, and I agree.  That’s part of my reason for taking a blog-vacation, from now till around Labor Day.  I’ll use the extra free time for more reading and writing, editing photo files,  swimming, sleeping in, loving Jersey . . . and, finally, learning how to cook broccoli well.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy summer!

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Of bad breeding, vet checks & harmless cicadas

Most of us who are into animals are probably aware of the health issues some dogs confront because of their “squished-in” faces.  It’s hard to look at some of those animals -- including college mascots! -- whose lives may be shortened or at least very uncomfortable.

That’s what happens when people “style” dogs for their own purposes, changing their looks and often their health.  

Play back the pictures you saw of canine contestants at the recent Westminster dog show: Afghan hounds, with long, narrow snouts and impractical coats; bulldogs and others with relatively flat faces; teeny-tiny short-haired dogs with spindly legs and high-pitched barks.  All of them and many others: “designer dogs” -- far from the gray wolves they all descended from.

A welcome relief from canine modifications and their mixed results is Alexandra Horowitz’s succinct answer to the question, “Has Dog Breeding Gone Too Far?”  (Answer: Yes!)

A cognitive scientist who studies dogs (and whose work was cited earlier here for her compassionate take on President Biden’s dogs who bit people), Horowitz has nothing good to say about either inbreeding (at its worst, the equivalent of human incest) or selective breeding (“designing” dog breeds – from 4-pounders to dogs of 170 pounds).

Her wonderfully illustrated opinion piece took up a full page of the Sunday, May 19 NYTimes – with most space devoted to images of dog breeds and their related problems.  Some anatomical changes humans have caused in dogs are so “drastic” that they affect reproduction, respiration and recreation.

“We are a species that is willfully damaging dogs,” Horowitz writes, and shows.  Unarguably.   https://tinyurl.com/4bhusx6s

Saluting Savannah

She was so much more than a beloved pet.  Savannah, an 8-year old retriever, spent 7 years walking around the world with her dad, a New Jersey man who adopted her in Texas, early in his 25,000 miles over 6 continents.  

As she grew from a 4-month-old puppy, Savannah moved from being pushed in a cart to walking 30 miles a day, experiencing and enjoying wildly different places and adventures.  Unable to rally from health issues, Savannah died earlier this month.  https://tinyurl.com/y96ffra7  

Pet consumer report

People who want to buy a “pre-owned” car often ask their mechanic to check it out first.  I did that myself. 

But how about adopting a pet?  Should would-be parents ask their vet to take a close look first, to assure the animal’s good health?   I didn’t do that myself.  >sigh!<

That omission helps explain why my dear rescue cat Jersey needed major dental surgery soon after moving in with Billy and me.  He had no teeth (from an unknown life outdoors before then), yet he still needed to have tooth shards and debris extracted, to assure his future good health. 

Soon after he got here, I realized Jersey is deaf.  While a recent MRI showed no tumor or massive trauma, the specialist said a microscopic inner-ear infection could be behind the problem.  At which point I remembered that a really bad ear infection had caused a long delay before I could adopt him.  ("Just sayin’!")

Jersey’s my smart and fun little lovebug for as long as he and I may live.  Even so, readers, I still recommend having a vet go over any could-be pet you hope to adopt into your family!  

Cicadas are safe -- just noisy!  

From her Tennessee home, essayist Margaret Renkl has written appreciatively about the cicadas making their presence heard in her state this summer.  Their numbers and noise may suggest otherwise, but cicadas are wholly harmless. 

They don’t bite or sting, and they have no means of self-protection.  Nor do they hurt the trees they’re intimately related to.  That coexistence is so strong that if the tree dies, the cicada nymphs attached to its roots will too.  

Once up and out from under the trees where they waited for years, cicadas star on countless animals’ menus, their great numbers providing a feast. https://tinyurl.com/3ywahfxk  

                   Start thinking about this now! 

Annie

June is “adopt a shelter cat month,” so please seriously consider doing just that!  The cat and you will both be better off. 

. . . & start protesting this now!  

Canada geese continue to be slaughtered all over in New Jersey.  They are cruelly trapped when they can’t fly and gassed to death: a horribly inhumane fate!  Watch for or request APLNJ (www.aplnj.org) specs about a protest on Saturday, June 1.   

 

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Dominionism revisited & animals, of course, pay the price

 

As I type right now, the media are all agog about the coming-up Kentucky Derby race – part of the so-called “sport” of horseracing.  More accurately: “horse-killing.”

 Last year’s “Triple Crown” races (the Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes) were the worst of the worst for horses (beautiful sentient beings who are involuntarily trained and forced to run in circles).  In 2023, seven horses died during Derby week, then in the days after, five more were fatally injured.

The overriding question behind an investigation by the NYTimes: Why were “so many horses, supposedly in peak physical condition, breaking down so frequently?”

In answer, “The Times found that reckless breeding and doping practices, compromised veterinarians and trainers, and decades-long resistance to changes that could save horses’ lives have placed a multibillion-dollar ecosystem in peril and put the social acceptability of one of America’s oldest sports at risk.”

Especially horrible for the horses involved, of course, this ugly (and criminal!) situation goes far back in racing history.  Despite all the platitudes offered by the countless uncontrite people involved, thoroughbreds continue to be treated like commodities rather than athletes.

Some “sport”!       https://tinyurl.com/4wdmzvbf

Day after the 2024 Derby:    https://tinyurl.com/yd47pmhw

                                                                                                     New animal abuse

It thrilled scientists, medical practitioners and patients when a recent “landmark transplant” operation appeared to work.  A kidney from a genetically modified pig was implanted in a woman who declared she was “at the end of her rope” without it.  (Of course, the “donor pig” had utterly run out of rope in making that possible.)

This is a hard situation to understand, and even harder to accept.  After two seemingly successful attempts at animal-to-human transplantation, the future for pigs looks very grim.  No doubt they will be in even more demand than they are (and historically have been) already.  Poor pigs: bound to be tapped for another human purpose, this one, besides being slaughtered and eaten in myriad ways.

Time for a reminder:  Dominionism is the worldview or belief held by one species that it has a divine right to use animals and everything else in the living world for its own benefit.   

Sort of siblings

Dove or pigeon?

My last post mentioned a pigeon who liked landing on people’s heads.  Did you too think the pigeon looked like a dove, and wonder how to tell the difference?   

It’s easy: While there’s no real scientific difference between them, doves are generally smaller than pigeons – and nowadays, they get “better press” than pigeons.  (Think only of the image of a white dove with an olive branch in its mouth – a symbol of peace.)

Cat & Pat

I think my cat Jersey has secretly been listening to Cox & Box, a one-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan (later of Gilbert & Sullivan fame).  Two men both rent the same lodgings, unbeknownst to each other. 

Jersey

Returning from work, one sleeps at night, then gets up and goes to work.  Soon after, the second man returns from his night job and goes to bed.  And so on.  This works for both of them -- until they find out what’s going on.

In cold weather after I get out of bed, I've noticed that Jersey has curled up in my flannely warm spot, where he sleeps for hours.  So now I wish him a good morning and a good rest -- and make the bed later.

Protest to save geese

The words alone are awful: gas chamber.  In any era, with any kind of living being, those words conjure up horror.  Or they should, even when Canada geese are the innocent victims of this dreadful practice, which reportedly is widely used here.

Of course there are humane alternatives; it’s just that people either don’t know, or want to know, them. Which is why the Animal Protection League of NJ (aplnj.org), which offers a proven humane alternative, will sponsor another protest at a place with that “ignorance is bliss” outlook.

Please click this link, then mark your calendar.  https://conta.cc/3WfMYSV

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'Great & small creatures' sometimes win; other times . . .

If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages.  --Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), author (1885-1962)

                                                                                 A true homing pigeon

Rock pigeon

In the spirit of “All creatures great and small,” there’s good news on the pigeon front.  To the       surprise of a staffer at an animal shelter’s adoption site, a pigeon landed in her hair.  And stayed there.

She soon learned that “Valley” regularly hitched rides that way.  Even so, shelter employees feared for the bird’s safety with the animals around so they put the pigeon up for adoption – and a woman quickly responded.  For a pet her two young sons would love, she drove three hours to pick up the new family member.

Predictably, Valley rode home on the front seat or the driver’s head.  No cage at home, either: her new mom ordered cloth pigeon diapers, along with a harness and leash for outdoors. https://tinyurl.com/42nj7pnb

My reaction to this story: utter amazement.  Not only do people adopt pigeons, but they also buy diapers and an amazing range of toys and accessories for them!  Online adoption tips cited the birds’ fine qualities, historical, helpful bonds with humans and sheer deservingness.     

‘More money than . . .’

“Human interest” stories in at least two newspapers recently featured a young boy who had long wanted a pet octopus.  Apparently indulgent and well-off, his father arranged for that to happen, in a tank in the boy’s bedroom.   

It gets “better.”  The “pet octopus” -- talk about contradiction in terms -- then proved to be female, not the expected male, producing some 50 baby octopuses, all needing individual care.  About half of them died and survivors now live with a friend while the father reaches out to aquatic institutions that may home them.

This story began at the point of the ridiculous and quickly moved to the point of animal abuse.  It started with the first octopus, who should never have been taken from her natural habitat to satisfy a spoiled child’s ignorant desire, humored by his father, a true spoiler.   

What will this boy pine for when he’s 10 or 11? https://tinyurl.com/2s3a75j9  

No friend of felines

Because it struck me as too long and rambling, I took my time getting through Jonathan Franzen's  article in a January '24 magazine -- The Cats of L. A.: The No Kill movement helps keep cats outdoors.  The consequences belie the name.

In it, Franzen took on numerous elements of life with and for outdoor cats in Los Angeles (and here on the East Coast too).  His critical takes on TNR, "no-kill," "community cats" and other common cat-world beliefs and practices surprised me . . . until I learned he's an outspoken, widely published "bird advocate" -- and therefore not likely to be a friend of cats.

Cat lovers may want to review "The Cats of L. A." -- if only to know the enemy and consider counter-arguments.        https://www.newyorker.com/maga

Animals in brief

If you’re looking for it, there’s abundant media news about both wild and domesticated animals.  A short while ago, there was Flako, the male Eurasian eagle-owl who captivated New Yorkers and far-away others with his flying-free exploits.  But before he could enjoy even a year of freedom, the majestic bird died.

The necropsy indicated there was rat poisoning in his system – as had been feared once Flako learned to hunt for food in rat-ridden Manhattan -- and he had apparently crashed into a building before falling and dying.  A sad end for the bird, who had been illegally freed from the zoo where he lived.

Migratory species – birds, whales, sharks, elephants, jaguars and other big cats -- are experiencing population declines, according to a first-time United Nations report.  The “two most pervasive threats” are habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation resulting from agriculture and overexploitation caused by hunters and fishers. 

On this subject, the Humane Society of the US says, “Human practices have insatiably consumed wild animals as if they are inert and infinite resources.”

Dominionism.  Again.

 

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Help backyard critters, think dog crates & adopt adult cats

Firefly

Weather or not, spring started last week.  Here’s a timely suggestion for what to do now that may surprise you: give in to holiday candy, take nice long naps or read a good book -- but don’t race outside to clean up the yard or garden!  

Right now is just too early for all that, and animals still need plant debris and dead leaves to shelter in when the weather turns bad (which it will do) or when predators are around.  Further, there’s no need to clean up when you still can’t plant till near mid-May anyway. 

The latest Master Gardeners of Mercer County flyer put it this way: “April is almost always a fickle month.  Walking on wet soil leads to compaction.  Planting too early can result in damage from a late frost . . . Cleaning up planting beds too early or too well can disturb overwintering insects.”

Chipmunk

Not only do creatures living outdoors need safe hiding places, but they also welcome any relief from gas-powered landscape machines – just think of the racket caused by leaf blowers and lawn mowers – a.k.a. “landscape pollution.”   (Does anyone out there remember, or even own rakes?!)   

Those noisy mechanized devices drown out birdsong, a recognized mental health benefit for humans, and kick up unhealthy contaminants – which, by the way, their human operators  are closest to!  Use of leaf-blowers destroys the “critical understory where birds, frogs, fireflies, bees, caterpillars and chipmunks forage and nest.”   No wonder we see fewer fireflies and insects every year!

https://www.humanesociety.org/news/birdsong-interrupted  

In-home dog prison?

A recent Washington Post article asked a troublesome question: “Should you crate your dog?”  (To me, the answer is obvious: No!)  

The writer discusses various uses for dog crates, citing what “experts” say, and mentions locking her own dog in a (well-furnished) crate when she leaves home for a few hours.  At that, all I could think of was that poor dog, unable to escape the crate, dying in a house fire.

Have dog crates, which I think were initially meant to be temporary new-puppy training devices only, become the 24-hour norm for dogs who live in homes?  How often, and for what purposes, should crates be used by dog parents for their pets? 

Can’t dogs be raised to have “the run of the house” after puppyhood?  https://tinyurl.com/j824zj73

Tip

Tried & true adults  

Every spring, kittens charm people.  (How could they not?!)  But in the midst of all that “Aw-w-w-w-w!”ness, one fact often eludes those who want to adopt a kitten on the spot: kittens quickly grow into . . . cats! 

Meanwhile, especially during kitten season, adult cats who need homes are hard put to compete with/ kittens, even though they’re the more needy of the two adoptable varieties.  Adult cats who are now in shelters or with rescue groups deserve homes now because they offer so much to

 

Ashley

adopters and homes would do them such good!

Grown-up felines “have been there,” and often don’t need training.  Their energy level is typically much lower than kittens’ non-stop curiosity and activity, so they fit into a family more peacefully – and, it’s been said, with greater appreciation.  (If you’re hoping for a lap-cat, here’s where you’re most likely to find a ready-made!)

Despite the current flood of cute kittens, please consider adopting an adult cat.  Three such felines now at the Ewing, NJ animal shelter run by Easel Animal Rescue League include a bonded pair of lovely gray cats (mother and daughter), Tip and Ashley, ages 12 and 11; and

Marshall

Marshall, a black cat of about 10, who is FIV+.  Described as "sweet," all three cats need homes.  

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All about elephants & help for Canada geese

Woolly mammoth (model)

The rains, floods and fires, the long Covid, the horrifying headlines . . . and more and more, and on and on . . .  .  Nothing to do about all that except: think of elephants.

Beg pardon? 

Well, doing that is possible for a day, anyway, when you daytrip to the Upper West Side of Manhattan and the American Museum of Natural History, where “The Secret Lives of Elephants” is now featured. This multi-faceted exhibition overviews the evolution and behavior our planet’s largest land animal, from the ancient world to today.    

Potentially fascinating for adults and children alike, the exhibition (think: a giant “cabinet of curiosities”) offers a wide variety of “elephant things” to look at, read, interact with, learn from, remember.  These include . . .  

      *  Life-size models of elephants and their ancestors, historically beginning with the woolly mammoth: what a guy!  

      *  Three different films to sit down and watch, including a touching one about an orphan baby elephant’s return to the wild.  Two others also star elephants, of course. 

·       Explanatory materials, illuminated, accompanies each elephant display so visitors can look and read, using various modes to acquire info.  

·       Buttons to push for fun mini quizzes or things to do, see or hear (When he made an African elephant’s ear flap, a little boy called out: “I’m cooling off the elephant!” – which those ears really do.  

A   And I heard an elephant rumble for the first time in my life.  These low-frequency sounds travel through the ground to distant elephants.)    https://tinyurl.com/4z698wt8

·        Another life-size elephant, whose digestive system is lighted up from within, and who is circled by numerous info sections about the many benefits of elephant poop (only starting with plant-seed dispersal) for the curious child in all of us.  

·        “Conservation," now a concept of great importance for the world’s endangered elephants, turns up throughout the exhibition, suggesting ways to foster elephant survival.   

·       A major feature of this exhibit is someone I’ll call “The explainer”: a staff member wearing an ID tag who roams around answering questions and striking up conversations with visitors.  Thanks to him, I found out just what the big lump atop the woolly mammoth’s head was: not some kind of bony structure, but stored fat for hard, hungry times.   https://tinyurl.com/yu52nwe

Sometimes, thankfully, they’re free in the wild (although increasingly threatened by poachers and habitat loss), but elephants are also forced into working-animal life, living in zoos and other demeaning, undeserved forms of existence.  Despite all that, they survive – maybe the moral of their story for us humans.  So, “think about elephants.” 

(Here are links to two enjoyable videos about elephants: first, some surprises (maybe!) from AMNH in a delightfully narrated 6-minutes -- amnh.org/exhibitions/secret-world-elephants -- and another video showing a baby elephant in tantrum mode -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvT40aCNMKM. 

After last year’s tremendous exhibition on sharks (including the near-unbelievable megalodon), and now this show on elephants, AMNH continues to enchant.  I think of it as a “magnet museum,” for its old- and new-style exhibits, in old and new building sections.

Blue whales (mom & calf)

Till April, visitors can also marvel at an awesome movie on the giant screen: Blue Whales: Return of the Giants – with beautiful seascapes and the sleek cetaceans who are now “rebounding from the brink of extinction.”  Starting next month, “Life by a Whisker,” about sea lions, will replace Blue Whales.   

Much closer to home (and sometimes all-too-familiar), another land animal experiences unnecessary, wholly inhumane action: Canada geese.

Communities choosing to reject humane options for co-existing with these birds often contract for their merciless killing instead.  Geese are forced into gas chambers, where they slowly die.

The Animal Protection League of NJ (aplnj.org) is fighting this cruelly primitive means of dealing with geese.  Those who also object are invited to a midday demonstration early next month.  Please see this flyer and mark your calendars!  https://conta.cc/4cdgY7t

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