‘Good will’ to . . . ? Well, it depends

                                                          Turlakova--Shutterstock

Inhumane – and un-Christian – behavior keeps recycling, no matter the season. Today's trumpeted “good will toward men[sic]” wording is apparently literal, applying only to humans, if they’re lucky. And, as usual, too bad about animals.

Consider “Stormy” the cow a week or so ago, when it was bitter cold outside.  Stormy was part of a live manger scene at a church in Philadelphia. (If you thought that idea had arisen and been shot down years ago, you’re right. But cruel ideas keep coming back – this time, for “Christians” to put into practice again.)

Because Stormy apparently didn't like being an involuntary part of a nativity tableau (or the cold), she “escaped.” Police rounded her up around 2 am on route I-95, and returned her to her command-performance site. (Did any officer mention the, well, inhumanity of a live manger scene?)

But Stormy’s story didn’t end there.  She escaped again, this time to be captured in a parking garage. (Hello, church people! Aren’t you beginning to wonder about the wisdom of your ways?)  Stormy’s acting career ended as she was returned to the farm she had come from. Way to go, girl! 

                                                       Turlakova 2--Shutterstock

Concluding this tale of human callousness, I’d bet the ranch there was no human baby, or human of any age, in that live manger scene at 4^th & Race Streets, forced to weather the weather.  So, if a church calling itself  “Christian” is so inhumane (and un-Christian, I also believe) as to leave a live animal outside for display on a bitter cold night, then I (NOT calling myself “Christian”) have no qualms about thoroughly enjoying the image below.  

Holiday kitty care

The images may be cute, but the chances of CATatrosphe are high. Here’s some good advice for keeping cats calm during the holiday season. 

http://www.catster.com/lifestyle/holiday-stress-tips-to-keep-your-cat-calm-at-every-age?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=Catster%20Ful%20List&utm_campaign=CED20171213

                                                                          Brooke Goldman image

A Prayer to Talk to Animals by Nikole Brown Lord, I ain’t asking to be the Beastmaster gym-ripped in a jungle loincloth or a Doctor Dolittle or even the expensive vet down the street, that stethoscoped redhead, her diamond ring big as a Cracker Jack toy. All I want is for you to help me flip off this lightbox and its scroll of dread, to rip a tiny tear between this world and that, a slit in the veil, Lord, one of those old-fashioned peeping keyholes through which I can press my dumb lips and speak. If you will, Lord, make me the teeth hot in the mouth of a raccoon scraping the junk I scraped from last night’s plates, make me the blue eye of that young crow cocked to me—too selfish to even look up from the black of my damn phone. Oh, forgive me, Lord, how human I’ve become, busy clicking what I like, busy pushing my cuticles back and back to expose all ten pale, useless moons.  Would you let me tell your creatures how sorry I am, let them know exactly what we’ve done? Am I not an animal too? If so, Lord, make me one again. Give me back my dirty claws and blood-warm horns, braid back those long- frayed endings of every nerve tingling with all I thought I had to do today. Fork my tongue, Lord. There is a sorrow on the air I taste but cannot name. I want to open my mouth and know the exact flavor of what’s to come, I want to open my mouth and sound a language that calls all language home. #

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Final protest: just the start of the fight

The slaughter continues.  Not terrible enough to begin with, New Jersey’s black bear hunt has been extended through this Saturday.  That calls for the biggest protest yet – and with advance notice of a couple days, here are the specifics. 

Please attend.  Please protest.  Please join the growing movement against the Division of Fish and Wildlife – otherwise known as “the DFW hunting club masquerading as a state agency.”  

 We will NOT be silent as the Division of Fish and Wildlife extends the bear hunt! (Dec. 13th - 16th)

PLEASE JOIN OUR LAST PROTEST OF THE YEAR! 

WE will NOT be silent while DFW allows trophy hunters to slaughter even MORE bears, including mothers and their cubs!

We will NOT be silent as the DFW lies about public safety. This hunt is nothing but a bait and shoot trophy hunt.

Please continue to BE THEIR VOICE and attend our last protest of the year.

FINAL PROTEST

Saturday, December 16, 2017: 11 AM - 1 PM

Whittingham Wildlife Management Area, 150 Fredon Springdale Road, Fredon, New Jersey.

  

MAP  Park in area behind protesters.

Please dress for cold weather. 

For more info: 973-513-3219; info@savenjbears.com;facebook.com/SaveNJBears.

Thank you to more than 100 protesters who came out on December 9th in the snow and frigid temperature. Thank you our special guests Lynda Smith (former Bear Group director and founder) and Brian Hackett (HSUS state director) who gave inspiring talks to the crowd. The Bear Group will continue to work toward permanent black bear protection, but a coalition is forming to get rid of the DFW hunting club masquerading as a state agency. They extended the hunt, we expanded our mission.  More to report in 2018.

  

Bear Education And Resource Group

www.savenjbears.com

Animal Protection League of New Jersey

www.aplnj.org

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Need rose-colored glasses to evaluate 2017 for animals?

“Only 17 bears killed Tuesday means hunt could be extended,” read the local headline earlier this week. Was I the only one who found that wording coldly ambiguous?  Not enough dead bears, it seemed to imply, while the reason for killing any bears is questionable at best.

We'll just have to hope our governor-elect presides over much better times for bears, starting next month.

From Africa come two unhappy stories about animals in jeopardy.  First, there’s a column about the continuing plight of elephants, raising the key question, Why can’t we protect elephants? Read it and weep.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/opinion/sunday/protecting-elephants.html?emc=edit_tnt_20171118&nlid=20760274&tntemail0=y

The second horror story deals with ape-trafficking, which has “captured or killed tens of thousands of apes” to be sold as “pets” or to “unscrupulous” zoos and collectors, or to be used for mindless “entertainment.”  (Infant orangutans boxing one another: what fun, huh?) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/world/africa/ape-trafficking-bonobos-orangutans.html

Chimpanzees

Phew!  I feel like “Ms. Bad News” here, even though, in fact, it has not been an all-bad year for animals. Only remember: this was the year when Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus finally folded. The jubilation following that belated good deed – and the banning by various states and cities of elephants in traveling shows -- helped signal the inevitable end of wild animals in circuses.

There was still more positive action for animals in 2017 on both the national and international fronts. Some retailers and brands – Gucci to Wrangler, Nautica to Burlington – went fur-free. Chimpanzees exiled to Liberia after their use in medical research by the New York Blood Center were assured the decades of care they more than earned. And numerous groups and individuals pitched in to rescue animals caught in this year’s horrific wild fires and hurricanes.  

(The next post will highlight some of this year’s “wins” for animals in New Jersey.  Readers, please  contribute your ideas on achievements-for-animals here!)  

As for good news now in the works, think Senator Linda Greenstein’s bill, S3019, to reform this state’s animal shelters. What a gift that would be to innumerable animals, far into the future. 

To see what the bill is all about, go to http://www.njleg.state.nj.us, enter the bill number at the top right, then click on that number in red and read on.  Here’s a recent summary from the NJ Animal Observer: “The bill requires shelters take serious steps to save lives, treat animals humanely, be transparent, and be inspected regularly. . . .”

Want to show your support for this bill? Attend tomorrow’s hearing on S3019 by the Senate Economic Growth Committee.  It will be held at 10:30 am in Committee Room 1, on the first floor of the State House Annex, Trenton.

   

Two additional ways to promote Greenstein’s shelter reform bill are to email and/or phone the committee members – contact info below thanks to the Animal Observer -- to tell them you want the bill to move forward.

·          State Senator Raymond 'Ray' J. Lesniak: (908) 624-0880; SenLesniak@njleg.org

·         State Senator Nilsa Cruz-Perez: (856) 541-1251; sencruzperez@njleg.org

·         State Senator Joseph 'Joe' M. Kyrillos Jr.: (732) 671-3206; senkyrillos@njleg.org

·         State Senator Colin Bell: (609) 383-1388; SenBell@njleg.org

·         State Senator Steven V. Oroho: (973) 300-0200; SenOroho@njleg.org

Let’s end with a surprising fact (because I never thought about it) from Modern Cat magazine. Despite the millions of pet cats in American homes today, “Cats are not native to North America.They were imported to the Americas from Europe as pest controllers in the 1750s.”  Think of it as “You’ve come a long way, Kitty!”  

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Nearing the end of a state horror: black bear hunts

Man, n. An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infect the whole habitable earth. . . . 

--Ambrose Bierce

There may not be a body count for the bears slaughtered during NJ Gov. Chris Christie’s tenure, but it’s a safe bet that (needlessly) dead black bears number in the thousands, thanks to this (finally) outgoing governor and his (hunting) cronies.  Bad cess to all of them. And fervent hopes that incoming governor Phil Murphy will stick to his pledge of no more bear hunts.

This month has the dubious distinction of marking the last of this term’s bear hunts, as well as the last of Christie – two causes for celebration.  Could the next administration possibly investigate and end the Division of Fish and Wildlife’s slanted stand on bears in New Jersey?

Hunters comprise such a tiny percentage of our population, yet their rabid pursuit of innocent animals is fostered in countless ways and often with peripheral tragedy besides – first, the family dog in New Jersey, then the woman in New York State: both killed by hunters this year.

And that “I thought it was a deer” excuse is insultingly way too little, way too late.

Further, these years of Christie bear hunts have been horribly costly for those fighting to end the hunts.  Person-power, time and financial outlays are only the beginning. Just play back the campaigns, mailings, billboards, protests and court costs involved.  And the meetings, brainstorming sessions, personal confrontations, letters to the editor and phone calls to the governor’s office – all in vain: bears must die and hunters must have their trophies.

2014 State House demo 

Too bad about the great majority of NJ residents who are against bear hunts, as well as the legislators who framed bills to protect both bears and people.

  

All of which is why the Bear Education and Resource Program (www.savenjbears.com) with the Animal Protection League of NJ (www.aplnj.org)  will sponsor two "Sacred Promise”  Protests this coming week. (Please see specs in the image here.)  For more info about the protests, phone 973-513-3219 or go to info@savenjbears.com;facebook.com/SaveNJBears.

Remembering Felicette

A reader has shared a sad story about a cat in space.  It happened in 1963 that Felicette, the (unlucky) “Astrocat,” was selected from among 14 felines to stand in for humans on a space flight. Think only about lab animals today, including all of those used to test products ultimately meant for people, and realize that nothing has changed.

The cat came into it when the effects of weightlessness were unknown – so an innocent non-human animal was used to find out.  After a rigorous training program, Felicette took off on a brief flight and returned safely.  She lived for a few months after that, until she was “sadly put to sleep” so that electrodes implanted in her brain could be studied.

“Can you imagine the poor thing going through that space trip alone and feeling so scared and confused?”  the reader asked.  No.  Neither that nor being euthanized afterward for her pains.  (Oh, by the way, thanks for your involuntary suffering and death, disposable sentient creature. Easy come, easy go. . . !)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sergethew/a-statue-to-felicette-the-first-cat-in-space

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