Not your usual end-of-year appeal

This will be an appeal, or three appeals really, but there’s nothing traditional about them!

                                                                                             H. Marcoux pic

• First, please care for animals who still need and deserve homes for the holidays and beyond.


• Be alert to cats and dogs who need rescue and love, as well as the warmth a home would offer. You might check your area animal shelter and ask around: does anyone know of a needy homeless pet during this season of giving?  


• Second, assemble a pet disaster kit.    

Yes, this winter-holiday hubbub will die down, and yes, you’ll get past all the shopping, wrapping, visiting and festivating.  Then, before the next extreme event of any kind can happen -- and you know one of them is bound to affect you, me and us at some time! -- this appeal:  please make time to assure your pets’ safety before disaster strikes. 

Take it in steps: (1) Through Friday, January 3, 2020, just think about a disaster kit for your pets. And then, (2) assemble it.  (How?  you say.  Easy.  The ASPCA poster below will guide your thoughts now, and then later, your actions.) 

          ......... ASPCA Pet Disaster Preparedness Plan ..........

 Tips to keep companion animals safe in time of disaster

Never Leave Your Pet Home Alone
The safest place for your pet is with you, so if you must evacuate, take your animals along.
Check Boarding Place
Make sure it’s not in a flood plain and will be attended throughout a storm. Ask if crates are available for transport and if they have an evacuation plan – and get their emergency contact number.
Ask For Help
If you live in a high-risk area, arrange ahead of time for you and your pet to ride out the storm with friends in safe zones. Or check with hotels in safe areas to see if they will permit you to stay there with your pet.
Have Carriers Ready
Make sure travel carriers are safe, the right size, and easily available. And make your pet’s carrier a fun and safe place throughout the year by adding treats, toys and meals on a routine basis.
Have Medication Plan Ready
Talk to your veterinarian about medication options if your pet is fearful of thunder or travel.
Prepare a Travel Kit
Include food, water, bedding, towels, medical supplies, bathing supplies, flea/tick control and leashes – and have enough of everything to last two weeks.
Provide Plenty of ID
Do not assume your owner tag will immediately reunite you with your pet. If your neighborhood is evacuated and phone lines are down, or your pet is lost during travel, it may be months before you are contacted. Include several forms of ID on your pet’s collar, including a temporary tag with the phone number of a friend or relative outside your immediate area.
Microchip Your Pet
Make sure your chip is registered and that the contact information is updated. Keep current photos. Always have current photos of your pet with you – they can greatly aid in reuniting you with a lost pet. Report a loss immediately. If you become separated from your pet during a storm or evacuation, report it immediately to area humane societies, law enforcement and animal control agencies.
Volunteer
If you are untouched by a natural disaster, your volunteer time may be invaluable in helping those less fortunate.                          
                                                 .......... ASPCApro.org  ..........

 ·    Third, and most important if the two earlier appeals are to happen: please take good care of yourself, to take better care of animals!

Wishing animals and people a happy, healthy 2020!  (Will return early next year.)

                                                                                                                                                                               Dodo pic

  

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Your comments are always welcome.  Simply go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com.  

‘Culture’ can kill -- in Puerto Rico & everywhere

Cockfighting will soon end in Puerto Rico.  As of Friday, Dec. 20, the island’s “national sport,” declared to be part of its culture, will be illegal.

Needless to say, myriad Puerto Ricans who raise fighting birds and make a living off their deaths, are not happy.  Some have vowed to continue cockfighting underground.  Others have decried their livelihood loss.  Many have argued that the values of people on the mainland are being imposed on PR.

  

Finally reaching a longtime goal -- ending all spectator sports that pit animals against each other (think dog fights) -- the Humane Society of the US (HSUS) had long lobbied Congress for this prohibition, built into last year’s federal farm bill.  

Kitty Block, HSUS president, said, "Cruelty is not culture . . .  it's important to look at what [cockfighting] is, and what it's doing to the animals.   These are birds that are armed with weapons, and they slash eyes out . . . it's a brutal blood sport that should've gone a long time ago."

But, claimed some of those who raise and care for their birds (or the ones with potential, anyway), cockfighting is a “gentleman’s sport”!  To which Block responded, “Tossing animals into a ring to tear each other apart is anything but gentlemanly.”

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/cruel-sports/cockfighting/

“It’s part of our culture!” has been the protective cry of inhabitants to all those trying to stop the clubbing of baby seals in Canada for their fur. This hideously cruel centuries-old practice continues today despite protests from around the world, some countries’ banning of imported seal skins and even a drop in demand.  

“It’s part of our culture!” animal hunters and trappers have cried over the years.  And they’re still at it.

Accompanying the rising death toll for horses involved in horseracing, “It’s part of our culture!” the owners, gamblers and fans still cry -- in spite of 37 horse deaths at California’s Santa Anita racetrack alone since the end of last year.

Here’s a heartbreaking fact: “[M]any of the horses have seen so little of life they’ve never eaten a carrot.  Thoroughbreds die at the track, and . . . they all die young.”  Is that a fair fate for horses?  Is that what they’re alive for -- at too young an age being forced to race, to suffer injuries, to be put down?  

But “Years are expensive in the Thoroughbred industry, and years are what horses need,” says Sally Eckhoff, who knows and loves horses, and who wrote “These Horses Are Too Young to Die.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/opinion/sunday/horse-racing-early-deaths.html

What’s the beef?

The competition between beef and beef-substitutes is heating up.  So quickly successful have the ersatz burgers (the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Burger) become that beef producers are now fighting to halt those companies from describing their products as “meat.”  And raising questions about their healthfulness.   

Meanwhile, the beef-free substitutes are being gobbled up.  Two recent periodical articles have broken down the issues, and if you want to know more, I suggest the New York Times story linked below or the longer New Yorker article (“Value Meal,” September 30, 2019).

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/well/eat/fake-meat-vs-real-meat.html?te=1&nl=well&emc=edit_hh_20191205?campaign_id=18&instance_id=14271&segment_id=19300&user_id=a360dad7b26df61ea65737080d3deedd&regi_id=2076027420191205

A winsome relief

               Narwhal                        Dodo pic

With NJ’s notorious bear hunt starting up again this week, so needlessly and unfairly, let’s close on a happier note, about a puppy -- but not your usual puppy, adorable as s/he would be.  This sweet brown pup was born with an extra tail, short and soft although not waggable, on his head.

A rare birth defect, the half-size tail isn’t harming him and may stay right where it is, say those caring for the little guy.  For now, “Narwhal,” named for the whale variety with a unicorn-like horn in front, is just having puppy fun.   

https://newsletters.thedodo.com/t/ViewEmail/d/5F5F6CCDEA04CED32540EF23F30FEDED/083127FDFB36BBC9A0F01D70678E0DEE

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Your comments are always welcome.  Simply go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com.  

New & unfinished animal business

In an important first for animals in the US, a federal ban on animal cruelty, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT), was signed into law on Nov. 25.  From the Washington Post:

“The bipartisan bill, which passed the House and Senate earlier this year, will outlaw purposeful crushing, burning, drowning, suffocation, impalement or other violence causing “serious bodily injury” to animals. Violations could result in a fine and up to seven years’ imprisonment.

“Advocates say the Pact Act . . . will fill crucial gaps in national law, which bans animal fighting as well as the making and sharing of videos that show the kind of abuse the Pact Act would criminalize.

“All states have provisions against animal cruelty, said Kitty Block, president of the Humane Society of the United States, but without a federal ban, it’s hard to prosecute cases that span different jurisdictions or that occur in airports, military bases and other places under federal purview . . . ”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/11/25/most-animal-cruelty-isnt-federal-crime-that-changes-monday-when-bipartisan-bill-becomes-law/   

2^nd chance dogs were catalysts

                  Oliver        WP pic

In my Oct. 7 post, I cited a Washington Post article that had traced all the dogs rescued from Michael Vick’s dog fight ring 12 years ago.  Since then, some of the organizations that had favored euthanizing all such dogs changed their views because of how well the Vick dogs did after rehab.   

So I invited specifics on just how animal organizations have changed their stand on this topic.  Here’s the response from Brian Hackett, HSUS-New Jersey State Director, State Affairs (bhackett@humanesociety.org):

Regarding dog fighting victims: The Vick case created an opportunity for organizations like Bad Rap in CA to evaluate each dog individually and make determinations based on their behavior.  They then were allowed to pull the adoptable dogs and work to find them homes.

                            Audie                                 WP pic

 It was a groundbreaking time both in terms of an organization advocating for the placement of the adoptable dogs but also in terms of law enforcement and prosecutors being willing to allow them to be transferred.  Until that case, it was the policy of many shelters and national orgs, including HSUS, to euthanize all dogs from fighting cases.

This was partially a lack of education about their behavior, partially that there were so many other dogs being euthanized at the time for space, and partially liability concerns.  Now, HSUS and many other orgs assess each individual from these cases so that the adoptable dogs can be placed.

We also now advocate for changing state or local laws that require euthanasia of dogfighting victims – I did just that by working hard earlier this year with Best Friends to repeal that law on our books and revise the dangerous dog law, so now only 8 states remain to do so and NJ is no longer one (Gov. Murphy signed this bill into law earlier this year) . . .

Senior pets may be the neediest

So it’s December, and even though “national adopt a senior pet month” has ended, it’s hard for me to stop pitching the idea -- no, the need! -- to adopt older pets.  I didn’t hear from anyone who did so last month so I'll just hope it happened.

As for me, I followed my own advice and visited the Trenton Animal Shelter, where I volunteered for a few years a while ago.  Cats in residence were older than 2.  I’ll check on dogs’ ages next time, gather more info and then report in.

“My face may be white but my heart is pure gold. There is no shame in growing old.”  That quote tugs on the heart strings, doesn’t it?  So does this sad, sad story of Cinnamon, a cat abandoned at age 17, then fostered in a loving place where she ever-so-slowly forgave and came to trust humans again. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq2dn5R1p7I

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Senior pets need all of us -- & so do our bears!

So you don’t have a pet to love and care for, or you don’t have enough of them.  Easy: adopt a senior pet.  That’s possible all year long, of course, but this month is “adopt a senior pet” month, and shelters and rescues are promoting older animals who need loving homes. 

Wouldn’t any older pet, or pet of any age, be happier in a home -- especially now with Thanksgiving and the winter holidays fast approaching?

Earlier posts here have mentioned some of the benefits of homing older pets, both for them and the people who adopt them.  Here are a special few to note -- and, I hope, act on:

1.  Love is ageless.  Age doesn’t affect how much an animal can love . . . or be loved.  In fact, age might increase a senior pet’s need for love.  (There’s a real parallel to older humans, I think -- as an older human! -- there’s more need to be loved!)

2.  Older pets are more calm and ready to relax; there’s less wild energy to burn -- and less wildness to keep up with! 

  

3 -- Senior pets “have been there” and they may settle into a new home faster than puppies or kittens, who are new at all this.  Adopting an adult pet is like forming an adult relationship.

Finally, and this bears repetition, I think:  It’s been said that adopting older pets gives them “a chance to feel cherished and secure during the time they have left.”   Isn’t that what all of us want?

If, despite the appeals in these November blog posts, you haven’t yet or simply can’t adopt a senior pet this month, there are a few other things you might do:  

(1) visit a shelter and “check out” a senior pet for the holidays -- something some shelters are promoting right now.  Bring her/him home for Thanksgiving through New Year’s to enjoy happy times with happy people.

(2) visit a shelter and spend time with an older animal there.  Take a toy or a treat, and spend a while with her/him, petting and talking or maybe walking too. 

(3) in person, donate to your area shelter -- money, toys, food, towels, supplies you know are needed. . .  

 In other words, get up close and personal with homeless older animals and try to help them in all the ways you possibly can.

   

Here’s a story about Princess Tigger, a senior cat who needs a home asap.

https://www.thedodo.com/close-to-home/shelter-takes-in-21-year-old-cat?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20191120dododaily&utm_content=20191120dododaily+CID_a1339d2470dfd7bf75c7895a168fcb4d&utm_source=campaignmonitor

Help save our bears!

Before the second phase of New Jersey’s heinous bear hunt resumes on Dec. 2, here’s one more chance to remind Governor Phil Murphy he reneged on his campaign promise to end the hunt, and we will not accept that!  His claims of inability don’t wash.  In fact, nothing he says on this subject washes . . . until he keeps his word and does what he is fully able to do.  

Please keep phoning the governor’s office (609-292-6000) to urge him to do the right thing and the promised thing -- then come out to support our bears’ right to life!

(for more details about this event next Saturday, please visit the Animal Protection League of NJ on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/420759738600874/)

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Your comments -- particularly about adopting senior pets -- are always welcome at 1moreonce.blogspot.com.  

If you’re with a shelter or rescue group, you’re in an ideal position to recommend senior pets who especially need loving homes.  Please reach out!

If you have adopted a senior pet this month or recently, congratulations and thank you!  Please tell us about your experience and send a photo of the happy new resident in your home.  

Justice starts to be served for animals killed in Hamilton twp. shelter

                                         Catster pic

“Evil will out”: a pithy expression that’s often true.  Ultimately, finally, evil is recognized . . . and dealt with.

Last week in Hamilton Twp., NJ, Jeff Plunkett, health director and director of the township’s animal shelter, was indicted on “animal cruelty and official misconduct charges,” the Times of Trenton reported on Thursday.  Months of rumors, apprehensions and complaints had focused on the helpless animals housed at that so-called “shelter.”

On Plunkett’s watch, 236 cats and 93 dogs -- totaling 329 innocent animals -- were euthanized before being held for the state-mandated minimum of seven days (allowing for owners to claim missing pets and for others to line up a pet to rescue or adopt).  Those 329 animals had no such luck.

                                                                            ASPCA pic

Four years ago, a $1.1M shelter renovation added 16 dog kennels and doubled space for cats from 25 to 50.  Despite the fanfare, that upgrade apparently didn’t impact animals’ chances for live release from the Hamilton facility: the needless killing continued.  And in 2018, citizen complaints about conditions at the shelter prompted an investigation by the state Dept. of Health.

Obviously, that place was bad in countless ways for animals.  

What did Plunkett think as undeserving shelter animals were prematurely put down?  Did he think, or feel?  How about other shelter staff and volunteers: where were they when these killings occurred?

                                                               AlleyCatAllies pic

And what about then-mayor Kelly Yaede, who decried investigations of the shelter and described charges against Plunkett and an associate as part of a “political witch hunt”: what did she know about these animal killings, when did she know it -- and what did she do?

As Hamilton Township’s newly-elected mayor, Jeff Martin (former council president and one of those who had raised questions about the animal shelter) will reportedly form a transition team for the shelter.  Will more indictments follow?  Will more evil come out?  Will this shelter ever really live up to its name?

Adopt a senior pet month

I’ve heard of people who ask to adopt the shelter pet most needy or least likely to be chosen otherwise.  That’s exactly what some senior pets need to have happen in their lives -- and it happened, in this Dodo story!     

https://www.thedodo.com/close-to-home/man-adopts-shelters-oldest-dog

                                      The Scoop pic

Of course, many of us could also bring home a senior pet.  What better time to offer the warmth and love older pets need and deserve than during this holiday season?

The ASPCA reports that an overwhelming majority of the 3.2 million shelter animals adopted each year are under one year old.  That leaves a tragic number of older pets in shelters at the time they most need a home.  

Thanks to Brian Hackett, NJ director of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), for the tip below that may facilitate more adoptions!  (It’s worth noting that Hackett’s feline-filled household includes 20-year-old LucyAnn, adopted from a shelter after being surrendered at age 17.  She’s still going strong, he says. )

“Stella and Chewy’s is offering to pay adoption fees for senior dogs and cats across the US!”

In honor of National Adopt a Senior Pet Month, Stella & Chewy's (Wisconsin-based pet food co.) has pledged to cover the cost of adoption fees for dogs and cats four years and older.  Its “Journey Home Fund” aims “to bring awareness to the awesomeness of adult and senior pet adoption.”  https://cbs58.com/news/oak-creek-based-company-stella-chewys-will-pay-for-senior-pet-adoptions-across-us-in-november?fbclid=IwAR1TbXGgCvvy0nFTprbv0d0JYHHT024XFkZ0yhlqr_csnEv5F1PBsmaMZrU

All that and a month’s free food too -- what are we waiting for?    

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Your comments -- particularly about adopting senior pets -- are always welcome at 1moreonce.blogspot.com.  If you’re with a shelter or rescue group, you’re in an ideal position to recommend senior pets who especially need a loving home.  Please reach out!

To senior pets: ‘Grow old along with me!’

Yes, I know: It can seem as if practically every week is “national (whatever) week,” and you’re expected to do something about it -- eat ice cream, join a walkathon, get your eyes checked. . . !  And all that’s before the animal-related weeks -- take your cat to the vet, appreciate pit bulls, microchip your pet.  

We “animal people” take those weeks -- or months -- more seriously, of course.  If we don’t do the right thing for animals, who will?

OK, then, here’s a real biggie: November is “national adopt a senior pet month.”  This one reflects a serious need that many of us, all also getting older by the day, can recognize and help with.

 

Older animals in shelters often had families, once, but for various reasons, they don’t have them now.  So at an especially vulnerable time in their lives, they miss the unbeatable comforts of care and togetherness.  And love.

To be old and alone -- and in need -- is frightening for people and pets alike.  To have lived a long life and then to be alone toward the end of it -- sometimes cruelly described as “the golden years” -- is a sad, sad fate.

Worse, older animals in some shelters are often the most likely candidates for euthanasia.  That would be the “most unkindest cut of all.”

Adopting a cute puppy or kitten is easy.  Baby animals are all about charming people into loving and caring for them.  And adopting a senior pet also benefits everyone involved, starting with the adopter or family, knowing that an animal who needed a loving home now has one.  Such adopters deserve the satisfaction they feel.

In adopting an older pet, people get still more.  That starts with bringing home a grown up whose personality is formed and visible -- no need to wonder about temperament.  One promo for November adoptions of seniors says, “It takes a long time to get this sweet.”  How very true.

It’s sometimes claimed that older pets are tangibly grateful after they’re adopted.  I doubt that.  Rewarding as it may sound, it’s really not necessary, and what’s being described may simply be the animal’s happiness at having a home.  That’s enough! 

The many more benefits of adopting senior pets include their being “settled in their ways,” which is good news for people like that.  Also: possibly no need for training because older dogs and cats have been there; they know the drill.  And of course, all the shots of kitten- and puppyhood were taken care of long ago, as were spaying or neutering. 

Their earlier life experiences might have made older pets better able to fit in with other household pets, and people, for less drama during the transition period. 

It’s been said that adopting older pets gives them “a chance to feel cherished and secure during the time they have left.”   Isn’t that what all of us want?

‘. . . the best is yet to be’

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Your comments -- particularly about adopting senior pets -- are always welcome at 1moreonce.blogspot.com.  

In NJ, to 'manage' wildlife means to kill it

Bear killing in northern NJ; deer killing here in Mercer county (and numerous other places): it’s a hunter’s world right now in this state.

Governor Phil Murphy won’t act to fully ban the bear hunt, which he could do if he wanted to and had moral conviction; Mercer officials won’t use non-lethal ways to deal with deer in area parks.  Humane action toward wildlife is at a standstill, while the pleas and arguments of wildlife activists are ignored, at least for now.  

Despite protests, billboards and anti-bear hunt phone calls to the governor, as well as efforts to provide him with alternative ways to end the hunt and information about successful humane bear practices elsewhere, he continues to make excuses and, for all practical purposes, cater to the bear hunters.

“The bear hunters,” it should be said, who represent less than one-half of 1% of the NJ population!  For their benefit, Gov. Murphy is resting on last year’s useless ban on bear hunts on state lands -- easily circumvented when hunters drive bears onto private land and kill them there.

Although the governor has expressed a wish for legislation to end the bear hunt, he conveniently omitted mention of Senate President Steve Sweeney, chair of NJ’s hunting caucus, who could be counted on to squash any bill aimed at ending the hunt.  (No conflict of interest there, right?)

We have to hope for behind-the-scenes talks that may ultimately result in a break-through for the bears.  As for what we might do now, a leader in the anti-hunt movement advises two action steps: (1) swamp Gov. Murphy with phone calls against the hunt (609-292-6000) early and often, and (2) send frequent tweets to the governor -- @GovMurphy (in the tweet box), and at the end: #SaveNJBears.

Most important of all for the bears’ sake: never give up!  

  

No picnic in Mercer parks

As part of its deer “management” program this year, the Mercer County Park Commission (MCPC) aims to bring the estimated 104 deer per square mile down to 20-25 deer.  This, so “the trees and overall forest” are preserved.

How will that happen during the Oct. 26-Feb. 15 hunt period?  How else but by killing numbers of deer.  

Between 10-14 licensed (bow and firearm) hunters “in good standing” with the Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) -- a dubious distinction if ever there was one -- were selected “to participate in the hunt to keep the growing white tailed deer population at bay,” according to the Oct. 31 Times of Trenton.

Much is made in that story of last year’s hefty venison donation, totaling hundreds of meals, to Mercer Street Friends.  A group somewhat incongruously named “Hunters Helping the Hungry” reportedly helped.  (Does that seeming PR ploy soften the blow of so many deer deaths?)

But there’s no softening for those familiar with this hunt, who have protested it in vain.  Area resident Lynn Ralph is one such person.  She found out about last year’s deer hunt one week before it started and did what she could: observing, getting petitions signed, taking pictures of arrows and deer left behind.   

                    APLNJ  pic

“The hunters used corn, salt lick, pumpkin and deer tail hair to lure the unsuspecting deer,” she says.  “Last year’s hunt created health hazards: deer carcasses were discovered by walkers and bikers; arrows were found that could have injured children and pets; one poor deer bled out at the edge of the lake and was never removed.” 

  

Two other protesters attended an MCPC meeting last March to discuss the hunt, show photos of what they had found and ask that non-lethal methods be looked into.  Their objections and suggestions went nowhere.

As with the bear hunt, it’s a hunter’s world right now in this state.   

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Your comments are always welcome at 1moreonce.blogspot.com.