Selected shorts, for better & worse, about animals

 Stoic swimmers

Watch ducks or geese glide serenely through winter waters and wonder: aren’t they freezing?   Same with birds, who may be OK around the bird feeder in the sunshine, but how do they stay warm during cold, dark nights?

A newspaper story about birds’ “cool tactics” for surviving freezing winter helped me feel better.  In fall, they grow extra feathers (think winter jacket), and they shiver when temps drop – as we do.  They trap air by puffing out their feathers, creating cozy layers of warmth around themselves.   And they may huddle together to share heat.

Most extreme, some birds lower their body temps as much as 50 degrees – coming closer to air temp than their normal 105 degrees – into a state of “torpor.”  Though they conserve heat and energy that way, they can’t move during torpor so they’re more vulnerable to predators. 

We can help birds fight the cold with backyard brush piles or old Christmas trees to hide in.  With holes at the bottom and perches inside, roost boxes also shelter them.  Bird feeders offer winter energy, while heated bird baths provide drinking water and feather-cleaning material. 

   

But what about those ducks and geese, with their cold, wet bottoms?  (Note: feathers protect water birds from near-freezing water.  They keep their feet from freezing by using a counter-current heat exchange system between the arteries and veins in their legs.) 

   

No hero he

“Congratulations to Jeff Melillo on harvesting this outstanding black bear.”  If not for the “harvesting” word – a tired euphemism for “killing” – you might think Melillo did something good for the bear. 

Wrong.  He killed the 700-pound animal, and with that murderous feat, he set a new world record for “the largest bow-harvested black bar in North America.”  Gee, what a guy. 

                                                                        APL/Bill Lea pic

"Pursuing bears with bow and arrow is a passion of mine,” Melillo said in the Times of Trenton story last week.  He thanked the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) and the United Bow Hunters of NJ for their support and the effort they put into managing the black bear population in New Jersey.

“Managing” – as in needlessly, cruelly killing.

Clearly, Melillo deserves this year’s Dubious Distinction award.   And the DFW continues to earn unqualified censure for its “leadership” in hunting innocent wild animals in this state. 

A true ‘bad sport’

Advice to those hoping for long, healthy second lives: don’t come back as a race horse.  Why?  Because race horses are dying at unprecedented and unconscionable numbers, when even one fatality is one too many for the so-called “sport of kings.”

California’s Santa Anita track continues to be the wrong place for race horses to be (as if they should be anywhere!)  Two horses died in two days of racing there over the MLK Jr. three-day weekend, bringing the January total to four euthanized horses.   Last year, 37 horses died at Santa Anita. 

For the bigger, far more horrifying horseracing picture, see this Washington Post story from last fall.  You'll “read it and weep.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-staggering-toll-in-dead-horses-makes-it-clear-its-time-to-outlaw-horse-racing/2019/10/08/b0f97a06-e52c-11e9-a331-2df12d56a80b_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1

Good news times 2 

First, after three years of animal welfare lawsuits and lobbying Congress, then a Congressional order, “The US Agriculture Dept. [has] restored to its website [unredacted] animal welfare inspection  reports . . .” for “nearly 10,000 zoos, circuses, breeders, research labs and Tennessee walking horse shows that were publicly available on Jan. 30, 2017 – days before they were purged – as well as those [reports] generated since.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/02/19/usda-reposts-animal-welfare-records-it-purged-its-website-2017/?utm_campaign=wp_animalia&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_animalia

Second, the “animal shelter bill,” which will establish (long-needed) requirements for operation and oversight of NJ animal shelters, is back, amid high hopes for its passage this time around. 

Introduced in 2017 by Senator Linda R. Greenstein (D-14), it has since been amended and it’s ready to go.  Greenstein will re-introduce the bill – now S1834 – on Monday, Feb. 24, which is also when the legislation text will be available online.  (Go to njleg.state.nj.us, then enter the bill number and click search.)

Much more to follow!

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can

Hunting's bad enough. This is even worse.

                                                                                   National Geographic pic

Saturday fun (for some):  Hunting?  No, worse yet.  Killing raccoons for the “fun” of it.  That’s what the "press advisory" below boils down to. 

Unfortunately, New Jersey’s vaunted uniqueness includes allowing some barbaric human behavior toward our wildlife, like today’s “coon chase” that’s underway as I type this post.  

What kind of human beings, in supposedly enlightened 2020, would participate in such activity? And what kind of state Division of Fish and Wildlife would permit it?

With a few italics added for emphasis, here’s the press advisory I received yesterday:

                                                          National Geographic pic

Raccoon “hunts” are a despicable, thrill-kill form of cruelty encouraged and allowed by New Jersey Fish and Game Council and the Division of Fish and Wildlife.  The abuse is on a par with bear baiting, cock fighting, dog fighting, and other relics of man’s barbarity to animals.

As the attached Facebook event page shows, a small group calling itself “Wildlife Women” emanating from Kentucky is sponsoring a “coon chase” tomorrow, February 15 , in Hampton, which is part of Bethlehem Township, from 4 in the afternoon to 1 a.m.  What will transpire will go something like this:

  The relentless mob of hunters and their trained dogs ended up chasing this trembling innocent up a tree, where she fearfully struggled to climb as high as possible, understandably frightened for her life as she attempted to cling to the ever-narrowing tree trunk—the dogs wildly baying all the while from down below. Finally, after they had apparently squeezed all the laughter and “enjoyment” they could out of watching their terrorized victim caught in the glare of their flashlights, rifles were raised and gunfire ensued.    --  Coon hunting deserves no celebration  MountainXpress, July 2007

                                               NG pic

If this is not the prohibited “needless” torture and killing codified in NJSA 4:22-117, then nothing is.  It also abuses other animals, dogs, in the process of torturing raccoons:

4:22-17 Cruelty; certain acts, crime; degrees. a. It shall be unlawful to: (1) Overdrive, overload, drive when overloaded, overwork, abuse, or needlessly kill a living animal or creature; (2) Cause or procure, by any direct or indirect means, including but not limited to through the use of another living animal or creature, any of the acts described in paragraph (1) of this subsection to be done.

The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife’s condoning of this abject cruelty and depraved human behavior is unconscionable. Recently we’ve seen other fish and wildlife agencies in other states condemn inappropriate behavior on the part of hunters, yet our New Jersey agency sadly overlooks it.  It also allows unsporting and ecologically damaging baiting banned by neighboring states. “Coon” killing is yet another example.

                                                          National Geographic pic

The Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office and the New Jersey State Police should investigate this event for violations of New Jersey animal cruelty statutes. The law’s provisions apply to the “whole brute creation.”  By definition, these animals are needlessly and cruelly killed. They are inarguably tortured and abused for amusement, no less, and generally discarded as trash.  Shotgun shells damage the skins; they cannot be sold as fur. There is absolutely no wildlife management purpose to this event and others like it.

The general public is overwhelmingly disgusted by these killing events which have no place in civilized society in 2020.  Wildlife is a public trust. Given New Jersey’s non-hunting majority cannot exercise its standing and rights through an agency and council dominated by hunters, the public can at least insist on the enforcement of animal cruelty statutes.

For more on killing contests encouraged by the Fish and Game Council and the Division of Fish and Wildlife, see recent Humane Society of the United States undercover investigations of hunting contests in Barnegat, New Jersey and another in New York State, where dozens of animals were killed and then thrown away. https://www.humanesociety.org/news/undercover-investigation-exposes-gruesome-wildlife-killing-contests

New Jersey residents need to know such heinous things can happen here – and demand an end to them.

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A timely poem & a cats-&-dogs question

 A Prayer to Talk to Animals

 by Nickole 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 strands 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.

 (“A Prayer to Talk to Animals” was originally published in 2017 by The Academy

of American Poets Poem-A-Day Project.  Copyright © 2019 by Nickole Brown.
All rights reserved.  Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission)

A cat conundrum

Crosley & Mitzi                                    Hildreth pic

For “cat people” -- those with one or more felines in the family -- a frequent question might be:  how do I introduce a new cat to the household so the resident(s) won’t feel threatened and so all felines ultimately get along?  The many answers to such a question often boil down to separate “old” from new, introduce gradually and give it time.

But is there another way to save resident cats from feeling supplanted?  hurt?  angry?  by a new cat in the house?  

Maybe.  How about bringing a different species into the mix?  A dog who also needs a loving home?

How would the cat(s) already there feel then? 

    

For “cat people” who are also “dog people” and “animal people” in general, why not?  Introduce the newcomer gradually, with all the safeguards built into an all-cat situation . . . and, maybe, bingo!

Or no? 

Do any readers have experience with such a situation: introducing a needy dog (I’m not talking puppies here – just as I’m not talking kittens either) to one or more resident cats.  Please share any advice you may have by commenting on this post!

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Introducing: the Trenton Animal Shelter

Down Escher Street in Trenton, before you come to the Trenton Soup Kitchen, is a small, peach-colored building with a novel front roof line and, usually, the sound of many dogs barking.

That’s the Trenton Animal Shelter (TAS).  Its inside-outside caged pens for homeless dogs lets them tell the world they’re there -- and maybe also remind the world that they need loving homes.  The cats housed at the shelter share that need; they just can’t sing it out.

Volunteers with Trenton Animals Rock often walk the dogs outside around the shelter, where they can see and be seen.  Though Trenton Cats Rescue volunteers visit the cats, it’s mostly to socialize and clean cages because felines remain confined, not allowed to walk or play on the shelter floor.

The volunteer groups also take cats and dogs to adoption events on weekends.  Beyond people who come to the shelter looking for adoptable pets, those events are the main chance for cats to be seen, chosen and taken home.  

Here’s a walking tour-in-words through the shelter.  (Regrettably, I learned too late I needed special permission to photograph inside.)

The entrance facing Escher St. is fenced off so the side door facing the Soup Kitchen is the actual entry.  Once inside, the shelter manager’s office and a doctor’s area share space on the left, while on the right is a cat admissions room lined with stacked metal cages.  It includes a small sink and stored items.

Next on the left is a staff office area, while straight ahead is a wide, windowless and doorless room with more stacked cat cages and a washer-dryer.  Towels and blankets are stored here, with a couple sinks and cleaning supplies right outside.

On the right is a windowless bathroom-sized room where small dogs can be housed in stacked metal cages.  A few feet away, another door leads to a long row of dog kennels, each with a door to the outside, for larger dogs. 

In no way is the Trenton Animal Shelter palatial; it’s neither capacious nor well-ventilated, and it lacks an isolation area and a get-acquainted room, as well as accommodations allowing cats to stretch their legs and get exercise.  During the years I volunteered at TAS, and since, there’s been talk of a new or renovated building.  Right now the immediate hope is for trailers to be placed across the street for overflow functions and office space.  

Jose Munoz, who started his career at the shelter in 1999, became Chief/Manager in 2017.  He serves as bureau chief, supervising four other officers -- Hector Avalos, Nikijha Blakeley, Jose Millan and Jason Riley -- in the Humane Law Enforcement side of operations, and serves as shelter manager for the Animal Sheltering side.  

While NJ law requires all shelter animals to be held for 7 days so owners can claim missing pets, some spend weeks or months at TAS before being adopted or special-rescued by a rescue group, Munoz says. 

Adoption fees are $120 for dogs and $100 for cats, regardless of age, breed or sex.  Cats are spayed or neutered, vaccinated and micro-chipped before adoption; same for the dogs except for micro-chipping.  

Munoz wishes people wanting to help TAS would first learn how to care for their pets, including becoming familiar with state and local laws and ordinances.  Donations to TAS might include leashes and harnesses; cat carriers; chew toys, Kongs for dogs and cat toys; and towels (not blankets).  Food gifts aren’t recommended because animals can suffer from mixed-up diets.

Maybe visiting to spend time with shelter animals would be the best “donation” well-wishers can make.

Open 9-3 Monday-Friday, and 9-11 am Saturday and Sunday, the Trenton Animal Shelter is at 72 Escher St., Trenton.  Phone: 609-989-3254.  To see shelter pets available for adoption: TAS.Petfinder.com. 

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