Legislation to act on, a book to read & cat camp to attend

Two Assembly bills that would be horrible for animals are on their way to full Assembly votes, and activists should know about them and take action against them by contacting Assembly members.  

Already released from the agriculture committee, A1581 may soon be posted for a vote in the full Assembly.  It would give agricultural interests and their department at Rutgers the power to “develop plans and recommendations” to kill invasive species – read whitetail deer, geese and other animals.  The resulting plans would then be presented to the Legislature.

Also reported out of the agriculture committee and now heading to the appropriations committee, A4843 would require the state Department of Environmental Protection to write a “stewardship” plan for any forest of 25 acres or more acquired by the state for conservation or recreation.

Bobwhite quail

Based on past practice, “Stewardship” can be assumed to mean commercial logging, restocking hunted birds, and above all, killing deer.  Therefore, A4843 would require drawing up killing and logging plans for lands acquired for recreation or conservation.

It’s crucial that we let Assembly members know our strong objections to these bills.

End trunk fighting!

Activists’ efforts seem to be paying off in the effort to make trunk fighting a felony offense in NJ.  What a good cause to be working for: eliminating the depraved “fun” practice of locking two dogs in a vehicle trunk, then driving around until the (deadly) silence indicates their fight is over.

The trunk fighting bill, A3231, is likely to be considered for a Supplemental Board List for this Thursday, March 25, allowing the Assembly to vote on it at that time.

Please click here to send an email to the full Assembly:  https://actionnetwork.org/letters/march-22-2021-action-alert-trunk-fighting-a3231?clear_id=true&source=email

(NOTE: After you click the link above, the website should direct you to enter your address OR tell you, "We've got your address, [YOUR name]." If you don't see YOUR name, please follow the instructions. This is critically important.)

If you get an error message or prefer to send your email outside that system, please click here and follow the instructions:  www.lohvnj.org/2021-AssemblyEmails.htm

Wholly engrossing: Half Broke

This memoir by horse trainer Ginger Gaffney focuses on her year-plus at an alternative prison ranch in New Mexico, where she had agreed to help retrain the troubled horses there.  But her job also entails retraining the resident livestock crew in charge of those horses.

On her first visit to the ranch, Ginger demonstrates her expertise in a tour de force with the wild horses – and wins over the prisoners in the group, who recognize immediately that she knows what she’s doing.  Doesn’t that sound like a movie plot: the outsider who effortlessly shows her savvy, dispels doubt and wins believers?

But much as the horses have been traumatized, many of Ginger’s “believers” are also shattered from longtime drug and alcohol addictions, and other offenses.  Knowing intimately how to read horses (much better than she can read people, including herself), Ginger shares her equine insights with the crew, who gain both competence and confidence. 

Occasional chapters flash back to Ginger’s difficult earlier life and her reasons for trusting horses more than humans, while the current story follows her progress toward trusting people too.

For happy campers  

Save the date, Saturday, April 10, for “Cat Camp: Spring Forward,” a big day for learning and fun.  Hosted by Jackson Galaxy, of “My Cat from Hell” fame, the winter holiday version, also necessarily at home, was an event well worth “attending,” with guest speaker-specialists, projects, cat crafts and safe socializing.  For the spring edition, go to catcamp.com for details and registration.

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