Help enact law against animal testing for cosmetics

                                                                               HSUS infographic

Would you like your creamy smooth lipstick quite as much if you knew the chemicals in it were tested on live animals?  How about your special shampoo: Does a live animal’s suffering to test its chemical ingredients make it or you feel extra special?  And your deodorant may make you feel safer – but not the animals involved in testing its efficacy. . . .  

“For decades, animals have been used in painful, harmful testing that has determined the safety of chemicals used in cosmetics.  New techniques by which to test cosmetics, however, like conducting tests on synthetic material that mimics human skin and using advanced computer modeling are available to us today.”  --from the testimony of Anthony Verrelli (D-15), a primary sponsor of New Jersey’s “Humane Cosmetics Act.” 

And according to the Humane Society of the US, “There are thousands of existing ingredients with a history of safe use, which allow cosmetics companies to create innovative products without the need for new animal testing.  For new ingredients, non-animal test methods exist.”

What are we waiting for?  Just one thing: Governor Murphy signing the bill into law.  It’s been on his desk since easily moving through the legislature.  Maybe he’s waiting to hear from . . . YOU, urging him to sign it.  Just think: if enacted, the law would prevent the sale of cosmetics that have been newly tested on animals!  

Your course is clear: Please contact Governor Murphy – now!  Ask him to sign S1726/A795, the New Jersey Humane Cosmetics Act, into law.  Tweet: @GovMurphy or e-mail: constituent. relations@NJ.Gov.  

Early-summer sightings

They may be a bane to gardeners, but I’m always happy to see groundhogs, especially the chubby babies, at the edge of a nearby park.  Lots of them right now.

Fawns too, unfortunately.  The other day, three sweet, spotted and so-vulnerable babies under a highway bridge looked to be moving tentatively toward the grassy hill nearby and away from the traffic.  I could only hope. 

As of June 29, fireflies, aka “lightning bugs,” reappeared after dusk.  And a ladybug who had made it inside was transported to an outdoor garden (“fly away home!”). 

What are you seeing?     

 ‘What the world needs now. . .’

In How to Love Animals: In a Human-shaped World, author Harry Mance explores what people living in our destructive Anthropocene Era can do to help -- and hopefully save -- the animals of the Earth.  Early on, he observes that loving animals is "one of western society's core values," yet the thoughtless, often inhumane ways that people treat animals go against this principle and "rational thinking."

Drawing on research and interviews, Mance (chief features writer for the Financial Times) brings to light the many contradictions in the human-animal relationship and offers insights into how people can protect an animal kingdom in crisis.  A former meat-eater turned vegan, he has witnessed, and questioned, the taking of animal lives for human consumption, and investigated alternatives to meat.  

With high awareness of climate change and the ecological disaster it foretells for all terrestrial life, Mance’s book aims to foster greater sensitivity toward the animal world as a whole and to recognize the Earth as more than just a "human-shaped" space.   

Enough

by Robin Chapman

There is always enough.
       My old cat of long years, who
              stayed all the months of his dying,

though, made sick by food,
       he refused to eat, till, long-stroked,
              he turned again to accept

another piece of dry catfood
       or spoonful of meat, a little water,
              another day through which

he purred, small engine
       losing heat—I made him nests
              of pillow and blanket, a curve of body

where he curled against my legs,
       and when the time came, he slipped out
              a loose door into the cold world

whose abundance included
              the death of his choosing.

("Enough" by Robin Chapman, from Abundance. © Cider Press, 2009. Reprinted with permission in The Writer’s Almanac for July 20, 2014.)

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A good question, lonely cats, resilient crabs & a shelter event

Chinese Horseshoe Bat

With Covid-19 numbers dropping and the country breaking free from pandemic precautions, one giant, worrisome question remains: How did the coronavirus start? 

Did it spill over to humans from animals – was it “zoonotic”? – possibly through contacts between the two at the infamous Wuhan wet market?  Or, was it the result of an accidental laboratory leak?  The work at two rival scientific institutions in Wuhan includes studying such viruses in hopes of avoiding or treating new ones.  

Palm Civet

Although a “zoonotic spillover” is still in the lead, the lab-leak theory has gained ground recently, accompanied by talk of leaks that infected workers whose illness was hidden as part of China’s overall secretiveness.  

Because great research depth and detailed evidence would be required to decide between these possible causes of the coronavirus, President Biden’s hope for an answer after a 90-day study is unlikely to happen so swiftly, if ever.  Infighting among scientists themselves, the punditry and the media will probably extend the debate indefinitely.

Meanwhile, fingers have been pointed at bats, civets, pangolins and others, each as the likely infected animal whose condition spilled over to humans – which is the usual path for the spread of viruses.  This NYTimes summary of the situation may be the most clear and definitive look at both possible coronavirus origins and where different experts stand.  https://tinyurl.com/3n5pjj.    

Deserted cats on desert island

Desert islands don’t attract cats, especially when there’s no fresh water and they’re loaded with spiders and snakes.  Yet off the coast of Brazil, Ihla dos Gatos, or island of cats, is home to hundreds of felines who were abandoned by their owners.  And their number has risen with “pandemic abandonments.”

Some of the cats are adoptable, while many others, born there, are feral.  They’re unkempt, and worse: uncared for.  A municipal veterinarian recently boated to the island to take a look and do an informal study that confirmed the cats’ great need.  

Until the pandemic hit Brazil hard, sympathetic people brought food and water out to them.  Some fishermen left part of their catch for the felines.  It’s different now, much worse.

Yet the great uncertainty about what to do about the cats continues.  Until decisions are made, animal suffering and ecological problems will continue on Ihla dos Gatos.   https://tinyurl.com/5jnbjsxm

Hooray for horseshoe crabs!

It started last month: shorelines mobbed with horseshoe crabs who had migrated from the continental shelf to Delaware Bay’s sandy beaches.  Females bury skazillion eggs in the soft, moist sand, while males stay as close as possible to fertilize the eggs.

Horseshoe Crab

This ritual has gone on for 400 million years, and just look: horseshoe crabs are still with us, despite overharvesting and other human challenges to their existence.  And children on the beach still scream shrilly and try picking them up by their tails when they encounter these prehistoric-looking creatures.  

Animal shelter’s new facade

If you’re into art and animals, and most of all, adopting animals, plan to drop by the Trenton Animal Shelter (TAS) this Saturday, 11am-2pm.  You’ll easily spot the building, now spiffed up with a colorful giant mural in front showing dogs and cats, and inviting pet adoptions.

Jose Munoz, shelter manager/division chief, credits the volunteer group “Trenton Animals Rock” – who work on behalf of the shelter’s dogs -- for its successful grant to install the mural, painted by area artists Leon Rainbow and Sophie Ban.   

Trenton Animal Shelter

Besides a shelter tour, the “Shelter Open House & Painting with Pups” event will include music and an ice cream truck (12-2pm).

After turning into Escher St., you’ll see bright turquoise coming up on your left.  That’s the place you’re looking for – and where resident animals are looking for you!

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Are cicadas ours to eat?

The animal shall not be measured by man.  In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.  They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth. -Henry Beston, naturalist and author (1888-1968)

                

 “It’s good!  Another cicada smoothie, please.”

What’s this?!  A new creature appears in the world, or revisits it briefly, and some people’s first thought is to eat it.  Inquiring minds want to know – er, taste.

A story about a Princeton High School “Insect-Eating Club” (you read it right) in last Monday’s Times of Trenton covered members’ event to catch and taste the Brood X cicadas now emerging by the billions.  

The kids were motivated by their faculty mentor’s belief that human population growth will lessen protein sources, so people better start eating insects now. ** One student, a “big bug enthusiast” who sees most insects as “cute,” describes eating them as “a humane way to get protein.” 

Humane?  Say what?  “We catch them and then we freeze them.  It doesn’t harm them at all.  It’s really just like anesthesia or taking a nap.”

Oh.  In that case, does the golden rule apply here?  

Eating cicadas raises issues worth thinking about. . . .  

   In a world turning to plant-based foods, these students went out of their way to eat meat.  Not readily available meat, either – but that of very short-lived cicadas whose sole mission is to mate and reproduce, then that’s it for 17 more years.

·         These insects are sentient beings, despite their pathetically short life span and despite the bug enthusiast’s scary belief about what’s humane.  When they’re frozen, they’re gone forever!

·         Protein abounds in non-animal sources – think beans, peas, legumes, lentils, chickpeas, quinoa, eggs, seeds, broccoli . . . .

·         Partying while catching and eating cicadas (who have only this one shot at continuing their line) seems like needless exploitation of helpless animals. Cicadas have already been thwarted by humans, who pave, build or chop down trees in the areas where underground nymphs wait out their 17 years before emerging.  But they can’t.

·         How about conservation as an alternative focus for student activity?  Started early, it could become the commitment of a lifetime and really make a positive difference.  

·       ** In today’s TT, that same “faculty mentor” referred to how Princeton’s “many old trees” have allowed the town’s cicada population to remain “relatively undisturbed,” saying “they need to emerge from the ground in huge numbers.”  (Right, and then they’re captured and eaten by his club members – “humanely,” of course.)  

Avian divers  

                 Brown Pelican                                          Siegal pic      

 Now, moving from subterranean to high sky, imagine a bird that can dive from 65 feet up into water and emerge with fish and gallons of water in its pouch.  Its folded wings make its “plunge dive” look arrow-like as it speeds downward.

This would be the brown pelican, about four feet tall and smallest of the world’s eight species.  I’ve tried, and failed, to photograph that dive from the beach while watching and hoping each bird won't re-surface with a broken neck.

The news about these awesome birds is that they’re back in force after years of being on the endangered species list.  DDT – finally banned in 1972 -- had contaminated fish, pelicans’ main food, and in turn their ability to breed was hampered because their eggshells were too thin to allow successful incubation.

With the dramatic change for the better, today there are more than 2,500 pelican pairs in the Chesapeake Bay area alone.  (Picture all the plunge dives!)   

https://tinyurl.com/2fuamwnt

 Spring babies

Opossum           Cappaert-MSU

She’s baaaaack!  Margaret Renkl’s inspiring columns about nature foster a wish to do things right by our world and take care of its animal inhabitants.  Let’s do it!     https://tinyurl.com/2tksjn26

 

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Power in activist numbers helps pass life-saving law

Numbers of animal activist-heroes played a major role in NJ’s “trunk-fighting” bill recently signed into law by Gov. Murphy.  Effective immediately, this animal cruelty offense is now a felony of the third degree.   https://tinyurl.com/kee5f5e7

“The underground barbaric practice of forcing dogs into the trunk of a car to fight to the death is cruel and inhumane,” said Laurie Perla, of the Animal Protection League of NJ (www.APLNJ.org).

Once the animals are locked in the trunk, the vehicle is driven around to evade police and gamblers bet on which animal will survive once the fighting sounds stop.

Perla led the drive for passage from the bill’s inception months ago, monitoring its move through legislative committees, then the Assembly and the Senate.  She worked directly with Senator Tom Kean (R-21), who championed the legislation by pushing it through committees and working the political end, along with Assemblyman Ronald Dancer (R-12), whose leadership brought in the Assembly.

The legislation earned widespread bipartisan support (“26 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle!” Perla exclaimed), moving unanimously through the entire process.  

Perla serves as APLNJ’s legislative liaison and as a regional legislative district director with League of Humane Voters-NJ.  Thanks to her spirited efforts – and those of the myriad animal activists she motivated to speak up against “trunking” and for dogs -- those who gambled on this heinous practice will now face justice.    

“The Animal Protection League of NJ was at the forefront of this legislative effort, and with tenacity, persistence and your help, it crossed the finish line,” said Executive Director Angi Metler. 

She also cited APL’s efforts on other fronts, including black bear protection, subsidizing spay/neuter for community cats, filing lawsuits on animals’ behalf and helping pay vet bills for those in need.  All such efforts are supported by organization members.  

Cats’ dream home

Not just cats, but “cat people” too would love this house, filled with felines!  While the homeowner also has an altruistic reason for this home, the place itself is a dream for “cat ladies” and gentlemen, as well.

Just look at those wall shelves and steps, then look at the walls around you as you read this post: see many vertical benefits for the cats in your life?  Right, I thought not.

It’s the same here: although I can see where wall steps could be placed, it hasn’t happened, and it’s probably just a very lucky thing that Harry and Billy Summers haven’t had play dates in homes like the one featured.  They’d never forgive us.

Twenty-two rescue cats enjoy this stimulating indoor habitat, and you can bet they don’t sleep their days away.  Just think: they can explore their whole house, not just the floor.

It’s all the work of Peter Cohen, of Santa Barbera, CA, who admits to having a never-ending hobby: building more and more walks, cubbies, bridges, tunnels and hideaways. . . for cats.

He also has a “cat cause”: finding a cure for Feline Infectious Peritonitis, or FIP — a rare mutation of a common feline virus that affects only about one in 5,000 cats, is almost always fatal and tends to be more prevalent in environments with multiple cats. 

Now take a house tour . . . and consider how to add to your own – and your cats’ – home!  

https://tinyurl.com/36hv4yee

Poem repeat

After my last post, I learned that the type size for the poem was uncomfortably small for some readers.  For that reason, I’m reprinting “Vanishing” below -- larger, I hope, because it’s too good to miss.

Back next month to continue posting here.  Meanwhile, if you have comments or suggestions, please go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com and let me know!

 

Vanishing

by Brittney Corrigan

 

^{Nearly one-third of the wild birds in the United States 
and Canada have vanished since 1970, a staggering 
loss that suggests the very fabric of North America’s 
ecosystem is unraveling.  
              –The New York Times (September 19, 2019)}

As the world’s cities teem
with children—flooding 
our concrete terrains with shouts 
and signs—as the younglings balance 
scribbled Earths above their heads, 
stand in unseasonal rain 
or blistering sun,

the birds quietly lessen 
themselves among the grasslands. 
No longer a chorus but a lonely,
indicating trill: Eastern meadowlark,
wood thrush, indigo bunting—
their voices ghosts in the 
chemical landscape of crops.

Red-winged blackbirds veer
beyond the veil. Orioles 
and swallows, the horned lark
and the jay. Color drains from
our common home so gradually,
we convince ourselves 
it has always been gray.

Little hollow-boned dinosaurs,
you who survived the last extinction, 
whose variety has obsessed 
scientific minds, whose bodies 
in the air compel our own bodies
to spread and yearn—
how we have failed you.

The grackles are right to scold us, 
as they feast on our garbage 
and genetically-modified corn. 
Our children flock into the streets 
with voices raised, their anger 
a grim substitute
for song.

 

(Copyright © 2021 by Brittney Corrigan.  Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 8, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.)

Fish & birds, minus all but human beasts this time

Buffalo

“Beast, bird or fish?”  I recognized the words, but didn’t remember where from.  (Did any readers?)  Only after I decided those three categories describe much of what I write about here in AnimalBeatII, Google officially answered that question, describing a game we’ve probably all played (one that sounds ridiculously easy, btw.)   https://tinyurl.com/2ay8jppy

True, there have been many more “beasts” featured here than fish or birds.  So today’s post ignores beasts (such a negative word to describe what are often majestic and/or magnificent animals) and touches on both fish and birds.

Fish first.  Let’s go with “glowing sharks.”  If you didn’t know sharks can glow, you’re not alone; some of them don’t just hunt; they also lighten up their surroundings.  And “the largest glow-in-the-dark species with a spine – on land or sea” -- was recently discovered off the coast of New Zealand. 

Kitefin sharks, which can grow to nearly six feet in length, emit blue-green light.  Their bioluminescence is far from exclusive, though: a wide array of other organisms—bacteria to fireflies to squid – can also glow.  (So ends this glowing report, for now!)   https://tinyurl.com/h5h8v75s

Despite their robust appearance, manatees are not as healthy as they may look.  In South Florida’s waterways, they are dying in much greater numbers than has occurred over the last five years. 

Why?  Manatees are starving because sea grass, their main source of nutrition, is in short supply.  And why is that?  An ingredient in Roundup, the notorious herbicide, runs off from fields into waterways, where it helps fuel algae blooms that block sunlight from the sea grass, inhibiting photosynthesis.

So, sea grass supplies are dwindling and manatees, however loved by Floridians, are starving.  Still other causes could include sewage pollution from septic tanks.  It’s not a pretty picture. 

https://tinyurl.com/2m4c48fb

Which brings us to birds, in another un-pretty picture that paints the way of the world these days.  This poem sketches the current scene, one the TV newscaster about to show human violence could also warn about: “The images that follow may be disturbing.”

Vanishing

 

by Brittney Corrigan

 

Nearly one-third of the wild birds in the United States  and Canada have vanished since 1970, a staggering  loss that suggests the very fabric of North America’s  ecosystem is unraveling.  –The New York Times (9-19-19) Meadowlark As the world’s cities teem with children—flooding  our concrete terrains with shouts  and signs—as the younglings balance  scribbled Earths above their heads,  stand in unseasonal rain  or blistering sun,   the birds quietly lessen  themselves among the grasslands.  No longer a chorus but a lonely, indicating trill: Eastern meadowlark, wood thrush, indigo bunting— their voices ghosts in the  chemical landscape of crops. Red-winged blackbirds veer beyond the veil. Orioles  and swallows, the horned lark and the jay. Color drains from our common home so gradually, we convince ourselves  it has always been gray.   Little hollow-boned dinosaurs, you who survived the last extinction,  whose variety has obsessed  scientific minds, whose bodies  in the air compel our own bodies to spread and yearn— how we have failed you.   The grackles are right to scold us,  as they feast on our garbage  and genetically-modified corn.  Our children flock into the streets  with voices raised, their anger  a grim substitute for song.

(Copyright © 2021 by Brittney Corrigan. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 8, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.) 

 

 

Cerulean warbler

 

Readers, if you're seeing any truly “pretty pictures” for animal life on earth right now, please share with us!  Go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com.

 

 

 

 

Animals’ music prefs, cicada concert & marvelous moms

It’s said that “Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast.” (Congreve, 1697)  If that’s so, just imagine how much good music must do for a gentle breast.  But don’t simply imagine, look!   

                                 Classic(al) cows                     NYTimes pic

Farm cows’ breasts (very un-savage) were further soothed by music students from the Scandinavian Cello School who perform for them in the Danish village of Lund.  After learning that neighboring farmers like classical music, the school’s founder and his students started weekly performances there.

While some humans attend the recitals, it all began with the cows.  The animals appeared to love the music, rushing toward the musicians when they arrived.  (This fun story comes with terrific images too.)  https://tinyurl.com/3xwbwu2h

Cows aren’t the only animals who prefer classical music.  Cats’ taste for music has been explored in a number of studies, with classical music (“more relaxed response”) coming out ahead of pop (a “meh” reaction), while heavy metal produced “increased respiratory rate and pupil diameter, indicating a stress response,” according to Fear Free Shelters.

However, a different study evaluated how cats respond to classical music compared with cat-specific music (not cat sounds, but music featuring pitch, tempo, and timbre that cats find naturally appealing, like “the tempo of purring, the suckling sound during nursing, and frequencies in feline vocal range, which is two octaves higher than for humans”).

More cats displayed positive responses toward the specialized cat music than the classical selections, and researchers concluded that playing such music in waiting rooms reduces anxiety and increases the quality of cat care in the vet clinic.  https://www.fearfreehappyhomes.com/who-we-are/

Cicadas in concert

As a prelude to what we’ll hear from Brood X, the 17-year cicadas due to surface any day now, I recommend this article-with-sound effects created by cicadas and the human musician-writer, with some musical friends, collaborating with these lovelorn insect visitors.  . . .   https://tinyurl.com/3wtmtp7e

Saluting moms

Finally for this Mothers Day, here’s a collection of videos about marvelous moms in the animal world.  https://tinyurl.com/j8amtf

Pups with wolf mom 
 

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Cicadas & elephants . . . & New Jersey’s black bears

                                                        Wikipedia pic

“Cicadas are coming! Cicadas are coming!”  Hmmmm. . . .  That doesn’t sound as scary as “The British are coming!” does it?  But with or without Brits, we’re bound to  get to know cicadas this summer.  And hear them – by the billions!

“Brood X” will emerge any time now after 17 years in waiting, and they’re desperately in love.  To attract mates, the cicadas will climb trees and make a big racket – some calls can reach more than 100 decibels.  Each.

Their ardor, and noise, will continue for up to six weeks, till they mate and lay eggs that hatch into nymphs who then burrow back into the ground for another 17 years.  That’s it.  

Cicadas don’t bite, sting or damage fields or gardens.  They’re not interested in humans or food -- just starting “families.”  In fact, they themselves serve as food for foxes, birds and raccoons. 

Once the soil temperature is warm enough for them, Brood X will appear in 15 states and DC, including NJ and our neighbors.  Most active between 10 am-5pm, cicadas might accidentally land on people en route to a would-be rendezvous.  Not to worry: they want to move on at least as much as we want them to.  

                      Chicago Sun Times pic

Where were you 17 years ago when we had our last Brood X visit?  I still vividly remember walking into The Princeton Packet building one day when its black-topped entryway was covered with cicadas, like a very bumpy, crunchy rug – that’s how thick they were.  

Take heart: the cicadas are expected to be gone by July 4, appropriately enough, Independence Day!  After that, fans of the red-eyed insects will have to wait till 2038 for another visit.

The website below includes info, photos and a great video that prompts what I’ll call “cicada empathy” – it’s sad!      https://tinyurl.com/264shykk

More on elephants

From small insects to the largest land mammal, here’s a look back at elephant news from the April 24 Wildlife Conservation Expo.  Save the Elephants (STE) reported that in Tsavo (northern Kenya), poachers are no longer the main problem elephants face.

Instead, it’s elephant-human conflicts stemming from in farming and development. Elephants break into people’s mud huts as well as their crop fields, sometimes causing local people to retaliate. 

African elephants

To protect elephants from angry locals -- “to ensure that elephants have a future on our planet,” as The Elephant Crisis Fund (an offshoot of STE) has it – beehive fences are being used to deter bee-fearing elephants.  A smelly elephant repellent is in play, as are elephant watch towers and growing chiles, sunflowers and sisal to keep them away from huts and fields. 

In other news, forest elephants have only recently been determined to be a different species, genetically different from savanna elephants  They have smaller bodies, rounder ears and straighter tusks.

And they are critically endangered, just one step from extinction in the wild.  Sadly, it will be harder to save forest elephants because they wait longer to reproduce (6 years) and many of them live outside protected areas, making them more vulnerable to poachers.  

It’s obvious that conservation efforts for elephants everywhere must expand and continue. https://tinyurl.com/yysd5uhu

Please care for our bears!  

APLNJ.org

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