Poor pigs: loved for all the wrong reasons

 

Poor pigs: loved for all the wrong reasons

 

(From a phone call to a bakery):

“Do you want the ones with bacon or the regular ones?”

“Did you say ‘bacon,’ B-A-C-O-N?”

“Yes, I did.”

OMG! and Ai yi yi!  But then . . . why was I surprised?  Last fall, I saw billboards for pricey chocolates, with bacon. Then I noticed the doughnuts at the supermarket café were topped with crumbled bacon. And now, it’s sticky buns with bacon. 

(BTW, I ordered the “regular ones.”)

Pigs don’t have a chance, and I’ve often wondered:  did they ever have a chance?  Despite their being smart, friendly, loyal and playful, the main thing about pigs to most everyone in the world is, alas, their It’s your ribs. I’m afraid they’re delicious.”

What else is there to say? 

Although overall, far more chickens than pigs are slaughtered for human consumption, I’m not aware of people moaning about their love of chicken breasts, wings or legs.  Pigs are another matter, given the incessant rhapsodizing about bacon. or ribs. or ham. or pigs feet.  and even pork rinds – “everything but the oink,” as the saying goes.

If I believed in reincarnation, I’d already be praying not to come back as a pig, “purpose-bred” to be eaten.  And en route to that fate, being raised on a factory farm with routine tail-docking and gestation crates; seen as nothing but dinner in the making – not even a meal ticket, but a meal!

Only consider that a quick Google search for our state’s pig population (pigs + number + NJ) included “pig roast” in each of the eight “related searches.”  They can’t escape it.  For the record, our in-state pigs number around 9,000, according to a Star-Ledger story about gestation crates.  And there are some 300 pig farms – or euphemistic “pork farmers” in New Jersey, according to a Wall Street Journal story. (Surely, you’ve seen little “porks” gamboling in farm yards all over  . . .?!)

It’s no wonder I well up watching videos on The Dodo that feature pigs who escaped from trucks taking them to slaughter.  Saved by caring people, they’re shown living au naturel, frolicking with their new, non-traditional family members: goats, dogs, cats, children . . . . There should be so much more to life than death.  https://www.thedodo.com/pig-dog-goat-video-252913810.html

Besides vegetarians and vegans, here’s what we need much more of in this world.  A few stories like the one below might give pause to people who are just plain pigs for pigs. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/51604

Now that is “some pig!”

 Return to our website for details on what we’re all about

“for the animals” -- http://aplnj.org/food-for-life.php

--Pat Summers

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Show your love: spay or neuter

 

Show your love: spay or neuter

 

 “One cat just leads to another.”  --Ernest Hemingway

Think February and probably think Valentine’s Day: hearts and flowers, caring, love. There’s also World Spay Day on the last Tuesday of the month – this year, Feb. 28.  And building up to that animal-caring and loving day, February is also Spay/Neuter Awareness month!

So, happy Spay/Neuter Awareness month, everyone!  And if that awareness turns into actual spays and neuters for our community cats (and companion animals too), we’ll all be better off.

Why?  fewer community cats out there to worry about and care for and save from shelters (known to be the worst possible places for outdoor/feral/community cats, as well as cats in general)  . . . fewer surprise litters of kittens and puppies at home to place in safe new homes . . .  fewer animals overall with uncertain-to-frightful futures.

You probably already know about “kitten season,” but just in case: Starting next month, it’s the spring-summer (plus!) time of year when kittens seem to pop up everywhere – often without their moms, invariably needing care and shelter, and adding to the overpopulation of homeless cats.  

Preventing kitten litters now is the best way to reduce that feline mob scene later.  That’s a job for Project TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return), a key APLNJ campaign that’s close to home, bristling with expertise and known for person-to-person helpfulness. Its comprehensive website section, “New Jersey’s Central Resource for Feral Cat and Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) Information,” offers specifics on the basics, along with low-cost spay/neuter providers, technical and legal assistance and resources for caregivers, property owners and municipalities.

There’s also “Sponsor Our Spays (SOS) Subsidy program,” which contributes $30 toward the vetting of cats who will be returned outside.  To be eligible, those interested must be members of the Feral Friends of NJ, a no-fee Yahoo group.  For information on joining, email Sandra Obi at feralcats@aplnj.org     

For Obi, Project TNR director, “Sterilization and immunization are the most helpful things anyone can do to help with the issue of cat homelessness and foster the well-being of these cats.”

If you’ve got to be scared into spaying and neutering as many cats as you can, just remind yourself of these facts:  Cats can get pregnant as early as four months of age.  So, unsprayed, a March 1 “kitten season baby” could become a mom by summer’s end because of cats’ nine-week gestation period.  

 

Imperative as it is to cut down on pregnancies and litters among community cats, spay and neuter are also recommended for companion animals.  Sterilizing pets can provide medical and behavioral benefits while helping to curb pet overpopulation.  Too often now, pet homelessness leads to euthanasia of perfectly healthy animals -- so cruel, even to contemplate.   

For Valentine’s day this year, why not skip treats and toys?  Instead, give gifts of spay or neuter to community cats -- and be sure to treat your own pets too.  Show them you love them: spay or neuter.

Return to our website for details on what we're all about

“for the animals”  (http://aplnj.org/projectTNR.php)

 

   --Pat Summers                   

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Animal activists can be too active

 

Animal activists can be too active

 

In the interest of keeping APLNJ people – and all others! -- alive and well, this cautionary tale comes your way.

Earlier this month, a woman affiliated with APL heard that a deer and a car were by the side of the road in front of her home.  Being the huge-hearted person she is, she ran outside, to learn that the young woman parked there had seen a car in front of her hit the deer and keep moving.  So she had pulled over and, joined by a man who also stopped, moved the injured deer from the center of the road to a grassy area nearby.

Our good samaritan – we’ll call her “J” -- joined the other two people to try calming the deer, who got to his feet long enough to walk up a little hill – then lay down again. Though he was “amazingly calm,” “J” said, he was bleeding from his nose and mouth and had apparently hurt his leg.  One of his antlers had come off.  She kept petting his back and face, thinking he was “so sweet” and seemed to know the three people were there to help him.

One of the others had phoned the police.  “J” asked if the hurt deer could be moved behind her house to heal, but the officer rejected that idea, saying he would have to shoot him. He did so even before “J” got back inside.  As she cleaned up, she discovered quantities of blood on herself and her clothes.

Later, she wondered whether she had done the right thing and if not, what she should have done. What’s the protocol, she asked.

And an area animal control officer answered:  If a deer has been injured and can’t get up, it must be “humanely destroyed.”  (If an injured deer runs off, that’s that.)  “Adult deer are very dangerous,” the ACO said.  This one was probably in shock; otherwise, “J” could have been hurt – “sliced up” was the expression.  Think sharp hooves.  A deer’s foot has two elongated toes capped by a hard, horny toe nail, or hoof.

If a deer lets a human approach or pet him, that’s a dangerous sign.  Because deer are prey animals, they see humans and other animals as predators. They’ll choose flight every time, fighting when necessary to escape capture, confinement or cage – all highly stressful for them.  Deer have been known to kill themselves battering against enclosures to get free.  

Humans trying to “help” injured adult deer make a huge mistake.  As for removing the injured deer to “J”’s back yard, only licensed animal re-habbers can legally re-hab a wild animal.

Bottom line, as “J” said afterward: “Think with your head, not your heart!”   

(Readers, if you know of other situations when animal activists would be better off backing off, please comment here!)

As a spokesperson for a New Jersey pro-hunting and trapping organization recently found out, you don’t want to spread misinformation about animal issues and wind up on the wrong side of Animal Protection League of NJ reps. Two of them recently dealt with Edward J. Markowski’s fabrications about leg-hold traps, raccoons and rabies, effectively giving him and his supporters the old one-two. 

First, responding to his November article in the Press of Atlantic City, Susan Russell, APLNJ’s director of wildlife policy, authoritatively disproved his claims.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/commentary/new-leghold-traps-help-control-raccoons-carrying-rabies-by-edward/article_eb9e18d5-3c9f-525b-aafb-539964c16c75.html

After that, those commenting favorably on his position were treated to a stinging rebuttal by Janine Motta, APLNJ’s programs director. (Use the following link to reach Russell’s guest column-correction and Motta’s comment.)

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/commentary/trapping-lobbyist-misleading-about-raccoons-rabies-and-leghold-traps-says/article_86660b30-f5d5-5d7f-b333-4b2d952f785a.html

Since then, State Senator Raymond Lesniak has joined Assemblyman Daniel Benson in co-sponsoring a more comprehensive bill (S2750/A4407) against all such traps. See APLNJ’s website for details on the bill, its reasons and how to support it.   

--Pat Summers

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1-29-17

 

Circuses down, pangolins up

 

Circuses down, pangolins up

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will go out of business this May. That’s not soon enough, but it’s still great news for all the animals involuntarily involved with the mis-named “greatest show on earth.” 

So “send out the clowns,” as one news story had it. Ring down the curtain on the cruel and inhumane spectacle that should have ended millennia ago in the Roman Colosseum.  

“Entertainment”?  It is to laugh. What’s entertaining about deciding that animals are ours to tamper with and torture into performing for us? . . .  about tearing baby elephants away from their mothers at a criminally early age, then sadistically “breaking” them in spirit so they’ll  perform? . . . about compelling mature elephants to walk in circles holding each other’s tails, wear headdresses and balance on stools or balls?

Coupled with traveling in boxcars often chained in place, enduring severe weather conditions and being made to march through city streets heralding the circus, that’s how it goes for a performing elephant. Does any of it sound like everyday life in the forest, jungle or savanna? 

And that’s just the elephants. Don’t forget the big cats and other animals forced into wretched lives and unnatural behaviors, for our amusement.

With the end of  Ringling Bros. -- no longer able to make enough money, literally, on the backs of innocent, abused animals -- what will become of all those performing animals? Will they finally find sanctuary: a chance to live more naturally and at peace? 

Ringling was only the biggest and worst circus to ruthlessly exploit animals. There are still others out there, along with animal shows and rides. Activists have much more work to do.

Did someone say “pangolins”?  Oh, right – I did.  My last post mentioned a worldwide ban on trade of endangered pangolins, and I included an image of a pangolin that made it look scaly, huge and prehistoric.  Not to worry: “scaly” is the only accurate word of those three. Covered with scales made of keratin (think human hair and finger nails), the largest pangolins are comparable in size to a medium-size dog – say, a hound. 

Among the eight pangolin species (four each in Asia and Africa), weights can range from about four to 70-some pounds. That’s it. These “scaly anteaters” are mainly nocturnal and insectivorous, with large curved claws and long sticky tongues that help them consume ants and termites. When threatened, pangolins roll up in a ball resembling an artichoke.

That defensive position may deter a lion, but not a human hunter or poacher – the reasons behind the animals’ endangered status. Demand for pangolin meat and scales (used in medicine) caused the killing of more than one million wild pangolins in the last decade, making them the world’s most illegally trafficked mammal.

Which is where the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) came in last fall, moving pangolins to its most-protected category. Now, widespread enforcement can make all the difference.  https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/science/endangered-pangolins-trade-ban.html

(Next post:  APLNJ administers “the old one-two”! )

 

--Pat Summers

 

Looking back . . . but mostly ahead

 

Looking back . . . but mostly ahead

 

Is it [hunting] really a sport if you have all the equipment

and your opponent doesn't know a game is going on? --Bill Maher

 

Every new year begins with a transition period when we look back as well as forward, wondering how it will all fall out. What was memorable about 2016, and what will mark 2017?

Last year turned out to include numerous highlights for world animals.  Among other positives, Ringling Brothers retired their performing elephants and the US tightened sales of ivory. Sea World pledged to stop breeding captive orcas. A worldwide ban on trade of endangered pangolins took effect.

With China’s plan to shut down its commercial ivory trade by year’s end, 2017 began with hopeful signs for animal welfare – in this case, elephants, who are staring extinction in the face. We’ll watch and hope.

But as the saying goes, “Think globally, act locally.”  Which brings us to the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, where animal advocacy never stops.  Caring and working for animals has  been described as a non-partisan activity.  So, despite politics and “for the animals,” let’s go!   

APL campaigns from last year continue this year. One example: the fight to force steel-jaw leg-hold traps back into the illegal status they earned in 1984.  Recent attempts by trappers and their cronies to circumvent the statute outlawing these sadistic traps succeeded last October with an appellate court’s decision in their favor.

Not sitting still for that opinion, APL has appealed.  An op-ed column in the Star-Ledger (1-1-17) tells the story behind the court’s decision.  Susan Russell, its author, is wildlife policy director for APL; she was Friends of Animals’ VP for wildlife and chief lobbyist behind the law outlawing leg-hold traps.

 

Her incisive column opens this way:  “In a sharply criticized opinion, an appellate panel in New Brunswick allowed the state Fish and Game Council to continue its pretense that a modified steel-jaw leg-hold trap is not a steel-jaw leg-hold trap.” 

 

Don’t stop there! Please read on – then act!  (http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/01/animal_rights_court_ignored_the_law_in_ruling_on_c.html)

  

“Defending New Jersey’s black bears since 1992,” APL efforts continue on behalf of our bears, going into the final year -- and, it’s hoped, the final hunt(s) -- of Gov. Christie’s tenure.  Things can only get better for bears.  Same with the Canada geese in Edgewater Borough, where gassing has been the mode du jour for managing wildlife “problems,” despite APL suggestions for non-lethal means like habitat modification and its offer to buy out the town’s gassing contract.  

  

Reform doesn’t come easily.  “So much of what we’re doing must be under the radar, so the opposition doesn’t thwart efforts,” says Executive Director Angi Metler.  “It’s frustrating because our members need to know.”  Demonstrations or protests aren’t commonly used methods because they can so easily become counter-productive -- without huge numbers of people representing a cross section of the population, without a plan, without follow-up.  

Instead, Metler says, “We attended over 150 meetings last year,” reflecting the organization’s preference for campaigns with educational components. These can also include talks with public officials and presenting alternatives; billboards; brochures; mailings; advertising.  “We don’t do dictates,” Metler says:  “We offer solutions.  If you set up a blueprint in one town that others can use . . . ,” that’s the way to go.

For instance, much of APL’s success in convincing New Jersey towns and counties to ban animal circuses and shows resulted from return visits and patient chipping away at the issue. Bergen County freeholders praised APL reps Julie O’Connor and Laurie Perla for how they won them over to the side of the animals.  

While other 2017 action targets also exist, Metler’s aware that “our work is dynamic and it can’t be 100% planned.”  One thing is certain:  a lot will be happening.

--Pat Summers

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1-12-17

 

Our new blog: ‘Read all about it!’

 

Our new blog: ‘Read all about it!’  

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice,

but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

-Elie Wiesel  (1928-2016)

 

Hello, friends and visitors. Welcome to APL’s blog!

We wanted another way to fill you in on the Animal Protection League of New Jersey -- its people, projects and issues. So, sometimes here, we’ll describe behind-the-scenes activities (how do we convince towns to prohibit wild animal circuses? how do we put together a fundraiser, or a lawsuit?) and sometimes, we’ll frankly editorialize (what’s our position on DFW’s bear management program?).

At other times, we’ll profile a hard-working APL volunteer or ask a staff member about a specialty area. By periodically highlighting what we stand for and what we do, we hope this blog will complement and enrich our website, and motivate even more animal activists.

Because we’re all connected and mutually dependent, we’ll also report occasionally on the wider world of animals. What happens outside New Jersey can affect what happens here (elephant and rhino poaching in Africa leads to legislation in NJ), and vice versa (our governor’s refusal to end gestation crates for breeding sows drew national attention).  As members of it ourselves, we care about our family of animals -- everywhere.  

But first, some brief background.  

Now in its 33^rd year, APLNJ started in 1983 as the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance (NJARA).  It is believed to be the only state-based, statewide organization advocating for animals! 

APL was co-founded by Angi Metler, executive director, who has said, “I have always felt it is both a privilege and an honor to work for the animals. It's a calling.” That quote may best explain Angi’s intense, long-time involvement in animal protection and advocacy.

Since Janine Motta, programs director, came to APL in 1988, her commitment and responsibilities have kept on growing. Besides running the organization’s office, she oversees fundraising and many APL campaigns. 

(Detailed staff bios of all APL leaders are on the website.  Hover over “Support” at the top right, then click on “Who We Are” and read on.)

During the last few months, APL’s varied efforts for animals around the state have included fighting against the gassing of geese; working toward non-lethal deer management instead of bow hunts; ending wild animal acts and circuses, and using all legal means to keep steel-jaw leghold trap devices – outlawed here 32 years ago --  illegal. This work complements ongoing programs such as those on behalf of feral cats, animals in laboratories and New Jersey’s black bears.

A bill now working its way through the legislative process could make New Jersey the first state  in the nation to ban the cruel practice of declawing cats. What a blessing for cats, who need their  claws – not the often debilitating after-effects of amputation surgery. (For details, visit  www.thepawproject.com and see the movie of the same name.) And what a coup for our state if, except when it is medically necessary, declawing becomes an animal cruelty offense.

Before closing for now, huge thanks to Angi and Janine for making this blog possible. Once we’ve ironed out production wrinkles and it’s comfortably underway, your reactions and suggestions for making the blog better will be most welcome.

--Pat Summers

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