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.  

It’s past time for NJ’s bear hunt to be ended -- for good

                                                                                                        Bill Lea pic

In six days earlier this month, hunters killed 265 New Jersey black bears.  That’s an average of 44 bears, cubs and adults, a day. 

For the first three days, hunters were restricted to bows and arrows.  After that, archers and muzzle-loading rifle hunters were “allowed to participate,” as the Times of Trenton reported, as if discussing a party or a dance.   On Monday, Dec. 9, the firearms-only bear hunt resumes for six more days.

  

“Most of the bears harvested [so far] this year were culled in Sussex, Warren and Morris counties,” the story said, first using a euphemism more appropriate for vegetables than for innocent sentient beings, and then using a word that in wildlife management usually refers to removing a sick or weak animal from a herd or flock. 

But the 265 black bears just killed by hunters were not necessarily sick or weak -- they were simply “killable” -- that is, visible, possibly drawn by bait, or they just happened by . . . and so they were killed.  There was no selection of which bears should die; there were simply hunters out there ready to kill bears.

“Culling” is bad enough for the animals; indiscriminate killing is worse. 

All of which raises the question:  Why? 

Sometimes the reason given is that bears can be nuisances.  They may raid humans’ garbage cans or bird feeders, jeopardize pets’ safety, scare people.  But how many humans in bear country use bear-proof trash containers?  And what kind of enforcement occurs to assure they do?

The numbers of phone calls about nuisance bears are often cited as an excuse for the bear hunt.  But even if those numbers are valid, they would surely drop dramatically if people used bear-proof garbage containers. 

Without the recommended receptacles and without enforcement, what’s left?  A bear hunt, in which any bear in the hunters’ sights may be killed.  And that’s why this state’s bear hunt comes across as little more than a trophy hunt -- with innocent bears being killed.   

                                                                                Kehoe pic

I doubt that those hunting the bears are people irate that their garbage bins were raided; somehow, I think they’re just people who think it’s "sport" to kill bears (by whatever poacher-means necessary, like baiting). . . just people eager to brag about the bear(s) that didn’t get away. 

This bear hunt is a trophy-travesty fostered by the Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), whose bear-management plan is murderous, not humane or non-lethal.  It kowtows to hunters -- a teeny-tiny percentage of our population -- apparently without a single compassionate, or informed, thought about our black bears.

Isn’t it time for New Jersey residents, most of whom want only to enjoy our open spaces and wildlife, to take on DFW?  One animal advocacy organization, the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, has already been told that zero complaints about bears would still not halt the hunt. (See October 13 post.) 

Since then, the director of the Humane Society of the US-New Jersey highlighted for DFW reps the “out of touch, ineffective, counterproductive, and extreme regulations on the books such as those that allow bear baiting.”  He also “asked that they make even a mild effort to ticket garbage offenders in key concentrated places of complaints or problems.”   

But DFW reps “refused to even commit to that—refused to enforce their own regulation, which would cut down on complaints, which would cut down on “justification” for hunting.”  As a result, Director Brian Hackett concluded that “our DEP is more out of touch and extreme than those in Arizona, Wyoming, and other hunting-heavy states.”

Before Part 2 of the bear hunt can begin in December, let’s barrage Governor Murphy with phone calls, urging him to keep his campaign promise to end the hunt.  Despite his disclaimers, doing so is legally within his power -- and morally, he owes it to the bears.  His half-measure “compromise” last year didn’t satisfy anyone, them least of all.

Please phone the governor (609-292-6000)!

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

Felines rule -- at least in this post!

                                          Catster pic

Cats and cats and cats:  my reading file runneth over!  Yes, I know we’re between NJ bear hunts, involved with myriad other animal advocacy projects and concerned about animal welfare worldwide . . . but many of us also live with cats we love and care for. 

So, some cat news and views today.

This first news brief can’t really be a surprise: “Data from recent studies show that your personality can have a serious impact on your cat’s health,” Catster online reports.  Well, of course.  

Rosey H

Like most people, most cats must prefer peace, quiet and positivism. Continuing the parallel, cats and people alike can show ill effects when subject to the opposite conditions.  

Studying cat owners’ answers to questions about their cats and themselves, UK researchers found that people “who scored high in the “neuroticism” category had cats with more ongoing medical issues, including stress-linked illness, and anxious or fearful behaviors. These cats were also more likely to be overweight.”

At “the other end of the spectrum, owners scoring high on agreeableness, extroversion, conscientiousness and openness were more likely to have cats with fewer health and behavior problems.”

Which prompts me to wonder whether those who adopt cats out should run similar tests on -- or at least warn -- about this connection to prospective feline parents.  Similarly, should veterinarians have a word with cat parents scoring high in the neuroticism category?  

Hypoallergenic cats: for real?

Sphynx                                     Shutterstock

All I needed to see in this article was the main cause for vets ending their careers -- no, not dog bites or burnout, but allergies to cats!  I confess to being skeptical about people who claim allergies when surrendering cats, but this article, written by a vet, lends support to that excuse. 

Hypoallergenic cats?  Maybe . . .

 https://www.catster.com/lifestyle/do-hypoallergenic-cats-exist-cat-allergies?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=Catster%20Ful%20List&utm_campaign=CED20190814

Shelter cat health

The good news: more and more people are adopting cats from shelters (which are the worst possible places for cats, who have abysmal survival rates in such places).  The bad news: adopters often have to wonder how healthy their chosen cat is.

A key piece of advice in Catster’s “Health Help for Shelter Cats” is to get the desired cat’s medical history, or at least the immediate history (“which shelters are ethically obligated to be honest about”).  Be alert about what diseases to look out for, and consider both the facility’s cleanliness and crowdedness.

Spotting pheromone diffusers can signal a shelter’s good intentions because use of products like Feliway can help reduce feline stress levels. 

    

                                  AlleyCatAllies pic

Given that a new pet’s health is the most important concern for adopters, this article advises what to check out and how to move your new cat into your home -- especially if resident cats are already there.  

https://www.catster.com/adoption/health-help-for-shelter-cats?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=Catster%20Ful%20List&utm_campaign=CED20191002

Finally on the cat front, “Californians are leading the pack,” according to a recent Humane Society of the US (HSUS) report: a new law there stops the trophy hunting of bobcats (while another new law bans the sale of new fur products).  Go Golden State!  

‘. . . something completely different’

Next Saturday, October 26, is National Pit Bull Awareness Day.  And these poor, put-upon dogs have sure earned the recognition!  Pet a pit bull; get to know a pit bull; adopt a pit bull -- for pittie’s sake!

The Cats

by Ann Iverson

To find such glory in a dehydrated pea

on the tile between the stove and fridge.

To toss the needs of others aside

when you simply aren't in the mood for affection.

To find yourselves so irresistible.

And always in a small spot of sun,

you sprawl and spread out the pleasure of yourselves

never fretting, never wanting to go back

to erase your few decisions.

To find yourself so remarkable

all the day long.

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Your comments are always welcome.  Please go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com and have your say.    

For New Jersey's wildlife, life grows even harder

The hunt is on.  The NJ black bear hunt that Gov. Phil Murphy as a candidate vowed to end is on.  It’s on despite Murphy’s promise to end what former Gov. Christie backed for two terms, and despite credible arguments against the need for such a hunt.

The hunt is on because sportsmen’s lobbies -- including the DEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife -- won out over Murphy’s better angels.  Last year, trying to please animal advocates and hunters alike (an impossible, unprincipled goal), Murphy barred the hunt from state lands . . . while bear slaughter continued everywhere else.

Is that weasely act considered “compromise” if it still means needlessly killing our bears, who are guilty of nothing but falling prey to unsecured garbage and the unconscionable hunter practice of “baiting”? That's “bear management”?!   

  

For six days this week and another six days starting Dec. 9, NJ’s black bears will be mercilessly pursued and killed for no other real reason than trophies.   

Yes, this is a trophy hunt; nothing more.  And that fact was proven once again during last month’s meeting of three Animal Protection League of NJ  (APLNJ) reps with DEP’s assistant commissioner to discuss unsecured garbage in bear country.  

Because nuisance complaints (like bears going after garbage) are often used to justify bear hunts, APLNJ asked Ray Bukowski if the hunt would be canceled if there were zero complaints.  He and an attorney from the state Attorney General's office stated in unison and without hesitation, "No."

What more do you need to know?  As one meeting participant summed it up: “The New Jersey bear hunt is not about nuisance complaints.  It's a recreational trophy hunt.  The . . . complaints are used to justify the hunt to the public."

If only our black bears had lawyers!  Since bear hunt motivation often hinges on untrue oral and printed statements (slander and libel) about bear behavior, they could sue the DFW for defamation of character.  

Simple enforcement of regulations for garbage disposal and practice of common-sense precautions would keep bears from roaming around or breaking into unsecured trash cans. Oh, but then the “justification” for a bear hunt would disappear and hunters would be disappointed.   

    

Kill bill (A3242)!

                         APLNJ pic

If not our bears, it’s our deer that hunters set their ever-widening sights on.  Now, a piece of legislation that’s particularly horrible for NJ wildlife is moving toward becoming law -- unless state residents convince Gov. Murphy to veto it.

A3242 would vastly expand unethical methods of killing animals to thousands of acres of wooded land, thereby normalizing inhumane practices throughout much of our state.  It would legalize deer-hunting methods usually associated with animal poachers, including “baiting,” or attracting animals with food, then killing them as they “take the bait”; stunning animals with bright lights, or “jacklighting” --then killing them; and shooting animals from moving vehicles.  

  

Ostensibly to stop crop damage blamed on them, animals could be killed on specified lands -- without proof of animal “depredation” or mention of any other known causes of crop damage.  Most important, A3242 offers no humane, nonlethal means of dealing with animals believed to be damaging crops.

                                          APLNJ pic

In short, this bill appears to be little more than a license to kill wildlife in reprehensible ways over expanded areas of New Jersey.  Those who agree should move quickly to tell their state assembly members to veto A3242 and urge the governor (phone 609-292-6000) if it reaches his desk to veto it.

New Jersey’s wildlife needs our help!

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Your comments are always welcome.  Just go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com, and say on!