Cow love, dogs as property, wildlife crossings, cockfighting, Lolita + … 7/14/24

Today’s New York Times brings us three important articles, the best of which, in praise of cow cuddles, is as yet only online but is well worth sharing. A Los Angeles Times editorial (the paper’s opinion) shows care and sensitivity to wildlife, and a Miami Herald story details how bad conditions were at the Miami Seaquarium when Lolita/Tokitae died.

Before I cover those, let me thank all Canadians who responded to an alert sent out last week about a nauseating op-ed in the Calgary Herald praising the animal welfare improvements at the Calgary Stampede. All who wrote helped Jo-Anne McArthur’s wonderful letter get published yesterday under the heading “Speaking for the Stampede Animals.” Given that paper tells us that three animals have been killed, two horses and a steer whose neck was broken as he was wrestled to the ground, and that the paper has just announced that the stamped is on the cusp of breaking an attendance record, further letters, from everywhere, are appropriate.

The paper advises “A letter to the editor, for publication, should be 150 words maximum. Indeed, it can be a sentence or two, and should be sent to letters@calgaryherald.com. Anyone can write a letter to the editor. Include your full name, address and phone for our files. Without this, your letter can’t be considered.”

Yahoo provides a horrifying photo of the moment the steer’s neck was broken under the headline, “Deaths at the Calgary Stampede: Is it time to ban rodeo?”  I urge you to share it.

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How fitting that along with that photo, I share the tender New York Times op-ed, “Cows are the new puppies,” by Professor Gregory Berns. I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a piece more, and so I urge you to read it and share it, and do my best to make that possible by providing this gift link. Though the article is not yet in print (it may have been slated for today and then knocked out by other news) the online version still notes:

“The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com ”

So, if you are inspired, you can at least send a quick note of appreciation.

I send thanks to Teresa D’Amico for making sure we saw the beautiful piece.

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In print in today’s New York Times, there is another important piece about animal rights, on page MB3,  under the heading, “A Dog’s Tale: Fellowship and Accountability.” Online, the column by Ginia Bellafante, had the more descriptive title, “A Hit-and-Run Driver Killed My Dog. The Penalty? Maybe a $100 Fine.” The subheading reads, “Chicky was beloved by her whole neighborhood. When she was killed by a speeding Jeep, we confronted a cold reality: Her death was considered a property crime.”

Reading the piece, I saw irony in Bellafante having purchased the dog from a breeder, rather than adopting him, then being surprised that he was deemed “property”. But the piece makes important points and is well worth checking out at this gift link from DawnWatch. And the picture of Chicky is pretty darn cute!

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Also in the New York Times Magazine this week, we find a column by Nicholas Cannariato, under “Sage Advice,” which also has a far more descriptive title online, “Why Do So Many Food Documentaries Seem to Think We’re Stupid? Over and over, they strain to persuade us that vegetables are healthy — and other things we’ve all known since childhood.” Here’s a gift link to that one. If you care to share thoughts with the paper, in order to lend animals your voice, the correct address in response to a Magazine article is magazine@nytimes.com

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Today’s, Sunday July 14, Los Angeles Times includes a welcome editorial , the opinion of the paper, page A16, titled, “Good fences make for safer mountain lion crossings.

After sharing recent mountain lion road deaths, it tells us:

“Wildlife crossings are the only way that all kinds of creatures can safely cross roads and highways in some areas. But there are other ways to help improve wildlife safety. For example, experts say strategically placing more fencing closer to roadways could discourage mountain lions and other animals from traversing dangerous roads and also serve as guideposts to wildlife crossings that include paths along bridges as well as culverts and underpasses. For mountain lions in particular, the crossings offer essential connection between patches of habitat so they can roam and mate.

“Over the past two decades, biologists from the National Park Service and Caltrans have worked to improve crossings and construct fencing along stretches of roads and freeways, such as along one side of the 405 from north of the Mulholland Bridge to where Sepulveda Boulevard crosses under the freeway near the Getty Center. Caltrans often makes this kind of wildlife mitigation when it undertakes a big road project. But it can be challenging to create the perfect fence high enough to keep a mountain lion from catapulting over it (they can leap as high as 12 feet) and close enough to the road to deter animals…

“And while it has to keep animals from getting onto the roadway, it shouldn’t block them from getting off it. In some places, fencing has curved tops that bend away from the freeway so that animals on the road can get over the fence to safety — but animals on the land side of the roadway will be discouraged from climbing or jumping it. There are other methods for making a fence easy to scale on one side and a deterrent on the other. On one fenced portion of the 405, there is an earthen ramp built up to the fence on the freeway side that gives an animal a higher starting point to jump a high fence to the land side.”

Basically, the curved fences sound like the kind of cat fencing we wish more folks would use to keep their kitties in their yards!

The editorial ends with the kind of thinking that makes us love the paper. It notes that the fencing can cost thousands of dollars, if not a million sometimes, to erect and maintain, “But the investment is necessary if we want the region’s remaining mountain lions and other animals to thrive and roam safely.”

Surely that deserves a quick note of appreciation sent to the editor .

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Saturday’s Los Angeles Times article about the cockfighting find, page B1, was titled in print, “200 Roosters found at suspected fighting pit.” It tells us, “Sheriff’s deputies this week discovered approximately 200 roosters — all mutilated so that knives could be attached to them — during a search of an apparent cockfighting pit in Santa Cruz County.”

If you hit a paywall, you can access the article via this Yahoo link .

Let me note that on the same theme, wildlife crossings, DawnWatch Angelenos received an alert this week about another nicely toned article in the Los Angeles Times, titled, “Paving the way for wildlife?” The subheading is, “A female bear’s wanderlust could help researchers determine where future animal crossings should be situated in the Southland.”

As always, I send thanks to Elaine Livesey-Fassel for making sure we see what’s happening with animals in the Los Angeles Times, undoubtedly one of the world’s most influential papers, given the industry it informs.

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The Sunday, July 14, Miami Herald includes a depressing piece titled, “Did the public know all the facts about Lolita’s death?” by Valerie Greene, a former SeaWorld Orlando animal trainer and a Barry University’s Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law graduate.

It includes:

“The unprecedented decision by the USDA to deregulate Lolita allowed MS Leisure to maintain the country’s most famous orca in a deplorable tank. Lolita died in a tank in disrepair while the general public believed she was doing great and going home soon. Ironically, MS Leisure’s deal with the USDA not to publicly display Lolita allowed the severity of her situation to remain hidden from the public.”

I urge Florida folks, and all those especially moved by the Lolita/Tokitae tale, to send a letter , appreciative of the piece (papers have been shown to favor letters that praise them) which speaks for animals.

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In other animal news in major media, which I have shared on the DawnWatch Facebook page over the last week:

–The Los Angeles Times brought us another article about wildlife crossings, which lets us know, “The latest project, which is still under environmental review, is the Highway 17 Wildlife and Trail Crossing Project in the Santa Cruz Mountains.”

Here’s an alternative link to that one, without a paywall.

–The Guardian brought us awful news under the title, “Outrage after Biden administration reinstates ‘barbaric’ Trump-era hunting rules.” The subheading notes, “Rules allow hunting practices that target bears and wolves, including pups or cubs, on federal land in Alaska.”

As I share that, I wish to note that in response to last week’s alert, which included the Wall Street Journal op-ed detailing Biden’s awful record on animals and my own thoughts on his administration’s choice to take a side, aligning with the pork industry against California’s ban on meat from pigs kept in gestation crates, I heard from a thoughtful reader. She was concerned that if I claim that DawnWatch is “politically agnostic”, I should “evenhandedly contrast the record of the Trump Administration in the same arenas—their assaults against the EPA, their attempts to dismantle the Endangered Species Act, and their many other bad acts that have hurt our planet and the beautiful animals we are trying to protect.”

I replied, “Because DawnWatch is an animal protection organization, rather than an environmental organization, I thought by pointing out that only 4 percent of mammals live in the environment that Trump so wantonly destroys, I was doing due diligence. But your note makes me realize that I should have done better and I appreciate it.”
I really did appreciate it because I am sure others thought and felt what that reader shared. Let me note now that I didn’t detail how bad Trump has been on the environment, partly because I cannot believe that there are any readers of DawnWatch who do not know that. And yes, I still do think I can avoid sharing the details because DawnWatch is not an environmental organization. But, let me stress that if anybody got the impression that I was suggesting that folks should go vote for Trump they read me wrong. Again, what I was saying, was the same thing I said in my article for The Progressive Magazine some years back, which I do hope you’ll read if you have not. It is titled “Making Animal Protection a Political Issue”, and it stresses that if we wish to change things for animals, we have to stop giving politicians a pass when they ignore them, let alone when they come out against them.

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— Fox 7 in Austin covered,  “What do you do if you see an animal in a hot car in Texas?” making it clear that we animal advocates in Texas (where I am now half-time) need to work on upgrading laws to match California’s, given how strongly Austinites feel about animals!

— Newsweek shared “Anger As Owner Leaves Severely Sick Dog To Be Euthanized ‘All Alone’.” It’s actually a touching story with a happy ending, which might persuade folks to reconsider if they are ever tempted to leave their fur-kids to die in the hands of strangers.

— The Guardian brought us a gorgeous picture essay, “In the footsteps of tigers: the all-women patrol team protecting Sumatra’s rainforest.” The subheading reads, “The Leuser ecosystem is the only place in the world where tigers, elephants, orangutans and rhinos coexist in the wild, and Indigenous female rangers are at the heart of its protection.”

— In the wake of July 4, WIS TV shared, “Horse dies from stress following fireworks, owner says.” Warning, the photo will break your heart. I send thanks to Susan Thabit for making sure we didn’t miss it.

— Thanks to ABC 7 for covering the efforts of singer John Legend and Kismet Foods, and Veterinarian Kwane Stewart of Project Street Vet, to get dog food distributed to homeless folks with canine kids.

— Finally, I am a devoted fan of author Ann Patchett, so if she raves about something I check it out. And so, last weekend, driving back to Austin from Colorado, I listened to the Novel Sipsworth, by Simon Van Booy, read by the fabulous narrator Christine Rendel. I download audiobooks from the library using a wonderful service called Libby. I agree with the Washington Post’s assessment, that this tale of an elderly woman who befriends a mouse is “enchanting.”  It is also veggie-friendly and bursting with compassion. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Yours and all animals’,
Karen Dawn of DawnWatch