Wicked, wildfires, avian flu, mass duck kill, Renkl, Greenwald + more 1/27/25

Avian flu is back in the Los Angeles times today. Over the weekend, the New York Times covered a duck farm’s extermination of 100,000 animals to control the spread of that disease. The Los Angeles wildfires are still big animal news, with a Sunday LA Times op-ed covering the effect our building choices on wildlife, and an online piece looking at pet rescue in the fire aftermath. The Montreal Gazette has covered protests against the import of macaques for experimentation. A US Catholic Magazine’s rave review of Wicked, focusing on the animal rights message, got me to watch that movie. I look forward to sharing my thoughts on that with you, as well as the latest from Margaret Renkl, Glenn Greenwald’s System Pupdates, and more.

First, let me thank all of you who use the letters sections of your newspapers to give animals a voice. David Bernazani let me know he had a letter in Saturday’s Washington Post, contrasting a recent heartless Garfield comic with the beautiful Mutts Comics Guard Dog storyline. You can view his letter via the DawnWatch X post, the DawnWatch Facebook post, or my personal Instagram post.

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Today’s, Monday January 27, page A5 Los Angeles Times story on Avian flu, by Susanne Rust, is titled, “Withdrawal from WHO might leave U.S. on its own on bird flu.”

It opens with:

“Since March 2024, when the virus was first reported in a Texas dairy herd, the virus has killed one person, sickened scores more, contaminated the nation’s food supply, felled dozens of house pets, infected more than 900 dairy herds across 16 states, and caused the deaths of millions of wild animals and commercially raised chickens, ducks and turkeys.

“So how President Trump and his administration will deal with this widespread, potentially deadly virus, which scientists say is just a mutation or two away from becoming a full-blown human pandemic, is a question many health officials and infectious disease experts are now asking.”

It expresses concern for President Trump’s choice to withdraw from the World Health Organization, explaining that his decision, “rests on two of his convictions: First, that the organization mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and second, that it charges the U.S. too much money — ‘far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments’….”

And it quotes Matthew Hayek, assistant professor of environmental studies at New York University, telling us:

“The Trump administration ‘has a real opportunity to come in and think about this virus and change the way we manage these kinds of issues,’ he said — noting the Biden administration’s bungled and flat-footed response, which allowed the virus to spread virtually unchecked across the nation’s dairy herds for months. Instead, ‘from the looks of it, that’s not going to happen. It seems that these first worrying steps with respect to muzzling public health agencies is moving in the opposite direction. And doubling down on the Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil strategy of the Biden administration’ is just going to make it worse.”

Here’s a Yahoo link to that story in case you hit a paywall at the LA Times link I provided above.

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The page B1 article, titled,  “Central Valley is blind to bird flu problem,” by Melissa Gomez and Susanne Rust, opens with:

“As the H5N1 bird flu virus continues to rip throughout California’s dairy herds and commercial poultry flocks, a Central Valley state official is raising concern about the lack of wastewater surveillance in the region.”

Here’s a Yahoo link to that one.

If you’ve not yet responded to the Los Angeles Times, thanking them for their coverage of Avian flu, and linking it’s spread to our horrendous treatment of animals, whether it be due to our feeding chicken litter to cows or insisting on drinking the milk of another species, or any of the cruelty we inflict, or if you have written before but haven’t yet been published on that topic, please weigh in with a letter to the editor.

I send thanks to Elaine Livesey-Fassel for sending those LA Times articles, and more, our way.

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The New York Times, on Saturday, page A17, ran “Long Island Farm to Kill Ducks After Detecting Bird Flu.” Online the heading of that article is “100,000 Ducks to Be Killed After Bird Flu Strikes Long Island Farm: The highly infectious H5N1 strain has caused outbreaks across the country. Now, Long Island’s last duck farm must kill its entire flock and may go out of business, its owner said.”

Here’s a gift link.

As horrifying as that is, every one of those ducks was destined for a hideous death, so we might see the upside of the prospect of a duck farmer going out of business.

If you are inclined to weigh in on that one, giving animals a voice in the New York Times, you’ll find the info you need here.

I send thanks to Tereas D’Amico for sending that and other pieces our way.

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Sunday’s Los Angeles Times op-ed, by Jeff Sebo, titled, “Building safer cities means protecting animals too” (page A16) opens with:

“The recent Los Angeles wildfires are the most destructive in the region’s history. More than two dozen people have died, and tens of thousands have fled their homes. The damage extends beyond our species too:

“According to one survey, nearly half of evacuees from a disaster or emergency leave at least one pet behind. Wild animals die or flee their habitats during natural disasters as well, often with nowhere to go.

“Fortunately, people are stepping up to help. Organizations are working tirelessly to rescue animals, and as local shelters reach capacity, some organizations are taking animals to nearby states; for example, the charities Best Friends Animal Society and Wings of Rescue relocated more than 80 cats and dogs from L.A. County to Utah.

“The wildfires, and these responses, are a reminder that human and animal fates are linked, in part because of the effects of human activity. We might think that we should leave animals alone, but that ship has sailed — L.A., for instance, is home to countless animals and interacts with them all the time both directly, through animal control, and indirectly, through environmental management.”

If you hit a paywall at the LA Times link above you can use this Yahoo link to read the piece.

That piece opens the door for letters to the Los Angeles Times on any aspect of our relationships with other species, a topic that paper has, blessedly, shown a willingness to cover on its letters page.

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For inspiration for writing about our relationships with other species, we have the New York Times columnist Margaret Renkl’s latest piece, in which she looks at the viral video of a coyote hiding in a supermarket fridge, expands the view to other animals, and then reminds us that “we need to rethink our own relationship to the natural world.”

Here’s a gift link to that beautiful column, which will likely be printed in tomorrow’s paper.  At the bottom of the piece the Times 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.

Please don’t think you need Margaret Renkl’s formidable writing chops in order to lend animals your voice. If you are inspired to write, a couple of lines straight from your heart have the best chance of getting published, especially if they say something that hasn’t already been said.

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A stunning rave review of Wicked, from the magazine US Catholic, tells us:

“In the magical Oz of Wicked, animals talk and live among humans. Indeed, future Wicked Witch Elphaba is mostly raised by a compassionate bear when her father, horrified by her green skin, rejects her at birth. This might be why, after enrolling as a student at Shiz University, she develops a particular fondness for her history professor, the goat Dr. Dillamond. The last animal teaching at this prestigious institution, he is ultimately fired from his job, roughly escorted out of the classroom, and replaced by a new professor who introduces the concept of keeping animals in cages, a practice previously not seen in Oz. This cruelty horrifies Elphaba, who, as a marginalized human mostly raised by animals, identifies with them and cares for them.”

I suspect a few folks reading this newsletter can relate.

The review mentions that Cynthia Erivo is vegan. So is Ariana Grande, the other lead. The world is changing!

On a less important note, Ariana has a four-octave vocal range and a voice like an angel.

That review got me to watch the movie last night, even though it still costs $20 to stream, and I am so glad I did. I remember my utter delight upon seeing “Guardians of the Galaxy,” the fourth highest grossing movie of 2023, and realizing that a generation of kids was growing up with the message that animal testing is not okay. Wicked, the sixth highest grossing film of 2024, but still in theatres, and already the highest grossing film adaptation of a Broadway musical, goes a step further with the animal liberation message, suggesting animals don’t belong in cages at all.

Amen.

I hope you will share the US Catholic review. I have it on the DawnWatch x feed and Facebook pages. And I urge you to run out and see or rent the film!

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I have been remiss in not having yet shared with you Glenn Greenwald system pupdates.  Greenwald is an anti-establishment, brilliant multi-award-winning journalist who I stared following years ago when I saw how seriously he covered animal issues. He and his husband, who passed away recently, adopted 17 dogs. Greenwaldt has started bringing us one of their stories every Friday on his show.  If you enjoy the story of this week’s pup, Greg, be sure to “like” the video.

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Canadians received an alert over the weekend about a prominent article in the Montreal Gazette, “Canada urged to halt importation of monkeys from Cambodia.”

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And in other major media animal news posted to the DawnWatch X feed and DawnWatch Facebook page over the last week:

Numerous outlets, including El Paso’s 9 News, covered  the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling against the Nonhuman Right’s Projects argument that elephants held captive at the zoo there are persons, illegally imprisoned. In London’s Sunday Times, columnist Rod Liddle wrote that “the court is a little behind the times.”

Bustle Magazine has covered a campaign by American Wild Horses Conservation to encourage wild horse ecotourism, instead of wild horse government round-ups.  (I send thanks to David Sickles for making sure we saw that.)

The Guardian has run a nice article on the efforts of the North Valley Animal Disaster Group, Pasadena Humane, and Best Friends to rescue animals from areas destroyed by the Los Angeles Fires.

Meanwhile the Los Angeles Times editorial board has sent out their opinion, online only for now, that it is time for government to let people into those areas to find their pets.

Yours and all animals’,
Karen Dawn of DawnWatch