Summer 2019

SUMMER 2019

ACTION LINE

RESCUE HAS A NEW MEANING IN THE U.S.—BUT AT WHAT COST?

NYC FLIPS OFF FUR BY INTRODUCING FUR BAN INDISPENSABLE INSECTS

10 COVER STORY Rescue has a new meaning in the U.S.—but at what cost?

4 VICTORY LAP Latest news about FoA's advocacy and achievements 8 NEWS New York City flips off fur 14 LEGAL MATTERS Killing one animal to save another is not conservation 16 WILDLIFE WATCH Our guide to wildlife watching hot spots in the U.S. 24 VEG NEWS

Taking the fear factor out of vegan cooking

WHO WE ARE Friends of Animals is an international non-profit animal-advocacy organization, incorporated in the state of New York in 1957. FoA works to cultivate a respectful view of nonhuman animals, free-living and domestic. Our goal is to free animals from cruelty and institutionalized exploitation around the world.

Friends of Animals is proud to be a woman-founded and -led organization for more than 60 years.

CONTACT US NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 777 Post Road Darien, Connecticut 06820 (203) 656-1522 contact@friendsofanimals.org WESTERN OFFICE 7500 E. Arapahoe Rd., Ste 385 Centennial, CO 80112 (720) 949-7791

OUR TEAM PRESIDENT Priscilla Feral [CT] www.twitter.com/pferal www.twitter.com/primate_refuge feral@friendsofanimals.org DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Robert Orabona [CT] admin@friendsofanimals.org DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Dustin Rhodes [NC] dustin@friendsofanimals.org COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Fran Silverman [CT] fsilverman@friendsofanimals.org CORRESPONDENT/EDITOR Nicole Rivard [CT] nrivard@friendsofanimals.org SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Meghan McIntire [NC] www.twitter.com/FoAorg mmcintire@friendsofanimals.org DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION Donna Berlanda [CT] dberlanda@friendsofanimals.org

28 IN YOUR BACKYARD A who's who of indispensable insects

PRIMARILY PRIMATES SANCTUARY P.O. Box 207 San Antonio, TX 7891-02907 (830) 755-4616 office@primarilyprimates.org

32 PEOPLE WHO INSPIRE Taking a shot at reclaiming a river

VISIT US www.friendsofanimals.org www.primarilyprimates.org

SPAY/NEUTER PROJECT Paula Jensen [CT] spayprogram@friendsofanimals.org

FOLLOW US facebook.com /friendsofanimals.org /primarilyprimates.org

DIRECTOR, WILDLIFE LAW PROGRAM Michael Harris [CO] michaelharris@friendsofanimals.org

34 EARTH MATTERS Live in harmony with Canada geese by cleaning up after them 36 LETTERS 37 CHEERS & JEERS COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES

Twitter @FoAorg Instagram/foaorg MEMBERSHIP Annual membership includes a year’s subscription to Action Line. Students/Senior membership, $15; Annual membership, $25; International member, $35; Sustaining membership, $50; Sponsor, $100; Patron, $1,000. All contributions, bequests and gifts are fully tax-deductible in accordance with current laws.

REPRODUCTION No prior permission for the reproduction of materials from Action Line is required provided the content is not altered and due credit is given as follows: “Reprinted from Action Line, the Friends of Animals’ magazine, 777 Post Road, Darien, CT 06820.”

Action Line is a quarterly publication. Issue CLXXX Summer 2019 ISSN 1072-2068

ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT Donna Thigpen [CT] SECRETARY TO THE PRESIDENT Shelly Scott [CT]

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Jennifer Best [CO] jennifer@friendsofanimals.org ATTORNEYS Rachel Nussbaum[CO] rachel@friendsofanimals.org Andreia Marcuccio [CO] andreia@friendsofanimals.org Courtney McVean [CO] courtney.mcvean@friendsofanimals.org Stephen Hernick [CO] shernick@friendsofanimals.org OFFICE MANAGER Kathy Williams [CO] wlp_admin@friendsofanimals.org PRIMARILY PRIMATES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Brooke Chavez [TX] brooke@primarilyprimates.org CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jane Seymour [NY] jane@friendsofanimals.org

Printed on Recycled Paper

BY PRISCILLA FERAL, PRESIDENT

IN MY VIEW WE MUST RESTORE THE LITTLE THINGS WHO RUN THE WORLD Among recent, local sightings of urban raptors in Connecticut, we’ve seen red-shouldered and red-tailed hawks, bald eagles, ospreys, barred owls, great-horned owls, Cooper’s hawks and now, peregrine falcons—one of the fastest birds in the world.

Adult peregrine falcons have long, blue-gray primary feathers on their backs, which give them a long-winged shape, and black and white feathers on their chest. Their appearance is so striking—it underscores their power.

Ornithologist and hawk-watching expert Donald S. Heintzelman says some peregrine falcons use tall buildings or large bridges as nest sites from which they soar over cities to prey on pigeons or other medium-sized birds.

They’re among the most perfectly evolved and adapted birds. Along coastal areas, they enjoy open space and feed on shorebirds and ducks.

These falcons have rebounded from being eradicated from eastern North America in the mid-20th century when people, from farmers to gardeners, obsessed with insect control, began using the pesticide DDT. DDT caused falcons’ egg shells to become too fragile to hatch. Finally, in 1972, DDT was deemed so harmful it was banned. Studies showed not only adverse environmental effects, such as those to wildlife, but also revealed a relationship between DDT exposure and reproductive effects in humans.

Thanks to recovery efforts of carefully raising and releasing 6,000 falcon chicks in the wild, falcon numbers increased and were removed from the endangered species list in 1999.

So, who else might we save along with ourselves when we value and protect insects and pollinators?

Almost everywhere, birds must eke out a living in human-dominated landscapes designed for our use without any thought about what birds, insects, pollinators and other animals need to thrive. The promising news that we’ve learned from Doug Tallamy, entomology and wildlife professor at the University of Delaware, is that although insect populations have declined 45 percent globally since 1974, which threatens a functioning ecosystem, we can quickly restore the complex food webs that provide birds with insect protein if we plant native species as

landscape plants rather than non-native ornamentals.

Native annuals, perennials and flowering shrubs and trees attract 15 times more native insects than non-native ornamentals, and birds are among the best insecteaters.

Also, those insects attract, as Tallamy says, “A diversity of predators, parasites and diseases that keep their populations in check.” So, it operates as a natural system. In contrast, he says, “We run into trouble when we landscape with plants that support very few herbivores, because then there usually is not enough food to keep insect predators and parasitoids, as well as hungry birds, nearby.”

When there is an outbreak of one of many insects we’ve imported like Japanese beetles, along with Asian ornamentals, there are not enough natural enemies to control them. This, Tallamy writes, “helps explain why as much as four times more pesticide by weight is applied to suburban landscapes than to the agricultural landscape in the U.S.” All of us agree that there’s too much habitat destruction and that plants, insects, birds and animals have suffered as a result. We can help reverse that loss by making our own wildlife preserves on private properties that sustain plants, birds and other animals while fighting for the same on public lands.

We all need healthy ecosystems, and birds are an indicator of the quality of our environment. Most backyard birds are predators who thrive on caterpillars, insects and more when a complex food web that creates their nourishment exists.

That means eschewing lawn and garden pesticides and weed-killers. It means using compost for organic matter, or organic fertilizers that don’t harm pollinators, birds, or animals and marine life.

You can make simple changes to your landscape and your attitude to keep insects on the ground, in the air and on your plants.

Summer 2019 | 3

VICTORY LAP

BY NICOLE RIVARD AND FRAN SILVERMAN PHOTOGRAPH BY MAHIR UYSAL

FOA GOES THE DISTANCE AS OTHER GROUPS SELL OUT WILD HORSES Friends of Animals (FoA) won a victory in April when an Oregon judge ruled that the court could review whether the Environmental Protection Agency’s denial of its petition to declassify PZP as a registered pesticide to use on wild horses was arbitrary and capricious.

The ruling is key to moving the case against PZP forward and comes just as a group of national animal advocacy organizations claiming to help wild horses has actually sold them out.

“We look forward to going back to court to argue that PZP in fact should not be used on wild horses due to the negative impacts the drug has on the horses, including changing the behavior of the herd and causing premature death in foals,” said Michael Harris, director of Friends of Animals Wildlife Law Program.

FoA is the only wild horse advocacy group left truly protecting the interests of wild horses in America.

In April, the ASPCA, Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation and the Humane Society of the United States announced support for a proposed wild horse management plan that includes “robust fertility control” and “targeted roundups in densely populated Herd Management Areas.”

“The ASPCA and HSUS have

4 | Friends of Animals

thrown in the towel when it comes to protecting America’s wild horses by capitulating to the Bureau of Land Management and its wild horse extinction plan,’’ said Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals.

"It’s the exact opposite of what a compassionate, thoughtful animal advocacy group should do, and wild horses deserve better than to be sold out this way.

“It’s telling they say there needs to be targeted roundups in ‘densely populated Herd Management Areas.

The only thing HMAs are densely populated with are doomed cattle and sheep. Wild horses have lost more than 20 million acres of habitat since the passage of the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971."

HSUS holds the registration for the fertility pesticide PZP. FoA originally filed a complaint seeking to halt birth control treatments of wild horses with a contraceptive known as porcine zona pellucida, or PZP, in July of 2016.

“It’s no surprise they’ve become a mouthpiece for the BLM and are advocating for robust fertility control and ignoring recent studies that show PZP has unreasonable adverse side effects on wild horses,’’ Feral said. “Anyone supporting those physical assaults is morally bankrupt and undermines the integrity and importance of wild horses.”

Unlike the coalition, Friends of Animals has some rational options that truly protect wild horses for Congress to consider:

• Limit or restrict entirely cattle and sheep from grazing in wild horse Herd Management Areas (HMAs) • Limit oil, gas and mining operations in HMAs • Amend the Wild Horse and Burro Act to allow wild horses to be returned or relocated to Herd Areas in states where wild horses have been wiped out • Protect natural predators such as mountain lions • Adjust outdated appropriate management levels to accommodate more horses Instead of capitulating to what BLM wants, FoA has repeatedly challenged the agancy on its mismanagement of wild horses. Because of our efforts the horses remain on the range free to flourish in their own way.

BLM ABANDONS WILD HORSE SLAUGHTER POLICY IN RESPONSE TO FOA LAWSUIT The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) withdrew a policy change in March challenged by Friends of Animals (FoA) in a lawsuit that would have allowed the agency to sell two dozen wild horses at a time with no questions asked to get around a Congressional ban on slaughter.

FoA filed a lawsuit against BLM in

THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT FOA’S ADVOCACY AND ACHIEVEMENTS

August of 2018 after it issued a change in its sale policy in May of that year that removed many of the procedural safeguards put in place to prevent the sale of wild horses to individuals who seek to resell them to slaughter. Prior to the change, a buyer could only purchase four wild horses or burros in a six-month period. The restrictions were implemented in 2013 after it was discovered that a Colorado livestock buyer sent more than 1,700 mustangs to slaughter.

But in May 2018, the agency quietly changed that and FoA filed a law-

suit alleging that BLM broke the law the previous policy and its safeguards. because such a policy is subject to no“FoA has fought hard to stop tice and public comment; it is an arbi- BLM’s devious new policy that had trary and capricious reversal of BLM’s turned a blind eye to the destruction past policies; and it violates the 2018 of America’s wild horses by selling Consolidated Appropriations Act, them without limitation to those who which specifies that Congressional only want to profit off their deaths,’’ appropriations cannot be used toward said Michael Harris, director of FoA’s the destruction of healthy, unadopted, Wildlife Law Program. “It’s very gratiwild horses and burros in the care of fying to get this policy overturned.’’ the BLM or its contractors or for the Habitat loss from cattle grazing, sale of wild horses and burros that re- mining, energy exploration and develsults in their destruction for process- opment, as well as removal and steriling into commercial products. ization by the BLM, are pushing wild BLM’s March directive reinstated horses to extinction.

Summer 2019 | 5

VICTORY LAP FOA TO BLM: RUSH TO DRILL IN ARCTIC IMPERILS WILDLIFE The Bureau of Land Management’s rush to approve Arctic drilling leases through a draft environmental impact statement that lacks sufficient analysis will harm polar bears, water resources, caribou and other wildlife, Friends of Animal’s (FoA) Wildlife Law Program (WLP) said in comments submitted to the agency.

“The rushed process the agency is pursuing is incompatible with protecting the fragile environment of the coastal plain,’’ Mike Harris, the director of WLP said in the comments submitted in March. “We are confident that a thorough and robust review of the impacts of oil and gas activities would demonstrate that an oil and gas program is simply incompatible and inconsistent with protecting wildlife. We cannot allow this process to continue and risk all the Refuge has to offer.”

The Refuge consists of more than 19 million acres of wild lands and was first set aside for protection in 1960.

But in a move to obtain support for the Republican tax measure from Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell struck a deal to include a provision that opens its 1.6 million- acre coastal plain region that is home to polar bears, caribou, grizzlies, wolves, wolverines, muskoxen and more than 130 species of migratory birds to oil and gas exploration.

6 | Friends of Animals

Seismic exploration and drilling would require a small army of industrial vehicles and equipment to crisscross every square inch of the Refuge’s biological heart, including critical habitat for the threatened Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear in the middle of polar bear denning season. The coastal plain is one of the most important onshore denning areas for polar bears in the U.S., more so now than ever as sea ice continues to recede. The seismic testing could frighten mother bears from their dens, leaving cubs to perish and contribute to further species decline as well as leaving lasting scars on the fragile tundra and its vegetation. ”Nowhere are the impacts of climate change felt more acutely than the Arctic, which is warming at more than double the rate of the rest of the country. The draft EIS fails to assess how expanding fossil fuel development could exacerbate the impacts of climate change already at the front door of Arctic communities,” Harris said. “The Refuge supports the highest density of land denning for polar bears, as melting sea ice forces bears inland. While the DOI and BLM acknowledge the importance of the coastal plain to wildlife, the draft EIS lacks sufficient analysis on the extent of impacts oil and gas activities would have on the animals who depend on the Refuge.”

In addition to submitting comments regarding drilling in the Arctic, FoA is supporting the Arctic Cultural Coastal Plain Protection Act, intro-

duced by U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-California, and submitted testimony to the U.S. House's National Resources Committee. The act, HR 5911, would repeal the drilling provision in the tax law. Companion legislation has also been introduced in the Senate by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

“The issue of commercially assaulting the wildest place left in America is anathema to anyone with an ounce of respect for unspoiled wilderness,’’ FoA President Priscilla Feral said. “Informed people recognize that the 19.6 million-acre Arctic Refuge is a national treasure and its abundant wildlife is worth protecting from oil and gas companies for oil we don’t need.“

FWS RULES IN FAVOR OF PROTECTIONS TO SCARLET MACAW The scarlet macaw will have Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections under a new ruling that was prompted by a Friends of Animals (FoA) lawsuit against the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for failing to act on its petition to have two of the populations protected under the act.

The ruling, which went into effect March 28, 2019, lists the northern population as endangered and the southern subspecies as threatened.

But it also allows for commercial trade for some of the subspecies without an ESA permit. FWS ruled that commerce of macaws within the U.S. is not a threat and will not affect ef-

THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT FOA’S ADVOCACY AND ACHIEVEMENTS

PPI TAKES ACTION TO STOP CHIMPS FROM BEING SENT TO RESEARCH LAB

forts to recover wild populations. at the sanctuary in Tumalo for 12 “The resulting decision that the years, having the freedom and privinorthern subspecies deserves proteclege of following their own interests tion is a long-overdue finding and a and choosing how to spend their time victory for the species,’’ said Jennifer and days as sanctuary residents. Any Best, assistant director of FoA’s Wild- The fate of chimps from an Ore- effort to tear Emma and Jackson away life Law Program. “However, we are gon-based sanctuary that were going from their lives of freedom and safedisappointed that FWS decided not to be sent to a research lab took a ty at a sanctuary would cause severe to list the scarlet macaw at the species hopeful turn after Primarily Primates emotional and physical harm and level. It is critical that all individuals (PPI) filed a lawsuit to stop the action. would be severely detrimental to the of the species and subspecies receive The sanctuary in Tumalo, Oregon health and well-being of these chimprotections and the exploitation of was managed by Chimps Inc., which panzees, perhaps fatal.” these birds is put to an end.”

After PPI filed its lawsuit, Chimps planned to send the primates to the The scarlet macaw has faced ongo- Ape Cognition and Conservation Ini- Inc. indicated it would be willing to ing threats from human development tiative research lab in Des Moines, consider keeping the chimps at the and deforestation, climate change Iowa.

Oregon sanctuary under the manageand poachers who target them for the PPI filed a lawsuit to stop the ac- ment of the newly formed nonprofit exotic pet trade. tion, seeking the return two chimps, Freedom for Great Apes, an option The two populations of brilliantly Emma, and Jackson, from Chimps PPI indicated in its legal action would colored scarlet macaws that FoA sued Inc. The two chimps had been sent be beneficial to the chimps and enable to protect live in tropical humid rain- to Oregon in 2006 after PPI was tem- Emma and Jackson to stay together forests ranging from northern Co- porarily closed following unsubstanti- with the group. lombia through Central America. The ated allegations of animal neglect and PPI is also willing to pay for and northern subspecies, Ara macao cyan- misuse of funds before Friends of An- relocate all seven of Chimps Inc. to its optera, is larger with significantly lon- imals took over management of it.

San Antonio sanctuary if an agreement ger wing lengths and does not have Friends of Animals took over man- cannot be worked out to keep the apes the green band separating the yellow agement and oversight of the 78-acre in Oregon with Freedom for Great and blue on its feathers on its wing PPI in 2007. In a 2008 settlement, Apes. The Freedom group has signed coverts that the southern subspecies, Chimps Inc. agreed to secure perma- a long-term lease with the owner of Ara macao, has. nent sanctuary for Emma and Jackson the property in Tumalo, Lesley Day. A 2010 lawsuit that FoA brought in perpetuity and to give PPI rights to Chimps Inc.’s lease with Day, who against FWS for failing to submit a bring the two chimps back to PPI if stepped down as president of Chimps 12-month finding on the scarlet ma- Chimps Inc. dissolved or needed to Inc, in 2017, ends in May. caw resulted in a settlement in 2012, find a home for them. where FWS acknowledged that the “It’s unheard of that chimpanzees listing was warranted, but still had not in a sanctuary would be sold or moved enacted any protection for the birds. to a research facility when sanctuaries FoA will continue to hold FWS exist to receive primates and other anaccountable to protect the full popula- imals after they are released,’’ Friends tion and base its decisions on the best of Animals President Priscilla Feral available science, Best said. said. “Emma and Jackson have been

Summer 2019 | 7

NEWS

BY FRAN SILVERMAN

NEW YORK CITY FLIPS OFF FUR

8 | Friends of Animals

New York City, one of the big four fashion capitals of the world, is taking action to 'Flip off Fur' after decades of efforts by Friends of Animals to end the cruelty of the fur industry.

Last summer, FoA publicly called on NYC to ban the sale of fur, introducing legislation and meeting with council members. Its years of efforts have culminated with City Council Speaker Corey Johnson announcing legislation to ban the sale of fur products.

“Finally the day has come that city council members see the handwriting on the wall as well. This is the first nail in the coffin of the NYC fur trade,” said Friends of Animals President Priscilla Feral. “NYC can be the ultimate fashion forward role model by passing this legislation and ending what most of society has come to understand—cruelty is not fashionable.”

Johnson introduced the legislation at a City Council meeting March 28.

“In a progressive and modern city like New York, banning the sale of fur clothing and accessories is long over-

due. Saying no to fur is fashionable and a symbol of progress. This proposal is about protecting animals and their unnecessary killing,” Johnson told The New York Post.

The signs that fur is over are everywhere. More than 60 percent of Americans find killing animals for fur amounts to cruelty to animals, according to an Angus Reid survey, and key fashion designers have turned away from fur.

This year, London’s Fashion Week went fur free and Coach, Diane von Furstenberg and Burberry announced they will no longer use fur in designs.

Chanel, Coach, Gucci, Michael Kors and Versace also announced this year that their fashion houses would be fur free. In fact, more than 850 retailers have stopped selling fur and many New York City-based designers such as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss have stopped using fur.

The U.S. fur market is getting smaller. In 2017, global retail fur sales generated $30 billion, with more than half of that from China, according to the International Fur Federation.

That’s down from $40 billion in 2014.

The U.S. fur market generated $1.4 billion in retail sales, which pales in comparison to the market in China, Europe and Russia.

And New York City’s fur district is disappearing. Where once there were 450 fur factories, now there are just a handful and there is no longer a fur fashion week—all evidence that society’s desire for a product that depends on the slaughter and suffering of animals has waned.

San Francisco, Berkeley and West Hollywood have gone fur-free. Los Angeles has taken action to ban it as well and legislation has been introduced to ban fur sales in the state of California.

New York State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal has also proposed a statewide ban on fur in New York.

“Increasingly, consumers are looking to make ethical and sustainable purchases—fur is neither of those,” Rosenthal told the New York Post. “The fur trade has at its core a violence toward animals that is antithetical with our modern views on animals as human companions and sentient beings.”

This upswell of anti-fur sentiment is gratifying for FoA, which has been educating the public about the fur industry’s heinous destruction of animals for decades and meeting with

New York City and state lawmakers on the issue.

The NY City bill is cosponsored by Council members Mark Levine, Fernando Cabrera, Justin Brannan, and Helen Rosenthal. It is supported by the Fur Free NYC Alliance, which FoA joined to help the legislation pass into law.

The bill, 1476, prohibits the sale or offer for sale of any fur apparel except for used fur and any violators would face a penalty of $500 and $1500 for subsequent violations. The ban would take effect 90 days after it became law.

While the fur industry tries to cast animal pelts in an eco-friendly light, the production of fur adds to climate change and toxic emissions. Fur production has two to 28 times higher impact on the environment than textiles.

Each mink skinned by fur farmers

produces about 44 pounds of feces in the mink’s lifetime, which adds up to 1 million pounds of feces produced annually by mink farms. The byproduct of the feces, phosphorous, can leach into waterways and contaminate river and stream ecosystems.

Additionally, “wild-caught” fur is no better. A study by Ford Motor Co. researcher Gregory Smith found that fur production from free-living animals requires three times the energy as the production of a synthetic coat when fossil fuels used by vehicles and the equipment used to tan and process pelts are factored in.

“Animal suffering and slaughter for the sake of expensive clothing—only affordable to the one percent anyway —is over,’’ said Feral.

IN MEMORIAM Friends of Animals has received kind donations in memory of the following individuals: DIANA R. OTTENBERG

JOYCE EVANS

REGGIE

ANDRE’ PAUL-OVILA LEROUX, JR.

LIZ SUTLIFF

TAMPA

MARK LONDON

JANET BEASLEY

ZUNI

MARCY MACIEJEWSKI

JOSEPH RIVARD

DOC

DR. JOHN F. JACKOVITZ

MIMSIE

WILLIAM E. OWENS

JINGLES, BRANDY & ANGEL

PAULINE F. MCKINNEY

GUCCI FIGUEROA

ROOPS MILL DEER HERD

DARRELL SANTIAGO

SHEA

GABBY

HELEN MCMORROW

ORBIT

BABY CHEDDAR

GRAMMY MILTON

BELLA

BLONDIE

MORRIS RICHARDS

JUNEBUG

JAKE

JEAN GURKIN

JESSIE GIRL

JONESY Summer 2019 | 9

$

$ 5 0 18 $3,52 85

3 0 1 3 1$ , 45

COVER STORY

5 , 0 0 0 00 $

$ 5

2,410 $ 5$ 8 630 750

Rescue has a new $ 8 5 meaning in $ 2 the U.S.-but at , 5 0 $ 0 $ 30 85 2 what cost? $ 815 $ $

BY NICOLE RIVARD

$

4$,750 $3,525

610 300

$

0 1 8 , $2 42 750 35

2,500

$

$

60

8 75 5$3,525 $ 930 $ 610 $ $

2,30

$

2 4 5 385 25 T 0 $

0

0

0

here’s a reason author Kim Kavin, in her book The Dog Merchants, juxtaposed a chapter about dog auctions in Missouri that enrich breeders and one about the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

“It’s just fact. When you strip away the pageantry, you’re basically looking at the same exact thing,” said Kavin, who published the book in 2016.

When you turn a dog show into a mass-media event, she explains, it becomes the biggest marketing asset for all of the worst commercial breeders, no matter how good the intentions of the people in the show who tend to think of themselves as breeders who care.

She is not worried that that notion makes people uncomfortable.

She’s also not concerned about creating a nationwide conversation about what the definition of animal rescue in America is these days, an issue making people uneasy.

There is an influx of so-called legitimate non-profit dog rescuers and shelters—those that attend conferences and get awards from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Humane Society of the United States—frequenting dog auctions and paying extremely high prices to breeders.

And there are also breeders creating non-profit “rescues” to get around city and state ordinances that prevent pet stores from sourcing dogs from puppy mills.

680

$

None of these groups meet Friends of Animals’ definition of rescue.

Kavin’s May 2018 Washington Post expose (“Dog Rescuers, Flush With Donations, Buy Animals From the Breeders They Scorn”) documented buyers at the auctions who were affiliated with 86 rescue and advocacy groups and shelters throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Since 2009, the groups have spent $2.68 million buying 5,761 dogs and puppies from breeders at the nation’s two government-regulated dog auctions.

An effort that non-profit animal rescuers began more than a decade ago to buy dogs for $5 or $10 a piece from commercial breeders has become a nationwide shadow market that today sees some rescuers, fueled by internet fundraising, paying breeders $5,000 or more for a single dog, according to Kavin’s article.

“It’s not what we traditionally thought of as rescue in the United States of America, but it is going by that name and we have to have a conversation about it,” Kavin said in an interview with Friends of Animals.

“It is very clearly becoming muddled.

The notion of shutting illegally operating breeders down, taking the dogs, getting them homes and calling it rescue—that is no longer the only thing that the term ‘puppy mill rescue’ encompasses in this country.”

There are about 2,600 commercial puppy operators in the central U.S. large enough to require licensing by the federal government. The biggest distributor of puppies, Hunte Corporation, moves some 45,000 puppies a year.

PUSHBACK Kavin's Washington Post article, which came out after her book, stoked some backlash.

Kitty Block, CEO of HSUS, tried to downplay the expose in a blog. “The folks pointing their fingers at small problems within animal rescue, or the transport of animals from state to state or from country to country, are pursuing a strategy of gas lighting the public, trying to distract and divide,” she wrote.

FoA disagrees and finds that downright irresponsible.

Animal advocacy groups should not be putting their heads in the sand when almost $3 million is going to breeders from so-called rescuers in this country. The public should know that what’s happening in puppy mills in the U.S. is not changing at all—the only thing changing is what’s being called rescue. And that’s unacceptable because it’s only creating new markets for commercial breeders.

FEEDING THE MONSTER Kavin spent a day at America’s biggest legal dog auction, Southwest Auction Service in Wheaton, Missouri.

“You walk into that building and watch 300 dogs get auctioned to the highest bidder—it’s hard to eat for a few days,” Kavin said. “If you are a person who comes from a rescue mentality, and you walk in with the mindset that these are all dogs in need of ‘saving,’ you are a sitting duck with a pile of cash."

During her 18 months of research, Kavin says she came across two sets of people now involved in rescue.

“You have people who follow the

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES

Summer 2019 | 11

philosophy that there’s right and wrong—you don’t give money to breeders who might be treating dogs badly, period,” she said.

“Then you have the school of thought—the greatest good for the greatest number, which is, ‘Yeah, we are giving them $500 for a dog, but we got the dog out of the cage when it was five years old. And we can give it another five years of good life.’

“When they say they are helping that individual dog that may be true, the question is at what cost. Are you ok with the price? It’s a very hard question to answer,” Kavin said.

It’s not a hard question to answer for Laurette Richin, executive director of Long Island Bulldog Rescue (LIBR), where FoA’s office dogs Papa and Sammy came from. FoA also provides thousands of dollars in grant money annually to LIBR for spay-neuter procedures.

As northeast coordinator of the Bulldog Club of America Rescue Network, she has cut ties with rescue operations that purchase dogs at auctions.

“When I kicked one rescue out, which was quite a while ago, maybe five or six years ago, it was spending $5,000 to $7,000 on a pregnant bulldog. I simply said it’s feeding the monster. It’s simply not ethical,” Richin said.

COMMERCIAL BREEDERS PARADING AS RESCUES Another issue muddying the waters is breeders trying to outsmart city and state ordinances that ban pet stores selling animals from puppy mills.

HSUS’ puppy mills campaign has been a force in passing such bans.

One example surfaced in March.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund sued a California pet store and two purported rescue groups trying to get

12 | Friends of Animals

some rescuers, fueled by internet fundraising, pay breeders $5,000 or more for a single dog around California's law. The lawsuit alleges that newly formed Bark Adoptions of California "masquerades as a non-profit animal rescue organization even though it actually acquires purebred and designer puppies that are only a few weeks old from puppy mills, including Rescue Pets Iowa Corp.

Similarly, last year the Chicago Tribune identified two Iowa and Missouri breeders who opened non-profit “rescues” to get around the 2015 Chicago ordinance limiting pet shops to selling dogs obtained primarily from government pounds, humane societies and shelters. Among the dogs sent to the city were Siberian husky puppies and designer mixes.

MAKING SURE YOU’RE ON THE SIDE OF LEGITIMATE RESCUES The good news is smart adoption practices can make a difference. Look for red flags when considering taking home a dog from a rescue or shelter.

If you see the term “puppy mill rescue,” ask more questions.

“If the average person sees on Facebook a dog rescued from a puppy mill, they don’t even think to ask the question, ‘Did you actually buy the dog from a breeder, is that what that means?’ They are never going to make that mental leap."

While Facebook has become a wonderful source of funding for Long Island Bulldog Recue since the social media site added a donate button in 2017, Richin said the bad side is it attracts hysteria mongers—the

so-called rescue operators who end up at auctions and line the pockets of breeders.

“People are ready to do anything.

All you have to do as a ‘rescuer’ is tell them a dog is going to be killed,” Richin said.

Richin says one way to ensure donations aren’t being used at auctions is transparency.

“When I raise money for something, I have a bill in my hand and I photograph it and put it on Facebook. If I don’t actually post it there, I will certainly email it to you,” she explained. “When I am raising money for a dog it is going to that dog. And if there is any overage, it goes to the next one, but I have documentation to support every crazy little thing that comes up.”

While it might seem that asking for a rescue’s non-profit tax filings to see how much they might be spending on “purchasing” dogs at auctions is the easiest way to get information, it’s not. Spending on purchasing dogs can be lumped into non-profit tax filings as “rescue expenses.” Someone just looking at the publicly available filings would have no way to know whether dog purchases were buried on that line of the form or not.

Another tip from Richin is to ask the rescues and shelters where most of their dogs come from to ensure they aren’t coming from auctions. For example, more than 90 percent of her bulldogs are owner surrendered.

In addition, people should ask about retention rates. Long Island

Bulldog has a 97 percent retention rate.

“I am a nut,” Richin adds with a laugh. “People are annoyed at me a lot of the times, but making the right match is critical. I have like 12,400 applications and I get approximately 350 dogs a year. So, I can afford to be choosey.”

Kavin devoted a whole chapter to what questions to ask before adopting from a rescue or shelter to make sure the organization you are dealing with is not buying from the breeders they scorn. (see sidebar) Kavin warns: “You also have to put your BS detector hat on.”

ALL IS NOT LOST Kavin was hopeful after she talked to several operators whose first venture into buying at auction was also their last. One called the experience a painful lesson. “It’s too easy for rescues to be ruled by wanting to save a life at any cost,” she told the Washington Post.

So, if you are willing to do your homework, you can find a rescue that falls into the traditional sense of the word, and who will go out of their way to place dogs in loving homes with people equipped for a lifelong commitment.

“I work really hard to do stuff the right way. We are all about transparency. It’s a labor of love...or diagnosable,” Richin said. “But I love these dogs to pieces.”

Don't forget, if you are considering adopting, spaying and neutering is the the most effective way to combat dog homelessness. Since 1957, FoA has operated a coast-to -coast low-cost spay neuter certificate program for dogs and cats. We've made 2.7 million surgeries possible. Visit friendsof animals.org for information.

BE AN EDUCATED ADOPTER WHERE DID THE POOCH ORIGINATE? Anyone going to a shelter to get a puppy or a dog should ask because sometimes, the truthful answer is going to be a dog auction, a breeding kennel or a “puppy mill rescue” group.

WHEN MAY I VISIT YOUR SHELTER OR FOSTER HOME? An outright never should be a big, flashing warning sign.

HOW WILL THE ADOPTION FEE BE USED? Legitimate shelters and non-profit rescuers will respond by discussing basic vaccinations, temperament testing, foster care and things like transport expenses.

WHAT REFERENCES CAN YOU PROVIDE FROM PREVIOUS ADOPTERS? Having no references is a huge warning about shelters and non-profit rescuers alike.

WHAT PAPERWORK DO YOU HAVE ON THIS DOG’S HISTORY? Rescuers and shelters may be able to provide paperwork from other locations where the dog may have originated, or from a veterinarian who has seen the dog elsewhere.

WHY DO YOU THINK THIS DOG IS A GOOD CHOICE FOR MY FAMILY? The shelter’s answer to this question should include info about the dog’s traits and how much they match your own lifestyle, not, “Well he’s a Schnauzer and all Schnauzer’s are great,” but instead, “You mentioned you liked to jog, and this pup is the most active dog in the bunch." The second answer shows the shelter or rescue group is trying to match the right personalities, human and canine alike.

Summer 2019 | 13

LEGAL MATTERS

“To halt the decline of an ecosystem, it is necessary to think like an ecosystem.”

DOUGLAS WHEELER, CONSERVATIONIST, LAWYER

WILDLIFE WARS: KILLING ONE ANIMAL TO SAVE ANOTHER IS NOT CONSERVATION

Unfortunately, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were incapable of doing that when it came to trying to help juvenile salmon who migrate down the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington.

Instead in 2014, the federal agenBY NICOLE RIVARD cies began to shoot double-breasted cormorants as they foraged for food National Wildlife Day was Feb. 22, over water and cared for their eggs but that’s not the only day we should and young in nesting areas at East be holding humans accountable for Sand Island, scapegoating these nathe decline of threatened species. We tive fish-eating birds for salmon deshould be spreading the message clines.

All the while, they ignored the that killing one species to conserve another is detrimental to wildlife 365 major threat to salmon: mismanagement of the federal hydropower days a year.

While human-induced changes to system. Dams block passage of fish animals’ habitats are certainly a bad to and from their riverine spawning thing, once they happen, animals and rearing habitat and the Pacifneed to be able to sort it out them- ic Ocean, according to an article in Earth Island Journal. At dams where selves.

More human interference just fish passage is not provided, the blockage is permanent. makes it worse.

In February, several media outlets reported what Friends of Animals (FoA) knew would happen from the get-go: The federal plan backfired.

The federal government killed thousands of cormorants in Oregon between 2015 and 2017, and may have caused the collapse of the birds’ largest breeding colony. However, Oregon state biologists say the remaining birds just moved upriver—possibly tripling the number of salmon each bird ate.

14 | Friends of Animals

Prior to this development, a court order procured by the Audubon Society of Portland required FWS to turn over documents related to its decision to slaughter cormorants. It was discovered that scientists from the agency concluded that killing the seabirds would provide no benefit to the fish, and that high-level employees of FWS suppressed that information throughout the public review process.

FoA had filed a lawsuit in 2015 with Audubon to stop the cormorant killing. And while a federal district court ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acted unlawfully by failing to consider alternatives to killing double-crested cormorants, it still allowed the continued massacre of them.

Notably, cormorants flourished on East Sand Island because of humans in the first place—the Corps dumped tons of sledge there, inadvertently creating an ideal habitat for the seabirds.

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”

AS A SOCIETY WE CANNOT BECOME NUMB TO THE USE OF KILLING ANIMALS AS A TOOL TO MANAGE NATURE OR TO HUMANS OVERALL BEING INVOLVED IN EVERY ASPECT OF THE LIVES OF WILD ANIMALS

MAHATMA GANDHI

In a situation all too similar to the cormorant case, USFWS launched its horrific barred owl removal experiment in 2013 in Oregon, Washington and northern California. It stuck its head in the sand about why northern spotted owls are threatened— humans logging the forests they call home—and as a result hundreds of barred owls have been killed.

And all for naught.

Federal wildlife researchers killed 883 barred owls from 2015-17, and the latest “progress” report says: “Initial experimental removals of Barred Owls had little measurable effect on occupancy and reproduction of Spotted Owls after the first 1–2 years of implementation. Long-term observations of territory occupancy and reproduction of Spotted Owls illustrated historically low levels in 2017 in all study areas.”

Thomas Edison suggested that until humans duplicate a blade of grass, nature can laugh at their so-called scientific knowledge.

FoA is currently litigating for barred owls. Our national wildlife is counting on FoA to keep holding these agencies’ feet to the fire and to prevail, especially as climate change pushes more animals into each other’s overlapping territories.

The public should be concerned that agencies will continue to manage species who migrate to new habitats as a result of climate change and other man-made causes in a way that is intended to protect only the species who previously lived there. This will mean a lot of killing of more migratory species.

As a society we cannot become numb to the use of killing animals as a tool to manage nature or to humans overall being involved in every aspect of the lives of wild animals. It’s time to butt out before it’s too late. As author Barbara Ward said . . .

“We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its creatures do.”

BARBARA WARD, AUTHOR

Summer 2019 | 15

THE CALL OF THE WILD Our guide to wildlife watching hotspots in the U.S.

BY NICOLE RIVARD

16 | Friends of Animals

Summer 2019 | 17

WILDLIFE WATCH

K

udos to the Nebraska Tourism Office’s first campaign of 2019, which promoted the hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes that migrate to the Platte River Valley. The agency’s print and television ads noted that while many people view Nebraska as a place to fly over and not to visit, more than half a million cranes come to the state every March.

Since Friends of Animals places critical habitat and wildlife protection at the core of animal advocacy, we believemore states should follow suit. According to the most recent national survey, more than 86 million people 16 years and older participated in wildlife-watching in the U.S. in 2016. Of this group, 27.3 million people took trips away from home for the purpose of enjoying wildlife.

Promoting ways for people to experience wildlife in the U.S. is a win-win for human and non-human animals. So, we compiled some of the most exciting wildlife watching in the U.S. for people planning trips this summer and throughout the rest of the year.

SUMMER BAT-WATCHING IN TEXAS The emergence of millions of bats from Bracken Cave as they spiral out at dusk for their nightly insect hunt is an unforgettable sight, according to Austin-based Bat Conservation International (BCI). Bracken Cave is located on private property 20 miles from San Antonio and is owned and protected by BCI, so you have to be a member to visit. (An annual membership is $45). The cave is the summer home of more than 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats, making it the world's largest bat colony and one of the largest concentration of mammals on earth. July and August are the best months to view the bats because baby bats are born in June and begin flying in July, and days are longer, which means more bat viewing time. For information, visit batcon.org.

Another bat-watching hotspot is Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin. Throughout the spring and summer, hundreds of people gather to see the world's largest urban bat colony emerge from under the bridge. An estimated 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats live under the bridge. While there is no charge to access the bridge, parking costs and info are available here: batsinaustin.com/ top-10-parking-locations-to-see-the-austin-bats/. Bat-watching river boat cruises are also available. At Capital Cruises (capitalcruises.com) and Lonestar Riverboats (lonestarriver-

18 | Friends of Animals

boat.com), tours run March-October starting approximately 30 minutes before sunset.

FALL FOUR SUPER STOPS ON THE MONARCH MIGRATION TRAIL Every fall, monarch butterflies fly thousands of miles from as far north as Canada to winter in Mexico—it’s a natural phenomenon. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service points out that when swarms of monarchs pause en route to rest and feed on nectar-bearing plants, admirers can see them blanket trees and shrubs in orange and black, creating works of art. The agency recommends these as the four best places to see these masterpieces of nature: Kansas - The butterflies tend to come in waves, based on weather patterns mid-to-late September. Migrating monarchs feed on asters and goldenrod and other wildflowers that bloom throughout the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. During the day, look for monarchs in wildflower areas. Toward evening, the best viewing areas are sheltered places that are cool and damp.

Texas - In late September/early October, when conditions are favorable, thousands of monarchs a day may flutter through the prairies and oak savannahs of Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge, where the Great Plains and the Gulf Coast meet.

Florida - October sees the arrival of the monarchs at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, the last stop for thousands of the butterflies before they fly over the open water of the Gulf of Mexico. Viceroy, queen, American painted beauty and Gulf fritillary butterflies are also common this time of year.

Iowa - Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge has monarchs year-round. Through the refuge’s tallgrass prairie restoration project, thousands of acres have been planted with native plants, many of which are attractive to monarchs.

Monarchs can be seen in large number along the Tallgrass Trail and along the sides of roads in the refuge.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEX GUILLAUME. PREVIOUS PAGE PHOTOGRAPH OF BRACKEN CAVE BY JONATHAN ALONZO, BAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL

FALL

Summer 2019 | 19

WINTER 20 | Friends of Animals

BALD EAGLE FESTIVAL IN HAINES, ALASKA The American Bald Eagle Foundation boasts that Haines, Alaska is known as the Valley of the Eagles for a very good reason—the largest congregation of bald eagles in this country happens right in the Chilkat Valley each November. A late run of chum and Coho salmon attracts between 2,000-4,000 bald eagles each year—and the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival at the foundation provides the chance to witness this marvel. The 2019 festival is November 6-9 and will be comprised of educational programs, music, games, a gala fundraiser and more. Daily buses will take visitors to the Alaska Bald Eagle Preserve to witness the gathering of the eagles. Haines has hotels, bed and breakfasts, as well as numerous campgrounds and RV facilities. Visit baldeagles.org for information.

WINTER THE SANDHILL CRANE MIGRATION Smithsonian Magazine called the crane migration one of the world’s great wildlife spectacles, on a par with the epic migrations of the wildebeest and the caribou. Every year 400,000 to 600,000 sandhill cranes—80 percent of all the cranes on the planet—congregate along an 80-mile stretch of the central Platte River in Nebraska to fatten up on waste grain in the empty cornfields in preparation for the journey to their Arctic and subarctic nesting grounds, according to Smithsonian.

It takes place in three waves of four-to-five weeks each, beginning in mid-February and ending in mid-April, during which birds, who arrive emaciated from wintering grounds in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Chihuahua, Mexico, gain 20 percent of their body weight.

The best places to see them are Crane Trust Nature & Visitor Center in Wood River or Rowe Sanctuary, approximately 20 miles east of Kearney. Kearney has a good selection of hotels/motels to choose from, but it can be a very busy community during March, so reserve your lodging as soon as possible. Visit rowe.audubon.org/visit/plan-your-trip or cranetrust.org for information on timing of your trip.

While you’re in Nebraska you might also want to check out the mating displays of prairie grouse, the next most sought after experience in Nebraska during late March and April. Visit prairiechickendancetours.com for information.

WHALE WATCHING IN HAWAII If you ever dreamed of seeing humpback whales blow, spy hop, tail slap, dive with their fluke up or breach, the most acrobatic display of all, Hawaii is the place to be.

Humpback whales visit Hawaiian waters each year from November to May with the peak of the season being from January to March. The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the state of Hawaii, encompasses the waters around the Hawaiian Islands.

Hawaii is the only state in the U.S. where humpback whales mate, calve and nurse their young, according to NOAA. Mothers can be seen breaching alongside their calves and males can be seen competing with one another for females in fierce head-to-head battles.

The sanctuary has a top 10 list for shoreline whale watching sites, with locations on Oahu, Maui, Hawaii and Kauai. Visit hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov and click on the Watch tab. There are a variety of ways in which you can catch a glimpse of Hawaii’s humpback whales. Boat tours and whale watching cruises have become increasingly popular.

CRANES HAVE BEEN AROUND SINCE THE EOCENE, WHICH ENDED 34 MILLION YEARS AGO. THEY ARE AMONG THE WORLD’S OLDEST LIVING BIRDS AND ONE OF THE PLANET’S MOST SUCCESSFUL LIFE FORMS, HAVING OUTLASTED MILLIONS OF SPECIES (99 PERCENT OF SPECIES THAT EVER EXISTED ARE NOW EXTINCT). THE PARTICULARLY SUCCESSFUL SANDHILL CRANE OF NORTH AMERICA HAS NOT CHANGED APPRECIABLY IN 10 MILLION YEARS.

PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMAS KELLEY

Summer 2019 | 21

SPRING

22 | Friends of Animals

SPRING FIREFLIES IN GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK Most bioluminescent organisms are found in the ocean.

But as nature would have it, and lucky for us, fireflies put on their magical shows on land. And Synchronous fireflies, one of 19 species who live in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP), put on the greatest firefly show on earth during a mating ritual for two weeks from the end of May through the beginning of June.

Visitors can see thousands of the fireflies light up at once.

They are the only species in America whose individuals can synchronize their flashing light patterns.

According to GSMNP, fireflies (also called lightning bugs) are beetles. They take from one to two years to mature from larvae but will live as adults for only about 21 days.

The males fly and flash and the usually stationary females respond with a flash.

No one is sure why the fireflies flash synchronously.

Competition between males may be one reason: They all want to be the first to flash. Or perhaps if the males all flash together they have a better chance of being noticed, and the females can make better comparisons.

The fireflies do not always flash in unison. They may flash in waves across hillsides, and at other times will flash randomly. Synchrony occurs in short bursts that end with abrupt periods of darkness.

This event has become so popular that park officials have enforced a lottery system for obtaining passes to the “light show” in an effort to protect the beetles. The lottery is typically the last few days in April. Visit nps.gov/grsm/index.htm for information.

CARIBOU IN ALASKA The movement of the caribou herds in the Arctic is the world’s largest land mammal migration. It has been reported that if you’re close enough and they’re on the move, you can feel the ground shake.

In Alaska, there are three major herds: the Western Arctic herd (approx. 348,000 animals), the Porcupine herd (approx. 152,000 animals) and the Central Arctic herd (approx. 23,400 animals).

Since the caribou cross through remote tundra and taiga near the Arctic Circle, and the locations are hard to get to, the best option for seeing the migration is with an organized group. Trips usually run between May and September and can last between five days and two weeks. Tourists have to be taken by plane or boat into the wilderness and dropped off. Trips also involve canoeing or backpacking. Arctic Wild

(arcticwild.com) offers professionally guided trips to see the Porcupine herd in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Western Arctic herd in the Western Brooks range region.

If you are a more independent traveler, Iniakuk Lake Wilderness Lodge might be the right destination for you, promising one of the only Alaskan destinations with caribou from the Western Arctic Herd migrating past the front porch.

PLEASE KEEP WILDLIFE WILD But before we say, “Happy trails to you,” we have to remind you to treat all wildlife with caution and respect during any wildlife watching activity. That’s to ensure your safety and the animals’ safety.

If you’re close enough for a selfie, you’re definitely too close.

Yellowstone National Park staff has reported that whether tourists are taking a "selfie" with a mama moose walking with her calf, a bison grazing alongside a road or a venomous rattlesnake slithering along a hiking path, they will do everything they can to get that perfect picture.

These selfies have resulted in humans being seriously bitten, tossed into the air and gored in the stomach. In 2015 alone, five reported bison-related injuries occurred in Yellowstone National Park.

The National Park Service (NPS) points out that every park or destination for wildlife watching has specific guidelines, including minimum wildlife viewing distances and food storage requirements. Before you head to a destination, familiarize yourself with all those rules.

Many destinations require you to stay a minimum distance of 25 yards from most wildlife and 100 yards from predators like bears and wolves. For example, Olympic National Park requires a minimum distance of 50 yards. So, check!

It’s illegal to feed, touch, tease, frighten or intentionally disturb wildlife. NPS says not to use bird calls, or apps that imitate animal sounds. Mimicking animal sounds is considered harassment, which is illegal. It can also cause birds to leave their nests, leaving their young vulnerable to predation.

NPS also reminds wildlife watchers that binoculars/ spotting scopes are a necessity to a fulfilling experience.

And packing a zoom lens for your camera is crucial too.

Simply put, keep your distance, enjoy and let wildlife be wild.

PHOTOGRAPH BY SPENCER BLACK

Summer 2019 | 23

VEG NEWS

Taking the

FEAR R O T C A F out of vegan cooking hodes

By Dustin R

before it’s effortless. With the added bonus that plantbased eating is health-promoting, good for the planet and life-saving for animals, what’s not to love? Here are some tips to get you in the kitchen and dispel the myths that cooking can’t, as organizing guru Marie Kondo would say, spark joy (no matter how busy you are).

O

nly 10 percent of Americans really like to cook, according to a 2017 study published in the Harvard Business Review, which means 90 percent of people hate it or refuse to cook altogether. This comes as no surprise given the number of personal friends and family members who fall into the latter category (hi, mom, sorry for outing you).

For the longest time, I counted myself in this majority, but mainly it was because I didn’t know how. And, I also used to think that delicious food = tedious recipes + hours in the kitchen, which I now know is false.

One of the most common excuses I hear about trying plant-based diets and recipes is: “I don’t have time.” Plantbased cooking—like any cooking—can be quick and easy (and incredibly delicious), but it takes a little self-education

24 | Friends of Animals

START WHERE YOU ARE Is your kitchen a barren wasteland—with mismatched chipped plates and a cornucopia of bent cutlery and pots without lids? That was my kitchen when I was a very poor 20-something drowning in student loan debt and when I first started, slowly, learning to cook. If you know you need a kitchen utensil upgrade, I cannot recommend highly enough The Wirecutter (www.thewirecutter.com), which is a free online resource for finding “the best for most people.” The items include things like pots and pans, knives, immersion blenders and so much more. The site is curated by a team of journalists, scientists and researchers.

I have found this site to be invaluable for practically everything in the home, and it’s a home chef’s best friend.

FACEBOOK ISN’T ONLY FOR YOUR UNCLE’S DELUSIONAL POLITICAL RANTS

TAKE A FREE ONLINE CLASS On YouTube, I have successfully learned how: 1. to repair the computer board of my washing machine (which saved me hundreds of dollars on a repair person); 2. to unclog my shower drain and make a plumbing snake out of coat hangers; and 3. prepare the most sublime chocolate mousse with sugar content that comes only from medjool dates. To wit, YouTube is a magical wonderland, and there are inspirational cooking classes for every imaginable taste and skill level.

Some of my favorite channels are geared towards the novice cook who wants to make exciting and fairly quick plant-based meals. Here are a few worth checking out (all of which are free): The Sexy Vegan Don’t worry: The title is tongue-and-cheek and the resident dad and chef is Brian L. Patton, whose sense of humor and down-to-earth manner make this channel as entertaining as it is informative.

The Buddhist Chef This channel is run by Jean-Philippe, a Canadian who is a bonafide chef. His easy-to-follow recipes are inspired by his favorite dishes from the restaurants he’s worked in.

Hot for Food The brainchild of Lauren Toyota, there is a reason this channel has half a million subscribers: The food is amazing, and it is quite diverse in terms of recipes, with a little something for everyone. There are even videos for how to tackle an entire holiday, vegan-style, like Thanksgiving.

Sweet Potato Soul Jenne Claiborne is the genius behind this cooking show, which goes above and beyond the recipe-offering call of duty by making videos about nearly every aspect of vegan living. Her delicious recipes—which are just perfect—have been featured in the New York Times and many other prominent publications.

I freely admit that I don’t love Facebook mainly because I don’t understand the concept of being “friends” with people you don’t remember from high school or people you do actually know who might “talk” to you on the internet but would ignore you if they saw you on the street.

But I digress.

When it comes to plant-based cooking and recipes, Facebook is a veritable smorgasbord of delicious recipes and supportive people who want to help you on your cooking journey. Easily, I have two favorite pages—both of which have been around for a long time and deserve their popularity: Vegan Dad and Fat Free Vegan. Vegan Dad is run by a full-time college professor and father of three who also happens to be an outstanding cook. Some of his recipes are involved and for special occasions only, but mostly he focuses on—because he’s a busy parent himself—recipes that are approachable and doable in real life.

Fat Free Vegan is a little bit of a misnomer because the recipes are not technically fat-free; rather, they’re oil-free, and Susan Voisin, who creates the recipes, does not skimp on truly exciting flavors for her recipes that are intended to be health-promoting and sumptuous. The bold flavors belie the fact that oil is nowhere to be found.

Also, both these Facebook pages are filled with kind and supportive community members—a true rarity these days for the social media platform.

COOKBOOKS FOR BEGINNERS None of us has been immune to the rage-inducing experience of making a recipe for the first time—you’re right in the middle of it—when you realize there’s an ingredient on the list that does not actually appear in the recipe. This is basically the story of all my emotional breakdowns in the last two decades. Sadly, I have learned that 1. a lot of great chefs don’t know how to write recipes and 2. there is a DIRE shortage of proofreaders, and someone needs to do something about it.

A cookbook is only as good as its recipes— which should be 100 percent accurate, offer the right amount of detail (without assuming we’re

Summer 2019 | 25

brain dead) and produce a 100 percent consistent result, when followed exactly. Amazingly, this is rarer than one would think.

Here are three outstanding cookbooks: Dining with Friends: The Art of North American Vegan Cuisine by Priscilla Feral. Yes, my boss wrote this cookbook, but let me tell you this: Feral knows how to write a recipe, and the cookbook is filled with real-life, just-got-home-fromwork-and-I-am-starving-and-exhausted meal ideas that are easy, delicious, and don’t require hours of time. America’s Test Kitchen: Vegan for Everybody. Whether you’re a fan of the PBS cooking show or not, the recipes in this book are modern, innovative, interesting and extremely tasty. I have personally made almost every recipe in this cookbook—which is very rare for me—because they are that good. Isa Chandra Moskowitz has written a lot of cookbooks, but Isa Does It, in my opinion, is her very best effort; the food is very accessible, easy to make, and produces bold flavors that make you want to return to this cookbook again and again. Also, Moskowitz does a great job of giving little tips and tricks to make cooking easier and inspire confidence in the home chef.

REMEMBER THE BLOGGERS! We’ve all balanced our laptop over the stove—trying to make a complicated recipe we found on the internet while simultaneously praying our computer doesn’t fall into giant vat of pasta water boiling ominously beneath it.

Right? Or is that just me?

My cooking skills have come 99 percent from the internet—all the way back to prehistoric times when everyone had a blog and people actually spent time subscribing to the random musings of complete strangers. Well, the random stranger I was addicted to was a vegan chef who owned a meal delivery service in New

26 | Friends of Animals

York City, and would post the most amazing meal ideas for free on the internet. And sometimes, the recipe would be so good I’d make the same meal for, like, three days in a row because I could not get enough. And some of those recipes I still make 20 years later.

But blogs are disappearing faster than sane politicians (because everyone wants a cookbook deal), so it’s surprising that there are even a few remaining gems. My favorite cooking website, period, is Minimalist Baker, brought to us by Dana Shultz. The concept sounds gimmicky—10 ingredients or less, one bowl, or 30 minutes or less to prepare. But I promise you that these recipes are the real deal. This is the website I visit when I say, “I hate everything” and “I am so sick of eating __________.” Which is to say, when I have a bad attitude about food and cooking, this website is guaranteed to turn that proverbial frown upside down. Go to the website, right now, and make her “naturally sweetened chocolate mousse,” because it’s life-changing. So is everything else. minimalistbaker.com

LAST BUT NOT LEAST Very recently a friend told me I was a “great cook,” which of course is not true, but I was so elated to hear it—mainly because I burned a cake that I baked for someone’s baby’s birthday party that same day. It did occur to me, though, at that very moment that I used to be a truly terrible cook who didn’t even enjoy the process of ruining food. Ultimately how I turned my life around was very simple: I just started cooking.

Just get in the kitchen and cook. Yes, you, too, will burn a cake, now and then, but eventually your cakes will be perfect (99 percent of the time) and eventually you will prefer your own food to most any restaurants’ meals. Like any other skill, it just takes practice.

Development Director Dustin Rhodes is in charge of fundraising for Friends of Animals and is a contributing writer for Action Line. He resides in Asheville, North Carolina — a progressive, animal-loving community in the Blue Ridge mountains.

A RECIPE TO GET YOU COOKING Here’s a great recipe, courtesy of Dining with Friends: The Art of North American Vegan Cuisine, to get you started:

Pasta, Green Beans and Potatoes with Pesto Fresh pesto, pasta, green beans and potatoes make an excellent combination. Serves 4.

• 2 cups packed tender young basil leaves • 1/3 cup pine nuts • 1 teaspoon salt (plus 2 tablespoons to add to the cooking water) • 2 large garlic cloves minced • 1/2 cup, extra-virgin olive oil • 1/4 cup grated vegan parmesan • 1/2-pound small potatoes peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices • 1/4-pound tender young green beans cut into 1-inch lengths • 3/4 to 1-pound thin spaghetti • Black pepper

PREPARATION: Make pesto by mixing basil, pine nuts, garlic, and the 1 teaspoon of salt in bowl of the food processor. Pulse until mixture is coarse and grainy.

Pour olive oil into the food processor and keep mixing. Add vegan parmesan into the machine; process just enough to mix well.

Bring about six quarts water to rolling boil.

Add two tablespoons salt and the potato slices.

Cook for about 5 minutes, or until potatoes have started to soften but are not cooked through. Add green beans, and after 1 minute add the pasta.

Stir and continue boiling for another 9 minutes.

When potatoes and beans are tender, drain and turn pasta and vegetables immediately into a heated bowl. Add pesto and mix thoroughly.

Grind black pepper over top as desired and serve immediately.

Summer 2019 | 27

IN YOUR BACKYARD

BY MEG MCINTIRE AND NICOLE RIVARD

A who’s who of little things who run the world

T

he phrase “Save the Bees” has become ubiquitous—you see it on everything from bees tees and tote bags to key chains and bumper stickers.

Of course, we should applaud the protection of these pollinators becoming a top priority.

However, it’s time to add “Save the Caterpillars,” “Save the Moths” or better yet, “Save the Insects,” to the messaging, because without them, there would be no us.

But the reason they need safeguards goes even beyond the anthropomorphic view that without pollinators we’d have no crops and food on our plates. The fact is that 80 percent of all plants and 90 percent of all flow-

28 | Friends of Animals

INSECTS

ering plants are pollinated by insects.

“If we lost our pollinators, we’d lose 80 to 90 percent of the plants on the planet. Forget the crops. Losing 80 to 90 percent of the plants on the planet is not an option,” says Doug Tallamy, author and professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. “And insects are crucial to biodiversity and healthy ecosystems.

Terrestrial food webs and freshwater aquatic food webs are all based on insect protein.”

In March, he brought this poignant message to members of local garden clubs and the public at the Darien Library, which is down the road from Friends of Animals’ Connecticut

headquarters.

Spiders, amphibians, bats, lizards, rodents, skunks, opossums, red foxes and many more species depend on insects like moths, for nutrition.

Twenty-five percent of a red fox’s diet is insects and 23 percent of a black bear’s diet is insects.

Today, there are 386 bird species of neotropical migrants in North America who are threatened with not having enough insects to justify migration. Among them—swallows, swifts, orioles, hummingbirds, tanagers, flycatchers and warblers.

Tallamy warned that insect populations have declined 45 percent globally since 1974 due to loss of habitat, climate change that leads to lack of

An Old World Swallowtail caterpillar

host plants, pesticides on lawns and the spread of invasive plants.

“The creatures that keep us alive on planet earth are disappearing,” he said. “It’s really tough to get people engaged in this issue even though their life depends on it. What if I said, ‘Your bank account is disappearing; it just declined by 45 percent?’ That would get your attention immediately. Insects are the currency in our ecological bank account.”

VITAL ROLES

Some insects provide more bang for their buck when it comes to maintaining plant diversity and transferring energy from plants to other parts of the food web, according to Tallamy.

They are pollinators—bees, butterflies and moths—and caterpillars.

As far as pollination, non-native honeybees and 4,000 species of native bees are doing the bulk of transferring the pollen from the male part of the flower to female part of the flower.

But moths—there are 14,000 species in North America—are vastly underestimated pollinators, likely because pollination from moths is happening at night when no one is watching.

Voracious eaters, moth caterpillars return important nutrients to the soil through their feces.

The importance of the caterpillars of moths and butterflies comes as a surprise to an awful lot of people, Tallamy says, adding that they are the

most crucial part of terrestrial food webs. He explained that they are excellent in taking energy from plants so they’re very nutritious and high in fat and protein for predators. They are also the best source of carotenoids for birds particularly when they are breeding.

The Carolina chickadee is the perfect example of what all small birds need. The chickadee requires 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars to rear a single clutch of four to six offspring.

Summer 2019 | 29

INSECT POPULATIONS HAVE DECLINED 45 PERCENT GLOBALLY SINCE 1974 a up il p a t llow wa S rld Wo d l O An

National Wildlife Federation’s Native plant finder (nwf.org/NativePlantFinder).

HOMEOWNERS SHOULD ALSO STOP USING PESTICIDES HOW YOU CAN LEND A HELPING HAND

If you want to give insects a helping hand—and all the wildlife and ecosystems depending on them to survive—the best way to do that is to landscape for the 21st century and let go of the old habit of planting things because they look pretty.

“It’s been all about aesthetics, not ecological function of plants. That needs to change,” Tallamy said.

He is adamant that gardens need native plants, shrubs and flowering trees to support the most diverse and balanced food web essential to all sustainable ecosystems. He says the best resource for homeowners is the

30 | Friends of Animals

Insecticides kill moths directly while herbicides kill or contaminate host and nectar plants the insects need to survive. Consider making natural bug repellent sprays from tansy, lavender and mint. A high-pressure spray of water can sometimes be enough to get insects off your plants.

When it comes to weed control, forgo the pesticides and pull weeds by hand, apply corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent to weed-prone areas or use a flame weeding machine with a targeted flame that kills weeds.

Maintaining healthy soil with at least two native turf grasses and proper watering as well as raising your mower blade so that grass is three inches high after mowing are all also key steps to weed management.

Another wonderful way to help insects is to support land conservation in your community by helping to create and maintain community gardens and green spaces.

Darien, for example has become a Pollinator Pathway, committing to providing habitat and nutrition for pollinators. Darien schools and land trust properties are already pesticide free as are the parks (except for playing fields). And officials are encouraging residents to bridge the gaps between town properties by making their properties insect friendly as well.

Similar pathway efforts are underway in several other Fairfield County, Connecticut communities.

Tallamy believes there is hope for insects and the environment if more conservation happens on private land. Plant selection in our backyards matter. Simple changes people make in their landscapes and attitudes will keep insects on the ground, in the air and on our plants.

“It’s the only way it’s going to work, as 83 percent of the land in the U.S. is privately owned,” Tallamy said. “We have public parks and preserves and our biodiversity is huddling in those places. But they are not big enough and they are too separated from each other.

“Roy Dennis, land manager in England, has said land ownership is more than a privilege, it is a responsibility. And I couldn’t agree with that more.”

An Old World Swallowtail butterfly

GET STARTED SUPPORTING BEES, BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS: BEES:

BUTTERFLIES:

MOTHS:

If you want to help the bee population thrive, it's important to include native plants in your garden. For example, if you live in a Mid-Atlantic or New England state you can support over 100 species of bees just by cultivating these six plants: goldenrod (which are #1 in supporting native bees), asters, violets, sunflowers, evening primrose, willows.

The key to protecting butterflies is to provide them with food while they're still caterpillars. Each type of butterfly prefers certain plants and flowers over others, so it's important to research which butterfly species are native to your area and then plant accordingly. Two examples are the American Painted Lady, who's caterpillars prefer cudweed and everlast. The Spicebush Swallowtail is partial to sassafras and spicebush.

When considering flowering plants for nectar, look for those with long tubular flowers.

Night-blooming plants are important for some moth species. Be sure to grow a diversity of plants to ensure your yard offers continuous blooms from spring through autumn. Another tip is to switch off unnecessary outdoor lights at night. Moths that become trapped by light beams will waste valuable time that could be spent foraging or looking for mates.

You can watch FoA's video about protecting pollinators here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qsAu1su0PM

Summer 2019 | 31

PEOPLE WHO INSPIRE

TAKING A SHOT AT RECLAIMING A RIVER

STORY & PHOTOGRAPH BY FRAN SILVERMAN

F

or Daniel Kay and Andrea Dobras, one of the best parts of moving to a condo complex in the Quinnipiac River area of New Haven, Connecticut was that it was near a nature preserve and a waterway that presented wonderful views of wildlife.

But it was only after they moved in that they discovered the scene at times was anything but bucolic. One morning Dobras awoke to the sounds of gun shots.

“Your stomach immediately clenches,’’ recalls Dobras, 39, who is an executive director of a nonprofit and moved into Kay’s condo in 2016 after dating him.

Out the condo window where she and Kay live were hunters on property near the preserve, shooting geese out of the sky. The geese, injured but still

32 | Friends of Animals

alive, spiraled down onto the frozen river where hunters would retrieve them later and finish the kill.

The hunting starts an hour before sunrise and could continue for several hours, they said. During those hours, they’d leave their home to get away from the brutality. But they didn’t run away from the issue. In fact, after witnessing the hunt, Dobras made a vow to stop it.

The nature preserve nearby doesn’t allow hunting. So, why should residents who live by the river just a few feet away have to hear and see the carnage out their windows, she said.

Dobras’ first call was to the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). But she was told the hunters weren’t doing anything wrong. Then she reached out to the land trust that owns the

preserve, but staff there noted the hunters weren’t on the preserve’s property. She was hitting dead ends but decided to push further. She reached out to neighbors who were also upset by the hunts and formed an activist group, Friends of the Quinnipiac River Preserve.

Deb Finelli, a retired IT professional who is a member of the Friends group, said she was frightened when she first saw the hunters with rifles outside her windows in the complex.

She immediately called the police and left her home that day in 2014.

“As soon as I’d hear the gun shots I’d have to leave. I couldn’t ignore them, and I’d seen as much as I wanted to,’’ said Finelli. “No one who lives in a residential area should have to listen to gun shots and see birds fall out of the sky.”

Her husband, Pat, a retired neurologist, was also horrified.

“We’d see it, feel it, live it,’’ said Pat Finelli. “This is in your face and in your backyard.”

The Finellis had enjoyed watching a variety of birds and ducks along the river, including buffleheads, common goldeneyes and red-breasted mergansers. But with the hunters so active, she said she’d look out and see no wildlife on most days.

“It was lonely,’’ she said.

MAKING NOISE The group started writing state environmental officials and contacting local and state lawmakers. They also gathered signatures for a petition and requested help from the land trust that owns the Quinnipiac Meadows/ Eugene B. Fargeorge Preserve, whose staff also wrote letters to officials about the hunting issue.

Dobras also started showing up at breakfasts that city aldermen had scheduled for constituents and other public meetings that state lawmakers attended, pressing them about the group’s concerns and requesting help.

“We felt like we were getting nowhere,’’ she said.

What Dobras didn’t know is that Connecticut has a provision that allows the public to petition DEEP to eliminate hunting in a region if it poses unreasonable risk to residents and domestic animals. Under the statute— Section 26-67c—the commissioner of DEEP can amend the hunting regulations to outlaw it in an area of concern if a municipality requests it.

“It’s a secret that DEEP’s commissioner can end hunting,’’ she said, noting that the agency’s website has information about what to do if you are harassed as a hunter, but not anything

IT’S AMAZING WHAT A TICKED OFF VEGETARIAN CAN DO IN A FEW MONTHS. prominent about stopping hunting in an area.

At one point, she was so frustrated that her group wasn’t getting any immediate help, she tried to protect the birds herself by trying to warn geese with air horns or yell up to them when she saw them fly over. It didn’t work, she said.

A WIN But her advocacy efforts were working on several levels. The media started reporting on the group’s efforts. State lawmakers from New Haven tacked an amendment to ban hunting in the river region onto a state bill. And the police chief of the city requested DEEP look into the issue saying he felt the hunting was unsafe because of all the calls his department was getting about shots fired in the area that they’d have to investigate.

When the amendment on the state bill failed, the group thought they had lost. But a short while later, they got a call from New Haven State Rep. Al Paolillo who told them that DEEP had granted a one-year moratorium on hunting in their area to study the safety issues.

It’s amazing what a ticked off vegetarian can do in a few months, said Kay about his girlfriend’s efforts.

While the moratorium was a victory, the group is seeking more assurance that hunting will not resume, especially now that there’s a new state DEEP commissioner to head the agency and a new police chief in New Haven. They are supporting

a state bill introduced by Paolillo and New Haven state Sen. Martin Looney that bans hunting there.

This winter, Dobras and Kay (who Dobras calls a silent hero of the group’s efforts) waited late into the night to testify on behalf of the bill, which was reported out of the state’s Environment Committee to the full General Assembly for approval. Dobras said the bill is important because she wants others who have similar concerns about hunting in their neighborhoods to be able to end hunts permanently by passing state legislation rather than having to petition DEEP, which may or may not approve a ban and may change its position when a new commissioner is appointed by the governor after elections.

“It’s a lot of work for people to have to go through to have to be heard,’’ Dobras said of the petitioning process.

Her efforts on behalf of the birds led to other changes in her life. She is now a vegan and wears only cruelty-free clothing. She learned about the legislative process and said the efforts by the group helped bring her neighbors together.

In fact, her key advice for others who want to take similar actions is to make sure they have support from fellow community members. Also, she said, “organize, keep going and be persistent.”

Clockwise from left: Andrea Dobras, Daniel Kay, Pat and Deb Finelli.

Summer 2019 | 33

EARTH MATTERS

THE BEST WAY TO LIVE IN HARMONY WITH CANADA GEESE — CLEAN UP AFTER THEM

BY NICOLE RIVARD

E

arlier this year, Connecticut State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff introduced pioneering legislation that would declare Norwalk’s Calf Pasture Beach a wildlife refuge where waterfowl hunting is banned.

While Friends of Animals, which is headquartered nearby, was elated, the pro-hunting community cried foul, claiming the area would be overcome with Canada geese feces.

That’s absurd.

Perceived conflicts like this with resident and migratory Canada geese are all too familiar for Friends of Animals. We get many calls in the spring and summer from concerned members who are upset that their condo complex, retirement community or lake association are approving egg addling, other harassment measures

34 | Friends of Animals

and even worse, geese roundups and slaughter because they believe there are too many in their respective areas.

These places don’t have a Canada goose population problem—the problem is intolerant people who have an issue with cleaning up after wildlife.

But as humans continue to encroach on wildlife habitat, they need to learn how to live in harmony with the waterfowl.

Friends of Animals believes habitats in parks can be modified creatively to make them less attractive to Canada geese, which is why we developed our Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual, available at friendsofanimals. org.

But since Canada geese have a remarkable ability to adapt to human settings, special attention to cleanup has become essential. And the truth is, these days it’s easier than ever to institute clean-up programs that rid an area

of goose droppings.

For instance, in the U.S., Georgia-based manufacturer Tow and Farm offers different size pieces of equipment—its Tow and Collect series— that provide an efficient method of collecting goose feces.

SPEEDY SOLUTIONS In Ontario, Canada, Paul Elliot was in demand cleaning up poop. He says he was the first one to use the Tow and Collect mini 700 to pick up goose poop from a 15-acre municipal park along Lake Barrie. The township of Oro-Medonte, between Barrie and Orillia, employed him two days a week for approximately seven years before the municipality decided to buy its own machine for its workers.

Elliot was a popular guy during that time, he recalls.

“Whoever is doing the cleanup of the geese will never have a bad word

said to them. You are only helpful.

You are very much appreciated,” Elliot recalled.

What Elliot was doing for the township was even appreciated by surrounding cities, like Toronto, which is about an hour away. Residents would make specific drives up to the park because it was so clean and their own parks were littered with goose feces.

Elliot said the township used the non-resident park usage fee to defray the costs of paying him for his services.

He said it would take him about 2 ½ hours to do the entire park.

“The sweepers are fantastic. They do the job simply, quickly, efficiently.

It’s just a marvel to work with them.

No problem at all,” he said.

Not only do sweepers provide a humane solution for maintaining grounds where Canada geese like to gather, Elliot points out cleanup is an investment that makes the most sense.

He witnessed the park trying other expensive methods like garlic spray, dogs and black powder guns, all to no avail.

The mini 700, which costs $4,495 features no engine, so servicing is very quick and minimal. The wheels drive the brushes, which flick the feces into the catcher as you drive the ATV. The Pro 1500, which costs $7,915, has a key-start seven horsepower engine that drives the brushes for constant collection—whether you’re travelling at two miles per hour or eight miles per hour. This is helpful if you have varying surfaces and grass length.

Because of the 60-inch wide pickup of the Pro 1500, you can completely cover 1⁄2 acre in just over 10 minutes.

In early 2018, the City of Windsor in Ottawa approved $75,000 worth of equipment to clean up goose droppings from riverfront paths. “Clearly we see all of council gets calls and we see that there is an increased issue over the last several years with respect to Canada geese and the droppings that they leave along our riverfront paths in particular,” Mayor Drew Wilkens told a local radio station.

A HOME RUN IN BOSTON Goose feces became an issue at Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields, located in the Charles River Esplanade in Boston, despite egg addling, sheepdogs and fencing, so a friends group took matters into its own hands and purchased the Tow and Collect’s mini 700.

“We had parents/kids all turned off by an extraordinary amount of goose feces,” said Edward Fleck, a member of the friends group that is dedicated to the maintenance and stewardship of the athletic fields, which include three baseball/softball diamonds, a T-ball diamond, five youth soccer fields and a regulation-sized soccer field.

“The sweeper is a nice bomb-proof piece of machinery. It kind of sold itself

in terms of its rigor and quality,” Fleck said.

The friends group raised the money by approaching city school groups that don’t pay anything to use the complex because they don’t have their own athletic facilities. Fleck said they gladly pitched in. They didn’t purchase the larger model with the gas engine because of the emissions.

“State workers pull it out of a garage a couple times a week, hook it to a tractor, and an hour later the fields are squeaky clean. It’s very effective and efficient in removing the poop,” Fleck said.

EDUCATION IS KEY In addition to cleanup and habitat modification, a continuing public education and outreach campaign is also necessary. People need to learn about the natural conduct of nesting geese and the importance of giving them ample space to mitigate conflict.

Geese deposit eggs in their nests between early April and mid-May. After their eggs hatch, adults care for their goslings during May and June.

After nesting, geese undergo an annual "molt," a four-to-five week flightless period when they shed and re-grow their outer wing feathers.

Molting occurs between mid-June and late July, and the birds resume flight by August.

Lethal responses and harassment methods are not only unethical, but they offer only temporary answers.

Elliot pointed out that geese are smart enough to figure out what humans are doing and ignore harassment efforts.

“Canada geese aren’t going away,’’ Elliot said. "The only thing to do is clean up after them.”

Summer 2019 | 35

LETTERS ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE IS A NATIONAL TREASURE The Artic National Wildlife Refuge is a true national treasure. It is imperative that it remain intact and never opened to any oil, gas or other exploration. Friends of Animals is doing a major public service in speaking up for the Arctic Refuge. Thank you very much!

Thanks, too, for exposing all of President Trump’s, and his associates, endless assaults on wildlife and the environment. Trump will go down in history as our worst President to date. It is imperative he not be elected to another term.

I continue to be unconditionally opposed to all hunting and trapping of wildlife. Birds, mammals, and other wildlife are our national treasures, too.

With all best wishes.

DONALD S. HEINTZELMAN, ORNITHOLOGIST, AUTHOR • ALLENTOWN, PA

PROTECT ARCTIC REFUGE NO MATTER WHAT THE COST We must protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge at all costs; it is the “Serengeti” of Alaska (or America).

Thank you, Priscilla Feral, president, for your article "In My View: Protect Wild, Plunder Not" (Spring, Action Line 2019).

LET’S HEAR FROM YOU!

In your article you mentioned Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts is co-sponsoring Senate legislation with Representative Jared Huffman called, "The Arctic Cultural Coastal Plain Protection Act" to restore protections for the Arctic Refuge and safeguard its home for countless animals—caribou, moose, wolves, polar bears, etc.

May I also interject that there may be another option. Back in the 1990s I fought along with others to protect the grey whales’ birthing ground in Baja, California from Mitsubishi, who wished to put a manufacturing plant there. It was ultimately declared A World Heritage Site through the auspices of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), and was protected forever more from further threats on its pristine existence. UNESCO, as we know is an affiliate of the United Nations, and what could better serve the Arctic Refuge than this worldwide organization?

I do so hope that this alternate viewpoint or suggestion can be implemented for the Arctic Refuge’s protection. Trump cannot wait: He is a businessman and politician— not a statesman, humanitarian or environmentalist. He takes a wrecking ball to everything he touches, and it dies.

I do so enjoy your magazine and its integrity in presenting our most pressing issues.

DIANNE GEORGE • WILDOMAR, CA

MAIL US: Editor, Action Line Friends of Animals 777 Post Road Darien, CT 06820 E-MAIL US: contact@friendsofanimals.org

IT’S OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CARE FOR SICK ANIMALS I am deeply angered and frustrated by people when it comes to animals—when they treat animals as disposable things and kill them.

I don’t think people want to be bothered to have to take care of their sick animals, nor are they willing to spend money when their animals get sick or old. It never used to be a death sentence to get sick or old. Now in our narcissistic culture people kill their animals all of the time. In the name of love.

I believe in taking care of the sick, old and dying and comforting and protecting, making them comfortable, until they can let go and pass away.

Modern medicine has made killing a convenience.

MAGDALENA SUAZO • ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING Editor’s note: (Letters are edited for space).

PLANNED GIFTS: Including Animal Advocacy You fuel Friends of Animals’ animal advocacy work – now and in the future.

FoA will be here as long as animals of the world need us, and your planned gifts will help ensure our life-saving programs are available to protect them.

FoA is a nonprofit with a solid record of fiscal responsibility and achievements for domestic and wild animals all over the world for more than 60 years.

For a brochure to assist with estate decisions, please email Donna M. Berlanda, director of administration, at dberlanda@friendsofanimals.org, or call (203) 656-1522.

36 | Friends of Animals

Gifts to a 501c(3) charity typically have tax-deductible benefits. You or your attorney will need the following details: Friends of Animals, Inc. 777 Post Road, Suite 205.

Darien, CT 06820 Tax ID# 13-6018549 Friends of Animals has non-profit status under IRS code section 501c(3)

CHEERS

JEERS

RARE BURROWING OWLS RETURN

ICE OUT ICELAND

We have a huge hoot for 10 burrowing owls who are thriving in a beachfront community adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport.

The beachfront community of Surfridge became a ghost town decades ago to make way for the jet age, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, but now is a haven for some of the rarest creatures in California as it remains off limits to the public.

When scientists recently discovered the owls hunkered down in the 302-acre preserve, they were elated. “This is very exciting—a real stunner,” biologist Pete Bloom told the paper. “For wintering owls, this tiny chunk of land has become priceless coastal real estate. That’s because there is no place else left for them to go in the city of Los Angeles.”

Burrowing owl numbers have been dwindling steadily since the 1940s due to urban development, eradication of the rodents they feed on, pesticides, predation by domestic animals, vehicle strikes, collisions with wind turbines and shootings.

This story underscores the importance of open spaces for wildlife that are off limits to hunters.

`

THUMBS UP FOR ANIMAL-FREE CIRCUS

Kudos to the Austrian circus Roncalli that stopped using real animals in their performances and switched to a much more humane option—projecting amazing holographic images of animals to wow the crowds instead.

The Austrian circus phased out the use of wild animals in its shows in the 1990s, well before others began to take similar steps, and since then has only used domestic horses. But recently, the circus decided to stop using animals altogether, according to an article in the Dodo.

Jeers to the government of Iceland, which has approved a plan to kill more than 2,000 fin and minke whales.

Despite a declining global market for whale meat and public outrage over hunts, the government has decided to remain in defiance of the international ban on whaling.

If you are considering where to go on vacation this year, you should ice out Iceland.

Iceland cited a boost to its economy from the whale slaughter. So travelers should boycott the country and freeze any revenues it would gain from tourism.

JEERS TO BEAR MURDERERS

Jeers to a bloodthirsty father-son duo who murdered a bear and her two cubs in Alaska. The good news is they got what they deserve—a rare conviction. However, we don’t think its punishment enough for these killers who like to call themselves conservationists. We think Alaska should lock them up and throw away the key as hunting is a crime against nature. Killing is not conservation.

According to the Washington Post, Andrew Renner, 41, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three months in jail, fined $9,000 and required to forfeit the vehicles, firearms, phones and skis that were used when the bears were shot. He also had his hunting license suspended for a decade. Owen Renner, 18, was sentenced to suspended jail time and community service, prosecutors said in a statement, on charges related to the unlawful killings and falsifying records. His license was suspended for two years.

The two cut a path on backcountry skis, toting rifles and seemingly confident it was just them and the black bears, the paper reported. They then stopped at a den on a remote Alaska island and found their slumbering target. Owen Renner shouldered the rifle and fired at least two shots into a mother bear. Then the “shrieking” started, prosecutors said. The hunters listened for a few minutes and determined the origin of the cries: two cubs. Andrew Renner then looked through the scope and fired at point-blank range, killing the cubs alongside their mother.

Adding insult to injury, they had the audacity to try and cover it up, thinking they could get away with it. However, the crime was captured on a stop-motion camera used to document the bears’ activity. The sow wore a GPS-enabled collar and was part of a research project.

Summer 2019 | 37

SPARE AN ANIMAL CAP 100% cotton twill in all black. One size fits all with adjustable, cotton strap $24 including shipping

SPARE AN ANIMAL T-SHIRT High-quality 100% combed cotton shirt in black. Available in women’s sizes S, M, L, XL. Men’s sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL.

LOVE ANIMALS. “BEE” VEGAN PIN

$14 including shipping

Show off your love for your vegan lifestyle with our “Love Animals. ‘Bee’ Vegan.” pin. $2

CROSS OUT T-SHIRT “There’s no right way to do the wrong thing” Navy 100% combed and ring-spun cotton T-shirt. Women’s sizes S, M, L, XL and Men’s sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL as available.

Females should consider ordering up a size for great fit. $24 including shipping

38 | Friends of Animals

BE VEGAN T-SHIRT

FLIP OFF FUR T-SHIRT

Dark gray heathered high quality ring-spun cotton/polyester T-shirt. Women’s sizes S, M, L, XL and Men’s sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL as available. Females should consider ordering up a size for great fit.

"Don't be comfortable in their skin."

Polyester-Cotton-Rayon blend. Unisex sizes XS, S, M, L, XL. $24 including shipping

$24 including shipping

CATALOG ORDER FORM

SEND TO: Friends Of Animals, P.O. Box 150451 Hartford, Connecticut 06115-0451 PLEASE ALLOW 3-4 WEEKS FOR DELIVERY and make sure to include a phone number and email so if there is a problem with an order we can get in touch with you. Twenty-five percent of the total sale price of your purchase will help fund Friends of Animals’ programs. Please note we do not ship outside the US. NAME

ADDRESS

APARTMENT #

CITY

STATE

ZIP

QUANTITY ITEM DESCRIPTION / COLOR

SIZE

My check or money order payable to Friends of Animals is enclosed Please charge my:

Visa

MasterCard

American Express

PHONE NUMBER AND EMAIL

GENDER

TOTAL PRICE

TOTAL MERCHANDISE ORDER _________________

Discover

/

ACCOUNT NUMBER

EXPIRATION DATE

DONATION ENCLOSED _________________

TOTAL AMOUNT ENCLOSED _________________

SIGNATURE For your convenience, you may fax your credit card order to: 203–656–0267 or shop online at www.friendsofanimals.org.

THANK YOU!

Non-profit Org. US Postage P A I D Friends of Animals

777 Post Road • Darien, CT 06820

Break the single-use plastic habit FOA INSULATED REUSABLE WATER BOTTLE

We know our members care about animals and the environment—so we created our new reusable “Don’t Litter” water bottle with that it mind. You can show your support for FoA’s spay-neuter program, which has reached more than 2.7 million cats and dogs, while breaking the single-use plastic habit—a win-win for human and non-human animals.

$34 INCLUDING SHIPPING MATTE BLACK OR BLUE • Shows your commitment to spay-neuter and animal adoption • BPA- free, lead-free, chip resistant, leak proof and easy to clean • 18/8 Stainless Steel construction, custom-made by Klean Kanteen ® • Electropolished interior, a safe and non-toxic process • Holds 20 oz. Double-wall vacuum insulation keeps drinks hot for 20 hours and iced for 50 hours • Hand washing is recommended for all insulated products