Action Line Autumn 2014

FALL 2014

ACTION LINE

APPLAUDING WILD HORSE ADVOCATES VICTORY LAP: THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT FOA’S ADVOCACY SAFELY SHOOTING WILDLIFE NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS WEDDING

4 N EWS Victory Lap: The Latest News About How FOA’s Advocacy Has Resulted in Protecting Animals

14 N EWS A ‘Food Evolution’ in Ridgefield, CT 16 NEWS Safely Shooting Wildlife 20 FEATURE No Animals Were Harmed in the Making of this Wedding 26 NEWS Losing LuLu 28 BOOK REVIEWS Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top

A Wolf Called Romeo 32 LETTERS 33 CHEERS & JEERS 34 FOA MERCHANDISE

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.

OUR TEAM

CONTACT US NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 777 Post Road Darien, Connecticut 06820 (203) 656-1522 contact@friendsofanimals.org

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Dustin Rhodes [NC] dustin@friendsofanimals.org

NEW YORK OFFICE 1841 Broadway, Suite 350 New York, NY 10023 (212) 247-8120 WESTERN OFFICE 7500 E. Arapahoe Rd., Ste 385 Cetennial, CO 80112 (720) 949-7791 PRIMARILY PRIMATES SANCTUARY P.O. Box 207 San Antonio, TX 7891-02907 (830) 755-4646 primarilyprimates@ friendsofanimals.org VISIT US www.friendsofanimals.org www.primarilyprimates.org FOLLOW US facebook.com /friendsofanimals.org facebook.com /primarilyprimates.org 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 CLIX, Spring 2014 ISSN 1072-2068

PRESIDENT Priscilla Feral [CT] feral@friendsofanimals.org www.twitter.com/pferal www.twitter.com/primate_refuge

IN MY VIEW

VICE PRESIDENT Dianne Forthman [CT]

BY PRISCILLA FERAL, PRESIDENT

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Robert Orabona [CT]

happens, he drums the edge of the burrow with his largest

ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT Donna Thigpen [CT]

claw and then leads her inside, plugging the entrance before

SECRETARY TO THE PRESIDENT Shelly Scott [CT]

winter in two-foot deep burrows, around the time outdoor bird-

they mate. I find these crabs fascinating, and they hibernate all watching kicks into high gear.

SPAY/NEUTER PROJECT Paula Santo [CT]

Starting in the fall in New England, Canada geese, who mate for life, fly over open water with honking calls as they migrate

DIRECTOR, WILDLIFE LAW PROGRAM Michael Harris [CO]

south. That anyone would hunt a Canada goose, swan or duck seems certifiable!

ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY Jenni Barnes [CO] CAMPAIGNS DIRECTOR Edita Birnkrant [NY] www.twitter.com/EditaFoANYC CORRESPONDENT Nicole Rivard [CT] nrivard@friendsofanimals.org SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Meghan McIntire [CT] www.twitter.com/FoAorg EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PPI Brooke Chavez [TX] brooke@primarilyprimates.org DESIGN MSLK Printed on Recycled Paper

In Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, waves of raptors, waterfowl and shorebirds arrive after their fall migraPHOTO BY JOHN HYDE

8 FEATURE Giving a Voice to the Voiceless: Applauding Wild Horse Advocates

tion. Bald eagles also migrate to Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri by late fall and early winter. As many as 300 bald eagles and an occasional golden eagle are viewed there during their migration peak in early December.

Almost 19 million of 71.8 million wildlife watchers in the United States view wild birds in refuges and during trips away from home. These bird watchers are increasingly interested in

Last summer, Friends of Animals’ office workers enjoyed

defining specific birds in complete darkness, listening to these

watching an osprey’s nest in Maine after three eggs hatched,

nocturnal migrants to identify their distinctive flight calls.

along with a snowy owl’s nest in Alaska, without ever leaving their desks. This couch potato’s version of bird watching is made possible via non-invasive, live cams by explore.org and

Eastern screech owls are identified in Cape May, N.J. in early fall and golden eagles are seen between October to November.

For fall swan watching, Tundra Swans appear each year in

it’s perfect for folks who don’t like to stray much from their

Pennsylvania from November to early December, when these

computers. There are various sites for live cams of bald eagles

birds rest and feed. Our Field Guide to North American Swans

and other wild birds all fall and winter.

offers a list of viewing sites in Pennsylvania.

I personally adore venturing out into the great outdoors and

Perhaps the most exciting November event this fall is one I

watching active fiddler crabs on summer weekends, as fiddlers

hope to attend: the 20th annual Alaska Bald Eagle Festival in

live in marshes, along beaches and mud flats near home. And

Haines, Alaska from Nov. 10–16, 2014. Festival activities are

observing fiddlers helps one learn why they’re more than worthy

held at the American Bald Eagle Foundation in Haines, and daily

of protection, and why the loss of sea grass, and the problem

buses and vans take a maximum of 12 students attending the

of nitrogen from pesticides and fertilizers used on lawns and

workshop to the Alaska Bald Eagle Preserve to observe the

gardens must be averted.

annual “Gathering of the Eagles,” when 3,000–4,000 eagles

Back to crab watching. Male fiddlers have an enlarged major claw, and to attract a female partner, they stand next to their

have been seen feeding on a late run of salmon.

More information can be found at www.baldeaglefestival.org.

tidy burrow watching females walk past, waving their major claw

With luck on timing and weather, I’ll watch the eagle gathering in

to attract her attention. If interested, a female stares at the

Haines and might have some remarkable photos to share with

male, which prompts him to run toward her and then flee side-

Action Line readers.

ways back to the burrow he’s dug and maintained.

Male fiddlers repeat this motion a few times until the female gets bored and leaves or follows him to the burrow. If that

Fall 2014 | 3

BY NICOLE RIVARD

VICTORY LAP FIVE STURGEON SPECIES GAIN ESA PROTECTION Despite being described as the most threatened group of animals on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, sturgeon are still being exploited by the lucrative caviar trade.

However, for five species of this ancient fish, the days of being taken advantage of are over. In June they gained Endangered Species Act protection thanks to the efforts of Friends of Animals and WildEarth Guardians, who filed a petition back in 2012 to add 15 sturgeon communities to the U.S. Endangered Species List. They are the Sakhalin sturgeon, olive-hued Adriatic sturgeon, massive Chinese sturgeon, European or Baltic sturgeon and the Kaluga or Great Siberian sturgeon.

This listing by the National Marine Fisheries Service makes importation, selling or possession

of caviar or meat from any of these sturgeon species illegal in the United States.

“These magnificent fish species have inhabited our planet for more than 200 million years and are worth more than the sum of their parts,” said Taylor Jones, endangered species advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “We are thrilled that they now have the strongest possible legal protections.”

Human exploitation is the single largest cause of sturgeon population collapses: Large declines in these species’ numbers are due to historical unsustainable fisheries.

The demand for sturgeon meat and caviar means that human exploitation, both legal and illegal, remains a threat today. Dams, dikes and channels, pollution and poor water quality and range loss are also threats to all of the species. Naturally small populations increase the risk of extinction.

Dams impede sturgeons’ ability to spawn, and the loss of eggs and breeding adults to the caviar trade means that depleted populations may take decades to recover. All sturgeon reproduce slowly, and many species require decades to reach maturity. Sturgeon do not spawn every year, and males and females often have different spawning and migration cycles, making reproduction even less certain.

The other 10 sturgeon species are being evaluated for listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; joint regulations protecting all 15 petitioned species would ensure the strongest protections from the caviar trade and other threats.

“We are pleased for these sturgeon and equally pleased that Friends of Animals helped to tear down the barrier that for too long now has prevented these species from receiving the ESA protections they need and deserve,” said Michael Harris, director of Friends of Animals’ wildlife law program. “We hope this is the end of the policies at the Fisheries Service and other agencies to deny legal protections to marine species that are exploited for human consumption.”

Listing species under the Endangered Species Act is a proven effective safety net for imperiled species: more than 99 percent of plants and animals listed under the Act persist today. The law is especially important as a bulwark

THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT HOW FOA’S ADVOCACY HAS RESULTED IN PROTECTING ANIMALS against the current extinction crisis; plants and animals are disappearing at a rate much higher than the natural rate of extinction due to human activities. Scientists estimate that 227 species would have gone extinct if not for ESA listing.

IMPERILED TORTOISES TAKE STEP TOWARD LEGAL PROTECTIONS Beyond the sturgeon success, joint petitions by WildEarth Guardians and Friends of Animals led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider Endangered Species Act listing for spider tortoises and flat-tailed tortoises. These Madagascar natives are mainly threatened by collection for the international pet trade.

“These tortoises need Endangered Species Act listing to win the race against extinction,” said Jones, the WildEarth Guardians’ endangered species advocate. “The pet trade will wipe out these beautiful tortoises in the wild if we fail to act soon.”

A single spider tortoise can fetch up to $1,000 in the pet trade. Their high commercial value makes the tortoises targets for collectors. Flattailed tortoises are similarly imperiled; collection from the wild has already eliminated flat-tailed tortoise populations in the southwestern part of their range. Regulations, including listing on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix I, have failed to prevent illegal harvest and trade in the tortoises. To make

SPI D THI ER TO SC RTO WIL O L LE MMER ISES G WE ACT AD TO CIAL E O FOR X $ NOW EXT INC PLOIT 1000 ! .

ATI TIO N, U ON NLE SS

matters worse, flat-tailed tortoises and spider tortoises are losing their already limited habitat to deforestation.

“This is a positive first step toward protecting these species from those with a gruesome appetite for exotic pets and ensuring their survival in Madagascar,” said Harris of Friends of Animals.

THREE RARE PARROT SPECIES PROTECTED UNDER THE ESA In addition, Friends of Animals and WildEarth marked a milestone in

putting an end to the global trade in birds as all members of three parrot species gained protection under the Endangered Species Act, after a petition was filed by both organizations.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Philippine cockatoo and the yellow-crested cockatoo (including all four subspecies) as “endangered” and the white cockatoo as “threatened” due to a variety of threats, including the illegal collection of these attractive birds from the wild for the pet trade.

“We are pleased that the U.S. Fish

Fall 2014 | 5

and Wildlife Service finally acted to protect these increasingly rare birds,” said Harris. “It is fitting that those who have profited from caging these beautiful birds will now face some ‘cage time’ themselves.”

Friends of Animals and WildEarth Guardians, with the University of Denver Environmental Law Clinic, reached a settlement with the Service in July 2010, in which the Service agreed to provide overdue 12-month listing decisions for 12 parrot species petitioned by Friends of Animals. The Service made a 12-month finding in August of 2011; this rule is the final step in the listing process.

“It’s wonderful to see needed protections put in place that will keep these beautiful birds where they belong; in the wild,” said Jones.

“Demand for these intelligent birds, including U.S. demand, drives poaching in their home ranges.”

The Philippine cockatoo, white with a striking red undertail, once inhabited 52 islands in the Philippines. Now, its range is likely reduced to just eight islands. In addition to poaching for the pet trade, this species faces threats from logging, mining and conversion of forests to agriculture, all of which have destroyed much of the lowland forest and native mangroves that the species calls home.

The four subspecies of yellowcrested cockatoo are native to Indonesia and Timor-Leste (an independent state adjacent to West Timor).

They all have similar brilliant yellow, forward-curving head crests and they all face significant threats from poaching for the pet trade and both legal and illegal logging. The yellow-crested cockatoo has declined substantially across its range and may be facing extinction on several islands including Sulawesi, Sumbawa and Flores.

White cockatoos, with their signature large, backward-curving head crests, were inhabitants of six islands in North Maluku, Indonesia (also known as the Moluccas or the Spice Islands). They now inhabit only two of these islands. Poaching for the pet trade is the primary threat to this species, and removal of individuals from the wild is particularly harmful to the white cockatoo, a monogamous, long-lived bird that may not begin breeding until six years of age. Unfortunately, as the white cockatoo is proposed for listing as “threatened,” the Service included a Special Rule under the ESA that allows continued import, export or interstate commerce of birds held in captivity prior to the listing date and of captive-bred birds. For many species utilized for

commercial purposes, legal trade creates “cover” for illegal trade, and makes enforcement more difficult.

FIRST SHARK SPECIES LISTED UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT In response to a 2011 petition by WildEarth Guardians and Friends of Animals, in July the National Marine Fisheries Service (Fisheries Service) listed four populations of scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini) under the Endangered Species Act because of severe threats posed by human exploitation. Shark species worldwide are dwindling in the face of heavy fishing pressures; sharks are killed for their meat and fins, which are used in highly controversial shark-fin soup.

Sharks are also accidentally caught and killed in the course of fishing operations targeting other species.

Experts consider fishing the greatest threat to all sharks. Most sharks, including the scalloped hammerhead, play an important role in maintaining oceanic ecosystems as apex carnivores.

keep pets off the street. spay or neuter.

It is estimated that shelters euthanize more than more than 3 million pets each year. Countless more suffer exposure, starvation and death on the streets. Affordable spaying or neutering is the most effective way to 6 | Friends of Animals

prevent these tragedies. To locate participating veterinarians in your area, go to FriendsOfAnimals.org today.

Fall 2014 | 7

GIVING A VOICE TO THE VOICELESS

8 | Friends of Animals

APPLAUDING WILD HORSE ADVOCATES In June, Friends of Animals and The Cloud Foundation filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list North American wild horses on public lands as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. As we wait for this call to protection to be answered, we salute Carole Walker’s and Vickery Eckhoff’s efforts to advocate for wild horses at any cost—even risking their jobs.

STORY AND FEATURE PHOTO BY NICOLE RIVARD

Fall 2014 | 9

CAROL WALKER Wildlife photographer Carol Walker recalls her first encounter with wild horses when she started photographing them back in 2004. She came across a family from the Adobe Town herd in Wyoming’s Red Desert napping in the sage brush. As she got out of the car, a battle-scarred grey stallion jumped up and started running toward her. She felt fear but mostly exhilaration. He stopped and was joined by his filly, who Walker said looked like she was grinning at her. It was love at first sight.

“This little family was just so charming. Over the course of that weekend I saw probably 150 horses out there. I had to go back,” Walker said.

And she has gone back over and over throughout the past 10 years, becoming a wild horse advocate along the way. That’s because a year later, she found out the Bureau of Land Management was going to round up and remove a lot of the horses.

“I didn’t understand what was going on and started educating myself,” Walker said. “I was there for the whole roundup. I got to see them driving them with the helicopter, capturing the horses. It was horrifying.”

The most haunting thing was the capture of a red roan stallion. The BLM put him in the squeeze shoot and aged him at 22. Although the BLM had said they would turn the older stallions back out on the rangeland, they found out there was room at a sanctuary so they shipped them there.

“I was just devastated, the thought of these old horses getting shipped out from the only home they have ever known,” Walker said. “It’s torture, plain and simple. I couldn’t even look at the pictures for about four months. After that I decided someone needs to get the word out that these horses are healthy, beautiful and thriving. They aren’t dying of starvation. That was the big party line back then.”

In 2008, she published Wild Hoofbeats: America’s Vanishing Wild Horses to shed light on the challenges wild horses face and inspire a deep respect for their social allegiances and intelligence.

10 | Friends of Animals

1. Roaming free in the wild

“That’s the main thing that I want to educate people about, the whole family social structure that is unique to the wild horse,” said Walker, who is publishing another book about wild horses in France in October.

“That is what is destroyed when these horses are rounded up, separated from their families and gelded.

“The ‘eco sanctuaries’ of the Bureau of Land Management are just a bunch of geldings in a pasture.

People don’t know.”

Walker added a blog to her book’s website, www.wildhoofbeats.com, about three years ago to further educate people about wild horses. Proceeds from her book support the Cloud Foundation, the Wild Horse Preservation Campaign and Wild Horse Freedom Federation, where she sits on the board as director of field documentation. Walker also speaks at events like the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo, rallying people to take action for wild horses.

She urges people to write their Senators and Congressmen, as well as the BLM when it’s proposing a roundup and offering a public comment period. “It’s important that we comment even though they don’t listen, because otherwise they will say, ‘People don’t care and what we are doing is fine,’ ” Walker said.

Lawsuits work too, she says. She suggests people support the groups with legal funds who are on the front lines of fighting to keep the wild horses out there and not sterilized. “That does make a difference,” she said.

She believes that there needs to be a wild horse lobbyist in Congress, as well as more funds made available for research on the herds to prove what the BLM is doing is wrong. She said it comes down to the ranchers

THE BLM IS DESTROYING THE WHOLE FAMILY SOCIAL STRUCTURE THAT IS UNIQUE TO THE WILD HORSE.

2. Getting rounded up for capture

not wanting to share. “I get to see these lands. In Sand Wash Basin in Colorado they have decades of overgrazing by sheep. They put out 500 to 1,000 sheep at time, and there is not a blade of grass left. It’s horrible,” she said. “People don’t realize they think it would be the end of the beef industry if we didn’t have cattle on public lands, but only three percent of beef consumed comes from public lands.”

She is adamant that the BLM should halt roundups immediately since it has no plan for what to do with the 50,000 plus wild horses already in short- and longterm pens. She said it’s devastating to see the horses in holding pens. “It looks like they have just died inside.

They are just numb. It’s dreadful,” Walker said.

Plus roundups are exacerbating the homeless horse problem in America. “Because of the economic crisis, hundreds of trained domestic horses have been given up and need homes, and can’t even be given away, and the market for wild untrained horses has gotten even smaller,” Walker explained.

PHOTO BY CAROL WALKER

THE PERILOUS LIFE OF A WILD HORSE

3. Held captive in over-crowded holding facilities

She said that the BLM rounded up and removed 8,000 horses last year, but the adoption rate is about 2,000 per year right now. “We believe the return rate for wild horses adopted from the BLM is over 50 percent. Not everyone is cut out to train a wild horse,” Walker said.

Horses over 10 or who have failed to be adopted three times are eligible to be sold without limitation and can be bought for $25 per horse.

“We believe the BLM is quietly selling many hundreds of horses from the long-term holding facilities, and these horses are ultimately ending up at slaughter,” Walker said.

Walker has adopted three mustangs and admits investing considerable time and money in them. She hopes to ride her youngest, Mica, by the end of this fall.

“As much as I love my horses, I would much rather that they had never been rounded up and that they were still free,” Walker said.

PRICE

DEMAN

D

Sold for $25 per horse

QUANTITY

4. Given up for adoption

5. Many that can’t get adopted are sold in a failing market

PHOTO BY CAROL WALKER

VICKERY ECKHOFF John Holland, president of the Equine Welfare Alliance, has described Vickery Eckoff as the most knowledgeable journalist he knows on equine welfare.

Eckoff was a contributing writer to Forbes.com for almost two-and-a-half years—covering the dark side of horse racing, including over-breeding and horse slaughter, and eventually wild horses. But after publishing 23 of her articles and photo galleries, Forbes took away her writing gig in April after publishing her story, “Federal Grazing Program in Cliven Bundy Dispute Rips-off Taxpayers, Wild Horses.”

“Very few people in the media understood what the most serious issue was with the Cliven Bundy story, which is the federal grazing program,” Eckhoff said.

“No one was writing about the taxpayer perspective.

I love horses and animals. But what I am is an advocate for truth telling in the media and I think there needs to be many more of us.

“The news media has great suspicion about anyone who is knowledgeable about animal issues—as some kind of animal extremist. There is resistance—I think it’s from this lack of knowledge of what animal issues are really about. They see it as an emotional issue. It’s about industry, it’s about big bucks, it’s about politics and the

12 | Friends of Animals

environment. If the news media really understood these issues they would cover them more thoughtfully.”

Eckhoff comes from a family of five girls, “and four of us were horse crazy,” she says. Two of her sisters encouraged her to write about the dark side of horse racing back in 2011. Her first article for Forbes was published just hours before the news hit that the proposed 2012 Agriculture Appropriations Bill did not include a provision de-funding inspections for horses to be slaughtered for human consumption.

“Everyone saw an explosion of articles about how horse-slaughter plants were going to be coming back,” she recalled. “And they were going to help horses because they were being abused and neglected. The more I saw how easily news media could be steered by special interests, the madder I got.”

She felt the only way to correct the misinformation out there was to keep writing. “What I ended up discovering was the extent to which the news media doesn’t do any fact checking and how they really don’t feel obligated to fact check,” she said.

The most maddening instance was a series of articles that followed the attempts of Valley Meat to slaughter horses based on the argument that it would diminish overall horse abuse and neglect. The stories correlated data showing increasing horse abuse and neglect reported by the Government Accountability Office with the closure of the last three domestic horse slaughter plants. However, the reporter misreported the closing dates by a year, causing the correlation with the GAO data to turn on its head. The GAO data instead showed that abuse and neglect increased during years in which the plants remained open.

Now, Eckhoff says, news outlets are pumping out misinformation about wild horses and overgrazing, while ranchers get away with not wanting to share land with wild horses.

“The Bureau of Land Management is run by a bunch of ranchers who are used to getting taxpayer subsidies to run their cattle on public land,” Eckhoff said. “These ranchers continually say, ‘We have private

6. Some are returned back to holding pens and go up for another round of adoption

property rights here and these horses are overpopulating and they are ruining the rangeland.’ Well the fact is they are lying.”

While she is no longer writing about horses for Forbes, she is helping to spread the word about the work of horse welfare groups.

“The Cloud Foundation and the Wild Horse Freedom Federation recently went into the BLM’s own rangeland administration system, and they figured out how many cattle and sheep were grazing 12 months per year in the same herd management area in Iron Beaver County, Utah, where ranchers want to get rid of the wild horses,” Eckhoff said. “The numbers show there at 10.6 times as many cattle and sheep as wild horses where the grazing allotment and herd management areas overlap.

What’s great about it is it’s proving the BLM is lying using the BLM’s own stuff.”

The data did not get the media attention it warranted, says Eckhoff.

“I asked the wild horse person at the Humane Society to publicize the info and they refused. Journalists weren’t using it,” Eckhoff said. “The news media relies on big established groups because they think they are more truthful. They will take anything the BLM says at face value, anything the ranchers say at face value, anything that the Humane Society says at face value. But if a small group brings information to them they will discount it.

“I realize it is not good to go up against the bigger groups like the Humane Society or the ASPCA but they’ve got a huge amount of credibility with the news media and I don’t think they deserve it. I’ve seen them quoted in articles that are full of disinformation and I’ve said to them why don’t you push back on these reporters who get the facts wrong? They are the ones with all the power; if they don’t do it, who should be expected to?”

Eckhoff hopes more people will champion and support smaller groups because they need the funding for public relations to get their voice heard.

For the public to not know what’s going on because the smaller groups don’t have a big enough public

7. Failure to get adopted or purchased leads to slaughter

profile is disheartening.

“The animal industries have a lot of money and a lot of political might and if there isn’t some money raised to push-back on them, they will just continue pumping out their disinformation,” Eckhoff said.

In the meantime, Eckhoff plans to higher the journalism standards for writing about animals. “Ultimately I have a master plan with another writer to start a website that will serve as a resource for journalists, to help them develop the knowledge they need to more truthfully cover issues that have an animal angle to them,” she said.

TAKE ACTION CONTACT SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR SALLY JEWELL Friends of Animals and The Cloud Foundation are asking their supporters to contact Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and tell her wild horses on public lands should be listed and protected under the Endangered Species Act. She can be reached at: Department of the Interior 1849 C Street N.W. Washington DC 20240 202.208.3100 feedback@ios.doi.gov.

HELP STOP DETRIMENTAL LEGISLATION Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) has introduced ominous legislation—The Wild Horse Oversight Act—that would give Western states and Indian Tribes the option to take over the management of wild horses and burros, which can lead to their slaughter. Contact Natural Resource Committee Chairman Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) and ranking member Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and tell them to squash the bill.

Contact Hastings: 202.225.5816 or 509.543.9396 or email at http://hastings.house.gov/contact Call DeFazio: 202.225.6416 or 541.440.3523 or email at http://defazio.house.gov/contact/email-me PURCHASE OUR NEW WILD HORSE T-SHIRT Purchase our wild horse t-shirt (featured on the back cover), designed by Vaute Couture, and help support our efforts to protect wild horses.

Fall 2014 | 13

BY MEG MCINTIRE

A ‘FOOD EVOLUTION’

FAIRFIELD COUNTY’S NEWEST VEGAN RESTAURANT OFFERS MADE-FROM-SCRATCH MEALS USING LOCALLY-SOURCED INGREDIENTS.

14 | Friends of Animals

Tucked into the last storefront near the back of The Marketplace shopping center in Ridgefield, Conn., is where you’ll find Fairfield County’s newest vegan restaurant, Food Evolution. Although somewhat off the beaten path, the remoteness of its location will only add to the feeling that you’ve discovered something special once you’ve finished your meal.

Not even a year old yet, Food Evolution has already caught the eye of many local vegans, vegetarians and food lovers alike, and appears to have amassed quite a dedicated

fan base that comes to enjoy entirely vegan dishes made with locally sourced ingredients.

As soon as you step inside the restaurant the yellow painted interior, a large fireplace and open bar offer a warm and welcoming first impression. And I expect it would be particularly cozy during the colder months.

Wanting to enjoy the warm weather, we opted for the small patio that is sheltered from the nearby parking lot by a leafy awning and white fence.

As per the waiter’s recommen-

IN RIDGEFIELD, CT dation, we started with a small plate of the crispy tempura cauliflower, which tasted fantastic as it was tossed with sweet and spicy chili sauce. We also ordered a small bowl of carrot ginger soup served cold that was very tangy and had a strong taste of fresh ginger. We also sampled the shredded root salad, which was very refreshing, consisting of slivers of carrot, beet, radish and jicama on top of a bed of mixed greens with balsamic vinaigrette.

For main dishes, I ordered the BBQ Bowl—mac and “cheese” sprinkled with house BBQ soy curls and topped with a generous slice of jalapeno skillet cornbread, which provided a lovely texture and paired nicely with the zestiness of the soy curls.

My guests enjoyed one of the signature dishes of the café, the Buddha Bowl, which stood out among the other plates. Consisting of quinoa pilaf covered with a steaming pile of fresh stir-fried vegetables, the flavors in this dish really popped thanks to the tahini miso sauce that was generously drizzled over the entire dish, as well as the herbal sesame salt, which added an extra savory layer.

Although this dish felt better suited for colder months, it was still a very enjoyable homage to fresh summer vegetables and the perfect balance of flavors.

The third and final dish that was sampled was the Garden Greens Spanakopita, which was spinach,

kale, tofu, chard and raisins baked in phyllo dough along with a red pepper puree, jicama and apple slaw.

While beautiful in presentation, this dish seemed to have an overwhelming taste of spinach that detracted from the rest of the flavors baked into the phyllo, but we greatly enjoyed the jicama and apple slaw which had a pleasant crunch and texture.

Dessert was especially delicious.

Though it was difficult to choose between an apple tart and chocolate ganache cake, none of us regretted our decision to order the cake to share. Decadent, moist and drizzled with a raspberry sauce, it was a delightful way to end our meal at the café.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable and satisfying experience. The café is very contemporary, while still feeling cozy and welcoming and the wait staff is very helpful and kind.

Although perhaps not the ideal spot for a family dinner, the restaurant does offer a kid’s menu that is sure to satisfy even the pickiest toddler.

The prices are reasonable and the portions, although seemingly small, were just the right amount for all of us.

Doors open at 9 a.m. and the restaurant has a steady stream of visitors throughout the day, according to the staff, including a dedicated group of diners that enjoy breakfast at the café early in the morning after their yoga class next door. No matter what time of day

it is, Food Evolution is the perfect spot to enjoy fresh, seasonal vegan cuisine.

Food Evolution 109 Danbury Road Ridgefield, Conn.

(203) 431–7858 Hours: Mon – Thur | 11:30am – 9:00pm Fri – Sat | 11:30am – 10:00pm Sunday | closed www.foodevolutionct.com

Fall 2014 | 15

Y L E SAF G N I T O O H S E F I L WILD Wildlife- watching outnumber hunte participants r s Americans choose as more c guns to capture ameras over wildlife.

BY MEG MCINT IRE

16 | Friends of Animals

H

e sits on a log, his green and brown jacket and hat camouflaging him almost completely among the bushes he is nestled into. He barely breathes as he presses binoculars to his eyes, wanting to identify the exact species of bird he’s been tracking before he takes his shot.

Confident of his identification, he lowers the binoculars and slowly brings out his newly purchased handheld, bringing the viewfinder up to his glasses and setting the crosshairs on the bird before pressing his finger down, triggering a soft *click,* which causes the bird to turn its head in his direction before flying away.

He lowers his camera to view his shot of the yellowthroated warbler he had been vying for all morning.

Success!

While this is not the type of shooting that would attract gun-toting hunters and members of the National Rifle Association, more and more Americans are choosing viewing and appreciating wildlife from a respectable distance as their recreation of choice.

According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s 2011 National Survey, 71.8 million Americans participated in some form of wildlife watching that year, up from 66.1 million in 2001. Not a number to scoff at if you compare it to the 13.7 million hunters and anglers that took part in the killing of wildlife during the same year.

But these are numbers that you rarely hear mentioned during discussions regarding the “beloved American pastime” of hunting in this country. Why? Because hunting is becoming an increasingly less

Fall 2014 | 17

popular and accepted hobby, and more Americans prefer observing wildlife as opposed to slaughtering it—a fact gun lobbies like the NRA are having difficulty coming to terms with.

It’s understandable that the NRA would be concerned that the group it has hidden behind to push its own agenda is steadily dwindling in participants.

Although initially created in 1871 with the primary focus of rifle training for war efforts, the NRA expanded its reach after World War II to include another “muchneeded arena for education and training:” the hunting community. Since then, the NRA has used America’s long ingrained perception of hunting as a form of nationalistic pride to push its radical Second Amendment views on issues from high capacity magazines to background checks for guns to the sale of semiautomatic weapons—all issues that arguably have no real ties to the hunting cause, a fact that even some NRA members have taken issue with in the past.

The myths about the “necessity” and tradition of

hunting in America are touted constantly by gun-owners, hunters and politicians alike. Even President Obama has acknowledged in a 2013 interview that he believes hunting should be preserved, citing a “...profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations.”1 Hunters often also refer to the fact that hunting expenditures assist in economic growth. What they are overlooking is that wildlife watching expenditures exceeded hunting expenditures in 2011 with $33.7 million being spent on hunting equipment, licenses, etc., while $54.9 million was spent on trip-related and equipment costs relating to wildlife watching. The pastime that’s really creating the most economic growth, if you want to use this argument, is by far wildlife-watching, and some states are taking notice.

States like Maine, Alaska and Colorado all offer guided wildlife watching for many different species of animals ranging from blue whale boating trips to “moose safaris” where visitors have the opportunity to view sometimes up to 20 of these animals from a safe distance in their natural habitat.

Other states are able to attract wildlife watchers during specific times of year when certain species migrate to or from their territory. One group offers guided migratory tours in Cape Romain National Park, which consists of islands off the coast of South Carolina, where visitors can observe up to 293 different species of birds, many of them

G N I H C T A W WILDLIFE D E D E E C X E S EXPENDITURE 1 1 0 2 N I G N I T N U H F O T A H T .

N O I L L I M 0 BY $2 seen during the fall migration.

During the month of October, avid birdwatchers are also able to visit the Florida Keys to take part in “Hawkwatch” during peak Peregrine Falcon migration and observe dozens of raptor species on the five-day long guided trip, while also learning about local history and conservation efforts in the area.

There are hundreds of options for wildlife watchers across the country to enjoy peaceful coexistence with animals in their natural habitat and assist in conservation efforts no matter what time of year it is. You can check out a full calendar of suggested events on our website at friendsofanimals.org/node/6677.

What is vitally important to note, however, is that as wildlife watching becomes an increasingly popular activity, those participating in it should be working as a group to combat the perceived control that hunters have over public lands. It’s essential that wildlife watchers make the connection between protecting their state lands from hunters if they wish to preserve wildlife to watch in the future.

At Friends of Animals, we are very much aware of this connection and have long advocated for the public to speak out against hunting and state regulated killing of wildlife, while actively promoting peaceful coexistence. Increasingly, other wildlife protection groups are also bridging the gap between wildlife watching and having a say in what happens on public lands.

For example, after realizing that wildlife watchers outspent hunters 8.5 to 1 in their state, Project 99, a New Jersey-based animal protection group, created the “Non-Hunting License,” which wildlife watchers can buy to help fund programs that protect nature and wildlife in their state. The two-sided laminated card is printed with a pledge on the front, stating “License holder supports peaceful coexistence with all wildlife and the creation of a nonviolent wildlife council” and the project has the goal of working towards combating hunter’s influence over state lands due to hunting license fees.

The increased interest in observing wildlife in their natural habitats may not be something that the media considers to be newsworthy or as attention-grabbing as hunting seasons and the antics of the NRA, but it is certainly a positive sign and something worth noting.

As more and more Americans find themselves living in metropolitan areas, our lack of knowledge of the natural world sometimes makes wild places seem intimidating or something that needs to be “dominated.”

But many are coming to realize the joys of observing wildlife and nature and watching it unfold around us. It is significant to note that much of the public is appreciating nature not by decimating it to feel in control, but instead they are seeking out the wonder that comes with seeing how small we really are relative to all living beings.

1. http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112190/obama-interview-2013-sit-down-president

18 | Friends of Animals

Fall 2014 | 19

No animals were harmed in the making of this wedding Thinking about a vegan wedding? You aren’t alone. Sara Prager, author of Borrowed Blue and Vegan Too, points out that two percent of the U.S. Population is vegan. So if each vegan getting married had an animal-free wedding, that would be over 40,000 vegan weddings every year. Here’s some food for thought to get started.

BY NICOLE RIVARD

20 | Friends of Animals

Fall 2014 | 21

There shouldn’t be fear about throwing a vegan wedding because people won’t even notice if you have a really good chef.

22 | Friends of Animals

vegan wedding at her family home in South Kent, Conn.

A few sites that are particularly helpful in providing resources and articles related to vegan weddings are www.veganheadquarters.com, www.thepeacefuldumpling.com and www.greenbrideguide.com. The creator of veganheadquarters.com, Sarah Prager, has also published a vegan wedding guide that you can download for just $4.99.

Seitz has been a vegetarian since she was 10 and became vegan three years ago; her husband became vegan two years ago. While everyone assumed they were going to have a vegan wedding, she admitted there was a little bit of a pushback from her spouse’s side of the family.

“They were worried that there wasn’t going to be anything for anyone to eat. We really convinced them that G-Zen, our caterer, had an amazing vegan restaurant and that everyone was going to be pleasantly surprised—no one was going to leave hungry and no one would think it’s weird.”

And Branford, Conn.-based, G-Zen, delivered.

“I think most people were happy to eat all our delicious food. It was a

lot of people’s first vegan meal and we had rave reviews,” Seitz said.

She worked on the menu with G-Zen owners Mark and Ami Shadle to pick menu items that would work well for vegans and non-vegans alike. Appetizers included vegan bruschetta and spanakopita triangles. The entrees included vegetable lasagna.

“We had vegetable lasagna and for someone who is a meat-eater that’s not as frightening as saying you are going to have a lentil meatloaf or a tofu casserole. We tried to pick things that would mesh well with all our guests,” Seitz said.

Plus the Shadles did all the food prep on site in their food truck, G-Monkey, so people could walk right up and talk to them and sample their sweet potato fries.

“That was really fun for people,” Seitz said. “Plus everything was organic and sustainable and grown on their farm in Durham, Conn.

Their food has a great story behind it. People always love a great story.”

Seitz said overall it was exciting planning a vegan wedding and sharing their “no harm to animals” lifestyle choices with guests. They even included their Chihuahuas

Amanda Seitz in her vegan wedding dress

by Magda Berliner with her ring bearer Riley in a vegan tux.

PHOTO BY JOEL BERTI

When Chelsea Clinton chose to serve meat at her wedding back in 2010—she was a vegetarian at the time—she sparked a debate about whether or not vegetarians and vegans should offer animal products on their big day to please their omnivore guests, a topic that even warranted coverage by The New York Times.

But there’s no doubt in our minds at Friends of Animals, which advocates for a plant-based lifestyle, that vegan couples should have a wedding that’s animal free—with the exception of a family pet being a guest of honor or ring bearer perhaps. Since the wedding industry is becoming more familiar with veganism, there are more resources than ever, and the Internet puts them at your fingertips—so planning can be a piece of cake.

“I feel like it takes a little more investigating because people might not know where to look. But with the endless possibilities of the Internet there’s no excuse not to research vegan weddings and find resources,” said Amanda Seitz, who in January launched Luxe Vegan Design, a vegan fashion/style website and blog, just four months after her

in the bridal party—Riley and Lola Bean were the ring bearers.

“When it came down to it, it was one day, it was our day,” she said.

Caterer Jay Astafa, a New Yorkbased rising star in vegan cuisine and winner of the Vegan Iron Chef event sponsored by the San Francisco Vegetarian Society in the spring, couldn’t agree more.

“I always think when vegans are planning their wedding they should make the menu to suit themselves,” he said. “All the events I cater, half

the people aren’t vegans and everyone loves the food. I’ve never had a problem with that.”

Astafa pointed out that most people are misinformed about vegan food. They have this stereotype that it’s bland and boring. And he’s more than happy to enlighten them.

“My best advice is don’t worry about it. Even for hardcore carnivores, a wedding is only one meal.

There shouldn’t be fear about throwing a vegan wedding because people won’t even notice if you have a really

good chef,” Astafa said.

Astafa, who provides vegan catering in the tri-state area but will also travel to destination weddings, speaks from experience that when vegans stay true to themselves, it’s a win-win for the couple and the guests.

For example, at one recent wedding Astafa catered, 70 percent of guests were meat eating Italians who, when they heard all of the food would be vegan, started scheming how they could smuggle meat

Fall 2014 | 23

Jessie Williams, in a lace dress by Claire Pettibone has her first dance with Alfredo.

PHOTO BY: BECCA BORGEBORGE PHOTO

BY BECCA

Dress to Impress

in. But on the day of the wedding meat-eaters were shocked how good everything was, and even though they raised eyebrows at the idea of fake” mozzarella sticks, couldn’t help eating lots of them.

It was the same at the vegan wedding of Jessie and Alfredo Williams, co-founders of San Diegobased vegan cookie dough company Eat Pastry. Astafa catered their Miami, Fla., destination wedding for 130 guests in the spring.

“We didn’t really ask anybody. We just kind of did it,” Jessie Williams said. “Everyone knows that we live a vegan lifestyle. So no one really questioned us. Some people did ask if we would have any fish dishes.

But we said, ‘No it’s a whole vegan menu’ and left it a surprise.”

The couple opted for 14 different hors d’oeuvres, including crowd

24 | Friends of Animals

pleasers like vegan mac and cheese and mini tacos, and then served six different kinds of vegan pizzas for the main meal.

Guests were saying they could become vegan if all the food tasted so good. Guests also loved Astafa’s mini pie bar and the milk and cookies table featuring Eat Pastry cookies.

“Our guests didn’t miss meat or dairy at all,” Williams said.

“Honestly I don’t think some of people realized it was vegan until they were told.”

Even mainstream chefs and caterers are making vegetables center plates on their menus, Astafa notes.

“It’s not all about meat anymore,” he said. “It’s about vegetables.

That’s really changing in the culinary scene.”

Like caterers, there are plenty of designers who can accommodate brides who want to avoid silk since the standard in modern silk production is to boil the silkworms’ cocoons—with the silk worm still inside. Just to make one silk shirt, 1,000 silkworms are boiled alive.

When Kansas City-based fashion designer Janay Andrews discovered that besides the food industry the fashion industry was the biggest polluter, she started buying organic cotton for her Janay A. Handmade bridal collection. “I wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem,” she said.

As a result, her organic cotton dresses have become popular with vegan brides.

She describes her dresses as “classic with a fun twist.” They all feature a surprise detail like a colored underskirt or pockets. She has found that it’s cheaper for brides living on the east or west coast to fly out and do alterations with her and then fly back with the dress than to have her ship the gown to them to have altered.

“I probably do one a week like that. Having a custom made dress in California or New York would be three times more expensive. Nowadays with email and Skype it makes it easier,” Andrews said.

She points out that her dresses are “super comfortable.” “Organic cotton wicks the moisture away

from your skin instead of sticking to you like a polyester dress would,” Andrews said.

Comfort, not veganism, also inspired The Cotton Bride to open its doors in Long Island City in New York in 2007, but it also has gotten the attention of vegan brides.

“The type of bridal collection we wanted to create was one that was easy and light because back then there were a tremendous amount of really excessive, heavy bridal gowns with a lot of ornamentation,” said Fikre S. Ayele, managing director of The Cotton Bride. “So we went out to look for fabrics and most of the fabrics we ended up choosing were all cotton.”

Seitz admits she had a tough time finding a dress that fit her style and that was vegan until she saw Los Angeles-based Magda Berliner’s vintage cotton lace dresses.

“It was a little difficult because it required a couple trips out to LA for fittings. But she hit the nail on the head with capturing a bohemian, casual yet elegant vibe,” Seitz said.

Then there was Williams, who got lucky and found her lace Clair Pettibone dress off the rack at a bridal boutique in San Diego, which shows that it doesn’t have to be more difficult to plan a vegan wedding.

“I don’t think it was a harder to plan because it was vegan. But it also depends the budget,” Williams said.

“Because Jay came in from New York it was probably a little more expensive than using a local run of the mill caterer. But because food is so important to us we budgeted more for that and less for other things. We made it work. My advice is to don’t tell everyone it’s a vegan wedding and just do your thing.”

Resources Caterers G-Zen www.g-zen.com Jay Astafa www.jayastafa.com Suite ThreeOhSix www.suitethreeohsix.com Beyond Sushi www.beyondsushinyc.com Candle 79 www.candle79.com Bakeries Vegan Treats www.vegantreats.com Vegan Divas www.vegandivasnyc.com Lael Cakes www.laelcakes.com Babycakes (NYC, LA, Orlando) www.babycakesnyc.com Dresses Janay A. Handmade www.janay-A.com Cotton Bride www.thecottonbride.com Dahlia MacPhee www.daliaonline.com Kendal Leonard Designs www.klecodesigns.com Magda Berliner www.magdaberliner.com Clair Pettibone www.clairepettibone.com

IN MEMORIAM

Friends of Animals has received kind donations in memory of the following individuals:

MISHKA

JONATHAN BARBRE

MARILYN COHEN

BONNIE ROZINSKY

SHEBA

WILLIE WALTER

MATTHEW V. LA GRECA

CUJI

HARRY FISHER

MARK H. ROBBINS

LOLA

MILDRED (MILLY) MARTIN

BARBARA JOHNSON

HELEN MCDONALD

CREMIT

JON LAWRENCE CARROLL

ROSE LEOUTSAKOS

CHARLES J. CAVALLRO

PEGGY DAVIS

DONALD J. LAWATSCH

TINO

ROGER JEWELL

ANNA JOAN SULLIVAN

PERSEPHONE KLEINSCHEER CASSIE & HUNTER SAMANTHA EVIE KOBIE (WHITTEN) BARNEY SADIE WHITESTONE BINKY ROCKY CHARNECO CHRISTIE Fall 2014 | 25

LOSING LULU

BY DUSTIN GARRETT RHODES

26 | Friends of Animals

COPING WITH THE LOSS OF A PET IS NEVER EASY. BUT THERE ARE WAYS TO MAKE THE GRIEF MORE MANAGEABLE. Lulu, our Boston Terrier, was diagnosed with cancer two weeks before Thanksgiving last year. It’s not what we expected, but what we feared: The lump on her neck was ominous. We got the diagnosis over the phone: Lymphoma.

Lulu was a few months shy of her 15th birthday— not the picture of health, but doing very well for her age, all things considered. My partner and I have been through hell and back with Lulu: Cushings disease, high blood pressure—complications and emergency vet visits due to both. But cancer, like it is for humans, is scarier.

We made the decision to do chemotherapy—even though there was only a 60-70 percent chance it would be effective. We were told, if it works, we can expect six to 12 months of remission.

We were cautiously hopeful.

Chemotherapy was a disaster. The chemotherapy drugs produced unexpected side effects; simultaneously, she got sicker from the cancer itself. And despite lots of costly interventions, and even more love, she died on Jan. 2. We were devastated.

Grief is an unpredictable, meandering road that’s tricky to navigate.

For the first couple of days after her death, all I felt was inconsolable sadness—a presence from which I could not escape. I kept feeling the empty space in the bed where Lulu slept. I’d turn a corner in the house and expect Lulu to be there—like always. I wept constantly.

Then I felt horrible guilt: “Did we do the right things?” “Did we somehow cause the cancer?” “I could have been a better dog owner.” On and on.

“Almost every grieving pet owner I have ever known has felt guilty in some way or another,” said Laurie Leonard, LMSW, a therapist who specializes in pet bereavement in New York City. “If the pet was euthanized they feel guilty they ended the pet’s life too soon. If the pet wasn’t euthanized, they feel guilty they allowed the pet to suffer. If the pet died because it had an illness, they feel they should have known a way

to have prevented the illness. I think this is universal because it is actually easier for our minds to feel guilt than to accept the fact that we ultimately have no power to prevent death. So if you’re feeling guilty, realize this is just another symptom of grief.”

The temptation to make rash decisions was strong after Lulu’s death. Part of me wanted to adopt a new dog immediately, even though I knew it would be a bad decision. April Lang, LCSW, also a New York-based therapist who specializes in grief from loss of pets, said: “Refrain from making any drastic changes in your life. The best advice I can offer to people is: JUST WAIT. Wait before adopting another animal, wait before proclaiming you will NEVER adopt again. Don’t move away, quit your job, give up your friends. Wait till you have sufficiently grounded yourself again and your emotions are not ruling your life.”

We resisted. And cried. And talked about Lulu incessantly—and still do. Talking about her, in fact, seems to serve two purposes: to keep her alive, so to speak, and to help us through the process of grief itself. Leonard confirms our experience: “There is only one way I know to shorten the amount of time you feel the constant pain of grief, and that is to talk about it. You need to talk with someone about the details of your pet’s death, your love for your pet and the feelings you’re experiencing now.

You don’t necessarily need to talk to a therapist; it could be a friend or relative who understands what you are going through.”

Even now, months later, guilt and sadness still visit.

Leonard points out that there are no shortcuts to experiencing loss: “You have to fully experience grief. You can’t go around grief, or over or under it; you have to go through it. That means allowing yourself to feel the pain until it starts to lessen on its own.”

There is one thing I know to be true: I am grateful for having known and loved Lulu. Thankfully, she’s still alive in the most important place of all— my heart.

Fall 2014 | 27

REVIEWED BY NICOLE RIVARD

BOOK REVIEWS

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ELEPHANT SANCTUARY IN TENNESSEE

Last Chain on Billie is to captive elephants what the documentary Blackfish is to captive orcas—a wake-up call to the public that confinement and exploitation of wild animals for entertainment and profit is reprehensible.

Furthermore, by choosing to support profit mongers like Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey and SeaWorld when we are planning family outings, we are part of the problem, not the solution.

While dark and haunting at times, Last Chain on Billie, which tells the story of how Billie, an emotionally damaged elephant, overcame

her past and learned to trust humans again, is also hopeful and inspiring. The book is the work of award-winning journalist Carol Bradley.

Left in the wild where she belonged, Billie would have spent her life surrounded by her family, free to wander the jungles of Asia. Instead, she was captured as a baby and shipped to America where she arrived in the mid-1950s.

Billie spent her first years confined in a tiny zoo yard giving rides to children. At 10, she was sold and groomed for life in the circus, which meant she was subjected to abusive training methods. She performed six days a week, often two performances a day and traveled thousands of miles a year, chained in place in the back of a truck.

Billie mastered difficult stunts like balancing on her hind legs, walking on her front legs and one-foot handstands, which impressed audiences for 20 long years. But behind the glitz and glam of the circus, she was often abused and neglected. Eventually she rebelled, attacking and

LAST CHAIN ON BILLIE: HOW ONE EXTRAORDINARY ELEPHANT ESCAPED THE BIG TOP injuring a trainer, so she was ordered off the road by a federal inspector. She was then relegated to a stall in a dusty barn for 13 years before fate stepped in.

In 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture removed Billie and 15 other elephants as part of the largest elephant rescue in American history. At the age of 44, Billie arrived at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, where at first, paralyzed by her trust issues, she refused to let anyone remove a chain still clamped around her leg. Most of an elephant’s time outside the circus ring is spent in chains.

Interspersed throughout Billie’s story are sections that recount the history of elephants in circuses, and it is here where the misery of captive elephants’ lives is revealed. Readers will be horrified by the brutal ways the elephants are captured in the wild and ashamed if they’ve ever seen a circus when they learn the emotional and physical pain that forcing an animal to perform tricks actually causes. And one point Bradley makes clear in this book— contrary to the image circuses put forth—elephants perform in the ring not because they WANT to, but because they are FORCED to.

“Many of the stunts placed inordinate pressure on an elephants’ joints and muscles.

The only way to persuade an elephant to practice them repeatedly, day in and day out, was to bully her with the threat of retribution if she failed to comply,” writes

Bradley. “A trainer for Ringling Bros. testified in court that Ringling stopped teaching its elephants to do one-legged tub stands and perform hind leg walks because they were hobbling the animals at too young an age, causing them to develop arthritis and rupturing their uteruses.”

During her life in the circus, Billie performed such stunts daily, Bradley points out in her book. But in her new life at the sanctuary, Billie, who turns 52 this year, gets to do whatever she wants. And reading about her becoming comfortable, sometimes even playful is heartwarming.

I still can’t get the images Bradley paints of her taking delight in a large blue ball she found at the sanctuary, where staffers frequently found her kicking it around “as if she were a one-elephant soccer team.” And I relish imagining her enjoying her freedom and exploring the landscape and forming bonds with her fellow elephants Liz and Frieda that Bradley writes about.

Even after I finished the book, I wanted to learn more about Billie and the elephants at the sanctuary, so I visited www.elephants.com. You can even watch Billie on an “elecam.”

Bradley wrote this book so circuses will get rid of all animal acts entirely so these creatures have the space and freedom they deserve.

She believes humans have learned too much about the intelligence and emotional lives of animals to tolerate this archaic practice.

When you are done with her book, the only thing you will question is the intelligence and emotional lives of humans and why an estimated 600 elephants still remain in circuses and zoos in the United States.

Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top

By Carol Bradley

July 22, 2014 336 pages St. Martin’s Press $25.99 Available through: indiebound.org amazon.com barnesandnoble.com.

KAITLIN UTILITY JACKET

28 | Friends of Animals

Fall 2014 | 29

REVIEWED BY NICOLE RIVARD

A WOLF CALLED ROMEO Nick Jans wrote A Wolf Called Romeo because he wanted others to experience his sixyear friendship with a lone black wolf. And because of Jans’ compelling voice, the reader is transported from wherever they are to Mendenhall Lake outside of Juneau, Alaska, skiing and trekking through the wilderness alongside Romeo, trying to understand his wildness as well as his desire to bond with humans and their pets in this Alaskan community.

Despite the dark side of human nature—which haunts this tale—and a world that allows fewer and fewer spaces for the wild to exist, Jans weaves a story of hope.

Because if the city of Juneau, Alaska and a lone black wolf can set an unprecedented standard for coexistence between two species as conflicted as any on earth, then we all can.

Once you pick up A Wolf Called Romeo, you won’t be able to put it down.

“In a few heartbeats, the wolf had closed the distance to forty yards. He stood stifflegged, tail raised above his back, his unblinking stare fixed on us — a dominant posture, less than reassuring. Then, with a moaning whimper, Dakotah suddenly wrenched free of the two fingers I’d hooked through her collar and bounded straight at the wolf. A tone of desperation sharpening her voice, Sherrie called again and again, but there was no stopping that dog. The Lab skidded to a stop several body lengths short of contact and stood tall, her

30 | Friends of Animals

own tail straight out, and as we watched, mouths open, the wolf lowered his to match. With the two so close, I had my first clear idea of just how large the wolf really was. Dakotah, a stocky, traditional-style female Lab, weighed in at a muscular fifty-six pounds. The black wolf towered over her, more than double her weight. Just his head and neck matched the size of her torso.

The wolf stepped stiff-legged toward Dakotah, and she answered. If she heard our calls, she gave no sign. She was locked on and intent, but utterly silent — not at all her normal happy-Lab self. She seemed half-hypnotized. She and the wolf regarded each other, as if each were glimpsing an almost-forgotten face and trying to remember. This was one of those moments when time seems to hold its breath. I lifted my camera and snapped off a single frame.

As if that tiny click had been a finger snap, the world began to move again. The wolf’s stance altered. Ears perked high and held narrow, he bounced forward a body length, bowed on his forelegs, then leaned back and lifted a paw. Dakotah sidled closer and circled, her tail still straight out. The eyes of each were locked on the other. With their noses a foot apart, I pressed the shutter once more. Again, the sound seemed to break a spell.

Dakotah heard Sherrie’s voice at last and bounded back toward us, turning her back, at least for now, on whatever call of the wild she’d just heard.

We watched for long minutes with Dakotah softly whining

at our sides, staring toward the dark, handsome stranger who stood staring our way and whining back, a high-pitched keening that filled the silence.

Half stunned, Sherrie and I murmured back and forth, wondering at what we’d seen and what it meant.

But it was getting dark— time to go. The wolf stood watching our retreat, his tail flagging, then raised his muzzle to the sky in a drawnout howl, as if crushed. At last he trotted west and faded into the trees. As we walked toward home in the deepening winter evening, the first stars flickered against the curve of

space. Behind us, the wolf’s deep cries echoed off the glacier.” —Excerpted from A WOLF CALLED ROMEO by Nick Jans. Copyright © 2014 by Nick Jans. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

All rights reserved.

A Wolf Called Romeo

By Nick Jans July 1, 2014 267 pages Houghton Mifflin Harcourt $26 Available through: indiebound.org amazon.com barnesandnoble.com

BY MEG MCINTIRE AND NICOLE RIVARD

CHEERS

LETTERS HORSES GAIN ALLIES I am extremely interested in your articles (past and present) about American mustangs. As a mustang education coordinator for an equine sanctuary, I would like to share your information with others in the form of your handouts/ flyers at special events, booths and tables.

Please send me all you can on the American mustang.

DIANE KRAMMES • PINE GROVE, PA

CAN HUMANS REDEEM THEMSELVES? I too pondered David Attenborough’s comment, “If humans disappeared overnight the world would be a better place.” With a population of over 6 billion, we are far and away the most populous large mammal on the planet.

And we largely serve only ourselves at the expense of most other naturally occurring species and the animals we have domesticated.

After a few months of finding myself in full agreement with David Attenborough, I thought of the long-term future. Science tells us that in a few billion years, our sun will expand in size as it nears the end of its life. As a result our earth will overheat to the point that all life will die.

Man’s intellect, however, could certainly by that time locate a hospitable planet elsewhere in the universe and possibly transport a Noah’s Ark of plant and animal DNA to it, thereby extending life as we know it beyond the life of Earth. So, there is a valuable role humans could play when the time comes.

Hopefully, way before then, we will have come to our senses and reversed our destructive, greedy, inhumane ways such that there will be something of value to transport to that distant planet.

GEORGE STEINER • VIA E-MAIL

32 | Friends of Animals

THE TRAGEDY OF WILD HORSES Good job on going after the endangered species slant for wild horses. I have been arm wrestling the Bureau of Land Management for years in Nevada and they are just clueless. National Geographic has articles about wild horses being native and being in Utah thousands of years ago. The cattle guys and mining and oil guys run the BLM, and it’s just inhumane what they are doing to our wild horses. There are 50,000 in pens and about 25,000 on the range, and it’s “overpopulated”?

Did you know that there were 2 million wild horses in 1900 and the federal government started letting people poison, shoot and kill as many as they wanted? Read the book Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Wild Mustangs by Velma Bronn-Johnston. The killing and unethical treatment has gone on for about 80 years now, but they just keep doing it and lying all the way. Go get them!

STEVE ROSE • VIA E-MAIL AMERICANMUSTANGADOPTIONS.COM

PETS ARE FAMILY TOO Stop. Think. Adopt. The Spring 2014 Action Line article was well written and addresses Americans’ propensity to treat pets as disposable property—to be discarded like yesterday’s trash— particularly when financial problems arise. It is very distressing to learn pets are being abandoned, discarded or given up because people are experiencing some sort of disruption in their life, whether financial or otherwise. Pets are family members—we share our home with them, take care of them since they can’t care for themselves, and most importantly, we bond with them. We would never think of abandoning our children when things don’t go according to plan, so why should our pets face this

fate? I guess it’s easier to ‘remove’ the disruption than to make the necessary changes in one’s lifestyle.

I do have one additional thought and that is the article speaks of cat as well as dog adoptions, although one might think otherwise at first glance. There were three prominent pictures of dogs; it would have been nice if at least one was of a cat.

U.S. MARINES

JOYCE PHILLIPS • VIA E-MAIL

in the central African nation, teaching

Our wildlife is to be looked at and admired: not to be eaten!

It makes me sick that they slaughter our wonderful, beautiful, wild horses for food for Europe. The way people treat animals makes me very upset. I would like to treat people the way they mistreat animals.

ERIKA MEISTER • OJAI, CA

NORTH CAROLINA LEGISLATORS

Cheers to a small team of U.S. Marines

Jeers to North Carolina legislators

who are the newest recruits in Chad’s

who legalized opossum cruelty for

efforts to stop a horrible string of

entertainment late last spring. Now

poaching that has decimated the

opossums in Clay County can be abused

country’s elephant population. A contingent of 15 troops from a special Marines task force spent about a month approximately 100 of Chad’s park rangers

SAVING OUR WILDLIFE

JEERS

military tactics that will help them combat heavily armed poachers. This marks a firsttime partnership conducted through the U.S. Department of State with the Chadian rangers, whose primary mission is anti-poaching.

between Dec. 26 and Jan. 2, for the sole purpose of allowing Opossum Drop organizers to dangle a terrified opossum above a crowd of revelers on New Year’s Eve. A Stop the Possum Drop Facebook page has been started. People can sign a petition to stop the event, or contact organizer Clay Logan and tell him they don’t want to ring in the New Year by participating in animal abuse.

Phone: 828-837-3797.

Email: info@clayscorner.com.

DEBBIE HARRY Cheers to rock icon Debbie Harry, the singer-

LET’S HEAR FROM YOU! MAIL US: Editor, Action Line Friends of Animals 777 Post Road Darien, CT 06820

songwriter best known for being the leader of the

SEAN PARNELL

punk rock band Blondie, for lending her voice to

Jeers to Alaska governor Sean

the campaign to ban horse-drawn carriages in

Parnell for allowing the “kill-on-

New York City after a driver was charged for

site” policy for wolf pups and

allegedly abusing a horse called Blondie. Harry wrote a letter to 51 City Council members to add her name to a growing list of notable figures demanding an end to the tourist attraction. In the note, she writes, “A police officer noticed that Blondie was struggling to pull his carriage. When

E-MAIL US: contact@friendsofanimals.org

he questioned the driver, he learned that Blondie

bear cubs orphaned by state predator control programs to continue. FoA learned from Rick Steiner, professor and conservation biologist, that despite the popular rescue of wolf pups abandoned in the Kenai fire in the spring, the state announced on June 2 that it would not alter its “kill-on-site” policy.

had been suffering from a serious leg injury for

These pups escaped death because they were rescued

four days, but had been forced to work long shifts

by firefighters before the Alaska Department of Fish

in hectic traffic.”

& Game could get its hands on them, and have been adopted by the Minnesota Zoo. Email the governor at http://gov.alaska.gov/parnell/contact/email-thegovernor.html.

Fall 2014 | 33

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