Monday, June 12, 2017 | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
IDS ALISON GRAHAM | IDS
Alex Hernly, a founder of the Pipsqueakery, holds one of the baby hamsters rescued from a shelter in Florida. The hamster was one of 100 they rescued.
900 miles from home Local rescue takes in more than 100 hamsters from a Florida humane society By Alison Graham akgraham@indiana.edu | @alisonkgraham
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id the hamster was crying. He was too young to be separated from his mother, but she was euthanized when they were surrendered to an animal shelter in Flagler County, Florida. Now, he was in Bloomington, more than 900 miles from home. He cried constantly, sometimes for 30 minutes at a time. And he kept crying no matter how long his rescuer Alex Hernly tried to cuddle him. Sid and more than 100 other hamsters are part of a group the Pipsqueakery rescue in Bloomington calls the “Florida Fiasco.” A Flagler County man surrendered about 200 hamsters to the local humane society. The shelter almost immediately euthanized 97 hamsters, most of them female. Hernly and her husband Jason Minstersinly run the
SOFTBALL
Glass names head coach From IDS Reports
After 18 seasons at Marshall University, Shonda Stanton became the winningest coach in program history. It was going to take a special opportunity to lure her away from Huntington, West Virginia. The head coaching vacancy at IU proved to be that opportunity. IU Athletic Director Fred Glass announced Stanton as the ninth head coach in IU softball history Saturday, 17 days after former head coach Michelle Gardner resigned. “We are thrilled to have Shonda Stanton as the new head coach for our softball program,” Glass said in an IU Athletics release. “Shonda is a winner known for her recruiting acumen, strong player development and commitment to graduating confident young women.” The search committee to fill Gardner’s vacancy was led by Senior Associate Athletic Director Scott Joraanstad. Stanton accumulated 560 victories and made two NCAA Tournament appearances during her time at Marshall. The Thundering Herd posted 42 wins this past season while securing an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament out of Conference USA. Marshall went 1-2 in an NCAA Regional in Lexington, Kentucky, losing twice to Illinois. Stanton was named the Conference USA Coach of the Year for 2017 after Marshall finished conference SEE SOFTBALL, PAGE 3
Pipsqueakery, a local rescue for hamsters and other rodents like rats, guinea pigs, gerbils, chinchillas, and mice. “You don’t normally mass euthanize all of the females when you do an intake,” Hernly said. “I can understand euthanizing because they weren’t equipped to handle the intake, but they knew we were willing to take them within an hour and a half of them getting there.” The man who surrendered the hamsters did so in two waves. He donated about 100 hamsters to the Florida shelter the first day. Immediately, a volunteer reached out to the Pipsqueakery on Facebook asking if they could help. They were expecting him to surrender about 100 hamsters the next day as well. Hernly and Minstersinly immediately agreed to take all 200 or so hamsters. Two hours later the volunteer reached out again and told them the shelter had already euthanized all of the females of the first group. Hernly called the director of the shelter and told her not
to euthanize any more females because the Pipsqueakery could take them all. Hernly insisted that wasn’t the humane way to handle it. Normally, rescues wait until the pregnant female has the babies, and then euthanizes the babies shortly after birth. Hernly said newborn hamsters don’t have fully formed neurological systems yet, so they don’t feel pain. This saves the mother the stress and work of caring for babies who are most likely not going to live through the rescue process in the first place, Minstersinly said. When the second group of hamsters was surrendered, Hernly once again discovered they had euthanized all of the females. A normal intake will have about a 10 percent euthanasia rate for sick or injured animals, but this surrender had a rate of about 50 percent, Hernly said. “At that point I really wanted to pull out of working with them because I kind of felt like they’re being pretty SEE HAMSTERS, PAGE 3
Artist displays stone carvings at The Venue By Emily Eckelbarger eaeckelb@umail.iu.edu | @emecklebarger
Sidney Bolam was working as a part-time portrait artist and illustrator when she realized she no longer connected with those mediums. After having children, Bolam searched for a medium that she could work with around kids — paints were too messy. For a while, she dabbled in making toys, but that didn’t satisfy the itch either. “I was feeling really lost and empty as an artist,” she says. Then, she began working with James Connor, a Brown County artist who introduced her to limestone carving. Something clicked. “I loved every minute,” she said. “I liked it more than I ever did with painting.” Thus began Bolam’s love affair with limestone. Bolam is a limestone carver from Brown County with her own studio, Bohemian Hobbit Studio. Her small, nature-inspired pieces are making limestone carving
EMILY ECKELBARGER | IDS
Sidney Bolam carves pieces from limestone, frequently drawing inspiration from nature or history. Her work can be seen at The SEE LIMESTONE, PAGE 3 Venue during the month of June.
The Dynamics bring the funk to Players Pub By Clark Gudas ckgudas@umail.iu.edu | @This_isnt_Clark
A young man dressed completely in white and a backwards flatbill cap stood amongst an older crowd. He stuck out as he waited for the band onstage to start. Then, all of a sudden, he ran on stage and introduced his band. Bloomington-based funk group The Dynamics performed Saturday at Players Pub. The Dynamics, led by vocalist Darran Mosley, started its show with a cover of Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour.” A few songs in, patrons began moving onto the dance floor, dancing and swaying to covers such as Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” and James Brown’s “I Feel Good.” “I should warn you, avert
your eyes,” saxophonist Dennis Rhoades said to the crowd after the band’s first song. “We’ve been known to hypnotize.” After a while, Mosley returned to the floor to dance with the audience. The audience hollered with excitement. “They’re just a blast,” patron Sophie Bird said. “They’re playing some great songs. We’re having a good time.” The Dynamics play night clubs, festivals and college parties in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio. According to the band’s website, its members are “old school funkmasters.” After upbeat, high energy songs such as James Brown’s “Get On Up” and Cameo’s “Word Up,” audience members were singing along, waving their hands in sync
with Mosley’s and jumping up and down to the beat. The dancing became more energetic as the night passed and more people crowded onto the floor. “I’m just resting for a minute, and then I’m going back up,” Bird said. A few minutes later, she rejoined the dancing and swaying crowd. The Dynamics have been playing funk, R&B and blues since they formed in the late 1980s. The eight member group has won national and state level contests and titles, such as the National W.C. Handy Blues contest and the B.B. King Lucille award for “Best New Talent” in 1990. The band has released three albums of both live and studio cuts of original and cover songs.
THE DYNAMICS Tickets $8 8:30 p.m. July 3, Players Pub Players Pub was packed Saturday, a sign of the venue’s recent turnaround. In November, the Players Pub management staff announced the venue would be closing permanently. Owners Joe and Vicki Estivill decided they couldn’t afford to run the business any longer. However, community support, improved turnout and a GoFundMe page have helped the owners keep the business open. “The bands are always great. It doesn’t matter when you go,” Bird said. The Dynamics will perform at Players Pub again July 3.