Seaford
HERALD Citizen
High school football in spring?
Nassau opening athletic fields
Seniors get gifts and good-byes
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Vol. 68 No. 28
JUlY 9 - 15, 2020
1,000 march in support of those in blue By J.D. FrEDa jfreda@liheraald.com
Christina Daly/Herald
HUNDrEDS MarcHED DowN Wantagh Avenue in the Back the Blue Support Law Enforcement rally on July 5.
On Sunday, more than 1,000 people gathered at Wantagh High School to show their support for law enforcement officials as part of the Blue Lives Matter movement. As the crowd marched down Wantagh Avenue toward the Seaford Long Island Rail Road station, a modest contingent of counterdemonstrators shadowed it, but the event was peaceful, despite some confrontational overtones. Wantagh and Seaford are home to a sizable number of
active and retired law enforcement officials and their supporters, and that support was evident. The communities are also more than 90 percent white, according to datausa.io, a U.S. Census database. Accompanied by Nassau County Police officers, demonstrators crowded the streets, carrying placards with slogans like “Blue Lives Matter,” “Back the Blue” and “Defund de Blasio,” a reference to New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio’s proposals to trim law enforcement expenditures in the city. They also carried a variety of banContinued on page 3
Pet adoptions have soared during the Covid-19 pandemic By TIMoTHY DENToN tdenton@liherald.com
John Debacker is a trapper. The word conjures images of settlers in buckskin clothing and coonskin hats, canoeing along primordial waterways, like Daniel Boone. Debacker, though, is more likely to wear a parka and oven mitts, because the animals he traps most frequently are cats. Debacker volunteers for All About Cats, an organization dedicated to helping to reduce the population of abandoned or feral cats on Long Island. Along the way, he helps trap stray animals of all kinds — even the occasion-
al possum. But mitigating the population of stray cats by humane means remains the biggest challenge for animal rescue organizations and the volunteers, like Debacker, who work with them. The coronavirus crisis has had an impact on the problem at both ends, according to Leslie Granger, president and chief executive officer of Bideawee, which operates shelters in Wantagh, Westhampton and New York City — each with a slightly different focus. The Wantagh facility also operates a memorial park. “We haven’t gotten the large increase of abandoned animals
we expected,” Granger said, apart from the normal increase associated with kitten season. “With people at home now, adoptions and fostering have actually gone up. We’ve had as many as 700 applications for adoptions in a single week. People have more time to care for pets.” Older animals, often the most difficult to place, are also being adopted at above-average rates. At the other end of the spectrum, with high unemployment, “people are already facing housing problems,” Granger said. “Sometimes, they have to move at short notice, and their new Continued on page 10
local shelter information Bideawee
3300 Beltagh Ave., Wantagh Memorial park: (866) 262-8133 Adoptions: (631) 684-0079
last Hope animal rescue 3300 Beltagh Ave., Wantagh
Hotline: (631) 425-1884 info@lasthopeanimalrescue.org
Town of Hempstead animal shelter
3320 Beltagh Ave., Wantagh (516) 785-5220