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www.thelandonline.com — “Where Farm and Family Meet”
THE LAND — OCTOBER 15/OCTOBER 22, 2021
Our animal friends aren’t always so cute and cuddly The paw prints were enormous. “Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law” That was your first thought when you by Mary Roach saw them on the ground. Someone in the neighborhood just got a new dog the size c.2021, W.W. Norton & Company of a horse. Is it close to Halloween? Or $26.95 / $35.95 Canada there’s a Sasquatch in the ‘hood. Or 308 pages maybe, as in the new book “Fuzz” by Mary Roach, you share the block with something that could eat you. THE BOOKWORM So what kind of criminals are we lookSEZ Murder, theft, assault, destruction of ing at here, Your Honor? property. It happens all the time between By Terri Schlichenmeyer Take bears, for example. Roach us and nature. But as Mary Roach discovattended WHART classes in British ered, there’s a reason it’s called wildlife: Columbia, where mutilated mannequins toothed-and-clawed scofflaws don’t always get help officials learn how to determine bear bites caught and they rarely see jail time. from wolf bites from scavenger nibbles. In Aspen,
Even mice can kill but yeah, there’s a trapp for that. You can’t pet a bison. No selfies with a bear or moose. Leopard territory is off-limits. Please don’t feed the animals, so what can you do? You can laugh and learn by reading “Fuzz.”
Make no mistake, though: while author Mary Roach has a sneak-upon-you sense of humor that will make you snort, what she shares with readers is serious stuff. As proof, she offers tales of animals doing things that humans would be arrested for doing and, like humans, this stuff can be bloody. It she learned that bears are really good at gently breaking into houses to find food but they’re not the can be stomach-churning. only guilty parties: we humans are partially culpaIt can be fascinating because Roach takes readers ble in the bears’ snack-pilfering habits. around the world with experts who know, sometimes first-hand, about the real habits of these creaElephants, as she learned, aren’t the long-lashed, tures that seem so familiar. Reading that, seeing big-eared snugglers from the movies. In India, they why elephant handlers are paid more, learning can be destructive to crops and vengeful to people, about “ridiculously lovable” attackers and furry especially if they have grudges or are in musth. In that case, elephants have been seen stepping on vil- light-fingered extortionists, shows that unlawful ursas exist, camels can act like criminals, and somelagers and tearing them limb-from-limb — though, times, nothing’s more apt than the word “jailbird.” because people there consider pachyderms as deities, the killers are rarely, if ever, treated negatively If you’re someone who loves to read aloud passagfor their actions. es of your current obsession, “Fuzz” is your book. Clear your throat, prepare those around you; you That’s not quite the case with leopards in the shouldn’t wait to get your paws on it. Middle Himalaya, where the animals have killed hundreds of people through the years by seizing Look for the reviewed book at a bookstore or a them from behind. Incredibly, it’s not until the third library near you. You may also find the book at attack that anything’s done to stop the cat-astrophe. online book retailers. In India, macaque monkeys live to “harass peoThe Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has ple.” Cougars can attack you (but they rarely do). been reading since she was 3 years old and never Trees can become a “danger.” Deer, dromedaries, all goes anywhere without a book. She lives in dangerous. Wisconsin with three dogs and 10,000 books. v
Contagious rabbit disease confirmed ST. PAUL — Two Ramsey County indoor rabbits died suddenly and inexplicably earlier this month from a highly contagious rabbit disease detected for the first time in Minnesota. National Veterinary Services Laboratories, confirmed Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus 2 (RHDV2) last week. The owner reported the rabbits were indoor pets and had no contact with other rabbits. RHDV2 is a highly contagious virus affecting domestic and wild rabbits. There is no known risk to humans. RHDV2 can spread through direct contact with infected rabbits or indirectly through contact with infected carcasses, blood, urine, and feces. The virus can also be present on contaminated clothing, footwear and surfaces such as cages, feed, water, and bedding. Insects, scavengers, predators, and birds
can also spread the virus by contact with infected rabbits or carcasses. RHDV2 is very persistent and stable in the environment. It is resistant to extreme temperatures and can survive freezing. The virus has been found to survive up to 15 weeks in dry conditions. The USDA recommends using a high pH solution to inactivate RHDV2 when disinfecting surfaces. There is not a RHDV2 vaccine approved for use in Minnesota. There are vaccines for this disease in Europe, which use inactivated virus derived from the livers of rabbits infected in a lab and are not approved for import into Minnesota. A private company in South Dakota is working on a recombinant technology vaccine for RHDV2, similar to the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines. This article was submitted by the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. v
