We Have a Lodger

Freeloader builds own bunk directly outside our front door.

Freeloader hangs out in her bunk at night.

I don’t normally like to ask for presents but…

…in this case, let’s just say that YES, I will happily accept this li’l guy as a gift.  And if you wanted to toss in a substantial piece of the Amazon or the Everglades for when he grows up, that’d be swell.  kthx.

Rescuers Banned from TX Shelter After Pet Puma Mauls Kid

Strap in – it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Last July, Odessa AC in TX visited the home of Some Dumbass who was keeping a mountain lion as a pet.  The ACO advised the owner the cage the animal was living in was too small and the gaps between the bars were too wide.  The owner did nothing.  In October, the mountain lion reached out through the large gaps in the cage and grabbed Some Dumbass’s 4 year old nephew, biting him in the face.

As it turns out, AC was not following the law when they allowed Some Dumbass to keep a mountain lion as a pet.  So this month, AC apparently wondered what other animal related issues they might not be keeping tabs on as far as legal liability and such.  So they got their thinking caps on and…

Guess what?  The city doesn’t have an official policy in place regarding the credentialing of rescue groups that pick up pets from the pound.  As such, the city abruptly banned all rescues from the pound while they craft an official rescue credentialing policy, which is going to take a few weeks.  They’ll still be killing pets during this time, but all rescuers, even those they have known and worked with for years, will be denied the ability to save pets.

It’s nice that Odessa AC is stopping to examine whether they are doing a decent job.  But while they are doing so, can’t they at least allow known rescuers to save pets from the pound?  The city is concerned that evil people are going to pose as rescuers and “do God-knows-what” to the pets they take from the pound.  Sure, that’s a risk, albeit a very tiny one.  But by temporarily banning all rescuers from the place, the city is condemning the pets to something much worse than “God-knows-what”.  There is nothing worse than death.

Treats on the Internets: Other Edition

Because I know many of you are like me in that you are interested in other animals besides dogs and cats, I have a few links to share in that department:

Midwestern Harry Potter fans will be happy to hear there is a glut of snowy owls in Kansas this year.  But it’s important to keep a good distance if you sight one on the ground so as to allow them to regain their strength after flying in from the arctic and to use their reserves for hunting, not for fleeing from curious bird watchers.

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The housing of lab rodents is a complex issue (which I did not realize before reading this article) and the subject has become confusing to researchers after reading the government’s new guidelines.

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A new study finds that manta and mobula rays – the majestic ballet swimmers – are in danger of extinction due to a Chinese market for their gill rakers (the mechanism by which the animal filters food from the water).  Perhaps even sadder is the reason for the demand:

The researchers note that the gills had not previously been prescribed in traditional Chinese medicine, and many of its practitioners conceded in interviews for the study that gill rakers were not effective in treating illness and that many alternatives were available. The rising popularity of the ingredient seems to be the result of traders’ efforts to create a market, the report’s authors concluded.

 

 

Zanesville, OH: Exotic Animals Suffered in Captivity

I know many readers followed the killing of dozens of wild animals who had been released from their cages on an Ohio farm just before the owner committed suicide on October 18.  In a recent meeting of a group tasked with making recommendations for exotic animal ownership in OH, Tom Stalf from the Columbus Zoo described the conditions the Zanesville animals lived in as “horrific”:

…[P]rimates were kept in birdcages littered with garbage and feces.

Bengal tigers were kept in cages about 6 feet tall, 8 feet wide and 15 feet deep, inadequate for their species, he said.

The grizzly bear now at the zoo was found in a large birdcage in a drained backyard pool, “aggressively chewing on the cage,” Stalf said.

The article also gives a final accounting of the 56 animals, although it appears to leave 1 animal unaccounted for:

Law enforcement shot and killed 48 of the animals and a monkey was killed by the other animals. Six others — a grizzly bear, three leopards and two monkeys — are in quarantine at the Columbus Zoo.

The task force is likely to recommend a ban on exotic animal ownership (with existing owners grandfathered in) according to the piece, although no details on which animals would qualify under the ban are mentioned.

Updated: Wild Animals Escape Preserve in Ohio

Although details are few at this point, what is known makes for a sad story.  The owner of the Muskingum County Animal Farm, a wild animal preserve in Ohio, was found dead on his property late yesterday afternoon.  Most all the cage doors for the 48 animals had been left open.  Lions, tigers, cheetahs, wolves, giraffes, camels, bears, orangutans and chimpanzees had been housed on the property although it’s unclear how many escaped the preserve.  The AP is reporting police officers shot and killed close to 30 of the loose animals.  Classes were cancelled for area schools and motorists were warned to stay in their vehicles due to wild animals being spotted near the highways.

There was reportedly no safe way to attempt to tranquilize and capture the animals in the dark so they were simply shot on sight.  In the daylight today, there may be some hope for capturing any remaining animals alive.

Added:  Local 4 News in Detroit is tweeting updates on the situation.  They report that police say the preserve owner opened the cage doors then killed himself.  Police are reportedly receiving threatening messages from animal activists regarding the shooting of the animals.  Jack Hanna is defending the actions of the police.  One person was arrested trying to steal one of the loose animals.  There are only 3 animals unaccounted for at this point – a mountain lion, a grizzly, and some type of monkey.  No one has been hurt by the animals so far.

Not as Nature Intended

via Flickr

Trivial Pursuits

I discovered something about myself the other day – many of my favorite wild animals are all slow.  I’m surprised I never recognized this before, because I think about animals quite a lot.  So this is a major trivial revelation (a jumbo shrimp revelation?).  At any rate, I realize some of these animals are not always slow but it is a common theme.

Some of my faves:

Deadliest Animals to Humans

I was watching a show yesterday with Dave Salmoni interacting with crocodiles in Africa. He mentioned that despite the widely perceived threat to humans in Africa from crocs (unless you’re a pregnant woman defending your man, that is), they are not responsible for the largest number of human deaths by animal attack in Africa per year. That animal, per Salmoni, is the hippopotamus. (Eek – I may have to change my Christmas list.) That was surprising to me since I’ve never really thought of hippos as anything but laid back, mud wallowers. And it got me wondering what animal was responsible for the most human deaths each year worldwide.

The answer to that turns out to be the mosquito. The World Health Organization says a child dies of malaria (after being bitten by an infected mosquito) every 30 seconds. An estimated 2 million people die from malaria every year. In the U.S., we are not at risk for contracting malaria via mosquitoes. We do see a number of deaths every year in the U.S. from animals such as bees and wasps and indirectly, from deer who run in front of cars and cause accidents.

Sea World Covers Up Dangers of Whale-Trainer Interaction

Sea World reportedly quashed a 2007 report from OSHA which warned of additional killer whale attacks at the park. What’s that? You didn’t realize a company could say “Thanks but no thanks” to a government issued workplace safety report? Me neither. But apparently “SeaWorld successfully argued that Cal/OSHA was not qualified to draw conclusions about marine mammals and the report was killed[...]” In other words, OSHA might know about workplace safety but they couldn’t possibly know about safety in our workplace – we’re speshul.

This isn’t the first time Sea World protected its corporate interests by hiding information on the dangers of riding around on captive killer whales for shows. In 1987, a trainer was seriously injured by a killer whale at Sea World and he filed a lawsuit:

Video footage showed Orky the killer whale slamming down John Allen Sillick, breaking his bones and crushing his insides.
The accident sparked a lawsuit, but it was not what 10News found in the lawsuit that was intriguing but what was missing. The lawyers for a previous owner of SeaWorld, Harcourt and Brace, had cleared the courtroom during any discussions of Orky’s health, medications, and physical limitations. Then, they managed to convince the judge to seal those parts of the records from public view, forever. . “I have no idea why that case was sealed or who requested it. I can’t comment on it,” said Brad Andrews, Vice President of Zoological Operations with Busch Entertainment.
The judge’s remarks were not sealed and provided tantalizing clues.
They revealed 20-year-old Orky was not a healthy whale. He was partially blind and had “visual limitations not told (to trainer).” Additionally, the whale had limited ability to jump.
A year after he crushed Sillick, Orky died from “acute pneumonia, chronic wasting.”

Sea World stated (pdf), and I’m paraphrasing, that the park’s owners had wanted the veterinary info sealed because it contained trade secrets and the public was too dumb to understand it anyway. That may be true but I think it’s fairly self-explanatory that the whale involved was dead a year later due to a chronic condition.

If interested, read the pdf linked above for more fascinating Sea World spin. It’s a Q and A between Sea World and Channel 10 News in San Diego. There’s so much bobbing and weaving going on, you’re left feeling like you just went a couple rounds with Muhammad Ali.