Welcome back, Jeoffry

(Today’s post is borrowed-in-admiration from The Writer’s Almanac for April 11. Part of a longer poem, "Jubilate Agno,” written in the 18th century under unusual circumstances, this fragment is about a cat. I’ve long been charmed by Jeoffry the cat – and hope readers will be too. [Another section appeared earlier in this blog.] A little info about poet Christopher Smart follows the fragment.)

Fragment B: For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry

For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in
his way.
For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant
quickness.
For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the adversary.
For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
For he purrs in thankfulness when God tells him he's a good Cat.
For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.
For every house is incomplete without him, and a blessing is lacking in
the spirit.
For he is the cleanest in the use of his forepaws of any quadruped.
For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.
For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.
For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.
For by stroking of him I have found out electricity.

April 11 is the birthday of poet Christopher Smart, born in Shipbourne, England (1722). After experiencing a religious awakening that convinced him that he was a prophet, he began praying and preaching in the streets of London. He tried to follow the Biblical injunction to "pray ceaselessly," dropping to his knees whenever the spirit moved him. This embarrassed his family, who put him into an asylum, where he wrote the two poems for which he is best known: "A Song to David" (1763) and "Jubilate Agno" (first published in 1938), which includes the section praising his cat, excerpted above.

(Blogger’s note: I doubt the accuracy of the contraction “he’s” in the sixth line starting with “For.” Doesn’t seem very 18th century to me. Calling all English language specialists, who may know either way.)
#

What we don’t see doesn’t hurt . . . animals

For animals, the basis of “animal welfare” is simply staying alive. But for countless animals, simply staying alive is difficult to impossible to do.

Only consider the billions of animals – you read it right, billions of them – killed every year to be eaten by humans. For them, NYTimes columnist Mark Bittman argues that “animal welfare” means we should be aware of the “torture” animals go through on the way to being slaughtered.

Because people eat animals, and some are erroneously convinced they must eat meat, innumerable animals must die. And in the process, they suffer unimaginably.

Bittman, with whom I’ve had issues earlier in this blog, seems slowly to be gaining awareness of just how horrific the system of meat production is – initially horrific for the animals involved, of course, and then for the people involved, who are isolated from what happens to the animals.

In a column last month titled “The Human Cost of Animal Suffering,” he wrote about a book whose author was exploring “the normalization of violence.” Not only do most people not know how animals are “processed” into food, but many of the workers involved are also isolated from those horrors.

Not seeing the “process” – which presumably would horrify them and prompt them to protest – helps people tolerate its continuation. And not seeing it, they continue to eat “meat” – i.e., dead animal tissue, which resulted from animal suffering.

“Distancing and concealment” in imprisonment, war, torture, deployment of drones and other sophisticated weapons allow “impersonal killing” to take place over and over again. Bittman says “we should look more carefully at how we raise and kill animals” because “when we all know the system, we’ll be even more eager to change it.”

This whole problem would disappear if people stopped eating animals. But Bittman’s not going there. For now anyway, he’s proposing only to raise and kill them in more humane ways – as if that’s not a contradiction in terms.
#

(http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/the-human-cost-of-animal-suffering/?emc=eta1)

Unthinkable future for elephants

Elephants are “on the edge.” They’re in serious danger of becoming extinct. After centuries of poaching, culling, starvation and habitat loss, their numbers have dropped from more than ten million to a few hundred thousand.

The current condition of elephants was discussed March 27 on an NPR program, “Here and Now,” from WBUR, Boston. The scientist who spoke about the plight of elephants was G. A. Bradshaw, whose book, Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us About Humanity (Yale University Press), was published in 2009.

To obtain elephants’ tusks for ivory jewelry and bric-a-brac, some poachers actually use hand grenades to wipe out whole families at a time. Nor does it end there. Close-knit and emotional, with strong family ties, elephants also have elaborate grieving practices for those who die.

Baby elephants lose the mentors they need when adults are killed, and all survivors are traumatized by the noise, bloodshed, death. They show distinct behavioral symptoms like those of young people exposed to war and genocide, who witness their elders and others around them being killed. Overall, the fabric of elephant society has broken down.

Speaking with the show host, Bradshaw indicated that the trauma elephants have experienced is irrevocable. It passes through the generations. Violence leaves scars on the bodies and brains of victims.

Worst of all, she said, local extinctions of elephants could lead to total extinction – which, she thinks, could happen in 20 years.

Unthinkable and unbelievable, is this future also unstoppable?
#

(http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2012/03/27/elephants-post-traumatic)

(photo from New York's Natural History Museum)

Friends of . . . carriage horses

In New York City, Friends of Animals has long waged war against horse-drawn carriages. And, given the numbers of tourists who find carriage rides romantic and fun, as well as the numbers of horses involuntarily involved in this inhumane and unnecessary industry, that war was and still is warranted.

Traditionally -- in my experience, anyway -- proponents of horse-drawn carriages (often the owners of both, actively guarding their livelihood) insist the horses want to work and are well taken care of. But I've talked with people who have seen the deplorable stables where these carriage horses are housed, and I've seen the horses out pulling carriages in very cruel weather and/or with dreadful street conditions.

It's all about money -- money that's made on the backs of the horses.

And that’s why, when I heard from Edita Birnkrant, the New York director of Friends of Animals, I immediately wanted to share her story of yesterday’s demo in NYC. The photo here shows Lee Hall, FoA’s VP of Legal Affairs, taking part in the event.

(The first and only time I met Lee was in Philadelphia, a couple years ago on Valentine’s day. She was doing the same thing then: demonstrating against horse-drawn carriages. That event introduced me to how FOA “demonstrates”: without chanting, yelling or insulting passersby. Instead, participants protest by quietly holding signs.)

Here are excerpts from Edita’s report on yesterday’s public outreach event and demonstration that Friends of Animals held at the carriage horse hack line from 11:30 am-3 pm.

The carriage horse industry was holding a media event in which they had not only frightened the poor mini-horse involved, but also another horse they claim they are “retiring” to the forced labor camp they call a “sanctuary” in Massachusetts. They unloaded these horses from a trailer and trotted them around on the street and allowed the public to surround the mini-horse and grab at it, as if they were in a petting zoo.

The carriage industry was there with their bizarre signs about sharing the road with horses, who “paved the way,” and most of them were incredibly hostile to us as we handed out our flyers. The police had to get involved when one of them shoved one of our volunteers. Overall, they were infuriated that we ruined their event, outnumbered them, and of course, outclassed them.

In my interview with NY1, I rebut the claim about the industry “retiring” their horses, stressing that the state ban legislation that’s pending would place horses in a true sanctuary, where they can’t be exploited for commercial gain or forced labor. I also pointed out that no horse chooses to pull carriages in NYC, so “retirement” is an absurd term to use.

It was a worthwhile day of action during which many tourists changed their minds about taking carriage rides, hundreds more took our flyers, and we ruined the carriage industry’s efforts to delude the media and public into believing they “retire” their horses anywhere except the slaughterhouse.

For details on the entire situation of carriage horses in NYC, see the latest issue of FoA’s Act*ion Line magazine, which includes Birnkrant’s article, “The Campaign to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages Goes to the State Level; New York Senate Assembly Bill Seeks to End Exploitation.”
#

Some "sport"

The quote of the day in last Sunday’s New York Times was, "It's hard to justify how many horses we go through. In humans you never see someone snap their leg off running in the Olympics. But you see it in horse racing." (Dr. Rick K. Arthur, equine medical director for the California Racing Board).

That quote should be an indication of the story content under this headline: “Mangled Horses, Maimed Jockeys” and this subhead: “Drugs, Lax Oversight and Growing Casino Purses Exact a Nationwide Toll.”

Here are excerpts from the story, which began on page 1 and spilled to two full pages inside, including color photos of injured race horses before or after being euthanized.

The main point to be made about this situation is that the jockeys choose to ride horses for a living; the horses have no say in any of it. So, besides horse-drawn carriages and war horses, this is one more example of horses having to serve humans – or more specifically in this case, humans’ greed.

* . . . On the ground next to him, his frightened horse, leg broken and chest heaving, was minutes away from being euthanized on the track.

* On average, 24 horses die each week at racetracks across America.

* (In 2008, after Kentucky Derby horse Eight Belles broke two ankles . . . and was euthanized, the racing industry promised to make horseracing safer.) But . . . “industry practices continue to put animal and rider at risk.”

* All too often at racetracks, “trainers who illegally pump sore horses full of painkillers to mask injury – and then race them – are neither fined nor suspended and owners of those drugged horses usually keep their winnings.”

* As many as 90 percent of horses that break down had pre-existing injuries, California researchers have found.

To describe horse racing as a “sport” is a cruel joke. It is a crime.
#

(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/death-and-disarray-at-americas-racetracks.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120325)

Real snake has lock on scariness

It may have seemed that Nagani, Voldemort’s huge venomous snake in the Harry Potter series, was the scariest snake imaginable. And in fact that’s true – because a real live snake – from 60 million years ago – is much scarier to contemplate.

That 48-foot long reptile, whose diameter was the size of a manhole, weighed more than a ton. It lived after the dinosaurs and on a different continent, when rain forests were just beginning. Its scientific name, “Titanoboa,” sums up its size and methodology.

For more about this UN-cuddlesome creature, check out the full story at NewJerseyNewsroom.com.
#

An advocate's sanctuary 'for the animals'

With an image like that on the front page, who wouldn't read the rest? The Animal Protection League Activator is a solid newsletter every time, but this photo and the accompanying story make it irresistible.

It's hard to decide whether the pig or the woman looks happier, but isn't it great that they both do? He is Brutus, while she is Debbie Kowalski, and they're each a part of For the Animals Sanctuary, in Blairstown.

Brutus wouldn't look like that without Kowalski; nor would the other animals there who were all rescued from the food farming trade. Kowalski, a nurse, began as an animal advocate after seeing what happened to animals in the vivisection industry. From the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty site she moved into veganism and on to co-found Caring Activists Against Fur with Julie O'Connor, who still leads that organization.

The sanctuary was Kolawski's next stop -- and she's still there, most recently saving a mother and her calf from the milk industry.

The sanctuary's website is www.ForTheAnimalsSanctuary.org. Warning: you’ll want to visit the place once you see pictures of the animals there.

For those not familiar with the APLNJ newsletter (bottom of home page, aplnj.org), its remaining space includes a rundown on “Legislative Assault on Wildlife”; a vegan recipe; extensive information about New Jersey’s black bears and steps toward protecting them; and excerpts from “2010 slaughterhouse figures for the US,” including the following:

• Pigs: 133.9 Million
• Turkeys: 276.2 Million
• Chickens (Meat): 9 BILLION 210.4 Million
• Cattle/Calves: 39.2 Million
TOTAL for land animals alone: 10 BILLION 152.8 Million
#

(Note: photo courtesy APLNJ)