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TURTLE BACK ZOO EXPANSION

Please join Essex County residents who want no further development of the Turtle Back Zoo entertainment complex.

Do you have a tip? We are looking for tipsters to give us information on any mistreatment of animals and/or staff at the Turtle Back Zoo. Please call 732-446-6808 x101.

To learn more and to sign Our Green West Orange Group’s petition against the expansion, go here.

DEER: BARBARIC DEER KILLING BILL PASSES SENATE – TECHNICAL MODIFICATION BRINGS BILL TO ASSEMBLY 

TWO ACTIONS:

1. Call your two local Assembly members to vote NO on A3242. Find your Assembly members here.
2. Call Governor Murphy at 609-292-6000 and ask him to VETO A3242 if the bill reaches his desk.

The extreme legislation promoted by New Jersey Audubon/Farm Bureau vastly expands barbarous and unethical methods typically used by poachers. If and where problems exist, socially acceptable, nonlethal management – for deer, beaver, geese, and other wildlife – is readily available.

• A3242 broadens depredation permit killing on “lands under cultivation” – shooting deer from moving vehicles, at night; jacklighting, or stunning deer with bright lights, killing directly over bait – by hunters on many thousands of acres under forest stewardship, forest management, and woodland management plan.
• The acreage involved is substantial. The Forest Stewardship Program alone covers over 155,000 acres. The Farmland Assessment Program covers over 250,000 acres statewide. Farmed land is over 700,000 acres.
• Allowing hunters to use unethical methods on hundreds of thousands of acres de facto legalizes and normalizes poaching practices through-out much of New Jersey.
• For a map of affected lands, click on this link.
• Senator Bob Smith lifted his proposed ban on the public feeding of deer, even as his bill allowed hunters to bait.
• Baiting, banned in New York and Pennsylvania and encouraged in New Jersey, increases deer density, reproduction, and conflict. Logging and management for “small game” creates deer breeding habitat and more deer. In multiple studies, baiting deer causes changes in tree species composition and retards forest regeneration by concentrating deer that continue to feed on natural browse. It increases predation on ground nesting birds.
• A3242 now includes a “Multi-Species Depredation” Permit, authorizing agents of the owner or lessee, to kill any animal of a species listed in the permit which is on the land and known to cause crop damage” (Emphasis added).

The legislation openly invites abuse: “known to cause crop damage” applies to a ridiculously wide array of species. “Known to cause” and causing crop damage are two different things. Wildlife feeding is the cost of doing business; weather, insects, and disease cause far greater losses. Often wildlife impact is light. For localized hot spots involving Canada geese or deer, complainants should substantiate claims and, if borne out, employ superior, non-lethal methods.

Run by cynical self-interests, New Jersey’s deer policy is incoherent. If possible, things are about to get a lot worse for an already persecuted species, and for any animals unfortunate enough to set foot on cultivated land. With New Jersey Audubon at the helm, our wildlife is in crisis.

NJ Animal Cruelty Statutes

Are you familiar with New Jersey’s laws protecting animals? While we often criticize them as limited are, New Jersey ranks second of all 50 states in overall protection, according to an HSUS report. To see the ranking, click here. If you are a New Jersey resident, you should familiarize yourself with our laws. Click here for a complete list.

Protecting the 1984 leghold trap law

New Jersey Senate Bill S179 (Senator Vin Gopal D-11) and Assembly Bill A3110 (Assemblyman Daniel Benson D-14 & Raj Mukherji D-33) would ban the manufacture, sale, possession, importation, transportation, or use of any trap that is a spring-loaded device that restrains an animal by capturing the foot, leg, or other body part, including an enclosed foothold type trap or any other type trap that uses a jaw, arm, bar, cable, or wire to grasp or pin the animal’s foot, leg, or other body part. Read more and get active.

Are you caring for community cats?

Are you involved in Trap-Neuter-Return? Then you need to be a part of our Feral Friends NJ network! It’s our Yahoo group that connects feral cat caregivers all across New Jersey. Get advice, find help, connect with others in your area, find out about free cat food opportunities, become eligible for spay/neuter subsidy and more. Read all about it.

Do you know the answer?

Question: How many hunting days are there in New Jersey? The answer may surprise you. Read more.

End wildlife killing contests

Wildlife killing contests are organized events in which participants compete for prizes by attempting to kill the most animals over a certain time period. Killing contests glorify violence, while disrupting natural processes. These “contests” teach  children that killing is fun, life is cheap, and wild animals are disposable.

In March, legislation was introduced by Senator Nilsa Cruz-Perez (S3541) and Assembly members Daniel Benson, Eric Houghtaling, and Carol Murphy (A5224) to end these contests.

Please sign this petition and share it to encourage more legislators to sign on and make New Jersey the first state to ban them outright. Let’s permanently abolish contests that promote the mass killing of coyotes, foxes, squirrels, and other species for sport and prizes.