As with
summer, when Memorial Day signals the season’s unofficial start nearly a month
early, autumn for many of us begins with school opening, then fall clothes, cooler nights, leaves turning and Halloween paraphernalia
everywhere.
And, alas, hunting.
Here in Mercer county, it’s called a “deer
management program” by the county park commission – a “program” that aims to “reduce
the overabundant deer herd in the . . . region.”
“Management”
in this context means killing white-tailed deer, who are described as “one of the
largest regional threats to biodiversity of flora and fauna in central NJ,” and
whose “herbivory. . .jeopardizes “the native plant understory and overall
forest health by degrading its habitat value for other wildlife.”
Bow hunting
for deer began today in some area parks, and continues Monday-Saturday until
Feb. 18, 2023. Firearm hunting starts in
two areas on Monday, Dec. 5 and continues through Feb. 11, during periods
specified. Parks and regions involved
with firearm hunting will be closed to the public.
“There will
be no hunting on Sunday,” according to the commission. Make of that day-of-rest fact what you wish. And do the same with the decision to hunt and
kill deer, rather than using non-lethal means of (truly) “managing” the deer population.
So area
residents will start seeing more deer on the run, away from parklands dedicated
to “deer management.” I’ve already
startled two separate deer in my tiny back yard, where they were grazing (and
hiding?) in a narrow length of bushes and fence. Where did they go from here? It’ll be a long five months of on and off hunting for them.
Unique support animal
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| WallyGator Henney image |
Even though deer
need our support, we sometimes appreciate emotional support from animals. How about an alligator? That idea’s for real, btw, as a Pennsylvania
man has proved with his certified support alligator, WallyGator, for more than
5 years.
The two – Joie
(pronounced “Joe”) Henney and his 70-pound, 5-1/2 foot pal — sleep in the same
bed; watch tv and go just about everywhere together (area tourist sites,
farmers markets, area creeks . . .); occasionally swim in a friend’s pool; and
go to the vet for WallyGator’s annual checkup.
It all began
when Henney helped a Florida friend by taking in 3 juvenile alligator rescues. Two eventually went to reptile refuges, but
Henney kept 14-month old WallyGator, with whom he’d already bonded. When his pet later cheered him out of depression,
he realized he had an emotional support animal, and has happily made the most
of that ever since. https://tinyurl.com/p7zzrjb5
My apologies
to elephants
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| Elephant Crisis Fund image |
Elephants
have long been very special animals to me – but my huge oversight last
month could give the lie to that claim: I totally missed a very important new
stamp to honor elephants. Issued
August 12, the US Postal Service “forever” stamp celebrates the love of an elephant
mom with her calf.
The Postal
Service’s background story is way too upbeat about elephants – insufficiently reflecting
their truly perilous position these days in the wild and in captivity. But, I hope that as people buy the stamp,
they’ll think more about elephants and look into the organizations committed to
saving them — “Save the Elephants” (SavetheElephants.org) being the main one I
recommend.
Which leads
to California’s Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWSweb.org), an admirable
organizations that cares for elephants saved from circuses, zoos and other
inhumane lives that elephants have long been forced to live. A look at the PAWS’ website will tell the
story far better than I can.
There, I recently
found out about an activity elephants love and PAWS contributors support:
dusting. No, they’re not house-cleaning,
but protecting themselves from bugs and the sun. Here’s a great link to a few PAWS videos showing
elephants dusting: please take a look! https://tinyurl.com/2ypxdpkx
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