HeidiAllen.com

Easter’s coming, and that means that many people will be tempted to buy chicks, ducklings and rabbits as gifts for their kids. Every major animal advocacy organization in the US has come out against this practice, and for good reason. Rather than repeating their warnings, allow me to share my own personal experiences related to this annual tragedy.

When I was in the fifth grade, our teacher thought it would be a good idea to bring in five or six tiny chicks for us to celebrate Easter. She let the class come over to the incubator tank to “pet” the chicks. I was a skinny, short kid, so I was one of the last kids to get a turn.

By the time I stood up on my tiptoes to look through the glass, only one chick was still alive. And it wasn’t going to be alive much longer. One of its legs had been ripped off. The tank was filled with chick blood and chick parts. It was very traumatic for me.

The teacher came over to see what was wrong and was shocked by what she saw. She demanded to know who in the class would have done such a thing. All the kids sincerely swore that they’d only pet the chicks. I knew they weren’t lying. They were just kids, and they were used to petting dogs and cats.

Chicks and ducklings are unbelievably fragile. A simple attempt by a child to run their fingers through the chick’s fluff can result in ripping off a wing. And even if the chick or duckling manages to survive a child’s curiousity, what will your family or class do with them when they grow up?

As for rabbits, they don’t like to be picked up or cuddled. They can really hurt you by biting, or kicking off against your chest, arms or legs by using their rear claws. And they require a lot of specialized care.

I used to go walking in a big park almost every evening. A couple of days after Easter, rabbits started showing up everywhere. They weren’t the small, brown rabbits I was used to, but rather, were showy and large.

The rabbits were terrified of everything. I couldn’t get near them. Meanwhile, people would take their dogs to this park and let them run off-leash. The dogs would attack the rabbits, and within a few months, all that was left to remind me of the whole nightmare were the rabbit bones scattered everywhere.

On a side note, dumping dogs or cats in rural areas to “live in the wild” doesn’t have a happy ending, either. I’ve been living out in “the country” for the past 7 years or so, and what I’ve seen is that coyotes are very grateful when you give them tasty kitty snacks. Farmers will shoot any unknown dog to make sure it doesn’t attack their livestock.

We met one of our cats when he showed up on our front porch one day and rolled over to reveal the bloody, black, twisted mess that remained of his testicles and belly. A chicken/goat farmer down the road had decided to teach him a lesson by employing a goat castration elastic. Cat flesh just isn’t remotely as tough as goat flesh. We were able to save his life with emergency surgery, but he’ll always have problems as a result of his experience.

Bottom line: Don’t bring an animal into your home unless you’re prepared to care for it for the rest of its life, which can be a considerable length of time. Learn in advance what its needs are. You may not be able to meet them.

Know that you won’t be able to just drop it off at a shelter if things don’t work out. Most shelters stay full and it can take months before they have an opening. Shelters with faster turnover tend to euthanize (kill) animals that aren’t adopted quickly. And releasing an animal “into the wild” will probably result in its death.

If you’re still determined to bring a pet bunny, chick or duckling home for Easter, see these care tips for rabbits or these care tips for chickens and ducks.

We have three cats, and it’s apparently a big deal for them when we finally get up in the morning. Each one wants to get the first/most attention, and this has resulted in each cat giving a lot of thought as to how to best achieve this.

Orange was the first to put her plan into action. She’d wait for hours at the edge of the scat mat in front of the bedroom door (which gives a tiny electric shock to kitties who step on it), then leap over it and up onto the bed when the door opened.

Puddytat countered by wedging herself into the corner closest to where the first crack of open door would appear, then beating Orange to the bed. Orange fought back by figuring out a way to actually sit on the scat mat (a surface charged with static electricity). We still haven’t figured out how she’s doing this without getting zapped.

Mr. White got into the act by lying in front of the bathroom door, knowing that would be our next move. Since Orange had retaken the bed, Puddytat outmaneuvered Mr. White by sleeping on the bathroom counter. He responded in typically male fashion, by forcibly commandeering the counter away from her.

Orange, patient woman that she is, decided to sit next to the toilet all night, a position that enabled her to be the first to rub against the toilet user’s legs. This left the bed wide open, which Puddytat quickly took advantage of.

Mr. White wasn’t going to play second banana to anyone. He spent the next night opening up the under-sink cabinets and knocking out enough bottles to hide inside. When I entered the next morning, he sprang out, chasing Orange away from my legs and taking me prisoner. Orange was visibly upset.

Made overconfident by his success, Mr. White spent the next morning trying to figure out how to beat Puddytat through the bedroom door. He was unsuccessful. He’s wary of the bedroom, because it’s the “girls’ room”, where they work together to repel him. His hesitation gave Puddytat the advantage.

All this enabled Orange to sneak into the bathroom, pry open the shower door far enough to get inside and wait until she had me alone before climbing out again. Mr. White realized his error too late and cried piteously outside the door.

I can’t wait to see what they come up with tomorrow.

Need some good news? This’ll put a smile on your face and a lump in your throat:

 

© The Marine Mammal Center – Volunteer today!

When the whale realized it was free, it began swimming around in circles, according to the rescuers. Moskito said it swam to each diver, nuzzled him and then swam to the next one. 

 

Full story at SFGate.com.

Hope comes in the most unexpected forms. This story spotlights the dangers faced by both Ethiopian girls and Ethiopian lions.

Because news articles disappear so frequently, I’m including both the link and the text:

Lions rescued kidnapped girl, say police
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June 21 2005 at 03:55PM
By Anthony Mitchell
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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia.

The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, Sergeant Wondimu Wedajo said Tuesday by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, about 560km west of the capital, Addis Ababa.

“They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest,” Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female.

‘A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub’

News of the June 9 rescue was slow to filter out from Kefa Zone in south-western Ethiopia.

“If the lions had not come to her rescue then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage,” he said.

“Everyone in thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people,” Wondimu said.

Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said that it was likely that the young girl was saved because she was crying from the trauma of her attack.

“A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they (the lions) didn’t eat her,” Williams said. “Otherwise they probably would have done.”

The girl, the youngest of four brothers and sisters, was “shocked and terrified” and had to be treated for the cuts from her beatings, Wondimu said.

He said that police had caught four of the men, but were still looking for three others.

In Ethiopia, kidnapping has long been part of the marriage custom, a tradition of sorrow and violence whose origins are murky.

The United Nations estimates that more than 70 percent of marriages in Ethiopia are by abduction, practiced in rural areas where the majority of the country’s 71 million people live.

Ethiopia’s lions, famous for their large black manes, are the country’s national symbol and adorn statues and the local currency. Former emperor Haile Selassie kept a pride in the royal palace in Addis Ababa.

Despite their integral place in Ethiopia culture, their numbers have been falling, according to experts, as farmers encroach on bush land.

Hunters also kill the animals for their skins, which can fetch $1 000 (about R6 000), despite a recent crackdown against illegal animal trading across the country. Williams said that at most only 1 000 Ethiopian lions remain in the wild. -
Sapa-AP