For "Mammal Monday". About mammals, other critters and events:
Shutdown Hits Home for National Park Service Personnel
“When the parks reopen, I will be furloughed for at least two pay periods if the sequester cuts continue. So not only will I not be paid for the days I miss during the shutdown, but also for at least a month in the coming year.” - Estee Rivera Murdock, Community Engagement Park Ranger at Saguaro National Park
"Our national parks provide visitors with a window into America’s history, natural beauty, and cultural diversity. However, when the government shut down on October 1, all 401 national park sites closed. Overnight guests were asked to leave, visitors are being turned away at entrance gates, and more than 21,000 National Park Service employees have been furloughed indefinitely.
One of the most visible effects of this shutdown is the blocked entrance gates at national parks and monuments that are turning away an estimated 750,000 visitors a day, including frustrated veterans, heartbroken brides, and disappointed school children. Another story worth telling is the emotional and financial toll on Park Service employees, especially on the heels of a challenging sequester that deeply cut park budgets, coupled with the threat of continued cuts.
The current government shutdown has Alan O’Neill, a retired superintendent from Lake Mead National Recreation Area, reminiscing about impacts from the shutdown in 1995/1996. “It was not the National Park Service’s choice to close the parks, but Congress’,” he stated. “Unfortunately, some people were blaming the National Park Service for denying access. It wasn’t easy to ask people to leave; we wanted the people to enjoy the public lands.” More at: http://www.parkadvocate.org/emotional-and-financial-toll-of-government-shutdown-hits-home-for-national-park-service-personnel/ By Emily Douce, Budget and Appropriations Specialist
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If You See a Turtle in the Road
Give them a brake. Help them find their way and remain wild.
"Have you ever been driving down the road when that tire fragment in the distance begins to move? As you get closer, you realize that the tire fragment is actually a turtle, slowly attempting to cross the highway.
Turtles often make this perilous journey to get to a good, sunny location with loose soil in which to lay eggs, and to return back to familiar territory—be it a woodland, pond or desert burrow.
It is in just this situation that so many turtles lose their status as wild animals and are consigned to an unnatural, and unnaturally short, life in a back yard. By all means, help that turtle cross the road in the direction she (or he) was heading, if you can do so safely. But then leave her in the wild where she belongs."
"Low, slow, and amazing, turtles once roamed Earth with the dinosaurs. Now many species on land and in water face extinction. If you're a turtle fan, help us protect them. One easy way: Enjoy turtles in the wild, not as pets. It's safer for both you and for these fascinating reptiles.
Turtles are often killed or taken from the wild as pets, food, or trinkets before they reproduce. For many populations of turtles, the loss of only a few adults can spell doom.
Development and pollution destroy their land and water habitats, fishing nets drown them, and cars crush them—the threats to turtles have never been greater.
Never keep wild turtles or tortoises as pets or buy them from a pet store.
Getting a turtle as a pet is risky for you, too: They carry Salmonella. That's why it's illegal to sell small turtles, though many are sold illegally."
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Threatened Gopher Tortoises Rescued from Fla. Construction Site
The 28 gopher tortoise eggs saved from a development site in Apopka, Fla., started hatching on Sept. 6. Matt Aresco
"After 47 days in the field, 227 threatened gopher tortoises have been spared an inhumane death and 28 gopher tortoise eggs have been saved from a development site in Apopka, Fla. The Humane Society of the United States, Nokuse Plantation, D.R. Horton and Bio-Tech Consulting teamed up to rescue the tortoises and eggs from the Rock Springs Ridge subdivision before relocating them to a permanent home at Nokuse Plantation, a nature preserve in Walton County. The eggs started hatching on Sept. 6." More at: http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2013/10/fl-threatened-gopher-tortoises-rescued-100113.html
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Baby Lions, Tigers, and Bears Are Not Stuffed Toys
"Across the country, the public can pet, feed, pose with, and play with wild animals at malls, fairs, and roadside zoos for fees ranging from $10 to $500. To facilitate such unsafe handling, baby tigers, lions, bears, and primates are pulled from the care of their protective mothers shortly after birth.
When the baby animals can no longer be used as play props, or for photographs -- sometimes after just a few months -- they are often discarded at shoddy roadside zoos, sold into the pet trade, or killed for their meat. This cycle of breeding, exploiting, and then dumping baby animals puts animals at risk and endangers the public.
In response to a legal petition from a coalition of animal protection and conservation organizations -- including The HSUS -- the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is requesting comments on whether to prohibit public contact and close encounters with big cats, bears, and primates." More at: Please urge the USDA to prohibit this cruel and dangerous practice»
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Kitten Fed Vegan Diet by Vegan Owners Nearly Dies at Animal Hospital
"The case of a kitten near death brought to an animal hospital in North Melbourne, Australia provides another example of why it’s so important for pet owners to understand the dangers of feeding biologically inappropriate diets. The kitten was extremely weak and collapsed when it arrived at the clinic. The kitty’s vegan owners had been feeding it a diet of potatoes, rice milk and pasta. Vet staff provided the kitten with IV fluids, a heating pad, and meat to eat. He stayed in the hospital three days, and when the owners came to pick him up, they were given meat to feed the kitten at home." More at: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/09/25/vegan-diet-dangers.aspx
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Toxic Treats
A year ago, Del Monte and Milo’s Kitchen filed to dismiss the lawsuit brought by a pet owner who claimed Milo’s Kitchen brand chicken jerky treats made in China caused kidney failure in her dog, resulting in the need to euthanize her pet." More at: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/10/02/chicken-jerky-manufacturers.aspx
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Feds to Puppy Mills: No More Business As Usual
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Heroic puppies fight against their natural enemies -- spring door stops.
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On This Day:
Japanese execute nearly 100 American prisoners on Wake Island, Oct 7, 1943:
"On this day in 1943, Rear Adm. Shigematsu Sakaibara, commander of the Japanese garrison on the island, orders the execution of 96 Americans POWs, claiming they were trying to make radio contact with U.S. forces.
The execution of those remaining American POWs, who were blindfolded and shot in cold blood, remains one of the more brutal episodes of the war in the Pacific."
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President Bush announces military action in Afghanistan, Oct 7, 2001:
"On this day in 2001, less than a month after al-Qaida terrorists flew commercial jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, President George W. Bush announces that American troops are on the offensive in Afghanistan. The goal of Operation Enduring Freedom, as the mission was dubbed, was to stamp out Afghanistan's Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime, which had aided and abetted al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden, a Saudi national who lived in the Afghan hills and urged his followers to kill Americans.
Bush touted the multinational effort as proof that America, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, was "supported by the collective will of the world." He also warned that the war in Afghanistan would likely be only the first front in a long struggle against terrorism. He vowed to continue to take what he called the "war on terror" to those countries that sponsored, harbored or trained terrorists."
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Yesterday:
Apart from someone who came to look at the heat/air conditioner that I have for sale, it was a quiet day at home. They measured the AC and said they would be back, but they didn't return.
That gave me time to make some almond butter and sunflower seed butter in my auger juicer. That is done by not using the juicer insert, but the blank insert instead.
I noticed that Misty is putting on a bit too much weight, even though I carefully measure what she eats. I'll have to take her for more walks.
It is the first time since last winter that I had to run the heat today.
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