Tag Archives: animals in traveling shows

Animal Issues

2016 was a good year for animals

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Rose rescued Cece in 2016 …  pic: R.T.

The Worcester Animal Rescue League on Holden Street is where Rose got her Husky-Mountain Feist cross “Jett,” the late great Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever “Bailey” and beautiful brindle greyhound-lab cross “Grace.” All homeless dogs that needed to be rescued!

If you can’t adopt a homeless cat or dog – do the next best thing: VOLUNTEER on behalf of animals. There are infinite ways to help! A good place to start is  WARL (open to the public 7 days a week, noon to 4 p.m.)! To learn more and see their dogs and cats up for adoption, CLICK HERE!       – R.T.

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Lots happened in 2016 besides the election

By Jennifer O’Connor

Most Americans are still feeling a bit frayed by the divisiveness of the presidential election. It’s easy to feel jaded and worn out, and many commentators are happy to see the end of 2016.

But while it was easy to get caught up in the more lurid headlines, a ton of uplifting things happened in the past year, particularly for animals used in the entertainment industry.

Let’s begin with elephants. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which has been forcing elephants to travel and perform for more than a century, pulled the animals off the road in May. They will no longer be chained up and hauled around in fetid boxcars. When a circus as big as Ringling makes a decision like that, you know the days of performing elephants are numbered.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore also made a precedent-setting decision: It will send the eight dolphins currently in its possession to a coastal sanctuary. Animal advocates around the world have called on aquariums and theme parks to stop exhibiting marine mammals—and this is the first step. Protected sea pools afford dolphins and orcas room to move around and some degree of autonomy and self-determination. They’re able to see, sense and communicate with their wild cousins and other ocean animals — and they finally get to feel the tides and waves and have the opportunity to engage in the kinds of behavior that they’ve long been denied.

SeaWorld is starting to see the writing on the wall. In May, the corporation announced that it would stop breeding future generations of orcas, who would have to spend their lives in cramped tanks. But kind people everywhere are calling on the corporation to release all its animals into coastal sanctuaries. As the public’s condemnation of captive marine mammal displays continues to grow, there’s little doubt that protected sea pens are the wave of the future.

Travel giant TripAdvisor recognized the trend towards compassionate tourism and stopped selling tickets to most excursions using animals for entertainment, including cruel “swim with dolphins” programs, elephant rides and tiger photo ops. Since many facilities dupe visitors into believing that they’re helping animals, many vacationers unwittingly support cruelty by patronizing them. But by informing travelers about the dark underside of these excursions and refusing to offer them, TripAdvisor’s new policy will have a very real impact on animal exploitation in tourist traps.

Nearly a half-dozen roadside zoos — where animals suffered in filthy, ramshackle cages — closed their doors in 2016. Families are turning their backs on exhibits in which bears are confined to concrete pits and tigers pace in fetid pens.

But progress for animals hasn’t been limited to the U.S. In Argentina, a judge found that Cecilia, a chimpanzee languishing in a Mendoza zoo, isn’t a “thing” but rather a sentient being who is “subject to nonhuman rights” — and ordered that she be sent to a sanctuary. Countries as disparate as Norway and Iran banned exotic-animal acts.

Argentina passed a ban on greyhound racing, sparing countless dogs a short, grim life in the “sport.” India’s Supreme Court upheld a ban on a cruel pastime called jallikattu—in which bullocks are raced and often struck with whips and nail-studded sticks to make them run faster. And the annual Toro de la Vega “festival” — in which a young bull is chased through the streets of Tordesillas, Spain, and stabbed with darts and spears — was banned.

While 2016 was a good year for animals, there’s always more to be done. We all have the power to spare animals pain and suffering in the year ahead—and beyond—simply by making kind choices about what we do for entertainment.

Animal Issues

Re: Southwick’s Wild Animal Farm in Mendon and other petting zoos …

Are petting zoos deadly?

By Jennifer O’Connor
 
Toddlers suffering from kidney failure. One-year-olds undergoing dialysis and transfusions. Parents burying a child. What is the common thread in all these tragedies? Petting zoos. Yes, petting zoos.
 
As the parents of Colton Guay would surely now attest, no one should underestimate the risks associated with petting zoos. Colton died earlier this month after falling ill with hemolytic uremic syndrome just days after visiting a petting zoo at a Maine fair. Shockingly, 21-month-old Colton wasn’t the first child to die after visiting one of these ubiquitous displays, and hundreds of others have suffered serious—sometimes life-changing—illnesses. Many have battled catastrophic kidney failure, including a 4-year-old who required a transplant..
 
Getting sick with E. coli is not like eating something that disagrees with you. Symptoms can include bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping, vomiting and fever, and in severe cases like Colton’s, it can even be fatal.
 
Children and adults alike have contracted E. coli after petting animals or simply touching the surroundings near a display. The bacteria have been found on railings, bleachers and even sawdust. Toddlers who get the germs on their fingers can transfer them onto their sippy cups or pacifiers or simply suck their thumbs. You can’t tell simply by looking whether an animal is “shedding” E. coli. And pathogens can remain in the environment for extended periods of time.
 
Getting children to wash their hands thoroughly or keep their fingers out of their mouths is something that few parents have succeeded at. And hand sanitizer does nothing to prevent the spread of E. coli via inhalation. Even vigilant parents can’t fight what they can’t see. A 2-year-old North Carolina boy died of an E. coli infection that he caught at a petting zoo, even though he was under his parents’ direct supervision the whole time.
 
Outbreaks are neither rare nor isolated, and hand-washing guidelines appear to be making little difference. Kids are still getting sick. After outbreaks in North Carolina, an editorial in the News & Observer concluded that petting zoos “have caused too much pain and sorrow for too many youngsters and their families in this state. Unless and until there’s a completely reliable method of assuring that no young child will contract E. coli-related illnesses at fairs’ petting zoos, the operations, popular as they are, should be prohibited.”
 
The potential consequences of getting such an infection are so serious that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that parents refrain from taking strollers, bottles, pacifiers, sippy cups or toys into animal areas. The agency also advises that children younger than 5 years old should avoid contact with animals in petting zoos altogether.
 
And let’s not forget the other victims of petting zoos: the animals who are hauled around and forced to interact with crowds of people all day long. Focused on running the display (and making money), operators can neglect even the most basic needs of the animals in their care, including food, water and rest.
 
There are plenty of ways to enjoy your local county fair or farmers’ market without putting your child’s health at risk or supporting cruelty to animals. Simply stay away from petting zoos, pony rides, animal photo ops or any other type of display that uses animals as props.