Today's alert is dedicated to Karen Davis of United Poultry Concerns, who we lost last year, as I know I could have counted on her to respond to a Wall Street Journal front-page story about chickens. Can we all please step up on her behalf and make sure the paper gets plenty of letters that speak for them as she would have?
Today's, January 8 front-page story is titled "Forget the Wolverines. Jim Harbaugh Also Coaches His Chickens." Penned by Laine Higgins, it opens:
"For the better part of his coaching career, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh has been clear about his priorities. In order, they are faith, family and football. Those helped him steer the Wolverines to the national championship game for the first time in nearly three decades.
"Recently, a fourth pillar has emerged: fowl.
"Harbaugh is a serious backyard chicken farmer.
“'Chickens have made the cut into his pretty small circle of important things in his life,' said Jay Harbaugh, his eldest son and the Wolverines’ special-teams coordinator."
The piece notes various difficulties of the football season and then tells us:
"'When it seems like everybody’s out to get Michigan (this year’s team has adopted the slogan 'Michigan vs. Everybody'), Harbaugh can count on the undying loyalty of his flock. 'There’s times when I’m doing good things for other people, and they’re not as happy to see me as my chickens are,' he said in November."
And it ends with:
"The longer Michigan’s season has stretched on, the more time Harbaugh has had to spend away from his birds. When a Journal reporter jokingly suggested that the coach install a nanny cam to monitor the chickens while he is away, Jack Harbaugh, his dad, endorsed the idea and said he would raise it with his son. The family hired someone to take care of the chickens during the week they spent in California for the Rose Bowl, where the Wolverines defeated Alabama in overtime to advance to the championship.
"Upon returning to Ann Arbor, the coach swung by his father’s house. Jack Harbaugh thought they were going to talk ball. His son had other things on his mind.
“'He wanted to let us know that he was really kind of disappointed with this person. He didn’t feel [the chickens] were getting the same attention that he has given them,' Jack Harbaugh said. 'I was like, ‘Let’s talk about the game!’”
Though the article talks about the kind of treatment that leads to the best quality eggs, which is not something DawnWatch loves to see taken into account, overall the article is highly positive and opens the door for letters that discuss how delightful chickens are. If you have personal experience with them and might recommend rescue, would you write in? Or might you write about the horrors of the egg industry?
The article is online here though it may only be available to Wall Street Journal subscribers. I have given you plenty above, however, on which to base a letter. The paper takes letters at wsj.ltrs@wsj.com and advises:
"Please include the headline and publication date of the article to which you are responding in the subject line of your email. Rather than attach your letter in a document, paste the text into the body of your email. Conclude your email with your real name, city, state and phone number. We don’t publish anonymous letters and we may need to reach you to verify certain facts in your letter.
"All letters are subject to editing for length, grammar, style and interest. It is best to write in full sentences, without resorting to insults or ALL CAPS exclamations. We’re looking for informative, clear arguments, pithy observations and compelling personal or historical anecdotes."
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I opened the DawnWatch end of year round-up, sent on New Year's Eve, by noting that the current edition of the New Yorker, January 1-8, has a thoughtful article by National Book Award winner Jonathan Franzen titled, “The Cats of L.A.” with the subheading, “The ‘No Kill’ movement helps keep cats outdoors. The consequences belie the name.” I discussed it in that end-of-year alert. If you would like to weigh in, send letters to themail@newyorker.com .
On a related note, the Deccan Herald ran a very nice piece last week, "Won’t my cat get bored if I keep it inside? Here’s how to ensure it’s happy," which recommenced, among other things, installing catios and taking cats for harnessed walks.
Today on the Mark Thompson Show, Mark and I discussed the New Yorker article and I sang the praises of cat fencing. And I suggested we work on substituting TNR, Trap, Neuter and Release, for TSC, Trap, Spay and Contain. You might enjoy the segment. If you do, don't forget to hit the "like" button. That helps the segment go further in the world.
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We have awful news from Nevada, as yesterday's Las Vegas Sun shared ,
"BLM aims to round up thousands of horses in Nevada," with the article opening:
"The ongoing wild horse roundup in rural Northern Nevada is planned to be what is likely the single largest gather conducted by the federal government.
"The Bureau of Land Management plans to gather and remove 2,875 mustangs from what the agency calls the East Pershing Complex. The roundup started Dec. 28, and as of Jan. 3, had netted 733 animals using low-flying helicopters and wranglers to drive the feral horses toward traps, according to BLM reports. The operation could last through February."
And we read:
“'This shocking display of cruelty is a continuation of the very abuses that gave rise to the original 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. These practices should be relegated to the past where they belong and should be replaced by modern, humane conservation practices that keep wild horses wild,' said Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign."
Then today's Arizona Republic, page 5, announces "Overpopulation of wild burros near Kingman leading to move," and we learn, "Bureau of Land Management announced on Dec. 20 that it plans to gather and relocate 1,000 wild burros near Kingman due to overpopulation concerns."
I think most DawnWatch subscribers know that the mustang and burro roundups are a gruesome subsidy to the cattle ranching industry, paid for with out tax dollars. If you a Nevadan, or if this is an issue you are passionate about, I hope you will lend animals your voice with letters to the Las Vegas Sun at letters@lasvegassun.com and/or Arizona Republic here . Be sure to keep your letter short and use your own words.
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And folks, today's Mutts cartoon , with its anti-fur message, is well worth sharing!
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Last week, DawnWatch subscribers in the San Francisco Bay Area received an alert about a front-page story in multiple papers on the avian flu crisis.
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Yesterday, the Guardian ran an article about the "horrendous lives of chickens" and the RSPCA's vow to work on welfare reforms. Some of the descriptions of their conditions could prove useful for letters to the Wall Street Journal about today's front-page story.
The Guardian also brought us a story, replete with video, which I posted with an "unbearable cuteness" warning: "Mouse secretly filmed tidying man’s shed every night."
I only just saw today, so posted, a beautiful commentary that ran last year on Boston's NPR station WBUR, by author Anita Daimant, titled "I've outlived four dogs. But I can't imagine life without them."
Florida's WPLG Local 10 news brought us a heartbreaking news piece about the death of a dolphin named Sundance at the Miami Seaquarium, where Tokitai/Lolita died, and the conditions in which the survivors are living.
The Los Angeles Times ran a photo of the vigil at the local zoo to "honor and remember the elephants who suffered and died due to the ravages of captivity."
On a better note, NPR's Weekend Edition brough us a segment on the probable passing of T-46, an orca matriarch in Pacific Northwest presumed dead. The good news is that she was among the orcas captured in the last round-up, in 1976, all of whom were released rather than taken to marine abusement parks, thanks to the public outcry.
And major media coverage of the animal shelter crisis continues, appearing on the front page of USA Today on New Years Day this year.
Let's help make it a good one for animals.
Yours and all animals',
Karen Dawn of DawnWatch
