Monkey Dies From Head Injury After Zoo Break-in

A break-in at Zoo Boise early Saturday left a Patas monkey dead from blunt force trauma to the head and neck and police were analyzing blood found at the scene to determine if it came from the monkey or one of two human intruders.

Two males wearing dark clothing were spotted by a security guard at 4:30 a.m. outside the fence near the primate exhibit, police said. Both fled, one of them heading into the interior of the zoo. Boise police used a thermal imager in searching the 11-acre zoo grounds but didn't find the person.

Police said late Saturday that a grey baseball cap with a distinctive skull design found near the site was probably left behind by one of the intruders and it might help in tracking them down.

"I've been here for 15 years and we haven't had anything like this happen," Zoo Boise Director Steve Burns said. "It's unfortunate that we have to let kids know that something like this happens. Monkeys are always among the most favorite animals here."

Patas monkeys, often called the military monkey, have reddish-brown fur with grey chin whiskers and distinctive white moustaches. They are widely distributed across central Africa south of the Sahara Desert and can live more than 20 years in captivity.

During a search of the zoo before dawn, Burns heard a groan that at first he thought sounded human. It turned out to be an injured Patas monkey barely moving near the perimeter fence.

The zoo's veterinarian was called, but the monkey died just before 6 a.m. as it was being examined. A necropsy later determined that blunt force trauma was the cause of death, police said.

An inventory done by zoo staff found no other animals missing or injured. The zoo has one remaining Patas monkey — another male — but it's unclear if it will remain at the zoo or will be sent to another zoo where it can socialize with other Patas monkeys, Burns said.

"They're not endangered in the wild, but there are not many in zoos in the United States," he said. "Monkeys are social animals. We only have one."

The two Patas monkeys came to Zoo Boise about three years ago from Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo in Florida. They had an outdoor enclosure during the summer in Boise but were moved indoors to the primate building when colder weather arrived.

Burns said the monkeys hadn't been given names, and he didn't know their ages. The monkey that was killed was about 2 ½ feet tall and weighed about 30 pounds, Burns said.

Burns declined to discuss details of the police investigation, including how the intruder entered the primate building, if the monkeys might have been specifically targeted, or how the monkey ended up near the perimeter fence. The zoo doesn't have surveillance cameras, he said.

"It's very disturbing that someone would intentionally break into the zoo and harm an animal," said Sgt. Ted Snyder of the Boise Police Department in a statement. "We're doing all we can to find who did this."

Amy Stahl of Boise Parks & Recreation said the death shocked zoo workers.

"They're hit hard," Stahl said. "They care for the animals on a daily basis and they care about them deeply."

The zoo was supposed to open at 10 a.m. but remained closed while police gathered evidence, opening about 2:30 p.m.  (Associated Press, Nov. 18, 2012)

MAS Continues to Starve Dogs; Puppy Cannibalizes Littermate Out of Hunger

This is a difficult story to tell. It is the story of 2 puppies, impounded by MAS along with 4 others (whose outcomes are unknown), who are both now dead. The details are horrifying but must be shared if there is to be any hope of justice. In my view, justice for the deaths of these two puppies would be nothing short of immediate arrests, criminal charges, and a complete overhaul of MAS – starting with the state Attorney General placing the facility into receivership, as we requested more than a year ago. This ongoing crisis of suffering, neglect and needless killing at MAS must be met with swift and decisive corrective action. It has gone on far too long.

On September 4, 2012, a Memphis animal control officer responded to a call from a school reporting puppies on the property. The ACO impounded 6 puppies, including dog ID #245825 and #245826, who were listed as 4 month old Lab mixes. On September 5, both pups were dewormed and vaccinated. Each weighed a little over 14 pounds. Both pups had the note “nasal discharge” entered into their medical histories on September 17 but no weights were recorded.

On September 13, an adopter expressed interest in puppy #245825 but MAS would not release him without a background check and a yard inspection because, although his medical history says Lab mix, and his littermate’s records say Lab mix, puppy #245825′s cage card says Pitbull mix. And MAS has special adoption requirements for Pitbulls. There are no notes indicating those tasks were ever completed. On September 19, the would-be adopter was phoned and advised that the puppy she wanted had been found dead in his kennel that morning.

In fact, the two pups had been caged together and one ate the other. Puppy #245826 ate his littermate’s face, trachea and esophagus as well as his shoulder. Someone with initials RC, presumably the MAS vet Rebecca Coleman, performed an examination on the remains of the partially eaten puppy and found he was very recently deceased and not suffering from an upper respiratory infection. The final notes are:

Cause of death undetermined. Body was cannibalized post-mortem.

There is no way of knowing whether this puppy was dead when the littermate ate him and I see nothing in the the records that supports this conclusion. He was not sick and in fact, there is no known cause of death. This conclusion seems irresponsible, at best.

Dr. Coleman then killed puppy #245826 marking “behavior” and “health” on the card. She performed a necropsy on this puppy, noting that portions of the other puppy were readily identifiable amidst the stomach contents. His body condition score (BCS) was 1/5. Anyone who has sat in a vet’s office looking at posters on the wall probably knows what a BCS of 1 looks like (see an illustration here). It indicates an emaciated animal. In an apparent contradiction, she also notes the pup had “good fat” under the skin and around the internal organs. The fat around the organs is among the last reserves to be used in the case of starvation. And the “good fat” beneath the skin is inconsistent with an emaciated puppy although the mere presence of fat in no way indicates the puppy was being fed enough.   To read the rest of the story Click Here.

Urge Health & Human Services to Retire Chimpanzees

Despite scientific evidence demonstrating they are unnecessary, more than 900 chimpanzees languish in U.S. labs today. Many are elderly and sick, and 80-90% are not even being used in studies. A law already exists that would retire these chimpanzees to sanctuary, however it is not being fulfilled. In response, NEAVS, the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA), Save the Chimps, Fauna Foundation, Animal Protection of New Mexico, the Kerulos Center, Sen. Bob Smith (lead sponsor of the Senate version of the CHIMP Act), and Friends of Washoe – under the counsel of Katherine Meyer of Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal in Washington, D.C., a premier law firm with extensive experience and success in animal protection – filed a Rulemaking Petition asking the government to define when a chimpanzee is not needed for research and therefore eligible for retirement. The Rulemaking Petition holds them accountable to the law.

The time for HHS to exercise its authority and responsibility is long overdue. Sign the petition urging the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to enforce the CHIMP Act and retire chimpanzees to sanctuary.

Heartbreaking Story - Wolf Hunting Season

Yesterday, when I logged into to my homepage on att.yahoo.com, I saw a very disturbing story on the front page that read "First wolf hunts set for Minnesota, Wisconsin".  Wisconsin's season is set to open Oct. 15 and Minnesota's season is on track for Nov. 3.    Both states will allow hunters to bait, shoot and trap wolves.  Wisconsin also will allow night hunting and the use of dogs.  What was even more disturbing, was a quote from a lady (questionable) in Grand Rapids, Minn.  She said, "To get a (wolf) as a trophy would be awesome, " she said.  I am speechless!

If anyone else read this story or knows about it, please comment.

 

The Terrible Truth About Some ASPCA/HSUS Rescues, such as on Caboodle Ranch

You read the magazine adds or watch the three-minute infomercials by the ASPCA and HSUS about the terrible plight of abused animals across our country, and then the request for money.

Then you see the newspaper article and news reports on Channels 6, 7, 9 etc., about a local non-profit rescuer who had 90 or 150 or even 400 cats who were all rescued from deplorable conditions by the City Animal Services along with the local or national ASPCA or HSUS. The reporter is told that the number of animals just got out of hand and the owner just wasn’t able to take care of the animals anymore.  To read the rest of of the story, Click Here!

 

HSUS Gets Another 'D" from Charity Watchdog

The Humane Society of the United States has once again gotten a “D” grade from the American Institute of Philanthropy/CharityWatch, according to the group’s August Charity Rating Guide. CharityWatch has now given HSUS a “D” grade for two years. (It previously had a “C-minus”—which would still get you grounded by your parents.)

CharityWatch writes in an accompanying article that HSUS gets a “D” for “spending paltry amounts on their programs and maintaining high fundraising costs.” The watchdog finds that HSUS spends as little as half of its budget on programs and spends as much as 48 cents to raise every dollar. HSUS is a factory fundraising machine—and a deceptive one, at that.

To learn more or to become a member of CharityWatch, Click Here.

Killing a Dream

A cat started it all. Nothing much to look at, just an ordinary calico cat that wandered into a home, a heart, and a new life.

Craig Grant had to decide if he was going to care for the cat his son could not take, or leave it to an uncertain, but likely cruel fate. But it wasn’t his decision to make. It was Pepper’s. And Pepper...

became Craig’s cat.

And one cat became two, and then two more, and finally the flock overwhelmed the heart and became bigger than the house. So Craig did what he knew he was meant to do. He became the savior of cats. The shepherd of lost kittens. The kind of man with the kind of dream America needs. He knew he had to save, not kill. Create, not destroy. Define your dream, marshal all your resources, and do it.

So with his goal in mind, Craig used all his savings, his creativity, and his persistence to build what would become Caboodle Ranch, the largest free-range cat sanctuary in the world (Guinness Book of World Records, 2012).

He searched for the right kind of property. One with no restrictions on the numbers of animals. Maybe in a poor county, where he could offer jobs to local people and others could benefit. And in 2003, he found the right spot. Thirty acres of woods in Madison County Florida. This was ranch country, so his daughter named the spread the Caboodle Ranch. And a magical place was born.

There were a few cats at first, but as the word got out that there was a place that could give cats a second chance at life, a place where feral cats, sick cats, old unadoptable cats, could live without cages and without the constant threat of the needle, well, in 2003, the cats started coming.

By January of 2012, 653 cats lived a happy, safe life at Caboodle Ranch. By March of 2012, the cats were gone. What happened? Where did the cats go? And why were they taken? There were two reasons, one local and one political.

For some unknown reason, the Madison County Board of Commissioners decided the county really, really needed an ordinance to control the number of animals allowed on 2 1/2 acres or more. Not the cattle or goats, or bison, but the cats or dogs. It was very important to have this ordinance, so the Excess Animal Habitat Ordinance was created. The EAH would limit the number to 30, but a sanctuary could apply for a permit, if it could meet all the requirements that the county could think of. And Craig applied for the permit and began to work.

So while he sweated and worked, and thought he was exactly on the right track, and spent thousands on fencing and barns, and whatever they came up with next, the raid was being planned. Craig was given a deadline of March 27 to finish all the requirements for the permit, but a month before the deadline, they struck.

On February 27, 2012, the rainiest day in Florida in months, the Sheriff’s Department, the ASPCA, and hundreds of volunteers from rescue groups flown in from all over the country, poured onto the ranch. Sheriff’s deputies arrested Craig Grant for animal abuse. The raiders chased the terrified cats, caught them and put them into carriers and then into a truck. They turned over the charming little buildings; they tore down part of the fencing; they carted away Craig’s files, his money, his medicines, his dream.

The cats were put in cages in an unused shelter in Jacksonville. Everyone was assured that this would be over soon, and the cats, at least those that were adoptable, would soon be happier than they ever dreamed. Those that were still alive, that is. The ASPCA , the victorious rescuers of already rescued cats, they announced the incredible victory over a hoarder, a criminal abuser, someone who should never, never even hold a cat again.

There were hearings to be heard, and trials to be tried, and all the while the cats were in cages in a hot building in Florida all through March, April, May, June, July, and part of August. The cost didn’t matter, as the ASPCA had told the sheriff the raid wouldn’t cost the county a penny. After all, donations funded all the ASPCA rescues. That was such a coup for the county. No more Caboodle cats that annoyed somebody, somewhere enough to want to wipe them off the map.

Victory is ours, said the ASPCA, but you know what? Let’s see if we can have the Sheriff get Caboodle Ranch pay us back for our expenses. Even though we don’t have to do that, our donations take care of rescue events, why, we have spent $700,000 on car rentals, $150,000 on airline tickets, $15,000 on pheromones to calm the cats and just a teeny, teeny bit on Dilly Bars from Dairy Queen! Maybe we can get a few nickels from the broken man. The costs hearing is being scheduled.

So for months the cats lived in their cages. They had vet care, just like they did at the ranch. They had ample food, just like they had at the ranch. They had volunteers to watch over them, but they didn’t have their Papa. They didn’t have their freedom, and some of them soon, wouldn’t have their lives.

Oh, there was another reason for the raid. A political one. Some annoying legislators wanted to pass a law making it illegal for shelters to kill an animal when a qualified non-profit rescue organization is willing to save that animal. Some people didn’t want that law. No-kill shelters might end up as hoarders by taking in more animals than they could handle. It could happen. It might be kinder to the animals if they died before they could suffer the abuse of over-crowding. Keep them in the kill shelters.

How can that proposed law be stopped? How about if someone makes an incriminating, misleading video of a sanctuary, then persuades the sheriff to take the video as evidence of abuse to the state attorney, who after considering the possibilities, decides to press charges against the sanctuary. A huge, dramatic raid would be a perfect public relations event. Let’s do it.

So they did. And with the raid, the accusations, the hearings, the trials, the legal fees, they—the unknowns who wanted Caboodle to be a memory—they broke the man. They “disposed” of almost all of his cats, and in spite of a court order demanding that the ASPCA make a good faith effort to locate and identify Craig’s personal pets, Tommy, Meatball, Toot, Snoop Dog, and Crackers, Craig hasn’t seen any of his cats for months. The ASPCA was also asked to keep them from being adopted, and to hold them until the court decides to end Craig’s despair, and return them to him. Nobody knows where they are or if they are even alive. And the ridiculous charges of animal abuse against the cat man still loom.

There is already a book called An American Tragedy, so I won’t borrow that title, but the name fits. Caboodle Ranch has been taken from Craig Grant, but also from all the people who had lost jobs, then houses, and found a home for their beloved pets at the ranch. It’s lost to the shelters that were overcrowded, who knew Craig would take in their excess cats. It’s lost to the tourists and visitors who came by the hundreds, and then spent their money in local shops. It’s lost to the volunteers who got so much personal satisfaction because they knew they were helping families and animals and Craig.

The trials and hearings are not over. For Craig, the threat of jail time exists; the threat of poverty is real. The legal bills are huge, but thousands of Caboodle Ranch fans are praying for Craig to prevail, and are sending donations, writing letters, sharing the story on Facebook and Twitter.

Out of the ashes a new Caboodle Ranch will be born, but certainly not in Madison County, Florida. And a new group of unwanted, unloved cats or just plain unlucky cats, will be given a second chance at life. And, as he was meant do to, at the helm will be Craig Grant, a man building his dream.