Endnotes: What Lingers from My Reading

This is the beginning of a new series I’ve been noodling on for some time. It’s a compendium of the facts, events, and ideas from my nonfiction reading that I believe deserve a larger audience. For those of you without the time or inclination to read the books from my lists, “Endnotes” will give you an inkling of what stands between the boards.

Considering my current reading theme, the posts will most likely be animal-related. There’s a wealth of information out there that the general public isn’t aware of (and in some cases, even the scientific community isn’t sharing with one another) and should be—about animal behavior, intelligence, emotions, and compassion. What we don’t know can hurt us, and our ignorance most assuredly hurts nonhuman animals.

These posts may or may not include commentary, may or may not be short, may or may not appeal to you. Even so, when you see the word Endnotes in the title, you at least know what lies ahead. And so we begin…


Bad News for Bears

Bears aren’t the only animals who become sobriety-challenged* periodically, but black bears’ benders were noted in Massachusetts one year and the hunting season was put on hiatus until they recovered. Apparently, after gorging on apples, the cider left in the bears’ stomachs fermented and caused the critters to stumble around in a stupor.
—From John McPhee’s Table of Contents

* I realized this morning after reading Sally Roth’s Attracting Songbirds to Your Backyard that I’ve come across downed birds before who had probably had a few too many berries. They looked sick, stunned, in need of help. And then suddenly, as I was anxiously thinking through what to do next, they’d fly off. Silly me: They didn’t require rescue; they just needed to wait out the hangover.


A Different Kind of Dairy Farm


When visitors to Kite’s Nest Farm are invited to try milk from the farm’s dairy cows, people get more than a mouthful. They learn firsthand that cows allowed to live freely and raise their calves naturally produce milk that even lactose-intolerant folks can tolerate, milk that varies in taste according to the breed it came from and according to each animal’s eating and drinking preferences. They learn that dairy farming doesn’t have to be cruel to be profitable.
—From Rosamund Young’s The Secret Life of Cows


A Hippo Driven by Compassion
Separated from her herd, a tiny impala escaped into a nearby African river as a pack of African wild dogs chased her. They ceased their hunt at the water’s edge, though, for they were outmatched by a formidable predator the young impala hadn’t noticed: a crocodile.

Nearby, another creature was watching as the drama unfolded, and though she was no enemy to crocs, she took action when the reptile grabbed the impala in his vise-like jaws. The hippo charged the croc, which likely astonished him more than roughed him up, and his prey flew out of his mouth.

The hippo nudged her rescue out of the water and the baby struggled to move to firmer ground. The hippo stood over the impala, slowly and repeatedly blowing air into the little one’s airways and across her body, trying to strengthen and warm her. But the croc had been too much for the babe. In spite of the hippo’s efforts, the impala perished.

Why is this anecdote important? Typically this kind of cross-species compassion in the wild is not believed or is rationalized or ignored altogether by the scientific community. However, this particular event—showing not only compassion, but swift decision-making and noninstinctive behavior—was caught on film. Similar events may happen in the wild far more frequently than we’re aware of.
—From Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson’s Dogs Have the Strangest Friends

[Bear photo by Jim Blackwood; cows photo by Rosamund Young; impala photo by Rebecca Conroy.]

Animals as Commodities: Kentucky Redefines “Animals,” “Pain,” and “Welfare”

I’m headed for the state capital tomorrow to hear what the Kentucky Livestock Care Standards Commission is recommending for legislation. If you live in Kentucky, I urge you to join me.

Members of the Commission were appointed by the governor and include a pork farmer, a bovine farmer, a judge, a citizen concerned about food safety, an associate dean from UK’s Ag College, a grocer, an autoworker who represents sheep and wool producers, a private investor, several veterinarians, and the pièce de résistance—a farm manager from Cal-Maine Foods, the “largest shell egg producer” in the U.S.

This Commission garnered a little publicity last year when the Humane Society of the U.S. accused it of meeting privately instead of publicly (as it’s supposed to). Since then, the Commission has been known to tweak its recommendations via e-mail rather than in public meetings.

Why so much secrecy? Because a few contentious issues are at stake—such as tail-docking and beak-cutting sans anaesthesia or painkillers and confining animals in crates that are too small for the animals to move in. Apparently, the Commission talked at length during the last meeting about whether to include the words pain and welfare in the standards.

According to Kentucky’s State Veterinarian, Robert Stout, the animals at the center of this hubbub are “commodities,” not “companions,” and he hasn’t seen the science yet that proves commodities feel pain. With “advocates” like Stout, Kentucky animals don’t need any more enemies.

However, I believe the Commission needs a language expert on board to help them suss out obfuscations and stick to clear definitions of terms. I also believe some of the Commission members need to retrieve their consciences and try not to view everything through the lens of profitability (read: greed).

For those of you who live in Kentucky, I want to share a conversation I had recently with a Bluegrass veterinarian. She lamented how many out-of-staters regard Kentuckians as ignorant and backward—even out-of-state vets characterize their Kentucky counterparts this way. I had to bite my tongue. You see, it’s people like Robert Stout who aren’t helping your image. So do Kentucky a favor and prove to the rest of the nation that you’re thoughtful and compassionate. Attend the meeting tomorrow to remind the Commission members that they’re accountable for their decisions. Remind them to see beyond the Almighty Dollar.

The 1:00 meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, July 17, at:
Office of the State Veterinarian
100 Fair Oaks Lane, Suite 252
Frankfort, KY 40601

[Photographer unknown.]

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

That old Rolling Stone song is true. The question is, How will you respond?

When 15-year-old Regina Mayer was told she couldn’t have a horse, she took the road less travelled…


[Story and photo from Horse Connection magazine.]

Sight-Seeing in the Bluegrass: Part 2

A tad more about my week with The Visitor…

We passed a field full of foals as we wended through the countryside the other day. I’ve never seen so many tiny horses in one spot—and all by themselves, too. Not a single mare anywhere near them.

Had there been a place to stop the car, I might have gotten a picture for Lull. (Of course, had I remembered to take my good camera, I might have tried harder.)

Before we reached a sign that read “Congested Area”—which translates to “Careful! There are a couple of houses ahead!”—we passed a field full of cows. I commented that there seemed to be an unusually high number of calves in the herd for this time of year and then…

I couldn’t believe my good fortune: One of the cows was about to give birth! We had a chance to see a new calf come into the world. As I looked for a place to turn the car around, my Visitor said she’d already been through childbirth. She didn’t need to watch someone else (human or bovine) experience the pain.

I obliged and kept the car moving toward a quaint town where we could shop for inanimate objects. But my heart was miles back with the herd.

[Pic from Victory Rose Thoroughbreds.]

Old MacDonald Had A Farm …

E I E I O …

I passed a good deal of my childhood on my grandfather’s Midwestern hobby farms. He had the usual assortment of critters: horses, cows, pigs, geese, ducks, chickens, and sheep. Snakes, turtles, deer, quail, and pheasants populated the woodlands and fields surrounding the farm. There was always something to see and do, and I had a million questions. My grandfather eagerly schooled me in the ways of nature and I hung on every word.

After a typical idyllic afternoon on the farm, my grandfather and I drove his Scout back home where he would prepare our main course for dinner: steak. While he grilled outside, the very young me sat down to write nearby.

“What are you working on?” he asked.

“I’m writing to Congress and the President.”

He chuckled. “What for?”

I explained that I’d read something in my Ranger Rick magazine about people killing cows for food. I was furious at grown-ups for their callousness and I intended to stop them through legislation. My grandfather stepped away from his grill.

Poor man. Some adults dread having the sex talk with children; others the drugs talk. In my family, it would be any kind of discussion with me that involved the demise of animals.

That’s when I learned that the juicy steaks I’d looked forward to eating had once roamed the farm with the bovine herd I loved. I had no idea.

I put down my pen. I could no longer complain about slaughterhouses since I was as much a murderer. I stepped down from my soapbox.

This moment in my history surfaced because it’s National Farm Animals Awareness Week. Unlike National Chicken Month, this celebration originated with the Humane Society of the United States and promotes the animals themselves rather than the consumption of them.

I’m honoring the occasion by reading The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them by Wayne Pacelle. He’s the HSUS President and explains some of the legislation his organization has been working on to change agribusiness. I’ll no doubt reference this book in future posts. For now, I’d prefer to share a short anecdote about the emotions of cows:

“[Rosamund Young] has absolutely no doubt that cows feel all the major emotions that humans do. … “How about surprise?” I asked, remembering that some philosophers claim that animals cannot feel surprise because they cannot anticipate the future. “Well,” she said, “how about this? My Welsh black cow had six black calves, and then one day she produced a pure white calf (she had been mated with a Charolais bull). She came round to our door and stared at us with a look that was easy to read: ‘Are you sure it’s mine?’”
—From The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals, by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

[Pics of calves from the Farm Sanctuary.]

Crank Up Your Noggin

It’s raining cats and dogs here—and pigs and horses, too.

There’s a strange sound in a corner of the room. I hope it’s just the wind reaching under the front door to stir up some mischief. In case it isn’t, I’m sticking to the couch.

I woke before 4 this morning. Not to practice early rising for Friday’s Royal Wedding, not for any purpose at all. Just couldn’t sleep. So I begin my Tuesday with a deep-roasted coffee and a few words for you.

What would you like to read today?

Ah, I have an idea. Let’s begin with a riddle:

“They don’t complain; they are not manipulators of the world. They cope. They feel but just don’t make a fuss. They think positively and are incredibly tolerant: ‘Well, here I am. How can I make the most of it?’ They have such serenity. And remember, they have a huge brain.”

That’s Marthe Kiley-Worthington, then of Little Ash Eco-Farm in England. Who is she describing? Or, to give you a clue, what species is she describing?

What? You want another clue? The answer is in Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson’s The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional Life of Farm Animals. A Jane Smiley book title features the sound these creatures make.

C’mon—hazard a guess in the comments section.

Or, if you don’t want to share, take a moment to consider how tolerant, positive, and serene you are—not just occasionally but every day. I struggle to attain such calm (my clash with the César Millan devotée a perfect example).

Where are you on the Serenity Spectrum?

[Art by Franz Marc.]

Random Connections

I just stumbled upon this quotation and saved it:

“No cow’s like a horse, and no horse like a cow. That’s one similarity, anyhow.”
—Piet Hein

It fits with the “every creature’s an individual” philosophy that’s been on my mind. Then, forgetting about it, the next page I opened on the Web displayed this photo:


How perfect is that? So I had to share it.

It’s Shreve Stockton, author of The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival, and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming and creator of Honey Rock Dawn. Beneath the photo is a beautiful story about one day near her ranch in Wyoming—births and deaths, difficult decisions and Good Samaritans, horses and cows, knowledge and intuition all intersecting and building something new. Please read it. It will lift your spirits.

Random Tidbits Plucked from Proust and Elsewhere

I’m afraid I’m still having trouble putting one word in front of another and conveying any kind of meaningful post (see yesterday’s post for cause). Plus, I’m a little vertically challenged since the extraction and sitting up at the computer isn’t easy.

So-ooo-oo…until I feel better, or wordier, I’m going to point you in the direction of some notable items I’d like to share with you.

Art
My last issue of Maine the Magazine profiled Randy Regier (who interests me partially because he didn’t realize he was an artist—didn’t realize he’d been creating art most of his life—until well into adulthood) and his toy store installation. Regier is significant to Lull readers because he builds narratives through his art, which he creates from found objects and parts of objects.

Animals
You’re probably already aware of author and photographer Shreve Stockton’s Daily Coyote tale. But her Wyoming life continues to evolve and she’s started Honey Rock Dawn to chronicle it. Yesterday she posted “Five Reasons to Have a Cow,” an overview for the uninformed of just how intelligent bovines are. (Please be sure to check out Miss Daisy trying to read a book. It’s exactly how I feel after a few sentences of Proust.)

Language
I think I spend more time REreading what I’ve read previously than I do reading new pages in Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. A newer translation may suit me better. Or maybe I shouldn’t read it in bed. Anyway, this description of an unwelcome visitor got a smile from me:

“…an excellent man, with whom I now regret not having conversed more often, for, even if he cared nothing for the arts, he knew a great many etymologies…”

Yes, even if we have to search for it, everyone has something positive to offer the world.

[Dairy cows pic by pascalk.]