About poisons and wildlife…

…This coyote survived and miraculously was able to be released back into the wild. Most victims of secondary poisoning are not as lucky. The poisoning of any animal is cruel, and although these poisons are legal and readily available in lawn and garden shops across the country, they wreak havoc on native wildlife.
People who use these products to eliminate rodent problems are causing sustained suffering and can inadvertently kill the very animals that would help control their rodent population. If predators such as coyotes were allowed to do their jobs, rodent populations everywhere would be dramatically reduced.

Read the full story at the link above.

Many changes…

I have moved to Denmark, so I'm no longer available by phone. However you can still e-mail me. Hopefully I will respond faster than I did before, but I cannot guarantee speed. I have many projects on the go, notably I am working on the whole Mooshika site rebuild, where I am moving it to WordPress and then moving it back to http://mooshika.org.

I hope that everyone has had a happy and healthy 2008 and looking forward to more in 2009!

Does anyone know Sara?

I need to find her and tell her about a cage to give her, volunteered by someone who read her story below (from 2005 or thereabouts):

I have an ever-expanding number of rats needing homes here now. A few months ago, I made the sad discovery of a large number of poorly cared-for, neglected, hungry, overcrowded, overbred rats, used for feeders for larger predators on display, in a small and poorly-heated shed on the property of a theme park where I work. 

I could not let this continue, so I began getting the most needy rats out immediately. I have concentrated on getting the sick, injured, disabled, and pregnant ones out first, while doing my best to follow up with animal welfare groups to hopefully get this situation shut down. Getting the organizations to do anything has been frustrating, since the current laws allow a hell of a lot of abuses to happen to rats that would never be tolerated with dogs and cats. The hypocrisy infuriates me. They've done nothing so far. I am still pursuing various avenues. 

Meanwhile, I currently have quite a few rescues needing homes. These rats vary in ages from babies to elderly adults, both genders. Some have medical needs, and none of them have been socialized before coming here. Though I work with them intensely to get them at ease with handling, they still need patient adopters who will continue the kind of gentle, slow, non-threatening trust training I've began once they take them home. Babies born in my home are well socialized, but all teens and adults will need varying degrees of work to socialize them. Most won't take much effort to get them to be confident and relaxed pets, but a few need a more experienced adopter. 

Since the rats staying here will be changing as I continue to get more out and adopt out the ones who have been here some time already, I can't give much information on them..
The current rats needing homes are 3 young adolescent black hooded males, used to handling, 2 adolescent black hooded females, not used to much handling yet, 3 young adult black hooded boys, not used to much handling yet, 3 adult black hooded females who have had babies here, used to varying amounts of handling.. ranging from pretty calm to very frightened, four elderly adult females, very skittish, one very large elderly black hooded male, quite affectionate but insecure about being held as yet, and one smaller middle-aged tan hooded boy, still a little skittish. All are curious, interactive, and cute, and with a little work, will be great pets. 

Anyone willing to give these needy creatures a home or able to help out financially or with donations of cages, water bottles, food bowls, CareFresh or Yesterday's News litter, or hammocks would be a wonderful hero to this small rescue. This rescue is being run by one autistic woman.. namely me.. from my home. 

Sara
http://www.cafeshops.com/proudlyautistic