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Natural Awakenings Central New Jersey

Palo-Santo-Candles

Mall Dogs

Humane Pet Nonprofits Follow the Crowds

Animal welfare organizations serving cities around the country are discovering that shopping malls are ideal places to find forever homes for needy pets.

At the Coronado Mall, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Darlene Arden teaches volunteers to clicker-train cats and dogs to make them more adoptable. The SPCA in Cattaraugus County, New York, sets up a highly successful location for adoptions and raising donations in the Olean Center Mall every holiday season. The Dumb Friends League, in Denver, Colorado, maintains an off-site location at The Shops of Northfield-Stapleton, and the Collier County Humane Society, in Naples, Florida, turned a defunct pet shop in the Coastland Center mall into a thriving adoption center staffed by volunteers.

Some shelters motivate the public to embrace and encourage the technique of trap/neuter/release (TNR) as a way to control feral cat populations. Aimee Gilbreath, executive director of the Found Animals Foundation, states, “We launched the groundbreaking Michelson Prize and grant program aimed at developing a non-surgical, single-dose sterilizing agent for cats and dogs. This type of product will help shift pet population control from lethal to non-lethal methods by dramatically reducing the number of pets coming into shelters.”

Learn more at FoundAnimals.org/pet-spay-neuter.

pet neuter spay Global Briefs
Tick Talk

Spring officially sprung on March 21. We have turned our clocks ahead. We are looking forward to warm winds, sunny skies and the smell of fresh cut grass. The daffodils and tulips have recently bloomed and we are just starting with the yard work that comes with the warmer weather.  Sadly, another season has started ramping up.  Tick season.

•             The best form of protection is prevention. Educating oneself about tick activity and how our behaviors overlap with tick habitats is the first step.

•             According to the NJ DOH, in 2022 Hunterdon County led the state with a Lyme disease incidence rate of 426 cases per 100,000 people. The fact is ticks spend approximately 90% of their lives not on a host but aggressively searching for one, molting to their next stage or over-wintering. This is why a tick remediation program should be implemented on school grounds where NJ DOH deems high risk for tick exposure and subsequent attachment to human hosts.

•             Governor Murphy has signed a bill that mandates tick education in NJ public schools. See this for the details.  Tick education must now be incorporated into K-12 school curriculum. See link:

https://www.nj.gov/education/broadcasts/2023/sept/27/TicksandTick-BorneIllnessEducation.pdf

•             May is a great month to remind the public that tick activity is in full swing. In New Jersey, there are many tickborne diseases that affect residents, including Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, Powassan, and Spotted Fever Group Rickettsiosis.

•             For years, the focus has mainly been about protecting ourselves from Lyme disease. But other tick-borne diseases are on the rise in Central Jersey. An increase of incidence of Babesia and Anaplasma are sidelining people too. These two pathogens are scary because they effect our blood cells. Babesia affects the red blood cells and Anaplasma effects the white blood cells.

•             Ticks can be infected with more than one pathogen. When you contract Lyme it is possible to contract more than just that one disease. This is called a co-infection. It is super important to pay attention to your symptoms. See link.

https://twp.freehold.nj.us/480/Disease-Co-Infection

A good resource from the State:

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/topics/tickborne.shtml

 

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