Get close look at owls at shop

MERRIMACK – Who’s watching you? Find out Saturday, May 13, when Eyes On Owls presents a live owl program from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Out of the Woods gift shop, 515 Daniel Webster Highway.

Naturalist Marcia Wilson will present “Who’s Watching You? Owls of the World.” After a slide show, a hooting lesson and much audience anticipation, Wilson brings out the live owls one at a time. With each owl perched securely on her gloved hand, she walks out among the audience with six or seven owls. Each owl presented has a permanent disability that prevents it from surviving on its own in the wild.

In addition to the Eyes On Owls show, there will be more wild animals at this event courtesy of Jungle Encounters. Visitors will see a bat-eared fox, a ringtail cat, an armadillo, a savannah cat, a patagonian cavie, a hedgehog, ferrets and chinchillas.

The event will be rain or shine. For more information, call 429-9863.

Carole’s letter to the editor:

Dear Editor

I was dismayed to read that your paper would promote dragging wild animals around as props for “education.” Even though there has been a lot about these sort of abusive activities there are apparently some people who don’t know what happens to the animals when they can no longer be used. For the most part, only babies can be used and while the animal may look like an adult, they are still infantile in their dependence on the person who ripped them from their mother to use them for such entertainment. If they don’t die from the poor care they often get, they will eventually grow up to be what nature intended and in the case of predators, that is an animal that cannot be safely handled. They are then killed, sold at auction (usually for their parts) or bred to create more unfortunate animals who will live out their lives in barren, small cages.

The Savannah Cat is an especially bad choice of animals to promote because it is a hybrid that is created through repetitive attempts that result in many discarded animals, cats that are killed in the mating process and creates loopholes for furriers to use the fur of these hybrids because they are not fully protected by law. Again, if the cat grows up, it will be 45 pounds of hissing, snarling, spraying menace to its keeper and often dumped in favor of the latest and greatest manmade mutation.

As an editor you have the ability to do some real educating by speaking out for the voiceless animals and by refusing to promote those who would make their living at the expense of the freedom these animals should have had as their birthright.

For more info on these issues:

https://bigcatrescue.org/hybrids.htm

https://bigcatrescue.org/animal_abuse.htm

https://bigcatrescue.org/bigcatexhibition.htm

For the cats,

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

an Educational Sanctuary home

to more than 100 big cats

12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL 33625

813.493.4564 fax 885.4457

http://www.BigCatRescue.org MakeADifference@BigCatRescue.org

Sign our petition here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/344896451?ltl=1140270431

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