Support Endangered Wild Animals at Heron Pond

Posted on by NHARL in In the News 
Fundraising Campaign to Support Endangered Wild Animals at the
Heron Pond Wetland & Wildlife "Preserve"
An “ecological gem”!
DONATE NOW

“Thank you!”

THE WILD ANIMALS ARE AT RISK

Click Photo for Full View. The 270 acres owned by the Town of Milford is home to the Blanding’s Turtle, an “umbrella” species. Being an “umbrella” species means that where the Blanding’s Turtle lives, then so do countless other animal species live under the naturally rich environmental umbrella. This is so true here that the natural resources scientist who studied this place calls it “an ecological gem”! But all these animals, including those that are NH-state threatened and endangered, are at high and imminent risk from development that would negatively transform the habitat. The only hope is good people are working hard to prevent the loss.

HABITAT IS NOT YET PROTECTED

This special place in Milford, NH is outlined in white on the map. Click Photo for Full View. Unfortunately, the “preserve” is not currently protected as conservation land and instead is under intense pressure of development by Milford Town Officials. This means that these wild animals are at dire risk of losing their habitat permanently! The endangered animals in particular are highly susceptible to any habitat loss and many would perish as a result. Click Photo for Full View.

HELPING HANDS

Since 2012 a group of dedicated citizens has been working hard against the intense pressure of development by Milford Town Officials. Being completely volunteer, the Heron Pond Project Team members spend their own money. The Heron Pond Project Team spends money on actions to help the wildlife as needed to protect them and advocate on their behalf. Costs include Turtle Crossing signs; materials for meetings before Town boards and State agencies such as handouts and posters; study of the wildlife, sometimes hiring expert consultants; equipment and gear – for example, night camera, head lamp; and we take legal actions when they are unavoidable such as now. Thank you for considering a donation to protect the Heron Pond Wetland & Wildlife “Preserve”! Email Us for questions, comments, or for more information.

PHOTO GALLERY

Click on photo to view in full size.

Note

The NH Animal Rights League is the fiscal agent of the Heron Pond Project Team. This beautiful place needs our help to Save it. From the tiny fairy shrimp in the vernal pool to the whitetail deer on the landscape, they are all important members of NH’s ecosystem and need this rich habitat to survive. Please help by giving a tax deductible donation today. Thank you and our deepest gratitude!

Free No Hunting Signs

Posted on by NHARL in Programs, Wild Animals
Posting your land against hunting creates safe haven for people, pets, and wildlife. We will send you as many free “No Hunting” signs as you need, to make it easy for you to post your property.
Request Free Signs
Along with your signs, we’ll send you a copy of the NH Landowner’s Guide to Protecting Your Property, which explains how and when to post, along with other useful information. Click to view

About protecting your property

People are often surprised to learn that by default privately owned land in New Hampshire is open to hunting. 

This means that if you do not put up “No Hunting” signs, anyone with a hunting license can come on your property and hunt.

It is even legal for hunters to set up tree stands and observation blinds on your property from Apr 25–Jun 1 and Aug. 1–Dec. 31 in the absence of “No Hunting” signs. (Written permission is required to bait or trap animals on your property, however.)

Other states have what’s called “reverse posting,” which means privately owned land is off limits by default.

Allowing public use of private land is a tradition that dates back to New Hampshire’s first settlers.

Back then, when wild land was abundant and people depended on animal meat and fur for survival, the idea of public access to private land for the “public good” made sense.

But today, the New Hampshire landscape is completely changed. There is far less undeveloped land left for wildlife, and only a small percentage of people hunt.

Expecting today’s landowners to forego their property rights and leave their land open to hunting is an outdated notion.

Request Free Signs

Fur and Trapping

Posted on by NHARL in Wild Animals
The New Hampshire Animal Rights League believes that wild animals have a right to an environment in which to live, breed, and raise their young, free from harassment by humans.

Fur and Trapping

Perhaps hundreds of years ago, killing an animal for its fur could be justified if the alternative were freezing to death. Yet even in the days of the North American frontiersmen, the fur trade was not driven solely by necessity. Animals such as the beaver were trapped to near extinction in meeting demand for fashionable fur items. Today we have many options for keeping our bodies warm that don’t require taking the lives of animals.

Fur

Whether it comes from animals trapped in the wild or raised on a fur farm, every fur coat, fur accessory, or piece of fur trim causes tremendous suffering and needlessly takes lives.

At Discover WILD NH Day, an annual  “family-friendly” event hosted by the NH Fish and Game Department, New Hampshire trappers display furs from animals that they killed.

Children line up to touch the soft fur of dead foxes, minks, skunks, and all the other animals that trappers, who comprise a tiny sliver of New Hampshire’s population, are allowed to torture and kill, often without limit.  

For many years, NHARL has held demonstrations outside the event to educate the public about the inherent cruelty of trapping.

More recently, we have gone inside the event, becoming exhibitors, and presenting information about helping, rather than harming, wildlife.  

The leg-hold trap is probably the most cruel device ever invented by man and is a direct cause of inexcusable destruction and waste of our wildlife.

Dick Randall, former federal trapper, addressing Congress in 1975

Andrew’s Legacy

In 2012, a dog named Andrew was killed by an illegally set body-crushing conibear trap.

Out for a walk with his guardian on a public trail in Auburn, NH, Andrew caught the scent of the baited trap and went to investigate. Next came a popping sound, followed by a yelp, as the trap slammed shut on Andrew’s neck.

Screaming, his guardian tried desperately to free him, but conibear traps are purposefully designed to be extremely difficult to open. In the end, all she could do was watch helplessly as her beloved companion suffered and died in front of her.

The trapper responsible for Andrew’s death, George Klardie, was charged with three counts of violating NH Fish and Game trapping rules and fined a total of $248.

In 2013, the New Hampshire Animal Rights League worked alongside other animal protection groups to get these body-crushing traps banished from New Hampshire’s landscape. The legislation, known as “Andrew’s Law,” did not pass, but the tragic death of this dog brought public attention to the issue.

While Andrew’s death was witnessed by his human companion and widely mourned, countless wild animals routinely endure the same horrible death in these traps.

NHARL board member Julia Sinclair gives testimony for Andrew’s Bill (HB 1579) in Representative’s Hall

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Fur Farming

Fur is no longer primarily obtained by trapping animals in the wild. Today 80% of the fur comes from fur farming operations.

On these farms, rabbits, foxes, mink, and other wild animals spend their entire lives in cramped cages, deprived of the ability to engage in natural behaviors. Confinement drives them to pace relentlessly, tremble, and self-mutilate.

The day that the cage door finally opens is the day they are killed. The finale to a life of utter misery is an excruciating death, accomplished in one of several ways devised not to damage their fur. Preferred methods include gassing, poisoning, and anal/genital electrocution.

At least one fur farm has operated in New Hampshire, Gauthier Fur Farm in Lyndeborough, but reports indicate it has since closed. 

Hope for a Fur-Free Future

It’s been a long time coming — and too late for many animals — but 2019 brought an unprecedented shift in public attitude about fur. As consumers learned about the horrors of the fur industry, luxury brands, fashion houses, and department stores took note and began phasing out fur.

In 2019, Macy’s announced that they would stop the sale of fur and close their fur vaults by the end of 2020. This decision was celebrated by NHARL, who for many years held anti-fur demonstrations outside the Mall of New Hampshire, one of Macy’s locations.

“Nuisance” Animals

Posted on by NHARL in Wild Animals

Visit the web site of one of New Hampshire’s many “pest” control companies, and you may get the impression that we are at war with every other living creature — except, of course, our pets.

Pest control web sites tend to include fear-provoking descriptions of generally harmless animals accompanied by photos of them baring their teeth or otherwise looking threatening. In truth, these animals are likely petrified. Looking fierce is their best defense against a much larger would-be attacker.

Scary animal images promote the “us vs. them” mentality that helps sell pest control services and products to consumers.

Sometimes people decide that there are “too many” of a particular animal. Perhaps it’s too many deer eating their ornamental plantings or too many Canada geese on the golf course. A decision is made to fix the problem by “culling” the population. Culling is the organized, systematic elimination of unwanted birds or other wildlife.

Fortunately, many people oppose the organized killing of animals when it’s done simply because some people consider them a nuisance. NH Animal Rights League has joined with others in standing up against many attempts to cull geese, deer, and other animals.

See our Living with Wild Neighbors page for tips on how to co-exist with wildlife.

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Backyard Chickens

Posted on by NHARL in Farmed Animals

Backyard chickens have long been a common sight in New Hampshire, and with hobby farming and homesteading growing in popularity, we are seeing even more people seduced by the idea of backyard chickens.

While the New Hampshire Animal Rights League recognizes that the average backyard chicken is almost certainly better off than the average commercial hen, there are a number of problems with keeping chickens for the purpose of eating their eggs.

For starters, “layer” chickens enter the world in bodies that have been selectively bred for maximum egg production. This is most clearly illustrated in the uniform-looking birds crowded into long sheds at the biggest egg production facilities, but it is also true of the coveted Heritage breeds poking around New Hampshire back yards. Both are saddled with bodies that lay 20 to 30 times more eggs than their wild ancestors, who laid a reasonable 10 to 15 per year.

The hen’s hyperactive reproductive system makes her susceptible to a number of different health problems, which can be painful and ultimately fatal. Some common ailments are impactions (eggs getting stuck in oviduct) and osteoporosis.

“The number one killer of laying hens is egg laying.”

Justin Van Kleeck, Triangle Chicken Advocates

Being prey animals, chickens may hide their pain so as not to appear vulnerable. A seemingly “happy, healthy” backyard hen could actually be masking great distress. If she dies, her keeper may say, “She just dropped dead,” without recognizing the likelihood of an undiagnosed chronic condition.

Chicken autopsies (necropsies) performed on birds who seemingly died for no reason have revealed accumulations of impacted eggs in their abdomens that were the size of baseballs.

Another ailment common among egg laying hens is osteoporosis. Laying eggs requires calcium, which is taken from the hen’s body to produce the egg shell. If calcium is not adequately replenished, a hen’s bones can become so fragile that handling her could cause a fracture or break. Once again, there may be no outward sign that the chicken is in pain.

Proper care of chickens includes veterinary care, but when people are paying $5 for a chick, how likely are they to spend money on medical care?

Life Before the Backyard

Chicks purchased at farm supply stores or from mail-order poultry suppliers almost certainly come from large hatcheries where chicks are mass produced assembly-line style. Wild chickens have strong family bonds, with both mother and father helping to raise young, but chicks born in hatcheries never know their parents, and their parents never know them.

When hatchery chicks emerge from their shells (if they are able, as there is no mother to assist) and instinctively seek the warmth and protection of a mother, they instead find themselves surrounded by a sea of other bereft chicks.

For the males, who are not wanted because they don’t lay eggs, their experience of this earth likely consists of a few lonely hours before they are ground up, gassed, or tossed into garbage bags to suffocate (the latter method is discouraged by the American Veterinary Medical Association but is not illegal).

As mentioned, chicks can be ordered online to be shipped through the U.S. Postal Service when they are just a few days old. Many chicks die during the journey, but such losses are expected and factored in. Their lives are of negligible value to the producers. Adding males to the box as “filler chicks” to take up extra space and keep the females warm is an accepted industry practice.

“We have people ship chicks as gifts to children because they want their nieces or nephews to grow up with birds and will ship them across the country… There’s nothing better than seeing how happy baby chicks make people.”

Iowa-based hatchery quoted in CountryLiving magazine

"Sexing Errors"

 

Only female chickens have value in the egg industry, but male and female chicks are difficult to tell apart. Therefore, a certain number of “sexing errors” are expected at the hatchery (error rates may be as high as 10-15%). Males mislabeled as females avoid being destroyed, but since they will grow into roosters their chances for a happy future are not good.

The main objection to roosters (aside from their not laying eggs) is the crowing. Many cities, towns, and neighborhoods that allow chicken keeping specifically prohibit roosters for this reason (even though barking dogs likely generate far more noise). Roosters may also be considered a “nuisance” for doing what nature intended — trying to protect the females and guard the eggs.

For these reasons, roosters are routinely killed, abandoned, or passed off to animal sanctuaries, which are reportedly inundated with such requests.   

Unsafe Housing

Another concern with backyard chickens is that they often have inadequate shelter to protect them from predators. The average chicken tractor or coop cannot guarantee safety. Coyotes and bears can easily tear through chicken wire, and raccoons have the dexterity to open latches. Rather than providing protection, the coop may actually be a death trap, as the chickens have no way to escape. Wild chickens have the option of flying up into a tree to flee predators.

Backyard chicken keepers may come to accept these deaths as just part of having chickens. One chicken keeper reported using “spent hens” (older hens whose egg production has declined) to test the impenetrability of a new pen before moving the rest of the flock in. She lost a few of these older hens during the test period, but their lives held no value for her.

What to Do If You Have Chickens

  • Don’t eat eggs, including eggs from your own chickens. Although it may seem harmless to eat the eggs of a well cared for chicken, doing so reinforces the idea that eggs are an appropriate food for humans. Until eggs are no longer considered food, profit-driven people will find ways to produce them as cheaply as possible, at great cost to the hens.

  • Help protect your hens from nutrient deficiencies by feeding their eggs back to them. This may seem weird, but it is normal behavior in nature and can benefit her greatly.

  • Seek regular veterinary care for your chickens, and ask your veterinarian about options for reproductive relief.

What You Can Do to Help

  • Educate friends and family about the problems with eating eggs, even those from backyard chickens.

  • Next time someone points out their “happy” backyard hens, ask where their brothers are to start a conversation.

Eggs

Posted on by NHARL in Farmed Animals

New Hampshire is home to egg distributor Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs. Pete & Gerry’s buys eggs from 130 farms in 12 states and sells nationwide.

Pete & Gerry’s also sells eggs under the Nellie’s Free Range Eggs label, which was the target of a widely publicized exposé and consequent lawsuit brought by consumers who were duped by pictures of hens in open green fields.

Video footage from a Nellie’s Free Range Eggs supplier

“But I only eat cage-free eggs” — As the video above demonstrates, the “cage-free” label means very little when it comes to knowing how the chickens are treated.

Also consider that the vast majority of eggs consumed in the United States come from large-scale factory farms, so unless you avoid eggs altogether, you are almost certainly consuming eggs from industrial operations — if not directly, in baked goods, at restaurants, or in store-bought prepared meals.

Tip: To quickly determine if a packaged food contains eggs, check the allergens statement on the Nutrition Facts label.

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Dairy Farming in New Hampshire

Posted on by NHARL in Farmed Animals

Dairy farming may be part of New Hampshire’s “agricultural heritage,” but tradition is never justification for continuing a practice that is known to cause unnecessary harm.

If you are a New Hampshire taxpayer, some portion of your tax dollars goes toward subsidizing the state’s dairy industry — an unprofitable business that produces an unnecessary and unhealthy product at great cost to animals.

The dairy industry as a whole was founded on the premise that cow’s milk and the products made from it are nutritionally necessary to the human diet. Fortunately, groups such as the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine are challenging this long uncontested guidance.

“Milk and other dairy products are the top source of saturated fat in the American diet, contributing to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. Studies have also linked dairy to an increased risk of breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers.”

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

UNH’s Dairy Teaching and Research Center

UNH is home to the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center. This fully operational dairy farm is run by students for the purpose of instruction and research to benefit New Hampshire dairy farmers.

This sign is posted at the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center. It describes how newborn calves are separated from their mothers hours after birth. This is standard operating procedure at dairy farms everywhere.

Exploitation on Parade

NHARL regularly demonstrates at the annual Strolling of the Heifers parade in Brattleboro, Vermont. Every year, young calves are paraded down Main Street as thousands cheer them on. (Photo credit: Springfield Vermont News)

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Grants for Living with Beavers

Posted on by NHARL in Programs, Wild Animals
Apply for a Grant

As a “keystone species,” beavers provide vital habitat for many plants and animals, including threatened and endangered species. Beavers also offer wonderful wildlife watching opportunities.

The New Hampshire Animal Rights League encourages individuals and organizations — as well as businesses and towns — experiencing problems with beavers to seek solutions for peaceful co-existence, rather than resorting to trapping.

Wildlife control operators hired to trap beavers are likely to assure a property owner that the animal will die instantly and “humanely.” This is disingenuous because there is no guarantee it will happen that way, and even in the best of circumstances death is not instant.

Living with beavers may require more up-front effort and expense than trapping, but a beaver management system is a long-term solution. Trapping only removes the current beavers. If the habitat is attractive, it’s likely another beaver family will move in. Removing adults also risks leaving dependent youngsters behind; young beavers stay with their parents for two years.

Matching Grants

NHARL offers matching grants of up to $1,000 to individuals, organizations, businesses, and municipalities looking to install non-lethal solutions for managing beavers in New Hampshire. (For those in Massachusetts, the MSPCA offers funding for installing flow devices.)

To date, NHARL has awarded more than $10,000 in grants to individuals and organizations seeking peaceful co-existence with beavers.

Applications can be submitted any time of year.

Apply for a Grant

Successful projects

Recommended Beaver Consultants

NHARL has worked with and recommends the beaver experts listed below. These consultants can also recommend other installers,  whom they have worked with or trained.

Skip Lisle of Beaver Deceivers
Rick Hesslein delivering equipment to a job site

Videos

Time-lapse video of Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions installing a culvert protection cage.

How Beavers Build Dams — Leave It to Beavers (PBS video)

A family of beavers, snug inside their lodge (video by Jeff Hogan)

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Hunted Animals

Posted on by NHARL in Wild Animals

When it comes to hunting animals, some methods are more intolerable than others. Most people don’t even know about these shameful practices, because they happen deep in the wilderness, far from public view.

Buy every now and then some deplorable act makes the news — such as the shooting of Cecil the lion — and the public gets a glimpse at the largely hidden world of hunting.

Trophy Hunting

Since its inception in 2016, NHARL has participated in the Worldwide Rally Against Trophy Hunting (WRATH), holding demonstrations in Concord.

Unfair Hunting Methods

Hunting in New Hampshire is steadily moving away from fair chase as quicker, easier methods — such as bait, lures, and calling devices — grow in popularity.

Bear Baiting

In New Hampshire, it is legal to hunt bears using bait, a practice prohibited in all but a handful of states.

Bear baiting is the use of food or other enticement to lure bears to a site where hunters wait to kill them. Junk food is a popular bait, but commercial “bear attractants” also exist. One New Hampshire hunting store reached out to customers to promote its large inventory of bear bait, which included tubs of cake frosting and 55-gallon drums of caramel sauce.

Most of the bears hunted in New Hampshire are killed over bait. During the 2022 hunting season, 64% of the bears killed by hunters were killed over bait.

An Inconsistent Message — At the same time that the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department permits bear baiting, they regularly issue public notices urging residents and tourists to eliminate bear attractants, by securing garbage, removing bird feeders, and so on.

Bear Hounding

Another repugnant form of hunting that is legal in New Hampshire is bear hounding. Hounding involves hunters using packs of dogs to pursue bears until the exhausted animals either seek refuge in a tree (where they are shot) or turn to fight the hounds. Hounding often results in both bears and dogs being injured or killed.

Although less popular than bear baiting (where all you need is a drum of caramel sauce, apparently), bear hounding is nonetheless on the rise in New Hampshire.

Post Your Propety for “No Hunting”

You might be surprised to learn that by default privately owned land in New Hampshire is open to hunting. Unless you explicitly prohibit hunting by “posting your property,” hunters are free to come on your land and shoot whatever wild animal is in season.

Learn how to post your property and get free “No Hunting” signs

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