Inside This Issue:
- Tell Your Story: Sign Up for the 2025 NAIA Conference!
- News Bites: Are Animals Left or Right-Handed? Probably; Hoarding Story; Heroic Bearded Dragon
Tell Your Story: Sign Up for the 2025 NAIA Conference!
See you at the beach!
It’s that time of year – tickets just went on sale for the 2025 NAIA Conference: Telling Your Story, and you can sign up at the special earlybird rate today!
Now, if you are reading this newsletter, there is a good chance that you are an animal professional or an expert animal hobbyist of some kind. We know this. You know this. And more importantly, we know that what you do is of great value. But let’s be honest: it is unlikely that others – maybe even your close friends and family – can describe exactly what it is that you do each day.
Whether we are farmers, purebred dog breeders, exotic pet experts, veterinary technicians, or horse trainers, a lot of us simply aren’t that great at telling our stories. And this is a serious problem – because no matter how valuable our work is, no matter how much blood sweat and tears we pour into our careers or hobbies, if we are unable to define our passion, others will define it for us. Sometimes with disastrous results. But NAIA (and our lineup of inspiring and empowering conference speakers) is here to help change that!
This year’s conference will be held in Virginia Beach, Virginia, from October 17-19, 2025, and it will be an inspiring and empowering must-attend event for animal professionals, hobbyists, and experts of all stripes.
We are already excited to see you. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more information, speaker lists, and specific topics!
NAIA 2025 Conference: Tell Your Story
News Bites: Are Animals Left or Right-Handed? Probably; Hoarding Story; Heroic Bearded Dragon
Behold the true hero of the hour!
Apparently – and this is a lot further back than any of us can remember – there was a time when scientists believed human beings were the only animals that displayed left- or right-handedness. What a lonely time that must have been! Over decades, perhaps centuries, we noticed that certain animals (generally charismatic mammals) sometimes display a preference for one paw or flipper over the other. For example, in 2017, it was discovered that blue whales are right-flippered in most situations, and before that, numerous primates were observed showing a preference for one hand over the other (did you know that 75% of gorillas are right-handed, while 66% of orangutans are left-handed?). A new study takes what we know about animals even further, making observations of 172 different species – and finding that only 28% of them don’t have a preference for hand, paw, or side. Wow! In other words, we’ve gone from thinking our right or left-hand preferences are entirely unique, to part of an elite “smart animals” club, to, well – something that may simply be the norm for animals (Wait, for animals? Looks like even plants may be left- or right-leaved). Now, all we need to do is find out why these preferences evolved over time.
It is a truism that animal hoarding eventually leads to tragic and deadly outcomes – for animals, for the person "caring" for the animals, for families, and even for friends and neighbors, if things spiral too far out of control. This sad truth was once again proved following an animal rescue in Detroit earlier this week. A woman who had received numerous visits and citations from Detroit Animal Care and Control (DACC) was raided after failing to make her court appearances. Back in January, the woman had apparently presented eight healthy animals to DACC during a wellness check, as “proof” that there were no problems in her home. Maybe this was just a ploy to get the investigators off her back, or perhaps her mental state was such that she truly believed conditions were acceptable. We don’t know what was going on with her, but the investigators were pretty sure trouble was brewing.
And sadly, their worst fears were confirmed. The woman's home was eventually raided, and conditions in the home were so unhealthy, the raid required the combined services of a hazmat team, police, and fire department. Seven dead cats and dogs were discovered during the raid, as were five “wasting” live animals. The woman who kept the animals will almost certainly face criminal charges, though the mental illness component in cases like this makes the justice angle and outcome of her case less certain. It can be next to impossible to convince an animal hoarder that they aren’t “helping” animals, even as they live among the dried-up corpses of dogs, cats, and other animals.
Some folks like to claim that so-called “exotic” pets (i.e. anything other than a dog or cat) can never bond with their people in the same way “normal” pets do – and that they’d certainly never do anything heroic for their families. You know, things like saving a kid from a vicious neighbor dog, or keeping a baby from trumbling down the stairs, or freeing a backyard chicken from the slavering jaws of a hungry predator. But Spike, a resourceful bearded dragon, begs to differ. On May 17, after a fire ignited in the next room, an alarmed Spike used his tail to whack his sleeping owner, Donald Hale, back into consciousness. Neither the smoke nor two blaring smoke alarms had been able to rouse Mr. Hale from a deep slumber, but getting slapped in the face by a lizard's tail worked like a charm. After this jolt, a grateful Mr. Hale quickly found the source of the fire and was able to extinguish it himself, preventing the flames from causing more serious damage – and maybe even preventing loss of life. Now THAT is one heroic lizard!
Also in the News...
★ Spokane canines clock high speeds at dog show at fairgrounds (Hobbies in the News; AKC Events; Fast CAT tests)
★ Animals That Can Live for Hundreds of Years (Lists, Part I: Who Wants to Live Forever?)
★ ‘Don’t feed wildlife.’ Why WA made it illegal to feed specific animals (Uncommon Sense; Please Don't Feed the Elk)
★ Bumps on ancient, armored fish may have given rise to teeth in animals, study finds (Wolf Teeth? What About Fish Teeth)
★ Huntington County shelter in ‘crisis mode’, overflowing with animals (Shelter & Rescue Crises; Overcrowding)
★ R&B Singer Jaheim Arrested And Charged With Cruelty To Animals (Starvation & Neglect; Second Arrest)
★ 7 dogs, plus other animals found in garage freezers attached to Jackson ice cream shop, says to Animal Control (Sad & Unwelcome Surprises; What's in Your Freezer?)
★ Here are some of the extremely unusual animals you can own in Colorado, and some more familiar ones you can’t (Lists, Part II: Exotic and Surprising)
