animals

Dave McCarthy, a resident of Grandview Terrace in Batavia, had a special visitor today -- a fox decided to help himself (or herself) to suet on the snow. (Photo courtesy McCarthy.)

Press release:

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is asking the public to report any instances of deer appearing sick or acting abnormally. DEC is only investigating deer that appear to have died from unknown causes and not those that were killed by a vehicle, the agency announced today.

Anyone who sees a white-tailed deer acting abnormally or who finds a dead deer that was not struck by a vehicle is asked to report the animal to the nearest DEC regional office or to an Environmental Conservation Officer or Forest Ranger.

“One of the ways that DEC monitors the health of New York’s deer herd is by performing post-mortem examinations to determine the cause of the illness or death,” said Assistant Commissioner for Natural Resources Kathleen Moser. “We depend on information provided by people who are outdoors to tell us when they see something that does not look right to them.”

Recently, DEC indentified an uncommon bacterial disease in a deer from Warren County. This bacterial disease does not affect humans. However, DEC is seeking additional information to determine the prevalence of this disease in the deer herd and is responding to reports of deer that are acting abnormally. Deer with this bacterial disease may have a swollen head, neck or brisket. They also may exhibit excessive drooling, nasal discharge or respiratory distress. To aid in this investigation, DEC would also like to examine any deer that are found dead from unknown causes.

People should not handle or eat any deer that appears sick or acts abnormally. Sightings of sick, dying or dead deer should be reported to the nearest DEC regional office or an Environmental Conservation Officer or Forest Ranger.

Le Roy resident Ed Spink has spent the past four days knocking on doors looking for his 16-year-old cocker spaniel, "Molly."

Initially, Spink feared that a young man in a black Cadillac had stopped near a car wash in Le Roy and taken the dog. But it turns out the Caddy driver was local businessman Tim Walton, who tried to capture the dog because it was running in and out of traffic on Route 5, but the dog ran into a wooded area.

Spink's father takes care of the dog on weekdays, Spink said, and had the dog when it escaped.

"She must have gotten disoriented," Spink said.

Walton, who owns Pink Gorilla Tees, on East Main Street, Batavia, was with his girlfriend, Jenna Hubbard, when they spotted the lost dog. Walton shared the following description of events:

"We were driving down Route 5 and there was traffic backed up a few cars and another couple was in the road chasing a soaked and mud-covered dog that was running back and forth in traffic. I got out to help them and the dog got away from the traffic for a few seconds."

As the other couple left, the dog proceeded to turn around again toward the road.

"I was nervous that he would run back into traffic and get hit. I had a dog bone from my puppy in the car that I used to hopefully get him to come to me as I followed him up the hill towards an apartment complex. He would turn around and start to come to me until he got within a few feet then he would turn around and jog away. It seemed like a friendly dog and I was just hoping that I could get close enough to read his tags but the dog wouldn't allow it."

Walton followed the dog all the way up the hill until he walked into the wooded area next to the complex.

"At that point there was nothing else I could do. I just wanted to make sure he was safe and wasn't likely to wander back into traffic.

Spink said somebody told him the dog was spotted yesterday near the Kwik Fill on Route 5 in Le Roy, but he still hasn't been able to find the dog.

Anybody with information on the whereabouts of Molly can call Ed at 585-797-3731.

One of the owners or a horse rescue in Pavilion has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and the rescue must shut down immediately.

The owners need to quickly find new homes for 18 horses and are turning to the public for help.

Chris Dodge said she has contacted other rescues, let other stables and vets know about the situation, but "there's no room at the inn."

"We have to turn to the public," Dodge said. "If somebody wanted a horse in the spring, don't wait until the spring, take it now."

Chris' husband Mike has stage 4 cancer, Chris said. He's undergoing intensive chemotherpy and radiation treatment, but has been given seven- to nine-months to live.

The cancer has wrapped around his heart, trachea and is in his liver. It was first discovered in his pelvis after he fell recently while feeding the cats and broke his pelvis.

The rescue is doing well enough financially right now, Chris said, but she simply has no time now to properly care for the horses. She and Mike must make frequent trips to the doctors and he needs care when they are home.

"We have some wonderful volunteers, but they're inexperienced," Chris said. "The horses are getting fed and the stables are getting mucked, but that's about it."

The rescue will still require the same standards for placement of horses that they always have, but the contract is being modified to take out the return policy. There will be no returns on any horses adopted.

To make an appointment at the rescue to view the animals and consider an adoption, call (585) 584-8210.

Previously: Horse rescue in Pavilion carries on in difficult times

Photo: Mike Dodge from September of this year.

Message from Edward Spink:

A man in a Cadillac picked up my Cocker Spaniel  by the car wash in LeRoy NY  on Main Street 12\22\2011 in the evening. She is blonde –white and sixteen years old. If anyone knows the whereabouts of her please contact me …she is a part of our family and dearly missed.

585-797-3731

Residents in the area of Adams Street, Batavia, complained over the weekend about a fox that would not leave the area.

A Batavia police officer investigated and found a fox that appeared to be suffering from an injury or illness lying near the side of the road.

The Department of Environmental Conservation was contacted. The DEC advised, according to Batavia PD Chief Randy Baker, that the fox be destroyed.

The animal was killed and taken to DPW for disposal.

The nature of its injury or illness is unknown.

A six-point buck reportedly ran into the door of Batavia Middle School a short time ago.

Police were dispatched because classes are about to be let out.

A second report says the buck has also run into a car.

A police officer on scene reports that parents are complaining about blood on the door, asking that the school clean up the blood before children are released from classes.

After nearly two decades of caring for unwanted equines, Mike and Chris Dodge are finding it a bit harder to carry on. Since they started their efforts, initially in Ventura, Calif., they have so far saved 400 horses.

Now in declining health and grappling with a 40-percent drop in donations, the Dodge's are still doing what they can to keep their horse rescue in Pavilion going.

Sunday, they and a group of supporters and volunteers held an open house at the rescue on Dow Road. While there were many new faces, attendance was down from previous years, Mike Dodge said.

"Donations are down because of the economy, but it's that way with every non-profit," Dodge said. "Without those donations, though, we don't have the money to do what we have to with these guys."

There are 24 horses on the ranch and it costs $125 per month -- $3,000 a month total -- just to feed them. Plus there are medical bills and other expenses associated with operating the rescue.

The pasture out back hasn't been mowed for a while because the lawn mower broke.

Volunteers help, but many of them are students at SUNY Geneseo, so when school is out, there are fewer hands to clean stables and feed and water the horses.

Dodge noted that some of his volunteers have been kids who learned to ride at commercial stables and think they might to own their own horse. What they learn in volunteering, Dodge said, is that "90 percent of the care of a horse is on the ground."

Mike and Chris started horse rescue in Ventura County 18 years ago because they thought the humane society near their home didn't do a very good job.

Mike said they would put down a horse as dangerous if it kicked up its rear legs.

"That's just a horse having fun," Dodge said.

They stayed there for eight years before moving to Pavilion so Chris could be closer to her family.

In an era when many people who thought they could afford horses, now find they can't, as many as a 100,000 horses are sent to slaughter each year -- slaughtered in Mexico or Canada, because environmental regulations make it tough to run a commercial horse slaughter anywhere in the United States.

The Dodges have two horses on their way out for adoption, which is helping to make room for one horse that can no longer be cared for by its owners.

"This little girl has been riding him every day for four years, but they couldn't find a place to board him, so we're bringing him here," Dodge said. "She's a nice little girl."

While some horses do go out for adoption, so many of the animals brought to the rescue are hard to place because they're old (one horse at the rescue is 41 years old, which is like 123 to you or me), feeble (the white horse with spots pictured below is blind, but just about the friendliest horse you'll ever meet) or too ornery for hobby owners.

"Everybody wants a horse that's easy to handle," Dodge said.

Anybody who can care for the animal, handle the $125-per-month feed bill and provide it adequate pasture and shelter, is eligible to adopt a horse.

Every horse saved is another that can be saved, and that's what keeps Chris and Mike going.

"It’s strictly for the horses," Mike said. "They can’t speak for themselves. Just like dogs and cats, they need someone to speak for them, to be their voice."

The next closest rescue in New York is in Lima, where 12 horses are boarded; otherwise, there's no other horse rescue in Western New York.

Mike said he realizes with all of the horses that have been sent to slaughter over the years, 400 rescued is "just a drop in the bucket," but it's still worthwhile.

"It sure means a lot to that one horse."

Here's a video produced by somebody in Buffalo about the rescue:

For more information, visit the rescue's website.

Remember the wayward snake on State Street Road on Saturday? Through diligent investigative journalism, we acquired a picture of it.

The snake, believed to be a ball python, is holed up at a secret, undisclosed location (well, at least, I don't know where it is) awaiting possible recovery by its rightful owner.

The python is described as a little over 3-feet long.

Whoever first said "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" never met Morgan Harrington.

For Morgan, life is about butterflies.

The Elba 9-year-old has taken the lead in a family project to find and catalogue as many types of caterpillars at the Harrington Greenhouses as possible.

There are 72 different species of butterflies and moths in Genesee County, and the Harringtons would like to find all 72.

"Now that we started this, we find that when we go through the nursery, we find them everywhere," said Morgan's dad, Aaron. "We're going to learn what we can about each of them."

Morgan -- who is assisted by her  8-year-old sister Madison -- uses field books to identify each kind of caterpillar, butterfly and moth she comes across. She keeps a log of each discovery, from the date of the find up through each stage of life for the insect -- from larva to caterpillar to winged creature.

"I really like it because I started doing it after one of my pets died," Morgan said.

Her simple explanation belies her obvious enthusiasm for the project. She can teach you more about butterflies in 30 minutes than you could learn in a high school biology class. Morgan can talk intelligently about each stage in the life cycle and identify on sight a dozen or more species, including what they eat and where they live.

"We decided to do this because we didn't want our kids growing up not understanding how things work in life," said Aaron, who runs the greenhouse business with his wife, Danielle.

The business in its current incarnation is 25 years old and was started by his father, though there was a greenhouse business on the same North Byron Road location years before that.

The Harrington's raise a variety of annuals, perennials, shrubs, bushes and trees, as much as possible without pesticides (though with non-native species of insects, pesticides are about the only option), and the butterfly project has made Madison and Morgan more aware of the insect species around them.

"It's good for them to learn the different types of beneficial and non-beneficial types of animals," Aaron said.

Even some caterpillars -- such as the rose saw fly -- are far too destructive to host plants, Aaron noted, but of course, monarch butterflies are beautiful and help spread pollen.

The girls have found a couple dozen monarch caterpillars, a few of which are already curled up in cocoons. When the butterflies emerge, Morgan said, she will take them to a nearby milkweed patch and release them (monarchs eat milkweed because the plant's sap produces a toxin in the caterpillars that birds avoid).

All of the caterpillars live in a shared aquarium where they can munch on preferred clippings of milkweed, walnut or willow leaves.

The shared housing has led to another lesson -- one variety of caterpillar will eat its siblings if given a chance.

"I always say I don't want my kids growing up to think fish comes square and already breaded," Aaron said. "I want them to see an animal's life cycle from beginning to end learn about it."

Lindsay Kuhn, of Smoke Ridge Organics and Butterflies, visited the Richmond Memorial Library on Friday afternoon for the children's summer reading program. Kuhn brought with her a box of butterflies -- 55 of them stored in wax envelopes ready for release into the wild by the children. After about a 20-minute talk on the different kinds of butterflies, why they're important to the environment and their life cycles, each child was given a butterfly to release.

A silver SUV on Maltby Road reportedly struck two dogs and kept on going.

A deputy is dispatched to the area.

Submitted by Pamela Fry.

The above photo is a soon-to-be Cecropia moth. My husband found this in East Pembroke where he works. I have never seen a caterpillar like this before so I did some research on Google.

The scientific name for this creature is a Hyalophora cecropia, which is North America's largest native moth. These caterpillars molt four times during their life span. The picture above is the caterpillar's fifth instar so he/she will be spinning its cocoon very soon.

In a few weeks, the Cepropia moth will come out of the cocoon (see picture below). Since these types of moths do not have mouth parts, they are unable to eat. As a result, the lifespan of an adult Cecropia moth is typically only 7-10 days in the wild.

I found this creature to be very interesting and thought I would share it with you!

Karen, a Kingsbury Avenue resident, reports that yesterday around 1:15 p.m. her green Quaker parrot flew the coup.

She's worried about him and hoping an area resident might spot the parrot and, if not able to capture the bird, at least help her track him down.

The parrot has a red band with initials Y?B on it, plus a serial number.

Karen can be reached at 585-356-0191 or e-mail scmho_child@hotmail.com.

This beagle appeared late this afternoon on the porch of residents on Lyon Street. They're hoping to locate the little guy's masters. Call 813-7362 or 201-1128.

UPDATE 8:16 p.m.: Thanks, readers. The dog's owners have been found.

Reader Dana Barrett submitted this photo.

A bear was spotted in the area of Ham and Knowlesville roads, Alabama, this afternoon.

The reader who saw it didn't have a camera at the moment, but is keeping an eye out in case a photo opportunity presents itself.

Reader Jane Johnson said this pooch appeared in their yard this morning, very friendly, loves being around kids and had a collar and rabies tags.

But she has no idea who owns the dog.

The owner can contact Johns at 739-0378.

A bear seemed to be in the market for a new set of tires yesterday evening, paying a visit to Sloat Tires on Clinton Street Road, Batavia.

The photos were taken by Diane Scott and provided by Todd Sloat.

CORRECTION: The bear was actually shopping for tires THIS MORNING. Yesterday evening, it was reportedly seen checking into the educational opportunities at GCC.

Booboo is the cherished companion of Jennifer McDonald, of Pavilion, and Booboo has been missing since this past weekend.

Apparently Booboo got out when Jennifer's husband left a door open.

Booboo, who was recently groomed, so his hair is shorter than in this picture, was last seen on Route 19 near the fire hall.

Both Jennifer and her husband, Mel, work at Mancuso Limousine and according to David Mancuso, Mel is in the doghouse even at work (though Jennifer adds, "he really does feel bad about it"). So Mancuso is stepping in to do what he can to help. He's offering $100 cash or a free ride in a limo to whomever finds and returns Booboo.

UPDATE: Booboo is back home.