By Eric Wolf Schoen
At first everyone thought it was a joke. Nova, a 25-pound clouded leopard was taken or allowed to escape through a hole cut in the heavy metal mesh of her enclosure at the Dallas Zoo. A police SWAT team was dispatched to the scene. Police drones were flown overhead. Within hours Nova was found and reunited with her sister, Luna.
Police noticed a similar cut to an enclosure that held langur monkeys, but none of them were missing.
Next it was Pin, an endangered lappet faced vulture who turned up dead, apparently by an injury described by the authorities as a ‘wound.’ As these are exotic, rare animals Federal agents joined the case.
Theories flew left, right, backwards and forwards. Was it a disgruntled zookeeper? International exotic animal traffickers? A mysterious looking man was scene on zoo security cameras eating Doritos. The Dallas Police installed it’s own camera towers to keep watch.
Nothing stopped the person or those involved from continuing their escapades. Next it was two emperor tamarin monkeys, escaped or removed through a hole in the mesh. The pair were found boarded up in a home next to a church 15 miles south of the zoo.
Who was involved? Who was playing games endangering the lives of these animals? The man eating Doritos was observed in a Dallas aquarium three miles north of the zoo. Was he an ‘International Animal Trafficker?’ Nope, a man with a crazy obsession.
Texas is known as among the top states in the country for exotic animal ownership. The state also has vast undercover trade in these exotic animals, most of which are barred by law from being bought or sold.
I give you this background so you can understand what’s happening with exotic animals not just in Texas but throughout the country. The loss or theft of one of these animals years ago brought with it the adventure of who would bag the animal and bring it back to the zoo. The reaction in Dallas this time was different. People understand that the animals are not exhibits anymore. They are living, feeling creatures and should be respected as such.
People don’t treat animals with respect like they use to. And we are coming upon the ‘bunny’ season where thousands of people will adopt bunnies only to find out that these animals are not good family house pets. After a few days with a bunny the family realizes how difficult they are to handle and dumps them in the woods where they are killed or consumed by other animals as the bunnies are not bred as wild animals.
Right here at home the Central Park Zoo has been tracking an owl that has been flying all over New York City. For kicks people are throwing animals out of car windows or abandoning them on the side of the road. Poor animals abandoned on the side of road where they are eventually if not promptly run over by trucks and cars and killed.
What has made the animal scene worse is the pandemic. People were lonely and adopted animals. Shelters were emptied. But as things have gotten better, people find they can’t care for their adopted animals and either let them go in a forest or bring them back to overfilled shelters.
Some 6 million animals are sitting out there waiting for adoption. Yonkers has a beautiful shelter filled with many types of animals including precious dogs as does New Rochelle. If a new pet is in your future, please consider adoption!
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ‘Customer Service?’
I hark back to the days of B. Altmans and Wanamaker’s when.if a store didn’t have the size or color you wanted they would scour their whole chain to find what you were looking for. If they found it and it didn’t work, no big deal they would take it back and do the same thing over again.
Now no one hears anything. I chalk it up to these headsets blasting with music that are destroying America’s hearing. Couple with that the Covid plexiglass and no one can hear anymore. The cashier can’t hear what we are saying as the loud music destroyed their hearing and add to that the plexiglass and no one hears anything.
I was in Dunkin’ Donuts the other day and ordered one of their wraps ‘extra crispy.’ I repeated myself 3 times to 2 different Clerks, and after Clerk 1 took the wrap out After the prescribed heating, she. Again said, ‘Sir, you want that extra crispy?’
Stores like McDonald’s have kiosks where you type in your order. Both the cashier and customers inability to hear each other is the reason why more stores will be installing order taking kiosks in the near future.
Can a store come up with a drive through that doesn’t have scratchy sound on either the customer or clerk’s side? If I bothers me I am sure it bothers you. We will explore these issues
Further but I wanted to give you some, no pun intended food for thought!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Listen to Eric Schoen on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge
