Animal Ethics

JULY 21, 2010

To the Editor: In your July 12 editorial “ A Humane Egg ,” you disparage the modern, sanitary housing systems for egg-laying hens, which have improved chickens’ health and well-being, improved consumer food safety and kept eggs a nutritious and economical staple on kitchen tables and restaurant menus nationwide.

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Thus, the cattle we raise for meat and dairy are sometimes called Bos taurus while the extinct wild form is always called Bos primigenius. Some time after the Spanish encounter with the Turkey, birds were brought back to Europe where they were raised and became an important source of food and fancy feathers. 78(1):61–78. ca 1630–1647.

Turkey 210

Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 210

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2021

There was an empty lot of land next to us until 2010 – I remember seeing a distraught Blue-black Grassquit sitting on the fence as the bulldozer cleared the land. Thankfully, they now have a home here where they can court, build their nest, and raise their young. Birds have also benefitted.

Opossums 264

Opossums Barn Owls Hunting Reptiles 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2011

The modal bird song is a song, but not all ‘songs’ are song-like, in the sense that we expect song to come out of the ‘mouth’ (bill) and to consist of modulated air currents (like human voice). Drawing of bower birds from Darwin’s 1871 volume on sexual selection. The top two are individuals with normal song.

Zebras 261

Zebras Birds Humane Raised 261

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

Over the winter, the universe lost four whooping cranes to what appears to be recreational shooting: three gunned down together in Georgia on December 30, 2010, and another in Alabama on January 28, 2011. There are 400 whooping cranes left in the wild, 100 of them in the eastern population. Nobody needs to eat them.

2011 243

2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 243

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

March 14, 2011 Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Jon Gassett, Commissioner One Sportsman’s Lane Frankfort, Kentucky 40601 Dear Mr. Gassett, I am a writer, naturalist and artist with a special interest in human/bird interactions. From July 1 2008-June 30 2009 Ducks Unlimited raised 200.4

2011 254

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 254

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

While these groups were once considered two orders (Caprimulgiformes and Apodiformes), recent work (summarized in Mayr 2010 ) shows that swifts and hummingbirds emerged from within the night birds. So do parrots, some songbirds, humans, and a few other mammals. The Oilbird , potoo, and frogmouth lineages are old and distinctive.

Family 279

Family Birds Parrots 2014 279

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2011

I was fortunate to have been born and raised in Africa, and although I have traveled extensively around the world, it remains my home and in my blood. Birding here is a joy, further augmented by the world’s most intact mammalian megafuana, fascinating tribal cultures, breath-taking scenery and the cradle of human history.

Papua New Guinea 231

Papua New Guinea Madagascar Africa Equatorial Guinea 231