Monday, December 7, 2009

Another weekend - another world...

Yesterday, Sunday, I went to the farm after a week away. I had missed the monkeys and was looking forward to spending some time with them. And they did not disappoint. The lemurs "popped" at me as I came into the barn - always a welcoming sound. Little Mickey Marmoset chattered away at me several times throughout the day. And old Susie (when George would give her room) came over to get her head scratched as often as I stopped by their enclosure.
But this was not an ordinary Sunday. The Sanctuary had been breached and it was a horrible feeling.
Sherri, Leonard, Malcolm, Jackie and I piled into the car to drive along Sherri and Leonard's property line to the site where a trap had caught a neighbour's dog the week before. Thankfully the dog was ok - but several other animals were not...their carcasses were strewn about the area, and it only took looking to realize that the bodies had been skinned - the furs removed...by whom, for what purpose??? Unknown as yet - but there is an investigation started...we identified a beaver - the tail was still there although the body had been largely destroyed by local predators. There was a fairly complete little body too - missing only its fur - not entirely sure, but the more I think about it, the more I think it might have been an otter. And other remnants too - maybe 5 animals represented in all in that small area close to the spot where the trap had been found. All illegally trapped on Sherri and Leonard's property by an unknown person. We looked further, trying to find other evidence - traps, carcasses, trails - but there was nothing we could spot immediately. The trap was of the cruel sort - where an animal caught in it will try to gnaw off its leg in order to gain freedon - the dog was already beginning to work on that, but was freed before any real damage could be done.
Who does this? What good would be a few pelts of such small animals? Who treats them, processes them? Who buys them? There must be a market or this would not be happening.

Such an invasion, such a feeling of violation - I am hoping the perpetrator is caught SOON - perhaps in a trap????