The Logging Continues

For the past three days, the loggers have been cutting down trees close to our property line. They start at seven in the morning, when we are not quite done with breakfast, but they are gone by noon. This has been tough on Bow, but I have tried to let him know that since the logging was taking place outside our borders. the people cutting down the trees have every right to do so.

What makes this especially hard on us is that the house does not sit in the center of our ten acres. It sits far back from the road and very close to the woods. The woods were a buffer for us, and they helped to give us that secluded feeling that characterizes our corner of the world .

Of course, I realized when I bought the property that my part of the woods was very shallow, and I inquired who owned the rest of the woods, and whether there might be a possibility of buying a part of the woods adjoining mine, so as to have a bigger buffer. At the time, the property was owned by the venerable matriarch of a well established local family. She explained to me that the woods were not for sale, as they had been in her family for a long time, and she was leaving them to her grandchildren. She also reassured me that there was nothing to worry about, because while the family would cut down some trees occasionally, to thin out the forest, avoid wild fires, cull out dead wood, and so on, they were not planning to substantially alter the woods.

I hope that is still the case, but she has since passed on, and it is now the new generation who is in charge. I remember her fondly. She was very kind to me and to Bow and Sword.

The neighboring woods used to extend all the way to our fence line, but as early as 2013 I had observed that a clearing had been created between the two properties, and now a dirt road was there just outside our border. This road is now being used to carry the logs out of the woods.

Bow keeps asking to go outside so that he can observe the loggers.

However, since he seems so upset by what is happening, I have asked him to stay indoors today. Yesterday, I baked lemon poppy seed muffins as part of my effort to distract Bow.

Poppy seed Muffins and Books by Aya Katz

We were reminded of The Lorax, and we reread a small part of it. No, I am not a tree hugger. Yes, I realize we live in a timber town, and I know trees are logged for a living and regrown. I am hoping, though, that the basic layout of the woods here will not change drastically, because it would leave Bow exposed to a lot of noise if there were no woods there any longer. Bow's outer pen is behind the house, and it faces the woods. That's why the current activity back there is such a concern for Bow and me.

All Your Eggs in One Basket

The weather has been getting much warmer. It is almost like summer weather sometimes, even though it's still April. Bow enjoys the warm weather and spends a lot of time out-of-doors. Also there are summer treats readily available now, like watermelon, which Bow loves.

Out in the woods. mayapples are blossoming. As their name implies, this should be happening in May.

The bees are very busy in my backyard, and they manage to coexist peacefully with my dogs, enjoying the dandelions that I permit to grow there.

Just outside my door, the robins are being fruitful and multiplying. Remember when  there was only one egg in the nest in the rosebush out side my door? There are now four!

I also found another nest by the fence. It had three eggs in it before the one by the door had more than one. It still has three eggs in it now, but I was alarmed to find one broken egg shell on the grass a couple of days ago, not far from the nest by the fence.

Is it safe to put all your eggs in one basket or one nest? Even robins diversify. They have several clutches each year.

I  don't think all chimpanzees should be sent to a few centralized locations. Even if no one there means them any harm, one epidemic could devastate their numbers, and the real job of chimpanzee conservation is outside of Africa, in case they are destroyed in their native habitat.

I have decided to be proactive and support libertarian candidates, because they are the only ones who will fight for property rights. And the property rights of chimpanzee owners outside Africa are the only thing that stands between chimpanzees and extinction. It is not right that the US Fish & Wildlife Service is sending US taxpayer money to Jane Goodall in Africa, while eroding the rights of chimpanzee owners in the US. By their own admission, at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/chimpanzee.html;

"The Service has funded $9.4 million in grants for conservation efforts to protect chimpanzees, matched by an additional $11.5 million in leveraged funds. These grants have supported field projects in 19 countries and include: developing conservation policies and local leadership and improving law enforcement to ensure the long-term survival and protection of chimpanzees and gorillas."

They have taken funds earmarked for conservation in the US and sent them to Africa. There are no wild chimpanzees or gorillas in the United States. The great apes are not within the purview of their jurisdiction.  While we can argue that the original mission may or may not be constitutional, the US Fish & Wildlife Service  has gone rogue and is operating outside any rights delegated to it by the people.

If you would like to support the cause, please visit here:

https://www.gofundme.com/2d8gren8

And Also the Phone

Yesterday, when Bow was napping after breakfast, the calm and quiet of our world was shattered by an alarm raised by the two dogs, Brownie and Leo, concerning an intruder. Now this was not  the usual barking, like when a squirrel passes over the backyard on a tree branch, and Leo just can't let that go. It was not like the barking when an occasional deer or rabbit get too close to the house. This was serious stuff. This was a real intruder. I got Bow's permission to go out and investigate.

The rays of the rising sun obscured the dog, but there it was, and its presence was infuriating Leo and Brownie. If anyone tells you that property rights are just a human invention, think about how attuned dogs are to the crime of trespass. If you think that dogs don't understand boundaries and property rights, ask yourself why intruders, including dirty cops, always kill the dog first.

I was willing to find out more about this stray dog, but it was too scared to stay. Then when I went back in, I found that Bow had been so upset about this whole thing, he had overturned his potty. After we went through the entire discipline and cleanup routine, I asked Bow why. Why did he act out, when on many other occasions he allowed me to go outside and stay much longer? Was it just because there was a stray dog out there? He answered yes, but then he added. "וגם הטלפון." --"And also the phone."

It turns out that the phone rang while I was out there. Bow could have tolerated a stray dog. He could have tolerated the phone ringing. But having the phone ring and ring while I was out there dealing with a stray dog, that was intolerable!

Personhood

Yesterday there was a big flap over legal personhood for chimpanzees. In the morning a friend sent me this link:

http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2015/04/judge-s-ruling-grants-legal-right-research-chimps?rss=1

At the time, the article had said that two chimpanzees had been granted legal personhood. By the end of the day, it turned out that they hadn't. Some people thought I would be happy for Bow to be granted legal personhood. Those people do not know me very well. Keep in mind, a corporation is a legal person, too. It's not what it sounds like.

Bow is intelligent, creative and has feelings. But in what way would legal personhood benefit him? Would it allow him to control his life better? To make choices for himself? No.

No chimpanzee has ever been asked in court what he would like to do with his life, and if legal personhood for chimpanzees were to become the law of the land in any state, chimpanzees would still have no say in what happens to them. Personhood is a legal fiction that some people use to manipulate the resources that belong to other people. Legal personhood would allow animal rights activists to appoint a guardian ad litem to purport to speak for a chimpanzee against the person who owns the chimpanzee. This is not too different from what currently happens with children who are taken from parents by the State and given to other people. It even happens in custody fights between the natural parents of a child, if the fight becomes too hateful.

I used to be a believer in children's liberation, when I was a child. Wouldn't it be great if children could make all the important decisions about themselves right from the start? I thought. When I studied law I learned that minors could in fact petition for their own emancipation, once they could prove that they were able to support themselves. I liked that idea, and as a lawyer, I always hoped that some fourteen year old would come to my office, ready to pay my full fee, so that I could help him win his freedom. But no child ever showed up asking for freedom. Instead, I had to deal with divorce cases.

Most of the time, nobody asked the children what they wanted. Social workers were sent out to evaluate the parents. "What is in the best interest of the child?" was the phrase they bandied about. But nobody asked the child.

One of my clients did want her child to speak to the judge and tell him which parent he preferred. I spoke to child first, to determine if this would be a good idea. The child asked me not to tell the mother, but he really did not want to make that decision himself. He loved both his parents, and he did not want to choose. I told my client it would not be helpful to put the child on the spot.

As adults with full legal rights, we are inundated with choices, sometimes too many choices. Not every adult human being is able to handle that much freedom. Some adults actually want others to decide for them, but we no longer have the legal institution of slavery to help such people. Instead, they vote to give more and more of everybody else's rights to government overseers who will protect us from ourselves.

 Most children do not want or need to be liberated too early. Most parents are better guardians for a child than complete strangers. The person who pays the bills and wipes away the tears and sets the limits  is the person who cares. Unfortunately, in modern custody fights there is also the child support issue -- and that sometimes skews the results and encourages litigation. Sometimes a non-custodial parent sues for custody just to avoid paying child support or in order to get the other parent to pay support to him.

In custody fights over chimpanzees -- make no mistake about it -- the "child support" is a big part of the battle. Whoever gets custody of the chimpanzees in the Federal system also gets the funding to pay for their support. Funding to pay for support includes jobs for the people who take care of chimpanzees on a day-to-day basis. Do you think that lobbying for the jobs of such people does not influence the outcome?

A real mother raises her child without pay.  A person who really cares about his chimpanzee is the person who also pays the bills. But when Federal funding comes into it, everything gets skewed.

Think about what happened to Sally Boysen's chimpanzees. Think about what Kanzi and the other bonobos are facing. It is all about money -- public money. Even medical research on chimpanzees is funded by public money. If you want to cut down on that, de-fund the Feds. Take away their research money. Take away their right to own chimpanzees at public expense. But leave private owners alone.

In Ohio, the State government recently confiscated a lion from a home where he was well cared for. When the lion got sick under their care, the state officials "euthanized" him. When  the owner asked to have the body back, the state dissolved the lion in acid, so that no evidence of what they had done to him could remain. The law that allowed this to happen was lobbied for by animal rights activists.

Animal rights activists do not care about the rights of animals. They don't care... period. They have an agenda that has much more to do with ending property rights than in helping animals. My property rights are the only thing that stands between them and Bow.

The orchard is looking good after the grass was mowed. The first cherry tree is done flowering and is working on producing fruit.

The pear trees are starting to grow pears.

The peach trees are miraculously trying to turn yesterday's blossoms into peaches we can eat.

Bow continues to use my little finger to hold onto as he points at letters. He has a mind of his own, but he also changes his mind a lot. "I want to go outside" can be followed immediately by "I want my blanket" -- meaning that he wants to stay in. Sometimes he asks for a banana, but he does not really want the banana. Can you imagine asking him in a court of law where he wants to live? And forcing him to live with that decision for the rest of his life?

Bow relies on me to protect him from stormy weather, and at the end of the day, when the sun goes down, he feels safe.

The legal fiction of personhood could never help someone like Bow. It would only be a tool in the hands of activists with an agenda.

If  you would like to help support Project Bow, please consider buying some of my nature photocards

http://www.zazzle.com/gifts?ch=alephbyaya