Kenny the Facebook Goat Rescues Goat Orphan Across the Country

 A sweet sorta-rescue played out on Facebook this week: Kenny, a Florida goat spared from the butcher himself, reached out to save a Colorado goat in need. It all started as a joke, says Karen Matyjasik, who raises goats in Central Florida. But next Thursday a baby goat with nowhere to go will fly cross-country to start a new life, all thanks to Kenny's Facebook fans.

Karen says Kenny, a boer goat, was her son's FFA project last fall, but was so charismatic her friend Mary Ann got all attached. Mary Ann started a facebook page called Kenny the Social Climbing Goat, reasoning that celebrities don't get slaughtered. When FFA ended, they tutored him in wagon-pulling so he'd have another job. He collected admirers, like Dillie the Deer. He would shamelessly ask for fans: "There is a STUFFED BEAR out there with 1012 friends . What am I Chopped Liver?"

Then another friend and goat herder wrote about trying to find homes for her aging father's goats, in particular a baby with no mother. "This one showed up with no momma started sucking a little off this one, a little off this one," but no mother goat claimed her, Karen says.

Mary Ann and Karen, in the voice of Kenny, started pining for the goat they called Orphan Annie. She got Kenny to pose for a picture in front of the computer by sprinkling it with his favorite treat, Lucky Charms. "As a joke we said she could come and live on our farm," Karen says.  "It then took on a life of its own"

Kenny's fans--now over 400--tried to figure something out.  Denver's NBC TV station KKCO reported the story. "Everybody was trying to get Annie to Florida," she says. They found that Southwest wouldn't take her, but Continental would; chipped in for the ticket; and russled up a ride to the airport.


Annie is set to arrive in Florida next Thursday. Karen will see if one of her mother goats will adopt her as a daughter. Karen is not trying to exaggerate the heroism of the cause. "It's really not a super rescue," she says. While most of her goats go to FFA students and some get to become pets or milk producers, some do go to slaughter. "I can't deny it," she says. "in order for me to keep Kenny and other goats, some of them have to be sold and some of them have to be sold for that."

Meanwhile, though, she treats them well, dotes on them, really. And if Kenny finds another animal in need, he'll jump to the rescue again.



Where to Go to See Wildlife
Visit Your Local Farm Sanctuary
Read our Profile of Dillie the Deer

Dillie the Deer Maligned as Dangerous

Wildlife Rescuers in Gulf Overwhelmed--By Volunteers, Not Patients

Oiled gull in CA in 2007 by Ingrid Taylar. Not many oiled birds seen yet in the gulf.

So far only a single bird, a Northern Gannett, has shown up oiled from the massive Deepwater Horizon spill. Wildlife rescuers and nonetheless overwhelmed--by all the untrained human volunteers.

As the potential for the spill gets bigger, the big wildlife groups are contemplating holding training classes to equip the would-be volunteers, says Kai Williams, executive director of the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council.


Right now several groups are taking in information from potential volunteers.  The National Wildlife Federation is directing people to sign up with the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.

 "If you have the ability to restain an animal, that's going to be huge, just the basic ability to hold an animal," says Williams. "They're getting a lot of untrained people, not wildlife rehabilitators, people who have never picked up a bird."

What makes planning the response so hard is no one knows how big this still-developing catastrophe is going to be or when and where a rush of injured animals will show up. Some contemplate that the Gulf Stream could wrap it around Florida. Some worry the spill could end up bigger than Valdez. Williams notes that fewer birds live in Valdez, but there are also turtles and marine mammals to worry about.

The northern gannet is being bathed, fed electrolytes and pepto bismal, but rough weather this weekend prevented picking up more patients. A caretaker told the AP that the bird came in brown, but should be white at its current age.


Nationally, three groups are known for their training in helping animals that have gotten coated in oil.

• International Bird Rescue Research Center, based in California, started when after 1971 spill by the Golden Gate Bridge killed 96% of birds collected. 
• Tri-State Bird is based in Delaware and handles spills up and down the east coast. They offers training for general bird care and oil spills. Tri-State started after a 1976 spill in the Delaware River.
• Oiled Wildlife Care Network would help manage the turtles and marine mammals potentially hurt by the spill. Also based in California, the center has posted channels for volunteers in different states.

Where to Go to See Wildlife
Where to Go See Wildlife Down South

How Will the Gulf's Dead Zone Impact the Oil Spill?

The Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico may collide with an area already bedeviled by environmental catastrophe, the infamous Dead Zone--an area of essentially no life or oxygen. So what happens when an inexorable oil slick meets and an undead patch of water?

The Gulf's Dead Zone is about 6,000 to 7,000 square miles, one of the biggest in the world, Microbial Life Educational Resources of Carleton College says. It's caused by fertilizer run-off in the Mississippi overfeeding algae. Phytoplankton gobble up the algae--and all the oxygen. Scientists call the areas hypoxia--or low oxygen. They can't support life.

The oil spill so far is smaller, about 1,800 square miles. So far.

Right now the dead zone is west of the Mississippi and the oil spill is east of it. The dead zone is mainly at the bottom, which is littered with phytoplankton carcasses. The oil is on top.

But Nancy N. Rabalais, Ph.D., executive director of Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium thinks they're likely to meet.

"If the winds continue from the southeast as is common this time of year, then the surface manifestation may move to the west of the Mississippi River delta and become a surface feature of the Louisiana area of hypoxia," says

Some seem to have fantasized that the oil burn off will end up cleaning up the dead zone. Not so, says Rabalais. "The burn would reduce the more volatile and toxic components," [in the oil] she says, but not burn off the algae.

The algae isn't going to slow the oil down, she says, but the oil may slow down the production of algae:

"The movement of the oil would not be affected by where the area of low oxygen may be. Algal production if the oil were to come into the low oxygen would probably be reduced in productivity because of the proximity of the oil."


The dead zone won't necessarily have cleared out the wildlife; it's too soon to tell, she says. While the dead zone is indeed dead to most sea life like plants and fish, birds and marine mammals pass through: "The area of low oxygen does not affect birds and marine mammals because they are air breathers and the marine mammals and turtles can reach the surface of the water for atmospheric air."

The impact she expects is the oil will calm that waters of the dead zone. There will be less oxygen transfer from surface air into surface waters. The waters will stratify. The oil would cut back on the production of phytoplankton at the surface. And the oil and dead zone could pinch in on organisms caught between the top and bottom.


Perhaps the biggest impact is that the oil spill may decimate the wetlands--the wetlands the government had been building up in hopes of filtering water of fertilizers to short-circuit the dead zone. So much for that.

Several Manatees Swimming Toward Danger and the Oil Spill; Mobile May Release Dammed Waters

Biologists know that a handful of manatees are in the Gulf of Mexico and swimming westward--toward the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but so far they have decided not to try to intervene. Mobile Bay officials may release dammed waters to push the oil away from the bay, a local scientist says.

A female manatee that spends the summer in Mobile Bay is now in Appalachicola Bay, FL, says Ruth H. Carmichael, senior marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, which is bracing for the oil slick.  Appalachicola Bay is roughly 250 miles from Mobile--if you take the shore route. They can swim up to 45 miles a day, but 5-15 is more likely.

"I hope she finds a nice location to wait for a while," Carmichael says. "The USGS also has a few tagged manatees they know are moving this way.  We are doing nothing to move or disturb the animals.  Right now the oil is offshore and the manatees are in shore.  We need to trust them to take care of themselves for now."

Manatees spend the winter near hot springs or power plants in Florida, but as their population has recovered, they are swimming further in the summer. A few now regularly visit Alabama and every few years a young male makes it up to New England.  

"Mobile Bay is trying to arrange for discharge of dammed waters , if needed, to force water out of the Bay and keep it westward off shore," Carmichael says. "Mississippi may be in greater danger.. but it is difficult to predict what will happen.  This is a terrible event. Discovering a third leak was tragic."

Where to Go to See Animals Down South

Where to See Manatees

Groups Recruiting Volunteers to Clean up to 400 Wildlife Species at Risk From Oil Spill

A stunning 400 species of birds, marine mammals, turtles, land mammals and reptiles could be hurt by the Deepwater Horizons oil spill, which is now just 6-7 miles off Louisiana. The current strong winds may blow the muck to shore by Friday morning, the latest report says.

Nola.com obtained a list of 400 species put in harm's way by the oil from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. Bob Marshall writes that this is a particularly horrible time for the oil spill--right when birds are migrating through or nesting. The soon-to-be oiled area is:

vital wintering or resting spot for more than 70 percent of the nation's waterfowl, is used by all 110 neo-tropical migratory songbirds, and produces 50 percent of the nation's wild shrimp crop, 35 percent of its blue claw crabs and 40 percent of its oysters. Ressearchers say 90 percent of all the marine species in the Gulf of Mexico depend on coastal estuaries at some point in their lives, and most of those estuaries are in Louisiana.

The New York Times has a great chart highlighting which species are most at risk, mostly migrating birds. The brown pelican was just removed from the endangered species list.

The Oiled Wildlife Care Network--a collection of wildlife responders across California--has sent its director down and is collecting info on volunteers.  They say it's too late to train you to clean up animals but you could become a "convergent volunteer." Specialized groups or state rehabber associations do oil training seminars in preparation for a disaster like this.

The International Bird Rescue and Research Center is on alert, too. They regularly offer classes in Fairfield (northern California) and San Pedro (Southern California) for people to become volunteers.

The International Bird Rescue and Research Center is on alert, too.

Audubon of Florida is recruiting volunteers for the onslaught of oiled birds to be cleaned up at the Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, FL.

The unified command for oiled wildlife is 800-557-1401.

The Lousiana Wildlife Rehabilitators Association directs residents to call (866) 557-1401 for the Oiled Wildlife Unified Command Center. Not sure which prefix is correct, but it's the same number.

The feds say they're setting up staging areas to protect the shoreline in Biloxi, Miss., Pensacola, Fla. Venice, La., Pascagoula, Miss., and Theodore, Ala.

AnimalTourism.com: Where to Go to See Wildlife

Jersey Town Illegally Pushes Tired, Lost Seal Into Wrong Body of Water

A snow plow driver found a seal wandering in Woodbridge.
Photo credit: Woodbridge Township

The adult harp seal that hauled out on Sixth Avenue in Port Reading, NJ, during the blizzard was lost and just wanted to rest, says Sheila Dean, co-founder of Brigantine's Marine Mammal Stranding Center. Instead, animal control dragged him back to where he shouldn't have been--two miles inland, up the Woodbridge River.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act bans anybody without proper training from handling seals. Town workers used what NJ.com describes as "a mouthpiece normally used to capture dogs." I'm pretty sure what they're talking about is a noose pole, which could hurt the seal.

The right response would have been to call the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (609) 266-0538 (or, if you are in another state, another agency that's part of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network). They would have come right away to assess the seal, Dean says.

"Because this animal is so far inland, we would have taken him and released him somewhere else," Dean says. "He's just a little bit lost and confused and really looking for a spot to rest."

The location is about two miles up the Woodbridge River from the Arthur Kill, the waterway that separates New Jersey from Staten Island. Trained rescuers would have driven him there (about a mile by car.) Now no one knows where he is.

After swimming all the way from the arctic they like to lay out in the sun and build up their oxygen levels. Not every seal you see on the beach in New Jersey needs your assistance, she says. The area is getting more seals in the winter, so people are going to have to learn to accept them and stop trying to haul them. Two colonies live off the Jersey shore in the winter, one visible from Sandy Hook.

Dean says seals also don't like people trying to feed them. She's gone on beaches and found inappropriate gifts like cat food and sushi deposited around seals. When a seal hauled out at Penn's Landing people bought the befuddled seal expensive sushi at a nearby restaurant, she said. "There was sushi and stuff all over the whole deck." They only like live food, but that doesn't mean you should supply it.

"If you throw a fish at a seal he's going to run away," says Dean. "He doesn't know what you're doing."

Found a NJ Seal? Call the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (609) 266-0538

Want to See a Seal? Check out AnimalTourism Map

• CRESLI (Coastal Research and Education Center of Long Island) has seal walks and boat tours on Montauk and a neat map of where you might see seals around Long Island.
• Seals also visit Sandy Hook in New Jersey from December to March.
• New York City Audubon has a cruise by a bunch of island on a water taxi.
• SKSA does kayak tours (wet or dry-suit required) on Long Island.

Harp Seal Stuck On Cliff Near Salem, MA, Rescued

The New England Aquarium Marine Animal Rescue Team and an alert seal-loving Beverly, MA, woman saved a harp seal who got stuck in the crevice of a  cliff Monday. The 50-pound, yearling female seal got stuck between rocks 20 feet above the water by the full moon high tide. Rescuers extricated the seal, who has gray mottled fur, from the rocks, checked her out and released her into Salem Sound.


The seal was first seen on the cliff Sunday by neighbor Katie Duffy. Like many people, Duffy was worried seeing a seal out of water. She called rescuers who could thought the seal was doing fine. The seal population in the U.S. seems to be on the rise, leading to seals showing up in unusual places or high numbers. Just days ago the aquarium was checking out a seal who decided to visit downtown Boston.

The next day, however, the seal has gotten herself stuck in a tiny 2-foot deep trench. Duffey again called rescuers, who came out to find the seal  "in significant distress with labored breathing," according to the Aquarium. "They were initially not optimistic about the seal’s prospects." Aquarium staff Adam Kennedy and Ulrika Malone threw a blanket over her. She froze in fear and they were able to push her into a crate. When they finally got to examine her, they found she was fine. She just had some scratches.


So they carried her crate down to a beach. At first she was still too scared to move, but she got the idea and swam out while all her rescuers looked on happily.

Where to See Seals

More Seal Stories 

Chinese Workers Save Ice-Blocked Harbor Seals

Animal-watching must be catching on in China. Government workers broke the ice to free 60 resident harbor seals trapped by a cold spell, then fed them fish.  Xinhuanet describes the rescuers as "workers of the scenic area."

Even the big Chinese news agency views the animals plight with sympathy. "Poor Harbor Seals Trapped by Ice," read the headline of their adorable slideshow.

Zinhuanet says the rescuers work at "ecological seal bay near Yantai City." I think they're talking about this giant tourist project, the Great Nanshan Ecological Park. Whatever the place is, they seem to realize how much people like to watch animals. Or maybe they're just suckers for a cute, whiskered face.

Ilya the Manatee Recovering, Impressing Ladies with His Sweetness

Ilya, the Florida manatee rescued from New York harbor two weeks ago, should be well enough to be released in the Florida Keys in about a month, says Dr. Maya Rodriguez, the veterinarian at the Miami Seaquarium, which supplied the picture of Ilya (left) swimming with his poolmate.

"We expect him to get a clean medical mill in next couple weeks," says Dr. Rodriguez. Identified by his mangled tail and white scar on his forehead, Ilya at least didn't pick up any new distinguishing scars on his journey up to Cape Cod that perplexed marine biologists. 

Stuck in the cold water of New York harbor, Ilya initially suffered cold stress, which can shut down manatees' long digestive track and immune system. He lost about 100 of his 1,200 pounds, had low blood sugar and was having trouble digesting, Dr. Rodriguez says. A video (below) of the event shows him getting wrapped in mylar survival blankets and getting spritzed with water to keep moist.

Ilya is recuperating in a 82 degree saltwater pool at the Seaquarium with an orphaned, female,  18-month-old manatee picked up in the Everglades and named Glade. Normally Dr. Rodriguez would be reluctant to put such a big male in with her but Ilya has been very gentle. "He's just a really docile manatee," Dr. Rodriguez says. 

Ilya is unusual among manatees, which normally handle food just with their prehensible lips, because he grabs with his flippers. "He's all flippers," says Dr. Rodriguez. Ilya, who touches noses with Glade, has even taught his new companion to pick up lettuce with flippers.

Since the water in Florida is still warm, Dr. Rodriguez will wait a bit to release him so he isn't tempted to head north again. Manatees need to stay in Florida (often by the warm water of hot springs or power plant outflows) over the winter but migrate in all directions away in the summer. Ilya was caught on the third attempt near the outflow of the Conoco-Phillips in the Arthur Kill, which separates New Jersey from Staten Island. 

Ilya kept coming back for the 75 degree water even though it was in a heavily industrialized area; the rest of the harbor was in the 50s. Plant workers kept a close eye out for him and alerted rescuers when he returned. The video shows the rescue workers lining up and splashing the water to goad him towards the giant net. A huge team of oil workers, volunteers from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, local EMT divers and federal wildlife agencies pitched in to save the endangered manatee.

Wanna see a manatee at one of the places they huddle to keep warm this winter? Try these hotspots.

Ilya the Manatee May Be Going Wrong Way--Back to NYC

Ilya, the missing manatee, may be headed the wrong way--back up to New York City, instead of down south to Florida and the warm water he needs to survive. Someone saw what they thought was a manatee near Bayonne, NJ, but by the time rescuers came out, there was no animal, says Bob Schoelkopf, founding director of Brigantine's Marine Mammal Stranding Center, which would rescue Ilya if they could just find and catch him.

FWC photo by Tom Reinert

Ilya, who is 16 and known for his missing tail chunk and a white scar on his head, befuddled scientists by swimming from his native Miami all the way up to Cape Cod this summer. Now he needs to get to waters at least 68 degrees--the Carolinas at this time of year--or he could die.

The last time anyone definitely saw Ilya was when he ate a crate of lettuce from biologists outside the Conoco Phillips refinery in Linden, NJ, last Friday. Then he disappeared into the dark, cold waters of the Arthur Kill, the 10-mile tidal estuary between New Jersey and Staten Island. If that was him near Bayonne, that puts him in the Kill Van Kull, a shorter passage that's a few miles closer to the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan and the heavy traffic of the Port of Newark.

But rescuers are dubious it really was Ilya. It's not so much that they think there's a second manatee up here--though one did spend the summer in Raritan Bay. Schoelkopf says he didn't get the spotter's name (and manatee identification credentials) and the call came in eight hours after the supposed encounter. Marine creatures can just be hard to ID. "I've had Coast Guard people tell me there's a whale and calf trying to get up a waterfall and we get there and it's two logs," he says. Manatees are such a rare sight, people--especially northerners--could easily get it wrong. When seals turn up in winter, Schoelkopf says, he gets calls about "sea lions, walruses, anything."

Ilya was drawn to Linden by the plant's warm water discharge, so Schoelkopf called four power plants on the Jersey Shore to ask them to look out for Ilya. In Florida, power plants have become such a popular hang-out in the winter, biologists from Florida's Fish and Wildlife Commission use the gathering to take a census. The New Jersey plants area already on the look-out for stranded sea turtles, who are also drawn to their warm water, Schoelkopf explains. (A rare and endangered Green Sea Turtle recently turned up in Rumson with cold shock, he says.) In northern New Jersey, the Linden plant is the only one.

If anyone does see the manatee, the stranding network is ready to go with a net at a moment's notice. They have a salt water they put on the ideal manatee temperature of 74 this week just for Ilya. If they can catch him, they'll bring him to Brigantine and warm him up for a few days before getting him to Florida, probably by an awaiting Coast Guard cargo plane.

If you see the manatee, call the Marine Mammal Stranding Center's 24-hour number: (609) 266-0538. Try to take a picture and email it to mmsc@verizon.net

Wanna see a manatee not in danger? Try these places.

Ilya the Travelling Manattee Missing Again

Ilya, the manatee that reappeared off Staten Island Thursday--way too far north for his safety--has gone missing again, thwarting any attempt to rescue him from the cold waters. Ilya ate a whole case of lettuce "and was last seen going back into the river," says Chuck Underwood, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "This was late yesterday afternoon, and there's been no sighting of the animal since then."

Ilya, a 16-year-old manatee distinguished by his boat scars (a white one on his head and a missing chunk of tail), surprised biologists this summer by migrating all the way up to Cape Cod from his Florida home. Now he's racing the cold weather--and seems to have been entranced by the false promise of warmth from the warm water run-off of an oil refinery in Elizabeth, NJ. The spot that he's at is warm enough, says Underwood, but the rest of the Arthur Kill tidal estuary dips below his requisite 68 degrees. That means he should be in North Carolina by now, according to NOAA's water temperature map. That's about 200 miles, or three or four days manatee travel.

Biologists figured Ilya was safely headed to warmer waters after he wasn't seen since an appearance in Milford, CT, on September  26. Then he showed up in a heavily industrial area. Underwood won't say exactly where--but it's guarded private property anyway.

The Brigantine Marine Mammal Stranding Station has plans to rescue him--if they can find him and catch him. Rescuers typically keep manatees at risk in place by offering them food and the fresh water they crave. But that sometimes has the effect of buoying their spirits so much they take off. The rescuers were put off by the bad weather Saturday--and had other rescues to do.


Want to See a Manatee in the Wild? Check out this map and list of places.

Biologists Try to Rescue Ilya the Manatee from Elizabeth, NJ

 Ilya, the manatee who swam all the way up to Cape Cod from Florida this summer, may need to be rescued today from the stormy, cold waters off Elizabeth, NJ, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Chuck Underwood says. The endangered 1,000-pound manatee was positively identified yesterday from photos taken near a refinery in Elizabeth, a heavily industrial part of New York harbor near Staten Island.

For weeks biologists and manatee lovers wondered where Ilya was, hoping he was making it back down to Florida, where manatees need to spend the winter to keep warm enough. He was last seen in Milford, CT, on September 26. So, everyone figured--or at least hoped--that he would be down at least around the Carolinas by now.

Then yesterday, Underwood says, the Wildlife Service got a call: "We've got your manatee." A quick consultation with U.S. Geological Survey NOAA, which keeps an elaborate database of 2,000-some manatees known by their boating scars, confirmed it was Ilya. His run in with boats have made him easy to ID: he has a big chunk taken out of his tail and a white scar on his head. Nicole Adimey, who runs the manatee rescue and rehabilitation program says that he still is relatively lucky for a manatee: he's never before had to be brought in for treatment.

Right now the wildlife service is trying to keep Ilya in place at a private, undisclosed refinery while a Nor'easter storm blows through. He was attracted to the spot because the run-off makes it warm. It's about 70 degrees right in his microclimate, Underwood says. Meanwhile the rest of the harbor, as you can see from this water temperature map, is dipping into the 50s and 60s. They've authorized the people at the private refinery to give Ilya vegetables and a hose for fresh water in hopes that will make him stay put. They have a net and may attempt a rescue today, Underwood says.

They can move quickly because a nearby stranding network facility has a heated, in ground salt water pool available for him. They'll be able to assess his health and see if he's ready for transport back down to Florida.
taken. Although the 70-degree water around the factory run-off is warm enough, if he leaves that heated area, he'll be in trouble in the cold water nearby.
 
The rescues can be dangerous--mainly because by the time they are tried the manatees are usually in trouble. Last year the wildlife service captured Dennis, a smaller, weaker manatee in Dennis, MA, and trucked him down to Florida, only to have him die just as he arrived to a rescue facility. Let's hope Ilya does better.

Want to See a Manatee in the Wild? Check out this map and list of places.

The Dolphins NOAA Wouldn't Let Others Save Have Died

Last summer a pod of 16 dolphins swam up the Shrewsbury River in New Jersey. When winter came, they didn't leave. So the Marine Mammal Stranding Center wanted to shoo them out. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said no. They were worried that trying to push the dolphins one way could make them go further under the ice--which has happened before. But in a broader sense their argument against action was: let nature take its course; we can't save all the wild animals.

Now the fifth dolphin has turned up dead.
In January we knew of five left, then didn't see them anymore.

So far scientists haven't been able to conclusively id one of the dead dolphins as part of that pod since its 8 1/2 foot carcass has rotted so much.

The argument against hurting the dolphins by trying to rescue them seems to have fallen apart. All that's left is the philosophical bent of NOAA. It doesn't seem fair that since the marine mammal stranding center, whose whole expertise is helping these animals in New Jersey, wanted to do its job without any taxpayer support that NOAA should have gotten in the way.