Protectors Needed

VOLUME 19 ISSUE 5

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

Protectors Needed

■ Post Reprint: “On Australia’s Kangaroo Island, a fight to stay alive” ■ Post Reprint: “Of consumers and kangaroos” ■ Discussion Questions: Questions of Viability in Australia ■ Post Reprint: “Lab chimps left to starve on island find a protector”

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program IN TRO DUC Guidelines, Regulations TION. and Personal Action Guidelines, regulations and personal actions are reflected in the Post articles reprinted in this resource guide. Readers are taken to Australia’s Kangaroo Island in the midst of its massive fires. Post columnist Kathleen Parker expands on the theme of survival and rescue to ask readers to confront current practices involving the same animals that so many are trying to rescue and save.

Readers are given a real situation in which health research, economic dilemmas and militants converged in Liberia. Lab chimps were isolated on Monkey Island. It is their story and that of Joseph Thomas who became their protector.

The survival of animals in their natural habitats or manmade enclosures (pastures, parks, RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST islands, zoos and cages) requires Adam Parascandola, left, and knowledgeable and humane practices in the best Patrick Brothers fill containers with water for wildlife while interest of the animals. Regulations and financial rescuing koalas and kangaroos. considerations may not prove beneficial, especially to threatened and endangered species, and may require individuals to become protectors.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program NATIONAL On Australia’s Kangaroo Island, a fight to stay alive

RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST A koala climbs a charred eucalyptus tree as members of Humane Society International try to catch it on Kangaroo Island, Australia. was no water or food; the eucalyptus leaves climate, despite words to the contrary from by Scott Wilson that koalas eat had vanished in the flames. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, is warming On the ground, there was only black earth up and drying out at a much faster rate than • Originally Published January 22, 2020 and carcasses. Dozens of carcasses, babies predicted even a few years ago. and adults, teens and what a rescuer said There is no argument from the beloved KANGAROO ISLAND, Australia — The looked like twins — all so burned even the fauna of this vast wild country. On Kangaroo bend in the eucalyptus branch seemed like carrion birds would not touch them. Island, its sand- and brush-covered bluffs a custom home-design feature given how The fires that roared through southeastern visible just a few miles offshore from perfectly it fit his tiny form. There in the Australia for months razed hundreds of Adelaide, the fires burned without mercy, crook of the tree was a koala, mildly burned houses and killed more than 20 people, guided only by the stiff wind. and all alone. including several firefighters. A scar the size Georgie Dolphin, the program manager His patch of wood, shared once by of Portugal now marks the land, a varying for animal welfare at Humane Society hundreds of other koalas, kangaroos and the mix of tropical forest, eucalyptus and red- International Australia, estimated that at occasional wombat, had been scorched black earth plains. least half the koala habitat was destroyed, in the recent wildfires. For the moment, he The largest in the nation’s history, the fires killing the vast majority of the animals as was safe there about 50 feet up. But there have come to be seen as a sign that Australia’s the fire crackled through it.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

habitat. Those plans never made it past public opinion, but for two years, hundreds of koalas have been put on a sterilization program. Dolphin said the population will return more slowly as a result; it is very hard to see the small, stricken bodies on the forest floor and know just how long it may be until the trees are full again. Not even the birds have returned. A female koala lives an average of 12 years and in that time gives birth to five or six cubs. Her pregnancy lasts about 35 days. The breeze in the branches provided a slight soundtrack. But everywhere else was quiet. The team walked between the wide rows of burned trees with eyes up. That’s where the good news would be — a life, if it were to be at all. The team managed to save 30 koalas in the past week alone. But the black aftermath of a fast, violent RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST fire drew the eye to what’s below — From left, Adam Parascandola, Georgie Dolphin and Kelly Donithan of the Humane Society International disaster-response team remove a rescued koala from a clothes basket at a the scattering of small bodies, animals temporary triage center for wildlife on Kangaroo Island. that failed to escape and now sprawl in horrible forms on the landscape. Some Before the fire, an estimated 50,000 ease one koala away from a hole, encase him died in clusters, others alone. They were koalas lived on the island. Today, there are between two plastic laundry baskets and pad everywhere. fewer than half that. out his brief holding cell with towels. Docile There is something poignant about a small “And we really don’t have a full count,” and curious, the juvenile bear had burns on animal dying, and trying so hard not to. said Adam Parascandola, a D.C. native and his nose and on the backs of his legs. It feels different from observing a big, animal handler with the society for the past “These are wild animals that have never powerful sea animal tangled in a rogue decade. “It could be much worse.” seen humans, and it makes them very stressed net, or the prolonged death stumbles of the Dolphin, Parascandola and a third and sometimes difficult,” Parascandola said. great land animals trying to bear up under member of their team, Patrick Brothers, were “But if we do not take them out of here, they wounds from a hunter’s rifle. exploring a wedge of burned eucalyptus will simply starve to death.” Here in the scorched red soil of Kangaroo forest just on the outer edge of Flinders This one, among the fortunate, would Island, it is the small death that is most Chase, a grove still off-limits earlier in the get a stay at the local recovery center on excruciating. Along a tree line, a young week because of the fire’s aftermath. the island. A day earlier, the team found an koala, about the size of a newborn baby, There were clues to track a troubled koala. adult kangaroo lying on its side, unmoving made a small, brutal effort to live. Among the dozens of dead kangaroos but alive. The team called for a veterinarian. Facedown, the marsupial had dragged scattered across the burned-clean forest The burns on the legs and bottoms of the itself away from the fire with its small arms, floor, small brown mounds appeared here kangaroo’s feet were too severe to heal, and, his burned back legs giving out first. His and there. These were makeshift watering still on his side, he was euthanized. face dropped to the ground, almost in rest, holes, seldom used by koalas. But without It is unclear here whether the eucalyptus perhaps seeking a second breath. leaves in the trees, the surviving marsupials forests will recover, almost certainly not to But despite his efforts, in the tan ashy came down for the occasional moisture. the same near-ubiquitous pre-fire extent. soil of western Kangaroo Island, he died, “When you see them on the ground, that The island is lovely, just now so very full facedown, with a crushing mix of dignity is not normal behavior,” Dolphin said of the of death. and effort and, in the end, a terrifying koalas. “They look sad, defeated, but we’re In recent years, there have been debates helplessness. happy with every one we save.” in Australia over whether to cull a koala So have many others. ■ Brothers and Parascandola managed to population that has perhaps outgrown its

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

KATHLEEN PARKER Of consumers and kangaroos ustralia’s wildfires have singed the souls of bystanders in whether the kills are humane. an ongoing tragedy, the dimensions of which haven’t been Australia stands by its National Code of Practice, which Afully realized. From the millions — perhaps a billion — requires that all kangaroos be killed with a single shot to the head animals destroyed to the unfathomable suffering of survivors, it by trained hunters — and that mothers carrying joeys should is too much for the human psyche to absorb. be avoided. If a joey emerges from its slain mother’s pouch, Most have seen the heartbreaking images on social media and guidelines “recommend” that the baby also be killed quickly by elsewhere of Australia’s iconic wildlife — kangaroos, koalas clubbing or decapitation “to prevent the inhumane death of young and wallabies — burned, starving or dead. One image of a tiny that cannot survive on their own.” wallaby grasping the ankle of a man who saved it haunts me, as Animal activists argue, however, that such regulations can’t do the orphaned joeys snuggled in handmade pouches sewn by be properly monitored when hunters are 2,000 miles away in the volunteers around the world. bush and that there are otherwise too few enforcers to keep up. People moved by the tragedy have contributed millions of The award-winning 2017 documentary “Kangaroo: A Love Hate dollars in donations, while others have airdropped food and water Story” illustrates their point in such graphic detail that even the to help sustain wildlife. Even these efforts seem merely symbolic most dedicated exotic meat consumer would have cause to pause. against the enormity of the devastation. What more can any Such conflicts won’t likely be resolved without external mortal do to alleviate such suffering and loss? The laws of supply pressures, which is why letters have gone out to the chief and demand may point the way. executives of both Adidas and Nike urging them to halt the use of For starters, Australia could stop its slaughter of kangaroos, kangaroo products for cleats. (The author of the letters is Wayne at least until the population stabilizes. This is, needless to say, a Pacelle, the former chief executive of the Humane Society of provocative suggestion. Hunters and the Australian government the United States, who left the organization after several female together kill more than a million kangaroos every year — 1.5 employees accused him of sexual misconduct. He continues his million in 2017 — and process their parts for export to Europe life’s work through several entities he has founded, including (the largest consumer), the United States and, if lobbyists get their the Center for a Humane Economy.) way, China. If Nike and Adidas take a stand against kangaroo products, the Further complicating even a sensible discussion about hope is that others will follow. Both companies are sensitive to curtailing what is viewed by many as sustainable culling is the sustainability and humane practices, having already switched over popularized view that kangaroos are pests, competing with sheep to man-made materials for some of their products, but synthetic and cattle for grazing lands. There’s also the small matter of cleats could break new ground in these critical, environmentally national autonomy. What Australia does with its own resources is unstable times. no one else’s business, some might reasonably argue. The very last thing Nike and Adidas should do, Pacelle wrote However, what is everyone’s business is how we consumers in his letters, is to provide financial incentives for people to contribute to these massive culls. Many readers probably would chase down and kill kangaroos in their native habitats. And be surprised to learn that some soccer cleats and other athletic the very least thing individuals can do is starve the market by footwear, including models made by Adidas and Nike, are made declining to eat kangaroo meat and refusing to buy anything from kangaroo leather. labeled “K-leather.” Such small gestures may seem mostly Why are shoes made of kangaroo leather more offensive to symbolic, but millions of such gestures would mean reduced some than shoes made of cowhide? It may be that kangaroos are demand — and, ultimately, a more humane world. simply cuter, hopping around like happy children while carrying babies in their pockets. We Disney acolytes have trouble killing — January 21, 2020 and eating certain animals. Seeing images of kangaroos hugging people resonates on a profound human level. Others are repelled by the scale of the kangaroo hunt — the largest terrestrial slaughter in the world. To animal rights activists, concerns focus on the animal’s sustainability and

Questions of Viability in Australia

In January 2020 The Post reported that more than 14.5 million acres had burned in Australia between Sept. 2, 2019, and Jan. 8, 2020. These wildfires have affected grasslands and forests, air quality and water supplies, destroyed thousands of homes and killed millions of animals.

Read the news article “On Australia’s Kangaroo Island, a fight to stay alive.” Answer on your own paper.

1. In the first three paragraphs Scott Wilson begins with one small speck in the landscape. Follow the cinematic movement as readers are directed to “see” the scene. Explain how the “camera angle” and mood shift as details are added.

2. What kind of information is provided in the next 7 paragraphs?

3. The short 11th paragraph takes another shift. Summarize the focus and information you gain in the next nine paragraphs.

4. Through contrasts, reporter Wilson, conveys “something poignant about a small animal dying, and trying so hard not to.” Does he adequately prepare readers for the next sentences? Explain your answer and include two or more details to help support your response.

After reading the eyewitness news article, read Kathleen Parker’s column, “Of consumers and kangaroos.” Kathleen Parker is a Washington Post columnist. Her job is to write an informed opinion essay — a column — to inform, to stimulate discussion and to encourage readers’ action.

5. Before reading, review the following words. As you read the column, underline the words in context.

Acolyte Incentives Slaughter Autonomy Inhumane Stabilize Curtail Profound Sustainable Exotic Provocative Terrestrial

6. Read paragraphs 1-3. a. What is the main idea that Parker presents? b. How would you answer the question that she asks at the end of paragraph 3? 7. Paragraph 4 takes readers in an unexpected direction. She directly states her opinion. What does she want to happen against the background of the Australian fires?

8. State two requirements of the Australian National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Non-Commericial Purposes. a.

9. What does the label “K-leather” indicate?

10. In paragraph 7, she asks: “Why are shoes made of kangaroo leather more offensive to some than shoes made of cowhide? She proposes two answers. Summarize them: a.

11. In the best of argumentation, the opposing point of view is presented with its best arguments. a. State one of the counter perspectives that she gives.

b. Do you find it to be a strong argument?

12. Notice that Parker’s opinion is clear with her word choices; “largest terrestrial slaughter in the world,” “humane,” “clubbing and decapitation,” for example. Do you think such word choice is effective? Why or why not?

13. Parker includes Adidas and Nike in paragraph 11. a. Why are these businesses brought into her argumentation?

b. What evidence does Parker provide that these companies are sensitive to current concerns?

14. Do you think letter-writing campaigns to businesses are affective in changing company policies or products? Do you know of any examples to support your point of view?

15. Parker concludes with two actions, one by businesses and one by individuals. a. What are the two actions?

b. How might you and your classmates respond to one or both suggestions? VOLUME 19 ISSUE 5

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Lab chimps left to starve on island find a protector

by Danielle Paquette

• Originally Published December 12, 2019

MONKEY ISLAND, Liberia — All was quiet when the motorboat puttered to a stop. Saltwater lapped at the narrow sandy shore. Mangrove leaves fluttered in the breeze. Then the man in a blue life jacket cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, Hoo hoo! Like a secret password, the call unlocked a hidden primate universe. Dozens of chimpanzees emerged from the brush, hairy arms extended. They waded up to the rusty vessel with the nonchalance of someone fetching the mail. “Time to eat,” said Joseph Thomas, their wiry guardian of 40 years, tossing bananas into the furry crowd. Chimps aren’t supposed to be stuck on their own island — especially one with no food — or mingle with much-weaker humans. But nothing about Liberia’s Monkey Island is normal. It’s a spectacle, an increasingly costly burden and the enduring legacy of American scientists who set out to cure hepatitis B in 1974. Animal testing has existed since doctors in ancient Greece studied the anatomy of rodents — an estimated 115 million creatures are still used each year in research worldwide — but rarely is the aftermath so visible. Rarely is it so hungry. This colony of 66 chimpanzees, which never learned to survive in the wild, eats about 500 pounds of produce each day, plus a weekly batch of hard-boiled eggs for protein. They rely on money from a charity abroad and the devotion of men who’ve DANIELLE PAQUETTE/THE WASHINGTON POST known them since they lived in steel cages. For the past 40 years, Joseph Thomas has been caring for chimpanzees that were infected with “That’s Mabel,” said Thomas, the captain hepatitis on Monkey Island, Liberia.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program of that small crew, pointing to a 100-pound rebel leader who would become Liberia’s There are six islands in the Farmington female. “Look! She likes to wash her food 22nd president and later a convicted war and Little Bassa rivers. These makeshift in the water.” criminal — unleashed his ragtag army sanctuaries on the Atlantic coast became As if on cue, Mabel dunked her banana in across the country, killing thousands and collectively known as Monkey Island. the mud-brown river. forcing untold others from their homes. Thomas and the other caretakers collected Thomas, 60, met the chimp, 36, when she The American researchers fled. Thomas funds from New York to deliver the chimps was a baby who pressed the soft black pads stayed behind with the chimps. Taylor’s buckets of bananas and lettuce, among of her fingers into his open palm. soldiers, he said, stole the lab’s cars. other goods, every two days. A veterinarian The New York researchers who once Conflict surged into the 2000s as stayed on the group’s payroll to check on the injected her with viruses quit the country during the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, abandoning Mabel and other animals who can live half a century. Thomas hadn’t planned to devote his life to protecting chimps through epidemic and civil war. Risk hangs over interactions with the brawny animals, who might still carry disease. The caretaker trusts they won’t hurt him because they know him. His long, strange mission started on the tennis court. He dreamed of becoming a professional athlete until he met a researcher from the New York Blood Center. She would give him a job, he said, if he could give her tennis lessons. At age 20, Thomas became a caretaker at the nonprofit organization’s chimp laboratory in remote Robertsville. He fed the animals, cleaned up after them and got to know their personalities, which ranged from shy to class clown. He was promoted four years later to DANIELLE PAQUETTE/THE WASHINGTON POST medical technician. The chimps were Chimpanzees that live on Monkey Island wade into the water to catch food thrown to them by a infected with hepatitis and river blindness, team of caretakers. an eye sickness caused by a parasite, as researchers developed vaccines. militants fought for control of Liberia, and animals. Chimp testing doesn’t happen anymore. public pressure to end testing on chimps In 2009, the New York Blood Center They hate to be cooped up. They laugh, cry, snowballed. The New York Blood Center said it was getting hard to pay for Monkey get jealous and have temper tantrums — halted tests in 2004, sparking a big question: Island. The charity contacted Liberia’s then- “just like us,” Thomas said. What would they do with all the animals? president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, for help He tended to the animals like they were Putting them back into the nation’s forests and received no reply, its spokeswoman told his children. He hoped the experiments wasn’t an option. They could spread disease The Washington Post. (A spokesman for would ease suffering in West Africa and to others through body fluids, and they didn’t Sirleaf declined to comment.) beyond. The New York Blood Center set know how to pick fruit or hunt insects. By 2015, as the Ebola virus ravaged up shop in Liberia because chimps — now Another problem arose from their the country, the New York Blood Center considered an endangered species — were artificial comfort zone. What if the chimps notified the Liberian government that it already climbing the trees of its dense heard the familiar sound of people talking could “no longer divert funds from its forests. — or poachers talking — and ambled out important lifesaving mission here at home,” No one expected the lab to tumble into to say hi? a spokeswoman said in a recent statement. chaos. “The only way to hold them was to put Thomas stuck to the feeding schedule In the early 1990s, Charles Taylor — the them on an island,” Thomas said. until the last penny was gone.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

He went with the other caretakers from fruit stall to fruit stall, seeking donations — a daunting task in a time of epidemic. One particularly generous neighbor gave him 50 pieces of coconut. The men gathered enough food to keep the chimps alive if not full for a few weeks. During that period, Thomas remembers pulling up to islands and seeing frantic, desperate animals. They screamed and fought over scraps. It wasn’t enough. He told the story to whoever would listen, he said, and eventually found a sympathetic ear with connections to Humane Society International in Washington. The nonprofit group has since bankrolled the care, spending about $500,000 annually on Monkey Island. Meals now happen twice a day. The price grows, though, as the colony does. (Facing backlash, the DANIELLE PAQUETTE/THE WASHINGTON POST New York Blood Center agreed to pay the The chimpanzees receive 500 pounds of produce each day. Once a week, they get a batch of hard- Humane Society $6 million in 2017. At the boiled eggs. time, the Humane Society estimated the total cost of caring for the chimps to be $17 on their own island in a Planet of the Apes over for a peek, and guidebooks from million.) meets Resident Evil-style scenario,” read irresponsibly advising tourists to hitch a Despite the team of 10 caretakers’ best one news story published on an Australian ride. family-planning efforts, which include news site. No one can get as close as Thomas. Photos vasectomies for males and slipping birth Thomas rolls his eyes. show him standing knee-deep in river water, control in sugary milk paste, the chimps The public should stay away from animals hugging the chimps he sees as family. have had a few babies. “Very cute accidents,” that might get spooked and attack, he said. He greets them by name: Mabel. Stuart. Humane Society chief executive Kitty Block The caretakers dream of building an Juno. Ellyse. Annie. said. animal hospital on one of the sanctuaries, “I’ll be doing this,” he said, “until they die Over the years, Monkey Island has as well as a proper security system to keep or I do.” ■ become a local legend, though some news people away. As of now, one man sits on a articles have painted the inhabitants as small dock off each island, telling onlookers infectious threats. to scram. “A bunch of ‘monster’ Chimps are living That doesn’t stop fishermen from floating