cummings took in the orphaned babies, nurturing them until they could be rereleased into the wild. even after she freed them, she continued to leave food on her rooftop so that she could monitor them and ensure their smooth transition into the wilderness. every few days they’d come back to the rehab center to retrieve some food, like a grown-up child just stopping by for a quick visit. one day, cummings found one of the owls, now an adult, on the ground. she picked it up and watched it die in her arms. when she tested the body, she realized that the poison that had killed its mother was responsible for this death, too.

the killer was a second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide, a chemical used to exterminate rats. because of its widespread effects on ecosystems, some activists are fighting to ban its use. this is one of several legal battles being waged by passionate animal-lovers in connecticut to advance the welfare of species across the state.

building out the legal system for animal rights advocacy

connecticut votes for animals is one political organization where these animal-lovers unite. its members are pushing state bill 962 in hopes of preventing future instances like cummings’ poisoned great-horned owls. the bill would prohibit the use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides. the chemicals produce a slow death for rodents, said adria henderson, a member of the cva advisory council. in the time after a rat has been poisoned but is still alive, it can be eaten by a raptor, or other predator, which will then also die.

“if you kill mice and rats, and the owls eat the mice and rats, they’re gonna die,” henderson explained. “it’s a horrible death for any animal, and even if you don’t like rats, they are a food source for other animals.”

“it works its way into the food web and it’s causing all sorts of damaging effects,” cummings said.

at a wildlife clinic run by tufts university in massachusetts, researchers found traces of anticoagulant rodenticides in every one of the 43 red-tailed hawks they tested. the tufts university website explains that many of the hawks were also found with second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, which are more powerful and harmful than first-generation ones.

connecticut votes for animals has also rallied behind state bill 1060. if enacted, this bill would allow lawyers or law students to act as advocates for abused animals in court.

the proposed legislation builds on “desmond’s law,” a 2016 bill that allows court advocates to be appointed for abused dogs and cats. it was championed by jessica rubin, an animal rights lawyer and professor at the university of connecticut school of law.

with the presence of an advocate, cases of animal abuse are less likely to be dismissed. rubin explained that in the past, cases were dismissed frequently because of a lack of sufficient evidence.

“the advocate can really play a wide range of roles in an animal cruelty case,” rubin said, explaining that advocates conduct extra legal and factual research to give recommendations about a case. “it’s…another perspective in the courtroom.”

now, ct votes for animals seeks to expand the idea of court advocates to all abused animals, not just dogs and cats, henderson said.

“desmond’s law doesn’t cover goats…neglected horses…neglected farm animals,” henderson said. “there’s all that other part of the animal world…that if desmond’s law is expanded, they would be protected.”

honoring the interior lives of animals

jp farm animal sanctuary is a project run by lynn printy and oscar janssen that aims to protect this other part of the animal world. it provides a safe home to cows, pigs, chickens, and other farm creatures. some of these animals were rescued from abuse, while others were on the path to being killed for food.

“if we are, as a species, supposed to be kind and loving, how can we not be kind and loving to other beings? why would we even think it’s okay not to be kind to them,” printy said. “it’s so weird that we have such a separation…it’s okay to have your dog here, but if it was a pig or a cow, well, let’s just figure out how to kill it or literally abuse it.”

rubin supports the idea of expanding desmond’s law to animals beyond dogs and cats.

“all of the reasons for creating the law are not restricted to dogs and cats,” she explained, highlighting that her moral and scientific opposition to animal cruelty extends beyond household pets.

“i think that there’s a lot of scientific data that shows that animals are capable of reason and social bonds,” rubin said.

examples of this data include a 2006 review by irene pepperberg from brandeis university that suggests that crows have a similar understanding of numbers as human children and a 2017 study by scientists including drew altschul from the university of edinburgh that shows that chimpanzees’ performance on touchscreen tasks depends on their personalities.

britt janssen, the sister of one of jp farm animal sanctuary’s co-founders, explained that she has witnessed animals’ capacity for emotion and logic firsthand through all the time she has spent helping out at the sanctuary.

“they have family. they have best friends. they have people, other animals that they don’t like,” she said. “we can actually visualize it because we’re experiencing it daily.”

rubin explained that by allowing the appointment of advocates in court, animals are treated more like humans in the legal system, which advances the cause of animal rights.

“the wonderful thing about the court advocate program is that it is not a direct ask for standing, but it’s a way to encourage courts to see animals as legal persons,” she said.

a question of philosophy

thomas bontly, a philosopher at the university of connecticut, explained that different philosophical streams of thought place varying amounts of emphasis on animal welfare. utilitarianism centers on the reduction of harm and places value on any being that can suffer.

“utilitarianism implies that animals do matter,” he explained.

deep ecology is the thinking that nature is inherently valuable, regardless of its benefits to humans. arne næss, a philosopher and mountaineer, coined the term after observing the spiritualities and philosophies of different people around the world.

“he formulated this position that came to be called deep ecology,” bontly said.

bontly explained that people’s experiences, circumstances and upbringings impact their views on the environment more than any scholarly theories or ethical analysis. he said that people who feel connected to animals are more likely to want to advance their welfare.

“for most people, it comes down to whether you identify with them or not,” he said. “very few people are actually motivated by moral reason.”

for rubin, the idea of any animal being harmed or mistreated is unacceptable.

“i work in animal law because i have had a lifelong connection with animals and see them as deserving of the highest degree of respect, protection, … and empathy,” she said.

printy explained that legislative change is necessary to protect the animals she loves dearly.

“i think if we don’t get the laws in place, we’re not going to make change,” she said. “i can’t be apathetic anymore.”

cummings expressed a similar passion and desire for change.

“i don’t have any kind of ulterior motive, i’m just trying to save our wildlife,” she said.

henderson explained that many issues extend beyond one species, often impacting ecosystems in unexpected ways. she stressed the importance of respecting all animals to create a better world.

“everybody’s connected,” she said. “let’s put it that way.”

the book, “to sit with the universe,” is the culmination of a semester of learning in a class taught in the fall of 2021 by uconn sociology professor phoebe godfrey, called human societies and the living earth.

the book is now published digitally at uconn through naturerx, a program that encourages people to spend more time outdoors to improve their physical and mental health.

its 68 pages contain student-made entries that guide readers through activities, meditations and creative projects that promote slowing down and rethinking your relationship with the world.

godfrey explained that today’s world can be discouraging for lovers of nature because of how exploitative people are of the environment. consumerism dictates that natural, often living resources are destroyed to produce unnecessary material goods.

“we kill life to make things that are dead,” godfrey said in an interview. “if you love the environment and you love life, it’s heartbreaking.”

many of her students shared in this disheartenment. godfrey explained that it’s easy to feel helpless as part of such a destructive society, but that her students took this project as a chance to make a small change. each entry they wrote in the book served to encourage a shift in audiences’ attitudes toward nature.

“for the students, it was very healing,” godfrey said.

expanding what education can be

rory monaco is a uconn student that took the course and contributed entries including a meditation activity, an exercise in observing nature and a poem to the book. she said that she appreciated the unconventional manner of the class and the project.

“i think in some ways the purpose is to promote non-traditional forms of education,” she said in a text.

the decision to create this project was student-led, as godfrey let her students decide the direction of their final assignment.

“the students chose that they wanted to share what they had learned with the community,” godfrey said.

“we didn’t decide to create the book until we were brainstorming, as a class, final project ideas and decided through consensus to create the book,” monaco said.

cynthia jones, the founder of naturerx at uconn and a biology professor, explained that “to sit with the universe” is so impactful because it encourages mindfulness in nature.

“mindfulness is like seeing a flower and smelling it, or feeling the bark of a tree,” jones said.

this idea of mindfulness is encompassed in the philosophy of naturerx, which promotes the health benefits of spending time in nature.

“spending time engaged with nature is beneficial for a whole wide range of reasons,” jones said.

these reasons include improved immune system function and increased levels of serotonin, a chemical that impacts mood and other things in the body, jones said. there are a variety of explanations as to why nature is so beneficial, including microorganisms in soil, compounds produced by plants, and humans’ innate connection to the natural world programmed through millennia of evolution into our dna.

open a book, connect with nature

the theory that humans share an innate connection with nature is called biophilia. the term comes from a 1993 study conducted by stephen kellert and edward wilson which hypothesized that because earlier humans depended on their connections with the environment to survive, a need to connect with nature remains innate. an international journal of wellbeing article says that studies have found that humans across cultures and of diverse ages react more positively to nature scenes than they do to other visual cues, suggesting that people are born with, not taught, a love for nature.

“there’s a variety of hypotheses and methods, and it’s probably a whole bunch of things,” jones said.

it may be difficult to confirm any one theory explaining it, but the consensus is that nature is good for people. according to the american psychological association, “spending time in nature is linked to both cognitive benefits and improvements in mood, mental health and emotional well-being.”

jones explained that a person’s connection with nature fluctuates throughout a lifetime, typically dropping off in high school then starting to climb in college. this theory is supported by a study by joelene hughes, published in frontiers in ecology and the environment, that polled people of different ages across the uk about their connection to nature. jones concludes from the data that college students are an especially important demographic to reach with information about the health benefits of time in nature.

“i think it’s a really important time in people’s lives to influence them,” jones said. “look, just go outside for 10 minutes because it’ll make you feel better.”

influencing people to think differently about nature is what “to sit with the universe” is all about. when the course ran for the second time last fall, godfrey assigned passages of the book as homework. she hopes to teach the class again in the fall of 2024, and that it can eventually become a permanent course.

to read the full book, click here.

the model is the first of its kind to factor in animals’ resting periods, allowing gps data to more accurately reflect the large amount of time wild cats are not walking from one location to another. other models can’t account for these periods, making this one ideal to give a clearer picture of the actual lives of feline predators.

“compared to other movement models, this model allows the animals to stay still,” said jun yan, a professor of statistics at uconn, in a virtual interview. “only a small portion of their life is spent moving.” 

the model is a “highly technical thing,” said thomas meyer, a professor in the department of natural resources and the environment, in a telephone interview. he emphasized the complexity behind factoring in resting periods, and explained that it is helpful in learning more about feline predators.

“you can’t manage something you don’t understand,” meyer said.

applying a new model

meyer is using the new model to study mountain lions across the country. it has allowed him to learn about how the species is affected by the changing seasons. he once hypothesized that mountain lions are impeded by adverse conditions during winter months. but his analysis of gps data with the new model yielded a surprise: the cats move the same distance in the winter despite harsher conditions.

he explained that researching mountain lions is important because they significantly benefit their ecosystems. species like deer, elk, and sheep would overpopulate and overgraze the land if mountain lions were not there. adequate research ensures that conservationists can take the steps necessary to best protect mountain lions and keep ecosystems balanced.

“apex predators are the keystone to keeping ecosystems healthy,” meyer said.

tracy rittenhouse, an associate professor in the department of natural resources and the environment, is incorporating the new model into her research on bobcats in connecticut. she is working with the connecticut department of energy and environmental protection (deep) to track and analyze bobcat populations in the state.

she is on year six of a project that involves tracking bobcats in connecticut using gps collars. she recently joined forces with the research team that includes yan and meyer to incorporate the new statistical model into her research.

in her original experiment design, the gps collars on the bobcats recorded and transmitted the animals’ locations once every four hours. to track the cats’ resting periods in accordance with the new model, the collars now record their locations every five, 10, or 15 minutes.

rittenhouse said that the model “changes our understanding of energy budgets,” as it will allow her team to learn more about how often the bobcats stay still and expend less energy.

her team is waiting to retrieve a few more gps collars before it starts analyzing the data. the collars are supposed to fall off the cats at the end of the research period, but rittenhouse will have to retrieve the ones that failed to do so by re-trapping the bobcats and manually removing the collars.

once they have recovered the collars, rittenhouse’s team will spend about a year or two analyzing the data, then write three to four papers worth of conclusions, she said. the results will be directly applicable to deep’s bobcat conservation strategies.

a meeting of the minds

“collaboration with deep is foundational to everything i do,” rittenhouse said. “that’s the applied ecologist in me.”

meyer’s and rittenhouse’s research on feline predators is collaborative in nature. meyer works with a biologist from panthera, a worldwide wild cat conservation organization. additionally, the development and implementation of the advanced tracking model brings together experts in both ecology and statistics.

“this particular line of research calls for mathematical firepower that basically no ecologists have,” meyer said.

the statistical model that enables this advanced research is the culmination of years of problem solving, said yan. he explained that the ability to account for resting periods is a breakthrough in statistics that allows for a model to better encapsulate the natural movement of animals.

“it’s been 10 years,” yan said. “we finally have a not perfect, but reasonable and practical, solution to this problem.”