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Mask up to protect your favorite furry friends

Mankind apparently isn’t alone in suffering serious illness this summer.

While we humans debate whether we should be vaccinated against the continuing global pandemic or if we need to wear a face mask at the Canfield Fair this weekend, song birds, white-tailed deer and even otters and primates have come down with illnesses just as baffling as COVID-19.

Recently the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Veterinary Services Laboratories announced they’d found a COVID-19-positive white-tailed deer — where else but in Ohio. Apparently these are the first deer confirmed with COVID-19 in the world.

The report, frankly, is baffling to me because all the deer I know aren’t big fans of human interaction, save for the times when they come over for dinner — in my garden.

Perhaps more understandable is COVID-19 infections reported in pet cats and dogs, and in one case, a ferret.

Incredibly, animals in zoos and sanctuaries, like big cats, otters and primates, also have been infected with COVID-19 after being near infected humans, presumably zoo workers.

Now when we get sick and are forced to stay home and quarantine away from our friends and co-workers, I guess we also have to mask up and quarantine from Fido and Fluffy (or, in my case, Max and Oreo).

And then, as if that’s not bad enough, suddenly the birds have stopped singing.

During a recent telephone “visit” across the miles and the Pennsylvania state line, my mother piped up with a news tip.

“I have an idea for your column,” she said. “There is an illness infecting the robins.”

Mom went on to explain that in the usual peacefulness of the early morning, when she likes to enjoy her newspaper and a cup of coffee, she’s been noticing the robins are no longer singing.

Now, being the in-depth sort of investigative journalist that I am, I did what any good detective might do to get to the bottom of this phenomena.

I Googled it.

“As bird song is part of the breeding cycle, most birds sing in the breeding season,” Google told me. “They stop singing when they start moulting, usually July time, as the last thing you want to do when your feathers start falling out and you are not quite as quick off your perch is to advertise your presence to predators.”

That may be true, but I don’t believe that’s the only reason birds of northeast Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania (where I grew up and where Mom and Dad still reside) have stopped singing.

In late July, staff writer Allie Vugrincic had reported in this newspaper that wildlife managers, rehabilitators and veterinarians had been receiving reports since April of sick birds in areas along the East Coast and into Ohio. The illness, whatever it may be, was spreading, despite the fact that birds at that time were not migrating and were fairly stationary raising their young.

Experts advised that residents remove bird baths, bird feeders and any other area where birds might congregate to help stop the spread. You might call it, well, social distancing for birds.

So how did area birders react to that recommendation? With disagreement and debate, of course.

“A lot of people are hesitant to do that because we don’t want to see the birds not coming to their usual bird bath or bird feeder,” said Hayley Shoemaker, program coordinator with the Ohio State University Extension in Mahoning County.

“People around here are die-hard birders,” said a local store manager who sells tons of bird seed weekly. “If it comes to a choice, not feeding the birds or feeding the birds, they’re going to feed the birds.”

And so it goes. At this pace, we may never find an end to diseases that are infecting the birds, the deer and the humans.

I’m especially not sure if the birds and the deer will recover from their maladies anytime soon and without any lingering effects, but there’s one thing I do know.

Most of them probably won’t follow U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines suggesting they mask up.

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