Passerby Brian Coleman makes friends with Theodore Nibblebottoms, a pet pig who escaped his pen and made it to the front yard of his owner’s home on Branch Avenue in Little Silver Sunday morning. (Reader photo. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank animal control officer Henry Perez and FedEx driver Vinnie Losapio went looking for a sparrow that flew into Losapio’s truck and up under the dashboard Thursday morning.
The kitchen at Lunch Break remains busy preparing grab ‘n go meals as well as meals for delivery to the homebound. (Photo courtesy of Lunch Break. Click to enlarge.)
With job and income losses in the COVID-10 crisis, food insecurity is spreading, and Red Bank-area charities are stepping up to help ensure no one goes hungry.
At Lunch Break in Red Bank, for example, volunteers have distributed 65 percent more meals and 56 percent more groceries since March 16 than in the comparable 2019 period, said executive director Gwen Love.
Here’s a starter list of charitable efforts to feed the hungry in Red Bank, with links to make monetary donations. This list will be updated periodically.
Staffers and volunteers at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monmouth County unit in Red Bank drew an uplifting chalk mural on the pavement before handing out free meals to community members Wednesday evening.
Lunch Break executive director Gwen Love, left, with officials from the Monmouth County SPCA. (Photo courtesy of Monmouth County SPCA. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank’s Lunch Break has teamed up with the Monmouth County SPCA to help feed the pets of local residents hard hit by the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
By JOHN T. WARD
A raccoon that tussled with a dog in Fair Haven last month had rabies, redbankgreen has learned.
Affecting the air of a thuggish gang, a group of vultures loitered outside Les Gertrude apartments on Broad Street in Red Bank Thursday morning. One enjoyed a sidewalk breakfast of fresh kill.
Any ornithologists out there who can identify these gray-headed birds? (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)
A young owl found cowering against a storefront in the Grove at Shrewsbury was headed to an animal hospital for treatment Friday morning.
Prince, from Dream Horse Carriage Rides, pulls a carriage through downtown Red Bank in 2014. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Mayor Pasquale Menna thinks having horses pull tourist carriages through downtown Red Bank during the Christmas holiday season is “inhumane.”
He said so at Wednesday night’s semimonthly council meeting, when he formally appointed an Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and asked that it look into ending the annual rides.
What does the owner of the horses think?
“Oh, not this idiocy again,” said Tania Lawson, owner of Dream Horse Carriage Rides in Jackson Township.
When it comes to cars, it’s usually horsepower that matters, but a vehicle in for servicing at Red Bank Volvo Cars Tuesday morning had a little something extra under the hood: a trio of newborn squirrels.
What was that snapping turtle doing at the edge of a parking lot on Monroe Avenue in Shrewsbury last spring? The answer, or answers, emerged from the mud Wednesday afternoon.
Red Bank Animal Control Officer Henry Perez reports that he experienced a first Friday morning: a ‘lost’ dog that showed him where she lives.
A couple of headstrong snapping turtles got an assist from Fair Haven police, public works employees and Animal Control Officer Henry Perez earlier this week.
A deer checks out two-legged visitors enjoying a first-full-day-of-spring stroll in Rumson’s Meadowridge Park late Monday afternoon.
The post-winter thaw continues Tuesday, with temperatures expected to peak at about 55 degrees, and to climb as high as 68 on Wednesday, according to the Weather Underground. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
With Christmas over, were three of Santa’s reindeer hoping to reunite with Jolly St. Nick in Red Bank over the weekend? Borough resident Charlie Bierly photographed this deer trio in the intersection of Madison Avenue and — no kidding — St. Nicholas Place Saturday afternoon. (Photo by Charlie Bierly. Click to enlarge)
Pets and their human companions are welcome at a new animal-friendly worship service launched by St. George’s-by-the-River in Rumson last month. The service is held on the second Saturday of each month at 5 p.m. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Mass celebrants weren’t all equally attentive to Reverend Ophelia Laughlin at a pets-welcome worship at St. George’s-by-the-River in Rumson Saturday. About two dozen dogs, and a hamster named Hamstie, at right, attended the new regular service, which the church plans to repeat on the second Saturday of each month at 5 p.m. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Reverend Ophelia Laughlin blesses a dog at St. George’s-by-the-River’s annual St. Francis Day event last October. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Vatican may be fuzzy on whether animals get into heaven, but an Episcopal church in Rumson says they’re certainly welcome at services.
St. George’s-by-the-River will start offering a monthly worship next month at which all pets are welcome, associate pastor Reverend Jeff Roy tells redbankgreen.
Middletown officials have now confirmed eight cases of rabies in wild animals this year.
The latest case followed a report by a resident in the area of Walnut Avenue between Pine Street and Chestnut Street who saw a raccoon acting sickly in the backyard.
Middletown officials are warning residents to be cautious about sickly wildlife after five confirmed cases of rabid raccoons over the past five weeks.
According to an alert issued by the township health department Wednesday morning, the latest case involved a raccoon that was trapped after a homeowner in the area of Red Hill Road and Dwight Road notified them that the animal was acting sickly in the back yard.
The animal was trapped and euthanized, and a laboratory test confirmed the presence of rabies, the announcement said.
A brown bat captured by Red Bank’s animal control officer last month. That one turned out to be rabies-free. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A pregnant Red Bank woman and her husband are facing rabies vaccinations after being exposed to a rabid bat inside their home early last week, redbankgreen has learned.
The bat was the second to get into the Irving Place residence in a matter of days, said the owner, who asked that his name not be published out of concern for privacy. The first, which was also captured, turned out to be disease-free.
The rabid bat was also the third bat to get into a Red Bank home in less than two weeks, says Animal Control Officer Henry. And one got into the Red Bank Charter School less than two weeks ago, too.
Red Bank rolls out the red carpet for man’s best friend Tuesday night with the first in the series of three planned ‘Dog Days‘ festivals. Monmouth Street between Broad Street and Drummond Place will be closed to traffic from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. as dozens of animal-products vendors set up for an expected turnout of several hundred canines and their homo sapiens. All dogs must be on non-extendable leashes, the borough says. The event, whelped by Mayor Pasquale Menna, is scheduled to recur on the last Tuesday nights of August, September and October. (Click to enlarge)
Dogs at last month’s Red Bank Street Fair. Mayor Pasquale Menna says he’s working on a recurring dog-friendly event for this summer. (Click to enlarge)
By WIL FULTON
Red Banks elected officials had canines on the brain Wednesday night, as dog-related issues came up several times during the course of the bimonthly council meeting.
Mayor Pasquale Menna said that he and Councilwoman Sharon Lee had recently attended a meeting at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital to plan an event he referred to as the Dog Days of Summer in Red Bank, a creative endeavor looking to pair downtown nightlife and dog-friendly activities.
I consider it a very cool, progressive idea, based somewhat off the European model of including pets in life, Menna said.
Nicole Stover, left, and her mother, Dawn, make their case to the borough council to keep six ducks as pets. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
The borough council in Fair Haven is faced with a difficult and unusual decision.
On Monday night, the governing body heard from Nicole and Dawn Stover, who for the last six months have raised six ducks on their South Woodland Drive property to the chagrin of their neighbors, who have health concerns and complain that the noise from the ducks is irritating.
If the council allows the Stovers to keep the ducks, it will upset the neighbors. If it denies the family’s request, then it will have broken the heart of 12-year-old Nicole, who’s raised the ducks she’s named them Jeffrey, Delilah, Daisy, Lucifer, Blue and Genie and says they’re “pretty much like my children.”
This is a touchy subject, especially in Fair Haven, where disruptions to the status quo tend to spin the populace into a tizzy.
Something you don’t see every day in Red Bank: Julie Cassidy snapped this cellphone shot of five wild turkeys on McLaren Street Monday morning. There’s a wisecrack somewhere in this but we can’t think of it. Suggestions? [Update: Turns out the turkeys were also in Fair Haven Monday morning, as seen in the shot at right, taken on Lake Avenue by Patrick Corbett. (Click to enlarge)