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Why is Connecticut considering a ban on kangaroo products? Soccer cleats.

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Why is Connecticut considering a ban on kangaroo products? Soccer cleats.


Amid the flurry of payments launched within the present session of the Connecticut Basic Meeting is the Kangaroo Safety Act of 2023. The invoice would prohibit the sale, barter or providing of useless kangaroos and any merchandise derived from useless kangaroos inside the state. The invoice was referred to the Joint Committee on Commerce for consideration however to date doesn’t seem on any of the committee’s agendas.

Nonetheless, the invoice begs the query: Why is defending kangaroos a difficulty in Connecticut?

“The kangaroo trade in Australia engages within the largest industrial slaughter of land-based wild animals on the earth,” stated state Rep. David Michel, D-Stamford. He stated he launched the invoice as a part of his function because the co-chair of the Animal Advocacy Caucus. “Every year, round 2 million wild kangaroos are gunned down of their native habitat to primarily present their skins to Nike and Adidas to fabricate under-performing cleats.”

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If the billl have been enacted, Connecticut could be the second state, following California, to ban the sale of kangaroo carcasses and merchandise. Connecticut just isn’t alone in contemplating laws like this both. Oregon, dwelling of Nike, is weighing an analogous ban. 

The same invoice was additionally proposed in New Jersey and federally in 2021, however neither went wherever. Throughout the Atlantic the Dutch Celebration for Animals is pushing the EU to ban the importation of kangaroo-based merchandise. Traditionally, nationwide bans have been mentioned for the reason that late Nineteen Eighties. 

“We historically don’t get entangled in worldwide points,” stated Jo-Anne Basile, govt director of CT Votes for Animals, who introduced the problem to Michel’s consideration. “However we’ve got a chance to take motion in opposition to what I take into account a pipeline of cruelty coming into the state.”

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Will we even use kangaroo merchandise?

Most Individuals in all probability have by no means thought-about kangaroos as a product or commodity. For many, they’re animals you may see in a zoo or in a nature documentary or a conservation group’s TikTok being lovely.

However in Australia the commercialized searching of kangaroos is large enterprise. Between 1.5 million and a pair of million kangaroos of the 4 commonest species are killed yearly. As much as one-fifth of a area’s estimated kangaroo inhabitants will be taken by hunters in a given season.

Kangaroo meat is processed into pet meals or carved into steaks/at high-end Aussie eating places. Amazon, maybe unsurprisingly, carries kangaroo meat. Their pelts are tanned into leather-based destined for costly sneakers and boots. Most of it finally ends up as high-end soccer cleats. A whole lot of it isn’t marketed as kangaroo. Some sneakers manufactured from it is perhaps recognized as “k-leather.”

California, which has had a ban on kangaroo merchandise for the reason that Seventies has struggled to implement the ban. A latest report from the Heart for Humane Financial system paperwork many shoe retailers stocking kangaroo-based merchandise. Spokespeople from PUMA and Adidas insisted they adjust to California legal guidelines and would adjust to a ban in Connecticut.

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“PUMA has taken steps to make sure compliance with all relevant regulation and doesn’t at the moment promote kangaroo-based merchandise to shoppers or wholesale accounts in jurisdictions the place the sale of such merchandise is prohibited, akin to California,” wrote Puma spokesperson Melissa Garbayo in an e mail to CT Insider. She asserted that Puma solely used a small quantity of kangaroo leather-based sourced from producers that comply with Australia’s code of practices.

Adidas stated kangaroo leather-based performed a “minor function” in its manufacturing and that the corporate has been substituting kangaroo leather-based for different substances.

“Adidas is against kangaroos being killed in an inhumane or merciless method,” wrote Adidas spokesperson Wealthy Efus. “We will definitely adhere to all relevant authorized laws.”

Scott Edwards, chief counsel for the animal advocacy group Heart for Humane Financial system, stated that regardless of trade controls they have been capable of finding k-leather cleats in California simply.

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“A few of them will not be even labeled in any respect, you form of must know the mannequin of shoe,” Edwards stated. “However typically individuals who go searching for them know what to search for.”

Animal rights teams within the US and Australia have taken purpose on the trade for searching practices that they name merciless, unsustainable and pointless.

“It’s not like we want kangaroo cleats,” Edwards stated. “It’s a distinct segment, luxurious product.”

The kangaroo shooters

Kangaroo searching is carried out by a cottage trade of “shooters.” These impartial hunter-contractors, or small companies, are invited onto a landowner’s property in rural Australia to hunt kangaroos. The shooters are government-certified for his or her accuracy with firearms and controlled by the Australian authorities.

4 kangaroo species, the japanese and western gray kangaroo, the frequent wallaroo and the enduring pink kangaroo are hunted. None of these species are thought-about endangered.

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The Australian authorities and the kangaroo merchandise trade declare that killing kangaroos this manner is critical to cull their numbers on the Australian panorama. Ranchers see kangaroos as competitors for grazing livestock like sheep and cattle for meals and water. They contend that kangaroos overgraze fields.

“The industrial trade does not exist simply because we need to promote meat and skins,” wrote Dennis King, govt officer of the Kangaroo Trade Affiliation of Australia. “There are too many of those abundance species, and we’re a device the Australian authorities makes use of to try to management these numbers.”

Shooters are purported to take kangaroos down with pictures to the top, immediately killing them. They’re additionally purported to keep away from killing mom kangaroos with joeys. Within the occasion {that a} mom kangaroo is shot, the joey is meant to be euthanized.

“Commonplace procedures for coping with dependent young-at-foot will be discovered within the Code,” King wrote. “The trade doesn’t goal moms with joeys.”

Most kangaroo hunts are carried out at evening by highlight when kangaroos are most energetic. These animals are agile and extremely cellular. Gray kangaroos and pink kangaroos are able to attaining speeds of roughly 40 mph. Kangaroo advocates say the hunts are extremely error inclined and that many kangaroos will not be killed within the proscribed manner.

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“They know that the majority animals are mis-shot and die from secondary trauma,” stated McIntyre. 

It’s frequent follow to decapitate kangaroo carcasses within the discipline, delivering headless carcasses for processing. This makes it very tough to find out if a kangaroo was killed within the authorized manner.

“There’s zero monitoring on the level of kill,” McIntyre stated. “In case you are so decided to indicate that it is a humane trade, go away the heads on so we are able to see how the animal died.”

Joeys caught up in a hunt are killed by blunt drive to the top. Documentary footage from “Kangaroos: A Love Hate Story” shows shooters swinging child kangaroos by the tail, slamming their heads in opposition to truck beds. In the event that they escape euthanasia they starve with out their moms. An inquest by the Parliament of New South Wales discovered that there was no dependable knowledge on what number of joeys have been killed yearly.

“It’s a disgrace that we deal with the joeys, the child of our nationwide icon, in such a merciless and barbaric manner,” McIntyre stated.

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That very same parliamentary inquest additionally discovered that the general inhabitants knowledge for these 4 kangaroo species was deeply flawed. It’s laborious to say what number of kangaroos are on the panorama. And the conduct of shooters is unimaginable to confirm as a result of there aren’t any inspectors monitoring the purpose of kill.

Animal rights activists and conservationists say that this casts doubt on the sustainability of the kangaroo trade and the general posture of the kangaroo cull as humane and crucial. These are expenses which might be flatly rejected by the kangaroo trade.

“We’re calling out the misinformation being circulated round kangaroo administration and the necessity for higher consciousness of managing overabundant species,” wrote King, of the Kangaroo Trade Affiliation. “The trade is extraordinarily assured in its strong requirements of excellence in animal welfare, sustainability and meals security.”

Kangaroo trade is a legacy of pest administration

Kangaroos have existed on the Australian continent for thousands and thousands of years. Kangaroos and their wallaby cousins are extremely tailored to dry climates with unsure rainfall. Purple kangaroos can go days with out consuming, extracting many of the water they want from the crops they eat. Throughout famines, feminine kangaroos can pause the event of embryos till circumstances enhance.

Their distinctive hopping is extremely vitality environment friendly. They make good use of this to flee excessive drought circumstances. Mobs of kangaroos will descend on locations that scent like water throughout drought.

Aboriginal peoples developed a detailed relationship with kangaroos. They relied on them as a meals supply and there’s proof that some Aboriginal peoples cultivated kangaroo habitat utilizing managed burns. They’re sacred animals to many Aboriginal peoples.

When white settlers arrived, kangaroos have been at first a novelty and an emblem of powerful, outback independence. They too hunted kangaroos for meals. However the progress of the ranching trade shortly recast kangaroos as a pest and competitor to nonnative sheep and cattle.

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“For generations, the wildlife have been thought-about one thing to be managed and gotten rid of,” McIntyre stated. He stated the angle to start out was to create a ‘Little England’ in Australia. “That permeates our farming tradition.”

David Croft, a retired kangaroo behavioral ecologist who studied kangaroo-human interactions for over 50 years, stated that over time a notion grew amongst landowners and ranchers that there have been too many kangaroos on the panorama. Kangaroos occur to love grassy pastureland, which didn’t assist their repute.

Over time a regime of culling developed, Croft defined. By Eighties all Australian states had enacted laws to encourage the eradication of kangaroos. By the Sixties, repeated scaremongering about kangaroo “plagues,” eradication strain and drought had sharply diminished the inhabitants. Australian commentators puzzled if it was too late to save lots of “Massive pink” Australia’s nationwide image.

“The trade reinvented itself within the Nineteen Nineties from a pest administration service to grow to be a gatherer of sustainable sources to tempt the carnivore palate and invoke the athleticism of kangaroos in your sports activities sneakers,” Croft wrote in an e mail to CT Insider. 

The present regime of utilizing the industrial searching trade to cut back seemingly plentiful pastureland kangaroo shares arose from this era. Arial surveys have been launched on this interval, together with caps on searching. Lately, Croft wrote, the protections established by this regime have been weakened by landowner lobbies and rising automobile collisions in suburban areas.

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Croft argues that there are gross exaggerations on either side of the kangaroo query. On the one hand, kangaroos are pretty frequent throughout Australia and aren’t prone to go extinct. However however, Croft says kangaroos pose little precise risk to ranchers and that the searching trade isn’t a crucial element of ecological administration. That is additional exacerbated by the intense swings of drought and fireplace attributable to local weather change. 

Croft argues that kangaroo administration ought to be returned to the Aboriginal peoples with a concentrate on ecotourism and coexistence. He stated that the kangaroo trade essentially doesn’t maintain a lot of a worth proposition as an export product.

“The query to me is why does Connecticut want kangaroo merchandise from an trade which is eternally seeking a rationale however is excellent at propaganda to its shoppers and to its shoppers?” Croft wrote.

McIntyre stated it was essentially a humiliation for Australia to be having this dialog in any respect.

“As an Australian, I’m embarrassed by this,” McIntyre stated. “I’ve been on the market. I’ve been out on the kill. I’ve witnessed it, and it’s a shameful, shameful follow.”

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A kangaroo trade spokesperson argued {that a} ban from Connecticut would represent meddling in inner Australian kangaroo administration coverage and vowed to take the battle to Washington.

“The Kangaroo Trade Affiliation of Australia will probably be approaching the Australian embassy in Washington in response to the misinformation fueling the US State of Connecticut to contemplate laws prohibiting the sale of kangaroo merchandise,” King wrote.

Essentially native proponents stated they aren’t within the wildlife administration components of the kangaroo query. For them its nearly fully about eliminating area of interest merchandise related with animal cruelty. Do we actually want soccer cleats manufactured from kangaroo leather-based, kangaroo jerky or novelty gadgets manufactured from tanned kangaroo scrotums?

“We’re not getting concerned in the midst of what they select to do by way of managing their wildlife,” stated Basile of CT Votes for Animals. “What I’ve a difficulty with is whether or not we on this nation ought to make the most of that for industrial achieve.”

 

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Connecticut

Is Connecticut one of the next Blue Zones? | Moffly Media

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Is Connecticut one of the next Blue Zones? | Moffly Media


If drinking an elixir of bone broth, dehydrated pig blood, and celery juice while cold plunging in 39-degree spring and sea water could potentially extend your life, would you try it?

Chances are, you would, because the pursuit of longevity has become mainstream, with the global market expected to reach $183 billion by 2028.

But what if it was as easy as, say, living in Connecticut?

That’s what NowPatient’s newest index—inspired by the 2023 Netflix series “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones”—suggests, as
it aims to predict the next ten states to become Blue Zones.

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Blue Zones are where some of the world’s oldest people live, characterized by lower chronic disease and significantly longer life expectancies. Currently, there are five Blue Zones globally, located in Italy, Greece, Japan, Costa Rica and Loma Linda, California.

According to the index, Connecticut is the eighth most likely state to become the next Blue Zone. So we asked an expert for his take.

“We have to remember that Blue Zones are something researchers have been looking at for years, but the man who popularized it wasn’t a researcher, but a journalist,” says Andrew Garritson, vice president of education at the Nutritional Coaching Institute and founder of Argentum, a quality information control organization.

“By nature, his job is to capture attention. So when we see one of the Power 9 criteria for a Blue Zone being ‘Wine at 5’, we should be skeptical,” he says.

Research is pretty well established around alcohol consumption being associated with all-cause mortality, he adds, so to claim that ‘moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers’ is misleading.

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“It’s correlation, not causation,” he says. “That said, everything is a trade-off. Moderate alcohol consumption can be the mechanism indicating that a community is more socially fulfilled—and social fulfillment and belonging has been shown to increase longevity.”

“So the physical trade-off of alcohol consumption can be offset by the social benefits that come from the environment it’s consumed in,” says Garritson.

In the new index citing Connecticut as a promising Blue Zone candidate, researchers looked at mental health, diet, exercise, religion, plant-based diets, sleep and life expectancy.

When asked for his take, Garritson largely agreed with the criteria observed to increase longevity. “It’s not necessarily about religion … per se,” says Garritson. “Religion might be the mechanism that shows you’re plugged into a social community.”

He adds that recent research showed that there was decreased all-cause mortality with a plant-based diet, but notes that people who follow plant-based diets can be at higher risk of nutrient deficiencies, which can lead to sickness.

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“The key is to eat complete sources of protein in a plant-based diet, which requires a more mindful food selection,” he says.

So, does Connecticut have a shot at becoming the next Blue Zone? Yes, but the criteria for getting there might need a bit of a deeper dive.

WHEN IT COMES TO DIRECT, NO-NONSENSE, SCIENCE-BASED FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO LONGER, HEALTHIER LIVES, ANDREW GARRITSON DRILLS IT DOWN TO THESE FIVE HABITS:

    • Having a strong sense of purpose
    • Strength training 3 to 5 times per week
    • Getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep
    • Drinking at least half your bodyweight in ounces of water per day
    • Managing obesity

Image: Julija – stock.adobe.com


Andrew Garritson has helped more than 2,000 people lose 40,000+ pounds of fat, gain 4,600+ pounds of lean body mass, and eliminate 100+ medications You can connect with him on LinkedIn.



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Lawmakers disagree on marijuana’s role in traffic deaths and how to control it

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Lawmakers disagree on marijuana’s role in traffic deaths and how to control it


While state legislators are trying to reduce fatalities on Connecticut highways, they haven’t been able to agree on the next steps regarding drivers smoking pot or drinking alcohol.

Republicans said that marijuana is a major problem on the highways, but their amendment to make it easier for police officers to pull over pot-smoking drivers was defeated by the Democratic-controlled committee by 19-14.

The amendment was part of a broader bill to lower the threshold for arrest for drunken driving from a blood alcohol concentration of .08% to .05%. The only state that currently has the .05 level is Utah. But lawmakers also could not reach a broad consensus on alcohol as Democrats and Republicans split on the issue that passed narrowly.

Republicans said they do not believe it is a coincidence that fatalities have increased since the legislature approved the decriminalization of marijuana in June 2021. But lawmakers from both parties said they lack detailed information regarding the impact of marijuana on accidents. Retail sales of marijuana did not become legal in Connecticut until January 2023, and comprehensive statistics are not available in real-time.

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Democrats noted that the state now has 72 “drug recognition experts” who can check for impairment and will be better able to document marijuana use.

Lawmakers are examining a package of bills to improve road safety as the transportation committee faces a deadline Friday in a short legislative session that ends on May 8.

Rep. Thomas O’Dea, a New Canaan Republican, cited a provision that was passed as part of the marijuana law that says that “the odor of cannabis or burnt cannabis” cannot be used as the sole reason for probable cause for an officer to pull over a driver.

“That’s insanity. It defies logic,” O’Dea told committee members. “We argued this on the floor of the House. It makes no sense. If a police officer sees a person drinking a beer while driving, the police can use that as probable cause to pull that person over. If a police officer observes a person holding a bong in their hand, and the police officer sees that, can they pull the person over for holding a bong or a roach? My understanding is they can’t.”

Rep. Roland Lemar, a New Haven Democrat who co-chairs the committee, said the driver could be pulled over for reckless driving if that was the case.

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“The reason why I am so apoplectic about this is because of other issues,” O’Dea said. “We’re literally encouraging people — smoke marijuana and gummies. Just don’t drink. … And we wonder why there are more deaths on our highways?”

Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant

Connecticut State Representative Tom O’Dea says Connecticut should change the law on allowing police to pull over drivers who are smoking marijuana. Here, he reacts after his name was called in the past on opening day at the start of the legislative session.

In one of the contentious issues of the day, O’Dea offered an amendment to change the state law and allow police officers to stop drivers if they see the driver has been using marijuana.

“It allows a police officer, if they see someone smoking marijuana … you can pull them over,” O’Dea said. “If you see a driver smoking dope, you can pull him over. This, I guarantee you, will save lives. I know I’m a little passionate about this. If you really want to impact the safety of our roadways, this will do it.”

In Stamford, O’Dea said, “When I am walking to buy lunch, I smell marijuana coming out of vehicles.”

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But Lemar and other Democrats opposed the amendment, saying that the issue in traffic safety should be focused on alcohol. Democrats also said the amendment could jeopardize the underlying bill, and the issue would instead by addressed in a separate bill by the legislature’s judiciary committee on Wednesday.

“I don’t know, frankly, if this is the right way to address the issue,” Lemar said. “It is almost impossible to tell, from the side of the road, whether a person has been smoking marijuana or not. If you’re speeding or operating the car recklessly and the officer smells or sees marijuana, they can test for impairment.”

Rep. Devin Carney, a Republican, said that he recently pulled over at a rest area off Interstate 95 and personally saw a person in the driver’s seat of a car who was smoking a joint. Carney said he did not see the person drive away, but he noted the anecdote was illustrative.

“We are sending the wrong message when we say you can drive by a police officer, light up a joint, and there is nothing the police officer can do,” Carney told fellow committee members.

After losing the debate over marijuana, O’Dea and some other Republicans eventually voted against the bill regarding lowering the alcohol level to .05%.

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“I’m not sure this is going to save a life,” O’Dea said, adding that he was sure that his marijuana amendment would save lives.

But Sen. Tony Hwang, the committee’s ranking Senate Republican, voted in favor, saying he hopes to change the culture around drinking.

“The saddest part is it is a preventable tragedy,” Hwang said. “It should not be a coincidence … that the marijuana legalization, combined with alcohol, have contributed to these kind of road fatalities and road dangers. For us to pass a bill only looking at blood alcohol level and rejecting these amendments related to cannabis as it affects safety on our roads, I think, we, as a committee, are only doing part of our job. … We should have accepted those amendments, in addition to blood alcohol content. It weighs on me that we, as a committee, only went halfway on this.”

While noting that the legislature can pass many laws, Hwang said, “But you can’t teach common sense.”

He added, “If we don’t support law enforcement to enforce these laws, it’s going to be tragedy as usual. … If we’re handcuffing one hand behind their back and we’re not addressing the other issues of impairment, I really believe we are doing an incomplete job.”

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But Rep. Kate Farrar, a West Hartford Democrat, said legislators are making their best efforts to stop tragedies on the roads.

“Are we doing everything we can?” Farrar asked. “We know that lowering this blood alcohol level can save lives. … I do hope that all of our colleagues, again, take seriously that we really have taken this moment to do everything we can to protect the residents of our state.”

Utah

Utah became the first state to lower the blood alcohol level in 2018 and has seen a drop of 19.8% in fatal crashes.

Dropping the level, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, would lower the death rate in Connecticut by an estimated 11%. Like Connecticut, other states that are currently considering .05 are Hawaii, Washington, New York, North Carolina and others.

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Nationally, 13,384 people died in the United States in alcohol-related crashes in 2021, the most recent year where complete numbers are available. That includes 112 alcohol-related deaths in Connecticut.

The .05 measure is part of a broader plan to reduce a skyrocketing number of fatalities on Connecticut roads. Legislators were stunned at 366 deaths on the roads in 2022 — about one per day. The statistics show that 2022 was the worst year on Connecticut roads since 1989. While fatalities dipped to 323 last year, the accidents are continuing this year.

The national standard is .08% that states have enacted in order to avoid losing funding for federal highway construction. As a result, Connecticut is currently at the same level as nearby New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

Lawmakers were already working on the problem of wrong-way crashes, but they vowed to redouble their efforts following the death last year of state Rep. Quentin “Q” Williams. The Middletown Democrat was killed in early January 2023 when his car was hit by a wrong-way driver shortly after Williams had left the governor’s inaugural ball in Hartford. Both drivers were legally drunk and both had marijuana in their system.

Rep. Aimee Berger-Girvalo, a Ridgefield Democrat, cited recent testimony by the National Transportation Safety Board that alcohol is a larger problem than marijuana. She also cited the death of Williams last year in a head-on collision.

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“This will reduce fatal crashes, and that is the point,” she said of the bill.

State Rep. Aimee Berger-Girvalo. a Ridgefield Democrat, supports lowering the blood alcohol level to .05% in order to reduce accidents and fatalities. She speaks here on the House floor in February. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
State Rep. Aimee Berger-Girvalo. a Ridgefield Democrat, supports lowering the blood alcohol level to .05% in order to reduce accidents and fatalities. She speaks here on the House floor in February. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)

State Sen. Christine Cohen, the committee’s co-chairwoman, said that 2022 marked the highest deaths on Connecticut roadways in the past three decades, but the fatalities have continued this year at a steady pace.

“We know from the [transportation] commissioner that 2024 is on track to be even deadlier,” Cohen said. “I really do believe this is a multifaceted issue and deserves a multifaceted approach.”

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com 



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Armed suspects break into Connecticut home, demand pricey cat

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Armed suspects break into Connecticut home, demand pricey cat


Two armed men broke into a Connecticut home on Sunday afternoon and demanded the residents hand over what authorities called a “high-dollar value cat.”

The home invasion happened around 3:46 in East Haven, the East Haven Police Department said.

The suspects reportedly kicked through a sliding glass door and brandished a gun while telling the resident to give them the animal. After searching for several minutes for the cat, the resident was able to fight off the suspects, who then fled the scene in a blue BMW without the feline.

Detectives were able to locate the car in Hamden, about 13 miles north, and seized it for evidence. It was then determined that the suspects knew the victims. The investigation is ongoing.

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“This was not a random incident and detectives are following up on several leads,” East Haven Police Capt. Joseph Murgo said Monday.

No other information about the cat — such as its breed or what makes it valuable — was made available. No injuries were reported.



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