Earth on alert: climate crisis localized

By Logan Schiciano and Sophie Grand

View the full version of this report on the implications of climate change in the greater New York City area, as well as features on current and former Masters’ students involvement in environmental advocacy and animal conservation above

Merrill sisters care for animals at New York sanctuaries

500 years ago, red wolves were the prominent species of wolf in Westchester County; but now they’re almost extinct.

Dana Goin, the daughter of science teacher Elisabeth Merrill and Masters alumna (‘11), is an outreach specialist at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, N.Y. The center is home to a combination of red wolves and Mexican gray wolves (39 in total), both of which are critically endangered.

There are only 300 red wolves remaining (10 in the wild) and roughly 400 Mexican gray wolves (approximately 186 of them in the wild), according to Goin, who credits their decline to a variety of factors, including hunting pressure, poisoning campaigns by private landowners and loss of habitat.

Contrary to popular belief, there are very few, if any wolves living in the wild throughout New York state. Goin explained that wolves are often confused with coyotes because they are morphologically similar. One of her responsibilities as outreach specialist is to educate groups on the species’ differences, promote coexistence and dispel any misinformation.

“A lot of folks really love wolves, but absolutely despise coyotes and think they are these killing machines who attack children and pets,” Goin said. She continued, “There are a lot of things we can do to mitigate the human-wildlife conflict and improve our relationship with them [coyotes], rather than lethally remove them––which actually tends to cause more of an issue.”

Historically, wolves have been falsely depicted as the villain in popular children’s media.

“If you just think about stories that we grow up with––in Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf eats the grandma; In the Three Little Pigs, the wolf is huffing and puffing and blowing the house down. Those are just stories that we hear as children. There is so much media where wolves are these kinds of snarling, fearsome beasts and in reality, they are petrified of people,” she said.

The conservation center, founded in 1999, takes care of their wolves with the hope of releasing them back into the wild.

A release, which is ultimately approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is incredibly rare. The Wolf Conservation Center has only released five wolves in its 22-year existence. Goin explained the process.

“The agency reviews the wolf’s genetic makeup because you want to be releasing wolves that are contributing genetic diversity into those wild populations. You also want to release wolves that are wild in their behavior, which is why it’s so crucial that we protect their wild nature.”

The center does this by feeding their wolves roadkill deer and keeping them secluded, excluding the three ‘ambassador’ wolves, who have been trained to interact with visitors.

The ambassador wolves are actually considered the most dangerous, according to Goin, because they have been trained to positively associate with humans and are thus disqualified from potential release.

And while the red wolves and Mexican gray wolves still face an uphill battle in the wild, Goin explained why she remains passionate about her role.

“Being able to be at the forefront of these recovery efforts and make an impact on the lives of wild animals is really exciting and important,” she said.

But Goin is not the only member of the family who is working in animal conservation. Her sister, Veronica Finnegan, is the communications manager for the Catskill Animal Sanctuary in Saugerties, N.Y.  Finnegan is also a member of Masters’ Class of 2006.

The sanctuary rescues farmed animals, including horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, turkeys, chickens, ducks and geese. Over the past 20 years of operation, it has saved thousands of animals through direct emergency rescue.

“It’s important to remember that animal cruelty is not confined exclusively to massive factory farms. We have rescued animals from hoarding situations, to brutal “backyard” farming operations. We’ve also taken in roosters who’ve been discarded from hatching projects, a baby lamb rescued from a live market in NYC and we’ve had baby bunnies dumped at the top of our driveway in January,” Finnegan said. “These situations are devastating and it’s our mission to make sure that those animals know only love and safety for the rest of their lives.”

Different from the Wolf Conservation Center, the ultimate end-goal for these animals is not release back into the wild, but adoption.

Finnegan, who has been involved with the sanctuary since 2017, said, “We are extremely careful about adopting out these animals. It’s not easy for a potential adopter to meet our standard of care; additionally some of these animals have extensive medical or emotional needs that mean we need to care for them for their entire lives.”

Another focal point of the sanctuary is its promotion of vegan living, which is “the number-one way to help animals, heal the planet, and improve your health,” according to its website.

Finnegan became a vegan herself in 2014. She said her only regret was not making the switch  sooner.

“Veganism is a justice movement,” she said. “It is a lifestyle in which someone commits to fighting the harm of animal agriculture by eschewing all animal products (animal flesh, including flesh from fishes, animal secretions, such as eggs and milk, as well as honey). Vegans understand that animals do not exist for our use and therefore they do not use animal products to the extent that this can be avoided.”

Choosing a vegan lifestyle can also have a tremendous impact on the environment, Finnegan explained.

“Animal agriculture is responsible for enormous environmental hazards, including wildlife habitat destruction, carbon emissions, air and water pollution. The single greatest impact you can have on your personal footprint is by going vegan.”

This story was originally published on Tower on April 30, 2021.