- [Commentator] Tonight on "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories."

An orangutan at the Toronto Zoo is expecting, it's big news for the endangered population and the first pregnancy at the zoo in 15 years.

And the Watertown Fire Department has been at work for decades.

Learn more about this trusted entity and some of its most historic moments.

Also, visit the Happy Tails Animal Sanctuary in Harrowsmith, Ontario, where second chances for animals are never second guessed.

All this and more coming up right now on "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories."

(light music) - [Commentator] "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories" is brought to you by the Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation, The Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, Carthage Savings, CSX, The Oswego County Community Foundation at the Central New York Community Foundation, and by the Richard S. Shineman Foundation.

- Good evening, everyone.

And welcome to this edition of "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories."

I'm Stephfond Brunson.

Some good news from the Toronto Zoo.

An endangered orangutan is pregnant for the first time in 15 years.

Handlers are calling it a success for the species at a time when orangutans are facing diminishing odds of long-term survival.

Niki Anastasakis has more.

(upbeat music) - Sumatran orangutans, Budi and Sekali, are going to be parents again.

The pair are expecting to give birth next spring.

And what's super important is these animals are under increasing pressure due to habitat loss and the Palm Oil Crisis.

- What's happening is we're cutting down a lot of this habitat to make room for agriculture.

So, if you guys haven't heard of palm oil, it comes from the oil palm tree.

It's a type of vegetable oil and it's actually 50% of the products that we buy at our drug stores and supermarkets every day.

It's even in our personal care items, in our dog food, lots of things like that.

So, what's happening is they're replacing all of this valuable land with these crops.

And we are losing that land.

- [Niki] The grade three zookeeper at the Indo-Malaysia Pavilion, Amanda Carroll, says Sekali is expecting to give birth in the spring of 2022.

This is all part of the Toronto Zoo's plan to raise a captive population of orangutans here in Canada that are genetically viable as an insurance that these creatures won't die out as their numbers continue to decline in their native rainforest on the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

This region is rich and wildlife, but under threat from loggers and farmers.

- So, they're really important to their habitat.

So, these guys do live in the rainforest.

So, rainforests are also important to humans.

They keep our water clean, they stop erosion.

They provide livelihoods to a lot of people in that area.

But with the orangutans, these guys are known as fruit eaters mostly.

So, they'll eat a lot of the fruits.

And then when they defecate after eating that fruit, they're dispersing those seeds and they're helping all those plants to continuously survive in that rainforest.

- [Niki] It is estimated that 14,000 orangutans currently remain in Sumatra and roughly 60,000 of the species across the Karimata Straits in Borneo.

The Borneans being the most threatened subspecies.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, Bornean orangutan populations have declined by more than 50% over the past 60 years.

And the species habitat has been reduced by at least 55% just in the last few decades alone, which is why Carroll says, as consumers, we have to be conscious of what we're purchasing.

- So, we're asking you guys to start supporting those companies that are using sustainable palm oil.

So, ways that you guys can do that, you can get on the Toronto Zoo's website at torontozoo.com and just search up sustainable palm oil and you'll get some lists of some foods that is supporting those companies.

- Orangutans are far from the only primates under threat, of course.

With nearly half, 42% of the earth's 702 primate species listed as endangered or critically endangered by extinction.

Alongside making more sustainable choices, conservationists and other experts point to several other programs that help limit our impact on the global environment, like the Toronto Zoo's own cell phone recycling program.

The cell phone recycling program at the Toronto Zoo encourages you to bring in your cell phone devices or old electronics, which helps counteract the effect of destroying gorillas habitats.

I've collected a few, I'm off to go recycle them.

Hi, I'm here to drop off eight cell phones.

- [Man] Perfect, thank you so much.

- This is using Colton, which is a product inside the phone, and we're trying to reuse that product so that we don't have to keep mining in Africa.

So, if you guys ever have cell phones, please bring them in on your next visit and we do get those all recycled and that helps save the orangutans.

- [Niki] A grim reality confronts humans and the life we share the planet with in 2021, says Dr. Gabriela Mastromonaco, director of conservation science, with the rate of animal extinctions accelerating.

- One of the challenges with extinction is that it's actually moving faster and faster.

So, reproduction, conservation breeding, it's just one side of the, you know, it's one part of the whole picture, of course, trying to slow down climate change, if we can slow it down, I'm not sure that we can, but trying to mitigate some of those effects because we can continue to breed our animals, but there's so many that are quickly going towards extinction that we've gotta have fingers in all the pies to make it work.

- [Niki] With keeping animals safe in mind, be sure to wear your mask when you're at the zoo.

While vaccinations for animals aren't approved yet in Canada, they are at risk of contracting COVID-19.

Therefore, staff at the zoo are working hard to get the animals trained for when the veterinary vaccinations arrive.

- We've been working really hard to get these guys ready for the injection.

So, we do have our vet techs come at least once a week to visit orangutans so that they're used to those vet techs and we're doing trainings.

And so, we'll just ask for them to put their shoulder up against the mesh.

And then we'll just do you know, sometimes it's a fake poke.

Sometimes it's a blunt poke.

So, we kind of put some pressure.

Sometimes it's skin piercing.

- [Niki] The consensus among experts is clear.

Urgent action is needed from all of us.

- Everyone can do something and it could be as simple as supporting a local program or taking a hike near your local wetland.

It's really about everyone being part of this picture.

- [Niki] For "Inside the Story," I'm Niki Anastasakis.

- Watertown, New York is rich in history.

From settling and developing communities to the start of organizations.

There's a fascinating story in every corner.

Tonight, we share the humble beginnings of the city of Watertown Fire Department, highlighting some of their most memorable and historic moments.

Producer, Eric Cleary, brings us more.

- [Eric] Established in 1817, the Watertown Fire Department has served the community diligently for over 200 years.

Andrew Naklick, a fire captain with the department at the Emma Flower Taylor Fire Station on south Massey street, spoke to us recently about the history of the fire department.

- The city of Watertown was incorporated as a village in 1816.

Shortly thereafter, there was a large fire which burned down the Henry Coffeen Sawmill and about six other buildings in the village.

It actually threatened to destroy most of the buildings in the village.

So, they saw the need for fire protection service.

And in 1817, the village of Watertown Fire Department was formally organized.

Initially the fire department consisted of five wardens, fire wardens.

There was five wards in the city and each fire warden had a specific job to do when it came to fighting fires.

All of the citizens in the village were required to have a leather bucket in their home and at the sound or shout of "fire," they would ring the bell at city hall and that would summon all the firefighters and all the essentially citizens to wherever the fire was located.

And it was really a group effort when it came to fighting fires.

It was this very typical of firefighting in the Northeast around that time period.

So like I said, the initial fire department consisted of five fire wardens.

And then as that transitioned into a more organized force, they elected fire chiefs when it was a volunteer organization, up until the year 1900 when the city saw the need for a more formal fire protection service, they disbanded the volunteers and they went to a full paid service.

And the first fire chief at that time was Fred Morrison.

- [Eric] In its inception, the fire department utilized a bucket brigade system, employing the cistern on the square in the city.

The men would form a line on one side and pass buckets of water toward the fire.

While the women and children formed a line on the opposite side and returned the buckets to the cistern for refilling.

Every citizen was required to have a bucket and every bucket had the family name and address on it for a safe return to its proper owners.

- In the early days, it was a bucket brigade system.

They saw that that didn't work very well.

So, there was a lot of new inventions around that time period, hand pumpers became available.

The city purchased several of those.

They went to hose carts where essentially it was just a cart with a bunch of hose wound up on it and that would allow them to move water from one place to another.

Turn of the century the steam engine became available.

The city purchased several steam engines that went into use in the city and then they transitioned to gas and eventually diesel fire engines.

- [Eric] Over the years, many of the duties of the fire department have changed and many have stayed the same.

Naklick says that the majority of calls the department responds to today are medical.

All of the daily activities of the station are entered into a log book, which were originally known as watch books.

- Some of the things that we would put in the log book would be a dynamite notice.

And that was pretty typical.

If you transported or used dynamite within city limits, you had to notify the fire department.

They must've used dynamite a lot 100 years ago because there's a lot of dynamite entries.

Tar kettles were another thing.

If somebody had a tar kettle in the city, they had to notify us of that.

So if we responded, they would be aware of it.

One of the things that they did back then was they had box alarms.

The city had call boxes all throughout the city and if you pulled the alarm, it would summon the fire department pre-telephone.

So, you'd see a lot of box alarm responses.

And those were kind of scary because you didn't know what you got till you got there.

Could be a fire, it could be a kid that wanted to see the firetruck.

You never knew.

- [Eric] With history comes tradition.

And for the Watertown Fire Department, it's no different.

- You know, as with any fire department, we have a lot of tradition here, especially after 200 years, a lot of things stay the same.

Some things changed, but there's two things that firefighters hate, change and the way things are.

So, we carry on a lot of the good traditions and we try to get rid of the bad ones.

One of the more interesting traditions is we don't wash the front of the trucks every day and that would confuse most people.

It confused me when I first came on the job.

I went to wash the front of the truck and one of the old timers said, "Hey, what are you doing?

Don't wash the front of the truck."

I said, "Why not?"

And they said, "Well, it's bad luck."

And I said, "Well, it's dirty."

And they said, "Well, it doesn't matter."

I said, "Okay, I'm not gonna mess with luck."

So, we do wash it when it gets dirty, but there's always that joke that we don't wash the front of the truck.

- [Eric] The Watertown Fire Department has been instrumental in keeping the city safe for all her citizens for the 200 plus years of operation and will continue to do so into the future while also keeping old traditions alive and creating new ones.

From the Emma Flower Taylor Fire Station in Watertown, New York, I'm Eric Cleary for "WPBS Weekly."

- Next up, animal sanctuaries exist to save lives of creatures that otherwise don't have a chance.

But, for one sanctuary in Harrowsmith, Ontario, it's about more than just helping animals.

It's also about helping people.

Producer, Ryan Provan, has more on how animals can help heal our souls.

(people clapping) - [Ryan] Hope and happy tails is exactly what you'll find when you visit Happy Tails Farm Sanctuary in Harrowsmith, Ontario.

With her early interest sparked by her desire to rescue dogs, Carla Reilly Moore and her husband decided to open their barn doors to help, not just dogs and cats, but to livestock as well.

- I realized there's a lot of other animals out there that are just as sentient.

They think, they feel, and deserving of protection, but there's not a lot of places for them to go.

So, that's when we decided that we were gonna give them a place to go.

The passion comes from, it comes from a place of respect and healing.

So, animals in themselves are extremely cathartic for humans.

That's why we have therapy animals.

That's why animals are such a big part of our life.

And then I learned from working with the animals that there's such an opportunity for healing for people.

Such an opportunity for teaching.

And that's when we opened our doors to school children and the public and just seeing how the children were just blown away by seeing animals they don't normally see and learning about them.

It's just fueled the passion and it just keeps going.

- [Ryan] In 2015, she was involved in a bad car accident.

As part of her recovery process, she chose outdoor yoga with one of their sheep an experience that brought her a unique sense of healing.

- And it was such a healing feeling of being able to be out in the meadow, to be able to be with the animal, to literally be grounded with my bare feet on the ground and hear the roosters crowing.

And it just was such an impactful moment that I just wanted to share it with our community.

- [Ryan] Not long after, her opportunity to share became an unexpected, but delightful reality.

- So, we were contacted a couple of years ago from the Canadian military who asked us what we would think about having a veteran come who had PTSD and work with the animals.

And I say it's an incredible circle.

It's people helping animals helping people because the animals have come in broken in one way or another.

And let's face it, our military veterans, I think they go through, some of them go through horrific, horrific things.

And there's nowhere out there, sometimes I've been told, they feel that doesn't judge.

They always feel like maybe they don't have a place that they fit.

Sorry, here they fit.

We all fit because they come in broken.

These animals are broken.

We all have something that's broken and animals are so cathartic.

- [Ryan] From a glance, sanctuaries are filled with a variety of happy animals, but not all of these animals had the lives they do now.

Traumatic experiences often shape these animals into who they are and how they act.

Carla seeks to provide a quality of life where these animals can heal from their physical and mental afflictions.

- We do have a little pig named Anna.

She's in the barn and I'll introduced you to her.

Anna came from a place where she had been abandoned after a house sold.

And when the OSBCA came in, they found that she'd been alone in the shed for over a decade and received no medical care.

Her hooves continued to grow.

Just like our fingernails grow, their hooves grow.

So, it looks like they'd never been cut.

So, they were wrapped around.

She couldn't walk.

She was terrified.

Now she's a diva.

Excuse me.

Sorry.

Off you go, Peppa.

Peppa couldn't walk when she first came here.

And as you can see, she's just fine now.

So, we have a three legged lamb named Peter and Peter was born on a very large sheep farm and he was born with three legs and due to new laws in Canada, for example, an animal with three legs cannot be put into the meat system.

So, he would just be slaughtered or maybe used for halal meat.

I'm not sure about the laws, but instead the farmer was very kind and allowed Peter to come to sanctuary.

So, but in order to make his life the best possible and to give him the best welfare, we had to give him a prosthetic leg.

So, we worked hours and hours and hours and Michael worked with him with our veterans to teach him how to walk on his prosthetic and to teach him how to be a lamb.

And now he runs and jumps and plays.

So, he went from having no value on a farm to living a full life.

And this big guy here, this is Thomas.

Thomas was a runt.

And so, he was saved from slaughter because he was a runt.

This is Ruby, hi Rubes.

- Oh, you stinky girl.

Who's a stinky girl?

Who's a stinky girl?

No nibbles.

No nibbles, yeah.

- [Ryan] When operating an animal sanctuary, funding can be a challenge.

Payroll, investing in infrastructure, vet bills, legal expenses, all need to be considered.

By registering as a 501c3 nonprofit, Happy Tails is eligible for private and government grants, which are essential to the financial wellbeing of the sanctuary.

Donations also help the sanctuary thrive.

- Because you always have to understand that funding could stop, or donations can stop, or you still have to be able to take care of the animals.

So, this is their home for the rest of their life.

Most of these animals have come from abuse, neglect, or abandonment.

So to us, sending them off somewhere else would just be devastating.

So, we know that no matter what these animals are our responsibility and we will need to take care of them.

- [Ryan] For "WPBS Weekly," I'm Ryan Provan.

- Music is the spice of life and thanks to so many different genres, talents, and voices, WPBS is able to showcase some of the finest, untapped musical spices in the region.

We're about to share the musical talents of Oswego County artist, Cam Caruso.

His unique coffee house style is bar none.

He visited our studios for a session.

Now, here he is with his original song, "Calm Before the Storm."

- My name is cam Crusoe and I'm a singer songwriter.

So I learned guitar when I was 14 after playing all of the Guitar Hero games growing up, and my mom, she inspired me to go into choir as well, just to kind of get the guitar and the voice going.

And I could also meet girls there, you know, in choir and stuff like that.

And so, I was doing all of the talent shows and whatnot in high school and the musicals.

And so when I was 18, I started going to open mic at Old City Hall in Oswego and it's hosted by my good friend and mentor, John McConnell.

And after that, I mustered the courage to start performing out.

It started as a part-time job when I was in college and I've been in love with it ever since.

And I've just had a lot of motivation to keep going throughout the years.

I'm going to be performing "Calm Before the Storm."

And this song is roughly about the idea of learning from your own mistakes and trying to break those nasty habits in your life.

And I kinda use the metaphor of storms and springtime in the song.

My name is Cam Caruso and this is "Calm Before the Storm."

(guitar strumming) ♪ I breathe it in ♪ ♪ 'Cause I've been here before ♪ ♪ The closing of an open door ♪ ♪ I need a sign ♪ ♪ Yeah I know that sounds cliche ♪ ♪ But I'm holding on for better day ♪ ♪ Some things were said ♪ ♪ That cannot be undone ♪ ♪ I miss it when it was fun ♪ ♪ Time to blame for the cycle I can break ♪ ♪ This time I don't think it will shake ♪ ♪ Yeah I know I fell from grace ♪ ♪ The answer on the wall ♪ ♪ And I know what's taking place ♪ ♪ It's the calm before the storm ♪ (guitar strumming) ♪ What happened here ♪ ♪ Things were going well ♪ ♪ Then I had to blow it to hell ♪ ♪ My demons rose to the service that you saw ♪ ♪ My skeletons begin to crawl ♪ ♪ Yeah I know I fell from grace ♪ ♪ And the answer on the wall ♪ ♪ And I know what's taking place ♪ ♪ It's the calm before the storm ♪ ♪ Yeah I know I fell from grace ♪ ♪ And the answer on the wall ♪ ♪ And I know what's taking place ♪ ♪ It's the calm before the storm ♪ ♪ It's the calm before the storm ♪ ♪ I breathe it in ♪ ♪ 'Cause I've been here before ♪ ♪ But I can't do this anymore ♪ ♪ Yeah I know I fell from grace ♪ ♪ And the answer on the wall ♪ ♪ And I know what's taking place ♪ ♪ It's the calm before the storm ♪ ♪ Yeah I know I fell from grace ♪ ♪ And the answer on the wall ♪ ♪ And I know what's taking place ♪ ♪ It's the calm before the storm ♪ ♪ It's the calm before the storm ♪ - That does it for us this Tuesday evening.

Join us next week for a fresh look "Inside the Stories."

COVID is choking a large part of the Canadian economy.

We'll tell you what you can expect in the coming months.

Also the annual Polar Bear Dip is coming up next weekend in Alexandria Bay.

Are you ready to take the dive?

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like to see us explore, or you're a poet or a musician that would like to be featured, email us at wpbsweeklyatwpbstv.org.

Until then goodnight, my friend.

- [Commentator] "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories" is brought to you by the Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation, dedicated to improving the wellbeing of communities by helping disadvantage children and families.

Online at dmjf.org.

the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, a free resource offering confidential business advice for those interested in starting or expanding their small business.

Serving Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego since 1986.

Online at watertowndotnysbdc.org.

Carthage Savings has been here for generations, donating time and resources to this community.

They're proud to support WPBSTV.

Online at carthagesavings.com Carthage Savings, mortgage solutions since 1888.

Additional funding provided by CSX, the Oswego County Community Foundation at the Central New York Community Foundation.

And by the Richard S. Shineman Foundation.

♪ And the answer on the wall ♪ ♪ And I know what's taking place ♪ ♪ It's the calm before the storm ♪ ♪ It's the calm before the storm ♪ (light music)