Things Continue to Look Up for Mountain Gorillas

Not only are there new babies in Virunga, but also the arrest of the Congolese rebel leader General Nkunda has brought some peace to the area.

The Rangers in Virunga can continue their daily routines of removing poachers snares (536 snares were found during the recent census taking), filming newborn gorillas and simply enjoying the results of their tremendous sacrifices to protect the gorillas. Over 150 rangers have been killed on duty in this park in the past decade. Many worked for years without receiving a salary.

And did you know...

Rangers are able to identify individual gorillas because each animal's nose is uniquely patterned. We have finger prints, gorillas have nose prints.

Ringling Brother Accused of Violating ESA

Good. I don't care what anyone says, I can't stand circuses. And they certainly have no right to use endangered species as performers. These are ENDANGERED species. We can't afford to waste any individual member, whether it be for entertainment or experimentation.

The treatment of circus elephants went on trial in federal court Wednesday with animal rights groups accusing Ringling Bros. of violating the Endangered Species Act when it uses bullhooks and chains to control its performing pachyderms....

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Animal Welfare Institute and other activist groups say they will prove that Asian elephants are injured physically and emotionally by their treatment in the circu

"The Cove" Is Getting Attention

We posted about "The Cove" a few months ago. It's a documentary about an annual Japanese dolphin hunt that occurs in the village of Taiji. It's gruesome, bloody and disturbing. It has just been screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

Here is a glowing review from Joel Reynolds with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The review is on Huffington Post.

Blog for Rescued Dogs in Western Washington

Remember how we posted about the raids on puppy mills in Mount Vernon and Gold Bar, Washington? Here's a blog for people who are trying to help them. About 600 dogs were seized from horrible puppy mill conditions. Our pet sitter alerted us to the site.

Walrus in Trouble Too

I'm finally getting caught up on some reading and came across this article in the Defenders of Wildlife wildlife. I'm very proud of supporting Defenders because I think they do great work and they have a really good magazine too. Very depressing sometimes though.

The summer issue had a good article about walruses. Surprisingly, they are overlooked in discussions of Arctic species threatened by global warming. We tend to talk about penguins and polar bears, but these guys are important too.

Luckily, I found the article online.

Quote of the Week

In the wilderness is the preservation of the world.

-Henry David Thoreau

Calendar Facts

As I changed my calendars to February, I saw all this information printed on the January spread. Amazing what these calendars can contain.

From National Wildlife Federation...

The majestic gray wolf once roamed the United States from coast to coast and from Mexico to Canada. However, persecution by humans and loss of prey virtually eliminated the wolf from its natural habitat. Thanks to the Endangered Species Act and a successful reintroduction program in which NWF played a major role, the wolf is thriving again in the Yellowstone and Great Lakes areas. However, NWF continues to work to restore the wolf in areas where it still struggles. Visit www.nwf.org/endangered to find out how to protect more threatened species.

From the Ocean Conservancy....

Less than 5 percent of the ocean has been explored.

90 percent of the world's biggest fish are gone from the ocean due to overfishing.

73 Arrested for Cockfighting in North Carolina

Disgusting.

More than 70 people have been arrested in a cockfighting ring that secretly gathered in central North Carolina to watch a $40,000 tournament so gruesome that one of the roosters splattered blood on the investigators' search warrant, authorities said.

Deputies didn't expect to find so many people crammed into three chicken houses that had been cleaned out to provide hidden parking spaces and a cockfighting pit, Randolph County Sheriff Maynard Reid Jr. said in an interview Monday. Authorities arrested 73 people, ranging in age from 16 to 79, and charged them all with cockfighting and cruelty to animals, both felonies.

Ashley Judd Denounces Palin Wolf Killing Policies

Here is a good commercial by Ashley Judd for Defenders of Wildlife on aerial wolf killing in Alaska.

Calgary Zoo Feeling Economic Pressure

They had to cancel a big project that would have showcased polar bears and seals.

But don't feel too bad for them. Dr. Clement Lanthier, Calgary Zoo president and CEO (is this a corporation??) sounds like a real jerk.

Lanthier, a veterinarian and walrus researcher who took the helm in Calgary two years ago, says the cancellation of the polar bears exhibit might please some animal-rights extremists, but the reality is a blow to Canada's white bears.

"It's off the table until somebody comes to the zoo and says, I want this and I'm willing to pay," said Lanthier.

That will happen, says the vet who's spent the past 15 summers in the arctic, when polar bears reach a point where only captive breeding can save them from extinction -- a day that's on the horizon.

Lanthier doesn't hide his contempt for animal rights groups who lash out, without considering the role zoos play in conservation.

"They are people with opinions, but their credentials don't exist -- they're opinionated, but that's it," he said.

"We need to ask them, what have they done for research, conservation; what have they done for those animals?"

He's a staunch defender of Calgary's record, despite some well-publicized misfortune, such as the death of 41 stingrays and a baby elephant last year.

"One thing for sure -- all of the animals in the zoo will die eventually," said Lanthier.

"We have to recognize they don't live forever."

PETA Sponsors Lobster Liberation!

Following up on my post yesterday about releasing lobsters, PETA has a website on this very subject.

Lobster Liberation!

Animal Rights Activists Attack Berkeley Vet

This via the ALF Press Office:

As he left his car parked in a garage on campus, he was whistling and had no idea he had been followed. We preceded to vandalize his shiny new Audi, paid for with blood money. We would have reduced the Audi to ashes; if not for the fact that tailing him prevented us from grabbing the instruments that would have set his sh*t aflame. But there's always tomorrow.

We acted against Timmel because he is a veterinarian in UC Berkeley's vivisection labs. Hey Gregory, time to become a real vet and help sick and wounded animals recover; not ensure the smooth functioning of the torture chambers by assisting vivisectors in callous and fraudulent experiments on fourty-thousand beautiful, innocent beings per year.

And to Nina Hahn, David Rieger, Walter Brown II, Stephen Friet, Helen Diggs, Delonzo Starks, Quig Driver, and the rest of the Office of Laboratory Animal Care sadists; don't think that you or your property will be spared.

This action was carried out with full dedication and solidarity to the SHAC-UK prisoners. Liberation's crusade has begun.

Who's Better?

What is the difference between these two?

1) The religious fundamentalist who believes animals are inferior because they have no soul, that God put them here to serve his beloved humans, and that they should be used for human comfort.

and

2) The atheist who believes animals are inferior because they have little intelligence, that evolution has placed them in a position of serving the top species, and that they should be used for human comfort.



There is no difference as far as I'm concerned. So, I think many atheists should review their superiority complexes.

Lobsters Are Smarter than Many Think

My stupid Albertson's stopped selling lobsters a few months ago, but I bet they'll start up again. After reading this article, I'm rescuing the next ones I see.

It's about George the 140-year-old lobster who was set free by PETA. There's important information about lobsters in general.

Lobsters are fascinating animals that, like George, can live to be more than 100 years old, recognize individual lobsters, remember past acquaintances, have elaborate courtship rituals and help guide young lobsters across the ocean floor by holding claws in a line that can stretch for many yards.

And although theories abound, no one has ever come up with a satisfactory way to give lobsters a painless death.

A study in New Scientist gives chefs who insist that crustaceans cannot feel pain "claws" for concern. When researchers at Queen's University in Belfast daubed acetic acid on the antennae of 144 prawns, the animals reacted by vigorously rubbing and grooming the affected antenna for several minutes. Dr. Robert Elwood says that his study shows that prawns and their crustacean cousins -- lobsters and crabs -- are sensitive to pain.

Even before the New Scientist study, the European Food Safety Authority's Scientific Panel on Animal Health and Welfare had concluded that lobsters and crabs are capable of experiencing pain and distress and are worthy of legislative protection.

The Inuit Point of View on Polar Bears

Here's an article in the Nunatsiaq News that talks about polar bear conservation from the Inuit point of view. The Inuit harvest, or hunt, polar bears in Canada.

"In the past, Inuit always considered the WWF Canada as our friend," {Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.'s director of wildlife, Gabriel Nirlinguyak} said, recalling that the two had cooperated on bowhead whale management issues. "But not with polar bears."

He said that a lot of Inuit feel betrayed by the animal rights movement, and by some biologists when it comes to polar bears.

{World Wildlife Fund's polar bear point man Peter Ewins} has been calling loud and long for more restrictions on the harvesting of polar bears, particularly in Baffin Bay and Hudson Bay.

The polar bear is the WWF's poster animal in its campaign against global climate change, said Nirlungayuk, and "the Inuit are caught in the middle."