A new relationship with animals, nature and each other.

Posts by Michael Mountain

  • Introducing the Whale Sanctuary Project

    This blog is taking a break for the next few months so that I can devote my energies to the Whale Sanctuary Project. Here's why.

  • Is the Sloth Sanctuary a Zoo?

    The Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica was the first of its kind for these wonderfully engaging animals, and it was a model for others that followed. But questions have arisen. And…

  • Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary

    Tafi Atome looks like a typical forest in Ghana. The monkeys have been revered in this village for two centuries. But being “sacred” is no guarantee of survival.

  • The Great Irony of Animal “Rights”

    The great irony of the animal rights movement is there is still only one species that has any rights at all: humans. But the Nonhuman Rights Project is setting out to change that.

  • Why Mass Extinction Is Part of Human Nature

    Why would a supposedly “intelligent” species behave in a way that’s bringing about a mass extinction – one that will likely take us down along with so many other animals?

    Is the Stock Market a Global Ponzi Scheme?
    Sacred Activism in the Service of Animals
    Of Humans and Persons

    The Real Sea World

    Orca experts visit Puget Sound, off the coast of Seattle, and compare the life of a killer whale in the wild (the real sea world) with…

    Which Is Worse: Sex or Death?

    A farmhand in Florida’s horse country is on trial for having sex with a donkey. At around the same time this man was arrested, a museum in Texas bought two mules, killed them, had them stuffed, and put them on display in an exhibition from which the museum will make money. Which is worse?

    How Your Wishes May Come True

    We are not humans as something separate from other species, says India’s former Environment Minister Maneka Gandhi. You can only love yourself if you love all the other kinds of animals. “I love them because all of them are me and it is the ultimate self-love to see myself in every blade of grass and therefore to be respectful of it.”

    Marineland Feeling the Heat

    As a crowd of 500 protesters gathered outside of Marineland at Niagara Falls on Sunday afternoon, 100 of them broke from the main demonstration and charged into the zoo itself shouting “Shut it down, Shut it down!” This followed the release, earlier in the week, of two official reports about conditions at Marineland.

    Rescued Crow Now Family Friend

    When a family in Ottawa found a baby injured crow, they took him home. When he was back in good health, they released him. But by then he’d made friends with the Renauds – mom, dad, the kids and the cats. and while he’s free as a bird, he keeps coming “home” to visit. Check out this delightful video.

    Till Death Do Us (Coyotes) Part

    No cheating, no wife swapping, no ménages-a-trois, no polygamy. Coyote couples are partners for life. That’s the finding of a new study of urban coyotes in and around Chicago. Over six years, the research team didn’t find a single case of a coyote having more than one mate – nor of one mate ever leaving another while the other was still alive.

    Animal Intervention

    I’m sometimes a bit suspicious of people who call themselves animal lovers. “Loving” animals can mean all kinds of things. And while most of the people…

    Orca at SeaWorld Missing Half His Chin

    Why is Nakai, one of the orcas at SeaWorld San Diego, swimming around the tank with half his chin missing? Whatever the exact cause of his wound, one thing is for sure: things like this don’t happen to orcas in the wild. It’s just the latest in an endless series of injuries at deaths at marine circuses.

    Toward the End of Research on Chimps

    The National Institutes of Health has taken another step toward ending medical and scientific research on chimpanzees. All of the government’s 110 chimpanzees at the infamous New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana are being made “permanently ineligible” for research. But it’s only a small step. Just 10 of the chimps are being moved to a sanctuary – Chimp Haven. The other 100 are going to a research center in Texas. Why is that?

    Food, Life and Liberation

    When people ask me what they can do in the face of what’s shaping up to be a mass extinction of species, I always say that switching to a plant-based diet is the single best thing any of us can do. Not only is the food delicious and healthful; eating it becomes an act of solidarity with your new friends, the farm animals.