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 Domino Effect for Idiots

    A 60-second video to show to anyone who doesn’t understand what the Sixth Great Extinction means … to them: [readon] This and other great videos on…

    Running Out of Bacon

    As global warming takes its toll on farmlands, the world is beginning to run out of bacon. Britain’s National Pig Association is pleading with the British…

    Growing Shoes in a Test Tube?

    Several companies are already in a race to be the first to produce tasty meat grown in laboratories from cultured cells, not living animals. But one…

    Death and the Civil War … Not Counting the Horses

    Last week, PBS presented Death and the Civil War – a Ken Burns movie about how the Civil War changed the way we relate to death and how we treat dead people. The war drove Americans to find new ways to bury people, to transport dead people, to record and account for them. But one figure, one report, one reference is entirely missing. That would be the number of horses who died.

    Animal Sacrifice and the Day of Atonement

    It sounds like something out of some weird “primitive” religion in an “underdeveloped” country. But it’s going on right now, as it does at this time every year, in New York City, Los Angeles, Jerusalem and other cities around the world that have orthodox Jewish populations. In the “tradition” known as “kaporos”, you buy a live chicken, tie her up, wave or swing her around your head or someone else’s, and then kill her. This supposedly transfers your sins to the chicken, who then conveniently dies for those sins.

    Gorilla Plays with Toddler

    When his daughter, Tansy, was just 18 months old, Damian Aspinall put her in one of the gorilla enclosures at his wildlife park in the U.K.…

    Dog Waits by Grave – Six Years

    When his person died in 2006, Capitan, a German shepherd ran away from home. A few days later, he was found at the cemetery next to his person’s grave. He’s still there. Here’s the story of Capitan – and of some of the other dogs who stayed by their people and wouldn’t leave them.