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.
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 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 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 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
If you’ve done a search online for “Rush Limbaugh” or “Rick Santorum” lately, you may have also been looking for a weight loss remedy. That’s one of the conclusions from sociologist Shankar Vedantam, who’s been running the new Google Correlate through its paces.
All life is inter-related, so whatever we’re doing to each other, to the other animals and to the Earth, we’re inevitably doing to ourselves.
Nobody does it better than David Attenborough. Recently posted by the BBC. “What a wonderful world!”
How can you choose just ten from all the rescues, wildlife shows, comic pieces on Youtube, and so much else? You can probably think of many more that should be on that list. Still, here are a few of our faves:
Companion animals are playing a larger-than-ever role in psychotherapy, physical therapy and crisis response. And different kinds of animals have different roles.
Actor James Cromwell is about as passionate for animals as it gets. Ten years ago, he was even arrested during an animal rights protest in Fairfax, Virginia, at a Wendy’s and then ordered to stay out of all Wendy’s restaurants in Fairfax County Virginia unless he intends to eat there … which, one would imagine, he has no intention of doing.
Santorum had joined Iowa Congressman Steve King for a day of killing birds near Des Moines. King’s endorsement is considered important, and Gov. Rick Perry, who’s also struggling to get ahead in the upcoming Iowa caucuses, has already been out killing twice with King.
Young Frankie Pruitt was sitting at home drinking hot chocolate, one morning eight years ago, when Petunia the pit bull raced out of the house and across the meadows with the family’s other dogs to visit the alpacas on the family’s Virginia farm. It was all part of the daily routine. No one took any notice.
No, it’s not a statue; it’s a real bull, painted all over as part of a Chinese festival. The “tradition” arose among the Hani people as a way of protecting their homes from tigers. Today it’s an annual festival in which 48 times from China, Laos and Vietnam compete for the best painted bull.
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth of the U.K., and president of the World Wildlife Fund (yes, really!), saved the lives of a few animals today. That’s because he’s in hospital with a heart condition and wasn’t be able to join the Royal Family’s “traditional” December 26 hunting expedition.
Of all the great videos of the year, this one really tops the charts. The gorillas simply walk in to a tourist camp at Bwindi National Park one morning. Note that the great silverback is in charge of the proceedings, letting the kids know what’s OK, what’s not, and how long they can visit the human.
Keep baby J-48 in your thoughts this Holiday weekend. She’s the third calf to be born to the extended family of orcas (killer whales) known as the J pod. The calf, the third to be born this year among the three pods, was first observed last weekend by NOAA researchers.
They may never completely take over from cats as the Web’s favorite nonhuman. After all, they’re never going to type, play the piano or chase each other round the room. But that’s the whole point. Sloths do everything slo-o-owly.
Zuckerberg placed it there recently as a prank, to surprise his top exec with the installation of the very hairy bison when she was away from Facebook’s Silicon Valley HQ. And surprised she was when she got back and was faced with the creature, which pretty much takes up the whole room.
Around 200 people staged a protest on the Mediterranean island nation of Malta asking for a ban on all circuses involving animals. The Animal Circus calls itself a Christmas tradition in Malta, but local animal protection groups have long been pushing for it to be stopped.
Just as a team of Dutch researchers are pushing to publish the details of how they created an easily-transmitted mutation of the deadly bird flu virus, H5N1 has struck yet again in Hong Kong.
In the wake of a team of Dutch researchers creating a deadly new strain of H5N1 bird flu virus in their lab, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, overseen by the National Institutes of Health, has asked two journals, Science and Nature, not to publish “experimental details and mutation data that would enable replication of the experiments.”
Speaking of Mitt Romney tying Seamus the dog to the top of the car for a 12-hour drive, there’s more about dogs and the presidential candidates from Leslie Bennetts at The Daily Beast.
NPR media correspondent David Falkenflik takes up the question of why New York Times columnist Gail Collins is so taken up with the story of how Mitt Romney once strapped the family dog to the roof of the car for a 12-hour drive to Canada.
Soon after she adopted Princess the poodle, things started going wrong for psychic artist and color therapist Olga Horvat. Her husband had a car crash and came down with an auto-immune disease. Her daughter got expelled from school for bad behavior. And the apartment got bed bugs. Then poor Princess fell down the stairs and died.