A new relationship with animals, nature and each other.

Posts tagged ‘war’

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.

Animals at Ground Zero

They were among the great heroes of 9/11 – the dogs and their people who searched the wreckage, risking their own lives to save the lives of others. Many of them, human and canine became sick in the months and years that followed, from breathing in toxic dust and fumes that poisoned the air at Ground Zero. Today, most of the dogs have passed on. But they will not be forgotten.

Welcome Home from War!

In Homer’s Odyssey, Argos the dog waits for 20 years for Odysseus, to come home from the Trojan War. Unable even to stand up any longer, he refuses to take his last breath until he’s been reunited. Here’s a more joyful compendium of Welcome Home videos.

Snails Join the War Effort

The ever-bizarre government agency DARPA, or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has launched another would-be-funny-if-it-weren’t-sad research project. This one involves turning snails into hybrid robots for use in war.

War and the No-Kill Movement

The no-kill philosophy extends way beyond homeless pets. It’s a way of living that takes killing off the table – in every area once and for all. You can’t be no-kill and go hunting. You can’t be no-kill and be pro-abortion, pro-capital punishment or pro-vivisection. And you certainly can’t be no-kill and support going to war.

Air Force Now Investigating Sheep Beating

Army investigators say they now believe that the men seen in a video cheering as they watch a sheep being beaten to death with a baseball in Afghanistan are airmen, and they have handed the case over to Air Force authorities.

Dolphins at War – 40 Years Ago

After seeing our report on the U.S. Navy once again deploying its dolphin conscripts to the Persian Gulf, a reader wrote in to remind us about a 60 Minutes story from back in 1973, when Morley Safer interviewed various dolphin trainers and military personnel.

Meet One of the Dog Teams

The dog in this iconic photo from the relief effort at Ground Zero was Riley, a golden retriever who came to the wreckage with his person, Chris Selfridge from Pennsylvania. We spoke with him about working with Riley in the wreckage of the World Trade Center:

Where Are They Now?

In the hours and days following the attack on the Twin Towers, almost 100 trained dogs from 18 states, were deployed in the search-and-rescue efforts at Ground Zero. Photographer Charlotte Dumas went in search of the dogs who are still with us.

The E-mails

Within minutes of the first strike, the Internet was buzzing with e-mail reports, requests for help, and responses. It was still the early days of e-mail. There was no Facebook, no Twitter. Some of the old online services like AOL were still central gathering places for people. But e-mail was coming into its heyday.