This is amazing. Thanks so much for sending, Kathleen.
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In a world that is so war torn and ravaged by greed, it's heart warming to hear that some conflicts are finding friendly resolutions. Photo: Contributor/IRIN "Living peacefully with elephants is possible," says Sereivathana TuyKOH KONG. 15 December 2010 (IRIN) - Sokha Seang, a 33-year-old rice farmer, recalls the night last spring when a herd of elephants trampled over his property. "They were hungry. I was angry, but I understand why they did it," he said. The pachyderms ate most of his food stock. In Cambodia, poor farmers like Seang cannot afford to lose crops; a third of the population lives below the national poverty line of US$0.75 a day, according to government statistics. They kill marauding elephants with guns, sharp bamboo sticks, or by leaving out poisoned food. Sometimes, the elephants retaliate by running over people. This time, Seang set aside his instinct to fight back, with the help of NGOs. "We need to live with them peacefully," said Seang, whose remote village of Prey Proseth lies in the southwest province of Koh Kong. by Betsy Seeton - Bali Protecting livelihoods, preserving wildlife Conflicts between elephants and farmers are common across Asia, one factor that has caused the animal population to dwindle and farmers to lose their livelihoods. Experts such as Sereivathana Tuy, 40, are encouraging farmers to find ways to live peacefully with the elephants. Tuy is a Cambodia-based elephant specialist at Flora and Fauna International, a wildlife non-profit organization based in Cambridge, UK. He teaches farmers to alternate crops such as cucumbers and white radishes, which can be harvested several times a year. This gives elephants fewer chances to eat them. Villagers have also learned to ward off elephants by planting chilli peppers around their land, rather than maiming them with weapons, as elephants dislike the smell, Tuy said. For Tuy, both sides can preserve their ways of life. The villagers keep their harvest while the elephant population can also be conserved, he told IRIN in Koh Kong. In Cambodia, fewer than 500 elephants are thought to roam in the wild today. In 1995, there were an estimated 2,000 wild elephants. Building trust The clash between elephants and humans became a problem after the communist Khmer Rouge regime was ousted in 1979. In the next two decades, under-regulated development caused deforestation, forcing elephants to search for food and water on farmlands outside their traditional forests. Some Cambodians sought expensive elephant tails, tusks and the tips of their trunks - body parts that were believed to bring power - and displayed them in their houses to show their status. These practices led to widespread poaching, says Tuy. As a park ranger in Cambodia in the 1990s, Tuy developed a community-based model for ending human-elephant conflicts that revolves around building trust with farmers. Tuy's method begins with hiring teachers who teach children about elephants in four schools in remote areas. The children then pass the knowledge on to their parents, who are supposed to discuss it with the other villagers. Before 2005, elephant killings were often reported to the police, who would arrest the perpetrators, then jail or fine them more than $2,000. Under Cambodian laws, poachers or elephant killers may also be jailed for 10 years. Angry villagers said they knew of no other option to protect their land. The situation might be improving, however. Tuy estimates there have been between five and 10 elephant attacks on humans since 2003, and only one death since 2005 - a sign that farmers are using safer methods to drive away the elephants. Many methods are backed by empirical evidence. One study last year found that "community-based crop-guarding methods" - the sort of collective guarding using traditional tools that Tuy teaches to villagers - warded off elephants in about 90 percent of attempted raids around Way Kambas National Park, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. "It ties in with a growing realization that a lot of the top-down methods haven't worked especially well," Simon Hedges, Asian elephant coordinator at the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), told IRIN from London. "It's not really realistic for all communities across... Africa and Asia to expect that the government is going to deal with elephants for them," he added. contributor/ds/mw What is wrong with humans who treat animals as commodities or things?? This article will leave you heart sick. Please don't turn a blind eye to these issues. "Man's best friend" deserves to be defended and protected. Read. Research. Learn. Pass it On. READ THE FULL STORY by Care2 writer Keegan K. (photo is from Keegan's article)
This is an excerpt ..... Mike went on to describe the training practices of mushers on their dogs. Many carried clubs in order to beat unruly dogs back into line. Mike had witnessed dogs beaten to death with shovels and tree branches for not following commands. He had been privy to reliable stories of dogs being shot while hooked up in the team for not pulling hard enough and how the musher allowed the rest of the team to drag their companions’ lifeless bodies home to show what happens when you don't pull. He had uncovered mass graves at some of the top racing kennels where thousands of dogs had been killed and buried simply because the pads on their feet weren't black. He spoke of the breeding of sled dogs and how only a tiny percentage of the puppies born each year will be allowed to live. The vast majority will be killed, usually by drowning, because of the tiniest imperfection in their coat or nose. He spoke of dogs killed because they no longer were as fast as they once were, or killed just to make room for new dogs. He had seen countless dogs die in races by over competitive mushers who simply ran their dogs to death in order to win a prize. The world he described sounded and looked nothing like the stories I had been told or the Disney films I had seen. The world of dog mushing sounded like every other animal exploiting industry I knew of and I was sickened by it. Elephants need wise and compassionate humans to protect them from the greedy, selfish, heartless humans out to profit from their death. The video below is from the Wildlife Conservation Society. Consider donating to their efforts to protect these beautiful and intelligent animals. Even small donations add up ... $10 ... $5 ... even $1 will help. Make your Christmas gift to the elephants on our planet :) SIGN THE PETITION AT THE HUMANE SOCIETY. Another link to the petition if it gets confusing is to click here and go from Care2.com. Tell Smithfield No More Gestation Crates This video was VERY hard for me to watch. But I believe in not turning a blind eye to what I wish didn't exist. I believe that by focusing a spotlight on abuse, I am honoring the abused in the best possible way. People need to feel outrage for the injustice in this world. People need to face the abusers and make them accountable. In whatever ways we can, we need to do our part to right the wrongs and end the tragic treatment of animals and humans on this planet. Signing petitions is one way to voice your opposition to the inhumanity in this world. I have to believe signing petitions is a step -- albeit small step -- in the right direction. I'm utterly appalled by the treatment of pigs at Smithfield Foods. How did we let this happen??? And the idea that it's going to take YEARS to end it is an abomination. DIRECTLY FROM THE HUMANE SOCIETY: An HSUS undercover investigator recently documented the suffering endured by female breeding pigs held in severely restrictive gestation crates on a factory farm operated by a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, in Waverly, Virginia. Gestation crates are exceptionally cruel and have been banned by the European Union, New Zealand and seven U.S. states. In 2007, Smithfield said it would phase out the use of gestation crates by 2017, yet in 2009 it said it could no longer meet its self-imposed and very lenient deadline. Many of these highly intelligent and inquisitive pigs develop pressure sores and infections from crate-related injuries and from simply lying in the same position without relief. Out of sheer boredom, they engage in repetitive behaviors — such as bar biting and head swaying — sometimes injuring themselves in the process. TAKE ACTION Please send C. Larry Pope, CEO of Smithfield, a message urging him to recommit to the company's original promise and stop the use of these inhumane gestation crates on Smithfield's factory farms by 2017. SIGN THE PETITION Jasper and his mom along with their friends and family star in their first video! In an interview with Jasper he had this to say, "Hi everyone! My human assistant, Betsy, who recently recovered from cancer surgery has been teaching herself how to use Movie Maker over the last few days. I'm honored to post her first "movie" on my blog. (She's revised it a couple of times..) It stars my mom and dad and cousin Rusty and Albert & Alberta. I'm even in it! She's going to work on putting it to music but right now she's doing everything trial & error without an instruction manual (Movie Maker doesn't come with a book - it has to be bought separately) so it's slow going. Take a peek at what she put together ... I think it'll put a smile on your face... :) Yours Truly, Jasper p.s. For the sharpest resolution, click on the word FACEBOOK when it appears and watch it from Facebook in HD. If you watch it on a larger screen without the high definition it will be a bit fuzzy. It can be viewed on Facebook or YouTube. Your choice. Either way, enjoy and share! The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unspoiled temperate rainforest left in the world. It lies on the west coast of Canada, nestled between high alpine reaches and the Pacific Ocean. This ancient forest is home to thousands of species of plants, birds and animals. You'll see 1,000 year old cedar trees and 90 metre tall Sitka spruce trees. Beautiful streams full of salmon wind through valley bottoms providing food for amazing creatures such as black bears, grizzlies and eagles. FACT SHEET Read about the petition to protect the Great Bear Rainforest by clicking the image below. Thanks for reading ... and thanks for caring! I hope you'll sign the petition. Here's the link: http://www.forestethics.org/great-bear-rainforest THIS HAS BEEN UPDATED AS OF MARCH 4, 2013
CLICK LINK BELOW TO SIGN PETITION I love bears, but I never knew about the Spirit Bear until today when I was learning about The Great Bear Rainforest. What a beautiful creature ... Browse through over a hundred adorable images of chipmunks and ground squirrels at Betsy's online art gallery. Contact Betsy to order 8 x 10 framed photos for only $65. Smaller and larger sizes available. All photos available as greeting cards and postcards too. Proceeds help fund this website. JASPER AND BEAR SERIES The photo above is a baby ground squirrel. It was about the size of a chipmunk (below) when this was taken. Full grown they will be twice this size or larger. FYI: Chipmunks have stripes all the way up their head to their little pointed noses. Ground squirrels do not have stripes on their head -- only on their sides and back. |
"Ask not what an animal can do for you; ask what you can do for an animal." Jasper
"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men." ~Alice Walker The source of the quote is Walker's preface to Marjorie Spiegel's 1988 book, "The Dreaded Comparison" . Her next sentence was, "This is the gist of Ms. Spiegel's cogent, humane and astute argument, and it is sound." Archives
February 2015
"I was so moved by the intelligence, sense of fun and personalities of the animals I worked with on (the movie) Babe that by the end of the film I was a vegetarian." ~ James Cromwell Categories
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