Michael Fishbach, a co-founder of The Great Whale Conservancy (along with Gershon Cohen) videotaped a remarkable encounter he and friends had with a whale who they were trying to cut free from cast-off fishing net. The net had become entangled around the whale and Michael and his friends worked to cut it loose. The whale seemed to know that it was being helped and continued to surface by the boat to let the humans do their work.
After the last netting had been cut free the whale spent the next hour showing its thanks.
Cooling off: A white Bengal tiger takes solace in a cool block of ice provided by zookeepers on July 20 at the Chengdu Zoo in China’s Sichuan Province.
Think that’s a zebra? Look again.
The Gaza Zoo once had 2 zebras in its collection, but they died of malnutrition during the Israel-Hamas war, when there was actual fighting within the zoo itself. Zoo officials later tried to replace the zebras, but finally opted for donkeys painted with black and white stripes.
The saddest zoos in the world
More polar bear cubs die as Arctic ice melts
Polar bears hunt, feed and give birth on ice or on land, and are not naturally aquatic creatures.
This 4-pound Yorkshire terrier lived large. Smoky was found in the jungle of New Guinea and was purchased by U.S. soldier Bill Wynne. Wynne trained her, and the 7-inch dog accompanied him for 2 years during World War II. While abroad, she entertained troops and earned honors for her bravery, saving Wynne’s life on at least one occasion by warning him of incoming fire on a transport ship. Today, Smoky is memorialized with a statue in Lakewood, Ohio.
Mice Becoming Immune to Poison.
Scientists in the journal of Current Biology are reporting that a mice are mutating to become immune to common household mouse poison.
The discovery came after a German bakery reported mice that would not die after ingesting poison. The mice were taken to a lab and discovered to be strange hybrids that were resistant to warfarin, the toxic substance in most mouse poisons. The resistance to warfarin comes from a genetic mutation developed to help fight vitamin-K deficiency. The vitamin-K deficient mice then bred with common house mice and their mutant offspring were made.
The researchers hypothesize that part of why mice are becoming resistant is because of human’s overuse of poisons and every other anti-pest or anti-germ products. Putting down millions of pounds of antibiotics, pesticides, and poisons every year is casuing all sorts of mutations and hybridizations of plants, animals, and incects and this case is the perfect example. If poison resistant mice are “super-pests” than we can only blame ourselves.
Not only is mouse poison creating super-mice, it’s harming children, dogs, and cats. In 2009, 15,000 children ingested toxic rodent poison. In that same year, the ASPCA took 6,000 calls from people who’s dogs came into contact with with the deadly. So much suffering for nothing when you consider how easy and safe it is to use humane traps.
Even though they are the bizarre mutants of human’s overuse of pesticides and poisons, I think mice that can eat poison and keep on trucking are some of the coolest animals ever.
SeaWorld Opens ‘Animal Hospital.’
A few weeks from now, SeaWorld will open the doors on its brand new animal “hospital” where the animal entertainment company will bring in sick or injured wild dolphins and whales for rehab. Sounds harmless, but many people are questioning if SeaWorld’s motivation is to collect animals for their live dolphin shows and controversial breeding programs.
SeaWolrd’s new facility houses a 40,000 gallon aquarium and sits on the former home the Budweiser Clydesdale barn in Orlando. A giant animal rehab center may seem out of character for SeaWorld but they would tell you otherwise. SeaWorld says the facility is all part of their commitment to protecting wildlife, “It’s what we do” says Brad Andrews, Chief zoological officer. SeaWorld claims to have helped rescue 18,000 animals since their founding but it’s what happens to the animals after they’re “rescued” that’s causing the controversy.
Some of the animals taken by SeaWorld for rehab over the years were moved over to the main park where they were trained and forced to perform for crowds. SeaWorld admits this a possibility for healed animals from their new facility but says that overall, only a small number of the their performers are “rescued from the wild.” This is most likely true because many of SeaWorld’s animals come from their bizarre breeding programs.
Since animals in captivity rarely have natural intercourse, breeding is done through artificial insemination and sperm for this procedure is most often procured by masturbating the animalsand collecting their ejaculate. It’s a fair assumption that even if animals taken in for rehab at SeaWorld are returned to the wild their sperm will still be collected for the breeding program.
Trusting SeaWorld with ocean conservation is like trusting Ringling Bros. with elephant conservation or Oscar Mayer to run an animal sanctuary. Abusing animals, not protecting them, is how these people make money and that’s the only thing we can count on them to do with any consistency.