ACTION ITEMS (Courtesy of the Lewis and Clark SALDF)
-Support the Protect America's Wildlife (PAW) Act:
http://actionfund.defenders.org/akwolf
-Help Save Pacific Walrus:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1620
-Been to the Oregon Zoo Lately? Nominate your Zoo for the "Worst Zoos for
Elephants" List:
http://ida.convio.net/site/MessageViewer?em_id=8561.0&printer_friendly=1
-Get Abused Elephant to a Sanctuary:
http://ida.convio.net/site/MessageViewer?em_id=8581.0&printer_friendly=1
-Protect Native Wildlife:
http://www.defenders.org/invasion
-Thanksgiving Activism:
http://www.change.org/farm_animal_rights_movement/actions/view/urge_president_obama_to_pardon_all_turkeys_this_holiday_season
Filed under: SALDF | Tags: adoptable, Alabama, Campus Cats, foster, help needed, kittens
A Campus Cats supporter is in a crisis – her Mom in Alabama bottle-fed 6 kittens who are now about 6 weeks old (and eating regular food just fine), and then Mom had a stroke and is in serious condition. She brought the kittens back to Athens to find homes for them and now is being threatened by her landlord with eviction because of the kittens. A foster is needed asap – they could be split up into two homes if needed. I can supply kitten chow and litter boxes. They are on antibiotics for kitten colds right now, so would need to be kept in a spare room away from other cats (a good idea when fostering anyway).
They are the perfect halloween bunch – all orange, orange & white, black, and black & white!
Please let me know if you can help, or call Kennon directly at 706.255.7125
Thanks,
Kelly
kellybettinger@bellsouth.net
A family that has previously adopted from us is going to come and get Merlin. However, they live 7 hours away. Since we know them well we don’t need to meet them again. I am looking for someone that wouldn’t mind driving north about 2 hours to meet them this coming Wednesday. This is the best day for them but I can’t make it. I would be more than happy to pay for gas. If you can help please let me know.
Thanks,
Amanda
Pawtropolis, Inc.
Helping Paws Rescue
706-227-7887
www.pawtropolis.com
Filed under: SALDF | Tags: Defenders of Wildlife, imports, non-native species, public health, Wildlife Alert
Help Stop the Invasion
Poor screening of wildlife imports has led to a flood of non-native animals to the U.S., threatening our native wildlife and public health.
It may not offer the Cineplex scares of Dracula, Frankenstein or Michael Myers, but our new video is pretty scary.
Each year, pythons and hundreds of millions of other non-native wild animals are imported into the U.S. with no good way of screening out species that can harm native ecosystems or threaten human health.
To draw attention to this frightening situation and build support for congressional action to stop the exotic wildlife invasion, we’ve produced a brand-new internet video… just in time for Halloween!
Each year, millions of live wild animals enter our country legally. Eventually some escape or are released into the wild and harm native wildlife and wild places – including many endangered species.
Taking into account control and monitoring programs and damage to our ecosystems, economies and public health, these invaders can cost America tens of billions of dollars a year.
But this exotic wildlife invasion isn’t just costly — it’s also dangerous to native wildlife and can be deadly to people.
- In Florida, former pet pythons have been clashing with alligators in a battle for the top of the food chain – and these non-native reptiles could someday slither their way as far north as Washington, DC;
- In the central U.S., Asian carps are decimating the natural ecosystems of our rivers and lakes;
- Across the country, European starlings have driven native birds out of their nesting sites; and
- Giant Gambian rats, imported as pets, have spread the highly contagious monkeypox virus.
To stem the exotic wildlife invasion, Defenders of Wildlife is calling on Congress to enact legislation that would provide for crucial screening of wildlife imports to reduce the risk of harm to our native wildlife, wild places and human health. We’re also urging decisive action on H.R. 2811 and S. 373, two bills to regulate the importation and interstate transportation of some of the deadliest pythons and other large constrictor snake species.
Best Regards,
 |
Peter Jenkins Director of International Conservation Defenders of Wildlife |
This is Harley. He’s a little Chihuahua with possibly some miniature
pinscher about 4-5 years old. His owner babysat for Lisa who is temporarily
caring for him. One day a few weeks ago the owner just tied him up to
Lisa’s front porch and left him. When Lisa called the owner, she just
laughed and sometimes won’t answer the phone!
Lisa has a young baby and another larger dog and is renting her home. The
homeowner says she can’t keep Harley unless she pays $300 deposit, which she
can’t afford to do. When she is at home she keeps him inside and tries to
hide him, but when she’s at work she cannot leave him in the house because
the owner stops over frequently to check when she’s not there to see if he
is in the house!
Today Harley is tied to the front porch and had no shelter during the rain
because Lisa didn’t think it was supposed to rain. I have taken over a
little carrier with towels in it for Harley to stay in to try to stay warm
and dry.
We desperately need to find a home for Harley. I can’t do it because we
have a cat and a larger dog and down-sized and don’t have room to keep him.
My critters wouldn’t be happy at all if I brought him home. But until we
have a home or a rescue to take Harley in, we need to see if we can find
someone who can take him in temporarily just to keep him indoors and warm
and dry!! Please crosspost locally to see if we can find someone to help
Harley out. Lisa only has a few days because the homeowner is insisting
that she take Harley to animal control!
-Linda (turnerlg@bellsouth.net)
Filed under: SALDF | Tags: Cameroon, chimpanzees, death, funeral, Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue, West Africa
Is this haunting picture proof that chimps really DO grieve?
By Michael Hanlon
Last updated at 9:15 PM on 27th October 2009
United in what appears to be deep and profound grief, a phalanx of more than a dozen chimpanzees stood in silence watching from behind the wire of their enclosure as the body of one of their own was wheeled past.
This extraordinary scene took place recently at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center in Cameroon, West Africa.
When a chimp called Dorothy, who was in her late 40s, died of heart failure, her fellow apes seemed to be stricken by sorrow.
As they wrapped their arms around each other in a gesture of solidarity, Dorothy’s female keeper gently settled her into the wheelbarrow which carried her to her final resting place – not before giving this much-loved inhabitant of the centre a final affectionate stroke on the forehead.
Chimpanzees appear to console one another as Dorothy is carried to her final resting place in a wheelbarrow
Locals from the village serve as ‘care-givers’ to the chimps – something hugely needed by the animals who are all orphans as their mothers were killed for the illegal bushmeat trade.
Hunters captured them as young babies, often still clinging to their mother’s bodies, to sell as pets.
Until recently, describing scenes like this in terms of human emotions such as ‘grief’ would have been dismissed by scientists as naive anthropomorphising.
But a growing body of evidence suggests that ‘higher’ emotions – such as grieving for a loved one after death, and even a deep understanding of what death is – may not just be the preserve of our species.
Chimpanzees – as you can see in the November issue of National Geographic magazine, on sale now – and the closely related Bonobos maintain hugely complex social networks, largely held together by sex and grooming.
They have often been observed apparently grieving for lost family and tribe members by entering a period of quiet mourning after a death, showing subdued emotions and behaviour.
And such complex emotions are not the preserve of primates or even mammals. Just this month, for instance, Dr Marc Bekoff, an ethologist at the University of Colorado, reported evidence that magpies not only appear to grieve for their dead but carry out something akin to a funeral ritual.
In one instance, a group of four magpies took it in turns to approach the corpse of their dead comrade.
Two of the birds then flew off to return with a piece of grass, which they laid down by the corpse. The birds then stood vigil.
In fact, there is a large body of anecdotal evidence that corvids – the group of super-bright birds that include crows, magpies and rooks – engage in many sophisticated social rituals.
But the most famous nonhuman death rituals are those of elephants, who will often spend days guarding a dead body, gently prodding the remains with their trunks and giving the impression of being lost in grief.
Elephants are highly social, long-lived and intelligent animals, whose excellent memory is no myth.
It is perhaps unsurprising that the loss of a member of the clan produces an emotional reaction.
The evolution of human death rituals is lost in the mists of time. There is some evidence that now-extinct hominid species such as the Neanderthals appreciated the significance of mortality, burying their dead and even scattering the graves with flowers.
Seeing a group of chimpanzees, our closest relatives, apparently paying a sad and heart-rending tribute to their much-loved lost sister gives us, perhaps, a window on how this deepest and most fundamental emotion evolved in our own ancestors.
For further reading, visit the National Geographic website HERE.
Locals from the village serve as ‘care-givers’ to the chimps – something hugely needed by the animals who are all orphans as their mothers were killed for the illegal bushmeat trade.
Hunters captured them as young babies, often still clinging to their mother’s bodies, to sell as pets.
Until recently, describing scenes like this in terms of human emotions such as ‘grief’ would have been dismissed by scientists as naive anthropomorphising.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1223227/Is-haunting-picture-proof-chimps-really-DO-grieve.html#ixzz0VYiv1xQY
Free Book Offer for SALDF Members:
Vivisection and Dissection in the Classroom: A Guide to Conscientious Objection, by Gary Francione and Anna Charlton, is available for free from Animalearn, the education division of the American Anti-Vivisection Society, which published the book in 1992. It features a review of constitutional law as it relates to students’ rights. Send your request via email, with ‘Book offer’ in the subject line to: info@animalearn.org. Include your name, mailing address and email address. If you would like multiple copies, please specify use.
Please contact AAVS directly with any questions about this offer.
Filed under: SALDF | Tags: Bat World, bats, Happy Halloween, research, Texas A&M University
Happy Halloween!
http://www.batworld.org
As sad as this story is, these four bats and the lucky ones. Not only were they spared from being euthanized in an inhumane manner, they were spared from further participation in the cruel research being conducted at Texas A&M University. We will continue to care for the A&M Four until the end of their natural lives. It is not the best thing -for that would have been being returned to the wild- but it is a decent runner up.
Filed under: SALDF | Tags: 9Lives, ASPCA, ASPCA Cat Assistance Program, cat food, food banks
ASPCA® Cat Assistance Program: You Can Help!
The ASPCA estimates that over three million cats and kittens end up in shelters each year—now, due to the troubled economy, more cats than ever are at risk. That’s why Fresh Step® litter and 9Lives® cat food have stepped up to help us launch a program this November to support pet food banks at shelters nationwide. The ASPCA® Cat Assistance Program is a national grassroots effort to provide food and litter to cats across the country whose owners are in need of assistance.
Find out what you can do to help keep cats in their loving homes.
Filed under: SALDF | Tags: ASPCA, dog, labrador retievers, Memphis, police officer
Dog Shot By Memphis Officer—ASPCA Speaks Out!
In a tragic example of what happens when proper police protocol is not followed, two pet Labrador Retrievers were shot at last Thursday by officers from the Memphis Police Department when the canines used their dog door to see who had come into their yard. The officers entered the private property to investigate a possible burglary because the homeowner’s alarm system had been triggered. Although one dog was shot and the other ran away, the dogs’ owner, who was not home at the time, was not informed by the authorities that anything unusual had taken place, leaving her to discover quite a frightening scene when she returned home hours later.
“Police shootings of family dogs are a huge problem nationwide,” says Dr. Randall Lockwood, ASPCA Senior Vice President of Anti-Cruelty Field Services. “In general, in at least one-third to one-half of all incidents where a police officer fires a gun, the target is a dog. In almost all cases, just a sharp verbal command or a confident display of authority is enough to deter a dog attack. The easiest way for police officers to do this would be to raise their batons in a threatening way. Failing that, pepper spray may be used. Shooting is very rarely justifiable.”
The Memphis Police Department has received regular training in animal handling and dog confrontations over the last decade, but that does not seem to have stemmed the rate of anti-protocol dog shootings by its officers, which is significantly higher in Memphis, per capita, than in major cities like New York and Los Angeles. “It’s ironic—Memphis is ahead of most other police departments in the nation in that they have official use-of-force policies for encounters with animals—but the real-world effectiveness of these policies depend much on internal support and enforcement and holding people accountable,” adds Dr. Lockwood.
Last week’s shooting of the two Labs comes just one week after a similar incident in which a Boxer mix was also shot in his home by a Memphis policeman. The Memphis Police Department is investigating both incidents, and all three dogs are now back home with their families, recovering from their ordeals.
