Sometimes it’s hard to make the difference between a painting and a photography. Observe the care for detail and desire to catch the essence of the animal.
Got Spew?
Last week, we announced our intention to help out financially struggling schools across the country by running our “Got Spew?” ad in school bathroom stalls.Well, we’re now retracting our intention to run the ad. Not everywhere—oh, not by a long shot!—but in Tempe, Arizona, where a spew-y disaster has just taken place.
Earlier this week, some brave fraternity brothers at Arizona State University—and I’m trying to type this without laughing—decided that the coolest, awesomest activity for a Tuesday night would be to go up on a footbridge … and vomit milk onto the traffic below.
My favorite quote from the article? “It is unknown why the men were drinking and vomiting the milk.” Maybe it’s because they had a revelation mid-chug—that drinking milk promotes the cruelty of the dairy industry and has been linked to impotence. Or maybe it’s because it’s rush week. One thing is clear, though: Milk and spewing are certainly linked! We hate to say “we told you so,” but ….
Whatever the reason, the frat boys’ antics have hurt more than the mother cows who produced the milk (and the male calves who are shipped off to veal slaughterhouses). The “joke” has also caused a woman and her daughter to be injured. Another car had stopped short to avoid the vomit (wouldn’t you?), and the ladies’ car wasn’t able to avoid hitting the stopped vehicle. And since we’d never want to make light of their injuries, we’re not going to run our ad in Tempe, Arizona.
We think folks in Tempe got the message anyhow.
via email, from PETA
Animal Hero of the Year
In 1989, Amanda Lollar found an injured bat and saved it from a painful death. Soon after she founded what is now the world’s largest bat rescue group, Bat World Sanctuary (BWS).
Bat World Sanctuary saves thousands of bats around the world each year and provides refuge for bats retired from zoos, permanently injured, used in labs and confiscated from the pet trade. Amanda also started 17 volunteer bat rescue centers across the US. BWS and the rescue centers give educational programs to thousands of school children per year. Amanda teaches a week-long intensive workshop on the rehabilitation of bats that animal professionals attend from across the globe. She also saved 30,000 bats from destruction by purchasing a building bats had used as habitat for decades. The previous owner wanted the bats killed to sell the property. This building now serves as a permanent wild sanctuary.
What you can do to help? Go to Animal Planet’s Poll and vote for Amanda Lollar as the Animal Hero of the Year. Bat World desperately needs the $10,000 prize. Others will be voting for their favorite – animals much more popular than bats. But bats, too, deserve a chance for a better future. So VOTE!
Palin’s Pro-Death Platform On Animals
Next Thursday, October 2, Washington University in St. Louis hosts the vice presidential debate featuring Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden. Why should animal lovers care?
With the spotlight on vice-prez nominees, you have a great opportunity to send comments to newspapers, blogs and discussions. Let voters know about Governor Sarah Palin’s relentless assault on wildlife and environment. Whatever your political affiliation, Palin is clearly NOT the candidate for animals….and animals are the focus of this list.
Sarah Palin: Cliff Notes
1) Palin offered a bounty of $150 for each left front leg of freshly killed wolves
2) Palin promotes aerial hunting of wolves even though Alaskans voted twice to ban it
3) Palin used $400,000 of state money to fund a propaganda campaign in support of aerial hunting
4) Palin believes man-made global warming is a farce
5) Palin strongly supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
6) Palin is a champion for big oil and her campaign slogan has become “Drill, baby, drill!”
7) Palin is suing the federal government to prevent listing the polar bear as an endangered species
8 ) Palin is opposed to listing the unique Cook Inlet beluga whale as an endangered species
Want to read more? Check info here.
Posted in Alarm signals, In The Field
Tagged campaign slogan, Endangered species, sarah palin, vice presidential debate
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Ant From Mars
A newly discovered species of a blind, subterranean predator — dubbed the “Ant from Mars” — is likely a descendant of one of the very first ants to evolve on Earth, a new study finds.
Christian Rabeling, an evolutionary biology graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, found the only known specimen of the new ant species in dead plant material on the ground in the Amazon rainforest at the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria in Manaus, Brazil, in 2003.
Rabeling and his colleagues named the ant Martialis heureka (“ant from Mars”) because they’d never seen an ant like it before.
Full article on FOX News .
Posted in In The Field
Tagged amazon rainforest, christian rabeling, evolutionary biology
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Gray Wolves Back in Yellowstone
The reintroduction of gray wolves into Yellowstone has become a rare success story in the battle to save endangered species in the United States.
In the early 20th century, the gray wolf was often hunted by settlers in the western United States who said the predators were killing off their livestock. By the 1970s there were no reports of a wolf population, according to the park’s Web site.
The wolves gained protected species status in the mid-1970s and about 20 years later, U.S. wildlife officials submitted a plan to reintroduce the wolf into the park, starting with 31 wolves let loose in Idaho. Today, there are more than 150 wolves in Yellowstone.
Having more wolves has helped rebalance the park’s ecosystem. Gray wolves hunt the large animals like elk that were eating so many plants that some of the fauna was in danger of disappearing. The wolves also hunt coyotes, meaning the growing bald eagle and hawk populations have more rodents to eat.
More on CNN
Your Lands, Your Wildlife, Your Story
America’s unique wildlife and public lands create memorable moments for visitors every day. Have you had an amazing, moving or surprising wildlife moment in one of our National Forests or on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands?
Whether you’re a hunter or angler, a birder, hiker or photographer, tell us what motivates you to explore our nation’s wild places and enjoy America’s wildlife.
You could win a $1,000 gift card to REI or one of the other great prizes.
Deadline for submissions is November 30, 2008.
Full details of the contest here.