Ferrets Underfoot, by Kate Woods (Hedgerow Press, 2009) is a charming read about how companion animals (in this case, the ferret) enrich our lives - and most people probably don't know how companionable the ferret can be. Woods shows us that ferrets are jolly weaselly scampering things that like to plunge into laundry baskets, topple stacks of boxes, chew on house plants and go for walks in the woods. They can be cuddled and stroked but are usually a whirlwind of movement - definitely not for the home of the "neat freak" (or even the neat-moderate, perhaps).
The book also glides, in light and lucid prose, through description of westcoast Vancouver Island's cabin-in-the-woods lifestyle: all rain and moss and of course bear-encounters. There are bits about the author's marriage, her wood-sculpting art, her experiments with alternative health remedies ... but mostly, illustrated with delicate drawings of delicate ferret-y faces and feet, the book is about the animals. As such it fills a gap, since many people still haven't met a ferret and think it is a member of the rat family (it's not, it's a weasel). It is an amusing but not an easy pet, so if anyone is thinking of getting one, read this first!
Against this background of ferret-lore by Kate Woods, it is shocking to learn about the use of these sensitive creatures in the University of Washington's pediatrics training labs: they have tubes shoved down their throats to simulate breathing tubes used on pre-mature infants. The group "Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine" has filed suit against the University because labs are required by US law to use non-cruel methods before resorting to animal use. The case is being "discussed" by officials, after 12,000 people wrote letters and e-mails of protest. (In Canada laws are less effective; unfortunately what labs do here and choose to report to our national Committee on Animal Care is largely voluntary.)
Sunday, May 19, 2013
The Blackness of Crows
If it were not for their colour we would love crows, the clever, communicating parrots of the north. We connect their colour with the devil, with things evil and sinister, and their habits (cacheing, plotting, swarming in the sky, descending on carrion) reinforce our prejudice against them. Yet people who watch them or, as in the case of Esther Woolfson, live with them, develop deep admiration and affection for them.
In Corvus: A Life With Birds (Granta, 2008), Woolfson describes how her family came to share their home in Scotland with these avian ones. The first section is full of flowering and circuitous description of this family life, but later in Corvus she imparts fascinating information about the evolution, brains, language and intelligence of corvids (crows, ravens and magpies), cogitating on their cogitations, and regretting not being able to fly with their flights.
Describing the moulting process she shows us that crows are not in fact black, that their delicate and intricate feathers glow with subtle reds and silver-whites. These hues are due to hormones and other molecules, melanin and and carotinoids to name two, which must be connected to brain chemistry, to the songs and caws learned (not inherited) by the young crow growing in its community group. Neurogenesis, the development of brain cells through learning, is part of the avian "song system," making birds interesting to neurobiologists such as those studying human and whale language acquisition and evolution.
So crows are not really quite black, they just look black to us, in character as well as appearance. But dark, they are all the better-hidden in tree tops from preying raptors, and less visible in the night when the owl is out hunting. Their darkness is a survival adaptation but one which is, as so often, somewhat negated in the urban world where they now live with humanity and often get hit by traffic, unmourned by us as flying black vermin who we secretly suspect might be in certain outrageous ways smarter than ourselves.
In Corvus: A Life With Birds (Granta, 2008), Woolfson describes how her family came to share their home in Scotland with these avian ones. The first section is full of flowering and circuitous description of this family life, but later in Corvus she imparts fascinating information about the evolution, brains, language and intelligence of corvids (crows, ravens and magpies), cogitating on their cogitations, and regretting not being able to fly with their flights.
Describing the moulting process she shows us that crows are not in fact black, that their delicate and intricate feathers glow with subtle reds and silver-whites. These hues are due to hormones and other molecules, melanin and and carotinoids to name two, which must be connected to brain chemistry, to the songs and caws learned (not inherited) by the young crow growing in its community group. Neurogenesis, the development of brain cells through learning, is part of the avian "song system," making birds interesting to neurobiologists such as those studying human and whale language acquisition and evolution.
So crows are not really quite black, they just look black to us, in character as well as appearance. But dark, they are all the better-hidden in tree tops from preying raptors, and less visible in the night when the owl is out hunting. Their darkness is a survival adaptation but one which is, as so often, somewhat negated in the urban world where they now live with humanity and often get hit by traffic, unmourned by us as flying black vermin who we secretly suspect might be in certain outrageous ways smarter than ourselves.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Eating For Peace in Victoria BC
There is no shortage of books on nutrition and diet,
telling us about heart diets, anti-cancer diets, slimming diets, anti-aging
diets, northern diets, southern diets, Mediterranean, ethnic, local, scientific
and stone age diets … but the Peace Diet? Most
of us think of ourselves as non-violent, most of us strive to wage peace not
war in our day-to-day lives. Yet we don’t often connect that to our dietary
habits.
A
peaceful diet is one for which the food got to our plates by peaceful means. That
would mean no animals were harmed in the making of this meal, and the soil,
water and air of Planet Earth were not violated, desecrated, polluted or desertified
in the process.
That
would also mean a diet which does not fuel diseases for which other animals
(other than the slaughtered ones) are also maimed and killed in labs where
researchers seek out ways to mitigate the ills we gave ourselves by eating bad,
animal-fat-laden diets in the first place.
The
more we think about it, the more we see that peace starts in the kitchen, and the
foremost way we can wage peace is by eating with compassion in mind – compassion
for farm animals, for hunted wildlife, and for the Earth herself whose soil and
water are polluted and forests clear-cut for the meat industry.
The
“Green Revolution” of the 1960s and ‘70s was thought to be the answer to world
hunger: just use enough hybrid seeds and pesticides, just colonize enough
natural space and native plant habitat, put enough landscape under industrial farming
machinery, and the masses will eat. Then more children will survive. Good – but
then the masses become more numerous than ever and there is not enough land
left for all the farming and draining and irrigating and spraying that has to
keep increasing … until in large tracts of Asia, China, Africa and North
America the soil went dead and blew away, the desserts expanded, the rivers,
estuaries and bays became so polluted with agricultural run-off that the fish
and seaweeds died off.
The
world’s fisheries, too, are two-thirds fished out, and the forests – Earth’s
lungs – are still being cut down to make room to grow grains to feed billions
of cattle, pigs and poultry crammed into feedlots where viruses find a perfect
platform for their evolution and development.
So
how peaceful, how green, how rational is that? Jane
Goodall in her forthcoming book is turning to examining the plant world, since
the fate of the animal world – her lifelong subject -- depends on the plants.
See also her earlier book Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating, (2006).
David Gerow Irving also unravels these interconnections in his densely-informative
The Protein Myth (O-Books, 2011), and we also have World Peace Diet,
by Will Tuttle.
Dr. Tuttle, based in California, speaks widely, throughout North America, and local
food and lifestyle educators are bringing him to Victoria, BC for two workshops on the Peace Diet in September:
Planting Peace:
Two-Part Evening Event
Featuring
Dr. Will Tuttle, author of "World Peace Diet",
recipient
of the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award
Dr.
Will Tuttle, author of Amazon best-seller, "World Peace Diet",
delivers a powerful and inspiring (and musical!) presentation on how our food
choices have caused us to become disconnected from nature, and how to make
positive changes that promote health, encourage compassion, and minimize our
eco-footprints on the Earth.
Dr.
Tuttle follows up with a musically-infused and life-changing workshop, on how
to access and be guided by our unique inner intuition and wisdom, allowing our
life choices to be aligned with our values.
Both
Events: 7:00 – 9:00 pm, Ukrainian
Culture Center
3277
Douglas Street, Victoria, BC
Doors
open at 6:30 pm for Door Ticket Sales
Include
uplifting piano music and complimentary light refreshments (courtesy of
Pachavega)
Event
Information: iqbrite@shaw.ca
250-721-1101 www.members.shaw.ca/IQBrite/Events/Events.html
Information
about World Peace Diet: www.worldpeacediet.org
EARLYBIRD
Ticket Prices UNTIL August 15:
Lecture:
$10 Workshop: $25 BOTH Events: $30
Ticket
Prices AFTER August 15, and at the Door:
Lecture:
$15 Workshop: $30
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
We've got good news and bad news ...
Good news from the world:
Britain - there's a Bill going through Parliament to ban circuses in the UK - finally something animal-related which everyone agrees on! (94% polled said circuses were cruel and outdated). Now if only they could agree on banning fox-hunting - for the same reasons. And if only the British Parliament would respond to the majority view that abattoirs should contain video surveillance cameras to monitor (and thus lessen) the horrific abuse going on there -- especially since every other inch of Britain seems to have them ...
India -- is starting a great program in some schools for 8 - 12 year olds on "compassionate citizen" studies including learning about animals and their needs and feelings. Every bit of chipping away at the monolithic bastions of cruelty there is a start. The land where Buddhism, the most compassionate religion, originated is also a land of billions of starving street dogs, working elephants, and if you think cows have it easy check out the leather trade ...
See more on schools at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Ludhiana/Schools-to-help-students-become-animal-lovers/articleshow/19926715.cms
Spain -- could go to the good or bad: Spanish government is considering whether bull fighting is an untouchable "cultural" thing there. Rising numbers of citizens are opposing it.
But on the other paw:
The RSPCA in Britain says that convictions under cruelty laws have increased by one third in the past year. What on Earth is going on? Does this mean the conviction rate is improving, the reporting is increasing, or the cruelty rate is increasing? Probably, as ever more people are crowded into cities (and countryside is eaten up) and stress levels plus neighbours' disputes/accusations increase, both the latter two phenomena would be impacted. The RSPCA is calling on judges to take these cases more seriously.
Not good news from Canada:
The government persists in trying to revive the seal skin trade and the seal hunt, even though most Canadians and overwhelmingly-most non-Canadians are disgusted by it.
Britain - there's a Bill going through Parliament to ban circuses in the UK - finally something animal-related which everyone agrees on! (94% polled said circuses were cruel and outdated). Now if only they could agree on banning fox-hunting - for the same reasons. And if only the British Parliament would respond to the majority view that abattoirs should contain video surveillance cameras to monitor (and thus lessen) the horrific abuse going on there -- especially since every other inch of Britain seems to have them ...
India -- is starting a great program in some schools for 8 - 12 year olds on "compassionate citizen" studies including learning about animals and their needs and feelings. Every bit of chipping away at the monolithic bastions of cruelty there is a start. The land where Buddhism, the most compassionate religion, originated is also a land of billions of starving street dogs, working elephants, and if you think cows have it easy check out the leather trade ...
See more on schools at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Ludhiana/Schools-to-help-students-become-animal-lovers/articleshow/19926715.cms
Spain -- could go to the good or bad: Spanish government is considering whether bull fighting is an untouchable "cultural" thing there. Rising numbers of citizens are opposing it.
But on the other paw:
The RSPCA in Britain says that convictions under cruelty laws have increased by one third in the past year. What on Earth is going on? Does this mean the conviction rate is improving, the reporting is increasing, or the cruelty rate is increasing? Probably, as ever more people are crowded into cities (and countryside is eaten up) and stress levels plus neighbours' disputes/accusations increase, both the latter two phenomena would be impacted. The RSPCA is calling on judges to take these cases more seriously.
Not good news from Canada:
The government persists in trying to revive the seal skin trade and the seal hunt, even though most Canadians and overwhelmingly-most non-Canadians are disgusted by it.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
REAL Policy Alternatives - a Charter for Animals
In the March 2013 edition of its Monitor, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives printed a proposed Canadian Charter of Environmental Rights and Responsibilities, on the model of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Its ten points basically come down to keeping "the environment" safe for people ("healthy, clean, safe" etc.), and making polluters pay. The term "environment" however has become so vague as to be meaningless, and "environmentalist" (like "sustainability") can mean anything; politicians of all stipes declare themselves to be one, and for the other.
Getting down to specifics: nowhere in this Charter of Environmental Rights for people, are other animals mentioned. They seem to be covered by reference to "biodiversity." But that won't get us any further in terms of coming to grips with the "Responsibilities" part of the proposal. If we changed the wording of item number one by changing the first word, ("Everyone") to the word "Animals", it would read:
"ANIMALS have the right to live in a healthy and ecologically balanced environment, including clean air, safe water, fertile soil, nutritious food, and vibrant biodiversity."
If we took animals' right to that literally, we would automatically be taking care of the other nine points -- i.e. prohibiting pollution, thinking global, restoring damaged landscapes, educating the populace etc.
A charter of animal rights would be a charter of nature's rights, Mother Earth's rights (something that has been adopted by Ecuador). But, as a Chinese network of environmental groups points out, different animals would logically have different rights, each having evolved different characteristics and needs. Basically, the common right is their right to keep being themselves -- unpersecuted, unmolested, un-tortured, imprisoned, starved, hunted or harassed. Obviously, the rights (needs) of an agricultural animal are different from those of a wild one. People have laid out specific charters of rights for whales (the Helsinki Agreement) and apes, for instance -- but the common thread is compassion. Com-passion means "feeling with" someone, and until any Charter for fellow humans or fellow animals is based on a foundation of fellow-feeling, it won't have much power.
During elections, no party takes on concerns about either ecology or compassion with any seriousness; candidates merely try to be vague enough on "the environment" to alienate the fewest possible number of voters. That is the strategy of all major parties. What every country needs is a Party of Nature, which starts with nature. (What else did everything start with, as in life-on-Earth and such ... ?) All else - economics, social parity, public health, education -- needs to flow from that.
Politics and law, though, are just two prongs. Science, especially behavioural-neuroscience, literature and even more imaginative tools are needed for the protection of animals in society - and one lawyer, Amy Breyer, is working on an Animal History Museum in Los Angeles. Why isn't every place starting one?! So far the exhibits are virtual, but imminent construction is planned for the "preservation and exploration of the history, culture, science and law relating to the relationship between human and non-human animals." Learn more at www.animalhistorymuseum.org.
Getting down to specifics: nowhere in this Charter of Environmental Rights for people, are other animals mentioned. They seem to be covered by reference to "biodiversity." But that won't get us any further in terms of coming to grips with the "Responsibilities" part of the proposal. If we changed the wording of item number one by changing the first word, ("Everyone") to the word "Animals", it would read:
"ANIMALS have the right to live in a healthy and ecologically balanced environment, including clean air, safe water, fertile soil, nutritious food, and vibrant biodiversity."
If we took animals' right to that literally, we would automatically be taking care of the other nine points -- i.e. prohibiting pollution, thinking global, restoring damaged landscapes, educating the populace etc.
A charter of animal rights would be a charter of nature's rights, Mother Earth's rights (something that has been adopted by Ecuador). But, as a Chinese network of environmental groups points out, different animals would logically have different rights, each having evolved different characteristics and needs. Basically, the common right is their right to keep being themselves -- unpersecuted, unmolested, un-tortured, imprisoned, starved, hunted or harassed. Obviously, the rights (needs) of an agricultural animal are different from those of a wild one. People have laid out specific charters of rights for whales (the Helsinki Agreement) and apes, for instance -- but the common thread is compassion. Com-passion means "feeling with" someone, and until any Charter for fellow humans or fellow animals is based on a foundation of fellow-feeling, it won't have much power.
During elections, no party takes on concerns about either ecology or compassion with any seriousness; candidates merely try to be vague enough on "the environment" to alienate the fewest possible number of voters. That is the strategy of all major parties. What every country needs is a Party of Nature, which starts with nature. (What else did everything start with, as in life-on-Earth and such ... ?) All else - economics, social parity, public health, education -- needs to flow from that.
Politics and law, though, are just two prongs. Science, especially behavioural-neuroscience, literature and even more imaginative tools are needed for the protection of animals in society - and one lawyer, Amy Breyer, is working on an Animal History Museum in Los Angeles. Why isn't every place starting one?! So far the exhibits are virtual, but imminent construction is planned for the "preservation and exploration of the history, culture, science and law relating to the relationship between human and non-human animals." Learn more at www.animalhistorymuseum.org.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Killer Sports -- it's Kentucky Derby weekend 2013
In honour of Kentucky Derby day which is now upon us (May 4th), why not check out some of the horse welfare organizations. At the Kentucky Derby 20 horses having been pushed to the limits of physical endurance during their short lives will now risk dying like Eight Bells did two years ago. She broke both front ankles for the sake of winning this race.
There are organizations whose mission is to re-house retired racehorses, some of whom actually end up as meat. If they don't win, they don't just lose the race, they lose their homes, their caregivers and their lives, being sold to the meat industry. Even if they escape that fate they may pass through the hands of many show riders, inexpert hobby farm families, trail riding businesses ... who knows what ... Life is more difficult and full of landmines for horses than perhaps any other domestic animal.
Check out these sites: in western Canada is New Stride Thoroughbred Adoption at www.newstride.com, also in Canada: www.heavencanwaitequinerescue.org/
Then there is Re-run at www.rerun.org, the Morning Feed, www.morningfeed.com, and in the UK: www.racehorserescue.org.uk/
There are many more: every state, province and horse region is getting one, and as breeders breed more horses in the endless quest to get a winner and the over supply leads to continuous throwaways, these retirement and rescue sanctuaries are ever more needed. Horses are expensive to keep, so donations tooare always needed. So if you bet, bet on this - maybe give away a portion of your winnings so all the poor old runners can be winners too?
Fighting to keep horses out of the meat industry is the Canadian Horse Defence Council -- check them out and learn about those issues, including cruel and/or illegal drugging, at www.defendhorsescanada.org.
There are organizations whose mission is to re-house retired racehorses, some of whom actually end up as meat. If they don't win, they don't just lose the race, they lose their homes, their caregivers and their lives, being sold to the meat industry. Even if they escape that fate they may pass through the hands of many show riders, inexpert hobby farm families, trail riding businesses ... who knows what ... Life is more difficult and full of landmines for horses than perhaps any other domestic animal.
Check out these sites: in western Canada is New Stride Thoroughbred Adoption at www.newstride.com, also in Canada: www.heavencanwaitequinerescue.org/
Then there is Re-run at www.rerun.org, the Morning Feed, www.morningfeed.com, and in the UK: www.racehorserescue.org.uk/
There are many more: every state, province and horse region is getting one, and as breeders breed more horses in the endless quest to get a winner and the over supply leads to continuous throwaways, these retirement and rescue sanctuaries are ever more needed. Horses are expensive to keep, so donations tooare always needed. So if you bet, bet on this - maybe give away a portion of your winnings so all the poor old runners can be winners too?
Fighting to keep horses out of the meat industry is the Canadian Horse Defence Council -- check them out and learn about those issues, including cruel and/or illegal drugging, at www.defendhorsescanada.org.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Threatening cows run loose in eloquent verse
They Bring it on Themselves, by Joanna Lilley. Snapdragon Press, 2013
The headline said
Polar bears may endanger humans as climate changes
They killed the wolf at the dump, the officer said
because it didn't show any fear of humans
The police said they shot and killed two cows running loose
because they were aggressive and a threat to residents
The restaurant advertisement said
Enjoy your place at the top of the food chain .....
These are the first lines of the title poem of this collection of poetry by Joanna Lilley of Whitehorse. It's your proverbial slim volume, but containing a bulky load of information, reaction and poetic imagination. It is in some ways a pleasure to read poetry, as opposed to prose, about "awareness of the unkind things we do to animals," as the introduction phrases it, but some of the images are upsetting (I have not yet been brave enough to do more that skim over "Fur Bearer," and as for "Conibear" ... no ). It's like those movies you sit through with your eyes closed for half the time, fearing the violence -- and poems are by nature much more affecting than are movies.
Some of these take a surprise positive upturn, as in "The Abattoir Worker's Wife"; others are whimsical, sad, humourous, perceptive, particular, symbolic, biographical and informative by turns.
For some people all the facts, stats and arguments in the world can't get through to heart and mind like one passage of eloquent verse can, and it's something of a relief as well as a novelty to see animal advocacy take this form once in a while.
Lilley offers this chapbook for fundraising by animal advocacy groups. More of her work can be ferretted out through her website:
http://www.joannalilley.blogspot.ca/
The headline said
Polar bears may endanger humans as climate changes
They killed the wolf at the dump, the officer said
because it didn't show any fear of humans
The police said they shot and killed two cows running loose
because they were aggressive and a threat to residents
The restaurant advertisement said
Enjoy your place at the top of the food chain .....
These are the first lines of the title poem of this collection of poetry by Joanna Lilley of Whitehorse. It's your proverbial slim volume, but containing a bulky load of information, reaction and poetic imagination. It is in some ways a pleasure to read poetry, as opposed to prose, about "awareness of the unkind things we do to animals," as the introduction phrases it, but some of the images are upsetting (I have not yet been brave enough to do more that skim over "Fur Bearer," and as for "Conibear" ... no ). It's like those movies you sit through with your eyes closed for half the time, fearing the violence -- and poems are by nature much more affecting than are movies.
Some of these take a surprise positive upturn, as in "The Abattoir Worker's Wife"; others are whimsical, sad, humourous, perceptive, particular, symbolic, biographical and informative by turns.
For some people all the facts, stats and arguments in the world can't get through to heart and mind like one passage of eloquent verse can, and it's something of a relief as well as a novelty to see animal advocacy take this form once in a while.
Lilley offers this chapbook for fundraising by animal advocacy groups. More of her work can be ferretted out through her website:
http://www.joannalilley.blogspot.ca/
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