This essay from George Monbiot just has to be read as widely as possible.
Dear followers of this blog know that from time to time I dip into politics. I do so because something I read strikes me with such force that I want others to read the article or essay. Not infrequently, my ‘dip’ is in the form of republishing an essay from George Monbiot who, long ago, gave me blanket permission to republish his essays. That is the case today.
I was inspired to write my book, subsequently self-published last December, because I truly believe that the values that we see in our longest animal companions are values that we, as in our societies, from top to bottom, have to embrace if we are to stand any chance of surviving as a species.
Reflect on the fact that dogs do not lie, they do not set out to deceive or influence others for their own personal gain and they are utterly creatures of integrity.
OK, I can hear some of you thinking that dogs are dogs and humans are humans and it’s just plain daft to link the two in this fashion. My only answer to that is to read the book or, at the very least, download and read the first twenty-five pages (for free). Better still purchase the book and have 50% of my net income donated to the Rogue Valley Humane Society.
On the 28th July, George Monbiot published an essay entitled So Much For Sovereignty. I read the essay and, frankly, was apalled at what George was describing: the background of the UK’s new international trade secretary, Liam Fox, recently appointed by Theresa May.
Read it for yourself and see if you react the same way that I did!
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So Much For Sovereignty
28th July 2016
To this government, “taking back control” means handing Britain to a different set of foreign powers
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 27th July 2016
What does it mean to love your country? What does it mean to defend its sovereignty? For some of the leaders of the Brexit campaign, it means reducing the United Kingdom to a franchise of corporate capital, governed from head offices overseas. They will take us out of Europe to deliver us into the arms of other powers.
No one embodies this contradiction as much of the man now charged with determining the scope of our sovereignty: the new international trade secretary, Liam Fox. He explained his enthusiasm for leaving Europe thus: “We’ll be able to make our own laws unhindered by anyone else, and our democratic parliament will not be overruled by a European Court.” But of all the people Theresa May could have appointed to this post, he seems to me the most likely to ensure that our parliament and laws are overruled by foreign bodies.
Dr Fox looks to me like a corporate sleeper cell implanted in government. In 2011, he resigned his post as defence secretary in disgrace, after his extracurricular interests were exposed. He had set up an organisation called Atlantic Bridge, financed in large part by a hedge fund owner. Atlantic Bridge formed a partnership with a corporate lobbying group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is funded by tobacco, pharmaceutical and oil companies. Before it was struck off by the Charity Commission, it began assembling a transatlantic conclave of people who wished to see public services privatised and corporations released from regulation.
He allowed a lobbyist to attend his official meetings, without government clearance. He made misleading statements about these meetings, which were later disproved. It seems extraordinary to me that a man with such a past could have been brought back into government, let alone given such a crucial and sensitive role. Most newspapers have brushed his inconvenient history under the political carpet. He is, after all, their man.
This is the man who has been put in charge of making new trade agreements. What he wants to do with them is pretty clear. “We need to see a reinvigoration of our transatlantic relationship,” he argues. “We have a low regulation and low taxation environment which is only likely to improve outside the EU.” Improve, in this context, means becoming yet more hostile to human welfare, social mobility and the defence of the living world.
They threaten to reduce to the lowest common denominator the laws protecting us from predatory finance, the exploitation of workers, food adulteration, climate change and environmental destruction. They threaten to force the privatisation of public services. They would allow corporations to sue governments for compensation in offshore tribunals that – unlike the European Court Dr Fox professes to hate – are unaccountable, opaque and wildly imbalanced. The EU has no mandate to strike such agreements: a consultation on the offshore tribunals TTIP proposes attracted 150,000 responses, 97% of which were negative.
Leaving Europe should enable us to leave behind biased, destructive treaties of this kind; we will, after all, have to renegotiate most of our trade agreements. But by putting the Fox in charge of the chicken coop, Theresa May seems determined to replace them with something even worse.
The corporate army is already at the gates. The Republican senator Tom Cotton proposes that Britain should join the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Using the kind of international tribunals that TTIP threatens to impose, NAFTA has undermined labour rights and environmental protection. It has blocked attempts to produce more progressive laws and greatly restricted legislative sovereignty. Whether we formally join NAFTA, or connect to that trading area through TTIP or another such agreement, the results will gravely threaten our sovereignty – unless negotiations are run on an entirely different basis.
In response to the Philip Green scandal, Theresa May says she wants to “tackle corporate irresponsibility” and “reform capitalism so that it works for everyone not just the privileged few.” We have no idea what she means, but here’s where it should begin. Before her government starts negotiating any new trade treaties, it should open a public consultation about their purpose and scope. The UK’s trading relationships should be debated in parliament and the people of this nation should be allowed to determine how much control over national life our representatives should retain, and how much should be ceded to international agreements and international bodies.
Does this mean a referendum? If we can be trusted to decide whether or not to share our sovereignty with Europe, should we not also be trusted to decide whether or not to share it with transnational capital?
But the Conservative vision of sovereignty is highly selective. People like Dr Fox appear to hate much of what others love about this country: the NHS, our public broadcasters, our social safety net, the protection of the countryside, the notion that power resides in the people, rather than in corporations and their shadowy lobbyists. There are traitors in our midst, who would rip down our most treasured institutions on behalf of the transnational elite and its offshore holdings. This, it seems, is what they mean by taking back control.
Returning to the photographs of the deer that come to our property.
Feeding the deer has been featured before on Learning from Dogs but I just wanted to devote today and next Sunday to nothing more sophisticated than photographs; all of them taken here at home.
Photograph taken mid-January, 2014
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A deer reaches down to feed; the tray is about three feet in front of Jean and me. (October, 2014)
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Jean reaches forward and gently draws the tray closer to us. The deer continues to feed. (October, 2014)
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Then, unbelievably, the wild deer continues feeding as Jean fondles the deer’s head and neck. (October, 2014)
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The trust between the deer and Jean then enabled the deer to feed from Jean’s hand. (October, 2014)
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Then there was a rustle in the leaves some twenty feet away and we saw the fawn watching her mother feeding on the cob. Jean and I backed away, just by a few feet, and the fawn came right up to her mother. (October, 2014)
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The culmination of the most magical of experiences: mother deer and her fawn eating together some three feet in front of us. (October, 2014)
I was speaking recently with John Hurlburt whom Jean and I knew well when we were living in Payson, AZ. Subsequently, John sent me a wonderful essay with his permission for me to share it with all you good folks!
A quick web search found a photograph of Wildcat Canyon and that is at the end of today’s guest post.
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Midnight in Wildcat Canyon
The dirt road maze in our Arizona forests covers hundreds of miles. It’s quite possible to drive all day without encountering another human being. I once ended up at a place called Wildcat Canyon at midnight after taking a wrong turn on a wet rocky mountain road.
Cell phones are problematical in the high country. It would have helped if there had been a back woods road map on board. Fortunately there was a GPS that worked.
Wildcat Canyon in the moonlight was well worth visiting. The heavens were open above without a trace of man made light. The impact was awe inspiring. As we intuitively agree, everything fits together or we’d be random atoms.
Although, it may seem random to the casual observer, we scientifically know that the cosmos is unified from the quantum level of physics up with the classical level of physics and back again through fundamental forces we have barely begun to understand.
Einstein’s theories prove that the cosmos turns inside out without breaking. Slight earthly energy shifts can modify and potentially eliminate all life on earth. There’s no need to contribute to the problem by aggravating the negative effects of climate shift through either our deliberate negative action or our thoughtless lack of action.
It’s difficult to understand why we’re fussing and fuming as though we owned the earth, the moon, the sun, and the stars. There’s consensus on the body of scientific fact that supports a holistic understanding of our relative insignificance and our corresponding responsibilities as a consciously aware biological species which is presently the dominate life form on a remote garden planet.
Signs of our cultural crisis of consciousness are clear. Science is ignored or denied unless convenient and/or profitable. World economics are systemically corrupt. Slick politicians twist reality on its ear without regard for truth, justice, liberty, or equality.
Knowledge, understanding and wisdom are disparaged.
Insanity, driven by both conscious and unconscious human fears, masquerades as truth and reason. War is profitable and encouraged. Our politicians know better if they have any awareness or compassion at all in their hearts and souls. It seems that even when most politicians are aware of reality to some degree, they simply don’t care for much beyond themselves in the long run. Political ends justify the means without regard and without regret. Hyper concentrated economic power takes no prisoners.
Insanity is cold. We light a fire to keep us warm and to heat our food.
As the flame burns, we realize that matter and energy are interchangeable. We realize that the earth is finite. We know that we’re energized by the universe. We are children of the light. We are the voice of life and the hope of the future and we’ve lost our moral compass.
Nature always wins and doesn’t care about the quarterly bottom line. Peace is a verb.
Without a unifying purpose, surrender and unilateral acceptance are dubious. What could be more unifying than our instinctive need to survive? Our common objective is to sustain our natural balance. Our immediate practical objective is to save our planetary farm.
We don’t become fully consciously aware until we are born. We begin learning about our world in our cribs. Consider that we live in a garden cradle at the edge of the Milky Way. Change is constant as our universe emerges. Adapting to change is the prime directive for all life forms.
Our problems are complex. The simple answer is found in all our human wisdom traditions. “Be of service to the Earth which sustains all planetary life.” The answer to our political quandary is similarly simple. We can vote for the Nature of Creation or we can vote for Mammon.
We can vote for Sanity (Greek: sanos; balance, wholeness and well being) or we can vote for the meaningless night shades of human insanity. We may vote for Nature or we may vote for global corporate financial interests.
It’s important to note that the unaided human mind is limited. Dumb comes with the territory with no additional charge. Our lives are a learning experience with an ongoing purpose of growth and service.
It took about an hour to get back to a main highway from Wildcat Canyon. It was a matter of back tracking through landmarks noted along the way such as the occasional miniature lake in the middle of the trail or a stretch of jagged rocky out cropping. It was a relief to return to an asphalt road about an hour later.
A wave is breaking. Take care and maintain an even strain.
an old lamplighter
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Wildcat Canyon
You all have a very peaceful weekend. (Oh, and you may want to drop across to Sustainable Rim Country, a fabulous project that John and others have under way.)
A trip to the Oregon Caves National Monument & Preserve.
A week ago when our family guests were staying with us we decided it would be a treat for all of us to visit the very famous Oregon Caves – it was not a disappointment.
Morten and Marius gathering information.
The history of the caves does involve a dog.
Apparently Elijah Davidson discovered the caves in 1874 when he was out with Bruno, his dog, and it disappeared. The dog had fallen down a fissure that Elijah managed to squeeze into and, bingo!, there was the most incredible deep cave ahead of him. (Watch the video below for a fuller description of how the cave was discovered.)
Joaquin Millers Chapel This is a room seen on the cave tour. It is called Joaquin Miller’s Chapel and it is named after the author, Joaquin Miller because he wrote about Oregon Caves in Sunset magazine.
Clearly today’s visitors to the cave enter in a more gentle fashion!
Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve is a National Monument and Preserve in the northern Siskiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon in the United States. The main part of the 4,558-acre (1,845 ha) park, including the marble cave and a visitor center, is located 20 miles (32 km) east of Cave Junction, on Oregon Route 46. A separate visitor center in Cave Junction occupies 4 acres (1.6 ha) of the total. Both parts of the monument, managed by the National Park Service, are in southwestern Josephine County, near the Oregon–California border. The climate is generally mild even at the cave’s elevation of about 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level, but icicles can form at the cave entrance, and winter snow sometimes blocks the park highway.
Elijah Davidson, a resident of nearby Williams, discovered the cave in 1874. Over the next two decades, private investors failed in efforts to run successful tourist ventures at the publicly owned site. After passage of the Antiquities Act by the United States Congress, President William Howard Taft established Oregon Caves National Monument, to be managed by the United States Forest Service, in 1909. The popularity of the automobile, construction of paved highways, and promotion of tourism by boosters from Grants Pass led to large increases in cave visitation during the late 1920s and thereafter. Among the attractions at the remote monument is the Oregon Caves Chateau, a six-story hotel built in a rustic style in 1934. It is a National Historic Landmark and is part of the Oregon Caves Historic District within the monument. The Park Service, which assumed control of the monument in 1933, offers tours of the cave from mid-April through early November. In 2014, the monument was expanded by about 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) and re-designated a National Monument and Preserve. In addition, the River Styx, which flows through the cave and emerges as Cave Creek, was named to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
Oregon Caves is a solutional cave, with passages totaling about 15,000 feet (4,600 m), that formed in marble. The parent rock was originally limestone that metamorphosed to marble during the geologic processes that created the Klamath Mountains, including the Siskiyous. Although the limestone formed about 190 million years ago, the cave itself is no older than a few million years. Valued as a tourist cave, the cavern also has scientific value; sections of the cave that are not on tour routes contain fossils of national importance.
Daughter Maija, grandson Morten and yours truly just having exited the cave.
Between Marius and myself we took a great number of photographs but many of them can’t compare to the quality of photos found on the web.
These are formations known as soda straws and like soda straws they are hollow tubes. They are made up of the mineral calcite.
Won’t go on! (But I will post a collection of photographs, both from me and Marius and found online in a future Picture Parade.)
What I will do is to close with this YouTube video. It is 17 minutes long but very interesting and, hopefully, an inspiration to others to come and visit this incredible geological site.
Of there being a day where no animal lives out of sight of love.
Of course, when I speak of animals I have in mind those animals that end up in rescue shelters of one form or another: cats; horses; dogs; ponies; birds; and other species.
But on the broader topic of offering love to animals I must share something with you before going on to the main subject of today’s post.
That is that for the last few years we have been feeding the wild deer.
Slowly a number of them have grown to trust Jean and me to the point where one particular young female became such a regular that we named her: Doris. It is Doris that is in the picture above eating the cob that we put out twice a day.
Doris doesn’t warm to strangers plus she doesn’t come every day. When she does it is clear that she is familiar with us and perceives no threat from this ‘neck of the woods’, as the next photograph supports:
In fact, I can now gently stroke her neck when she is feeding and will share those pictures with you all in a future Picture Parade post.
I call the closeness of me and Doris love. I love how this animal trusts me and, in turn, the care and responsibility that is called for from me.
My dream is that the love, care and responsibility offered by people will one day be so widespread and extensive that there comes no call for animal rescue shelters.
OK!
A couple of days ago Cori Meloney signed up to follow Learning from Dogs. Cori is the author of the blog Three Irish Cats. As is my usual way I went across to her blog to leave a ‘thank you’ note for her decision to follow my scriblings. I immediately saw her latest post and knew without doubt that it should be republished here. Cori very promptly gave me permission to so do.
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Every Day Should Be Clear the Shelters Day
July 25, 2016
Silly kitty Shadow.
I volunteer with a small (but mighty!) rescue group here in Southern Maryland called Rescue Angels of Southern Maryland. We mostly deal with cats, though we’ve recently begun to rescue dogs as well.
Most of the cats we find homes for come from owner surrenders, friendly cats and kittens from our feral colonies, and at-risk animals from our local municipal shelter, Tri-County Animal Shelter.
Saturday, Rescue Angels was one of the groups that participated in Tri-County’s annual Clear the Shelters Day celebration. Seventy-seven animals found forever homes that day. Watching the parade of happy animals and their new owners as they left the building was totally worth sweltering in the 95-degree heat.
As the only public animal shelter to serve the three Southern Maryland counties, Tri-County is a busy place. It frequently gets full, and organizations like Rescue Angels and others in the area step in when we can to remove animals from the shelter. This is not a no-kill shelter, so a full shelter means animals will die. New animals come in every day.
Gorgeous husky Damien.
Three things struck me when I was at Tri-County last weekend.
The first is that I wish Tri-County could be this busy every Saturday. Granted, adoption fees on Clear the Shelters Day were eliminated or reduced and there was a lot of publicity for this event, but there are always wonderful animals at the shelter that want to go home with a family. Many animals end up there because the owner surrendered them; the reason often given is “did not want.”
The second is that I am increasingly amazed by the dedication of the shelter staff. They have a difficult job, and it often goes without thanks. It’s not easy to be civil to an owner who is dropping off their pet because they don’t want it anymore. It’s not easy to put down perfectly healthy animals because humans have acted irresponsibly. I can only imagine that the staff constantly feels like it is in crisis mode; they may have nearly cleared the shelter on Saturday, but come midweek, those cages and pens will be filled again with animals in need.
The third thought is that we, the community, created this shelter, and we need to fix it. Tri-County has a terrible reputation here in Southern Maryland. The kill rate for cats is more than 50 percent. The facility is small and needs renovation and expansion. It is nearly always full to overflowing. Members of the community sometimes say terrible things about the staff.
Beautiful Nadine, who found a forever home on Clear the Shelters Day.
But Tri-County is constantly full because the Southern Maryland has let its companion animals down. Cats are not spayed or neutered, and they’re treated as disposable. Need to move? Drop your cat at the shelter, or worse, just leave it behind. Dog getting too big? Don’t feel like dealing with behavior or health issues? Drop the animal at the shelter.
I’ll be honest: My opinion of Tri-County and its staff has not always been positive. What makes it worse is that I had those opinions without actually visiting the shelter. I am ashamed of that fact. Since I started volunteering with Rescue Angels, I have visited the shelter many times to take cats that our rescue was putting into foster care. I have met some of the staff members, and they are always happy to talk with me about their animals. They’re ecstatic when an animal leaves the building. The shelter has a rescue coordinator whose job is to work with local rescue groups to remove animals from the shelter when they are at risk of being killed or when shelter life is impacting their well-being. These folks are animal lovers forced into a terrible situation by a community that treats its animals as disposable and Tri-County as its dumping ground.
So, now that Clear the Shelters Day has passed, I challenge my fellow residents of Southern Maryland: Visit Tri-County Animal Shelter. Talk with the staff. Visit with the cats in the free-roaming room. Take a dog for a walk. Take pictures and share them on Facebook. Volunteer. Follow Tri-County on Facebook and interact with their posts. Foster, which allows rescue groups to remove more animals from the shelter. Rescue Angels can help you become a foster family for dogs or cats.
All three Southern Maryland counties are working on plans to build their own shelter facilities. In the meantime, Tri-County Animal Shelter is our public shelter. It’s our job as the community to support the staff, help care for the animals, and reduce the number of animals killed there.
I hope to see you there, leash in hand.
By: Cori S. Meloney
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So if any reader is within reach of Southern Maryland and wants to offer an animal love, care and responsibility then please make your way across to Rescue Angels of Southern Maryland.
How to draw today’s post to a close?
In searching for inspiration about all animals living in the sight of love I realised that what I was dreaming of was more about compassion than love; albeit the two states of mind being very close to one another.
That led me to perusing the Dalai Lama’s teachings on compassion: Compassion and the Individual. Here’s how that teaching concludes:
Compassion and the world
In conclusion, I would like briefly to expand my thoughts beyond the topic of this short piece and make a wider point: individual happiness can contribute in a profound and effective way to the overall improvement of our entire human community.
Because we all share an identical need for love, it is possible to feel that anybody we meet, in whatever circumstances, is a brother or sister. No matter how new the face or how different the dress and behavior, there is no significant division between us and other people. It is foolish to dwell on external differences, because our basic natures are the same.
Ultimately, humanity is one and this small planet is our only home. If we are to protect this home of ours, each of us needs to experience a vivid sense of universal altruism. It is only this feeling that can remove the self-centered motives that cause people to deceive and misuse one another.
If you have a sincere and open heart, you naturally feel self- worth and confidence, and there is no need to be fearful of others.
I believe that at every level of society – familial, tribal, national and international – the key to a happier and more successful world is the growth of compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in an ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good human qualities.
I try to treat whoever I meet as an old friend. This gives me a genuine feeling of happiness. It is the practice of compassion.
Loving animals is very much part of protecting this home of ours.
“I’m 15 feet away and I can hear a two pound dog crying,” Great Plains SPCA’s Scott Poore says with frustration dripping in his voice, almost as much as the sweat on his brow in the 90 degree sun. “We’re going on about 45 minutes with this little dog in the back seat of this car.”
Standing in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Merriam, Kansas, Scott films a live stream broadcast that gives Facebook fans real-time access to the situation that every animal lover dreads: a dog locked inside a hot car.
But the circumstances of this particular rescue are even more bizarre than usual. First of all, this Home Depot allows dogs inside the store. Second, the puppy inside the vehicle was extremely young, only weeks old. Third, the woman went inside to shop without even slightly cracking the windows of the vehicle (although that would be of little benefit). Fourth, she actually lost her car keys so she wasn’t able to open the vehicle when she arrived.
“When the lady came out, she was absolutely blown away that anybody had an issue with this,” Scott said. “And that’s pretty typical.”
A misguided sense of affection actually seems to be at the root of most instances of dogs being left in hot cars. People bring the dogs along because they feel that the dogs will be lonely at home, but they don’t take into account the very real threat to the dog’s physical welfare.
According to the local news station, KCTV, the puppy was returned to his “owner” who was issued a citation. Watch the video and decide for yourself if the law enforcement action available to police under the current law will be sufficient to safeguard this puppy from additional neglect.
The great relationship that can exist between dogs and cheetahs.
Before you read on let me raise my hand in connection with this blog. Or to be clearer, next Monday Jean and I have the very great pleasure in welcoming my daughter, Maija (she of Sonic Journeys from SOUND UK), her husband, Marius, and my grandson Morten. They are staying with us until the 24th July.
Inevitably, and for all the right reasons, I will not be putting in anything like the normal time I usually spend on Learning from Dogs. It did cross my mind to stop blogging for those seven days but that seemed like a step too far.
However, what is certain is that the period from now right through to the last week in July is going to see me lowering the priority of this blog and being more random in nature in terms of if or how I respond to your comments and replies. You will also read a succession of repeats of posts from previous years. I’m hoping that because so many of you will not have been reading this place during my early years that the number of times you see something that you have previously read is kept to a minimum.
So why this note to you all today? Because the rest of this week is going to be pretty busy as we get the house all tidied up and fully prepared for our visitors.
Having got that off my chest do read the following that appeared recently over on Care2.com.
Cheetahs, the fastest land animals on Earth, have been disappearing almost as fast as they can run.
But in the African country of Namibia, the cheetah population has grown from 2,500 to 4,000 since 1994. And dogs are helping to keep those numbers rising.
Instead of trapping or shooting cheetahs that wander onto their property and kill livestock, some farmers are relying on Anatolian Shepherds and their fierce barking to scare away the predators.
“You may see in history that this dog can be responsible for saving the cheetah from extinction,” Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, told CBS News. “That is one heck of a story right there.”
The dogs are provided to farmers and ranchers by the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), the world’s leading organization dedicated to saving the lives of cheetahs in the wild.
The majority of cheetahs in the wild – over 90 percent of them, according to the CCF — live outside protected areas, surrounded by farming communities. And many of those farmers, especially poor ones, are more concerned about protecting their livelihood than an endangered species. About 10,000 cheetahs were killed during the 1980s, before CCF launched the Livestock Guarding Dog program in 1994.
Since then, the program has placed more than 500 dogs, helping to reduce the loss of livestock from 80 to almost 100 percent. The program is extremely popular — there’s a two-year wait to get in. It not only provides free Anatolian Shepherd puppies, but also training advice and free veterinary care.
“CCF research shows that the people’s attitudes towards predators are changing as a result of this and other CCF programs,” the organization said on its website.
Dogs and Cheetahs Aren’t Enemies in U.S. Zoos
As a way to promote “the life-saving role dogs play for cheetahs in the wild,” according to CBS News, some zoos in the United States are raising puppies with cheetah cubs.
“The number one question up here, this $40 million exhibit: ‘Are the dogs coming out?’” Suzi Rapp, director of the Columbus Zoo’s animal programs, told CBS News. “And I say the Columbus Zoo built the world’s most expensive Labrador retriever exhibit in the world… the biggest dog run.”
Dogs and cheetahs can also be found together at the Cincinnati Zoo. It was there, as you probably remember, where Harambe the gorilla was shot to death when a boy fell into his exhibit. His killing sparked international outrage and concern over keeping wild animals captive in zoos.
What are domesticated animals doing in these zoos? Like the Anatolian Shepherds in Africa, the zoos say, the dogs are helping to prevent cheetahs from becoming extinct. But instead of scaring cheetahs away from livestock, the zoo dogs are best buddies with the cheetahs. Their friendship, which begins when they’re about 3 months old, helps put the skittish cheetahs at ease so they can more easily be bred.
The San Diego Zoo, which has been raising dogs with cheetahs for over 30 years, gets many of its puppies from animal shelters. So in a way, the rescued dogs are paying it forward by helping save the lives of another species.
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That Care2 article by Laura Goldman included a short video from CBS News. However, despite me having a link to that video I couldn’t get it to play.
No problem because YouTube came up with a very good alternative.
Published on Apr 29, 2013
CCF Operations Manager Brian Badger explains how our Livestock Guarding Dog program works as part of the whole of CCF’s operations to help save the cheetah in the wild.
In fact, there was more than one interesting video and I couldn’t make up my mind which was best.
So you got two!
Published on Sep 25, 2013
In Gobabis, Namibia, these Kangal dogs guard the goats against predators, including the worlds largest population of wild cheetahs. This stops the farmers from targeting the cheetahs. Since the big dogs were introduced to Namibia, the cheetah population has reached a 30-year high ! Hurray!
A couple of weeks ago, back on the 14th, I posted a warning about leaving dogs in cars if there was the slightest risk of the car being left in the sun.
I feel no embarrassment whatsoever to repeat that warning. This time by republishing an item that was published on Monday on Care2 Causes.
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Firefighters Rescue Dogs Baking Alive in 160 Degree Car
In yet another outrageous case of neglect, three Sacramento, Calif., dogs were found baking alive inside a car that had reached 160 degrees Fahrenheit (71 C).
A Sacramento Fire Department crew circled the vehicle parked at a shopping mall. Using a thermometer designed to detect the car’s internal temperature, the crew quickly determined that the dogs weren’t just hot, they were literally cooking.
The dog seen here panting on the car’s dashboard was immediately taken from the vehicle, and the other two were removed by Animal Control because they were exhibiting aggressive behavior.
This is not the first time that firefighters in Sacramento have had to rescue dogs from a hot car. In fact, they filmed one such rescue last summer.
If you see a dog in a hot car, please take action. Remember, one phone call may not be enough. Wait and see it through to be sure authorities arrive.
Photo Credit: Sacramento Fire Department
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The original article includes a video that is on Facebook that I seem unable to include within this post. But please go here and view it for yourself. (It will require you to log in to your Facebook account.)
Also, please share the information on this post and the one on the 14th as far and wide as you can.
Not exclusively the domain of the male human species!
As most of you know yesterday was Father’s Day. But offering memorial pictures of our recently deceased Hazel was far more important.
Nonetheless, I had seen an item published over on the Care2 site that I wanted to share with you. Namely, that amazing dads are also a feature of the animal kingdom. Granted, not all animals but nevertheless of sufficient importance to attract the attention of The Smithsonian. Or in their words:
Most mammal dads wouldn’t exactly win the “Best Father of the Year” award.
Engaged fathers—those who care for their offspring or bring home the bacon so their female mates can focus on childcare—are present in only about 10 percent of mammal species. But for the rare few who do stick around, the rewards can be myriad: new research finds that parenting efforts pay big dividends for offspring and mates alike. Stay-at-home dads appear to boost reproductive success among their mates by enabling them to breed more frequently and produce larger litters, according to a study published this week in the journal Nature Communications.
Editor’s note: This post is a Care2 favorite, back by popular demand. It was originally posted on June 14, 2014. Enjoy!
Not all non-human animal dads are cut out for family life, but there are a number of species who have become known for their role as fathers who deserve a salute, from giant water bugs who carry dozens of eggs on their backs to males who actually get pregnant and dads who operate solo as single parents. This Father’s Day, it’s time to celebrate some of the amazing dads from the animal kingdom who go above and beyond when it comes raising and protecting their young.
Red Fox
Male red foxes aren’t just loving mates, but excited and protective fathers. They take on the task of providing food for their mates every few hours for about a month after she gives birth. Then they take on the role of teacher – but teachers who like to take time out to play. Even when it’s time to get serious and teach their young how to start finding their own food, fox dads help them out and make sure they don’t really go hungry by hiding it near their dens.
Emperor Penguin
After females lay a single precious egg, Emperor penguin dads take over the responsibility of incubating it by balancing it precariously on their feet and keeping it warm under their feathers in the frigid Antarctic weather while mothers go off to feed. Dads can go for about two months without eating until the egg hatches, at which point he will feed it before mother’s return to give them a break from baby-duty.
Emperor Penguin Protecting Offspring from the Cold
Sea Horse
Seahorses, who are also known to mate for life, have reverse roles; the females compete for males, and the males don’t just play a role in pregnancy, but actually get pregnant. Females deposit their eggs in the male’s pouch, where he fertilizes and carries them until tiny baby seahorses emerge fully developed. According to Science Daily, the process of male pregnancy is unique to the fish family Syngnathidae, which also includes pipefish and sea dragons.
Black seahorse among seaweed
Spotted Sandpiper
It doesn’t happen every time, but sandpipers have been found to reverse roles where female sandpipers establish and defend territory, while taking on multiple male partners. After luring a male to mate with and laying her eggs, she takes off to find another mate. Dad meanwhile stays to incubate the eggs and becomes the primary caregiver for the young for the first few weeks of their lives.
Spotted Sandpiper
Gray Wolf
Despite the myths surrounding wolves that make them out to be villains, alpha male are loving, loyal and protective mates, fathers and leaders. Also known to mate for life, males who breed will guard their partners and pups while they’re in the den and take on the responsibility of finding everyone food. Even as pups grow older, dads will take on the role of teacher, helping them learn their role in the pack and the world.
Mother and son
Great Horned Owl
Great horned owl dads are the stereotypical breadwinners in their families. After finding the perfect home with their mates, male great horned owls take on the role of provider by hunting enough to feed himself and his mate, who is bigger than he is, before taking on the added responsibility of hunting for their young when they hatch.
Grumpy Owl
North American Beaver
Beaver dads are devoted family men, handymen and providers in the animal world. They mate for life and take on a co-parenting role in raising their young until they’re about 2-years-old, while helping care for them and teaching them how to become successful ecosystem engineers before they go off and start families of their own.
In 2012, a beaver in Martinez, Calif., known as “Dad” raised fears about what would happen to his young after his mate died from an infection, but he showed us he could do it all as a single father of three.
Beaver Wearing Leaf
Titi Monkey
Male titi monkeys, who are known for monogamous relationships, are also known for the strong bond they build with their young as primary caregivers. Except for time spent with mom nursing, babies spend the rest of their time being carried around, cared for and protected by their fathers for the first few months of their lives.
Titi Monkey
Rhea
As members of a polygamous species, male rheas have a lot of partners, but when it comes to child-rearing these dads pull their weight and then some. Males can have up to a dozen or so female partners who all lay eggs in a nest he builds before they leave. Males then take on the role of incubating and guarding what can be more than 50 eggs for close to two months before taking on the role of a single parent after they hatch. Males have also been known to adopt orphaned chicks who have been separated from their brood.
Nandu Greater Rhea
Darwin’s Frog
Darwin’s frog dads, who are native to South America, have come up with a neat and bizarre way to protect their offspring from predators. While they breed like other amphibians, where females lay eggs in the water that are fertilized by males, the males of this species take the fertilized eggs into their mouths, store them in their vocal sacs and keep them there until they’re fully developed frogs — at which point he throws them up.
Except that the precise moment of the Summer Solstice is later today or Monday, June 20, 2016 at 3:34 PM PDT to be exact. In universal time (UTC) that is Monday, June 20, 2016 at 22:34 UTC.
However, it is a rather special solstice and all will be explained in tomorrow’s post, albeit a little under nine hours after the event!
Learning from Dogs 