Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.
You mess with the bull, you die. Nothing sad. Well-deserved.
It’s a pity that the bulls only managed to kill one idiot this year.
Browsing the archives for the Care.Factor category.
is a movie, starring Richard Gere, based on a true story about a dog named Hachiko. Hachiko is an Akita breed who lived with his owner, a professor, in Tokyo in the 1920s. He waits at the train station each day for the scheduled train, for his owner to return home from work. One day, his owner never returned. He died at work that day. But Hachiko continued to show up at the train station, on the same schedule, for many years.
an extremely beautiful dog as Hachi but do not go and get yourself an Akita just from watching Hachi
You should always consider whether there will be someone reliable to take care of your dog or pet should you not be able to return home one day. If you are on your own, then you should probably not get a pet merely to keep you company. That is plain selfish. Pets can’t refill their own waterbowls when it dries up. They can’t open the door to get out if there is a fire. They need you to be around for them.
Hachiko has a statue erected to commemorate him, just outside Shibuya station. It has become a popular meeting place in crowded Shibuya.
Extracted from this article on The Age
The anticipated influx of burnt and injured wildlife never arrived at Healesville Sanctuary after the fires. Staff members say only a trickle arrived while they were on standby for a flood.
“We’ve been surprised that the numbers have been so few,” head vet Rupert Baker said. “My concern is that the intensity and the magnitude of the fire means there were no small refuge areas for animals to hide.”
Suffering burnt pads, smoke inhalation and singed coats and feathers, many were too exhausted to put up a fight, almost welcoming human intervention.
“Ash”, the eastern grey kangaroo, is now an outpatient of Healesville Sanctuary. He came from around St Andrews and Kinglake West and spent the first few days after the fire at an animal triage centre in Whittlesea. He is now a border at the Shangri-La Wildlife Shelter, run by husband and wife team Rodney and Trish Hudson-Davies.
“All his whiskers on the left side have gone and he’s got fur ripple, which means he’s actually gone through a fire wall,” Mr Hudson-Davies said. “He would have gone straight through the middle of it.”
Of most concern are the third-degree burns to his front paws, hind legs and tail. Every few days dressings have to be cut off exposing the swollen, peeling and blackened pads which are cleaned and creamed before being covered again. It’s a process that is going to be repeated for months.
But Ash, as Mr Hudson-Davies has named him, seems almost calm; rare in a wild animal. Mr Baker said quietness is often a symptom of shock.
Despite the low numbers of wildlife arriving, Mr Baker said staff are euthanasing more animals than they are treating, such is the severity of the burns and injuries.
All photos above by Wayne Taylor – The Age
These are lives too. I feel sadder for them. Human homes can still be rebuilt. But they have lost their homes forever. How does one rebuilt a forest?
Victoria’s bushfire tragedy. Full coverage of the disaster here.
The koala above has been named Sam and is a she. Sam suffered but survived. Sadly, many didn’t. Wild animals couldn’t outrun the raging firestorm. Livestocks and pets were trapped and burnt alive. My heart goes out for the animals that didn’t make it.
risking its own life to save another
It is heart-wrenching watching the dog getting hit and run over. It was just trying to get to the other side.
The translation of the announcer is as follows:
“These images seen from the surveillance cameras show a very common situation with our overpopulated highways. It is normal for us to see dogs run over. In the video, we can see this dog fighting for his life because he was run over by the vehicle.What is very touching is to see the very heroic actions of this other dog who is trying to pull him to the side of the highway. We are going to keep seeing things like this until we find a solution to the dogs living on the streets.”
I don’t have much compassion left for the humankind. Disappointed with our kind. Sadden by our acts.
Just the amount of slaughterings we carry out to feed our kind is appalling enough. But that can still be justified to a degree. This however, is totally unneccessary.
Days without the humankind
Arrival of the humankind
Seal hunting is practiced mainly in Canada, Greenland, Namibia, Norway, and Russia. It is an annual event in Canada.
Religion is not about merely showing up at the church or mosque or temple. It is about being a good person and having some compassion in you, at least towards animals.
I was blog-surfing today and came across an heartbreaking incident, which occurred about a year ago but nevertheless, it still roused my anger. It is totally absurd. Totally unjustified.
I grew up in Malaysia and I know Muslims consider dogs ‘haram‘ (a word for forbidden or unclean in Islam), just like pigs. I often wonder if this is true for all Muslims or just Southeast Asian Muslims. In Dec 2006, a dog, later named Joy, was maliciously attacked by some Indonesian labourers working in Malaysia. 2 eyewitness told Sabrina Yeap. who helped the severely injured dog, that the labourers had attacked the dog claiming that the animal is ‘haram‘ (a word for forbidden or unclean in Islam). Really? So they had to attack the the defenseless being because it is unclean? If something is ‘haram‘ then stay away from it. Is it neccessary to bring it to this extent? I just cannot comprehend the need for ridiculous acts like this.
As a result of the attack, the lower jaw of the dog was seriously severed and its tongue was hanging out. Vet surgeons had to remove the lower jaw but was able to save the tongue. I am thinking, how will this dog be able to chew and eat and drink for the rest of its life? According to the news, it will have to be fed soft food for the rest of its unjust life. And imagine the agonizing moments it had to go through during the attack.
If all this was because it is what God had wanted, I am seriously doubting religion. Is it the devil’s voice dim-witted people like these are hearing. What has the dog done so badly that it has to receive this sort of punishment?
I am not sure if the ‘angels’ received any judgement for their act. They shouldn’t die or be jailed. They deserve better than that. They deserve to have their lower jaws knocked out, just like their victim. Religious groups have a responsibility to educate and guide pathetic people like these and Government needs to take action to prevent insane acts like these, not sweep it under the carpet.
I do wonder how Joy is coping with its deformed face now. More news- digging and found some articles here and here on how Joy is recovering.
Joy, post-trauma
Life will never be the same for Joy again. He will never be able to fetch again. Thanks to our kind.
is the abbreviation for Kentucky Fried Chicken as well as Kentucky Fried Cruelty.
It isn’t about eating meat. Humans have been eating meat since we came into existence. It is more about making it less painful for our prey. If you were to die, you’d want to die a quick death too, not a slow, painful one…
Minimise cruelty.
Jigokudani Yaenkoen, located near Nagano in Japan, is where the Japanese Macaques (popularly known as the Snow Monkeys) can be observed as they soak in an onsen, a monkey’s only onsen.
The walk to this area is aprroximately 1.5kms and is the only way to get to the observation area. So it doesn’t matter if you fall in the royalty or wealthy category. Everyone has to do the walking to get here. It is breathtaking walk though.
near the entrance to the Snow Monkey Park
Snow monkeys soaking in their onsen
Watching us watching them
and this is how humans express their gratitude to the animals.
Closer by Nine Inch Nails
from the following album
Trent Reznor from NIN doing his part for the animals
Have you ever considered how the pig was treated before it became your bacon?
It doesn’t have to be this miserable.
Extracted from WSPA Farm Animals
Selectively bred for rapid weight gain, the piglets are fattened for meat for 4 to 6 months. They are kept in conditions of severe deprivation – in small, overcrowded, often dirty pens. They live on bare concrete or slatted floors with no straw or other bedding material. Combined with overcrowding, the lack of straw prevents them from carrying out natural behaviours such as rooting, foraging and exploring.
In natural conditions, pigs are highly active spending 75 per cent of their day rooting, foraging and exploring. Such activities are impossible for industrially farmed pigs. Rather like puppies, they are immensely lively and curious – yet on industrial farms there is no outlet for all this energy.
Bored and frustrated, the pigs fight and bite the only other ‘thing’ in their pens: the tails of other pigs. Mutilations such as tooth-clipping and tail-docking are routinely practised to reduce these behaviours. Males are often castrated. These procedures are usually carried out without anaesthetic, often leading to prolonged pain.
Research shows that the best way to prevent tail-biting is to not to clip teeth or dock tails, but to keep the pigs in good conditions. Aggressive behaviour often occurs as a result of overcrowding in barren pens and mixing unfamiliar pigs, which are basic management mistakes.
Tail-docking is a clear example of how industrial farmers, rather than addressing the root causes of the problem, opt for a ‘solution’ that imposes more pain and suffering on the animal.
They should be allowed to live their short lives a little better, while being on death row. Pigs have feelings too, you know…
Beluga whales can be trained like dogs to perform cheesy tricks for spectators.
Beluga whales that are unable to perform the above tricks suffer the following fate
A little about Beluga whales
The Beluga whale is white in color. It’s neck is flexible, allowing it to turn its head. Its diet includes crustaceans, squid, octopus, worms and other small fishes. Belugas are found in the Artic and sub-Artic region. Its head is shaped like an egg.
It is also known as the Sea Canary for its high pitched squeaks.
It can grow up to 5 metres in length. Polar bears are the natural predators of beluga whales. But as with most animals, its current number one predator is us, humans.
images are from Wikipedia and National Geographic
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