Say NO to SeaWorld!

Do you agree that orcas and other dolphins should not be held in captivity for our pleasure?  Then sign this petition!  The Petition Site. 

Photo from EyeBallard.

Death at Guantanamo, tigers, dolphins and random kindness

Once again I've had to take time off from blogging to take care of personal and other matters....I try to prepare for these times in advance, thanks to Blogspot's scheduled posting feature....but that doesn't help with the local and breaking news that I do try to cover, at least if it's something that interests me or that I think is important to the community.

Meanwhile I keep collecting items I want to share, more than I can ever write about in detail, so I'm just going to share some links.

If you aren't furious and disgusted by the time you finish reading Harper Magazine's 'The Guantanamo "Suicides': A Camp Delta Sergeant Blows the Whistle" then you must be Dick Cheney.  The good news is that some people are willing to speak out, now matter what it costs them.


As the New York Times reported February 12, the Year of the Tiger could turn out to be a real bummer of a year for the slightly more than 3,000 tigers left in the wild.  Neither India nor China have strong protections in place for their tiger populations and the Chinese ascribe magical properties to tigers in various  pieces that  a whole, living tiger apparently lacks.

I first wrote about The Cove, a film about the secret and ongoing slaughter of dolphins in Japan, last July.  The film is now the front runner for Best Documentary at this Year's Academy Awards, but what's most important to those who made The Cove is that that the film will finally be shown in Japan, where people are mostly unaware, not only of the slaughter, but of the high levels of mercury in the dolphin flesh they eat.  While the Japanese themselves are the key to political change in their country, you can sign a petition asking the Japanese government to end this slaughter here. 

Finally, three acts of kindness and self-sacrifice: The homeless man who saved five people from a fire before succumbing himself was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery last month.  Ray Vivier, 61, had been getting himself together, had a job, and was living in a boarding house in Cleveland when arsonists set it on fire.  A Bozeman, MT police officer caught a shoplifter putting food and pencils and pens in his pocket, arrested him for theft, and then released him.  The man was upset and apologetic, saying he had nothing for his kids and no money. Later that same police officer bought some frozen pizzas for the man and his family and delivered them himself. A reporter hanging out at the dispatch office picked up the story from scraps of conversation.  Homeless people at a Baltimore, MD shelter scraped together $14.64 to donate to Haitian Earthquake victims and brought it to an area Red Cross.  "We were all weepy-eyed," recalled Red Cross volunteer coordinator Bobbie Jones, who was at the front desk when the donation arrived. Baltimore Sun.

Photo of Arlington National Cemetery from rccola159's photostream at Flickr.

Those clever, clever dolphins (and their "accidental" art)

Thanks for the tip, Cute Overload!

20,000 Dolphins a year slaughtered in Japan

The New York Times has a story this morning about The Cove, an award-winning documentary that opens on July 31. It will be shown at the Amherst Cinema Arts Center 3 starting August 14.

A central character is Ric O'Barry, a dolphin activist atoning for his role in commercializing dolphins. From an interview in New York:

You had captured the dolphins on Flipper, right?
I captured the five dolphins that collectively played the part of Flipper. I trained all of them, from the very beginning of the first show to the last show. I lived with all five of them in the Seaquarium. And on Friday nights, at 7:30, I would take the TV set, with a long extension cord, out to the end of the dock, so Flipper could watch Flipper on television. And that’s when I knew they were self-aware. I could tell when the dolphins recognized themselves and each other. Cathy, for example, would recognize the shots she was in, Suzy would recognize her shots, and so on. Dolphins are hard to read, because you have to look at body language. Almost all other animals you can read by looking at their faces. But dolphins have this built-in “smile” that makes it look like they’re always happy.

How did your ideas about captivity turn around?
Cathy died in my arms, of suicide. It was just before Earth Day, 1970. The next day, I found myself in a Bimini jail, trying to free a dolphin for the first time. I completely lost it.

How do you know it was suicide?
You have to understand, dolphins are not automatic air breathers like we are. Every breath for them is a conscious effort. She looked me right in the eye, took a breath, held it — and she didn’t take another one. She just sank to the bottom of the water. That had a profound effect on me.

Photo from Jurvetson's photostream at Flickr.

Dolphins make bubbles to play with

Just try to tell me the human animal is superior to other animals.

Minke whale and dolphins rescued in Wellfleet, Cape Cod

Tuesday: rescue four dolphins.
Wednesday: lead a minke whale back to sea.
Just another day in Wellfleet?

This summer I'm going to have to shake the hand of Wellfleet Harbormaster Michael Flanagan, who gently guided back to sea a minke whale who'd come too close to shore and was in danger of being stranded by the approaching low tide. According to the Boston Globe's Green Blog, Flanagan has quite a bit of experience with strandings, which are all too common in the Cape Cod winter.

On Tuesday, the International Fund for Animal Welfare rounded up thirty volunteers and help capture and rescue four dolphins who were stranded in Duck Creek and Chipman's Cove in Wellfleet Harbor. The animals' body temperature had fallen so low that the rescuers had to warm them up in a trailer before driving them to Herring Cove in Provincetown. All seemed to be well as they swam away.



Photo by Eric Williams, Cape Cod Times. video taken by Cape Cod Times.