On Loving Animals...

Ignorance and apathy. They continue to strive in the most unexpected places. This time, it is an arts center who decided it was appropriate to include the circus in their festivities. Fine arts, good music? No. Bad judgment is more like it. Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland touts itself as the intersection of art and life. Really? Evidently, that doesn't include animal life and welfare. By including Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey circus in their annual festival, Strathmore abdicated their high stature, their exulted position as patron of the arts and anything ethereal, to one that embraces and pushes animal cruelty. PETA has already tried to enlighten Strathmore President Eliot Pfanstiehl about the hideous conditions in which Asian elephants live in, or any of the circus animals for that matter. The gentleman was unmoved. And so ignorance and apathy, not violins and brushes, became the instruments of Strathmore. You can help save the circus animals from forced labor and

I featured Maxine on this blog a few days ago with another dog named Zeke. Zeke went home to his forever home, but we are still looking for loving humans for Maxine. Now, Maxine is a whippet and she has a lot of energy. So, we are looking for someone or a family with at least person who can keep up with Maxine. Above is a video I took yesterday in our shelter yard. As you can see, letting Maxine loose in a fenced in yard makes her very happy.

I was walking around the Soho / Greenwich Village area last weekend, and came upon this animal. It wouldn't help to say that it stands in a street cornering Mulberry because Mulberry is a long street. At first, I thought it was a dog. Since the tail is rather long and somewhat straight, I now think that it is bovine and not canine. You might one day come upon him/her, and then you can help me decide for sure.

Hydrogen Peroxide. Such an ominous sounding name, isn't it? Heck, does it explode and create a mushroom cloud? Does it eat your flesh to the bone? Well, in tsunamic proportions, I don't know. Maybe it could. But I do know that in proportionate amounts it can save your poisoned pet from dying. At the end of 2008, the ASPCA put out a bulletin entitled, What Poisoned our Pets in 2008? . Poison? Now, there's a word that can send chills down your spine. In the ASPCA's Top 10 , you will find the usual suspects---lawn fertilizers, household cleaning agents, certain fruits and plants, and also mundane items such as batteries. For our pets, our human environment can be very treacherous. But, what about hydrogen peroxide (HP)? Well, I actually recall that name with fondness. I recall my mom lovingly wiping my wounds, usually infected wounds, with a cotton ball soaked in HP. Oh, when it fizzed, it was just heaven. It felt like a lot of good was happening, fungi/bacteria/viruses ge

Hatred took Jack and Bobby away, but God gave us Barack.

We have a couple of relatively new additions to our shelter population. First, Zeke arrived at the shelter approximately three weeks ago. He is good all around, having no issues at all with other dogs, food, cats, or humans. Zeke's got this nice combo of black and brown fur plus a very expressive face. Does he look sad? Well, yes, he looks sad. He's in a shelter, not a home. Zeke will be a great companion dog. He's not the aloof type, but the type who is always checking up on you. The most noticeable trait of Zeke is quietness. He does not bark like the other dogs in their kennels. He acts as if he is doing his duty as a shelter dog, no barking, just waiting. Ask yourself, are you missing out on a great dog? Yes, you are. If you are like me who can't take in another dog, please tell your friends about Zeke. Maxine is very much like Zeke, quiet and gentle. But I can see Maxine's uneasiness being in the shelter. She acts like she's always looking out for someone

Back in the late 70s, when I was in my early twenties, I lived on E20th Street between First Avenue and the FDR Drive in Manhattan. For the locals, the area is still known as Stuyvesant Town. Down the block was a grocery store called D'Agostino. For all I know, it could still be there but there are many branches in the city. It was a time when I counted every penny, couldn't afford to eat out, made my lunch and dinner from the stuff I bought from D'Agostino, saving money by shopping there. That went on for three years until I moved to Queens. So, I was all ears when I heard something about this chain of groceries in the news, something relating to animal welfare at that, something good. Well, as it turned out, D'Agostino became the latest business establishment to drop their partnership with that God awful, inhumane, saddest show on Earth, Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus. Unaware of the hideous imprisonment and forced labor of animals practiced by the circus, D&

I am going to repost an alert sent by the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance to its members and to all who care about animal welfare. I have already sent my own email to the authorities at Fort Dix, and I am asking you to send in yours as well. Phone calls, emails, and demonstrations do make a difference, and please do not be skeptical about their efficacy. Help open their eyes to compassion and respect for animals. There are individuals at Fort Dix who would turn the home of our fighting men and women into a house of horror for animals. The maiming of innocent animals will take place in two days, and so time is of the essence. I won't even repeat the points made in the alert since you can read about them as follows: NJARA received a call from a whistleblower at Fort Dix, NJ informing us of the Army's plans to stab, shoot and break the legs of pigs and goats, attempting to create combat injuries, in order that medics can work on them. As with all animal experimentation, this ex

Well, finally, we're showing some respect for our elders! George was estimated to be 140 years old and could have been served hot if not for an eagle-eyed patron of City Crab and Seafood restaurant in New York City. After all those years, George had finally put himself in mortal danger, from mankind and its insatiable appetite for eating other animals. Poor George. He must have been just trawling along the bottom, as usual, and when he walked into a trap. And so he ended up the subject of a phone call from a caring consumer to PETA . Through PETA's intervention and the restaurant's sympathy, George is free again. This native of Newfoundland, Canada was released Saturday at Kennebunkport, Maine. For a short while George was priced at $27 per pound. George's true age is uncertain, but lobsters are known to live up to one hundred years old. If George is, in fact, 140 years old, then he was born right after the American civil war. Think about it. Lobster George was swimmin

Based in Englishtown, New Jersey, the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance (NJARA) is looking for a few good men, and women too. They've advertised three paid positions that you could be interested in. Of course, it is up to you to negotiate salary and benefits. But let's be realistic here. Your personal satisfaction will be greater than your pay. Although I am a member, I don't really know what goes on there administratively. It's best to contact NJARA directly : New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance (NJARA) P.O. Box 174, Englishtown, NJ 07726...Tel. 732-446-6808. www.NJ-ARA.org/jobs Here are the positions to be filled: Veg Outreach Program Coordinator : Educate the public about the use of animals raised for food and the human health benefits of a plant-based diet. REQUIRED: excellent understanding of the issues, public speaking and good communication skills, computer literate, vegan. Wonderful opportunity for a compassionate person who cares about the plight of animals.

The day of reckoning has come. Meaning, our shelter president requested all volunteers to send in their estimated hours of work for 2008. The shelter is required to submit shelter stats to the authorities, whoever they may be, including volunteer activity. As I have said before, our shelter doubles as the animal control facility for four towns in Passaic County, NJ. It consists of four buildings: the main doghouse, the cattery, the outside kennels, and the offices of the animal control department. There is also a fenced in yard in the back where agility tests, general dog training takes place. I spend most of my time in the doghouse. Well, let's see what we have here. I finished my three Sundays of training in January, and I became a volunteer officially in February. That makes eleven months of shelter duty. In that time, doing two-hour shifts every Sunday morning, add the occasional Saturday, Sunday and Monday afternoons, I estimated my volunteer hours to be 144 altogether. Some

Yesterday morning, I took one of our shelter dogs for an extended walk in the woods behind the shelter facility. We usually walk our dogs along a driveway that leads to the shelter gate and along the property line. This time, I decided to go deeper into the woods with Fred. It's actually our first time to walk together. The area behind the shelter is a favorite for off roaders because the trail is rough and undulating. In the warm months, the vegetation is dense and you cannot see more than 50 feet ahead. It shouldn't be a surprise if you encountered a deer, but it's the stray bear that could ruin your day. But it's winter and I trust that the bears are asleep and not on the prowl around the area. Walking with Fred, a homeless dog like all others at the shelter, was like walking with a friend. He picked his way among the snow-covered leaves and ice-clogged ruts of the trail as I did. Fred looked back periodically, checking on me, seeing if I was alright or able to keep

Well, there were no animals injured in the filming of this motion picture, and so perhaps that is the news. A few years ago, I was actively flying single-engined airplanes---pipers and cessnas---out of Teterboro Airport and it would just be a matter of minutes before I was over farmland, green pastures, or the seemingly unending beauty of the Hudson River area. Being up in the air at the controls of a small airplane made me feel that I was living my life and not just spending it. Once, I followed the shore of the Hudson River all the way up to Albany and on the return I flew south over the farmlands of upstate New York. I don't fly anymore due to cost and I would rather donate the money to animal rights orgs than spend it on hourly rentals and fuel. I will not admit to the money I blew on my flying lessons and the flying I did after I earned my pilot's license. It's an obscene amount. But I can admit that my appreciation for natural beauty and all the animals who live in it

Why is the Bush administration so hell-bent on destroying the beauty of the land? This eleventh hour auctioning of lands in southern Utah, 150,000 acres, is like a thief in the night with George Bush as the get away driver. He wouldn't benefit financially from the sale, and so this is all about pushing an anti-environment agenda to the very last days of his administration. Watch the video : Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy