A Whale of a Controversy

Japan's dolphin-hunting industry gets skewered in The Cove, a just-released documentary by director Louie Psihoyos. But after this year's setbacks at the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting, dolphins aren't the only marine mammals that are in trouble.
H/t Wagga!

19,000 Slaughtered

Images of the first phase of Canada's 2009 seal pup massacre.

Struck and Lost

Another harp seal pup slaughter begins again.
Over 338,000 harp, hooded and grey seals will be slaughtered this year per Canada's quota.
harp seal 7 by ~xXxWTFxXx
BREAKING NEW UPDATE!
The first harp seal has been killed:

In the same week that Russia annouced an end to the hunting of seals under a year old, the Canadian goverment released today that they will allow for the slaughter of 280,000 harp seal pups this year.

This is outrageous. This quota is completely indefensible. It’s not supported by markets, it’s not supported by the DFO’s own management plan, and it’s certainly not going to be supported by the majority of Canadians.

For the past two years we’ve seen saturated markets for seal fur, and pelt prices are now the lowest in recent memory. If this is a market-based hunt, as the government claims, the quota for this year should be zero.

The federal government’s determination to ignore reality on this issue is totally irrational. There are no markets for seal products, and with a potential European-wide ban on the horizon, no signs that the economic outlook is going to improve anytime soon. While our politicians trip over themselves to support commercial sealing, our taxes are being wasted on bailing out an anachronistic, dangerous, dead-end industry.

How ironic that two days after Russia announced an end to its commercial harp seal hunt, Canada is condemning one-third of the pups born here to a cruel and unnecessary death. Our government is insistent on keeping Canada stuck in the dark ages. Canadians would be much better served by a government that will stop playing politics, stop wasting our taxes, and start investing in alternative, economically viable employment opportunities.
Canada’s commercial seal hunt will be under intense scrutiny this year, as the European Union considers banning the trade in seal products.
You can help keep the pressure on the Canadian government by taking action now on www.stopthesealhunt.org


The 280K quota only includes harp seals and does not include many that are struck and lost like this one from last year's seal slaughter.


Animal-welfare group unable to observe start of Canadian seal hunt
Fink explained that the sealers are very competitive, and basically race against each other. “This is one of the biggest problems with the hunt,” she said. “What we see is seals being stunned with a hakapick—bang bang bang. The first seal will start to regain consciousness because it wasn’t properly killed. It wasn’t properly checked for unconsciousness. It wasn’t properly bled out to make sure that it wasn’t going to come back to life.”


Here's the video:



TORONTO — Canada's annual seal hunt started Monday, under pressure from a possible European Union ban on imported seal products.

The world's largest marine mammal hunt was called "inherently inhumane" earlier this month by a European Parliament committee that endorsed the bill to ban the import of seal products to the 27-member union....

a judgment call on a particularly scary-looking spill

the tears of a Geisha by ~tsuname

Racing Association Covers Up Horses' Deaths:

"It was a judgment call on a particularly scary-looking spill," said John Lee, spokesman for the New York Racing Association.

The NYRA is afraid of the video being used by groups such as PETA for their gain or for television stations that never show horse racing except for spills.

But in this day and age, the video is already out there. You can watch the spill at youtube.com.

Kim Thue via PUS-EYE

Herman Düne - "Show Me The Roof".

Little Lance Still Needs a Forever Home

Remember Little Lance...?

Although I don't see the update on Friends of the Oakland Animal Shelter's site, I received a donor newsletter stating that Little Lance is still available for adoption. As a spinal injury victim, he has special needs, but if interested contact: oaklandsanimals@yahoo.com.
Also, despite the 15K reward, they still haven't caught the abusers.

In other completely unrelated news...
I've received some rather interesting mail regarding a HELOC I've never used:
"Because your account is in good standing you will receive a $200 Visa Gift Card as a bonus when you choose to close your account. It is just a way of saying thanks for your great handling of your account, and giving a little extra cash to spend any way you like."
Why would they want to pay me to close my account? That never happens with credit cards.
WTF?

Sarah Palin's Aerial Wolf Slaughter Continues

EyeOnPalin.Org.


Palin and Joe the Fucking Plumber seem to be the only folks who didn't happen to realize it was time to end it.

Promising new site that seems to be having technical issues (unless it's VistShit).

Baab's personal message to Palin:
EyeOnPalin.Org.

The chairman of a Tokyo bedding supplier is arrested following the exposure of an investment scam using a fictional currency, "Enten" (Kanji characters pictured), reportedly worth US$1.4 billion.

Fossils of the largest snake currently known, Titanoboa, are announced to have been discovered in Colombia.
The discovery of COROT-Exo-7b, the smallest exoplanet to have its diameter measured, is announced.

As if the Bush Admin hasn't done enough damage: Gray Wolf Removed From Protection

Sad Wolf by ~PaPeRDoLLLL

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- The Bush administration on Wednesday announced plans to remove gray wolves in the western Great Lakes and northern Rocky Mountains regions from the federal endangered species list.

But wolves in Wyoming will remain under federal jurisdiction because that state has not done enough to assure their survival, Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett said.

Previous attempts by the federal government to remove wolves in both regions from the endangered list and return management authority to the states have been overruled by courts.

In the northern Rockies, the Fish and Wildlife Service tried to address the courts' concerns by excluding Wyoming, where officials had sought a ''predator zone'' covering almost 90 percent of the state where the animals could be shot on sight. Federal officials said Wyoming law would have to change before wolves there could be taken off the list, and Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg said Wednesday that it was ''probable'' that the state would challenge the latest federal plan in court.

In the western Great Lakes region, the federal government made no policy changes. The Fish and Wildlife Service disagreed with the judge's ruling and restated its case.

The wolves will be removed from the endangered species list 30 days after the decision is published in the Federal Register, which officials said could happen within the next two weeks. A small population of Mexican Gray wolves in the Southwest was not affected by Wednesday's announcement.

The decision could be reversed by President-elect Barack Obama's administration, said Rowan Gould, acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro said the matter would be reviewed but offered no other details.

''President-elect Obama will review all eleventh-hour regulations and will address them once he is president,'' Shapiro said.

''We would hope ... the next administration would not turn around and go a different direction, but of course that certainly is their choice and opportunity,'' Scarlett said.

Scarlett also said that the decision was based on science independently of policy considerations and that it was a watershed moment for a species first listed as endangered in 1974.

''Returning this essential part of our national heritage to so much of our natural landscape ranks among our greatest conservation achievements,'' Scarlett said.

David Mech, a leading wolf expert and senior research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, supported the assertion that the wolf population had rebounded.

''I'm satisfied, and most wolf biologists I know are satisfied, that wolf populations in both regions have been biologically recovered for the last five years,'' Mech said.

But environmental and animal rights groups, deriding the move as a last-minute effort by the Bush administration to strip protections, promised Wednesday to return to court with another round of lawsuits.

About 1,500 wolves in the Northern Rockies were taken off the list in February 2008. But a federal judge nullified the move in July, saying state management plans could not guarantee their recovery was sustainable.

The northern Rocky Mountain wolf segment includes all of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, the eastern one-third of Washington and Oregon, and a small part of north-central Utah.

Idaho and Montana already have crafted plans for public hunts to keep wolf populations in check. There were no immediate plans for hunts in the western Great Lakes.

''We're the people that have to live with it,'' said Eric Svenson of Reed Point, Mont., where officials said wolves have killed two dozen sheep and goats on the Svenson Ranch.

''Maybe hunting will keep their population in check,'' Svenson said.
Last September, a federal judge sided with animal-rights groups that accused the government of misapplying the law in when it lifted protections for about 4,000 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin in 2007.

Gray wolves previously were listed as endangered in the lower 48 states, except in Minnesota, where they were listed as threatened.

Wolf kiss by ~jager154

Settsuna the wolf by *Reenigrl

+ Wolf Gods + by =korone

wolf by ~ya-na

In other news, Casey Serin doesn't believe in government bailouts (because his mommy helps him) and police drop theft investigation of 27 valuable koi.

Antediluvian

In case you didn't notice, I tend to get slightly OCD about certain words, numbers, images, etc.
an⋅te⋅di⋅lu⋅vi⋅an
1. of or belonging to the period before the Flood. Gen. 7, 8.
2. very old, old-fashioned, or out of date; antiquated; primitive: antediluvian ideas.
–noun
i.e., a person who refuses to wear those godawful jeans that show half of your ass and make people like me lose my appetite.

3. a person who lived before the Flood.
4. a very old or old-fashioned person or thing.

Check out the creepy guy in the shadows.
G'night and goodluck. I want to change my name to Akira. Even though that was a guy in the commercial, at least he didn't have kids telling him his name sounds like a failed car model or a f-ed country somewhere in Central America. Oh well, itsallgood.


My preferred form of life is being asleep, but I must have had too much tea today.

Vote Yes on Prop 2!

Stop horrors like this.

Scared of Eating Sarah Palin's Fava Beans

songs you already know: scared from Caroline Martin on Vimeo.

Deep thoughts with Sarah Palin

10/2/08 VP Debate Updates!
Via Wonkette, Here’s All Yer Palin Internet Crap:
Sarah Palin Origami, Sarah Palin Dress Up, Sarah Palin Sings “I Killed A Moose,” Sarah Palin Sounds Like Lady From ‘Fargo,’ Sarah Palin Quotes Generator, Interview Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin Bingo, Sarah Palin Bingo: MSM version, Sarah Palin Dinosaur Art, Sarah Palin Amazon Wish List, Sarah Palin Movie Trailer, Politico’s Sarah Palin Thing, Sarah Palin and Darth Vader, Sarah Palin Family Meeting, Sarah Palin Porno Casting Call, Pictures Of People Around The World Pretending To Be Sarah Palin, Sarah PALINdromes, Love Song To Sarah Palin, Two People Sit In Front Of Their Computer And Sing About Sarah Palin, (the ballad of) S.P.P, and lastly, another Sarah Palin Quote Generator.


10/1/08 Palin Updates!

While "sipping the haterade" Wagga sent me this:


Alaskan Perspective:
* Troopergate
* Alaskan hunters oppose Palin’s hunting policies: Alaskan sport hunters oppose aerial hunting of bears and wolves, something Palin vehemently supports. The last ballot measure to limit aerial hunting was actually brought forth by a group of hunters! Sport hunters also oppose the shooting of bears habituated to human bear viewers, something Palin also supports. I hope people can realize that Palin is not your average Alaskan hunter feeding her family with game meat. She has a pathological vendetta against wildlife that is opposed by most Alaskans and most Alaskan hunters.

Classic Palin on Charlie Rose:



Don't forget to check out the Sarah Palin Fictional Quote Generator v1!

Updates to follow.
It was so predictable that we would get to a pity-poor-helpless-Sarah phase. The press was already warming up for it on the day McCain announced her as his running mate, when NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell speculated that McCain's choice was designed to declaw scrappy Joe Biden, whose aggressive style would come off as bullying next to the sweet hockey mom from Alaska. Now, of course, we know about the hockey moms and the pit bulls; the more-powerful-than-expected Palin juggernaut forestalled the pity/victim/mean boy/poor Sarah phase.

So here it is, finally. And as unpleasant as it may be to watch the humiliation of a woman who waltzed into a spotlight too strong to withstand, I flat out refuse to be manipulated into another stage of gendered regress -- back to the pre-Pelosi, pre-Hillary days when girls couldn't stand the heat and so were shooed back to the kitchen.

Oh, BTW Palin doesn't read anything!

She's got talent though!

Spam: Horror in a Can

little piglet by ~cinemaentete

Some of these piglets convulsed for more than 12 minutes before dying.



Although pigs are even smarter than dogs and can be just as sociable, they are treated in this horrifying manner:

• A supervisor shoved a cane into a sow's vagina, struck her on the back about 17 times, and then struck another sow.


• Multiple pigs were beaten with metal gate rods, and lacerations were found on more than 30 sows - which is probably evidence of more abuse.


• A worker hit a young pig in the face four times with the edge of a herding board, and investigators witnessed dozens of similar incidents involving this worker and 11 other workers.


• Two men - including a supervisor - were witnessed jabbing clothespins into pigs' eyes and faces. A supervisor also poked two animals in the eyes with his fingers.


• A supervisor kicked a young pig in the face, abdomen, and genitals to make her move and told PETA's investigator, "You gotta beat on the bitch. Make her cry."


• A worker who weighed an estimated 315 lbs. punched a sow on the back three times and said that he sat on a sow's head.

Unfortunately, much of this is not uncommon. For example, piglets are regularly castrated without anesthetics. Just something to think about over your next ham sandwich.


Mun sylilapsi Santana lampissa by ~blindboysneverlie

WEIRD: Blogger ate my somewhat more positive updates.

UPDATE
Happy antidote: children's songs for adults

I Love Charlie the Unicorn!

BREAKING NEWS VIDEO UPDATE!


Pass the PAW Act -- End Alaska's Aerial Hunting Program!

Victims of Sarah Palin's support for aerial hunting

These bear hunting videos show what Sarah Palin supports so strongly.

Palin even spent $400,000 of state money to fund a media campaign to convince Alaskans to support aerial shooting of wolves and bears, even though Alaskans have voted against it- twice!

Best in Show Ferret Version

I've been watching this extraordinarly disturbing and insane program on PBS.

Little Lance Thanks his Supporterz

Latest updates from FOAS:
UPDATE 8/14/08 at 1:45pm: We sent Little Lance to go for surgery today! His MRI results showed that he has severe spinal chord compression. The surgeons will be going in and shaving off a portion of his vertebrae to relieve this pressure. The MRI showed that the pressure is causing him to be fecally incontinent; we hope that with the surgery this will be resolved. They will also be going into stabalize his pelvic fracture with a plate, neuter him and fix his swollen eye. He should be returning to the Shelter tomorrow afternoon.
UPDATE 8/14/08 at 12:00pm: East Bay SPCA has contributed $5000 to the reward fund for a total of $10000 for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person/person(s) responsible for killing and injuring the two dogs.


I think he looks particularly sweet in this video where he's not stuck in a doggy cube.

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE!

Julia Child is Aware of All Internet Traditionz


If she is, where's the groovy lobster episode?

Little Lance Begathon

I can't get this poor little guy out of my mind this evening. I wish I could foster him, but my little monsters wouldn't help his rehab.
If you have a dollar or two to send his way, you can do it here.
Excerpt on the story:
On Friday night, August 1, Oakland police responded to a call of two injured dogs on the side of the road. When they arrived, one dog—a female, miniature pinscher—was dead, and a small male mixed breed dog was lying on the ground severely injured and in pain. Neighbors in the area said they had heard several loud gunshots, a car door open, then a dog screaming, and the sound of a car racing off. A local resident stated that she went outside immediately after she heard the commotion and found the two dogs in the gutter.

The female dog was examined by an Oakland Animal Shelter veterinarian and was determined to have died from a gunshot wound to the neck. Her back leg and spine were also shattered. The surviving dog is currently being treated at the Oakland Animal Shelter at 1101 29th Ave. He has a broken back and pelvis and a possible gunshot wound to the neck. He will need further surgery to wire his broken bones back together and a foster home in which to recuperate.

”The attack on these dogs was extremely vicious,” says Adam Parascandola, Oakland Animal Shelter director. “Not only were these dogs shot and thrown from a car, but the massive trauma to both dog’s spines and legs leads me to question if they were also previously beaten. It is clear that whoever is responsible for this crime is capable of extraordinary violence.”

The Brain That Wouldn't Die!

This and many other bizarre posters can be found at Wrong side of the art via PCL LinkDump.

UPDATE: I fixed the link above. Also, forgot to mention that this old movie poster reminds me of the horrid Russian experiment with a dog:



I believe this is the full version of the film:



UPDATE #2: It appears to be some sort of Schiavo-related remix.

UPDATE #3: WTF? Ogg forwarded me this utterly screwed up formula that suggested:
Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 26%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 74%

Is that a skinned baby seal?

Kumi via SugarCut

I’d sure like to know the story behind this image. Perhaps those gloves are made of seal skin and fur.

Breeding Bubbles

It’s the economy, stupid.
In the first few hours after Eight Belles’s breakdown in the Derby, just as in the first few hours after Barbaro’s collapse two years ago in the Preakness, we’ve seen dozens of explanations, from the well- and not-so-well-informed. The track was too hard. The horses had been raced too much too young. Fillies shouldn’t be running against the boys. It’s the drugs. Oh, we’re breeding unsound horses.
Yes, it’s probably all of those. But especially the last. There’s no question that racehorses today are less sound, more prone to injury, than those of the 1950s and ’60s, or even of a decade or two ago. Horses today race only half as many times as they did 30 years ago. And the reason is the market. Like other unregulated markets — remember the mortgage-securities collapse, anyone? — the thoroughbred breeding market is subject to that old economics chestnut, Gresham’s Law. Bad money (or in this case, bad breeding) drives out good.
Although thoroughbreds have always been bought and sold, the real explosion in the auction market, and the bubble(s) in prices, date from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Fueled by money from Europe and the Middle East, auction prices for the best Kentucky-bred yearlings rose faster in the early ’80s even than U.S. home prices did earlier in this decade. The frenzy reached its first peak with the 1985 purchase of Seattle Dancer for $13.1 million. Seattle Dancer ran five times, winning twice, and earning $150,000, and then failed as a stallion.
Excesses like these led to a market collapse in the late 1980s, but the whole cycle started up again the next decade, and continues today. The Green Monkey is, so far, the top of this price bubble, fetching $16 million at the 2006 2-year-old sale, then running three times without a win before being retired.
What made the market develop as it did was the influx of new money. That money came both from those who wanted to win races — the Maktoum family of Dubai being the prime example — and, more importantly, from those who were looking to make a profit not from racing, but from breeding and selling.
* continued at Breakdowns and Dollars

In other greed-fueled news, check out where your oil dollars are going (via Wagga)...

Lassie for Dinner

This story really disturbed me...

On my first trip to China I met a dog who was a dead ringer for Lassie. He lived with a dozen other dogs at a remote training camp for Olympic skiers in Manchuria, where a friend and I were spending a few days as we explored the area's backcountry skiing. In return for food and lodging we gave the Chinese athletes some clinics in American ski techniques.

The dog quickly became my friend. He would twirl happily in my arms before I headed up the slopes each morning and would be waiting for me when I returned. Dropping to my knees, I'd play tag with him, and he'd wag his tail so hard that his entire body would shimmy. The Chinese skiers paid no attention to the dogs.

On the day before we departed, at lunch, our translator stood and called the mess hall to silence. "To thank our American friends for showing us so much about skiing," he announced, "our chef will prepare a special dish tonight." He nodded to the head coach, who waved his hand toward the door. Two of the Chinese skiers, standing at the ready, opened it with a flourish, and the white-aproned chef stepped inside, holding aloft my friend, the collie, by his tail. He had been gutted from throat to groin.

Stunned, I couldn't say a word, but that evening when a large platter of dog meat was put in the center of our table, I regained my voice. My ski partner, a better cultural ambassador than I, gingerly took a few bits of the dish with her chopsticks. I declined. "Please thank the head coach," I told our translator, "but I can't. I have too many friends at home who are dogs."

More from An Olympic disgrace



When the fur is finally peeled off over the animals' heads, their naked, bloody bodies are thrown onto a pile of those who have gone before them. Some are still alive, breathing in ragged gasps and blinking slowly. Some of the animals' hearts are still beating five to 10 minutes after they are skinned. One investigator recorded a skinned raccoon dog on the heap of carcasses who had enough strength to lift his bloodied head and stare into the camera.

Pledge to go fur-free at PETA.org.

This is very disturbing video of raccoon dogs and foxes being skinned alive. It is horrifying to see a completely conscious raccoon dog moving about for a good 5 to 10 minutes after being completely skinned alive. Why can't they at least bother to make sure the animal is dead before skinning them? Absolutely cruel, inhumane and barbaric!

If you see someone wearing fur you might want to remind them of the torture the animal had to endure.
In this Beijing News report, half the raccoon dogs and foxes were skinned alive.






Further memories of drafting the 80's and meat is murder (yet fur is worse)!