Man Punches Shark

First person that came to mind when I read the excerpt on this story was Donn over at HomoEscapeons (linked in Blogs I Dig). He and I share a love/fear relationship with sharks. =)

Man Punches Shark to Save Dog in Florida

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My Chihuahua - Spokesdoggie for Selsun Blue

1. Go to Google
2. Type in Selsun Blue
3. Go to Images
4. See anyone you recognize?

LOL my dog is on the first page of images returned when you search for Selsun Blue. Not sure how that happened - I guess folks liked the pic.

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On the Road Again...

We're heading out a little later today for a week at the Oregon coast. We're stopping by my father-in-law's house in Portland tonight to pick him up and then head off for some fun in the... well, not sun, but at the beautiful Oregon coast!

The Oregon coast is one of my favorite places in the world. Anytime I'm at an ocean, I feel SO happy. Something about the ocean does that to me. Anyway, we'll have some fun hiking and sightseeing and playing on the beach. We're also doing two of my most favorite Oregon coast activities! Crabbing in Newport Oregon and visiting the West Coast Game Park in Bandon Oregon.

One of our friends has never crabbed before so they are meeting us in Newport half way through the trip for some crabbing fun. Their children are going to have a blast! We haul up sea stars occasionally, not to mention a mess of rock crab. And occasionally we get a big enough male Dungeness crab - woot! It's what's for dinner! We also eat some of the larger rock crab as it is a very sweet crab meat. You also get to watch the sea lions try to steal your bait which is kind of fun as well. Losing a few fish to them is alright by me. Anyway, they've never been crabbing and I just love watching the kids get so excited and nervous by all the crabs we pull up in a net and teaching them how to pick up and toss them back in. So fun!

The West Coast Game Park is my favorite zoo of all time. It is a tiny place with very few animals in cages. What makes this place so fun for me is that when you come in, there are goats, llamas, and deer running loose. They all come up to you looking for food and it is so fun. The park hand raises various animals and takes in many animals that are injured or need rehabilitation. They are considered a petting zoo because they bring out many of the animals for you to hold and pet. I have held and/or fed lynx, black bear, tiger, lion, fox, leopard, and I could just go on and on. They educate you on the animals, answer your questions, and allow you to interact with the animal. It is truly a magical place!

So I have to go pack up and get ready! See ya in a week!

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Army Shooting Live Pigs for Medical Training

I just read this article on CNN that the Army will be shooting live pigs in order to train some of their military personnel on how to treat critical gunshot wounds in the field.

I was a medic in the Air Force and also trained as a civilian paramedic at the Oregon Health Sciences University. While at OHSU, we did do one procedure on a live pig that was sedated. There is a procedure called a cut down that is used when one is absolutely unable to get an IV started because the patient is hypovolemic. You cut into the flesh to actually get to a vein and start an IV. Our pig was not euthanized as this procedure is not that invasive, but I remember being traumatized that we were practicing on a live animal. I guess one could argue if it is better to practice on a live patient, but I guess I might argue yes. If you are attempting that procedure, it is because that person needs it. The first live patient intubations I performed were on folks undergoing surgery. But the first time I intubated someone in the field under an emergency situation, it still felt different and scary. (Luckily, I had no problems - phew!) Anyway, if we had sedated someone or some animal for the sole purpose of intubation, I think I would have had issue. Sedation has its issues and intubation is an irritant. Taking that many steps forward to shooting an animal seems wrong.

In the military as a medic, we are trained obviously to treat gunshot wounds. But the reality is that the procedures you perform in the field can not fix the wound. They treat the symptoms and try to keep the patient alive until a surgeon can remove the bullet, repair vasculature, etc. as appropriate. Sealing a wound, stopping sucking chest wounds, providing fluids, providing oxygen, etc can be done as practice on dummies. Field exercises with elaborate makeup and triage practice made things a bit more realistic for practice and knowing who to treat, not treat, and when. But the reality is, until you're right there with someone actually bleeding, perhaps seeing egregious wounds, and possibly screaming their head off, you will be 'freaked out'. I really don't see the point of shooting a live and sedated animal. Keep in mind, they are training all the personnel of some units, not just the medics. This tells me even more so that they are limiting the treatments to what I stated above. There is no reason a live animal makes sense for this training.

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Pregnant Endangered Sea Dragon

I love sea horses!

"A weedy sea dragon at the Georgia Aquarium has something to celebrate this Father's Day. One of the rare creatures is pregnant for only the third time ever at a U.S. aquarium, aquarium officials said." Read the rest of the article.

When we were in Kailua Kona, Hawaii last October I really wanted to stop at the Sea Horse Aquafarm there. Unfortunately, we were only there for a day and spent the time scuba diving. You can even buy sea horses from them! If I lived right next to the ocean, it's something I would consider but alas I don't.

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Costa Rican Artist's Starving Dog Exhibit

So I just heard about the controversy regarding Costa Rican artist Guillermo Vargas Habacuc. It has been alleged that he rounded up a stray dog and then chained it without food or water until it eventually died. Apparently this dog was already starving and the artist's point was to highlight the plight of all the stray starving dogs running rampant. The exhibit was in August 2007 in Nicaragua.

There's an online petition going around to prevent this artist from exhibiting his work in a multinational exhibit this year.

There is some question as to whether or not this dog actually died. Some sites say he only chained the dog for a day. Others say he kept it chained until it died. Snopes classifies the story as undetermined. PETA says they aren't sure yet if this is a publicity stunt or not. The Guardian said it appears he only had it for a day. Huffington Post had a psychiatrist discuss the sadistic nature of this art. I've read some posts say Americans should keep their noses out of it and are exhibiting our colonialism by trying to petition this artist. Others argue it is art to highlight society. Others are ready to tie this artist up and starve him to death.

There are many conflicting stories and some inconsistencies. There is a statement supposedly from the artist that sounds reasonable but is also a smoking gun. It makes my spidey sense tingle. In it, it says the artist is 50 years old. Other sites I researched show this artist in his 30s. So I'm thinking this statement is a fake. So since I don't know if this story is valid or not, I'm not signing the petition.

I do think one avenue of art is to magnify life. And what's so beautiful about art is that while one piece of art may not 'speak to me', it may to another. However, I don't think art should purposefully be at the expense of a living creature. Yes, this dog may have been doomed to starve to death anyway. But it may also have been taken in by someone. And to torture a living creature in the name of art doesn't make sense to me. Would we showcase a starving child to show the plight of starving children around the world? While I think it is noble of an artist to try to make us think about these dogs, it should be done differently.

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My Dog on Selsun Blue

My dog has seborrhea and perhaps yeast overload on the skin. We're not quite sure what it's from. I've taken him to a few different vets and they do lots of expensive tests but don't have any strong ideas. We know it's not mites or anything like that. I've put him on Z/D Science Diet food and dried sweet potato chewies. I don't think it's an allergy, but had to rule it out. Anyway, after reading much internet fodder, I'm trying Selsun Blue to kill any yeast on his skin. I've been using a dog medicated shampoo for seborrhea for 6 months now. It seems to stop the progression, but not clear him up. His skin did look much clearer after one shampoo with the Selsun Blue. Yay! His white fur turned green during the bath hence the pic. But he's back to looking like an Oreo rather than a mint Oreo. He's such a good puppy dog.

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Wearing our Best Friends, Literally

I followed a number of links to PETA’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) site not too long ago while following articles on horse-drawn carriages. There’s a movement to ban them, but that’s another story. So while I’m there, I’m reading about their various campaigns and watching some of their investigative videos. I came across one on Chinese Fur Farms that I had absolutely no idea about, and I must say, could not even conceive of in my mind.

I do not wear fur. I never have and never will. I’m not into it, and at a conceptual level, it holds no appeal for me. I would prefer others to not wear fur, but the truth is I didn’t know much about the fur industry. Holy guacamole, this video hit its mark because I started to read and write letters.

Over half of the fur fashion/products imported into the US is from China. It is estimated China kills over 2 million cats and dogs each year for their fur. This is of course in addition to mink and other animals known for their fur.

I won’t go into the argument of whether or not one should wear fur. But if you knew your fur was taken as inhumanely as these undercover videos are showing, could you still wear that fur? Fur farmers are all over the world. I don’t know how all the fur farmers house and kill their fur animals, but the films I’ve seen out of China are just horrifying. Throwing live animals tied into a bag into boiling water. Skinning live animals without killing them first. This was the worst for me – seeing these animals struggling in pain as they are skinned, seeing some of them still moving after all their skin has been removed. What kind of person could do this to a living creature? It is unreal, unimaginable. This undercover video captured by Swiss International in China’s Hebei province is extremely difficult to view, but if you can stomach it, it will change your life.

Apparently calls went out to boycott Chinese products and the 2008 Olympics. Guess what China’s response was? Not that it wasn’t happening. Not that they would change. Their response was that the US and Europe buy these products so it is our fault. I agree, fur consumers should be aware and stop their purchases of fur, but it does not exclude China’s culpability. It is a sick twisted relationship of greed and vanity.

How can you boycott Chinese fur though? None of the fur you see says “Harvested in China”. This is where HR 891 comes in. HR 891: Dog and Cat Fur Prohibition Enforcement Act is to ensure that domestic dog and cat fur is prohibited from being imported, exported, manufactured, sold, or advertised in the United States and to require the labeling of all fur products under the Fur Products Labeling Act. This bill would not only prohibit the harvesting of dog and cat fur, but it would require all fur to be labeled from where it was harvested. Then, fur consumers could know where their fur was coming from and hopefully make the conscientious choice to avoid Chinese fur. It is currently on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade’s to-do list. It was referred there a year ago. Wow. I’ve looked at who is on this committee and written to the representatives near me – James McDermott from my state of Washington and Earl Blumenauer from neighboring Oregon. I urge you to find the rep(s) closest to your neck of the woods and urge them to push this bill through. Read about the bill and find your rep here. Please take a minute to write.

I pity the next fur wearer I come across as they’re going to get an earful. Whatever your beliefs, I can’t believe human beings think it is ok to torture and inhumanely kill animals that we have decided to use for our benefit.

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Disconnect and Engage

Remove yourself from your computer - call a friend - visit a neighbor - help someone - play with your children - rub your dog's tummy - enjoy the weather - sing a song... Go on!
(my dog Maximus enjoying a ray of sunshine in rainy Seattle)

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