All Creatures Great and Small

moneymajix · 4 March 2008

Re: You are what you eat!

USDA Orders Largest Meat Recall in U.S. History

By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 18, 2008; Page A01

The Agriculture Department has ordered the largest meat recall in its history -- 143 million pounds of beef, a California meatpacker's entire production for the past two years -- because the company did not prevent ailing animals from entering the U.S. food supply, officials said yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/17/AR2008021701530.html?nav=rss_health

2020hindsight · 16 March 2008

This one is a classic

The Superhero Dolphin Who Helps Saves Lives (whales)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKWEL1524120080314

Dolphin saves 2 whales stuck on New Zealand beach
Fri Mar 14, 2008 12:40am GMT

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The case of two stranded whales saved by a dolphin off the coast of New Zealand could be the first such case in the world, a conservation worker said on Thursday.

Moko the dolphin, a regular visitor to the coast of Mahia on the east Coast of New Zealand's North Island, became an instant hero after leading two pygmy whales that had repeatedly stranded into deep water on Monday.

"As far as I know it's the only documented instance of this happening," said local Department of Conservation officer Malcolm Smith, adding he had checked with whale stranding specialists who were also unaware of any similar dolphin rescues.

Moko, who had been visiting the beach at Mahia on and off over the summer, arrived at the beach in the nick of time, Smith said.

The disoriented mother and calf had resisted attempts to herd them out to sea, and kept restranding on the beach, to the point where Smith said the pair would likely have to be killed.

Then Moko appeared, and came right up to the whales before leading them out to sea.

"Quite clearly the attitude of the whales changed when the dolphin arrived on the scene. They responded virtually straight away," Smith said.

"The dolphin managed in a couple of minutes what we had failed to do in an hour and a half."

Smith said the whales had not been sighted again in the area.

However Moko had returned and was continuing to play with swimmers near the shore, as she has down for about the past six months.

According to Department of Conservation figures about 700 whales strand on New Zealand beaches every year.

The exact reasons why are not known, but theories include sickness, and sloping sandy beaches interfering with whales' sense of direction.

(Reporting by Adrian Bathgate; Editing by Jerry Norton)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/13/2188375.htm

......... The two-metre bottlenose dolphin has become well known for her antics at Mahia, which include playing in the surf with swimmers, approaching boats to be patted and pushing kayaks through the water with her snout.

"She likes people with flippers on, she's attracted to them, she's attracted to kayaks and boogy boards as well, and that'll keep her occupied for some time," Mr Smith said.

Such close interaction with humans is very rare among dolphins but not unknown.

"She's become isolated from her pod obviously for one reason or another, but obviously made Mahia home just at the moment."

Mahia gets up to 30 whale strandings a year, most of which end with the whales having to be put down.

"I don't know if next time we have a whale stranding we can get her to come in again. She certainly saved the day for us and the whales this time

Apparently Moko has been around for at least a couple of months.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_R7wH-RcEU&feature=related

noirua · 24 March 2008

The hero of Planet Earth has to be the Dung Beetle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1RHmSm36aE

2020hindsight · 24 March 2008

Extreme Pete

DOG EXTREME PETE..LEARN TO TRAIN LIKE THIS

noirua · 7 April 2008

Well here we are. Birds of a feather flocking together with light music: http://www.birdforum.tv/action/viewvideo/554/wild_issues/?vpkey=8917d2fbb2

Wysiwyg · 25 May 2008

Canned Hunting

Canned hunting gives us another perspective of the nature of human mind.We all have the ability in us to do this, but thankfully this practice is not carried out by many.

someone elses comment ...

xxxx this ****, hunting sucks and so do the hunters who shoot the animals, I hope they come back as animals and get there brains blew out!

What do you think????

Ageo · 25 May 2008

Wysiwyg said:
Canned Hunting

Canned hunting gives us another perspective of the nature of human mind.We all have the ability in us to do this, but thankfully this practice is not carried out by many.

someone elses comment ...

What do you think????

Wysiwyg i think im qualified to answer this question....

I have been hunting for many yrs and from an ethical perspective canned hunting is not hunting but basically trophy shooting. But before everyone goes off and has a cry you need to understand why Africa adopts this method of so called "hunting". Basically most of Africa is raped of its resources in many ways including its animals by poachers, you see poor people dont care about animals, environment etc... they think about what they need to do in order to survive.

So the reason farmers in Africa promote canned hunting is because the money they receive from these shoots are massive (mostly from the U.S), i.e an average shoot can cost you around $20,000US which is alot to African people. So basically the animals are now not treated like pests but instead valuable resources so the farmers do everything in their power to keep the numbers very very healthy (which in turn means less likely of extinction of exotic game). Kenya has banned hunting for almost 30yrs and elephants are on the verge of extinction there (because of illegal poaching), yet in say Tanzania where hunting is allowed (with a sustainable harvest system) elephants are hunted (the cost is around $20,000US for 1 Bull) and the numbers of elephants are at an all time high.

So to put it all into perspective, you need to think of it from the farmers side and basically they are breeding animals for harvest but the killing method is different (slaughter house, shooting etc...) remember thow that these animals have a much better life compared to a domestic animal thats bred for consumption.

So to sum it the money goes back into the African community which helps preserve game (because they are treated as a valuable resource) and the meat also goes to the community. So like i said, if its hunting ethics your talking about then it probably wont sit well with alot of hunters/people etc... but when you look at it from a farming point of view then it will slowly make sense to the average person.

Hope that helps a little with your question

Julia · 25 May 2008

Ageo said:
I have been hunting for many yrs and from an ethical perspective canned hunting is not hunting but basically trophy shooting.

What utter rationalisation and semantics ! Euphemism at its best.
Why do you want to kill animals?

nioka · 25 May 2008

Julia said:
Why do you want to kill animals?

I hunt. To eliminate pests. Foxes, rabbits and feral cats and dogs mostly these days. It is definitely not for the thrill of shooting, you can get that with clay pidgeons. I've culled roos and deer, if it was legal I'd be shooting a few flying foxes at the moment. If I was in NZ I'd probably be happy to shoot the odd Aussie opossum. I've had to put down a few pets over the years, never liked it but sometimes it's necessary. During droughts I've shot hundreds of sheep and cattle.

It is a necessary evil in the world we live in and often necessary to make it a better place.

Wysiwyg · 25 May 2008

Ageo said:
Wysiwyg i think im qualified to answer this question....

I have been hunting for many yrs and from an ethical perspective canned hunting is not hunting but basically trophy shooting.

Yes that is the primary reason, to put an animals head on the living room wall.I think the practice is for spineless, weak, small testicled, large walleted people.The high fives show their true colours.

But before everyone goes off and has a cry you need to understand why Africa adopts this method of so called "hunting". Basically most of Africa is raped of its resources in many ways including its animals by poachers, you see poor people dont care about animals, environment etc... they think about what they need to do in order to survive.

The industry is wrong and needs to be ended with the introduction of laws like in this video below.Educate the people that they are responsible for keeping the wildlife alive and their habitat intact.The governments are realising that it is responsible for the welfare of the animals.Africa is unique in that large animals of prey still exist in the wild and the diversity of wildlife is precious and needs to be preserved.

Lee Fletcher doesn`t look poor to me.

Ageo · 25 May 2008

Julia said:
What utter rationalisation and semantics ! Euphemism at its best.
Why do you want to kill animals?

2 reasons:

1st as noika mentioned ferals animals in this country have a massive impact on the environment and the economy (check this site to see what ferals cause http://www.feral.org.au/). They also threaten our native species so controlling the numbers is a good way to keep them in check (conservation hunting). Giving the farmers a helping hand is also another positive

2nd is because i have been hunting since i was young, and so has my father, and his father etc.... for my ancestors its been a lifelong practice to harvest your own wild meat which to me is the most healthiest and purist form of any meat you can get (no matter how good the domestic animal is fed). So instead of paying $100 for a full goat at the butchers i could hunt 3-4 goats at the price of some fuel and other small costs which would mean meat for months (not to mention doing the farmers and our land a favour).

If your a vegetarian or a vegan i totally respect your opinions but if you eat meat and cant understand why people hunt for their own meat then basically thats just being a hypocrite.

Ageo · 25 May 2008

Wysiwyg said:
The industry is wrong and needs to be ended with the introduction of laws like in this video below.Educate the people that they are responsible for keeping the wildlife alive and their habitat intact.The governments are realising that it is responsible for the welfare of the animals.Africa is unique in that large animals of prey still exist in the wild and the diversity of wildlife is precious and needs to be preserved.

Wysiwyg just ask all the wildlife warriors living in Africa how many poachers they have convinced that animals are cute/cudly please dont shoot them just eat apples and grass instead of them? if you can find another method that works then fly over and save the animals! Education to them is resources (provide the community with enough resources and they wont need to pillage). The problem with wildlife warriors is that they offer nothing to the community but education (and unfortunately thats just not enough).

P.S that video i have seen numerous times and everytime i see it i say to myself (wish that lion got him), to me they were cheque book cowboys (wealthy madman).

Wysiwyg · 25 May 2008

Ageo said:
2 reasons:
2nd is because i have been hunting since i was young, and so has my father, and his father etc.... for my ancestors its been a lifelong practice to harvest your own wild meat which to me is the most healthiest and purist form of any meat you can get .

Wholly agree for food.
When a kid I too went shooting with my dad for feral pigs, kangaroos, and feral cats.He told me the pigs were a pest to the farmers so he shot them and we caught the smaller ones and penned them for eating.He said the feral cats ate the native birds and the kangaroos were in plague proportions.

Sadly, I could see in his eye that he enjoyed killing with a high powered rifle.

Ageo · 25 May 2008

Wysiwyg said:
roportions.

Sadly, I could see in his eye that he enjoyed killing with a high powered rifle.

Wysiwyg its like saying a sniper enjoys his job? (does that make him a murderer?) or a butcher enjoy cutting up beasts (does that make him inhumane?) better to enjoy something your doing so at least you do a good job of it.

I enjoy when i hunt simply because of the fact that i know what im achieving out of it (those 2 reasons i mentioned above). Some people just dont have the stomach for killing and thats fine but you need to respect the people that do.

Julia · 26 May 2008

Ageo, I find any killing of animals repugnant, but appreciate your point re feral animals.

I was particularly disgusted by the practice of so called "canned hunting" which seems to me to be the most cowardly form of something many people appear to term 'sport'.

2020hindsight · 1 June 2008

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2008/05/not-done-two-mo.html

Monkeys control a robot arm with thoughts
6:26 PM, May 29, 2008

Now that's a headline that makes you do a double-take to make sure you aren't mistakenly reading the Onion!

We won't be the first to express fascination with the remarkable monkey robot-arm study that has circulated this week, but let us fill you in: Two monkeys have been trained to control a prosthetic arm with nothing but their thoughts, transmitted through an electronic sensor in the brain, as the New York Times reports.

The video, above, from University of Pittsburgh scientists, shows a monkey, with its arms restrained, using, as some have rather sensationally called it, "mind control" to snack on marshmallows.

The results of the study were released Wednesday in the science journal Nature, but have since swept the media, prompting everything from idealism over its practical applications for amputees to fears of a takeover by legions of University of Pittsburgh-trained half-machine, half-monkey soldiers of fortune who slay for marshmallows.

While the footage alone is rather compelling, the research is not so advanced, as Knight Science Journalism Tracker's blog put it, that "docs can just patch Stephen Hawking’s skull and his robot appliance will pick up chalk and start sketching trajectories through the space-time continuum."

We'll give Nature a few more years to publish that study.

2020hindsight · 3 June 2008

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080526/ap_on_fe_st/australia_giant_squid

Giant squid ... 500kg etc
calamari rings anyone ?

2020hindsight · 5 June 2008

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23815625-948,00.html

Polar bear swims 300km, police shoot it

video here :-
http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2008/06/03/einmana_og_villtur_hvitabjorn/

There was fog up in the hills and we took the decision to kill the bear before it could disappear into the fog”, said police spokesman Petur Bjornsson.

check out the video , - any sign of fog?

2020hindsight · 5 June 2008

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/05/2266432.htm?section=justin

cane toads killing crocs bigtime (numbers 75% down etc)

2020hindsight · 8 June 2008

gotta feeling that this one's a pisstake lol

genetically modified grasshopper mouse

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