Dead Whales Are Showing Up Bringing Us A Message The Entire World Should See |

‘Zombie Bees’ Found in Vermont

Family Survival Protocol - Microcosm News

The Epoch Times

By Associated Press | January 28, 2014

A hive of honey bees is on display at the Vermont Beekeeping Supply booth at the 82nd annual Vermont Farm Show at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Jct., Vt., on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Andy Duback)

ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt.— Vermont beekeepers face mite infestations, extreme temperature swings and the possibility of colony collapse. Last fall, a new threat emerged: zombie bees.

Beekeeper Anthony Cantrell of Burlington discovered zombie bees in his hive in October, the first time they’d been found in the eastern United States.

John Hafernik, a professor from San Francisco State University, discovered the first zombie bees in 2008. A fly called Apocephalus borealis attaches itself to the bee and injects its eggs, which grow inside the bee, Hafernik said. Scientists believe it causes neurological damage resulting in erratic, jerky movement and night activity, “like a…

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Does wolf hunt reduce livestock losses? Maybe not, lawmakers are told

The Wolf Preservation Blog

 

Photo courtesy of Derek Bakken

“This week’s legislative hearing on wolf management by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources roamed all over the landscape, topically and philosophically, but for me the most interesting portions centered on “depredation conflicts.”

That’s a wildlife manager’s term for losses of livestock and pets, and you will recall that reducing those losses has been a significant rationale for the sport trapping and hunting seasons inaugurated in the fall of 2012.

But are the seasons working? In a solid three hours of testimony, I didn’t hear a single indication that the killing of 562 wolves by sportsmen, and another 430 by government agents and landowners, and who knows how many by poachers, is having an effect at all. Or ever will.

Whether Tuesday’s testimony before the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources will have any effect on state policy is equally dubious; it…

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SNARE RIPS APART WOLF’S LEG IN ONTARIO

The Wolf Preservation Blog

Photo courtesy of The Association for the Protection of Fur Bearing Animals

01/30/2014

“Last week, about 30 minutes north of Huntsville, Ontario, Paula Tough was on a popular snowmobile trail with a friend, learning how to skijor. Her lead dog began barking and pulling to the side of the trail uncontrollably.

Something was wrong, Paula knew. She took a few steps and saw her: a wolf, laying down, next to a tree, only 10 feet from the trail.

Why was this wolf here? Was something wrong? And she saw it: wire digging in, cutting the flesh of the hind leg of the wolf. A snare had caught her.

Quickly returning to the car with the dogs, Paula grabbed wire cutters she kept for this very purpose. Not only did the cutters prove ineffective, but Paula also recognized that if she simply cut the wire, the wolf would escape and could…

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Two sharks caught just hours after baited drumlines are set off metropolitan Perth (Australia)

The ocean update

January 31st, 2014. TWO sharks have been caught on Perth’s drum lines, which were deployed only hours ago to catch and kill big sharks off metropolitan beaches.

The first was a 1m tiger shark caught off Cottesloe, which was released by Fisheries Department officers because it was below the 3m catch limit. The second shark, a 2.6m tiger shark, was caught about 11.30am.

Surf Life Saving WA has advised swimmers at Cottesloe to exercise caution after the second shark was released 1km from shore by Fisheries officers.

This afternoon, the Department of Fisheries issued a statement, saying undersize and non-target species sharks would be released further out to sea.

It read: “The Department of Fisheries has advised that where practicable, it will release any non-targeted species that is still alive further out to sea, having due regard to not compromising the survival of the shark and of remaining within state…

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Leave Animal Testing in the Dust!

Our Compass

Olympian Nick Symmonds is super-fast. He’s so fast that he’s a world-champion runner—and he’s a champion for animals, too. Nick and his rabbit companion, Mortimer, are urging everyone to leave animal testing in the dust by never buying products that are tested on animals.

Every year, hundreds of animals—including rabbits, mice, guinea pigs, and rats—are injected with chemicals, poisoned, and killed in product tests. All for no good reason! The truth is, there are plenty of animal-friendly testing methods for companies to use.

Curious about your favorite products? Have no fear! peta2 has the best searchable database ever, allowing you to find out if a company tests on animals just by typing in its name! It’s crazy-simple. Check it out!

Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copyHERE

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Bees exposed to neonic pesticides suck at gathering pollen

Merck To End Chimpanzee Research, Joining 2 Dozens Of Companies! Good!

Ann Novek( Luure)--With the Sky as the Ceiling and the Heart Outdoors

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Drugmaker Merck & Co. is joining two dozen other pharmaceutical companies and contract laboratories in committing to not use chimpanzees for research.

The growing trend could mean roughly 1,000 chimps in the U.S. used for research or warehoused for many years in laboratory cages could be “retired” to sanctuaries by around 2020.

That’s according to Kathleen Conlee of the Humane Society of the United States, which seven years ago began urging companies to phase out all chimp research.

The trend is driven by improved technology, animal alternatives and pressure from animal rights groups, the National Institutes of Health and Congress.

Last June, reacting to an Institute of Medicine study Congress had requested that concluded nearly all chimp research is unnecessary, the NIH announced it would retire and send about 90 percent of government-owned research chimps to the Chimp Haven sanctuary in Keithville, La. It’s now home…

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Fishy behavior: ocean acidification alters the way fish behave

Ocean Acidification

Shellfish and their calcium carbonate shells have taken the spotlight during the ocean acidification discussion. We know that other animals in the ocean will be affected, but we’ve only just begin looking beyond shells and skeletons. Biologists have started to look at the behavior of fish in lower pH conditions – with surprising results.

If you put a fish in acidifying water, you’re likely to see quite a drastic change in behavior. That is not really a surprise. What is surprising is how different fish are behaving under the lower pH levels predicted for the year 2050. Two studies looking at fish behavior in response to ocean acidification has us a bit confused and definitely curious about the implications. The studies – one on rockfish and the other on clownfish – have yielded contradictory and puzzling results. Clownfish, a famous crowd favorite, are showing a unusual lack of fear for…

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Ocean acidification promises a grim future for shellfish unless we take action

Ocean Acidification

The phrase “climate change” has passed through the lips of every scientist and policy maker in the nation. It is a looming cloud on the horizon that has already seeped tendrils into our everyday lives. This phenomenon born of fossil-burning machines has a lesser-known cousin that is just as evil – ocean acidification.

Climate change does not cause ocean acidification (OA ). Rather they are both the consequence of industrial human activity on earth. For decades OA has been silently infiltrating our oceans, carrying a promise of death and calamity along with it. Scientists are only just now discovering the implications. OA could have profound and devastating effects on entire ecosystems and our seafood supply in the years to come, however, with proper education and positive action, people have the ability to halt OA’s awful process and reclaim our oceans.

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Activists’ long-running quest to send Lolita back to her Pacific Ocean home has cleared a key hurdle.

Horse Slaughter Falls Flat in the Year of the Horse

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Guest Commentary by John Holland ~ president of Equine Welfare Alliance

“…if there is one consistent theme in Congress, it is that they almost never do things the way they are supposed to…”

This is part three concerning the omnibus bill. Part one, as many of you have discerned, was our optimistic New Year’s message hinting at good things ahead, and part two was the announcement of the defunding language in the omnibus budget and how it got there.

These developments have led to the question of how long this will stop slaughter houses from returning to the US. I will attempt to explain the answer to that question. Like most things in Washington, the answer is a bit convoluted. However, I think it is safe to say it will stop their return for at least two years and here is why.

Budgets are, as we all know, a one-year…

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More than 500 deep-sea lanternfish, squid found dead or dying in Nawiliwili area

Nwo Report

Between 500 and 800 lanternfish and squid were found dead or dying in the Nawiliwili Harbor area on Monday, prompting in investigation by state and federal officials into what caused the die-off.

The lanternfish and squid are typically found in the deep ocean, but are also known for their nightly vertical migrations to shallower depths, the Department of Land and Natural Resources said in a press release issued today.

DLNR’S Division of Aquatic Resources is asking for the public’s help to determine what happened.

The public is being asked to look for dead or dying marine life in large numbers on nearby beaches and report findings to the Eyes of the Reef Network at www.eorhawaii.org/make-a-report.

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Stop the Illegal Trade of the Slow Loris in Indonesia – ForceChange

An Autistic Activist Responds To Temple Grandin

Our Compass

OC Comment: Temple Grandin is a welfarist who designs slaughterhouses meant to lessen the stress on animals.  Rather than maintaining that killing animals is altogether wrong, as an abolitionist does, Ms. Grandin instead attempts to diminish the stress of the killing “experience” on animals.  This is an essay written in opposition of such.

The following essay was written by autistic author, activist and co-founder of Autism Network International, Jim Sinclair. Sinclair noted that he wrote this in “response to Temple Grandin’s writing about her work in the slaughter industry, especially as described in Thinking In Pictures.”

If you love something, you don’t kill it. I didn’t need to spend time in a squeeze box to learn that. Love is not killing.

If you know what another being feels–not just how you feel when you touch it–then you know that living things want to remain alive. It doesn’t…

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Wind Turbine Threat To Migration Stopped

Natural History Wanderings

Press Release from American Bird Conservancy – Home

Camp Perry Wind Turbine Project Halted Following Threat to Sue and Petition Campaign
Groups Laud Government's Decision to Reconsider Project in Key Migratory Corridor

 

(Washington, D.C., January 29, 2014) One of several wind turbine projects planned for the shores of Lake Erie, in one of the greatest bird migration corridors in the Western Hemisphere, has been halted following submission of a letter of intent to sue from American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO). The two groups had vigorously opposed the project due to its exceptionally high risk to federally protected wildlife.

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New York wants to get rid of swans because swans are jerks

Fukushima disaster and fish

Dear Kitty. Some blog

This video is called Radioactive Fish, Pacific Ocean, Fukushima Leaking MORE Radiation update 7/11/13.

By Dr. David Suzuki, EcoWatch:

Filling in the gaps on Fukushima radiation and its effects on fish

January 29, 2014

An Internet search turns up an astounding number of pages about radiation from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown that followed an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. But it’s difficult to find credible information.

One reason is that government monitoring of radiation and its effects on fish stocks appears to be limited. According to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, “No U.S. government or international agency is monitoring the spread of low levels of radiation from Fukushima along the West Coast of North America and around the Hawaiian Islands.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s most recent food testing, which includes seafood, appears to be from June 2012. Its website states, “FDA…

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MARINE DEBRIS? NO THANKS! 10 FACTS FROM NOAA

ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO

Ten Things You Should Know About Marine Debris

Monkseal being rescued from marine debris

Our waterways are littered with stuff that doesn’t belong in them. Plastic bags, cigarette butts, fishing nets, sunken vessels, glass bottles, abandoned crab traps…the list is endless. Some of this marine debris comes from human activity at sea, and some of it makes its way into our waterways from land.

While we know that marine debris is bad for the environment, harms wildlife, and threatens human health and navigation, there is much we don’t know. How much marine debris is in our environment? How long does it last? How harmful is it to natural resources or human health and safety? How long does it take to break down in the water? The NOAA Marine Debris Program is finding answers to these questions.

1. It doesn’t stay put

While a lot of debris sinks, much also floats. Once…

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Heavy rain keeps all 12 dolphin killing boats in port today. There will be no hunting. January 30, 2014 in Taji, Japan.

See PETA’s Latest Super Bowl Ad (Warning: Fowl Language) | PETA’s Blog | PETA

Life or Lunch?

The TV networks have been notably, um, unenthusiastic about running PETA’s Super Bowl ads, so this year PETA is planning to take its message directly to the players and fans by placing billboards in the teams’ hometowns of New York and Boston as well as Indianapolis, which is hosting the game, making an irreverent plea for people to put down the chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday.

 
Chickens © iStockphoto.com/Sunnybeach

Why Worry About Wings?

It’s estimated that some 600 million chickens are killed for the wings consumed just during the Super Bowl. Yikes! And that’s after the abuse they all suffered through on factory farms.

Not only is this wing-eating obsession cruel, it also shows a lack of imagination. After all, there are so many mouth-watering alternatives to the old same-old same-old. For vegan game-day treats that will satisfy the most ravenous sports fan, check out…

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Ocean acidification leaving fish in the dark: study

Ocean Acidification

Increasing carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans could hamper fishes’ eyesight, slowing their reaction times and leaving them vulnerable to predators or unable to hunt, new research has shown.

Experts say it adds to the existing evidence that ocean acidification will be bad for marine ecosystems and possibly fisheries.

Ocean acidification is one of the effects of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels, which is also increasing global temperatures.

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Hero the calf is back on his feet after being fitted with prosthetic legs

Another Day, Another Slaughter: 65 Striped Dolphins Killed in the Cove

Climate change is killing baby penguins

The Extinction Protocol

January 30, 2014 – SOUTH AMERICA — Climate change means more extreme weather and baby penguins are paying the price with their lives, said a pair of long-term studies out Wednesday. Soaking rainstorms and unusual heat have killed vast numbers of young Magellanic penguins at the bottom tip of South America, said one of the papers published in the journal PLOS ONE. “It’s the first long-term study to show climate change having a major impact on chick survival and reproductive success,” said lead author Dee Boersma, a biology professor at the University of Washington. Over the course of 27 years, an average of 65 percent of chicks died annually, said the study. About 40 percent starved, while climate change was blamed for killing an average of seven percent of chicks per year. However, climate change killed 43 and 50 percent of all new chicks in two extreme weather years. The…

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CONSCIOUS OR CONSCIENCE?

RESEARCH? Why bother?

Mike Grant - Author

The current way of thinking pertaining to the Canadian Grey Wolf on certain anti-wolf pages is that the Canadian Government decided (wolf) generations ago that it was going to design and breed a super wolf…a hybrid killing machine that would eliminate the ungulate population in the U.S. so that a) hunters would have to come to Canada to hunt and spend their money and b) the American government would cite that “without any hunting there would be no need for guns” and therefore would implement gun control measures.

I love America and the times I’ve visited I’ve found the general population to be genuinely friendly and real folk but this is just one of those absurd issues that make me wonder what the hell is going on not only there but here…and everywhere.

I have to keep reminding myself that this type of thinking is spouted by a minority with a…

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96 Elephants killed every day…

Binturong

Mexico’s ‘water monster’ disappears

digger666

via Current Biology – genericlatino: kqedscience: Mexico’s ‘water….

genericlatino:

kqedscience:

“Biologist Luis Zambrano of Mexico’s National Autonomous University says the most recent three-month attempt to net axolotls found not one of the creatures. He says researchers are planning a second three-month hunt for the creatures, which still survive in labs and breeding tanks.

Millions once lived in the giant lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco on which Mexico City was built. Using four stubby legs to drag themselves along lake bottoms or their thick tails to swim like mini-alligators, they hunted plentiful aquatic insects, small fish and crustaceans.”

I am crushed.

 

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