Sunday, June 9, 2013

Special Rescue Operations Save Entangled Sea Lions!
SRO looks good after his entanglement is removed. Photo by Ingrid Overgard © The Marine Mammal Center.
Recently we sent a group of highly trained staff and volunteers, known as the Special Rescue Operations team, to Monterey to look for several California sea lions that were reportedly entangled.
The reports were right! The team found two sea lions that had fishing line wrapped around their heads and necks, causing nasty wounds that could have gotten worse over time and restricted the animals' movements or caused infection.
With a carefully devised plan in place, the team ventured out on the water to capture the animals. Water and dock rescues are one of the hardest rescue situations for our teams - after all, adult sea lions are much bigger than us AND are much better swimmers!

But the team was successful, capturing a young male sea lion named “Ear Muffs”, and a 350 lb male sea lion called “SRO” - in honor of the Special Rescue Operations team.

Click here to watch video of water rescue

Video courtesy of Patrick Hilton and Ken Fisher
Watch this amazing video of a water rescue of "SRO".
I'm happy to tell you that since Ear Muffs was little, after he was captured the team was able to disentangled him right on the dock, and then immediately release him. Read more.
SRO was brought to the Center's hospital where veterinarians anesthetized him and removed the fishing line around his neck. Luckily, he was otherwise healthy and the next day he was released at Rodeo beach, just down the hill from our hospital.

I know you'll agree that it's an incredible feeling to see such a beautiful animal returning to his ocean home.
By making a gift to The Marine Mammal Center, you provide the resources and expertise to give sea lions like Ear Muffs and SRO a second chance at life back in the wild!

Thank you for your support - we couldn't do it without you!

Dr. Jeff Boehm
Executive Director
The Marine Mammal Center

Ask Rhode Island Lawmakers to Protect ALL Pets from Mutilation

by Alicia Graef
March 1, 2013
5:30 pm

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Lawmakers in Rhode Island recently introduced a bill that would prohibit landlords from requiring tenants to declaw or devocalize their pets because they believe these procedures are inhumane and potentially dangerous, but animal advocates are pushing for tougher laws to ban these procedures entirely.
Senate Majority Leader Dominick J. Ruggerio introduced the bill (2013-S 0177 ), which is based on a California law that prohibits landlords from requiring devocalization and declawing that was passed last fall. This bill would prohibit any person or corporation that occupies, owns, manages or provides services in connection with any property from requiring tenants to declaw or devocalize any animal allowed on the premises.
“These acts are inhumane for any animal to go through, unless there is a real medical necessity. Imagine if your ability to talk or defend yourself was suddenly taken away from you. We must put an end to this,” said Senator Ruggerio.
He’s right. Both devocalization and declawing are inhumane and unnecessary and no one should resort to mutilating their pets to manage behavioral issues. Ever.
Devocalization involves a major surgery with a high risk of complications that uses either an oral approach, or a laryngotomy, that results in cutting or removing an animal’s vocal cords. Regardless of how it’s done, or who does it, this procedure can cause a host of other medical problems ranging from difficulty breathing and susceptibility to aspiration pneumonia to chronic gagging and death.
Once devocalized, dogs also lose their ability to communicate and socialize normally, which may cause frustration and lead to behavioral issues, along with making them potentially dangerous to people without their ability to give warnings when they’re upset.
Declawing involves a procedure that removes the last bone of each toe and is comparable to removing human fingertips. It leaves cats defenseless and can lead to chronic pain, in addition to causing other behavioral issues, such as biting and bypassing the litter box.
Despite arguments to the contrary, these procedures also still leave cats and dogs just as vulnerable to abandonment or euthanasia as any other pet. They do not guarantee pets a permanent home.
While animal advocates and organizations including the Coalition to Protect and Rescue Pets ― which led the successful campaign to ban devocalization in Massachusetts ― are grateful for the introduction of humane legislation, they are asking lawmakers to withdraw their bills and introduce legislation that will ban devocalization and declawing entirely with the argument that barring landlords from requiring these procedures won’t actually do anything to help keep pets safe and may hinder real protection laws in the future.
Their stance is that landlords aren’t the reason pets are forced to undergo these procedures – irresponsible and uneducated owners are. Worse even, if this legislation is passed, landlords will be allowed to sidestep this law by banning pets entirely, which could make it even harder for those of us with companion animals who rent to find a place to live.
Animal advocates would like to see legislation passed in Rhode Island like the law in Massachusetts, which bans devocalization of dogs and cats entirely, unless it is performed to relieve a physical ailment causing an animal harm and there are no other veterinary alternatives available.
TAKE ACTION!
Please sign and share the petition asking lawmakers in Rhode Island to withdraw their bills and instead introduce enforceable legislation that will protect all dogs and cats from devocalization and declawing.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Dear Jennifer,

I hope all is well with you. Thank you for your recent gift of $5.00. Today, I want to tell you about how, with your support, PETA recently revealed another disgusting aspect of the "pet" trade that most people will never see.

People often use the words "rat" and "snake" as insults. This never made sense to me.

Snakes are gorgeous, graceful, sensitive, and fascinating animals. Most of the snakes who live near humans are harmless, and snake encounters are rare, thanks to their keen ability to detect vibrations using their bellies and lower jaws.

Click here to watch the undercover footage.

Rats are affectionate, intelligent, and sociable. When they play or are tickled, they make chirping sounds that are strikingly similar to human laughter. These sensitive animals can bond with their human companions to the point that if they are suddenly given away to someone else or forgotten, they can pine—and even die.

Yet, as was revealed by a recent PETA investigation, the pet trade treats these animals as mere inventory to be crammed tightly into containers to take up as little space as possible in warehouses and transport trucks. No more consideration is given to their needs and feelings than would be given to a stack of T-shirts or a box of laundry detergent.

For more than two months, a PETA investigator worked undercover in stinking conditions at Global Captive Breeders, LLC (GCB), a company that bred and sold reptiles and rats in Lake Elsinore, Calif.

The evidence gathered during this investigation—made possible only because of your monthly support—prompted law-enforcement officials to mount the largest seizure of animals ever in California and the largest rescue of neglected rats in U.S. history. All the animals—more than 600 reptiles and 18,000 rats—were taken into the city's custody, and a criminal investigation is underway.

The facility, which typically housed thousands of adult rats and reptiles, including snakes, monitor lizards, skinks, tokay geckos, and sulcata tortoises, reeked of death and decay as well as ammonia from accumulated urine and feces.

Most of the rats were bred and sold to be fed to snakes and other reptiles kept as "pets." GCB kept them in abject filth and misery. Tubs used for housing flooded frequently, slowly drowning countless panicked rats and leaving hundreds of others to struggle to keep their heads above water as it rose. Exhausted, shivering, and terrified, many mother rats watched helplessly as their newborns drowned.

Rats were routinely grabbed by the tail and slammed into metal posts, racks, tables, and walls when workers (including the facility's manager) decided to kill them. Many didn't die quickly and were thrown into trash bins or reptile enclosures while still alive and convulsing.

Hundreds of rats were found dead in tubs, where they had been deprived of the most basic necessities—clean air, dry bedding, drinking water, nutritious food, veterinary care, humane handling, and adequate space to groom and engage in other normal and essential forms of behavior.

Many reptiles were kept in dark drawers so small that they could not move, eat, or eliminate normally and were trapped with their own waste.

Chronic deprivation was the norm at GCB. Reptiles often suffered for weeks before finally dying—hopeless, isolated, and robbed of all that was natural and important to them.

If you view our undercover video footage, you will see the decline of an albino boa constrictor the manager and a worker refused to help as the animal became more and more emaciated, lethargic, and shriveled over the course of a month. Denied even the mercy of euthanasia, the snake was left to die while lying alongside maggots amid the stench of his own rotting flesh.

PETA's investigator brought the suffering of sick and injured animals to the attention of the owner, the manager, and others but to no avail.

Thanks to you, the nightmare is now over. Because of PETA's investigation, GCB has been effectively shut down, and we are currently working with law-enforcement officials to get criminal charges filed against the company and ensure justice for its animal victims.

We are also using this investigation to expose the ruthless, greed-driven pet trade and to show consumers why they should never patronize stores that sell live animals.

On behalf of the thousands of animals who no longer suffer inside the GCB hellhole, thank you so very much for helping to make this investigation possible. Your loyal support of PETA's lifesaving work is stopping unimaginable suffering. You are truly a hero for animals!

With kind regards,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

P.S. The cruelty documented by PETA's investigator at GCB is typical of the filth, crowding, deprivation, and stress that PETA's investigations of pet-trade suppliers have recorded over and over again. Please help reptiles, rats, and other animals exploited in this trade by vowing never to patronize stores that sell live animals and by spreading the word. Please share the video with your friends and family. Thank you for all that you do for animals!

Dear Jenni,

We all know rat poisons are meant to kill, but the problem is: These toxic poisons are indiscriminate. They injure or kill any living thing that ingests them. The most dangerous are called "second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides," or "super-toxic" poisons.

These poisons have been known to harm or even kill children, pets and wildlife -- including hawks, falcons, owls, bobcats, mountain lions, and endangered golden eagles and kit foxes.

After years of delay, the U.S. Environmental Protection agency has finally placed restrictions on certain types of super-toxic rat poisons, including products sold under the label "d-CON." But the makers of d-CON are opposing these lifesaving restrictions and continuing to sell their products in popular stores like Target, Walmart, The Home Depot and more.

Please take action and tell stores to stop carrying rat poisons that the EPA has banned and protect children, pets and endangered wildlife.

Click here to take action and get more information.

What Teachers Wish They Could Tell Parents

April 5, 2013

by Amanda Morin 37

With all the rules and regulations governing today's school systems, it's sometimes hard for parents and teachers to have frank and honest conversations. It's hard on parents, but there are things teachers wish they could say to parents, too.
It's been a while since I've been behind the teacher's desk in the classroom, but in solidarity to my dedicated in-the-classroom teacher friends, I'm sharing some of the things we wish we could say to parents.
Keep reading.
1. "Dealing with parents is sometimes more difficult than working with students." Margaret H., the Circle of Moms member who made this statement is both a mom and a teacher. She, like most teachers, knows there are bad teachers out there, and sometimes it's the teacher who is the classroom bully. Still, she hopes parents can learn to trust teachers more.
Most teachers really want to build a good partnership with parents, one that benefits the kids, but we're human. We get defensive when parents automatically assume we're the enemy.
2. "The 'I wish I had a job that gave me June, July, and August off' comment gets old, fast." When I was teaching, June was a time for recovery, July was a month to make plans for the next school year, and August was spent reading student files and preparing the classroom for the Fall. That is, when I wasn't teaching Summer school.
Teachers report they spend their Summers doing everything from working Summer jobs to pay the bills to teaching Summer school to cleaning up their classrooms to set them up for the next year!
3. "Parents do not understand that their child isn't the only one in the classroom at one time." To me the sign of a true teacher is what teacher Bethany H. said after making this statement. She said that she tries to see things through the eyes of a parent, because she too is a parent. She wonders what she would think if she was afraid her child's needs weren’t being met.
Please believe us when we say we know how important your child is to you, but that we want you to remember that to us, he's one of a classroom full of important children.
4. "So much emphasis is placed on testing that we forget why we are really there." Many teachers agree with Cherie R.'s comment and, like parents, are concerned about the lost teaching time that comes with preparing kids for standardized and standards-based testing. We don't want your child to feel stressed out and testing stresses out us, too.
Even teachers like a Circle of Moms member named Catherine, who believe testing is important in teaching kids to "think under pressure, problem solve, [and] use deductive reasoning," don’t think it should be the sole measure of a child's success.
5. "The truth is we are overworked, underpaid, [and] frequently disrespected." Though what Suzette S. says is in many cases true, we know parents can't do anything about the workload or the pay. As teacher-mom Cat B. explains, we continue to teach despite these challenges because we love what we do.
As for the respect issue, I agree with mom Jennifer V. who says it's a "give-and-take thing." As teachers, we can't expect parents and children to respect us if we don't show them respect, too. So, if you think we're being disrespectful, heed teacher Amy T.'s suggestion to talk to the teacher first.

Umbilical Cord and Placenta Stay Attached in "Lotus Birth" Trend

April 11, 2013

by Circle of Moms Editors 39

Chances are your partner or doctor cut the cord right away when your baby was born; that it didn't even occur to you to leave it attached. But in an emerging trend called "Lotus Birth," some parents are leaving the cord intact until it falls off naturally, which generally takes about three days. Read more.

Before you recoil at the idea of caring for a newborn with its cord and placenta attached, consider the benefits noted by Lotus Birth advocates and practitioners: Avoiding the cut allows the complete transfer of placental/cord blood into the baby, boosting immunity and nourishment. It also removes a roadblock to immediate bonding between mom and baby.
As for the possibility of stench from the rotting placenta? Mary Ceallaigh, a Lotus Birth advocate and midwife educator from Austin, TX, tells FOX News that if cared for properly and housed in a special cloth bag, a placenta will give off only "a slight musky smell" on the second and third day.
Read the whole story (FOX News).
Would you consider Lotus Birth?

Monday, June 3, 2013

Sea Turtle Predators

What Eats Sea Turtles?

By Jennifer Kennedy, About.com Guide

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Sea turtles have hard shells (called carapaces) that help protect them, but they still have predators. They are also more vulnerable than land turtles because unlike land turtles, sea turtles are unable to retract their heads or flippers into their shell.

Predators of Sea Turtle Eggs and Hatchlings

There are some predators of sea turtles as adults, but these marine reptiles are most vulnerable when in the egg and as hatchlings (small turtles recently emerged from the egg).
Predators of eggs and hatchlings include dogs, cats, raccoons, boars, and ghost crabs. These animals may dig up a sea turtle nest to get to the eggs, even if the nest is 2 feet below the surface of the sand. As hatchlings start to emerge, there is a scent of egg that still is on their bodies, plus the smell of wet sand. These scents can be detected by predators even from a distance.
According to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, threats to turtles in Georgia include the above, plus feral hogs and fire ants, which can threaten both eggs and hatchlings.
Once hatchlings emerge from the egg, they need to get to the water. At this point, birds such as gulls and night herons can become an additional threat. According to the Sea Turtle Conservancy, as few as one in 10,000 sea turtle eggs reach adulthood.
Olive ridley turtles nest in huge groups called arribadas. These arribadas can attract animals such as vultures, coatis, coyotes, jaguars and raccoons, who may gather near the beach even before the arribada begins. These animals dig up nests and eat eggs, and prey on nesting adults.

Predators of Adult Sea Turtles

Once turtles make their way to the water, both juveniles and adults can be prey for other ocean animals, including sharks (especially tiger sharks), orcas (killer whales), and large fish, such as grouper.
Sea turtles are built for life in the water, not on land. So adults can also be vulnerable to predators such as dogs and coyotes when they go up upon beaches to nest.

Sea Turtles and Humans

If turtles survive their natural predators, they still face threats from humans. Harvest for meat, oil, scutes, skin and eggs decimated turtle populations in some areas. Sea turtles face development on their natural nesting beaches, which means they have to contend with such things as artificial light, and loss of habitat and nesting sites due to construction and beach erosion. Hatchlings find their way to the sea using natural light, the slope of the shore, and the sounds of the ocean, and coastal development can interrupt these cues and make hatchlings crawl in the wrong direction.
Turtles may also be caught as bycatch in fishing gear, which was such a problem that turtle excluder devices were developed, although their use is not always enforced. You can find more information about fisheries regulations and recovery plans related to turtles at this NOAA web site.
Pollution such as marine debris is another threat. Discarded balloons, plastic bags, wrappers, discarded fishing line and other trash may be mistaken by a turtle for food and be accidently ingested, or the turtle may become entangled. Turtles may also be struck by boats.

How to Help Sea Turtles

A sea turtle's life may be fraught with danger. How can you help?
If you live in a coastal area:

Don't feel wildlife - you may attract turtle predators.
Don't let your dog or cat run loose.
Watch for sea turtles when boating.
Do not disturb or shine lights near nesting sea turtles.
Turn off outside, ocean-facing lights during sea turtle nesting season.
Pick up litter on the beach.

Wherever you live:

Dispose of trash responsibly, and keep a lid on your trash when it's outside. Trash even far from the ocean can make it's way there eventually.
Never release balloons - always pop them and dispose of them in the trash . Use balloon alternatives whenever possible during your celebrations.
If you eat seafood, research what you eat and eat seafood that is caught without threatening turtles.
Support sea turtle conservation/rehabilitation organizations, even international ones. Sea turtles are highly migratory, so recovery of turtle populations depends on protection in all their habitats.

References and Further Information:

Network for Endangered Sea Turtles. Accessed May 30, 2013.
Sea Turtle Conservancy. Sea Turtle Threats: Invasive Species Predation. Accessed May 30, 2013.
Spotila, J. R. 2004. Sea Turtles: A Complete Guide to Their Biology, Behavior, and Conservation. The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore and London.
The Georgia Sea Turtle Center. Threats to Sea Turtles. Accessed May 30, 2013.

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