Thursday, May 15, 2008

Animal Adoptions Now available at GuZoo



You can now adopt an animal at GuZoo Animal Farm for just $50 a year.

That's less than a dollar a week.


When you adopt an animal at GuZoo
You will receive:

  • Certificate - personalised with your name

  • Photograph

  • Information sheet about your animal

  • Updates throughout the year

  • Christmas card

  • Annual review of all the things that
    Have happened at GuZoo. Throughout the year

  • Warm feeling knowing you've done something
    Kind for the animals at GuZoo Animal Farm !

Animals available for adoption are:

Tuffy        Canadian Lynx
Casper Siberian Lynx
Zuki Timber Wolf
Moses Serval
Tyson Baboon
Jacob Camel
Tim Lemur
Jackson Tiger
Jerry Cougar
Wallace Lion
BJ Bear



For more information on adopting one of these animals send an email to
janeyc18@yahoo.com
with your name, phone number, and which animal you
are interested in, or phone Irene at 403 443 7463

for more information on GuZoo Animal Farm click here

www.guzooforever.com

Wednesday, May 14, 2008


Animal Rights. Where did it come from, where is it now, where is it going?

Part 2

Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)

For about 140 years the RSPCA animal welfare advocates had made good headway in getting legislation passed to prevent the abuse of animals, but there was still a long way to go.

Those who supported animal welfare were largely the middle and upper classes, people who had a vested interest in treating animals well, farmers, hunters, fishermen, kennel and stable owners and, of course, the ever increasing number of pet owners.

In the middle years of the twentieth century there were stirrings towards a new doctrine, the philosophy that animals should not be used for the benefit of humans but that they are entities in their own right and deserve equal consideration with humans.

The Hunt Saboteurs (HSA)

The AR movement as we know it today is a far cry from the small band of friends, who, in 1963, led by John Prestidge, actively disrupted fox hunting in Devon, England.

The Hunt Saboteurs Association, as they called themselves, always acted within the law, they were an irritant to the huntsmen, and little else.

As others in the area heard about their activities, Hunt Saboteur groups began to spring up all over Southern England.

Band of Mercy

By 1971 there was a national network of dedicated activists disrupting hunt meets all over the country. Two of these activists were a law student called Ronnie Lee, and his friend Cliff Goodman, from Luton, Hertfordshire. They thought they could do a better job if they could prevent the hunt from happening in the first place, as the HSA only operated within the law, and their new tactics would involve law breaking, they formed a breakaway group, the Band of Mercy, in 1972.

All went well and the BOM spread their wings to include action against vivisectionists, as well as hunters. However, in 1975, their luck ran out and Ronnie and Cliff were convicted of arson and sent to jail.

Animal Liberation Front (ALF)

On their release, Cliff decided to give up the campaign, but Ronnie was more determined than ever. He got in touch with the other members of the BoM and told them he wanted to form a group that would fight for the liberation of all animals. They called the new group the Animal Liberation Front, ALF and the animal rights movement was born.

Where animal welfarists were mostly drawn from the middle and upper classes and those who had animals in their daily lives, the new AR movement drew its followers mostly from the working class and from urbanites who had little if any contact with animals except in the form of domestic pets. Of course, there were exceptions on both sides.

ALF's objective, in its own terms, is to end animal abuse. They do this by 'liberating' animals from exploitative situations, such as in fur farms, and laboratories where they are used for experiments, and by causing financial damage to 'animal exploiters.'

According to the group's current website, ALF's mission is to "effectively allocate resources (time and money) to end the "property status of nonhuman animals." The objective behind the mission is to "abolish institutionalized animal exploitation because it assumes that animals are property."

According to the ALF, "Because ALF actions may be against the law, activitsts work anonymously, either in small groups or individually, and do not have any centralized organization or coordination." Individuals or small groups take the initiative to act in the name of the ALF then report their act to one of its national press offices. The organization has no leaders, nor can it truly be considered a network, since its various members / participants do not know each other, or even of each other. It calls itself a model of 'leaderless resistance.'

There is a certain amount of ambiguity about the role of violence for the group. ALF pledges its commitment to not harming either 'human or non-human animals,' but its members have taken actions which can justifiably be considered as threatening violence against people.

Concern for animal welfare has a history stretching back to the late 18th century. Historically, animal protectionists, as they were once known, focused on ensuring that animals were treated well, but from within a humanist framework that envisions humans as responsible for (or as biblical language would have it, with "dominion over") the earth's other creatures. Beginning in the 1980s, there was a noticeable shift in this philosophy, toward an understanding that animals have autonomous "rights." According to some, this movement was essentially an extension of the civil rights movement.

Indeed, one of the participants in a 1984 break-in at the University of Pennsylvania to retrieve animals used in scientific experiments, said at the time that, "We may seem like radicals to you. But we are like the abolitionists, who were regarded as radicals too. And we hope that 100 years from now people will look back on the way animals are treated now with the same horror as we do when we look back on the slave trade" (quoted in William Robbins' "Animal Rights: A Growing Movement in the U.S.," New York Times, June 15, 1984).

Animal rights activists have been becoming increasingly militant since the mid-1980s, and increasingly willing to threaten people, such s animal researchers and their families as well as corporate employees. The FBI named the ALF a domestic terrorist threat in 1991, and the Department of Homeland Security followed suit in January, 2005.


Peta and the future of animal rights coming in part 3

Thursday, May 8, 2008

'Have you seen this monkey?' asks Vancouver zoo


Last Updated: Wednesday, May 7, 2008 | 6:12 PM ET

Mia, a female spider monkey, is still missing, and presumed stolen. Mia, a female spider monkey, is still missing, and presumed stolen. (Courtesy of the Greater Vancouver Zoo)

Staff at the Greater Vancouver Zoo are devastated after someone killed one of the facility's spider monkeys and apparently stole the other one overnight Tuesday.

The culprit or culprits cut through the fence of the spider monkey exhibit Tuesday night, killing the male, Jocko, and apparently removing the female, zoo spokeswoman Jody Henderson told CBC News on Wednesday morning.

"We can't find our female anywhere, and so we are assuming at this stage that she is gone with them," said Henderson.

"We are absolutely devastated. They are our family. We are all extremely attached. It's shocking anyone would do this," said Henderson.

Jocko, a male spider monkey, was found dead by staff at the zoo Wednesday morning. Jocko, a male spider monkey, was found dead by staff at the zoo Wednesday morning. (Courtesy of the Greater Vancouver Zoo)

The two monkeys were both 17, and had lived at the zoo for 15 years, said Henderson.

The zoo appealed to the public for help on Wednesday and said it would be difficult for anyone without specialized training to keep the monkey as a pet.

Henderson said it was possible the monkey could have been stolen for sale on the black market, or it could have escaped on its own through the hole in the fence.

The missing monkey is described as about 50 centimetres tall. It is dark brown in colour, with a golden stomach and chest. It has steel blue eyes.

Anyone spotting the monkey is warned not to approach it because it may be traumatized, and is asked to call the zoo immediately.

"We need to find our female and find out who are these cruel individuals who would do such an awful thing," said Henderson.

RCMP said they have no indication yet why the monkey might have been stolen.


Source:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/07/bc-monkey-killed-vancouver-zoo.html?ref=rss

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Pet hippo becomes a weighty problem



By Nigel Blundell
Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 19/06/2007

  • In pictures Jessica the pet hippo
  • When a newborn baby hippo was washed up by a flood onto the lawn of his riverside home, the game ranger who found the dying animal lovingly nursed her back to health.

    Top: Jessica with Tonie Joubert, who raised her and Bottom: relaxing with one of the other pets
    Top: Jessica with Tonie Joubert, who raised her and Bottom: relaxing with one of the other pets

    The weakened female survived, put on weight, and grew . . . and g-r-e-w . . . and GREW!

    Now the hippo that thinks it's a family pet has become a giant-sized problem.

    For what started out as a cute, tubby 35lbs baby is now a boisterous seven-year-old - equivalent to a human 'teenager' -.weighing nearly three-quarters of a ton.

    And like many modern teenagers, Jessica, as she has been named, finds family life too comfortable and just won't leave home.

    Attempts to reintroduce her to the wild have all failed. And, being free to roam, the danger now is that she will be attacked and killed by other hippos - or shot by local farmers protecting their animals and crops.

    As our pictures show, the reason Jessica prefers family life to that of a wallowing big hippopotamus are clear...

    She eats, sleeps, swims and plays with retired game warden Tonie Joubert and wife Shirley at their home in South Africa.

    She wanders round the house, drinks coffee on the verandah, hangs out with the pet dogs and enjoys Shirley's soothing massages that help her relax at the end of a happy hippo day.

    The hippo greets Tonie, in particular, with special grunts and flicking ears whenever she sees him and follows him like a dog wherever he goes.

    There is no strict daily routine, but certain crucial things must not be missed - such as the 10 litres of sweet warm coffee, which Tonie bottle-feeds her with every day, or the dog pellets which she expects as treats.

    Most nights, Jessica totters off back to the river for a mudbath. But on other occasions she'll wander into the house, wet and dripping slime and plonk herself on the couple's bed.

    It is becoming a problem because - unlike the famous hippo in the Silentnight bed adverts - she has broken the Jouberts' bed three times.

    Even larger trouble looms because, being a big girl now, giant male hippos are beginning to turn up on the river's edge fronting Jessica's human home.

    She became friendly with one of them, a 10-year-old bull nicknamed Charlie. But when he was shot by a neighbouring farmer, it also killed off hopes of finding Jessica a mate and sending her back into the wild.

    "Jessica is so trusting," says Shirley. "Our constant fear now is that the same fate as Charlie's may befall our precious Jess, the gentlest creature on Earth."

    Says Tonie: "Some people have told me I was wrong to save Jessica. They say you have to be cruel to be kind and that I should have left nature to go its own way.

    "But that would have guaranteed she ended up in a crocodile's stomach.

    "And look at the joy and companionship we would have missed out on."

  • The story of the extraordinary friendship between human and hippo is told in 'Jessica the Hippo', to be shown on the Animal Planet channel on Thursday, June 28 at 9pm.
  • Saturday, May 3, 2008

    Two common misconceptions about AR groups


    Zoocheck will do it for you.


    The people at WSPA, Zoocheck, V4A. Peta and other animal rights groups are all trained professionals. So they must know what they're talking about.


    If only!!!!

    Few, if any, of these people are trained in zoology, or have lived and worked with animals for extended periods. They are mostly urbanites with too much money and even more free time who have nothing better to do than harass law abiding animal owners.

    Far from caring for animals they spend their time lobbying politicians, demonstrating against animal "cruelty" and generally trying to persuade the public that they are important knowledgeable people who should be listened to. Even if these people own a pet of their own, I doubt they get to spend much time with it.

    Although large organisations like peta do employ some qualified staff, these people are motivated more by money and drive for power than by the ethics of their profession.
    For more information on this subject read
    http://www.marnieko.com/animalantics.htm


    Even if they're not professionals, the people at Zoocheck, WSPA, V4A and peta care about animals and have the their best interests at heart.


    These people don't give two hoots about animals.

    They care about money (mostly getting other people's into their pockets as quickly as possible), self promotion, power, control, and intimidating others into compliance with their bizzare ideology.
    They mostly attach themselves to one idea, (zoos are cruel, for example), from which they cannot be shaken in spite of mountains of opposing evidence.

    These organisations have no desire to help zoos improve their facilities or help individual animals. It is not in their mandate to give financial donations or to volunteer their time. They do not even give helpful advice or encouragement. It's difficult to advise when you don't know anything. All these people know how to do is criticise. Their sole aim is to harass zoo owners to the point where they give up and go out of business. No matter how much zoos strive to meet their demands they will never succeed because these self proclaimed experts will continue to set the bar higher and higher. Not until every zoo in the world is closed will they be happy. Then when all the zoos are gone (heaven forbid that it will ever happen) they'll start on the animal sanctuaries.


    I wouldn't trust these people to walk my dog, let alone run a zoo.

    Thursday, May 1, 2008

    The baby monkey that thinks its mum's a teddy bear

    Last updated at 12:11pm on 1st May 2008


    This little monkey is missing her mummy so to make sure she's not losing out zoo keepers have given her a teddy bear to cuddle.

    Conchita is a three-week-old white-naped mangabey monkey who is being hand-reared at London Zoo.

    The tiny primate keeps hold of her teddy bear companion while her mother recovers from a caesarean.


    Mangabey monkey

    Conchita is being looked after at London Zoo with the help of a teddy bear

    Mangabey monkey

    The playful mangabey monkey is being had-reared while her mother revcovers from a caesarean

    But it's not all down to the teddy, as this mini-monkey is also being looked after by keeper, Andrea Payne.

    The species, which are native to West Africa, are on the critically endangered list following loss of habitat.

    Mangabey monkey

    Conchita is being looked after at London Zoo with the help of a teddy bear

    The white-naped mangabey is restricted to a small region between the Nzo-Sassandra river system in Côte d'Ivoire and the Volta River in Ghana.

    The species are typically slender with long limbs monkeys found in African tropical forests.

    They can grow up to 90 cm long and females can weigh up to about 6kg.

    Mangabey monkey

    Cheeky Conchita the monkey nibbles on keeper Andrea Payne's nose

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=563068&in_page_id=1766&ito=1490