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The woman who warns us about propaganda in zoos – hilarious or scary?

Dec7
How did they work all this out woman!

Incredulous woman can’t understand how theories of science appear on printed signs!

Go to the zoo with creationist Megan Fox and learn that zoos are failing in their duty towards humans. She loves the animals, why, she even got married in the zoo, but the notion of humans being apes is just hilarious. She reads ecologically informative signs in the various enclosures in an outraged tone – ‘Oh, humans are baaad!’ Megan thinks children should be entertained and informed about the eating habits of all the marvellous animals instead of learning critical information about destruction of habitat and loss of species. Megan says not all humans are bad. Hunters, for example, give all sorts of money to protect animals. Hunters conserve. Like in Zambimbia. (SIC) Hunters feed hungry people. The EPA buys weapons and donuts. They don’t clean up streams. It’s all political nonsense.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/06/brookfield-zoo-science-mom-audit_n_6271800.html

You really want more? Here is her incredulous visit to the American National History Museum with commentary from someone who actually thinks. Thank you, AnswersInEddas.

http://youtu.be/oNGAtFDm7OY

It’s a fairy tale. She’s just making it all up!!

My only comfort is when her children become teenagers they will revolt and start learning just to spite her. Oh, I cannot wait.

Megan Fox doesn’t want a relationship with nature. She is unnatural.

Urban nature—pockets of life

Dec2
Coot

Coot

On a walk in the park a friend gave me a newspaper clipping. One of her British friends had cut it from The Times of 11th October 2014 and posted it to her—snail mail! (Breaking the magic of the old-time paper trail, I did have to go online to discover when it was first published.)

It is entitled Read about autumn: it’s in animal handwriting and it is by Dr Miriam Darlington. She describes an area between the school and the railway track near the River Dart in England. She notices ‘calligraphy of the wild, a living landscape tracing everything that dragonflies, wrens, dippers and voles need.’ We don’t have voles in Australia, that I know of, but Melbourne photographer, Philip Millar, spends his urban lunchtime snapping surprising avian experiences.

Little Pied Cormorant lounging at freeway pilings

Little Pied Cormorant lounging at freeway pilings

His waterway is between an electricity station and a railway depot and under a freeway. The birds face a fierce industrial aspect yet there they are, surviving.

 

White faced heron

White faced heron

The water’s edge is, like that of the River Dart, ‘fixed in concrete – engineering designed for the convenience of humans, not rivers—the water is kept flowing along one fixed course, that being a river, it would not naturally choose.’

 

Fishing Egret

Fishing Egret

It is wonderful that, despite being human, writers continue to write about survivors in an urban landscape and photographers continue to illuminate our understanding about sharing our world with other species.

Philip Millar blogs at http://nouveautwitch.tumblr.com/ and http://flipmil.tumblr.com/

Dr Miriam Darlington blogs at http://wild-watching.blogspot.com.au/  and tweets at: https://twitter.com/MimDarling

Terrific response to Melbourne Cup

Nov7

I mean terrific as in filled with terror. It’s the first time I’ve noticed public opinion rise against this bizarre pageant of money, cruelty and lust we call the Melbourne Cup. I congratulate Sam de Brito on his fantastic opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Cup – that will do me. Please read and share it.

Rubbish left over from the 2014 Melbourne Cup

Picture from the Illawarra Mercury of the remains of the day, 2014 Melbourne Cup

de Brito’s observations are balanced and passionate. It’s well worth the read. It evokes another wonderful article from some years ago by Marike Hardy, The Melbourne Cup: It’s a truly revolting spectacle published in The Drum.

I’ve been both heartened and surprised by the many posts in Facebook over the last few days as people describe their saddness at the death of two horses in 2014’s carnival. Yet so many horses die each year as a result of the racing industry. Have people never thought about how many horses are bred, how many hopes are pinned on how many hours of training? I’m only glad that people are starting to think now. What can we do about our relationship to horses? Where does the money go?

Here are some facts about horse racing in Australia

Here’s a link to an interesting blog about retiring horses. They don’t mention the wastage during the training period. Only a small percentage of horses actually make it to be professional runners, just like humans. Imagine all those Little Athletics Club children. How many of them become full time athletes? What happens to all those racehorses

But for the utter last word on The Melbourne Cup, watch Kenny.

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Our relationship with zoos

Aug1

I’ve just read the Huffington Post’s article about zoos which reminded me of writer Derrick Jensen and photographer Karen Tweedy-Holmes’s book called Thought to exist in the wild: awakening from the nightmare of zoos.

thought to exist in the wild

In this book, Derrick Jensen compares porn with animals in cages. ‘All the animals in the zoo are eagerly awaiting you.’ He goes to a porn website and reads “All my ladies love to undress in front of the camera and have a great time doing all the photo sessions that you get to view totally uncensored.” He says, ‘It’s not enough to put these others on display. We must convince ourselves that they are desperately willing participants in their own degradation, that we are not exploiting them but doing them a favour. We are rescuing bears from the wild, saving orphans from sentences of death. The animals in the zoo are so happy that we need cages to keep the others out. The animals are rich estate owners leading lives of idle luxury.’ ‘All the animals in the zoo are eagerly awaiting you.’