ANIMAL CONNECTION

Archive for the ‘Celebrities & Athletes’ Category

Today I got some emails I wanted to share with you.

1. Did you know that November is “Go Vegan” month?

I, honestly, was not exactly sure what vegan meant.  I hear “vegan”, “vegetarian”, raw diet”, etc.  Because of this information,  I learned a lot more about being vegan.  I was aware of Georges Laraque, the NHL player,  who went vegan this summer to bring awareness to animal rights and issues.  I also knew that Portia De Rossi and Ellen Degeneres also became vegan earlier this year.  Until now I never really investigated it.  If you would like to learn more here is one website you can check out.  Vegan month.

2. November is also, National Pet Diabetes Awareness Month.

Today 50 percent of our pets are overweight or obese, which certainly can predispose them to developing diabetes. Both dogs and cats develop the same two types of diabetes seen in humans. The greater majority of dogs develop Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus where the body simply does not produce any insulin.

Most cats, on the other hand, develop Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus. In cats the disease is due either to not producing enough insulin or an inability to utilize the insulin that is produced in the body — the same as Type 2 diabetes in humans.

Treating and caring for a diabetic pet takes a huge commitment in both time and dollars.  Initial symptoms of diabetes are excessive thirst and urination, possible sudden weight loss and frequent urinary tract infections. Lack of energy and listlessness also are on the list.

Be sure you take your pet to the vet at least once a year for a full physical.  Make sure it is, and stays, healthy!

3.  Here are some pictures a friend of mine took of some Javelina.. also known as Collared Peccary.   They are so cute I had to share them with you.  He had 14 of these critters come out from under his house a few weeks ago, with a couple of new born babies!!!
If you would like to learn more about these interesting animals just check out this link.

4.  This came from Judy Landers, one of my board members:

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we are working urgently to help stop the intense suffering of turkeys. Their situation is grave. The abuse they endure on factory farms is difficult to even imagine. Farm Sanctuary’s public awareness campaign to expose the hidden horrors of commercial turkey production, combined with our efforts to rescue and provide refuge to the victims of this cruel industry, are having an impact – opening hearts and minds and creating real change. But we need your help to expand our reach even further. Please help END the abuse.

5. ALSO…This Sunday night 60 Minutes will feature an unprecedented exposé on the factory farming of pigs in Australia which has been underpinned by an investigation conducted by Animals Australia.  You can learn more from this link.

6.Denmark is a big shame

The sea is stained in red and it’s not because of the climate effects of nature. It’s because of the cruelty that the human beings (civilised human) kill hundreds of the famous and intelligent Calderon dolphins. This happens every year in Faroe Island in Denmark. In this slaughter the main participants are young teens.
WHY?   To show that they are adults and mature….

In this big celebration, nothing is missing for the fun. Everyone is participating in one way or the other, killing or looking at the cruelty “supporting like a spectator”. Is it necessary to mention that the Calderon dolphin, like all the other species of dolphins, is near extinction and they get close to men to play and interact in a way of PURE friendship . They don’t die instantly; they are cut 1, 2 or 3 times with thick hooks. And at that time the dolphins produce a grim cry extremely compatible with the cry of a new born child. But he suffers and there’s no compassion till this sweet being slowly dies in its own blood.

MAKE THIS ATROCITY STOP NOW!

I have always wanted to know what animals are thinking and how they feel.   Do you ever wonder about that as well?  I see shows about people talking to animals but I always thought it was a hoax to boost ratings.  Amy Phillips Penn contacted me and it got me thinking about this topic.

I will tell you a couple of personal stories then you can read about Amy Phillips Penn.  She’s a society/fashion columnist in Palm Beach, polo player and writes about polo.  Read more about her book, and communicating with her horse, below.

About 4 years ago I moved to Florida.  I had two ferrets at the time.  One of them became very ill and the veterinarian was not sure what was wrong.  He did say her fever was so high, that alone might kill her.  I called someone I knew who is an animal communicator.  I was desperate!  She told me that she would see what she could do and call me back.  Shortly after we hung up she called me back.  She told me that my ferrets stomach was hurting her really bad.  My ferret commented, she consumed something really bad.  I contacted the veterinarian to tell him what I was told.  (I did not tell him how I knew this).  He did another test and it seemed my ferret had consumed some pesticide.  He was not 100% positive, but he treated her for that.  Within a day she was back to normal.  It occurred to me she may have got pesticide on her nose when she walked on the grass.  The day before she got sick, the grass had been treated but there were not “pesticide” signs.

Another thing that caught my attention…..when the communicator was talking to my ferret she asked my ferret, “is there a funny story you can tell me to take your mind off of your pain”?  My ferret told her a real life story about her and her brother, then they laughed together.  The communicator told me the story and asked if it were true?  I told her the story actually happened the day before.  The only people, or animals, that would know that story were my two ferrets and me.  I WAS SOLD!

One other story that I know of….A friend was going to put her dog down.  I told her to call the animal communicator to see if the dog had any last wishes.  The dog wanted mashed potatoes.  My friend said the dog never liked mashed potatoes so she was not impressed with the communicator.  A few weeks after the dog was put down my friend had a dinner party.  At that party was a man who had owned that dog the first 4 years of its life.  My friend adopted the dog from him.  I asked him if the dog had a favorite “people” food?   He said she loved mashed potatoes.  My friend was so shocked!!  She could not believe her dog had to die without getting her final request, mashed potatoes.

I’m sure there are a lot of wonderful communicators.   I contacted Lori Michel at www.animalchit-chat.com

Diosa

One Mare’s Odyssey on the Planet Earth

INDIO, Calif. – “We live in an age of communication and information, so why on earth is it so difficult for a person to understand what her horse is trying to tell her?” These are the words of polo pony Diosa in the new book, Diosa: One Mare’s Odyssey on the Planet Earth (published by AuthorHouse), the whimsical new full-color book by Amy Phillips Penn.

Ideal for young readers, listeners and horse lovers everywhere, Amy’s polo mare, Diosa – whose name means “goddess” in Spanish – shares her story of family, friends and overcoming obstacles. She begins in Wellington, Fla., where she lives with Amy, her “b.p.f.” or “best person forever”; her friend Max, a former polo pony turned show horse; and Holly, a golden retriever. After weathering two hurricanes in Florida, Diosa, Amy, Max and Holly pack up and set off for California in search of better weather and more polo playing opportunities.

The group arrives safely and Diosa explores the lemon groves of Santa Barbara, reveling in the ocean and mountains around her. She also grows closer to Amy with the help of a pet psychic, who teaches them how to better communicate with one another. After a time in Santa Barbara, Diosa and her friends endure more natural disasters as wildfires engulf the land around them:

As if struck by a lightning bolt, the horse next to me became unhinged. He leapt into midair, and twisted and turned, like he was trying to get a fly off of him. Only this was no normal fly attack. These were hot embers! We all knew that where there was smoke, there was usually … well, you know the rest. We couldn’t see the fires but we could sense them and smell them, so we were okay, for right now. Right now didn’t last long, as our barns and polo fields changed into a haven for other horses who were in much worse situations than we were. California is so hospitable to its pets, especially in emergencies.

After escaping the wildfires, Diosa is grateful to move to the safety of the desert. She stresses the importance of taking care of our planet. “Life is a love story if only you let it be one. Please take care of our planet and all of us so that we can take the best possible care of you,” she says.

Illustrated with photographs by renowned polo photographer David Lominska, Diosa: One Mare’s Odyssey on the Planet Earth is a true story about real animals, real events and real people with an important message: live life to its fullest, keep hope alive to overcome obstacles, and always remember to protect the environment.

About the Author: An enthusiastic polo player, Amy Phillips Penn has written for the New York Post, the Palm Beach Daily News, numerous polo publications, Town and Country magazine and Interview magazine. She is currently working on a novel/screenplay, Seduced by Polo, which chronicles the wild adventures of a New York society writer turned polo player.

No matter how you sugar coat it, there is abuse and neglect all around us.  Whether it’s towards an adult, child or animal…abuse is abuse, neglect is neglect.  A couple of days ago a 5 month old girl died in Florida because her parents would not feed her.  She was starved to death.

Awareness of your surroundings, and what you see, is key to stopping abuse and neglect.  There are authorities in your community you can call who will investigate.  It is better to be safe, and maybe save a life, than be sorry.

Here are some facts that I hope will educate people to become more aware of what is going on around them.  You might save a life, human or animal.

1. 98% of Americans consider pets to be companions or members of the family.   For many battered women, pets are sources of comfort providing strong emotional support.

2. Animal abuse and neglect is linked to domestic violence.  Animal cruelty problems are people problems.  When animals are abused, people are at risk. There is a strong link between harming pets, or livestock, and some men’s perpetration of domestic violence. Some men threaten to harm animals, or actually harm them, or kill them as a means of coercion, control and intimidation.  This form of power and control is more likely to occur when women or children have close emotional bonds with their animals.

3. Several studies were conducted on woman in domestic violence shelters.  They show 24% to 80% of the women reported that their male partner had threatened to harm, actually harmed, or killed their animals.  Most of the studies have been conducted in USA and Canada.  In the UK a study reported that nine family pets a week are reported as abused by perpetrators of domestic violence

4. Also, it’s been shown that men who abused their pets were more dangerous and more controlling than men who did not.  These men demonstrated more tactics of power and control including sexual violence, marital rape, emotional violence and stalking compared with men who did not abuse their pets.

Some statistics from different sources:

1. 71% of pet-owning women in shelters reported their abuser injured, maimed, killed or threatened family pets.  32% reported their children had hurt or killed animals.

2. 68% of battered women reported violence towards their animals. 87% of these incidents occurred in the presence of the women, and 75% in the presence of the children.

3. 13% of intentional animal abuse cases involve domestic violence.

4. Between 25% and 40% of battered women are unable to escape abusive situations because they worry about what will happen to their pets or livestock should they leave.

5. Abusers kill, harm, or threaten children’s pets to coerce them into sexual abuse or to force them to remain silent about abuse.   A lot of these kids turn around and do the same thing to someone else. They do what they are taught and many hope it will keep their own pet safe.

6. It’s been documented that 70% of animal abusers also had records for other crimes.

7. Investigation of animal abuse is often the first point of social services intervention for a family in trouble.

Trivia:

1. More American households have pets than have children.

2. We spend more money on pet food than on baby food.

3. There are more dogs in the U.S. than people in most countries in Europe – and more cats than dogs.

4. A child growing up in the U.S. is more likely to have a pet than a live-at-home father.

5. Pets live most frequently in homes with children: 64.1% of homes with children under age 6, and 74.8% of homes with children over age 6, have pets.

6. The woman is the primary caregiver in 72.8% of pet-owning households.

7. Battered women have been known to live in their cars with their pets for as long as four months until an opening was available at a pet-friendly safe house. [

If You Need Help

Contact your local humane society, SPCA, animal control agency, or veterinarian to see if they have temporary foster care facilities for pets belonging to battered women.

What You Can Do

1. Have your pets vaccinated against rabies, and license your pets with your town or county: make sure these registrations are in your name to help prove your ownership.

2. Consider and plan for the safety and welfare of your animals. Do not leave pets with your abuser. Be prepared to take your pets with you: many women’s shelters have established “safe haven” foster care programs for the animal victims of domestic violence.

3. Alternatively, arrange temporary shelter for your pets with a veterinarian, family member, trusted friend, or local animal shelter.

If you have suggestions, feedback or information that can help, and you want to share, PLEASE DO!

These days there are more and more people becoming vocal about their food, what they eat, where their food comes from, etc.  Haven’t you heard the term “ignorance is bliss?”  When it comes to this subject of food, I sometimes wish I didn’t know as much as I do.  On the flip side, I hope, the more I know the better off I will be in the long run, if I use that information properly.  Case in point……

I am from New Orleans and always loved French food.  I recently visited a French Restaurant and their “specialty” is Foie Gras.  I asked a lot of questions about this food because I really did not know all of the details.  Once I was informed I came home, did some research, and thought, “This is something I would like to write about.” Do you sometimes eat food because it is called a delicacy or because it’s expensive?  Do you know what you are really eating or where it came from?  Do you care?

Translated literally from French as “fatty liver” and pronounced ‘fwah grah’.  It is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese that are also diseased livers.  When you think about it, who would want to eat a diseased liver anyway?   At just a few months old, ducks are confined inside dark sheds and force-fed enormous amounts of food several times a day.  The ducks and geese are held, one-by-one, and a metal pipe is forced down their throats so the food is force fed directly into their bodies.  This happens to them every 3-4 hours everyday.  The pipes puncture many birds’ throats, sometimes causing the animals to bleed to death.  Many become so sick they die.  In a matter of weeks these animals are extremely overweight and their livers are 10 times the size they should be.  The birds who survive the force-feeding are killed, and their livers are sold for foie gras.  Although widely condemned, it’s also widely consumed, not only in the heartland of France, where they LOVE this food, but in many other countries too.  Here is a video for you to see.

Banning any food, especially “luxury” food, has been a challenging issue for chefs, who generally defend their right to use whatever they want.  It usually has to do with the demand and price these items command. These are not the only animals that are treated in such harsh ways.  There are many issues around the treatment of all kinds of animals.

There are also a number of well known people who are doing their part to bring these types of subjects to the general population.  One such person, who is also a well known chef, is Wolfgang Puck.  As part of a new initiative to fight animal cruelty, Puck said he will no longer serve foie gras. In his fine-dining restaurants, eateries and catering venues he will use only eggs from hens that have lived cage-free; veal from roaming calves; and lobsters that have been removed from their ocean traps quickly to avoid crowded holding tanks.   “We want a better standard for living creatures. It’s as simple as that,” Puck said.  He believes the best-tasting food comes from animals that have been treated humanely. The campaign to stop its sale is gathering growing more and more support.

Even people like Roger Moore (A.K.A. James Bond) and Bea Arthur are opposed of the treatment of the ducks and geese, as well as the industry as a whole for allowing the sale of foie gras.   See the video from Roger Moore.

Many chefs at high-end restaurants, some smaller food-service chains and grocery chains like Whole Foods have refused to buy meat and eggs unless animals were raised under certain conditions.  They also are aware that Americans are becoming more health conscious about what they eat. In 2000, McDonald’s became the first major American food company to impose minimum animal-welfare standards such as increasing cage size on its egg producers. California has decided to ban the production and sale of foie gras starting in 2012.  Chicago imposed a ban last year, and bans are being promoted in Illinois, New Jersey and New York.

To stop this act people will need to stop consuming this food and ask chefs to stop serving the dish. If  you have thoughts, stories, information, etc.  please share it so other people will know your thoughts.  This is what I found in my search for the real answers behind the question, “What is Foie Gras?”  What do you have to say?

Historically the most common pattern in heterosexual couples is an older man with a younger woman, however the converse (older woman/younger man) has increased significantly in many countries.  Factors leading into a search for a significantly younger or older individual with whom to share an intimate relationship can vary wildly. The common perception is that younger mates serve the purpose of a “trophy” or object of status, while older mates are perceived to have greater resources, wisdom, or sexual knowledge.  Older women can bring an exciting new dimension to relationships.

How are cougars and woman similar?  Check out the new show, “Cougar Town” with Courtney Cox.  Is this who she is?  Is this what people think of women from Florida?  A woman who is 35+, sexually cunning, that prefers to hunt rather than be hunted and is non-committal, choosing to move from mate to mate without ever settling down are called  cougars.

The animal seems to be invisible.  Studies have shown that cougars are typically solitary, spending most of their lives in well-defined home ranges that vary in size according to a cat’s gender, the season, habitat quality, and prey availability. Generally, male territories are larger than those of females, with females often sharing overlapping ranges. Cougars mark the boundaries of their territories with olfactory signposts, or scrapes, specifically by building and urinating on piles of dirt, pine needles, and leaves.

The omnipresent but rarely seen cougar is not only the most widely distributed New World cat, but definitely the one with the most names. Depending on geographic region, it is called the puma, mountain lion, red tiger, deercat, mountain devil, king cat, Mexican lion, panther, mountain screamer, silver lion, catamount, even sneak cat.

Found from the Canadian Yukon to the tip of South America, from sea level to fourteen thousand feet or more, these adaptable cats have the greatest distribution of any terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere.

Although they cannot roar, cougars have been known to chirp, peep, even whistle. Kittens make a series of short, high-pitched peeps when frightened and adults sometimes produce low, hunting whistles before a chase. The name, screamer, refers to the blood-curdling mating calls produced by a female cougar in estrus.

Cougars are efficient day and night active predators built to leap, climb trees, sprint, and ambush. Cougars have excellent vision, hearing, and olfaction and use these senses to detect and stalk their prey. Long hind limbs in proportion to fore limbs are an adaptation for jumping and easier movement through steep canyons and ravines. Big, padded paws help the cougar navigate through variable terrain and grapple their next meal. Inch-and-a-half-long canines in concert with sheathed claws make them armed and deadly. When prey is detected, the eyes and ears of the cougar fix on the site until the source of motion is determined. With their long tail used for balance, these athletic felines can make incredible leaps in pursuit of prey or to silently disappear into the underbrush.

Although cougars prefer to eat deer and elk, their generalist diet can include everything from mouse to moose, including grasshoppers.

Many cougars are shot on sight by unhappy ranchers in southern Arizona, and Texas where they allow unrestrained cougar killing. In Utah, interest in the sport of cougar hunting is increasing, as reflected by the growing number of pursuit permits being issued each year.  While states with cougar populations allow the controlled seasonal hunting of cougars as game animals, California is the only state that, so far, has won a hard-fought battle to eliminate sport hunting for cougar altogether

I’m not really sure how the woman and the animal were tied together but it seems to me that the cougar is a very diverse animal that can adapt to almost any situation, as most woman do…..it has nothing to do with age.

Hilary Swank, a two-time Academy Award-winning actress, is this year’s ambassador for Iams Home 4 the Holidays Pet Adoption Campaign. Swank will share her personal experience with adoption and rescue in an effort to help educate others about how they can make a positive impact on the lives of homeless pets. Along with founding partner Helen Woodward Animal Center and nearly 3,500 participating animal organizations from around the world, the campaign has set a goal to help 1.5 million pets find homes from now through Jan. 4, 2010.

“I’m so proud to be working with Iams Home 4 the Holidays to help raise awareness about the importance of pet adoption,” says Swank. “Last year, the program’s adoption goal was to get 1 million pets adopted in just three months, but this year the goal is even bigger; we’re on a mission to find loving homes for 1.5 million orphaned pets between Oct. 1 and Jan. 4.”

Swank has adopted many pets throughout her life, including her two dogs Karoo and Rumi. She rescued Karoo from the side of a road while filming in South Africa a few years ago and adopted Rumi last fall from a participating Iams Home 4 the Holidays shelter in Los Angeles.

“Now more than ever orphaned animals need our help and who better to give them a voice than Hilary?” says Mike Arms, founder of Iams Home 4 the Holidays and president of the Helen Woodward Animal Center. “Along with Hilary and her inspiration, our 3,500 animal organizations are working to shine a big spotlight on the need to help the nearly 8 million homeless pets in our country, and are committed to helping raise awareness about the importance of pet adoption.”

Iams Home 4 the Holidays is dedicated to helping homeless pets. The program has placed more than 3 million animals in homes since 1999, and in 2008, the adoption drive found homes for 1,202,718 pets.

WATCH THE VIDEO