Animals

[Vrede too]

I know we're not orca food, but am not sure I'd be able to keep it together.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTIcQMwYC1o

Then, there's:


Whale Lifts Kayakers Out Of Water

Wow.

[Vrede too]

'You don't go and raise your dinner': California eagles defy odds by taking in baby hawk

It's like a Black woman in the deliberately racist and misogynistic GOP. It happens, but is so rare as to be noteworthy.

[Vrede too]

Ask Congress to Outlaw Heinous Acts of Animal Cruelty

Your help is needed to finally get the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act (H.R. 724; S. 479) across the finish line! The Senate passed the bill in the last Congress but, shamefully, the House of Representatives did not. However, the House in the 116th Congress seems more inclined to take action on this legislation.

Background

In so-called "crush videos," individuals viciously torture, mutilate, and kill small animals to satisfy the bizarre fetishes of viewers. Although there is a federal law prohibiting the creation and distribution of such videos, it does not cover the underlying acts of animal abuse. Often, it is not possible to identify from the video alone where the act took place--thus rendering it out of reach of state laws that might otherwise punish the perpetrators. The PACT Act would eliminate this problem by extending federal jurisdiction to these particularly heinous acts.

Preventing and punishing such cruelty is critical to ensuring both animal welfare and human safety. More and more, the law enforcement and legal communities recognize that animal cruelty is a serious crime in and of itself, and is closely linked with other violent crimes, especially domestic abuse. By providing law enforcement and the criminal justice system with another tool for responding to the unspeakable acts of animal cruelty, the PACT Act would protect our communities from many types of violence.

USDA, if you ignore the bees they WILL go away

Last week, it was reported that this past winter saw the highest honey bee colony losses on record. A few days later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it will be suspending its annual tracking of the honey bee population due to a budget shortfall.

Not a good look, USDA.

From bad to worse

It’s no secret that bees and other pollinators have been in trouble for years, due to a combination of factors including habitat loss, poor nutrition, pathogens, and of course pesticide exposure — a key factor that exacerbates other stressors. The number of managed honey bee hives plummeted from 6 million in 1947 to 2.4 million in 2008, and the worst hive loss on record occurred last winter as beekeepers reported a 40% loss of their colonies over the year....

Recently, Trump’s EPA made the decision to lift restrictions on a toxic insecticide known to be lethal to bees, sulfoxaflor, and the administration also reversed the ban on using highly harmful neonicotinoid insecticides in wildlife refuges....

So when this administration mentions how much they are helping farmers, or Second Lady Karen Pence gushes about National Pollinator Week, we know where they really stand. And that’s firmly in the camp of suppressing science, and putting the interests of pesticide companies over environmental health and agricultural vitality.

Alongside managed honey bees, other pollinators like wild and native bees, butterflies, moths and birds are facing the same stressors — neonicotinoid pesticide use and habitat loss ranking high on the list of threats. Two things you can do today to help all pollinators are: urging your representative to cosponsor a bill that would reinstate the ban on neonic pesticides use in wildlife refuges, and creating a pesticide-free Honey Bee Haven in your yard or garden full of pollinator-friendly plants.

Keep pesticides out of wildlife refuges!
Ask your representative to co-sponsor HR 2854, which would reinstate the ban on neonic pesticide use in wildlife refuges.

[neoplacebo]

EPA reverses ban on pesticide harmful to bees. There is just nothing that trump can't fuck up.
https://week.com/news/national-news-fro ... t-to-bees/

[Vrede too]

EPA reverses ban on pesticide harmful to bees. There is just nothing that trump can't fuck up.
https://week.com/news/national-news-fro ... t-to-bees/

The potential harm is mediated by the fact that we've "stopped tracking rapidly vanishing honeybee colonies".

EPA Approves Bee-Killing Pesticide After U.S. Quits Tracking Vanishing Hives

Can't lose what we don't know we have, right?

[Vrede too]

Urge Members of Congress to Support Ban on Exotic Animals in Circuses

[neoplacebo]

Going down the road earlier to the store and noticed this guy running and waving his arms and half taking off his shirt. At first I thought he was just another trump acolyte but after a moment I realized he was probably being attacked by some kind of bees. It made me wonder if he was thinking "go back to where you came from" or not.

[Vrede too]

... It made me wonder if he was thinking "go back to where you came from" or not.

The bees were.

[neoplacebo]

[O Really]

Animals and guys getting hit in the nuts are long time staples of "America's Funniest Videos" as well as viral vids. So an animal kicking a guy in the nuts - while the guy for some unexplained reason is wearing a Speedo (a Speedo! ferpetesake) has got to be a winner...

https://www.foxnews.com/travel/wild-hor ... land-beach

[Vrede too]

Bison charges nine-year-old girl, throwing her high into the air
Child miraculously survives being flipped into the air by gigantic bull in Yellowstone National Park (with video)

... The adults – who are the child’s parents, according to the woman who took the video – are seen sprinting away amid screams, leaving the 9-year-old in the path of the enormous animal....

“According to witnesses, a group of approximately 50 people were within 5-10 feet of the bison for at least 20 minutes before eventually causing the bison to charge the group,” Yellowstone officials said in a statement.

They said the girl was from Odessa in Florida, and was taken to a clinic in the park from which she was later released. She reportedly had minor injuries.

The woman who apparently took the video, Hayley Dayton, posted it on Twitter with the words: “This is what happens when you f*** with wildlife and pay no mind to an animal’s personal space.

“This family was petting the buffalo before it charged. And as you can see the parents saved themselves over their daughter. I’m disgusted.” ...


Two people, allegedly the girl's parents, flee from the bull as it charges, leaving the little girl in its path

...

Comments:

On my next trip to Florida, my family plans on petting a wild alligator in a swamp. What could go wrong?

Some only learn respect the hard way. Nice situation to put their kid in, then run away and let the Bison get the kid. Keep them from breeding again.

My next trip to the Mideast I'm gonna pet an ISIS.

It would be safer than to try to pet a FL local...

The new Yellowstone ride. Me next daddy, looks like fun.

God; it just had to be somebody from ole weird Florida, didn't it?

We have bison in Florida. They traveled a long way just to get their daughter hurt.

[1 CAT FAN]

Animal!

[Vrede too]

I may be done with chicken, too.

Raw chicken seemingly crawls off table by itself in terrifying footage (article)

[O Really]

Well, the possible explanation (frog, fresh killed) is better than I thought. I thought it was probably maggots. Either way, it's ewwwww!

I did used to joke that if my steak didn't kick back it was too done - ummmm, maybe not.

[Vrede too]

EPA reverses ban on pesticide harmful to bees. There is just nothing that trump can't fuck up.
https://week.com/news/national-news-fro ... t-to-bees/

Ask your representative to co-sponsor HR 2854, which would reinstate the ban on neonic pesticide use in wildlife refuges.

[O Really]

"Massive alligator surprises hikers along walking trail"

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/watch/m ... vi-AAFqsfo

Oh puh-leeze. I know it's Canadian MSN, but still. It's a big one, but hardly "massive" and anybody walking along a watery-looking trail in Florida shouldn't be surprised at all to see a gator.

For real, gators that size are pretty much stacked up the deeper you get along the Bird Rookery Swamp trail in Naples. There's one big one called "One-Eye Betty" who hangs out fairly close to the parking lot. https://floridahikes.com/crew-bird-rookery-swamp

[Vrede too]

10 feet or so? Pretty big.

A Bear Somehow Fell Onto A Moving Police Car, Then Things Got Really Weird

A bear fell onto a police car, causing a crash and fire that destroyed the vehicle and half an acre of vegetation in Northern California.

The driver wasn’t injured and the bear fled the scene.

The Humboldt Country Sheriff’s Office car had its lights and sirens on at 11 p.m. on Aug. 3 while it responded to an overdose call. En route, a bear fell from an embankment and onto the hood, per KRCR, the ABC station in Redding.

Caltrans, the state highway department, said via Facebook that the patrol car struck an embankment, rolled over and caught fire. The flames then spread to nearby vegetation....

A second bear at the scene was heard to exclaim, "Bro, that was awesome!"

Slightly more seriously: I don't believe the cop. Either he wrecked on his own, or was too ashamed to admit that a hippie made him crash.

Comments:

The weather, today, is partly sunny with a chance of bear.

The bear must have gotten hold of some of that Northern California "primo" pot.

So four legged bears are a job hazard for two legged bears now?

I think the officer was doing something else and lost control of the car.

Wow. A real life Drop Bear!

Had to look it up:

Drop bear

A drop bear (sometimes dropbear) is a hoax in contemporary Australian folklore featuring a predatory, carnivorous version of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus). This imaginary animal is commonly spoken about in tall tales designed to scare tourists. While koalas are typically docile herbivores (and notably, not bears), drop bears are described as unusually large and vicious marsupials that inhabit treetops and attack unsuspecting people (or other prey) that walk beneath them by dropping onto their heads from above.


Artistic depiction of a drop bear

[GoCubsGo]

And the hits just keep on coming.

Trump Administration Re-Authorizes Using 'Cyanide Bombs' to Kill Coyotes and Dogs.

[billy.pilgrim]

A neighbor, 2 blocks further than we are from the water, has repeatedly said that we don't have bears. The husband actually said that my wife "made up" her encounter. He laughs at the bear horns we carry.
All this in spite of the county putting up signs warning about bears. They claim it's like UFO stories - until Friday. We could hear the shrieking and screaming from our yard. The whole neighborhood turned out to see what was going on.
Her dog had cornered a large bear in the front yard and she thought the dog was about to die in front of her (have I ever told of the demise of my beagle, Short Louis?).
The dog backed off and the bear ran away when people started coming out of houses all around.

She now carries a bear horn.

Went out back to stop the dog from barking this morning. Rounding the corner to the side yard brought me face to face with the bear. He looked at me and slowly hoisted himself to the top of the fence, I looked at him and quickly ran away. Lulu followed me without coaxing.

[Vrede too]

Went out back to stop the dog from barking this morning. Rounding the corner to the side yard brought me face to face with the bear. He looked at me and slowly hoisted himself to the top of the fence, I looked at him and quickly ran away. Lulu followed me without coaxing.

You didn't ask if he had a warrant?