Brooke has completed her three weeks of confinement after the immiticide injections. She has one more heartworm test on Dec. 29 to see if the adult heartworms are all gone. If that test is clear, she will start on HeartGard (or the equivalent that works best on herding dogs). If it isn't clear, she will get a third injection of immiticide. She acts like she feels so much better, and the steroid is no longer being given. She has gotten so fat, thinks she is hungry all the time (and thirsty). She is constantly looking for food, so we got her a huge rawhide bone to chew. That should occupy her for a while. One day she found a tennis ball on the floor and just lay there with it in her mouth for hours. Today she found a ball and started to play, so I think she is feeling pretty well, but we are not going to push her into any activity until after her test comes back clear. Then we will start walking again. Brooke thanks you all again who contributed to Brooke's Fund to give her a chance at a good life.
Zazzle is having a $9.99* SALE December 22 - December 26. Calendars, mugs, original art postage stamps and t-shirts and more are included in this sale. You will find many of the items available at the Art Helping Animals Zazzle Shoppe. All items feature images of original artwork by Art Helping Animals artists, and royalties from all items are being donated to the animal charities supported by Art Helping Animals Alliance.
* Price is valid on 11oz Classic White Mugs (typically $12.95), 11oz Ringer Mugs (typically $14.95), 11oz Two Tone Mugs (typically $14.95), 11oz Morphing Mugs (typically $18.95), basic one-sided t-shirts ranging in size from youth XS to adult XL (typically $14.95), standard two page 11 x 17 calendar covering between one and twelve months of time (typically $19.95), any number of sheets of twenty Zazzle Custom Stamps with a denomination of 39 cents (typically $17.99), and trucker hats (typically $11.95). Free shipping offer is for ground shipping to U.S. addresses. Offer is valid on December 22, 2006 from 12:01am PST through December 26, 2006 11:59pm PST. Your order must be placed during that time to qualify for this special pricing offer.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Urgent Help Needed to Save the Ross Sea Ecosystem
While no place on Earth has escaped the impacts of human activity, the waters off Antarctica, particularly the Ross Sea, comprise some of the most intact marine ecosystems remaining on the planet. However, the whales, seals, penguins, albatrosses, fish and other marine life in these waters are facing the dual threats of global warming and industrial fishing. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is ignoring the one while expanding the other.
Fishing in the rich waters off Antarctica is governed by an international treaty, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). While the CCAMLR management scheme is one of the few in the world that theoretically incorporates ecosystem-based management principles into its decision-making, it has not prevented the severe overfishing of toothfish, a long-lived species marketed in the U.S. as Chilean Sea Bass. Nor does this management regime factor in the significant impacts global warming is having on krill stocks, or on the species such as whales and penguins dependant on krill. A study published in the journal Nature in 2004 documented declines in krill stocks by up to 80 percent since the 1970s in the southwest Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. This is the area where most krill fishing occurs.
Krill is generally caught for use as feed stock for aquaculture such as for farmed salmon. However, krill fishing vessels don't just catch krill; they also catch and drown seabirds and marine mammals. One U.S.-flagged krill vessel killed 138 Antarctic Fur Seals in a five-week period in 2004, making it perhaps the deadliest fishing vessel to marine mammals of any flying the U.S. flag.
Longline fleets fishing for toothfish have not only severely depleted toothfish populations but also hook and drown scores of albatross. Of the 21 albatross species, 19 are now considered Threatened, primarily as a result of longline fishing. Sperm Whales and Killer Whales, which eat toothfish off the longlines, also become hooked or entangled in the fishing gear, and consequently drown or are shot by fishermen.
The U.S. operates a relatively small portion of the fishing fleet in Antarctic waters but is the world's largest importer and consumer of toothfish.
Last month the Bush administration completed its environmental review on a plan that would open the door to increased harvest of krill and toothfish by U.S vessels. The plan authorizes a new toothfish longline fishery which poses a threat not just to toothfish populations but to albatrosses and whales. The plan would also eliminate permit requirements for harvest of toothfish in large areas of the Southern Ocean not subject to CCAMLR requirements, and make it easier for illegally caught toothfish (marketed as Chilean Sea Bass) to be imported into the United States.
The pending plan also allows a mid-water trawl fishery for krill, which not only removes this important food source for seabird and marine mammals but also directly kills them. Additionally, the plan would allow bottom trawling on the relatively undisturbed continental shelf off Antarctica. Bottom trawling is one of the most destructive forms of fishing practiced; heavy steel chains are dragged across the seafloor, crushing and killing any creature that can't get out of the way of the trawl gear and accompanying net, and quickly reducing a complex ocean habitat to a muddy barren. Bottom trawling has been banned from many areas of the United States, and efforts are underway to internationally prohibit this destructive practice. It should certainly be banned in Antarctic waters.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is currently accepting comments on this misguided proposal. Please take a minute and send an e-mail or write a letter to NMFS and demand that fishing for krill and toothfish be banned in Antarctic waters, that imports of toothfish be suspended, that bottom trawling be banned, and that any decisions regarding Antarctica must take global warming into account. The comment deadline closes Dec. 26. Comments may be e-mailed to http://by118fd.bay118.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?mailto=1&msg=3A53952C-EDB1-425D-8E0E-97D55F85A02C&start=0&len=24402&src=&type=x&to=CCAMLR.FPEIS@noaa.gov&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=1096b04bbeb87988892482e7596bab045992d425998505961b00964d1b648e4d or sent via mail or fax to
Robert B. GorrellFishery Management OfficerOffice of Sustainable Fisheries-SF3National Marine Fisheries Service1315 East-West HighwaySilver Springs, MD 20910Fax:(301) 713-1193
For a copy of the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, click here
Fishing in the rich waters off Antarctica is governed by an international treaty, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). While the CCAMLR management scheme is one of the few in the world that theoretically incorporates ecosystem-based management principles into its decision-making, it has not prevented the severe overfishing of toothfish, a long-lived species marketed in the U.S. as Chilean Sea Bass. Nor does this management regime factor in the significant impacts global warming is having on krill stocks, or on the species such as whales and penguins dependant on krill. A study published in the journal Nature in 2004 documented declines in krill stocks by up to 80 percent since the 1970s in the southwest Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. This is the area where most krill fishing occurs.
Krill is generally caught for use as feed stock for aquaculture such as for farmed salmon. However, krill fishing vessels don't just catch krill; they also catch and drown seabirds and marine mammals. One U.S.-flagged krill vessel killed 138 Antarctic Fur Seals in a five-week period in 2004, making it perhaps the deadliest fishing vessel to marine mammals of any flying the U.S. flag.
Longline fleets fishing for toothfish have not only severely depleted toothfish populations but also hook and drown scores of albatross. Of the 21 albatross species, 19 are now considered Threatened, primarily as a result of longline fishing. Sperm Whales and Killer Whales, which eat toothfish off the longlines, also become hooked or entangled in the fishing gear, and consequently drown or are shot by fishermen.
The U.S. operates a relatively small portion of the fishing fleet in Antarctic waters but is the world's largest importer and consumer of toothfish.
Last month the Bush administration completed its environmental review on a plan that would open the door to increased harvest of krill and toothfish by U.S vessels. The plan authorizes a new toothfish longline fishery which poses a threat not just to toothfish populations but to albatrosses and whales. The plan would also eliminate permit requirements for harvest of toothfish in large areas of the Southern Ocean not subject to CCAMLR requirements, and make it easier for illegally caught toothfish (marketed as Chilean Sea Bass) to be imported into the United States.
The pending plan also allows a mid-water trawl fishery for krill, which not only removes this important food source for seabird and marine mammals but also directly kills them. Additionally, the plan would allow bottom trawling on the relatively undisturbed continental shelf off Antarctica. Bottom trawling is one of the most destructive forms of fishing practiced; heavy steel chains are dragged across the seafloor, crushing and killing any creature that can't get out of the way of the trawl gear and accompanying net, and quickly reducing a complex ocean habitat to a muddy barren. Bottom trawling has been banned from many areas of the United States, and efforts are underway to internationally prohibit this destructive practice. It should certainly be banned in Antarctic waters.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is currently accepting comments on this misguided proposal. Please take a minute and send an e-mail or write a letter to NMFS and demand that fishing for krill and toothfish be banned in Antarctic waters, that imports of toothfish be suspended, that bottom trawling be banned, and that any decisions regarding Antarctica must take global warming into account. The comment deadline closes Dec. 26. Comments may be e-mailed to http://by118fd.bay118.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?mailto=1&msg=3A53952C-EDB1-425D-8E0E-97D55F85A02C&start=0&len=24402&src=&type=x&to=CCAMLR.FPEIS@noaa.gov&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=1096b04bbeb87988892482e7596bab045992d425998505961b00964d1b648e4d or sent via mail or fax to
Robert B. GorrellFishery Management OfficerOffice of Sustainable Fisheries-SF3National Marine Fisheries Service1315 East-West HighwaySilver Springs, MD 20910Fax:(301) 713-1193
For a copy of the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, click here
December 26, 2006 Deadline to act!
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Cascades Raptor Center Painting!
" Latchkey Kids"5" x 7"
Oil on archival board
Click Here to Bid
Cascades Raptor Center
Helping rehabilitate wild birds!
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Wolf ACEO to Help Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary
2.5" x 3.5"
Acrylics on Heavy Weight Canvas
This original miniature painting is being offered as a 20% donation to Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary. Wild Spirit provides life-time sanctuary to abused, abandoned, and unwanted, wolves and wolf hybrids. Whether it is an attempt to capture a piece of the wild beauty of nature, an impulse to own an exotic creature, or some other compulsion, captive-breeding and selling of wolves and wolf-dogs in the US has reached epidemic proportions. All too often, uneducated and unprepared buyers, no matter how well-intentioned, acquire wolves and wolf-dogs only to realize too late that these wild animals can never be made into pets. All across America, these wild spirits languish in cages and on chains or face death sentences.
Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary provides them with another answer.
Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary is a non-profit organization that depends solely on donations.
To find other items for sale for Wild Spirit simply search WSWS in the eBay search bar.
Thanks, Robin Andreae
Winter Sun- To Benifit the Humane Society
"Winter Sun"
5" x 7"
Oil on archival Board
This painting is offered at $99.00 to the first person to email me at stella@stellaviolano.com and payment can be made by paypal.
Thank you for helping homeless pets!
5" x 7"
Oil on archival Board
This painting is offered at $99.00 to the first person to email me at stella@stellaviolano.com and payment can be made by paypal.
Thank you for helping homeless pets!
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Update on Border Collie Brooke
Brooke's recovery is going well. She is eating and appears to feel well enough to want to play, but she can't yet. She will have three weeks of confinement and rest for the recovery period.
This is a good time to remind you to give your dog heartworm preventative. Please visit ArtHelpingAnimals.com and donate to one of the animal rescue charities supported by Art Helping Animals artists.
This is a good time to remind you to give your dog heartworm preventative. Please visit ArtHelpingAnimals.com and donate to one of the animal rescue charities supported by Art Helping Animals artists.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)