Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

In my day, never was longer.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Let there be snark.

Come on, man.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

The lights are all blinking red.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Republicans do not trust women.

White supremacy is terrorism.

T R E 4 5 O N

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / News From the Faunasphere: “Morally Compromising” Goats and Tigers Edition

News From the Faunasphere: “Morally Compromising” Goats and Tigers Edition

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Your weekly compendium of global animal-related news.

  1. We’ll start with some retroactive props to the Obama administration for negotiating an ivory ban with China in October. It’s a Big Biden Deal for the elephants.
  2. ocelot
    Thanks ocelot for rescuing me!

    Also some good news from Betty’s own state of Florida, where the senate approved a “Hot Car” bill shielding Good Samaritans who break a car window to save a person or animal in distress from legal repercussions. Gov. Scott is expected to sign, so I guess that will lift him one rung in hell.

  3. Umami! Target now offering its own brand of plant-based proteins in Korean BBQ, teriyaki, smoky chipotle, and mushroom miso flavors.
  4. Too bad we need them, but glad they’re here: pet food pantries growing nationally.
  5. Young gorillas collaborate to dismantle poachers’ traps. “This is absolutely the first time that we’ve seen juveniles doing that,” says researcher.
  6. Wendy’s testing vegan burger in Columbus, OH, Columbia, SC, and Salt Lake City, UT. (This one’s a big deal for me personally, as I love Wendy’s but haven’t eaten there in more than a decade.)
  7. Thanks an ocelot! Peru sentences its first wildlife trafficker. (And check out the picture of that cutie.)
  8. Great work activists! South Korea banning dolphin imports from the notorious Taiji Hunt.
  9. From the “the biggest dopes are always social-conservative dopes” department: “Russian prosecutors have begun considering whether media coverage of the unexpected friendship between a male tiger and goat at a safari park in the country’s far east counts as gay propaganda.” Also: the goat’s fans have “begun a campaign to elect him to parliament, arguing that he would be braver and more honest than current MPs.”
  10. Paging Hagrid! “Though it does not breathe fire, the olm has several attributes fitting a creature of mythology. It can live as long as a hundred years and survive without food for 10. It is blind, but hunts using its incredible sense of hearing and smell, and it can detect electric and magnetic fields.” They also mate every six years and 15th century Slovenians actually thought they were baby dragons.

Thoughts on any of the above, Juicers? Any other fauna-related news to report?

Also, do we agree or disagree with the director of a human food pantry who says that the pet pantries are a misuse of resources that should be given to under-resourced human food pantries?

Also: blind cave-dwellers who mate once every six years: [insert GOP joke here]

Reader Interactions

87Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    I saw a documentary with Charlton Heston about what happens when gorillas, young or otherwise, collaborate. It doesn’t end well for anyone.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    “Russian prosecutors have begun considering whether media coverage of the unexpected friendship between a male tiger and goat at a safari park in the country’s far east counts as gay propaganda.”

    How do you say “I can’t believe I went to law school for this” in Russian?

    Also: the goat’s fans have “begun a campaign to elect him to parliament, arguing that he would be braver and more honest than current MPs.”

    I hear the kids are crazy about him.

  6. 6.

    dedc79

    Re Wendy’s – the particularly good news there is that they will be cooking the burgers in separate ovens, so vegetarians/vegans need not worry about them being cooked in animal fat/grease.

  8. 8.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @raven: And I particularly resent being scolded about it.

    @schrodinger’s cat: In India, the goat’s fate could have been worse that an arrest, I imagine. I confess I have not read the link yet.

  12. 12.

    ChristianPinko

    According to Internet Law, any mention of an ocelot must be responded to with an Archer reference. Allow me: YOU GUYS! LOOK AT HIS LITTLE SPOTS!

  13. 13.

    Hillary Rettig

    @raven: i found his attitude kind of parochial and dated. esp. post Katrina when a lot of service orgs got clear on the idea that companion animals are family members.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @Hillary Rettig: Since one of the jobs of a Veep is to serve as President of the Senate (aka Cheney’s Fourth Branch), having a goat in the number two spot has some merit to it.

  19. 19.

    WereBear

    I am rather incredibly tired of ultra-maroons who pop up whenever there is humanitarian aid rendered to animals to claim that the resources are better diverted to human causes.

    They are the same ultra-maroons who complain about attention paid to mental illness, claiming physical illnesses are more important, or create a ranking of physical diseases, when they claim other diseases are more worthy.

    All of this acts as a screen to obscure the fact that there is actually plenty of resources to solve a lot of problems if idiots didn’t want to drop advocates into a pit and only take care of the charities whose survivors climbed out of the pit.

  22. 22.

    Hillary Rettig

    I guess I’ll add my own news about Billy. I took him to the teaching hospital at MSU (3 hour round trip btw) where they worked him over. Bad news and good news. Bad news is that he has a “moderate-to-severe”* case of tracheal collapse – which small dogs are prone to – and it’s in his lower throat in an inaccessible area that’s hard to treat. The good news is that it mostly affect him when he exhales so he’s not being deprived of oxygen. In fact his symptoms are mild – a few coughs a day – compared with what they could have been.

    He’s on antibiotics now to clear up a minor infection, and he will be on codeine cough syrup the rest of his life. He may also need a stent in his trachea (non-surgical) after a while.

    *I didn’t think to ask them at the time but maybe someone here can help: what’s with the “moderate to severe” label? Isn’t that a meaninglessly wide spread? thx

  23. 23.

    beltane

    On NPR yesterday they interviewed a farmer who said that Chris Christie is a supporter of sustainable agriculture in NJ. I feel very openminded saying something nice about Chris Christie.

  26. 26.

    Ruviana

    @WereBear: Or “Feminists in the U.S. should quit whining because women in [fill in any Global South nation here] are in much worse shape.”

  28. 28.

    Anyone but Trump

    Great post Hillary (love all the beasties), the food pantry for pets is especially good. At our animal shelter, we get lots of food donated, but we don’t always get the brand we need to feed the animals. Changing their diet is NOT good on a regular basis, so we usually set aside for meals on wheels or we help out if someone comes in that can’t keep their pets because they can’t afford food.

  40. 40.

    cdmarine

    Hey, guys… if you’re interested in pet food pantries, you should know that the Cincinnati Pet Food Pantry is in crisis mode right now.

    They’re losing their donated space at the end of this month, and if they don’t find another space to operate from, they’ll have to close. They’ve been in operation steadily since 2010, and have served many thousands of families, so it would be pretty terrible if it happened. If you have any sort of lead on a space in the Cincinnati area, please let them know.

    Also, as far as it being a waste of resources, I’d point out a few things:

    1. People will sometimes feed their animals before they feed themselves. That includes feeding their animals the food they get from the human food pantry. Giving them a bit of proper pet food for their animals serves the interest of both the animal and the human.

    2. For some of the people served, the animal is their only companion/family. Loneliness is actually a health/survivability issue for many of these people.

    3. People in poverty are not less deserving of psychological comfort just because they lack many physical comforts.

    4. Helping keep animals with their people helps keep those animals off the streets and out of public shelters, which reduces a number of public nuisances and public expenditures. A drop in the bucket maybe, but it’s non-zero.

  41. 41.

    beltane

    @Baud: Fiorina is also out. She should be put in charge of ISIS so that they transform themselves into a failed terrorist organization.

  42. 42.

    Roger Moore

    @WereBear:

    All of this acts as a screen to obscure the fact that there is actually plenty of resources to solve a lot of problems if idiots didn’t want to drop advocates into a pit and only take care of the charities whose survivors climbed out of the pit.

    This. The correct response to this is to suggest that we need more resources for poor people, not that we should be cutting off pets. There are people with enough money to waste it on 400 foot luxury yachts and other gross conspicuous consumption. They are far more deserving targets than pet food banks when it comes time to figure out where we can get more money for human food banks.

  44. 44.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @cdmarine: I’ll get the word out in hopes of finding space. It’s a great group, and I hadn’t heard about the space. All the points you make need to be repeated, loudly and often.

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Apparently the limit is 2 consecutive terms. He absolutely seems to me like someone who would screw as many people as he could while he still has the power to do so.

  52. 52.

    Hillary Rettig

    @cdmarine: I checked the link. It would help if they advertised that they need a new space. I didn’t see that anywhere on their site. Do you have a link that we can forward along by any chance?

  53. 53.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Roger Moore: There are people with enough money to waste it on 400 foot luxury yachts

    You’re aware enough to realize, of course, that boats need to be built and maintained, generally by a variety of skilled tradespeople who get paid for their labors.

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne

    cdmarine beat me to it, but it does seem odd that the food pantry guy is assuming that the humans who get food from him might not share it with their pets.

  64. 64.

    PurpleGirl

    @Anyone but Trump: Yes, a food pantry for pets is a good idea. I know that pets are surrendered sometimes when their humans can’t afford food or medical care for them. The cat rescuer I know in CT has taken a number of cats/kittens for that reason. She has one older kitten who is diabetic and needs special food, which is more expensive than what she feeds the other kittens/cats.

  67. 67.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Hillary Rettig: Good health thoughts for Billy. Let’s hope he’s at the moderate end of the spectrum, which asymtomatic suggestss.

  69. 69.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    Taking a moment to thank everyone for their kind words when Mrs. Cisco had her surgery a while back. Yesterday, she passed away from cardiac arrest. Unrelated to the surgery or any known defect, disease, trauma, illness or other known cause. Her heart just stopped. I’m told this happens to about one percent of the population.

    Family is here, and I’m holding on.

    See you when I see you.

  73. 73.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Hillary Rettig: According to Sheldon Whitehouse’s testimony before the Senate, “The Rhode Island Marine Trade Association reports that this industry supports over 6,600 Rhode Island jobs, paying almost $260 million in wages to Rhode Island workers–and almost 10 percent of private employers in the State are associated with the boating industry.” Whether somebody buys a 40′ boat or a 140′ boat, people will be employed, subcontractors will have work, the money gets spread around. It’s not like Larry Ellison is taking his money and setting it on fire – the money he spends lets some carpenter or welder or sailmaker make his mortgage payment.

  74. 74.

    J R in WV

    Snow and cold in SW West Virginia. Mrs J reports that a doe decided that the corner on the front stoop by the front door was a good place to curl up and rest.

    Dogs sleep on regardless, unaware.

    We discourage the deer as well as we can, by asking the dogs to chase them a few yards from the house. But the dogs just run out the door and pick a direction to run, barking wildly, not towards the deer, except by random chance.

    The Deer will eat stuff that garden folks SWEAR deer won’t eat. Yes, they will, if they get too hungry.

    I don’t think there was a warm draft out there, the house is pretty tight.

  83. 83.

    evap

    Ben & Jerry’s announced they will be marketing four flavors of vegan ice “cream”, including a vegan Fudge Brownie flavor!!! I’m not vegan, but I gave up dairy about a year ago, so this is great news!

  87. 87.

    Martin P

    My favorite video within the last week: the only known jaguar hanging out in the US. I lived in Tucson when jaguars were photographed in southern AZ a few years back. I’m very familiar with some of the areas where this big cat has been filmed, and it’s exciting to think that it may have been somewhere nearby as I was hiking. Of course I, as a dumb biped, never had a clue, while just maybe it was aware of my presence.

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