animals

Happy and harmonious Lunar Year of the Dragon 2012!
"Build a School For a Dollar" - In the past 5 years, Jackie's fans have donated over US $90,000 and Jackie has matched this donation for a total of over US $180,000, enough to build 2-3 schools...

Jackie Chan's Diary January 17, 2012 "...a story that I wanted to share with you. Maybe you remember the little boy, Will Shadley, who starred in "The Spy Next Door" with me several years ago. He's twelve years old now and living in California and has been spending a lot of his time doing charity work..."

(quote)  read more »

What's wrong with us? Who are we to stand by and watch the brutal clubbing of flawless and faultless beauty - seals: creatures of Nature, children of Snow? From StopTheSealHunt: "Sadly, in Canada close to 300,000 poor, defenseless baby seal pups (most between 2 weeks and 3 months of age) are brutally murdered every year in the annual, government-sanctioned commercial seal hunt - all for the sake of fashion, vanity, politics, money and greed. Many are even skinned alive while conscious. (What kind of heartless human being could even think of doing such a thing!?)"

(quote)

Meet the incredible smiling seal!  read more »

Shonan Maru 2's new version: "Government of Japan". Question: does it represent Japanese government? Or has Japanese government relocated onboard to exercise its power? Life in peril: 7 Japanese ships, $29mil Tsunami-fund armed coastguards vs 23 nations' volunteers


*Update Jan. 17, 2012*
The Japanese whalers have escalated their aggression by throwing iron grappling hooks at Sea Shepherd boats. Two Steve Irwin crew were struck in the shoulder with iron grappling hooks and one crewmember was struck twice in the face with a long bamboo pole.

 read more »

(quote)

Tsunami Relief: Help People Not Whalers

To Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda:

We stand with the Japanese people in the ongoing disaster recovery and condemn the use of relief funds to promote the Japanese whaling industry. We demand the Japanese government immediately end all whaling subsidies and instead prioritize the immediate relocation and assistance of families still suffering in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster and tsunami.

Right now, the Japanese whaling fleet is barreling south to hunt thousands of majestic whales, escorted by a 30 million dollar security force paid for out of the tsunami disaster relief fund!

Anti-whaling champions were successfully blocking the Japanese whale hunt -- which is exactly why the Japanese government decided to swipe money from relief efforts to stop the ocean guardians from bothering the boats while they engage in their brutal slaughter.  read more »

(quote)

This Google Earth Tour, narrated by Dan Laffoley, Marine Vice Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s World Commission on Protected Areas, follows the migrations of whales above and below the surface and visits some of the key marine protected areas and sanctuaries for whales around the world. Join the blue whale in the US national marine sanctuaries off California and journey to the proposed Costa Rica Dome Marine Protected Area in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, one of the key areas being proposed as part of the "Homes for Whales" project of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Follow the humpbacks on migration, from their breeding grounds to the feeding areas in the North Atlantic around the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, and visit one of the most recent protected areas, the Agoa Sanctuary in the French Caribbean. This animated Google Earth Tour was first presented as part of a keynote lecture by Dan Laffoley (IUCN) at the opening of the 2nd International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas (ICMMPA) on 7 November 2011 in the Atrium, Fort-de-France, Martinique. It was prepared with the help of Jenifer Austin Foulkes (Google), Charlotte Vick (Sylvia Earle Alliance/Mission Blue) and Erich Hoyt (Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society/IUCN).

(unquote)

Robin Williams with dolphins in the wild

The historical origins of ‘whales as people’. In 1850, an anonymous letter, now known to have been penned by a Nantucket whaling captain, written in the voice of a polar whale pleading for it’s species survival, was published in the Honolulu Friend, stating:
I write in behalf of my butchered and dying species. I appeal to the friends of the whole race of whales. Must we all be murdered? Must our race become extinct? Will no friends and allies arise and revenge our wrongs?"

(quote)

Wildlife photographer Dafna Ben Nun braved temperatures of minus 2 degrees to photograph the beautiful creatures in the White Sea, north-west Russia. The white beluga whales - which weigh around 3,000 lbs and measure up to 12 foot long - can be seen amazingly blowing water jets from their mouths.  read more »

Albert Einstein once said about intuition:
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
But apparently Nature has not -

(quote)

African Ambush: A routine trip to the water hole recently resulted in a life-or-death struggle for a pair of African elephants when they were ambushed by a hungry Nile crocodile.

Tourist Martin Nyfeler of Kloten, Switzerland, captured pictures of the wild encounter during a visit to Zambia's South Luangwa National Park in late September. "We saw a mother elephant and baby at the water hole and said [to the guides], You know, what a cute picture, let's stop here," Nyfeler told National Geographic News. "And suddenly the croc jumped out. The whole event took maybe 15 seconds."  read more »

(quote)

Salute to fearless volunteers - Sea Shepherd sent vessels to the area for the 7th year this season.. its 801-metric-ton Bob Barker vessel had trailed the 8,044-metric ton Nisshin Maru ship for 2,000 miles (3,220 kilometers) near the Southern Ocean, and cut off Supplies to the Japanese Whaling Fleet.. As a result, the whalers caught 170 minke whales out of a planned 850 and 2 fin whales from a planned 50. Japan has no choice but to abandon its whale hunt for the first time in four years. Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd and captain of its fleet, said: “I have a crew of 88 very happy people from 23 different nations including Japan,” he said. “And they are absolutely thrilled that the whalers are heading home and the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is now indeed a real sanctuary.”  read more »