The Perfect Blogs

According Sea Sheperd there are as many as 1000 long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) brutally killed in the Faroe Islands each year.

The pilot whales are living in big groups and have extemly strong sozial bonds between their family members. The family and the pod is very important for this sozial whale species. But this lovely behaviour is also a big threat for the pilot whales...

In the Faroe islands (belongs to Denmark), they brutally use this strong relationship between the whales. In small bays some of the pilot whales are injured and with the knowledge that the rest of the whales do not want to leave their dying family members the whalers slowly can kill the rest of the pod one by one... Soon, the bay will turn red from all the whale blod...

During our film expedition we have now spent the last weeks in Greece. Here we are co-operating with the organisation of Mom, who is working hard to save and protect the endangered Mediterranean Monk Seal (Monachus monachus).

According Mom, there are less than 600 monkseals left in our Oceans today!!!

The Mediterranean Monk Seal really needs our help!

For more information about the monkseals please visit Mom´s website: http://mom.gr/homepage.asp?ITMID=101&LANG=EN

Selena Gomez hör inte till de mest skandalösa av de unga Hollywoodstjärnorna, men nu har även hon lyckats provocera. 18-åringens senaste rubriker handlar dock varken om nakenbilder eller missbruk, utan om något så udda som rosa ponnies.

Då sångerskans nyligen spelade in musikvideon till nya låten ”Love You Like a Love Song” på stranden i Malibu hade hon med sig två hästar som målats rosa. Något som ogillades starkt av kollegan Pink.

Trots artistnamnet var alltså Pink starkt kritisk till hästmålandet, och var inte rädd för att uttrycka sina åsikter på Twitter.

— Om det finns några djurrättsaktivister i närheten av Malibu: på Leo Cabrillo-stranden finns nu några hästar som har blivit målade för en dum musikvideo. Man skäms. Artister borde ta mer ansvar för sina handlingar, skrev hon.
Trots att det kanske inte är speciellt djurvänligt att pryda sina fyrbenta vänner med färg, är det enligt E! Online i alla fall inte olagligt, så länge färgen är giftfri och allergitestad.

On World Vet Day (30th April 2011), WSPA celebrates the life-saving work of vets in Bali who, over the last year, have helped the island achieve a marked decrease in rabies through mass vaccination of dogs.

Every year, rabies kills more than 55,000 people across the world – the vast majority are children who suffer untreated bites from infected dogs. The human health implications of rabies remain so grave that the World Veterinary Association has chosen to highlight the disease as its chosen theme for 2011.

Dr Elly Hiby, Scientific Advisor at WSPA, said, “Veterinary science, animal welfare and human health are all closely interlinked. As World Vet Day focuses attention on rabies as one of the most deadly zoonoses, the vets in Bali send out a powerful message through their success: the mass vaccination of dogs is the most humane and effective form of rabies control and saves the greatest number of lives – both human and animal.”

Bali’s Successful Model for Humane Rabies Control

On the Indonesian island of Bali, a rabies outbreak had threatened to spiral out of control, killing more than 130 people. Attempts to bring the outbreak under control had largely failed, relying on the inhumane culling of the island’s dogs – regarded as an ineffective and cruel measure by the World Health Organization and WSPA.

The dolphin hunt in Taiji has been extended

The dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan has been extended with a month. The dolphin hunt should actually have ended on the last of April, but because of bad catches the authorities have decided to allow the hunting until the end of May.

The fishermen lure the dolphins into the cove where they are then slaughtered. They then pick out the best dolphins and sell them to zoos and aquariums around the world. The rest are killed to become meat.

IDA’s 2010 list of the Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants exposes the hidden suffering of elephants in zoos, where lack of space, unsuitably cold climates and impoverished social groupings condemn Earth?s largest land mammals to lifetimes of deprivation, disease and early death. “The Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants list is an SOS for suffering elephants and a call for mammoth change,” said IDA Elephant Campaign Director Catherine Doyle. “Caging elephants in urban zoo displays is not humane and it is not conservation.”

Zoos making the 2010 list are: San Antonio Zoo (Texas),Edmonton Valley Zoo (Canada), Buttonwood Park Zoo(Mass.), Central Florida Zoo (Fla.), Niabi Zoo (Ill.), Topeka Zoo (Kan.), Honolulu Zoo (Hawaii), Wildlife Safari (Ore.),York’s Wild Kingdom Zoo (Maine) tied with Southwick’s Zoo(Mass.), Pittsburgh Zoo’s ICC (Penn.). San Diego Zoo Safari Park (Calif.) earns a dishonorable mention.

Since 2000, zoos in North America have committed at least $500 million to remodel elephant exhibits, and every year spend close to $20 million to maintain fewer than 300 elephants. “You can protect 50 elephants in Kenya for the cost of holding one elephant in a zoo for one year,” said Doyle. “Zoos are wasting scarce conservation dollars even as elephants are heading toward extinction.

The fur industry is responsible for the intense suffering and death of over 100 million animals every year. Animals that die to produce non-essential luxury items include rabbits, foxes, minks, raccoons, seals, wolves, coyotes, squirrels, cats and dogs.
85 per cent of animals used to produce fur are commercially farmed. The small barren cages, with injury-causing wire floors, keep production costs low and profits high.
But every animal pays the price: a stress-filled life devoid of the most basic natural behaviours: running, playing, burrowing, or even experiencing daylight.
Most fur animals are killed for their first winter coat, aged about eight months. So high quality fur products do not indicate a lifetime of wellbeing – rather that the animal only shed its filthy, matted infant fur just before death.
Finally, farmed animals face horrifically cruel methods of slaughter, including electrocution and live skinning. These preserve the pelt, but cause unimaginable pain.
To combat this industrial-scale cruelty, WSPA supports the world’s biggest anti-fur coalition: the Fur Free Alliance. Find out what you can do below.
Let’s kill off fur!

It is estimated that more animals die to meet current demand for fur trim than for entire fur coats: less fur per item is not less cruel

The 2000s have seen fur creep back into fashion. This confirms that the power to stop production lies with the consumer – the industry grows or declines with public demand.
Please consider the following information and pass it to friends and family:

(This text was originally posted on my personal trainer's fitnessblogg, hence the reason i am going on about how wierd it may seem that i am writing about animal rights at it. With that in mind i think you´ll get the hang of the following text..haha)


Ok, so why is there suddenly a post about animal rights on Philip´s blogg? I´ll try to explain it to you, and try to explain a little bit about who i am as i am the reason as to why you are reading the following. As Philip is my recently hired PT, and he found out about my enormous interest about animals and their rights,he naturally had loads of questions regarding the subject. As it is kind of hard to find an answer to those questions if you dont ask one of us wierdo animal rights activists,hence the reason he was kind
enough to lend me some space on his very popular blogg for me to hopefully straighten out some of the questionmarks.
As we all know that animal-rights activists more or less eat human children, throwing paint all over furbearing senior citizens from dusk til dawn before we march back to our little hut´s in the forest. This, as you understand, gives an tremendous upportunity  to get some facts straight now when one of us has dared to enter the human village to get some muscles on.

(it will be easier for me to catch the senior citizens when i do)

Hahaha...ok,ill try to behave. I am an fairly normal twenty-ninteen year old (sounds a lot better than 39). I live together with four furbearing terrorists in the shape of cats. Three guys and one little princess. Yes ladies, she is in charge...I am extremely fond of the art of tattooing and i am in the progress of covering myself in an wast number of different motif´s. I think the combination
of listening to music whilst endulging in beerdrinking is an fantastic way to spend an evening and..well,i am livin it up for the most part. Or i should say, this was BEFORE young Mr Lailani set the record straight for me. Now i find myself at the gym, find myself reading at foodpackages and its not only M-E-A-T that is the enemy, but also C-A-R-B-S.

What i am trying to say is that i guess i am pretty much as people are in general. I am an very happy, charming, and very easy-going chap and i dont think you would label me as an animal rights activist,as we are considered to apear for the most part, if you met me in person.

So why did i get started with this? What made me change from a person whom would gladly have snorted Big-macs if there was an possibility to do so, to change over to an veggie-diet, standing in front of furshops handing out flyers telling people to stop supporting them? How did i become infamous amongst the cirkuspeople and an general pain in the ass for the pharmaceutical companys?


Sure, i have always had some sort of love and understanding for animals. Had pets before in my life, whom i loved of all my heart. But prior to me "waking up" as i like to put it, i never made the connection between what i had on the plate and grass-munching cows. I thought fur-lining on my winterjacket was the bomb, and of course i thought it to be bad when it came to animal testing but who wants a bloody cold huh? Something like that.Just like most people in other words.

About seven years ago, the whole thing changed for me.

I was a bit bored one day and one of my catbuddy´s was a bit ill so i was, i guess, thinking more about the thing about animals having feelings too. I was surfing around on the net on different animal rights websites and came across an campain to end europes worst animal-testing facility. Huntingdon Life Sciences. The activists behind this campain had posted an undercover video showing personel from Huntingdon assaulting beagle puppies with their bare hands,simulating sex with terrified monkeys before cutting them up whilst they where still alive and on and on..I broke down completely when i witnessed the horrible abuse and torture those poor poor animals
had to endure, that moment will stay with me for the rest of my life. I thought of it to be an isolated incident so i started to search the net for other undercover films showing animaltesting, the furindustry, how animals are being treated in the circus etc.
I felt the world crumble beneath my feet,i sat in front of my computer crying for days and could not for the life of me understand how the HELL we human beings could treat other living, sensing, individuals this way???individuals whom are so innocent, so defensless and so left out to our care??

After a while my sorrow, disgust and pain turned into a raging hate and an fire that will never go out. I choosed to lift my ass of the couch and go out to do my best to end this. I chosed to get envolved as an animal rights activist.

I have a number of years behind me now when it comes to animal rights. I know what happens to our animal friends out there, and its so much darker reality than you can ever imagine. I thought i might try to write about a little about what really happens to our friends
behind the glossy pharmaceutical-adds with happy aspirins dancing around. Behind the bright circus posters, and the furindustrys desperate lies about respect for the animals that perish at their blood-soaked hands.

I have no intention of shoving this down your throat, or judge you for the way you want to live your lifes.I just want to try to tell you how the truth really is, what happens out there and perhaps help you to straighten out some questionmarks you might have concerning this.
If this makes you try eating a veggie-meal instead next time, or skip buying that "gorgeous" furhat when you find out the torture behind it, of course that would make my day. The best part of that, however, is that you made that decision yourself.
Its like we always say: Nobody can do everything,but everybody can do something and those small things mean the world to the animals, trust me on this..

I would love to get some comments, or questions. I would be happy to answer to the best of my abilities and there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.I will try my very best to answer in an honest,open way.

Nice to meet you, until next time!

Magnus

In August this year I’m going to Nairobi, Kenya on my own to study my second high school year on the Swedish school for 10 months. Last fall I dropped out of school because I needed a break. I knew then that I wanted to do something over the ordinary. A couple of months ago I saw that my friend lived in Nairobi on facebook and curious as I am I wondered what she was doing down there. I searched Nairobi on Google and one of the first things that came up was the Swedish school. I started to read more and more about it and I knew then that I was going to be there next year. I’ve heard of Swedish schools in Paris and London before but never in Kenya. And it really trapped my interest of reading my second high school in Nairobi, Kenya. So now it's decided that I'm going to read there in August. :D

I’m really looking forward to it and most of all to experience Kenya on my own. I think that it will be one of the best years in my life, full of surprises. I really cannot wait to see all fascinating animals that I’ve only have seen on TV, the big savannas, the friendly people, safaris and so much more.  I can’t believe that I’m going to Africaaaa, it’s crazy, just crazy!

Yesterday, I went to see Mattias Klum talk about his work in Borneo, Papua New Guinea and Galapagos islands etc. The lecture was here in Gothenburg, Sweden which is my current location! Mattias Klum is a famous nature photographer for the magazine National Geographic. He was the first Swedish photographer to get his photo on the cover page about twenty years ago and since then I think he said that he's had his photos on eleven or twelve covers. He's very talented and I've been a fan of his work for a while now.

I first heard of him last year when I went to Malayian Borneo because apparently he does a lot of work there. As a matter of fact, he has been to Borneo back and forth for twenty years. He showed a lot of photos of the picturesque environment in Borneo. He showed us amazing photos of the jungle both from the inside and from the outside. He talked about how wonderful Borneo is and how much nature there is there. The vegetation and all the animals.  

During my year in Diani Beach, Kenya I worked with a few different projects. As well as working with whale sharks and carbon offsetting, I got to help out at the colobus trust with their work to save monkeys. Diani is a very small place. I made friends with the assistant manager and some volunteers at the colobus trust and so I sometimes helped them with a few different things. It was an absolutely amazing experience!

The trust has taken its name from the angolan black and white colobus monkey. This specific species can only be found in the southern Kenyan costal forests and in the northern Tanzanian highlands. They were prevously found along the African coast all the way from Somalia to Mozambique but due to deforestation and development their existance has been limited to these places. The colobus monkey feeds on the leaves of indigenous trees such as mahogony and ebony etc. They do not feed on palm trees and other non-indigenous trees so its very important to preserve the indigenous ones.

According to the Swedish animal welfare act, it is illegal to use monkeys, seals, rhinos, giraffes, kangaroos, ostriches and crocodiles in the Swedish circus. Why is it then permitted to use one of the largest animals, the elephant? 

Elephants performing in the circus are almost always caught in the wild as cubs. In the beginning, the young elephant has to go without food for a month. They are broken down both physically and mentally in order to make them easier to train. The elephant is exposed to constant abuse and beating. The trainer uses a tool called anku which is a stick with a sharp hook at the end. This method causes a terrible pain for the elephant when the anku pierces its skin. When the elephant is performing in the circus the trainer uses a normal stick. The elephant won´t recognize the difference and will obey the trainer. 

A Swedish circus, Circus Maximum, hires their elephant from an Italian circus called Darex Tagni, a circus which is known for its insane assaults towards these intelligent animals. The elephants travel around Europe to different circuses all year around. They do this their whole life until they eventually get problems with their joints and cannot perform any more.

The Swedish animals welfare act states that the elephant needs to live in the following conditions:

•At least +15°C
•At least 50m²
•They should be untethered
•The feet should be reviewed regularly
•If it is 25°C or more, the elephant should have access to bath or shower.
•Access to tree trunks or something similar
•Their skin should be treated every day

Our goal is to free the Swedish elephant from circus or at least make sure they are being treated the way they should be. The elephants are supposed to be in the wild, where they belong. 

Help us and like our cause!

Thank you for your support

/Amanda and Lovisa

We at BOS are so appreciative of every donation that comes in – no matter how big or small. Every single one is an important contribution to saving the orangutan from extinction and protecting its rainforest habitat. You, our supporters, always give so generously, so now it gives us enormous pleasure to be able to offer you something tangible for your donation – the opportunity to possess something of incredible beauty, as a permanent reminder of your contribution to our work.

Say the name ‘Fabergé’, and your mind conjures up wondrous images of the utterly exquisite jewel-encrusted eggs which the Russian Imperial Jeweller, Carl Fabergé, created for the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his wife, the Empress Alexandra. These Imperial Eggs, one of which was presented to the Tsar and Tsarina each Easter, have become highly prized objets d’art – and are still sought by collectors the world over.

The tradition of designing and creating jewelled eggs – which are now known as The St Petersburg Collection – has been continued in London by the late Theo Fabergé, last grandson of Carl Fabergé, and his daughter, Sarah Fabergé.

Theo Fabergé passed away in 2007, but he had already created a special Jungle Egg, which was destined to become a tribute to, and a celebration of, the survival of the world’s diminishing population of primates. It was the BBC’s Orangutan Diary series which provided the inspiration for the dedication of this Egg by The St Petersburg Collection Creations by Theo Fabergé to the work of Borneo Orangutan Survival, and to express appreciation to the supporters who play an invaluable role in protecting our natural surroundings and fellow creatures.

Sara Gruen’s book, Water for Elephants, was a runaway best seller – an internationally acclaimed novel told as the reminiscences of an old man, Jacob, about his experiences with a Depression-era circus where he witnessed the brutalities inflicted on people and animals alike. Jacob is the moral center of the book, recognizing and, where possible, preventing those cruelties, and in the end saving the elephant Rosie from a harsh fate. The movie version of this blockbuster is set for release on April 22, and it will be huge. The stars (Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson), the story, and the pre-release buildup will combine to sell a lot of tickets.

Many people will be drawn to the movie as a lovely – though sometimes gritty – historical romance. They will watch the abuses heaped upon the animals and think about how sad it “used to be” and how much better everything is today. They will be wrong.
Elephants forced to work in circuses today, like those in the era depicted in Water for Elephants, are forced to lead unnatural, deprived lives. They suffer as Rosie suffers, year after year, with no Jacob to come to their rescue. It is no better for the other wild animals used by circuses, who spend their lives in cages and are brutalized into performing tricks for the public. They need your help.

The opening of Water for Elephants will provide us with a unique opportunity to tell people that the kind of cruelty depicted in the movie still goes on. So please save these dates: April 14 (Los Angeles premier), April 17 (New York premier), April 22 (general U.A. release).
Please plan to join IDA in bringing attention to the suffering endured by animals in the circus. You can help by coordinating or joining in events outside your local theaters to let moviegoers know that circus cruelty is not a thing of the past.

I would like to recommend documentary created by the National Geographics about the Blue Whale. It is one of the very few films out there about blue whales, most likely because we know so little about these animals and as they are few and hard to find. The research is getting better each year and as we can see in this film they are learning a lot on each expidition they fulfill.

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site

It is availble on dvd and blu-ray from National Geographics website here:

http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/coupon.jsp?code=NG50144&url=/product/355/4953/207.html

Here is their website about this film and general information about blue whales:

Soon its time again to start killing the Dolphins on The Faeroe Island and we all need to take action to stop this killings!