ANIMAL FORTEANA


In the beginning of things men were animals and animals men. ~ Algonquin saying

"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons." ~ The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Monday, October 31, 2011

Texas Is Shooting Donkeys, Stirring Burro Backlash

One word: bastards. All right, two words: fucking bastards. Texas Is Shooting Donkeys, Stirring Burro Backlash

'Bat Boy: The Musical' takes stage Nov. 4 | Local & Regional News for Eugene, Springfield Oregon | Eugene News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KVAL CBS 13

'Bat Boy: The Musical' appears here in Eugene, Oregon, on the University of Oregon campus at the Robinson Theater. With photos, video and short interview with the director, John Schmor:
3. Are there any special effects or theatrical elements that are compelling?

Umm. Yes. There is a BAT BOY in it – who must drink fresh blood to survive, but who also self-educates and evolves so rapidly he’s doing a time step and in command of both great and pop works of art. In Act Two we go from a totally rousing full-out gospel number to a bizarre visit from Pan and many other creatures of the forest and mythology – they are not converging at Pan’s behest in order to draft a piece of legislation.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Ohio Exotic Animal Law: Right Thing, Wrong Message

Ohio Republican Governor Kasich:Ohio governor to sign order on "dangerous animals"
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) – Ohio Governor John Kasich plans to sign an executive order on Friday covering "dangerous wild animals," days after a collector caused a panic by releasing dozens of tigers, lions, bears and other animals.

The governor's office said Kasich, a first-term Republican, planned to sign and discuss an executive order on Friday afternoon, a day after two state lawmakers said they would propose legislation to restrict private ownership of dangerous exotic animals.


Which is good, no argument. But I wonder at the perspective: "dangerous animal" is the focus, not the moral issues involved concerning keeping exotic animals as pets or small, privately owned "zoos" and so on. And it appears this "executive order" doesn't go far enough:

A spokesman for Kasich said Strickland's rule was correct in principle but not enforceable and raised doubts about whether Ohio could restrict ownership of non-native wild animals. It also made no provision for dealing with seized animals.


I don't know why they say it'd be hard to enforce: why the hell not?

Ohio is one of the seven states that don't have any exotic animal laws; here are the other states that need to change their laws:
  • North Carolina
  • South Carolina
  • Alabama
  • West Virginia
  • Nevada
  • Wisconsin

Return of the Bird Falls

October 21, 2011, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: dozens of birds fall from the skies. No explanation yet. And something I noticed in the news cast posted here, no mention at all of the several stories of birds falling dead from the skies that the U.S. and other places across the planet witnessed at the end of 2010 and Jan. of 2011. Impossible to say if there's a connection or what the cause of the current deaths is, but it is interesting this die-off also occurred in the south. The first bird die-offs we heard of last year, in early January, was last year, when over a thousand birds fell from the skies in Bebe, Arkansas.




Ontario, Canada, October 22, 2011: hundreds of birds and fish dead and dying on the shore of Wasaga Beach. Link has video clip with article:
The Ministry of Natural Resources is investigating after hundreds of birds and fish washed up on the shores of Georgian Bay near Wasaga Beach.
Police say that the wildlife is scattered along a nearly three-kilometre stretch north of Wasaga Beach.
"You just want to cry," resident Faye Ego told CTV Toronto.
Locals said they noticed some dead fish on the beach a few weeks ago and a few dead birds earlier in September.
"But now this is just multiplied," Ego said, adding that the situation is "absolutely devastating."
Ontario Provincial Police Const. Peter Leon said that the number of dead birds is estimated to be between 5,000 and 6,000.
At this point, authorities are theorizing Botulism is the cause of the deaths.

(thanks to Above Top Secret for the links.)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Beware the Green Reptilians!

I was going through my blog posts here and found that this was in draft mode, from some time ago. So here it is:

 
This is from October, 2008. I had posted it on Women of Esoterica and Author's Den; I think it's up at Mothman Flutterings as well.



After retiring for the night reading Gray Barker's The Silver Bridge, the classic UFO/paranormal book about Mothman, I had an astral experience with Reptilians. . .

I'm posting this here because the following dream (I know, snore) has a bit of something to do with my previous post here about my OOBE. My Utterly Completely Wondrous New Age OOBE)

That first dream/OOBE was wonderful, fantastic, amazing, and positive. This one, while almost silly sounding, was creepy and scary.

I'm reading Gray Barker's The Silver Bridge. It's been reissued by Andrew Colvin, author of Mothman's Photographer, so we all have him to thank for this. (I urge anyone interested in Mothman, or anyone just interested in Fortean stuff to read both Colvin's and Barker's books.) Copies of The Silver Bridge have been rare, and, if lucky enough to find a copy, you'd have to pay upwards of $400! Now you can get it for about $10.00. I'm enjoying the book very much. I have a fascination with Mothman that I can't explain; I've never been back east (except for one brief visit to North Carolina once) let alone West Virginia, so I don't know what's that all about. (My grandfather, part native American, was from Virginia, ... but that's a very thin connection, if any.)

Mothman sketch by Regan Lee
So I'm reading the book before going to sleep, and as I'm turning out the light, I had this weird thought pop into my head: that I better do some protection around me, because I don't want to encounter any negative entities or energies. Then I thought, "well, I wasn't planning to, and I'm tired." I turn off the light, and go to sleep. I don't know why I had that thought: I was enjoying The Silver Bridge, and not at all feeling creeped out or "scared," and certainly not thinking anything about Reptilians. As far as Mothman goes, I don't know what Mothman is/was, but I've never felt it to be Reptilian, not sure it's alien as in from outer space, or even convinced it's a negative energy. In fact, I think it's often perceived as "evil" even demonic, but I don't believe it is at all. It's an unfortunate misinterpretation. I have nothing to go on really; as I mentioned, I've had no direct experience concerning Mothman. My feelings on this are intuitive.

I have a dream. It's almost funny at first. I'm very happy, very excited about something good that's happened, and I'm running down the street in joy. I run pass a glass apartment building kind of thing, and I notice that there are little toy aliens everywhere, mostly green. Little rubber and plastic alien faces, and toys, and my first thought is: "That's so cute! How neat they have a sense of humor!" But then I quickly see that the building is empty, and the thought occurs to me that it isn't funny, not one damn bit. We don't know what's going on, who the aliens are --  if they're really even aliens, as in ET -- and yet we're running around making cute little cartoons out of them. We're playing with fire!

But I don't have much time to dwell on that, because I'm happy, and running down the street to a local coffee shop to share my news. I go inside, and there are a lot of people in there, and at first, I'm glad to be there. Then I realize: "Goddamn!!!!! These aren't people, they're aliens! They're not just aliens, they're Reptilians!" And I see their faces change from human to a subtle olive green color, and their features change a bit. Not too much however, if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't notice. And then they quickly change back. I'm freaked! I'm scared! And then they notice that I notice . . . and they're very angry about that. I try to deny that I've noticed anything, but they're not buying it. Then I get angry my own damn self, and say really intelligent things like, "Who do you Reptilians think you are, anyway?!" which of course, just pisses them off even more. Suddenly I realize how really dangerous they are.

Here the dream changes. I wake up, scared to death, and don't want to go back to sleep. But I'm an adult and have to wake up at six in the morning, so tough for me. I try to go back to sleep. I immediately begin to experience that rushing, roaring sensation, and see whirls and swirls of green scales, just that, green and scales and the knowledge lizard intelligences are afoot. They won't stop, just swirling rushes of Reptilian green, and I know that that's what it is, and "they" are trying to get me to come out and play.

I say to myself that, as much as I would love to have another out of body experience like I had here, and trip the astral plane fantastic, not like this! I literally said to myself "I'm not going there!" and with great effort, woke myself up.

One more thing: I noticed earlier in the evening, while cooking dinner, there was a large green ink smudge on my hand, like something you'd get from a marker. It could have happened anywhere, and I do work in a school, but I hadn't noticed during the day,  and I have nothing like that at home that I can think of that would have caused that mark.  A perfectly natural explanation, but a very weird bit of synchronicity.

Pictures: Lucky Few Exotic Animals Saved From Ohio Shootings

Pictures: Lucky Few Exotic Animals Saved From Ohio Shootings

Bittersweet news, for the six surviving animals are, for now, safe and alive. But "by law" as the article states, the animals technically belong to the owners; the widow of Terry W. Thompson and family members. I'm surprised authorities are even considering that technicality in the context of what's happened... let's hold good thoughts that the animals will find a responsible and caring place to live the rest of their lives.



Visit my other blogs: Animal Forteana, Frame 352: The Stranger Side of Sasquatch, Mothman Flutterings.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Animal Sacrifice: Two Sad, Strange Events of Animal Slaughter | MonsterTracker.com since the year 2000 has been investgating cryptozoology, cryptids, and other mysterious creatures.

My new article for Monster Tracker:
Animal Sacrifice: Two Sad, Strange Events of Animal Slaughter | MonsterTracker.com since the year 2000 has been investgating cryptozoology, cryptids, and other mysterious creatures.

Two weird and very sad events, hard to read about, juxtaposed in animal news. This one in Ohio, a state that has its share of spooky, Fortean events in general: Ohio wild-animal killings renew call for ban on exotic pets - latimes.com.
The owner of Muskingum County Animal Farm in Zanesville, Ohio, apparently flung open the reserve's cages, slashed open its pens and then killed himself. Dozens of wild and dangerous animals -- including grizzly bears, lions, tigers and a baboon -- were then free to roam the area. Most of them were gunned down by public safety officers.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Exotic Animal Zanesville Carcasses Hunted by Exploiters - ABC News

The sacrifice of the animals...
Exotic Animal Zanesville Carcasses Hunted by Exploiters - ABC News

Trophy hunters sick bastards are calling Ohio authorities in order to obtain the dead bodies of the animals killed. Fortunately, the local authorities aren't having any of it:
People hoping to profit from the death of nearly 50 exotic animals that escaped from a farm in Zanesville, Ohio, after the preserve owner shot and killed himself, have been contacting the sheriff's office, interested in taking the animals to a taxidermist.
"We've gotten calls and e-mails about what [is] going to happen to the animals ... could they be obtained for these types of things," said Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz. "There's a lot of people who would pay a lot of money to get these animals."
But Lutz is cracking down.
The location of the 49 animals buried on the property has not been disclosed, Lutz said, adding, "Anybody caught on that property looking for it will be charged with criminal trespassing."
Earlier this week officers stopped a group of people from stealing the dead body of a lion.



That individual, thankfully, was right busted.

As much as I am against people keeping exotic animals, I do believe that Terry Thompson, the owner of the "sanctuary" and man who released the animals and then killed himself, meant well and cared for the animals. Clearly he was very disturbed. I feel for his wife, who is now on the property according to reports, and keeping vigil, making sure there are no thrill seekers trying to trespass. My compassion for Thompson doesn't condone what happened or the issue of keeping exotic animals, but I think we should remember that this is a tragic, tragic case all around. Hopefully some good will come of this, in terms of laws passed banning the practice of keeping exotic animals.

Monday, October 17, 2011

The Kraken Rum

Black Spice Rum: The Kraken. Wish I liked rum! And I know it's a huge marketing gimic, but it's a very cool marketing gimic! The Kraken Rum.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Training vs. Balance: What’s the Difference? | CesarsWay.com

Good insights and advice from Ceasar Milan. I don't have a dog companion yet, but hope to someday. And when I do, I'll be following Milan's advice.
Training vs. Balance: What’s the Difference? | CesarsWay.com

Friday, October 14, 2011

Goat-Man Terror! | Mysterious Universe

Nick Redfern's latest at Mysterious Universe on one of my favorite Fortean stories: the Goat Man of Texas: Goat-Man Terror! | Mysterious Universe

I've pointed out in my articles and as yet unpublished book about "Flix" the white Bigfoot like creature event in Oregon that there are similarities to the Fort Worth, TX creature. But, there are also huge differences. All just weird enough to make a truly classic Fortean tale!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Lair of Ancient 'Kraken' Sea Monster Possibly Discovered - Yahoo! News

There just might have been a Kraken after all . . .

Lair of Ancient 'Kraken' Sea Monster Possibly Discovered - Yahoo! News: A giant sea monster, the likes of the mythological kraken, may have swum Earth's ancient oceans, snagging what was thought to be the sea's top predators — school bus-size ichthyosaurs with fearsome teeth.

The kraken, which would've been nearly 100 feet (30 meters) long, or twice the size of the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis, likely drowned or broke the necks of the ichthyosaurs before dragging the corpses to its lair, akin to an octopus's midden, according to study researcher Mark McMenamin, a paleontologist at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. [Rumor or Reality: The Creatures of Cryptozoology]

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Animal Symbolism in Dreams: Baby Elephant



I visit What's Your Sign.com now and then and thought I'd share a link about animal symbolism in dreams: Animals In Dreams - What Animals Symbolize in Dreams.

I was particularly interested in the above because it seems I've been having animal dreams lately. Like yesterday's silly and enigmatic Penguin Moons dream.
Last night, a very disturbing dream about a baby elephant that I was keeping as a "pet" (something I would never do, and I am adamantly against keeping exotic animals as pets, or even in most zoo like situations/captivity.) Jim reminds me that the elephant hasn't been fed for a long time, and it's really hungry. This surprises me because I thought he was fine. He's in the backyard. So I go out to check, and feel bad I hadn't realized he would need to eat elephant food, and he follows along my side but then starts to nip at me like a dog would, and the elephant is pissed. Again I'm surprised, for the baby elephant is so cute! But he's behaving very aggressively. He's really hurt me by bumping into me and nipping at me.  Somehow I try to get him over a wall or something -- where food is-- but it ends up tragically and he falls from pretty high and crashes to the ground. He's bleeding, hurt, really injured. I feel terrible, just horrible, I'm crying. I try to feed him vegetables, things he might like. He feels better but it's temporary, he's dying. And in pain. I also worry about the neighbor's, because he landed in their house, and there's blood and a mess everywhere and how do I explain that? Jim hands me a gun and tells me I have to kill the elephant, put him out of his misery, it's the only right thing to do. I know it is but I just cannot bring myself to it. I am so miserable, so sad, and feel so bad that I've created this by thinking I could take care of a baby elephant in my backyard in the city and nothing would happen.
 What's Your Sign has a lot about elephants, animal meanings and symbolism connected with chakras, totems. I found interesting insights regarding elephants but not baby elephants specifically and obviously the fact the elephant in my dream was a baby is significant. I'm thinking this has something to do with health and life changes on one level but I need to explore this more.

But if you are curious about dream imagery and meaning in the context of animals, have fun exploring the site, which offers a lot of information on many symbols from different cultures and systems.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Invasion of the Hairy Crazy Ants

Report on the "hairy crazy ants" invading the southeast and south west regions in the states. From Florida to Texas, these small "hairy" ants that move very fast have caused a lot of problems. 'Hairy crazy ants' invade from Florida to Texas :


And they're on the move in Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. In Texas, they've invaded homes and industrial complexes, urban areas and rural areas. They travel in cargo containers, hay bales, potted plants, motorcycles and moving vans. They overwhelm beehives — one Texas beekeeper was losing 100 a year in 2009. They short out industrial equipment.
If one gets electrocuted, its death releases a chemical cue to attack a threat to the colony, said Roger Gold, an entomology professor at Texas A&M.
Thousands more ants rush in to defend their fallen kin. The ants have caused a lot of damage to computers, beehives, industrial equipment, etc. They live in areas where there is moist debris (rotted tree trunks, leaf and wood piles, etc.) and "...eat just about anything -- plant or animal." They're very difficult to eradicate and seem immune to conventional pesticides.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Artist ordered to paint over mural beaver - UPI.com

I wasn't sure where to post this (maybe I'll post it at Pulp Jello which badly needs to be updated anyway) but since it has to do with animals, in a round about way, sort of, I'm posting it here. It seems art has offended bureaucrats in Martinez, Calif who commissioned an artist to paint a mural for the city. They demanded the artist, Mario Alfaro, paint over a beaver he included in the mural: 



Artist ordered to paint over mural beaver -Martinez officials said they had artist Mario Alfaro paint over the beaver because the animal, while beloved by city residents, does not belong on the downtown mural alongside images of Martinez natives including John Muir and Joe DiMaggio, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.
"Everyone's saying we hate beavers, but this is not about liking beavers or not liking beavers," Public Works Director Dave Scola said. "We went through a lengthy planning process, and never once did anyone ask for a beaver. Not one person said, 'Hey, I have an idea, let's put a beaver in there.'"
Understandably, the artist is upset and has painted over his name on the mural.