Will Oregon Zoo's prized baby elephant end up in a traveling show?

Tragic, and a disgusting example of humanity's gratuitous need to use abuse animals as "entertainment." Bad enough elephants are in zoos, but the potential fate of the Portland Zoos recently born elephant is dismal: Will Oregon Zoo's prized baby elephant end up in a traveling show? "Trunks Will Travel" cute, huh? Owners may or may not take ownership.

Please do what you can to make sure this doesn't happen. Animals, especially creatures such as elephants, do not belong in circuses or to be rented for entertainment. The bond between mother and child in the elephant world is life long and strong. The good news is the zoo insists the elephant will "stay put." But there is a contract dispute:

Kari Johnson, who co-owns Have Trunk Will Travel with her husband, Gary, told the Times that they were looking forward to visiting the newborn elephant and added that details regarding her future had not yet been worked out.

Perris, California, where the Johnsons have their elephant for hire business.  That sounded familiar. So I went back into my files. Ah, here it is; I posted about lion meat hamburgers available at a Tuscon, Arizona restaurant. Source of the lion meat? Perris, California. Tuscon Restaurant Serves Lion Meat Tacos. I have no idea if there is a connection between the lion meat and the Johnsons; I'm not saying there is one, only that the town of Perris, California seems to be the area for gratuitous indulgences with animals. There's more. Seems Have Trunk Will Travel was sued for animal abuse and fraud, according to this article in Animal Defenders International:

Los Angeles, Monday June 27, 2011 -- Today, in the US District Court, Central District of California, Los Angeles, Animal Defenders International (ADI), together with members of the public, Gail Profant and Leslie Hemstreet, filed suit against Have Trunk Will Travel, as well as the owners Gary and Kari Johnson, over their claims about the training of the elephant Tai, who played Rosie in the film ‘Water for Elephants’. The suit is based on erroneous assurances that the defendants gave the public that the elephant Tai was trained with kindness for her role in Water for Elephants. Video footage released by Animal Defenders International (ADI) showed Tai and other elephants being electric shocked with a stun gun and jabbed and hit will bull hooks during her training for the same types of tricks seen in the movie, at the Perris, CA ranch of Have Trunk Will Travel.

Coyote or Wolf? Missouri Hunter Shoots 80-Pound Mystery Animal | Field & Stream

Another sad incident of an all too damn proud of himself hunter grinning gratuitously over his kill. Coyote or Wolf? Missouri Hunter Shoots 80-Pound Mystery Animal | Field & Stream

'Snake Eating Itself:' This is Bigfoot News How?

Once again, snakes are the topic and Bigfoot Evidence once again posts a video of a snake being tortured, this time, apparently, by itself. (A few weeks ago same blog posted a video of a young boy skinning a snake alive.) The blog feels its germane to...something, to post a video of a snake eating itself. (Or, attempting to do so, don't know if it was successful, since I didn't watch the video.) If it was successful, why didn't the person filming the poor thing help it? If it was successful, whew, but also, yewwww. In other words, what is the point?

Vintage snake images

I found these vintage images of snake charmers, snake farms, etc. while writing the post below about the live eating of animals for your entertainment pleasure.

Spider Goats, Bullet-proof Skin, Meat from a Petri Dish and Transhumanism – Oh My! | Farm Wars

Spider Goats, Bullet-proof Skin, Meat from a Petri Dish and Transhumanism – Oh My! | Farm Wars:

In what appears to be a case of the rich experimenting on their version of life for a transhumanist agenda, the UK Telegraph reports that by sometime in the fall of 2012, we will be happily munching on burgers made from meat grown in a lab. Yes, that’s right.

Pro. Post said his team has successfully replicated the process with cow cells and calf serum, bringing the first artificial burger a step closer. He said: “In October we are going to provide a proof of concept showing out of stem cells we can make a product that looks, feels and hopefully tastes like meat.”

Why should we be concerned with this? After all, benefits would include slaughtering fewer animals. What could possibly be wrong with that?

Well there's a hell of a lot wrong with that, and for more, read here.

OH NO….The Idaho Live Bait Kill Wolves Bill…Voted Out of Committee..Goes To Senate For Vote!!!! � Howling For Justice

From Howling For Justice blog, this news about a horrifying bill. Let's hope it doesn't succeed. Live bait? Jesus fucking Christ what's wrong with people? The irony of killing wolves because they're killing the animals we kill to eat by using live animals to lure the wolves that we're killing... OH NO….The Idaho Live Bait Kill Wolves Bill…Voted Out of Committee..Goes To Senate For Vote!!!! � Howling For Justice

Because They Can: Chimeras

Disturbing science news on "chimeras" which is the name given to lab created monkeys:BBC News - First 'mixed embryo' monkeys born

For the first time, scientists have produced monkeys composed of cells taken from separate embryos.

The animals were born after researchers combined cells from different embryos and implanted them into female monkeys.

Such animals, which contain genetically distinct groups of cells from more than one organism, are called "chimeras".

The three monkeys have been given names, and they have scientists excited for what "might" be revealed. However, as a Dr. Mitalipov is quoted:

But he stressed there was no practical use for producing human chimeras.

Ted Nugent : Sleaze bag

Nugent is a disgusting person, but we've known that for some time. The reason I'm posting this here is because, among his many sleaze-laden ideas and acts, listed in this article by Stephen D. Foster: Ted Nugent Calls For Punishing The Poor, Claims They Make Poor Decisions To End Up In Poverty is the simply tragic fact that Nugent runs a "canned hunt" operation:

Nugent owns a ranch in Michigan that offers canned hunts. A canned hunt is a hunt in which the animals cannot escape because they are trapped by high fences. I live in Missouri, and I enjoy a being out in the woods myself, and I hunt on occasion as well. What Nugent does is NOT hunting. He might as well cage the animal and shoot it point blank, because that’s pretty much what a canned hunt boils down to. A true has more respect for animals then that. It’s not fair if you gun down an animal that can’t actually get away. It’s unsportsmanlike.

Just makes me so fucking damn sad.

Cryptomundo:"New Species Being Raided For Private Pet Trade"

Not quite food porn, since it's not for gratuitously satisfying our gastronomical needs that's the issue here, but "pet" porn. Shameless exploitation in the pet trade. I'm glad Loren Coleman finds this pretty disgusting; he has a post about the raiding of habitat for the newly discovered horned viper in Tanzania:

Cryptomundo New Species Being Raided For Private Pet Trade: There is breaking news on December 15th of a new species of a uniquely-colored horned viper measuring over two feet long (643 millimeters) being discovered. But where exactly it lives in Tanzania is not being discussed.

But the shocking revelation that has been paired with this announcement is that past news of this kind has resulted in large scale raiding operations in the locations described. New species apparently have been targeted by pet collectors to supply a large-scale underground in exciting new animals for private collections. For example, due to this fact, the new viper’s location is “a closely-guarded secret,” say the discoverers.

I didn't know that the illegal pet trade was so lucrative. According to the Wildlife Conversation Society, which Coleman quotes, it's only "...second in the world" with illegal drug trafficking being number one.

Inside the mind of the octopus | Orion Magazine

This is a beautiful, sometimes sad, piece on not just the intelligence of the octopus, but the awareness of such a mysterious and enchanted creature, in particular, one named Athena in an aquarium that moved the writer deeply: Inside the mind of the octopus | Orion Magazine

H.R. 3432: And now they come for the cows � The PPJ Gazette

Chilling. And political, nothing to do with Forteana or esoterica. But it's important, and as I posted on my para-political/conspiracy blog Octopus Confessional, this is one more signal coming at us concerning the new fascism in America. From many seemingly unconnected points, the government-corporate entity in this country has been taking our property in a variety of ways. All these points converge. Like these horses and cows, we too are being herded: off rural properties, away from cash, into being plugged in. You're suspect if you don't have a cell phone, pay with cash, refuse to fly, protest against "smart" meters, live on undeveloped rural property in non-traditional dwellings, grow organic food (or in some cases, any food at all.) It's all about control:

H.R. 3432: And now they come for the cows  The PPJ Gazette: Wild horse advocates warned that cattle and cattle ranching would be next. This wasn’t about saving the environment, or water shortages or any of the other bogus fictional “scientific” reasons for eradicating to extinction the wild horse populations. The wild horses were just the first step in a systematic decimation of the agricultural sector, including cattle ranching, in the Western states.

According to the sponsor of this bill, Rep. Adam Smith [D-WA9], grazing is “impractible” on public lands. But apparently, gas and oil drilling, mining, water diversion and theft, is not. “And for other purposes”, that ubiquitous statement attached to every piece of legislative crapola that comes out of the District of Criminals which signals the insertion of non-related issues, is the red flag that while grazing will not be allowed in perpetuity, that does not mean that other more environmentally devastating activities won’t be taking place.

Mexico to cull 50,000 wild boars from US invasion - Yahoo! News

Boars, coming primarily from Texas where they were kept as "pets" the article states (and canned hunts, they fail to note)that have escaped or set loose and become feral, are invading Mexico and damaging crops: Mexico to cull 50,000 wild boars from US invasion

"We must get rid of these European wild boars because they sleep overnight on US soil during the day and cross over to the Mexican side to feed," Ignacio Legarreta, a state official, told local media.

Cows and Magnets

I had no idea. Cows are fed magnets -- on purpose. I found this news by following this Wikipedia link - Cow magnet - which I found in this story on a study of supposed magnetic cows.

So what's a cow magnet, for those that don't know?

A rancher or dairy farmer feeds a magnet to each calf at branding time; the magnet settles in the rumen or reticulum and remains there for the life of the animal.

When the cow grazes, it often consumes and swallows what is called tramp iron: baling and barbed wire, staples, nails, and other metallic objects. These objects are indigestible and would lodge in the reticulum and cause inflammation resulting in lower milk production (for dairy cattle) or lower weight gain (for feeder stock). This condition is called hardware disease.

The cow magnet attracts such objects and prevents them from becoming lodged in the animal's tissue. While the resultant mass of iron remains in the cow's rumen as a pseudobezoar (an intentionally introduced bezoar), it does not cause the severe problems of hardware disease. Cow magnets cannot be passed through a cow's 4th bonivial meta-colon. (Wikipedia)

Since cows have magnets inside of them, this was offered as a theory as to why the cows, according to one group of scienitists, seem to align themselves so poetically, as noted in the above mentioned link:

...a group of guys with Biology and wildlife backgrounds were apparently sitting around looking at pictures taken by Google Earth, when they noticed that there seemed to be a pattern in the way some cows in a pasture aligned themselves. After looking at more pictures, a larger pattern began to emerge. Oddly enough, the cows seemed to be aligning themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field lines. The group, led by Hynek Burda wrote up a paper describing what they’d found and had it published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

And, as happens in these studies, another group came along and disputed the first study, which was disputed right back by the first group.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Research on chimpanzees must end - TheHill.com

"The real question at issue here is not whether imprisoning and experimenting on chimpanzees is scientifically useful to humans or not; it is whether doing so is right to begin with.~ Justin Goodman; "Research on Chimpanzees Must End"

Chimpanzees are social creatures. They have culture, they have emotions, feelings, care for their families... the following is very difficult to handle (I cried when reading this) but neccessary to know in order to help change the U.S. practice of experimenting on chimpanzees. The U.S., as the article points out, is only one of two countries who do so.

As a result of having to endure the terror and pain of having their bodies routinely violated for experiments and the loneliness of their tiny, barren steel-and-concrete prison cells, many chimpanzees exhibit abnormal behaviors indicative of depression and post-traumatic stress. They suffer from symptoms including social withdrawal, anxiety and loss of appetite. They pull out their own hair, bite themselves and pace incessantly. I recently met a sanctuary-living chimpanzee who spent years being tormented at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Prevention and other government laboratories. His medical records show that on several occasions, he almost died during experiments, only to be revived and tormented further. Years later, he still has violent screaming fits several times daily, during which he scratches and tears into the flesh on his head and chest. This is the real legacy of chimpanzee experimentation in the United States.

Research on Chimpanzees Must End

Texas Approves Aerial Hunting of Pigs and Coyotes | Care2 Causes

Wild and feral hogs are a problem in Texas, and that state has come up with a solution: legalizing aerial hunting killing of hogs -- and coyotes, as Care2Causes reports.:Texas Approves Aerial Hunting of Pigs and Coyotes | Care2 Causes

The language used (twilight language, subliminal controls, etc.) is interesting. Example: the bill, signed into law by Governor Rick Perry, is called the "pork chopper bill." Adding to the gratuitous innate blood lust factor is the annual "Get the Hogs Outta Texas”" event slaughter, in which "where the top five hog-killing counties win a total of $60,000 in grant money."


While this new law isn't exactly one that falls into the canned hunt category, it is interesting to point out that Texas has over 750 canned hunt sites, according to Advocacy for Animals.  


At least there are 20 states that either ban canned hunts outright, or have restrictions on them. Oregon, where I live, is one of those states. It bans canned hunts, but sort of. You can kill if you are "hunting" the animal in order to eat it as long as it's not an exotic animal.  Little solace, but it's something.



It is unlawful to hunt, kill, or attempt to hunt or kill, exotic mammals (as defined in OAR 635, Division 56) or game mammals (as defined in OAR 635, Division 45) held or obtained by private parties; however:
(1) Any person may slaughter such an animal for meat, leather, or fur production;
(2) Any person may euthanize such an animal for scientific, health, safety or other valid husbandry concerns; and
(3) The department's Wildlife Division Director may authorize any person to hunt or kill such an animal if the Division Director determines it would be in the best interest of sound wildlife management. The Division Director may impose conditions on such authorizations.
Stat. Auth.: ORS 496.012 & ORS 496.138
Stats. Implemented: ORS 496.012 & ORS 496.138
Hist.: DFW 26-1999, f. & cert. ef. 4-26-99
OAR 635-064-0010, OR ADC 635-064-0010

More exotic snakes seized in Longview

One city in Washington state is coming down on people who think snakes are pets. Boa constrictors, alligators, etc. considered exotic animals and you need a license to keep one. Many of the "pet"owners in the article are males in their twenties, thirties, who, according to the article, would normally have had pit bulls in the past. In one instance the snakes were removed from the home because there was a five year old child in the home.

How happy can an animal be that is kept in a large glass box? And it wants living food for, not a frozen rabbit. Yet feeding it live animals is also abhorrently gratuitous. Snake, young males, hmmm. Calling Dr. Freud.

More exotic snakes seized in Longview