Just a quick link: Gene Baur of Farm Sanctuary has published a great blog post about the impact our eating decisions have upon the environment, including our overconsumption of oil.
http://farmsanctuary.typepad.com/making_hay/2010/06/the-power-on-your-plate.html
I wrote about the oil spill about a month ago, when it had just happened. Of course, the oil is still flowing today. Sigh.
If you’ve spent any time at the Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park, you’ve almost definitely seen the Mute Swans. They are large, strikingly lovely birds, and certainly one of the most memorable and defining aspects of the lagoon.
Did you know, however, that they aren’t a native species to the Park or even to the continent? Mute Swans actually come from Europe and Asia. To prevent the birds from spreading and becoming an invasive species, their wings are clipped:
The swans are pinioned (wing tendons clipped) to keep this introduced species from spreading to other parts of the province. Unlike clipped wings, it is a permanent surgery. Some may find this cruel but it is the only way to ensure that a non-native species does not spread. (Stanley Park Ecology Society)
That’s right, the swans cannot fly, and never will. They are essentially captives–living decorations for visitors to the park to enjoy. Yes, some DO find this cruel. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that most people would. I know that I’ll never forget the day that I saw one of the swans desperately struggling to take off from the water. Destroying the birds’ wings did not destroy their desire to fly.
The fact that the swans are denied their right to fly is only one problem associated with their damaged wings, actually. The birds are injured–or more often, killed–with surprising frequency, generally because they can only escape danger by staying on the Lagoon. They cannot take to the air. Despite warnings posted throughout the area, people very often unleash their dogs and allow them to run around freely. I suspect that these are the same people who take their dogs, unleashed, for walks throughout our busy city, foolishly assuming that they know well enough how the dogs will react in every single situation. The swans, who are very slow on land, cannot escape when a dog decides to express its natural instincts and attack. It happens all the time.
Wild animals, like raccoons and coyotes, have also attacked the birds, and so have humans. A few years ago, some idiot threw a large rock at a mother swan on her nest, breaking her leg. Another swan and her babies were intentionally doused with oil. (Two of the three cygnets died as a result.) People who, again, ignore signs, have killed swans by riding their bikes too quickly on paths around the lagoon.
Right now there are close to 10 swans living on the lagoon, and even the park admits that this is too many:
There are also, technically, too many swans on the Lagoon. In the wild, only one pair would inhabit a lake this size… (SPES)
Let there be no misunderstanding here: I love Stanley Park, and I love the Lost Lagoon. I think it’s one of the best places in our wonderful city. But the swans should be considered an embarrassment to the otherwise fantastic park. It’s not as if we’re lacking for wildlife–the park and lagoon are home to literally hundreds of species of animals, including Great Blue Herons and Bald Eagles. With such fascinating creatures living and flourishing freely in the park, why do we need captive swans?
Learn more from Stanley Park Swans. The author is clearly in favour of the swans being in the lagoon, but the website is otherwise a great resource.
The timing of the spill, National Audubon reported Wednesday, could not be worse for birds, which are now nesting and therefore especially vulnerable in many of the places where the oil could come ashore. Said an Audubon bird conservation director: “We have to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, including a true catastrophe for birds.” (Birder’s World)
You’ve certainly heard by now about the enormous oil spill spreading in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s shaping up to be a major environmental disaster, likely even worse than the Exxon-Valdez spill.
The first recovered bird, a gannet, from the International Bird Rescue Response Team blog
What makes this particular spill even more dangerous than it would be otherwise? The shores of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida, where the oil has spread, are home to important nesting areas for thousands of shorebirds, many of whom are endangered. Also affected are major stopovers and wintering areas for migratory birds. Approximately 400 species are threatened by this catastrophe.
There aren’t many of us who can travel across the continent to actively participate in the clean-up effort–so what can we do?
Jasmin Singer of Farm Sanctuary has written a helpful post at her blog, the Hen House:
Kelly Overton and his organization, People Protecting Animals and Their Habitats (PATH), have determined a need for logistical, supply and rescue support that will be needed for months to come. Our Hen House will be following Kelly’s rescue efforts and consistently speaking with him while he is on the gulf coast, from where he will be able to provide information on how you can help the rescue efforts. (more…)
Some groups are suggesting that people buy Dawn dish detergent, since Dawn claims to give some portion of every purchase towards wildlife rescue efforts. You’ve probably seen the commercials, which feature cheerful, breezy music over a montage of a oiled duckling being cleaned and set free. (Note that at the bottom of the ad, the small text admits that this is a simulation, which means that they covered a perfectly healthy duckling in some kind of gunk and then washed him off on camera. Nice.)
What they don’t mention in the commercial is that Dawn is owned by Procter & Gamble, one of the most notorious animal testers on the planet. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m just not into supporting a company who has no qualms about killing millions of animals when it’s just not necessary.
So what can you do?
Whatever you do, do something!
Once again I must post about the frequently overlooked pigeon, described in this DailyMail article as “among the most intelligent of all the bird species.”
After waiting for the fountain to be free, one bird jumped on the lever and pushed it down to fill up the bowl, while another kept watch and the third splashed in.
When it had drunk its fill and cleaned its feathers, the third pigeon hopped up to the handle and let his friends have a go.
Pigeons have been proven again and again to be quite smart–something that shouldn’t surprise us considering their remarkable ability to adapt to cities after thousands of years living on the remote cliffs of Europe and Asia. I’ll admit that in all that I’ve read about pigeon intelligence, though, I’ve never seen anything quite like this!
Are you a bird-lover like me? Learn more about these gentle doves here.
Today is International Vulture Awareness Day, and because I am a huge bird lover, I was excited for the opportunity to participate. Vultures are finally getting the respect they deserve after years of being viewed as a creepy symbol of death and decay. Of course, their unsavoury scavenging habits are actually an important part of a healthy ecology; without them, corpses are left to rot and infections are more easily spread.
There are about 20 different species of vultures, and the majority of them qualify as rare, threatened, endangered, and even extinct. In honour of IVAD, I’m going to discuss one of the most famous endangered vulture species.
In North America, of course, that species is the California Condor, a magnificent bird who is extinct in the wild with the exception of 172 captive-bred, released birds. (There are another 150 living in captivity. ) This is a remarkable number considering the fact that in the mid-1980’s, there were 3 left in the wild and 22 in captivity. Environmental groups have been working hard to monitor the success of these 322 individuals.
What happened to cause these amazing birds–who happen to have one of the largest wingspans in the world, and the largest in N. America, at close to 10 feet–to become so severely endangered? The largest factors have been poaching, DDT poisoning, habitat destruction (largely due to animal agriculture), and lead poisoning. The last occurred as a result of eating the corpses of animals killed with lead bullets. It took until 2008–yes, last year–to require hunters to use non-lead bullets in the condors’ range, but my understanding is that the majority of them have been fairly cooperative.
I would be lax in discussing the California condor without also mentioning that not all environmentalists were in favour of capturing the last 3 wild birds–for this is what was done–and attempting to revive the species in captivity. I am against zoos and keeping animals in captivity in general, and I am unsure about this situation. I feel that perhaps it would be reasonable and logical if we were eliminating the major threats that face California condors, but we haven’t. The released birds continue to be threatened by the aforementioned habitat destruction, power lines, (captive-bred condors have been trained fairly successfully to avoid human beings and power lines, but for how long can this be done?) , and hunting. Yes, people continue to kill these birds in the most direct way possible.
Obviously this is a massive, massive topic and I have blabbed about it long enough, but if you want to learn more about California condors I would suggest checking out the Wikipedia page, which is particularly informative, and Vulture-Territory.com, which brings up the interesting idea that perhaps the condors hit their evolutionary peak hundreds of thousands of years ago and were on their way out anyway.
If you are interested in helping the condors out, though–or any endangered animal, for that matter–check out this page from the Toronto Vegetarian Association and learn about the undeniable link between animal agriculture and the destruction of wild habitats. (Hey, even the U.N. says that it’s “one of the major causes of the world’s most pressing environmental problems.”)
Thanks for reading and happy IVAD!
One of my favorite people, David Eby – who is a tireless advocate for the homeless, the poor, and people on the fringes of society – posted this entry on his blog yesterday about the remodeling of Pigeon Park in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES).
In case you don’t know about it, the DTES is one of the poorest postal codes in Canada, with a disproportionate number of marginalized people living on the streets and in run-down single occupancy rooms. Pigeon Park is really just a wedge of widened sidewalk on one corner, with some benches and a couple of trees.
Here’s how David describes it:
There’s this park, a crappy little triangle of a park, located at the corner of Carrall and Hastings Streets in the DTES. Nothing much to speak of. Some interlocking brick, some concrete planters, a large wall of plywood beside an empty building, and several benches.
Such is Pigeon Park.
It is probably, per square foot, the most heavily used park in Vancouver. There’s always lots of people hanging out. Some are drunk. Some are high. Some are not. All are sitting, or standing, or talking, or whatever the hell they want. It’s a park for the people of the Downtown Eastside.
Most other people wouldn’t bother making the connection to the Park’s namesake, but David does:
Everyone knows it’s Pigeon Park, and for a park name, it’s probably the most fitting park name in the world. Pigeons are birds that have managed, despite all odds, to survive in the urban environment. Pigeons are survivors.
Pigeons are also hated. Called nuisances. Fenced out, chased out, kicked when they’re down. Probably a story that, good and bad, sounds all too familiar to many of the folks that use that park.
I love how he brings the story of pigeons in to the story of the park and the people who use the park. Intersectionality in action, eloquently put. His whole post is good, please check it out.
Thanks David, for all the great work!
[Sorry for the lack of posts over the past 2 weeks. Between work and rebuilding our kitchen, I haven't had a lot of time to write. Sorry also for the shortness of this post. I saw David's post yesterday but only got to it today. And I have approximately 7 million other things to do this morning.]
As a departure from the rest of the posts so far, I’d like to write about a local-to-Vancouver band, Mojave.
As the most environmentally concerned people I’ve met in a long time, Lisa and Paul are also vegan, which makes them extra awesome.
Topping it all off, their latest album (their 2nd) is called “Crow’s Funeral”. They tell a story at their shows about crows, that when one crow dies, the rest will visit the spot where that crow died like a funeral – like they are paying their respects. The last crow to visit the spot is the dead crow’s mate (crows mate for life). This is a melancholy story, but it touches on just how intelligent crows are, how they maintain complex social relationships, and how they remember.
Mojave’s music is best described as dark folk, I think, with some rock thrown in. Most of it is acoustic, but every now and then they get a little raucous, and break out the electric guitar and distortion pedals.
I’m really terrible at describing music, so I’d suggest you check out some of their music. You can download a few songs on their website, and both of their regular albums are available on iTunes.
They will be playing a show at the Railway Club tomorrow night (July 26th) at 8:30 pm. The doors open at 7.
Emperor Penguins
Scientists have stated that the magnificent Emperor Penguin may be extinct within the century due to loss of ice caused by climate change. As the earth warms, we are going to start seeing more and more animals becoming extinct.
What can we do to help? One of the easiest and most effective ways that we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions is to switch to a plant-based diet. It is far more effective than even switching from a car to a bicycle or buying all local meat, milk, and eggs.
The UN reported that animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s several percentage points higher than transportation.
The demise of the Emperor Penguin may not be so much caused by your SUV, but rather by the burger on your plate.
A swan on Lost Lagoon
Many people enjoy seeing all the birds at Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park here in Vancouver, the swans in particular.
But I was troubled to learn that the swans are not there because they like the lake, but because they are kept there. They all have their wing tendons clipped so that they can’t fly away. This makes them prisoners in their own homes.
As the ducks and geese come and go, the swans are unable to fly anywhere. Because more swans are kept on the lake than would be possible in the wild, they are fed by the park authorities each morning. In nature, only one pair of swans would live on a lake this size.
It is wonderful to see swans, but now that I know that they are not there by choice, I don’t think I can enjoy seeing them anymore. Now they’ll just make me sad, like any imprisonment of animals (i.e. the nearby aquarium).
Most of my information for this post comes from the Stanley Park Ecological Society website.
Ok, so not really, but I’ve always wanted to start off a post with a Nick Cave quote.
Guarding the entrance
This morning I went out to water my garden in the front yard (it’s slowly but surely taking over what used to be grass). These two crows started screaming at me and flying threateningly at me. It was scary and weird, like the Birds.
I figured there must be a nest nearby, but I couldn’t tell where. I wasn’t too close to a tree, so I watered quickly and went back inside so that I wouldn’t keep disturbing them.
This afternoon when I got home the crows were still out there and started doing the same screaming and diving at me that they had done in the morning. I picked a few veggies and went inside. On my way in, though, I looked back out the almost closd door and saw a 3rd crow just sitting in the middle of a big tree on the other side of the front yard. She was completely still, and sitting right in an opening into the middle of the tree.
Keeping an eye on me
I’m guessing there is a nest in the center of this tree, and there’s a whole group of crows who are all working to protect it. Their cooperation astonished me. They’ve got their roles and jobs, and they each do what they need to. I wonder if they take shifts? I was also wondering if maybe there are multiple decoys at different trees. I’ve read that crows are amazingly smart, so I wouldn’t put much of anything past them.
There is something amazing about being able to see animals living outside of any cages or pens or fences, on their own terms, but still in the same world as us. We are a part of their world and they are a part of ours, but we can each live here.
Incidentally, crows are also a favorite of a fantastic local band that you need to check out.
