thirteen cent pinball: animals Archives

Another visitor: Winnie-the-Pooh

Yesterday The Visitor returned for tea, uninvited. Lumbering across the lawn, he (or she) found a comfy spot and settled down onto the mossy grass and laurel hedge cuttings. Stretched out like a bear rug, he lay there panting, only looking up to see what the passing cars or people were on about. I agreed, it was a hot afternoon.

Mr Bear

And so he lounged there awhile, would find a different spot every so often, roll over and roll back. Sometimes he would stretch out until his hind legs were straight and his front legs casually bent in front of him, supporting a sleepy head. "I'm so full... so sleepy." One could say, I suppose, that he was having a siesta.

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Posted by Erika at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A visitor

Flicker on the window

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Posted by Erika at 9:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

"Monsanto invents the pig"

Celsias posted a shocking film, Patent for a Pig: The Big Business of Genetics (43 mins) with some grim truths about Monsanto that are beyond frightening. I find it hard enough to comprehend sometimes that we place a monetary value on something nature alone created, e.g. selling your cat's litter or some plants that appeared in your backyard. (Breeding/raising is a bit different as there is work input into the result, but it's still animals creating animals.) I'll let the film tell the details, with this intro from the Celsias post:

It's amazing what humankind can do with a little effort and ingenuity. Who'd a thought we could create an intelligent, four legged creature with a curly tail, that actually walks and makes cute grunting noises?
Stand by to be horrified at the lengths Big Biotech will go to take over the world's food supplies. You'll also be shocked to learn that pig and cattle farmers are seeing their livestock go sterile due to giving them genetically modified feed.

"Introducing Monsanto, the inventors of the pig..."

Thanks to my mother for the heads up on this item.

Posted by Erika at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Eggs, hens, and animal welfare

If you read that title and started to back away, don't fret: animal welfare isn't synonymous with PETA or extremism. It's about the ethical treatment of animals — raising, feeding, caring and, in certain cases, killing them in ways that prevent (or minimize, if unavoidable) their suffering and maintain their natural needs and environment. That's my extended definition/interpretation, anyway, via my readings and class discussions in my Environmental Ethics course.

Through this Plenty Magazine article about hens, eggs, nutrition and welfare, I got to this (A) Brief Guide to Egg Carton Labels and Their Relevance to Animal Welfare. The facts are striking. Mind that this is an American site so some labels we see in Canada aren't listed, and others listed aren't seen in Canada. I guess. I've seen "free run" and thought it to be different from "free range," and perhaps it isn't, but no answers are provided on that page.

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Posted by Erika at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Whiskers under the sea

I think I just named this little fellow. He or she is a peppered cory catfish. They're quite pretty and move sort of gracefully. Incredibly cute! I've been converted to a fan of pet fish... anyway, here's one of our newest additions to our 55 gallon aquarium. Photo by my boyfriend, the fish enthusiast!

Posted by Erika at 12:45 PM | Permalink

We have babies! Fish babies, that is...

Hey, small fry, whatcha doin down there? We have 3 zebra danios and determined that at least one of them is female, and that one is carrying eggs.

Something as tiny as a fry is difficult to photograph, but my boyfriend captured this one that I then zoomed in on and added an arrow to point out the little critter. We have 7 or 8. Unfortunately when he discovered the hatchlings' presence, he was doing a partial water change of the tank and siphoned one into the bucket. It then went down the drain... oops. He says by morning we'll have 50 more. We thought the eggs would be eaten before they could hatch but apparently not, so the two of us are rather excited.

By the way, for non-blogger member readers, there is a "scheduled outage at 4:00PM PDT" tomorrow for 45 minutes. So if you've tried to visit my blog and it doesn't work during that time, IT'S ALL THEIR FAULT!!! Just kidding... I'm not bitter. Really, I'm not. It's an incentive, though, for me to get my Movable Type version up and running.

Posted by Erika at 10:41 PM | Permalink

vancouver aquarium photos

We recently acquired some fish and all the trimmings. Last week Wednesday we visited the Vancouver Aquarium as neither of us had been there in quite some years. I took a ton of photos (135 to be precise), with some intended for desktop wallpaper and artistic endeavours.