Cynthia_Smoot's Blog

Less than two years ago a group called "1000 Friends of Florida" crunched the numbers and growth patterns and came up  with this prediction:  by 2060 Florida's population will have doubled  to 36 million people with an additional 7 million acres of rural and natural land lost to development.  To put it into perspective, that's about the size of Vermont!   Now Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is following up with "Florida 2060:  What's at Stake for Wildlife?" The answer is nothing good.  As more land gets paved over and gobbled up, many Florida species, already under pressure, will reach the breaking point.  Black bears, for example, will lose another 2.3 million acres of  habitat.... sending human/bear interactions iinto the stratosphere at  a projected rate of more than 33 thousand complaints a year. Florida panthers, hanging on by their claws at a number of around 100 total for the state, will likely disappear for good. I could go down the list, species by species, but you get the point.  Is this what  Floridians want for the future of their state? For their children and grandchildren?  Most politicians are notoriously short-sighted and beholden to the special interests that fill their campaign coffers, so it'll be up to the people to demand a more thoughtful and balanced approach to growth going forward. 

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke just told Harvard's graduating class that he doesn't think the U.S. will experience the out-of-control prices we saw in the 1970's after the oil embargo. I'm dating myself here, but I remember those long lines at the gas station to get gas. Odd and even days.  Hoping you didn't end up on "e" when it wasn't your day to get gas.  A few years later I  bought my first car, a Toyota Corolla that got great gas mileage, but the APR on the loan was 12-per-cent!  Prices (and interest rates) seemed to go up everyday while wages didn't.  The subprime mortgage mess is still unspooling. Food prices are way up.  Gas has already hit four bucks. Boy! If it's not inflation, it sure does feel like it! Mr. Bernanke, we sure do hope you're right.

His name is Ruff and  his foster mom describes him as "walking dead" when they found him in a Bay area county shelter. A boxer that should have weighed 60+ pounds weighed less than half that. He was covered with sores and lesions from the mites that covered every  inch of him. A man's belt cut into oozing skin around his neck.  That photo is one of the worst cases of animal neglect I've ever seen. But thanks to Florida Boxer Rescue,  today Ruff is a happy, playful  dog that still (amazingly) loves people. And now he's the inspiration for a wonderful art exhibit going on right now at the Tampa Institute of Art.  Students, instructors and lots of others have donated art to be auctioned off this Saturday, May 31st with all the proceeds going to boxer rescue.  It's called "The Art of Rescue," and  it's not only about the dogs, but also about all the volunteers who dedicate their lives to saving animals like Ruff.  Most of us have no idea what they see, hear and deal with everyday out there in the trenches of animal rescue. It's "Ruff" work, but we sure are glad there are people who care enough to do it.

www.flbr.org

It took a long, long time, but finally, the USDA is banning ALL downed cattle from slaughterhouses in the United States.  This is largely a result of last winter's shocking HSUS undercover video showing cattle too weak or sick to stand being poked and prodded....water shot up their noses... even a forklift trying to lift one to get it to the chute. In making the announcement, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer emphasized that this is all about food safety, especially keeping  BSE or "mad cow" disease out of the beef supply.  But he also said that "by reducing the incentive to send weak and marginal cattle to slaughter, it will reduce the likelihood that those animals will be subjected to inhumane handling at processing plants."  Now let's not wait months to enact the new rule (thus giving time for the industry to come up with a loophole). Let's do away with downers today.

I didn't watch the Kentucky Derby Saturday.  I was riding my own horse at the time, enjoying a beautiful spring evening and the fact that hes sound.... for now!  So I didn't see Big Brown's big  win.... or the heartbreak of watching the Derby's only filly hit the ground after fracturing both her front ankles. I don't think NBC actually showed it, but since then I have seen the video and it's sickening.  It's hard to find good statistics on how many thoroughbreds "break down" on America's race tracks.   When I googled a few things before writing this, I stumbled across an  editorial in the NY Times from nearly two years ago, after Barbaro's injury that eventually cost him his life. It could have been written today  .http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/opinion/nyregionopi
nions/27CImorrison.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Here's what the head of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association wrote this week. He's asking for comments. 

http://www.ntra.com/blog.aspx?blogid=15&year=2008&m
onth=5&day=5

Next Tuesday, April 29th, would have been Barbaro's 4th birthday.  The great racehorse that captured the world's attention was euthanized in January 2007 after a long, painful and expensive fight to save his life.  When Barbaro shattered his right hind leg at the Preakness that previous May, it was a catastrophic injury--one that usually means the horse being put down on the spot.  Barbaro's owners decided to give him a fighting chance... and with the help of modern veterinary medicine and a devoted team of professionals, he almost made it.  In the end, laminitis brought him down--a terribly painful and crippling disease that I learned about the hard way when my own horse came down with it and almost died.  But out of Barbaro's tragedy comes new hope for all horses.  They call themselves "Fans of Barbaro" and they're a grassroots organization  brought together by their admiration for the fallen racehorse.  The big issue for this group is ending the slaughter of American horses for human consumption in Europe and Japan.  Even though Americans overwhelmingly are opposed to horse slaughter, both bills that ban it once and for all are currently stalled in Congress.  On the House side, the chairmen of two committees refuse  to move the the bill to the floor for a vote (where it would be approved by a wide margin).   To override that requires 218 co-sponsors. As of today there are 200.  On the Senate side, Larry Craig (R) of Idaho (remember him?)  has a "hold" on S 311, which also has enough votes to pass if it it would come to a vote. In the meantime, U.S. horses are being shipped to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered by the thousands.   This Saturday "Fans of Barbaro" all over the country will get together to celebrate Barbaro's short life, and more importantly, to advance his legacy of what we all hope will be a better life and more humane death for America's horses.

To find out more about the Bay area Barbaro event and Fans of Barbaro:

http://www.beautysequinerescue.org/

http://www.alexbrownracing.com/

Article on Mexican slaughter done by Texas newspaper.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mexico/stories
/MYSA093007.01A.horseslaughter.3496288.html>

Spring's here and Paul says we'll be warming up to the 80's by the end of the week. But out in the high country of Yellowstone National Park, winter hangs on.  Snow still covers sparse grass and a hard winter has sent the park's bison in search of food at lower elevations.  What most Americans don't know is that every bison that steps foot out of the park is at risk of being felled by a hunter or rounded up and sent off to slaughter.  A quarter of the park's bison have been killed this year and it hasn't stopped yet.  You can read more below. If you get angry (like me!) let your congressional representatives know how you feel.  It's high time Yellowstone's bison pay the ultimate price for doing what Mother Nature tells them to do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/us/23bison.html?t
h&emc=th

In our 50th state, an island is growing.   Mt. Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii has been  erupting continuously since 1983.  My husband and I were lucky enough to see a lava flow when we recently took a helicopter tour that hovered right over the Pu'u O'o Vent.  What a spectacle!  To see new land being born right before your eyes is a wondrous thing.  Check out the latest on Mt. Kilauea's eruptions at http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/images.html<
/p>

Just 30 minutes away, the annual Humpback Whale migration is going on in the waters off Maui.  Every winter, hundreds of whales come to these protected waters to breed, give birth and rest before beginning their arduous journey back to Alaska.  And while they're there, they put on quite a show--leaping (known as breeching),  slapping their fins and tails and minding their calves.  We simply couldn't capture the best of it on camera, but I've posted a couple of px.  And you can find out more at

http://www.pacificwhale.org/

See photos:  http://community.myfoxtampabay.com/photos/ViewAlbum.as
px?aid=31561&un=Cynthia_Smoot

The video is shocking and disturbing. What the HSUS documented at a California slaughterhouse revealed unspeakable cruelty and led to the largest recall of beef in U.S. history.  The term "downer catttle" means just that--catlle so sick or weak they can't stand or walk on their own.  Because of the obvious health implications,  the USDA temporarily banned "downers" from the food supply in 2004 during a "mad cow" scare. But the policy was never finalized or  uniformly enforced.  If you're disturbed by this, there are things you can do:  buy  meats bearing the "certified humane" label.    It's an organization dedicated to establishing higher welfare standards for all farm animals.  Here's their website:

http://www.certifiedhumane.org/default.html

You can also insist our legislators do more to keep downed animals out of slaughterhouses. Period.  Urge them to pass the Downed Animal and Food Safety Protection Act .  You can go to the HSUS website  (www.hsus.org)   to learn more and contact your representatives.

There's  high drama on the high seas going on right now that you likely won't see on the network news.  In the frigid waters at the bottom of the world, two anti-whaling activists somehow managed to board a Japanese harpoon vessel... pretty much bringing everything to a standstill while this all plays out.  It's the latest chapter in an ongoing controversy that shows no sign of ending anytime soon.  Every winter Japan deploys a fleet of whalers under the guise of "scientific research'" to kill whales--1000 is the goal this year. It was only after a storm of international protest that they backed off their original intention to take 50 Humpback whales--a species that was driven nearly to extinction and has been under International Whaling Commission (IWC)  moratorium  since the mid-1960's. It's no secret that the whales killed for "scientific study" end up in Japanese grocery stores.  Interestingly, I've read that very few Japanese still eat whale meat and there's a great deal of anti-whaling sentiment among the (mostly younger)population. While we await word from Antarctica, some of you might want to read more about whales and whaling, so I've added a few links, including a diary being kept for the BBC by a crewman aboard the Greenpeace ship in the area. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7171409.stm

http://seashepherd.org/

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/