Archive for the ‘Animals’ Category

Is it time to stop eating meat?

Could you live without meat?  Some people do it right now…others couldn’t even think about it…but by giving up meat you could be doing more than protecting your arteries.  Not only will you be saving countless innocent animal lives but you will also be doing great things for the greenhouse crisis and you will be reducing your footprint!

Meat is good for you – it has important nutrients like iron and protein that we need for energy and fuel and above all most of us like the taste of it.  But unfortunately for meat lovers there are some pretty reasonable arguments against the consumption of meat.

Methane

It is interesting to find out that methane is actually far worse for the environment than the usual suspect carbon dioxide – did you know it came out of the wrong end of a cow?  Furthermore were you aware that farming is responsible for a staggering 38 per cent of the United Kingdom’s entire methane emissions?

One cow standing on its own produces from between 100 and 200 litres of methane every single day!  Think about that next time you drive past a field full of cows…

Water

The waste of water involved in making a hamburger is just too much to think about – it takes around 2,400 litres of water, from the growth of the cow to the actual process of making the burger.  Now imagine how little water it takes to grow some veg?

A portion of green beans from Kenya uses only 80 litres of water to produce from start to finish – an insignificant number in comparison.  Water is one of the big problems of today’s climate issue as it is increasingly becoming scarce.

In this light, a vegetarian only consumes around 2,000 litres of water while a meat eater contains 5,000 litres.

Deforestation

We are eating more and more meat and so we need to find more and more room for all the animals we are eating.  The Amazon and areas of South-East Asia have been ripped up to make room for cattle while we are already worried about the lack of trees left in the world.

However the argument against this worry is that most meat eaters in Britain actually eat meat farmed in Britain so there is very little, if any, contribution to deforestation from Britain.

Land

The population of the Earth is growing at amazingly scary rates and while this is a problem in itself we could be helping the issue if we turn away from meat.  Cattle farming takes up massive amounts of land areas which could be used for other things such as providing areas for people to live in.

What do you think?

Would you say goodbye to meat to save the planet?  Are you a veggie and think that others should follow in your footsteps?  Leave us a comment and let us know what you think…

Prince Charles to the rescue

We have been seeing less and less of our beautiful red squirrel recently as its existence is left threatened by our mistakes, as is the case with so many beautiful animals all around the world.  However, the red squirrel has got a good friend in high places – Prince Charles has been called in to come to the aid of the red squirrel, which the Prince himself warned could be extinct within 10 years.

The Prince has been communicating his personal worries for the red squirrel while speaking at the launch of a charity set up specifically to protect endangered native species.

Charles placed the blame for the disappearance of the little creatures on today’s “increasingly throwaway” society and has portrayed his concern for the way the future of small creatures is headed.

“I cannot think of a better mascot for our country than the red squirrel. Perhaps that might make people realise what it is that they are about to lose,” said Prince Charles.

“The terrifying reality is that, within a decade, if we cannot work together to bring in the necessary funding for the task which needs to be done, the red squirrel could be totally extinct across the UK,” Charles continued.

The grey is killing off the red

Prince Charles gave the speech in Cumbria at the official launch of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust.  The charity is aimed at protecting the red squirrel which has been having a hard time since the grey squirrel hopped onto our shores from America and started to bully the natives.

“The plight of the red squirrel and the honeybee too is yet another example of man’s short-sightedness in an increasingly throwaway society.  The future of both species is a crucial test of just how serious we are about sustainability,” said Charles.

The Prince also mentioned that he had often had the chance of spending time with the furry little squirrels, which he labelled “utterly charming creatures”, in Scotland at his Birkhall residence.

The Prince sees reds all the time

“Unlike many people in this country, I am lucky enough to see red squirrels at Birkhall where I have been indulging them with hazelnuts and they have become remarkably tame and are coming into the house.

“Sometimes sitting at my desk I hear the pitter patter of tiny feet and sometimes they do the wall of death around my office. They are very special creatures.

“I have been indulging them with hazelnuts and they have become remarkably tame and come into the house. Sometimes when I am sitting at my desk I hear the pitter patter of tiny feet, and sometimes they do a wall of death around my office,” Charles said.

The Prince met with supporters of the charity as well as local dignitaries at Levens Hall – unfortunately the grounds, located near Kendal, hasn’t seen a red squirrel in around 15 years.

What about you?

What do you think about the plight of the red squirrel here in Britain?  Do you want to do more for our native red squirrel?  Leave us a comment and let us know what you think…

Is that a phone in your belly or are you just happy to see me?

A businessman who misplaced his phone on a beach magically turned up – inside the belly of a gigantic cod caught by a fisherman.

The man in question, Andrew Cheatle, thought the handset had been lost forever when it fell out of his pocket at the beach, however a week after the incident his girlfriend’s phone rang and on the other end of the line was the amazed fisherman who had found the handset in the belly of the fish.

Amazingly after pulling the phone out of the belly of the 25lb cod and drying it off the phone still works!

The fisherman that found the cod and the phone, Glen Kerley, used the phone to call Cheatle’s girlfriend, Rita Smith, who was shocked to see the old number calling her on her phone.

“I was messing about with my dog and my phone must have fallen out and been swept out in the swell. I kept calling it but I gave up hope after a couple of days,” said Cheatle.

The call came…

But then around a week after the incident, Cheatle’s girlfriend received the call and said to Cheatle, “Your old mobile number is calling my phone.”

“She said some guy was going on about my phone and a cod so she handed it over to me and he told me where he had found it,” continued Cheatle.

“I didn’t believe him but went to meet him and found it was my phone — a bit smelly and battered — but incredibly it still worked after I let it dry out.

“I thought he was winding me up but he assured me he had caught a cod that morning and was gutting it for his fish stall and that my Nokia was inside it - a bit worse for wear.”

Maybe it’s time to spring for a new one?

And now apparently Cheatle is still clinging on to his phone and still using everyday.

“It was working but it kept playing up so I had to get the circuit board changed in the end. But now it’s fine. I know it sounds a fishy tale but it is 100 per cent true,” claimed Cheatle clearly happy that he has been reunited with his handset and of course his address book as he runs an online retail company.

Not the first fish to have eaten a weird object…

Picking up the odd cod with a weird object in its stomach is apparently nothing new for fisherman Kerley who has claimed to have found a number of out-of-place objects in the bellies of the fish in the sea.

“I’ve found plastic cups, stones, teaspoons, batteries and I’ve also heard of someone finding false teeth in one.

“I know what it’s like to lose your phone. It can be really frustrating. So I thought I may as well make a few calls to see if I could get it back to him.

“It was a bit smelly but I was glad to return it.”

Frogs or bust?

A scientist in Belarus seems to know something the rest of the world doesn’t.  He has come up with an idea about how to pull his country out of its economic drought.  His method involves the breeding and then the exportation of edible frogs.

The scientist has been doing the rounds promoting his idea to businessmen around the country, advising them that the best way to pull the country out of the economic recession can only be to breed the edible frogs and sell them to the rest of the world.

Belarus is said to be home to three different frogs that can be eaten by humans.  There is the Marsh Frog (Rana Ridibunda), the Pool Frog (Rana Lessonae) and of course the Edible Frog (Rana Esculenta). Each is a top dish in the country and if one scientist had his way it could be a worldwide delicacy.

Frogs to take Belarus out of a recession?

The scientist in question is Ruslan Novitsky who is claiming that the frogs are a big exportation dream for the country, which he says, could be the key to taking Belarus out of its recession.

Novitsky, who is a member of the country’s National Academy of Sciences, has even gone as far as to claim that the export of their frogs could actually see the former Soviet state morph into one of the world’s agriculture super-powers.

“Belarus has immense reserves of this delicacy. The republic could expect a huge foreign currency inflow if it developed the industrial breeding of these amphibians,” said Novitsky.

It’ll be easy, says Novitsky…

Novitsky clearly isn’t taking the whole frog proposal lightly and has suggested that the frogs can be bred in the same way as salmon that are currently heavily farmed.

According to Novitsky, farming the frogs would be easy as they are small (around 15cm long and weighing a meagre 0.5kg) and they need no special care.

“Frogs could be farmed along with fish, in fish ponds,” continued Novitsky.

It’s not exactly good news for our amphibian friends…

However, animal lovers everywhere have been up in arms of the situation as a recent study proved that if the consumption of frog’s legs continued to rise in popularity then we could bring an end to the whole species.

Still it would seem that Novitsky is on to a winner with his frog farming plans as the study, taken by the University of Adelaide, estimated that the worldwide trade of amphibians was somewhere in the region of between 200 million and one billion a year.

This amazingly high trade has apparently led to the end of around 100 species of frog already and is set to bring the premature end to around 3,000 more if nothing as done about the whole situation.

Frogs for dinner?

Do you enjoy a frog’s leg or two in the evening or is your celery enough to fill you up?  Let us know what your views are on Novitsky’s plans…

Is it a cat?  Is it a dog?  No…it’s a wolf…

Imagine Mr Li’s shock when he discovered that the dog he had been raising from a puppy actually turned out to be a wolf that was scarring the neighbourhood – I’d say he was a bit more than shocked!

Mr Li, based in China, claimed that he found the shivering, lonely puppy in the mountains when he was on an excursion last year.  Li then brought the puppy home and started to raise it as a household pet.

Li gave the puppy all the amenities that come with being a household puppy, such as a den, meals and of course the daily walk – without a clue that the puppy was actually a wolf!

Sneaky little wolf.

The wolf managed to trick the innocent Mr LI, but when it came to the village suspicion was rife.  The neighbourhood started to get apprehensive and wary when they started to hear howling in the middle of the night.

“I never dared to let my child to go out alone at night after we started hearing the wolf,” claimed a resident in Li’s village.  Image Halloween in that village!

Didn’t have a clue.

However, Li was always ignorant to the dangerous animal he was rearing from a puppy and according to him got very connected to the wolf.

“I took it for a walk every day after work, and it grew very close to me,” said Mr Li.

Once the neighbours had had enough of the dangerous animal around the village the police were informed.  Once the police arrived and took a look at the supposed “dog” they immediately became suspicious and got in touch with an animal expert from the local animal centre.

No barking, no dog…

The rest, as they say is history…the specialist came to the village to look at the dog and immediately recognised the “dog” as a wolf.

The expert recognised immediately that the animal was not in fact the household dog that Mr Li had originally assumed.  The wolf’s lack of barking and thick fur coat and tail were apparent dead give-aways.

“It looks very much like a dog to me. I would never have suspected that it was a wolf,” continued Mr Li.

The wolf has now been taken to the Qinling Zoo to be looked after.

Woolly jumper weather…

The weather has been a little bitter recently to say the least.  For one woman, the time had come to protect her chickens from the icy weather by knitting woolly jumpers for each of her 1,500 chickens.

Jo Eglen from Norwich works at the Little Hen Rescue Centre in Norwich and thanks to Jo 5,750 battery chickens have been re-homed and saved from their tortured and captured lives.

Eglen still had to worry about a further 1,500 chickens, but her solution was to knit each of them woolly jumpers to save them from the cold – now that is caring!

A little help from her friends…

Eglen didn’t of course manage to knit all the jumpers herself, but instead asked the local community to pitch in and give her a hand, and they ran to the chicken’s rescue.

After a life-changing trip to a farm, Eglen had an epiphany and the teacher and mother of two started to turn her attentions to caring for the shunned birds and providing them with some solace.

“I went into a battery farm and saw how they lived and died. I just thought it was such a waste of life.

“Some battery farms have up to 10,000 hens of the same age. But when the birds stop or start to slow lying they are sent to the slaughterhouse - not to be used as meat, but just to be culled.

“We know that once they’re out of the farms they start laying good eggs again.  They get quite thin and bald because of the stress and heat. About 60 per cent of the hens that come through are bald,” said Jo.

Everyone has been pitching in…

According to Eglen, people from all over have offered their services to rush to the aid of the freezing chickens.

“We have patterns on our website that are straight-forward and simple. We’ve had 1,500 jumpers come through in just the past two months.  We’ve had so many different kinds - Christmas-themed jumpers, multi-coloured ones, some with bows and stripes,” continued Eglen.

Eglen managed to get hold of the use of some farmland for free through the good will of a local farmer and managed to set up the Little Hen Rescue Centre to care for unwanted battery chickens with a volunteer friend of hers, David Doy.

Could you provide bed and board for a little chicken?

It’s a nice little story, but hopefully with enough people getting the message and feeling the same way as Jo then there could possibly be a number of safe havens popping up around the country for our feathered friends who are all worked out.

Can you put Ruffles on the phone?

According to a psychic in Romania, the channels of communication are now open between the living world and the dead pet world – for a handsome fee of course.

Most of us have lost a pet at least once in our lives.  For me it was a small Syrian hamster called Harry who passed away when I was a mere 8 years old.  For you we could be talking about beloved dogs or cats that have been a member of the family for years.  Now imagine if you could get in contact with that missed pet – according to Nina Petre, you can, easily.

And if you thought that you would have to trundle over to Romania at even more expense then think again.  According to Petre she can pass the messages along through the Internet so the owner of the pet can chat from the comfort of their own home.

Do you think your dog understands instant messaging speak like LMAO or TC?

Imagine Instant Messaging with your dead pet – something to tell your friends about, I think.  The only thing is, how can you trust what you’re reading?

On the screen, through the psychic’s website, the owner can type their message to Petre and then in response the pet writes back through Petre.

And if you wanted a little bit of proof about Nina Petre’s powers don’t worry because apparently there is some!  There is a great deal of information about Petre’s past – about how she spoke to Jesus Christ and the whole communication kicked off.  But there are also some samples of communications that Petre has had with owner’s deceased pets.

Case studies…

According to the site, Petre managed to get in touch with a dog called Mexico who wanted its owner to know that everything was all right in the next life…

“I want to let you know that I am very happy here. I just came from the dogs judgement where I was told my good behaviour in life means I have a good chance to be sent back,” said Mexico, the dog.

“But I couldn’t have done this without your support, wisdom and love for which I will always be grateful to you.

“I also have one wish. Please give all my stuff - collar, leash, little coat - to a new dog which I know you will love as much as you did me.”

Would you be parting with cash for the service?

It’s a little hard to believe, but Petre is claiming that the connection can be made and is maintaining that she is doing so for the sakes of the pet owners who need to be relieved from the pain.

If you do believe her and you have a spare £80 knocking about then by all means pop along to her website and have a chat with your beloved pet.

What do you think?  Do you believe or do you think it’s a lot of spooky nonsense?  Let us know…

Hands up if you like wasps? Anyone? I thought as much…

I hate them. I mean I don’t purposely go out of my way to hurt them, but I hate the way they buzz around your head, they way they buzz around your food, and why they insist on hanging around the same place – which is invariably where you need to stand/sit/walk/run/whatever.

The place I work has a wasp problem. A massive one. They never seem too stop coming out of the walls, and they always go for me. They should be dying by now, but they continue to haunt me. I read somewhere once that wasps are more likely to sting you when they are close to death…comforting.

I’m not really afraid of the creatures themselves, they just upset my chi. It’s the fear of the unknown – I’ve never been stung by a wasp/bee/hornet or any other bug. Now I’m not afraid of needles, I’ve got a ton of tattoos, but I have this insane irrational fear of what might happen if one of the little critters gets me.

This got me thinking about what exactly I am scared off. Well I’ll tell you. Sharks. Sharks suck. I really don’t enjoy the fact they have a lot more teeth than the majority of creatures. Ever since I saw Jaws when I was a kid, I was literally afraid to go in to any water, which included swimming, having a bath, and at one point mildly freaking out about putting my hands in a sink full of soapy water.

Have I ever swam near a shark? Have I hell – you won’t get me in the sea. It just won’t happen. I’ve got over the having a bath, and swimming thing, but I still have a check, and can easily freak myself out, and panic. It’s bizarre. I know that Jaws was fake, but I still can’t get it out of my head. It’s a stupid fear. But it’s shared by many people, and it even has a name: galeophobia.

I think fear is with you forever. Many scientists and psychologists believe that if you face your fears, you can conquer them, but I’m afraid to say I ever came face to face with a shark, I would die of fright before it had a chance to bite me. I hate pictures of sharks, movies with sharks – hell even the astonishing Plant Earth series by the BBC had me hiding behind my couch.

Apart from that scary fish, I’m not really scared of much else. Sure I’ll jump out my skin when a spider falls on to my lap, or jump out my skin when I hear a loud bang, but that’s a different type of fear, it’s not the kind of fear that creeps under your flesh and eats away at your courage.

So what scares you?

One thing I love is dogs. The only problem is I can’t play with them or even pat them on the head, because I’m sneezing so hard.

I’ve been allergic to dogs for as long as I can remember, but its just not mans best friend I get ill from. If a cat comes within about 5 feet of me, I’ll sneeze, if I sleep on a feather pillow – something that bed and breakfast’s around the world always insist on using – I’m like death warmed up by the morning.

My eyes go puffy, my throat swells, my nose starts steaming, and I basically can’t breathe. It’s a pretty big downer. I’ve tried a million things to try to stop me feeling rubbish near animals of any type, practically every anti-histamine on the market, a bunch of so-called herbal remedies, along with a various selection of vapour things that apparently help you breathe more easily.

It sucks for first impressions too. I remember meeting my fiancé’s parents for the first time, and politely asking them to remove their dogs from the room – I was sneezing my head off after about five minutes of trying not to think about the little furballs. I must have looked brilliant: “hi I’m the guy that’s dating your daughter *sneeze, cough splutter*. Honestly, I’m really cool in real life”.

I reckon I’ve narrowed it down to three suitable solutions…

1. Never look at, touch or walk past a furry creature of death ever again.
2. Jam two blocks of cotton wool up each nostril, and wear a mouth mask.
3. Carry a small set of clippers around to shave off any animal’s hair that causes me to sneeze.

Now, the way I see it is that realistically, option number one, is going to be impossible – everyone seems to love animals – I think even my parents would sooner give up me than their two mutts.

Option three would land me in a whole lot of trouble – not only with the RSPCA – but with owners of their now aerodynamic moggy, so it looks like I’m going to be left with option number two, otherwise I’ll have to go on looking like the elephant man for a week after a visit to my fiancé’s parents house.

Does anyone else suffer from animals that people insist on having around? Or do you know of anything that can actually stop me feeling like cr#p for a week after being near an animal? I’m genuinely asking for help…