Green Group discussion

by Jennifer Skiff

Feel free to share your own stories about rescuing animals.

The first person Jennifer Skiff mentions in the book is Jo-Anne McArthur, a photographer who works in the group We Animals:

http://weanimals.org/#

Thanks! Good choice as this sounds like a much-needed dose of positivity.

This story was sent to me by one of our members because it deals with saving orcas.

"Still Waters" by Kimberly Christensen:

https://www.modernliterature.org/2018...

Here is a recommended book from this chapter:

by Natasha Milne

On Goodreads there is no sign that anyone has even read it yet. That is rare. It is all about being positive.

Another recommended book:

by Jo-Anne McArthur

Here is the Unbound Project, celebrating women on the frontlines of animal advocacy:

https://unboundproject.org/

Here is the documentary Blackfish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmRv4...

The documentary Sharkwater:

https://www.sharkwater.com/videos/sha...

The Ghosts in Our Machine documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PED-x...

The film Naledi: A Baby Elephant's Tale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTp2X...

The films I am highlighting here are available to rent and show to your own groups or friends at home.

The film Racing Extinction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwxyr...

Here are the three scientists who broke ground and made the study of primates so in the public eye:

by Biruté M.F. Galdikas

by Dian Fossey

My Life with the Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall

Each of the people mentioned in the book are asked a series of questions like What do you eat? or What books or films or people have inspired you? The answers can be surprisingly different.

Susan Rockefeller works to make people aware of pteropods, the two-centimeter long zooplankton that are sometimes called "sea angels" because of the two large wings or parapodias on their feet. Creatures like that one are critical to the balance of life, including our own. They are a critical food source for the blue whale. Small and large together. Our overuse of fossil fuels are endangering that ecosystem.

How do we get people to understand that we are all connected?

Susan Rockefeller co-produced this film:

Here is a preview of A Sea Change:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_urb...

Here is a second trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZDRF...


Here is the entire film A Sea Change:

https://vimeo.com/7804554

She followed up A Sea Change with the film Mission of Mermaids: A Love Letter to the Ocean:

Here is a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm6M7...

Here is the film:


https://vimeo.com/41292809

Susan Rockefeller also founded the digital magazine Musings. It is easy to subscribe. I did:

https://www.musingsmag.com/

I am finding so much to follow in this book. It has led me in many different directions.

A book that inspired Susan Rockefeller:

by Rian Malan

Ms. Rockefeller's favorite documentary that inspired her is The Salt of the Earth about Sebastião Salgado:

Here is a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPgWe...

Here is how you can wtch:

https://www.amazon.com/The-Salt-Of-Ea...

It was hard getting past the introduction without crying. I completed chapters 1 and 2. Reading this book makes me feel like I'm not doing enough to make a positive change in the world. It's both depressing and enlightening. Really enjoying the book so far.

Thanks for reading and commenting, Becky. In post #4, Claire was hoping for positivity. The people who are doing something in the book inspire me. The problem is that all of the horrible cruelty to animals is so overwhelming it is difficult to feel positive. No one should have to take these actions. We should have a world where common respect for life rules.

I am currently reading Curlew Moon
which makes me doubly sad because it is set in Ireland, England and Wales. The author Mary Colwell explains that every site which used to host hundreds or even thousands of nesting pairs now has few or none, and few eggs make it to fledging chicks.
Intensified farming, draining of bogs, silage frequent cutting and proliferation of predators like foxes and hooded crows are making it impossible for many species of ground nesting birds to cope.
However, on her walk the author meets many caring, interested and even fanatical people working to save curlews at their own or a charity's expense.

Im adding that book to my list

Whenever you get the chance, do review any wildlife book you read.

The next person in the book is Guy Stevens:

by Guy Stevens

Mantas are often killed by entanglement in fishing lines.

He created the Maldivian Manta Ray Project:

https://www.mantatrust.org/maldives

Here Guy Stevens tells his incredible story of how he saved a manta:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7MYD...

This lady rescues hummingbirds.
https://www.care2.com/causes/a-retire...

" Because of the record amounts of rainfall and strong winds this winter, survival has become much more of a challenge for hummingbirds in Southern California.

"Fortunately, good Samaritans like Anne Stratton, a retired nurse, are stepping up to help save these delicate birds. Stratton, a volunteer with the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center (WWCC), has transformed a room in her Huntington Beach house into what’s basically a hummingbird hospital, complete with an incubator that keeps fledglings warm. This winter alone she has nursed 107 hummingbirds back to health. "

I read about her. Wonderful story.

The next person is Willie Smits. He worked with orangutans.

by Gerd Schuster and Willie Smits and Jay Ullal.

The incident that inspired Mr. Smits was seeing a baby orangutan in a cage at a market in Indonesia. He refused to buy it. Later that night he went back and found the baby thrown away on a garbage pile. He saved it and began his new life.

Incredibly he says that orangutans are even used as "prostitutes."

But the key problem is palm oil plantations and destruction of habitat. So he began a sugar palm project, something I would like our group to find out more about. He provided jobs for the local population, a key ingredient.

One released orangutan even remembers Mr. Smits after three years. She makes an incredible gesture that shows she remembered him.

The next person is Chris Mercer who is fighting against "canned hunting." Animals like lions are bred to be placed in a fenced enclosure to be killed by people paying thousands of dollars. It is all legal. Unwitting tourists donate thinking these people run a sanctuary. Mercer runs CACH (Campaign Against Canned Hunting).

He and Beverley Pervan were the authors of Kalahari Dream:

by Chris Mercer

Jenny and Jimmy Desmond founded Liberian Chimpanzee Rescue and Protection (LCRP). Some fascinating pictures here:

https://www.liberiachimpanzeerescue.org/

Josh Balk:

https://www.humanesociety.org/leaders...

Peter Singer is perhaps the most influential person when it comes to animal rights. His book is required reading for anyone interested in animals.

by Peter Singer

Jill Robinson fought against bear bile farming. This link has tours of the bear sanctuary as well:

https://www.animalsasia.org/us/media/...

Temple Grandin is famous for her efforts to make cattle be less fearful in slaughterhouses. She walked through chutes to see what was bothering them. She designed a chute system that "promoted uninterrupted flow and, therefore, less abuse from the handlers."

She wishes humans evolved to be plant eaters. She does not see "the human race converting to vegetarianism anytime soon." So she feels the animals should not suffer needlessly. She says "they're not just blobs of meat." And they are "smarter than we think." She hopes slaughtering of animals will end some day.

Yet she classified herself as a meat eater.

Here is Grandin's essay "Thinking the Way Animals Do."

https://www.grandin.com/references/th...

Here is another article about Grandin "killing them softly at slaughterhouses for 30 years."

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/pe...

Dave Pauli helped to convert poachers. An extreme example was Royley Folse who was estimated to have killed 100,000 animals before he was caught. Pauli helped the man to do a "180 degree turn around."

His message is to leave wildlife in the wild and learn to enjoy it.

Here Pauli does a TED talk about a "humane economy."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hm90...

by Richard O'Barry

by Richard O'Barry

Ric O'Barry showed the world that dolphins are not smiling in captivity. They are begging for food. Because of their great intelligence, their suffering in captivity is that much greater.

Ric O'Barry was the focus of the famous documentary The Cove.

https://www.opsociety.org/our-work/fi...

Ric O'Barry's advice is to not buy tickets to animal shows.

Shawn Heinrichs fought a battle against shark fin soup.

His first film was Shark Fin Frontier:

http://www.bluespheremedia.com/2007/0...

I urge our members to subscribe and support some of these groups.