I learned a new word: Zoonotic

I love monkeys! I really do! I also believe that as cute and funny and mesmerizing as they are, they should never be kept as pets. Why? Well, it's bad for people, and it's bad for the monkeys.  One of the many problems is Zoonotic Disease. immy Kimmel explains it here, joking that Joey and Chandler from "Friends" are dead because, "Marcel the monkey bit them and gave them monkey rabies, and they died."



I real life, it's NO JOKE.  The woman who was attacked by a "pet" chimp in 2009 not only had her face and hands mauled off, she contracted an infection from the monkey which caused her to GO BLIND.



You can help prevent horrible accidents like this: Protect Primates and People from Dangerous and Inhumane Trade

Some Recreational Reading, Sci Fi Edition

Photo via http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/

My husband I were talking about extra-terrestrial intelligence, and I wondered aloud why we put so much effort into looking as far as human and technologically possible for signs of intelligent life, while we hesitate to acknowledge that the animals we share the Earth with are intelligent and sensitive creatures.  I have actually had conversations with philosophy professors about whether or not my dog has feelings (duh! PS it's been proven)!   

  

Anyway, I have often heard joke, "If G_d didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?" Well, here's a fictional account of an alien discussion about.... us!  My husband read it a long time ago and thought it was appropriate to the topic, it could explain why we have get to get a response from any of the signals we've been sending out into the universe.  

THEY'RE MADE OUT OF MEAT by Terry Bisson 

"They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"Meat. They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."
"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"
"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."
"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."
"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."
"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."
"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they're made out of meat."
"Maybe they're like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."
"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of meat?"
"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."
"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through."
"No brain?"
"Oh, there's a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat! That's what I've been trying to tell you."
"So ... what does the thinking?"
"You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat."
"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"
"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal!  Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?"
"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."
"Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."
"Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?"
"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual."
"We're supposed to talk to meat."
"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.' That sort of thing."
"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"
"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."
"I thought you just told me they used radio."
"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."
"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"
"Officially or unofficially?"
"Both."
"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."
"I was hoping you would say that."
"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"
"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say? 'Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"
"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."
"So we just pretend there's no one home in the Universe."
"That's it."
"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You're sure they won't remember?"
"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."
"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."
"And we marked the entire sector unoccupied."
"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"
"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."
"They always come around."
"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone ..."

"Goodbye, Easter Bunny"

Above: Tully, available for adoption in Chicago

Aww! I didn't realize this is STILL a problem in this day and age!  People buy baby rabbits for Easter, and then the kids don't want them after a few days, the parents don't want to deal with caring for them, and then the most innocent party in this whole ordeal (the rabbit) gets abandoned :((((((.  NYTimes article here.

Things I didn't realize and learned from the article:

• Rabbits require as much care and maintenance as dogs(!)
• Once the rabbits hit puberty...male rabbits spray urine everywhere, while females grow territorial
• It can cost $300 to spay or neuter a rabbit
• Because determining a young rabbit’s sex is difficult, owners who thought they had two female rabbits can suddenly find themselves with litter after litter of bunnies
• A rabbit can live more than a decade

Above: Ty, also available for adoption in Chicago

My cousin and his wife are huge rabbit lovers and have had three (that I know of) over the years, so I've seen how rabbits can be really great and beloved pets. They are REALLY into their rabbits, they even made a rabbit room in their house, and they spend a lot time of caring for them. Rabbits are awesome but you really have to be prepared to handle the work and responsibility that comes with along with them.  If you are ready and live in the Chicago area, check out the rescue where my cousin got his most recent rabbit: Red Door Animal Shelter. (That's also where I got the pics of the bunnies I put in this post.)  Here's the bun they adopted from Red Door:

BONUS: Rabbits are authentic, for-real 100% vegans (not just wannabegans!). I think they are popular pets with vegan humans because you can feed your leftover vegetable bits and scraps to the rabbits and they love it.

Today is World Spay Day!

Every
10 SECONDS

A CAT OR DOG IS

PUT DOWN IN

A U.S. SHELTER

What?!?? Every 10 seconds?  Too sad!  Have you ever been to an animal shelter? They make me sad because can't possibly take them ALL home with me!  This is the TWENTIETH anniversary of world spay day.  My little friend is spayed, and I'm so glad I did it.  Before I adopted her, they guy who had her made her pump out THREE litters of puppies, before the age of two and a half.  What kind of life is that?!  Anyway, she doesn't have to worry about getting knocked up anymore, because she is spayed!  Now she can just enjoy the rest of her life.

My parents' dog was adopted from a guy who didn't neuter the dog for a long time - and up until then a lot of other dogs would react really aggressively to him once they realized he wasn't neutered.  Once he got neutered, other dogs liked him better so from a behavioral standpoint alone, it was totally worth it.

More info about why all pets should be spayed or neutered here: http://www.humanesociety.org/news/magazines/2014/03-04/world-spay-day/infographic.html