Femme fatale and ballerina Brigitte Bardot passed away

R.I.P. She had pouty lips (Schmollmund) like few other ladies on screen and four husbands. She was a muse.

She embodied cherchez la femme!

Smoking by a young woman in public was never so sexy before!

"... After retiring from acting in 1973, Bardot became an animal rights activist and created the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. She was known for her strong personality, outspokenness, and speeches on animal defense; she was fined twice for public insults. She was also fined six times for inciting racial hatred for her comments on Muslims in France and calling residents of Réunion "savages". ..." (Wikipedia)

White House slashes medical research on monkeys and other animal testing, sparking fierce new debate. Really!

Good news! It is truly shocking how many animals are subjected to and killed by experiments and medical research etc.

Where are the animal activists when you need them! Do they accept these tests/experiments, because they fear for their own health and lack of medical treatment options?

Are we not ready to switch to alternative testing methods at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century? Maybe it is time for change!

"... The Trump administration has canceled nearly $28 million of federal grants for animal testing as major federal health agencies are phasing out research on live animals in favor of new alternatives, a joint investigation by CBS News and The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina, has found. ..."

Global Health NOW: A Surge of Diseases in Sudan; Centering Youth and Mental Health at UNGA; and Firearm Suicides Among Older Americans

White House slashes medical research on monkeys and other animal testing, sparking fierce new debate

Wind turbines kill millions of bats every year

This huge skandal has been known for decades, but it has been largely covered up and silenced! I have blogged about this skandal here before.

Where are the animal rights activists when you really need them? Paid off by the wind power lobby?

"For all of wind energy’s benefits [???], it causes problems for bats. The winged mammals seem to be unusually attracted to turbines, often loitering in the air next to them. As a result, millions of them slam into turbine blades every year and die, making turbines one of the top killers of the animals worldwide. But what exactly lures bats to turbines has remained a mystery. ..."

From the abstract:

"Wind energy’s rapid expansion has led to unintended consequences for wildlife, with migratory bats among the species most at risk. The behavioural mechanisms underlying collisions remain poorly understood, but one hypothesis is that bats are attracted to wind turbine structures. Vision is important to bat orientation and obstacle avoidance, yet it has been relatively understudied in the context of bat–turbine interactions. We hypothesize that light reflected off turbine surfaces could attract bats, acting as a sensory pollutant that may increase collision risk. To test whether reflective turbine surfaces elicit attraction, we flew 242 Lasiurus cinereus and 154 Lasionycteris noctivagans through Y-maze assays.

Bats were at least twice as likely to fly towards white turbine blade sections compared to less reflective black ones. This attraction intensified when the alternative exit was a dark, empty flyway, with 74% of L. cinereus and 97% of L. noctivagans flying towards the white turbine blade. These findings provide evidence that visual sensory pollutants could underlie bat–turbine interactions, and if so, wind turbines could be ecological traps."

ScienceAdviser

Bats may mistake wind turbines for open sky, causing deadly collisions "Study may help explain why giant blades kill millions of the animals every year"

Bats flying through a Y-maze are visually attracted to wind turbine surfaces (open access)

Most likely birds, not bats, but the issue is the same!

The Biggest Animal Welfare Victory of the 21st Century (so far)

Good news! Next is replacing animal testing for medical and other research!

P.S. I was not able to find a news release on the website of Humane World for Animals regarding these data.

"“In just one decade, a longtime fashion mainstay has been relegated to the sidelines of both haute couture runways and bargain clothing racks: fur.

In 2014, over 140 million minks, foxes, chinchillas, and raccoon dogs — a small, fox-like East Asian species — around the world were farmed and killed for their fur. By 2024, that number plummeted to 20.5 million, according to an analysis from the nonprofit Humane World for Animals using data from governments and industry … ..."

The Biggest Animal Welfare Victory of the 21st Century - Human Progress

Animal activists have saved millions of animals from fur production

Fur Farming – A Failing Industry "New data shows fur industry loses economic relevance"

Again it is China, the worst offender (like e.g. CO2 emissions)

Enumerating soil biodiversity. Soil is home to more than half of all life

Recommendable! What a revelation! And it is a literature meta analysis!

The so called scientists, who wrote this article published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy (PNAS) of the Science, appear to be hard core political activists with an agenda!

We know so shockingly little about the sun, our vast oceans, cloud formation and so many other climate influencing factors, but we are to believe the Global Warming hoax and Climate Change religion! Add to it now soil biodiversity!

No mentioning how this impacts climate! What an omission! Climate models are largely junk!

"Soil is home to more than half of all life

About 59% of all species on Earth live in soil, estimate researchers who reviewed global biodiversity data. This would make the ground the planet’s single most biodiverse habitat. The figure doubles an earlier estimate and could be even higher because so little is known about soil, the researchers suggest. It is home to 99% of Enchytraeidae worms, 90% of fungi, 86% of plants and more than 50% of bacteria — but only 3% of mammals live in it."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

Soil organisms mediate unique functions we rely on for food, fiber, and human and planetary health [???]. Despite the significance of soil life, we lack a quantitative estimate of soil biodiversity, making it challenging to advocate for the importance of protecting, preserving, and restoring soil life. Here, we show that soil is likely home to 59% of life including everything from microbes to mammals, making it the singular most biodiverse habitat on Earth. Our enumeration can enable stakeholders to more quantitatively advocate for soils in the face of the biodiversity crisis [??? propaganda].

Abstract

Soil is an immense habitat for diverse organisms across the tree of life, but just how many organisms live in soil is surprisingly unknown. Previous efforts to enumerate soil biodiversity consider only certain types of organisms (e.g., animals) or report values for diverse groups without partitioning species that live in soil versus other habitats. Here, we reviewed the biodiversity literature to show that soil is likely home to 59 ± 15% of the species on Earth. We therefore estimate an approximately two times greater soil biodiversity than previous estimates, and we include representatives from the simplest (microbial) to most complex (mammals) organisms. Enchytraeidae have the greatest percentage of species in soil (98.6%), followed by fungi (90%), Plantae (85.5%), and Isoptera (84.2%). Our results demonstrate that soil is the most biodiverse singular habitat. By using this estimate of soil biodiversity, we can more accurately and quantitatively advocate for soil organismal conservation and restoration as a central goal of the Anthropocene [is obscene]."

Enumerating soil biodiversity | PNAS (no public access)

Credits: nature briefing

Who Or What Protects Humans From Zealous Animal Rights Activists?

Posted: 3/20/2016

Recent headlines reminded us that the well organized, uncompromising, and singularly  focused animal zealots of the world are getting their way again.

Germany is about to pass a law banning all wild animals from circuses. The heartwarming story of a supposedly mistreated circus bear in Germany that was then taken away from the circus was all over the media. Seaworld just announced it would not breed Orcas anymore and so on.

Here is an article that actually shows that Seaworld actually made contributions to Orca research. See e.g. here.

Zealotry of any kind should be confronted for what it is!

How many of these animal rights activists are misanthropes?

Schock Propaganda Videos Of Brutality Against Animals

Posted: 8/20/2015

Trigger

Someone just posted this Youtube video “8 Horrorszenarien, die sich in Europa täglich ereignen.” (8 horror scenes which occur on a daily basis in Europe. Viewer discretion advised!) on a social media website. It contains several short clips showing humans committing brutal acts against various farm animals. The publisher asks viewers to share this video to spread the truth.

This video is published by a registered non-profit, private society Animal Equality Germany located in Stuttgart, Germany. According to their website, this group also engages to free animals kept in captivity. Their motto: “We work for a better world for all animals” and “Animals are living creatures and not foodstuff”.

Notes On The Video

1. None of the scenes shown in the above video has any kind of sourcing or attribution. Were these scenes actually shot in Europe or do they really occur on a daily basis as claimed?
2. The video does not tell where, when or under what circumstances these clips were shot
3. Where these clips doctored?
4. The video suggests that these acts of brutality occurred on farms or in the meat industry, but is this true?
5. I posted questions about this video on the social media website like is this movie doctored or how much of this video is representative of the industry. Someone answered this was not doctored, he had seen other, similar movies.

Shock Propaganda By Animal Rights Activists

This would not be the first time that a doctored shock video has been distributed by animal rights activists.

It should be left to prosecutors to indict perpetrators of crimes against animals.

Propaganda videos like that are as bad as any enemy propaganda videos distributed by totalitarian dictators in the past. I would compare such propaganda videos to e.g. the infamous German Nazi film “Ewiger Jude” (Eternal Jew movie of 1940).

Legalize Ivory Farming

Posted: 6/23/2015  Updated: 8/28/2017, 6/25/2015

Update Of 8/28/2017

Recently read following German language article: Südafrika streitet über den Schutz von Nashörnern Ein Nashorn-Züchter in Südafrika will den Verkauf der Hörner legalisieren. Tierschützer befürchten, dass er dann salonfähig würde – und sich die Mär von der Wunderwirkung noch festigt.

I did not know there are rhinoceros farmers in South Africa. This article is about John Hume, reportedly the world’s largest such farmer with 1,500 rhinos. He and other rhino farmers cut off the ivory anyway to protect their animals from poachers. Why should they not be allowed to sell it off? The ivory is said to grow back quickly at about 100 mm (or 1/10 of a meter) per year. Hume says he spends $170,000 per year to protect his rhinos.

The rhino farmers of South Africa recently won a South African Supreme Court decision to lift the prohibition of ivory sales.

Trigger

Just saw U.S. to Crush a Ton of Poached Ivory in Times Square DNA forensics trace the origins of illegal ivory, helping to focus law enforcement efforts. This will be the second time that a large quantity of poached ivory will be destroyed on Times Square. This time it will be carried out by the U.S Fish And Wildlife Service.

What A Stupid Idea To Destroy Poached Ivory!

This measure is pure political symbolism & tokenism! Our politicians get a chance to beat their chests!

Instead of destroying the seized ivory, this ivory should be sold to save animals! The sale would satisfy some of the demand and it would lower the sales price of ivory making it less lucrative for poachers to accept the risks.

Legalize The Farming Of Ivory

I freely admit that I am not an expert on this matter or know whether this is possible at all to farm ivory. It is definitely worth a try!

If farming of ivory is possible it would certainly have a significant number of benefits not least to protect remaining elephants etc. living in the wild.

However, as long as we still face significant global demand for ivory it is insane and an exercise in futility to pursue prohibition and punishment.

Synthesize Ivory

Why are humans still not capable to synthesize ivory as substitute for natural ivory? What is thwarting progress here?

Education & Persuasion Without Harassment

I would also believe that a comprehensive and sustained campaign to educate and persuade buyers of ivory to give up on it.

This should be done in a reasonable way with respect towards the buyer not by militant or zealous animal rights activists!

Bibliography

I have previously blogged about this subject here and here.