Culture - Vetea

Culture

Groups working to stop penning of foxes and coyotes

Placing foxes and coyotes inside a fenced area and then sending dogs after them is a practice that some groups in the US are working hard to end.

On Tuesday, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), Project Coyote, and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) named the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and director Robert Carver Jr. as defendants in a lawsuit over allowing this activity, which is known as penning. The foxes and coyotes used for this are trapped in the wild - usually with leg-hold traps. "Fox pens are operations where individuals purchase animals through the black market or through trappers," said Andrew Page of the Humane Society of the United States. "They put them inside fenced enclosures and then have dogs chase them in competition. The dogs are judged on how they pursue the wildlife." He said that judges are stationed around a pen but sometimes no one is there to stop the captive animals from being torn apart once they are cornered by dogs. Camilla Fox, Executive Director of Project Coyote, Wildlife Consultant with the Animal Welfare Institute, and co-author of two books- Coyotes in Our Midst and Cull of the Wild - said that motives for participating in penning include training dogs to become more aggressive and the enjoyment of the activity itself. "The penning facilities make money from the hound hunters who bring their hounds to the facilities to train them to be more aggressive," she said. "Because animals are regularly killed, they have to keep stocking live wild-caught coyotes and foxes." She said the practice has been going on for at least 30 years in some states. "Coyote and fox penning are like dog and cock fighting- a seedy and dark underbelly of America's dark past," she stated. "Americans recognize that dog fighting and cockfighting are unacceptably cruel and that such spectator events don't have a place in civilized society. How different is penning?" Aside from ethical concerns, some coyotes and foxes are trapped in one state and sold to penning facilities in other states, which could result in the spread of disease and parasites. Last year, one state voted unanimously to ban coyote and fox pens. "Thankfully, after an intense campaign led by a coalition of organizations including Project Coyote, HSUS, the Animal Welfare Institute, and several grassroots organizations, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously to ban penning," said Fox. Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission said the activity was not a fair chase and he felt Florida needed to be a leader by ending the use of the enclosures. A letter signed by Dr. Janet Houghton, Past chairman of the board, Indiana Veterinary Medical Association, and 11 other veterinarians, stated that: "The proposed regulations will not allow for proper welfare of the penned wildlife, and some of the provisions requiring veterinary care are simply unethical for a veterinarian to perform."

Contagious Pink Eye Among Us

Culture

What is red, itchy and contagious? Since you managed to avoid that poison ivy, it's got to be pink eye, also known as conjunctivitis. Pink eye is an inflammation of a transparent membrane that lines part of the eyeball and eyelid. It's caused by either a bacterial or viral infection -- and sometimes allergies. If you haven't noticed (because your eyes are red and itchy), allergy season is indeed upon us.

According to the Mayo Clinic, pink eye symptoms can include tearing, redness, itchiness and discharge in one or both eyes, as well as a crust that can form overnight. Bacterial conjunctivitis is more common in children than it is in adults, and is extremely contagious.

If you notice any signs or symptoms in you or your family that you think might be pink eye, you should make an appointment with your healthcare provider. Pink eye is highly contagious for as long as two weeks after signs and symptoms begin, and an early diagnosis and treatment can not only prevent others from contracting pink eye, but also alleviate your symptoms quickly.

haagen dazs

Culture

Did you know that today, May 10th is Free Cone Day at Haagen Dazs? Well it is. Get the details..

So what do you get on Free Cone Day? A cone? No. You get a cone AND a scoop of your favorite Haagen Dazs ice cream or sorbet! Yippee. Bring on the sunshine.

The fun begins at 4pm and ends promptly at 8pm. No telling if that line wrapped out the door and around the block will get served after 8. We hope so!

You can choose any flavor you’d like. Ice cream, sorbet – anything! The only catch is that you have to live near one of the participating Haagen Dazs Free Cone Day stores – but don’t worry you can check out the locations on the Haagen Dazs fan page on Facebook.

And while you are at it, you can peruse all the different flavors to choose from. I have always adored the classic strawberry or orchard peach sorbet flavor – while my husband is a straight-up chocolate kind of guy. Sugar cone please! Waffle cones are even better.

Hm, I wonder if sprinkles are extra on free cone day? Probably. But go on and splurge. This sunny weather deserves a sweet treat.

alliteration

Culture

On May 10, 1965 (14 months before I was born), Dylan performed the final solo acoustic concert of his career at London's Royal Albert Hall. Two months later, he famously "went electric" at the Newport Folk Festival - and the music world was never the same.

Fans had to suspect change was coming during that 1965 tour - Dylan's recently released fifth album, "Bringing It All Back Home," featured the first electric songs of his career - but nobody could have predicted the outcry that accompanied his subsequent full-band live performances.

Dylan continued to play solo acoustic sets on his 1966 world tour, but those shows are legendary for the controversial electric sets he performed with the musicians who would later be known as The Band. The frenzied, amped-up, somewhat-sloppy electric portions of those shows focused on new material from "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde," but also featured dramatically reworked versions of his older songs ("it used to sound like that; now it sounds like this," is how Dylan coyly introduced 1964's "I Don't Believe You" on the live album from that tour) that proved wildly divisive and alienated much of his folk music audience.

Careers have ended over far less radical creative departures. Dylan's, obviously, didn't - even if he didn't tour again for another eight years.

We bring this up now because Dylan turns 70 two weeks from today, and it's not too early to begin celebrating the legacy of one of the most influential musicians of the past 50 years.

Maybe the most influential, at least from a songwriting perspective.

The fact that he's still touring, still making quality music (2009's "Together Through Life" has a handful of standout songs, if you can tolerate what's left of his road-ravaged voice) means that celebrating Dylan's milestone birthday is more than just a nostalgia trip.

At (nearly) 70, Dylan is not a museum piece, but a still-viable artist. And that, 50 years after first making his mark on the New York City folk scene, is a remarkable achievement.

AARP The Magazine honors Dylan on his birthday with tributes from dozens of his contemporaries. A few samples:

n "Bob is ageless because he keeps turning new corners, beating down new paths, redefining himself and his art as he goes" - Martin Scorsese

n "Bob dragged us from literary immaturity and made us grow up emotionally. He dragged us into the world of alliteration and metaphor in a way that nobody else could do. He was our higher education." - Judy Collins

n "Bob tells it like he feels it, and he's been like that for his entire career." - Smokey Robinson

n "I'm gonna want to hear what Dylan has to say as long as he wants to say it." - Bob Weir

But obviously, it's not just celebrities who have been affected by Dylan and his music.

I got into Dylan's music relatively late. As a teen, I owned "Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits" on vinyl and - I'm embarrassed to say - nothing else. A college roommate owned "Blood on the Tracks" on CD and I spent many an inebriated night with that album, but it wasn't until 2001 that I seriously began adding Dylan albums to my music collection.

I've been obsessed ever since.

"Highway 61 Revisited" is among my all-time favorite albums by anyone, and that album's opus "Desolation Row" is probably my favorite Dylan song, but I find joy in almost all eras of his career (save, perhaps for the mid-'80s).

Now, we want to hear about your favorite Dylan songs, albums and moments.

Mas arti�culos...