hellhound (affectionate)

I always get a good laugh reading comments celebrating an animal being “freed from captivity!” when it moves to sanctuary.

That is still captivity, my guys.

It's captivity with ~marketing~

And SEA LIFE continues to get inunandated with angry comments on their videos of their belugas because of this marketing.

Aafter deliberately alienating themselves from the industry, talking down to accredited facilities and making all these promises about belugas swimming "free" (see: in a sea pen) - the whales are still in the "temporary" care pool after 4 years - because they are consistently failing to acclimitise to the sea pen.

What does that look like? It looks like two whales refusing to station, unable to eat from the stress and developing stomach ulcers (also likely from the stress). It looks like thousands of dollars poured into a "intermediate habitat" that still failed to help the whales acclimate.

At least they even have an indoor care pool to look after them in! Whale Sanctuary Project doesn't even have an indoor care pool in their building plans. And they want to take on even more potentially vulnerable whales with genetic and health issues (Marineland Canada belugas).

I feel bad for the Beluga Sanctuary staff because it's not their fault that Merlin, a multi million dollar company, set them up for failure for the sake of marketing/jumping on a misinformed bandwagon and getting donations from a misinformed public.

Little Grey and Little White are doing well in their care pools - despite that facility being significantly smaller than their tank in China. And these poor whales are going to continue to be moved back and forth from the sea pen even though they have consistently shown an inability to adapt.

For their sake, I hope they do. Because this "sanctuary" doesn't seem to be willing to just let these whales live where they feel comfortable and safe.

They are going to continue to force them into an environment they are struggling to be in for the sake of appeasing the public, which was sold a lie that their welfare would magically improve in a sea pen.

Be kind to your vet.

to clarify to anyone who thinks ive said otherwise - I am critical of how moo deng has been handled and how it appears that her image is being used for cryptocurrency/etc, but I am not overall critical of her zoo. I would say that after looking at the hippo habitat, it looks nice! I'm not sure where the information regarding habitats in the zoo being crowded/dirty is coming from, but (while I'm not local and have not been there!) to me they look only 'dirty' in the sense that, well, wild animals live in there and they don't prefer pristine habitats. you SHOULD be critical of the care of ANY widely meme'd/popular animal because 99% of the time there's something wrong if it's not a domestic pet, but that shouldnt escalate into outright racist statements about everyone at the zoo are animal abusers/the animals being kept in conditions they clearly aren't. keep being critical of 'celebrity' animals, but calling for boycotts of the zoo entirely etc are both an overreaction and ignorant of more severe animal welfare concerns

thats pretty reasonable i guess

he's reeeally pushing his luck

Mx why are they so shaped.

You're... you're alive.

Read as many times as needed

Love is stored in the hawk 🤎

oh to be a dog

i forgot to post this in November, but here's november's patreon postcard!!! Scorpio Races themed 🐎

My Fireforse 2011, 2012, 2016

@emilyscartoons sums it up perfectly💔 I'm heartbroken for all the people in the us that will be affected by this election, keep standing up for your rights and what you believe in❤️

It’s so fun when so-called “real greyhound advocates” dogpile me and question my credentials when I comment that just throwing dogs together in a field during critical socialisation periods doesn’t set them up well for future adoption.

Some other absolutely wild things that happened during this exchange that I can’t get over:

- Got told my degree doesn’t exist because their vet friend told them so

- Said that because I hadn’t written a book my experiences were invalid - and a 4 year degree and years of experience in canine behaviour consulting means nothing

- Said I was plagiarising other people’s work by providing a peer reviewed source on the socialisation of greyhounds (or lack thereof) - I never took credit for this work I just used it as a source of information to back up my experience

- Claimed that I was doing greyhounds a disservice by saying they were “pitiful and anxious” when I said that I work with greyhounds that are unable to leave the house due to extreme anxiety.

- Was laughed at when I said greyhounds I work with have leash reactivity

Idk I was trying real hard to be neutral and understanding of people passionate about greyhound racing as a sport but it’s pretty ridiculous to claim these dogs don’t have behaviour issues while “advocating” for them.

I get the defensiveness but … to deny a very real reality of anxiety and struggle that these dogs face when transitioning to pet life to protect your sport’s image does them a huge disservice.

I ended up deleting the whole thread because honestly? Someone who thinks providing a source is plagiarism and that behaviour problems in greyhounds simply don’t exist is just not worth talking to.

And I understand that the racing industry in America has significantly less welfare issues. At the very least it isn’t haemorrhaging dogs that are essentially being warehoused in kennels until an adoption agency with a year’s long waiting list can take them - which is what it is happening here in Australia.