Robber fly - Nature photographer Thomas Shahan specializes in amazing portraits of tiny insects. It isn't easy. Shahan says that this Robber Fly (Holcocephala fusca), for instance, is "skittish" and doesn't like its picture taken.

Nature by Numbers (Video)

"The Greater Akashic System" – July 15, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) (Subjects: Lightworkers, Intent, To meet God, Past lives, Universe/Galaxy, Earth, Pleiadians, Souls Reincarnate, Invention: Measure Quantum state in 3D, Recalibrates, Multi-Dimensional/Divine, Akashic System to change to new system, Before religion changed the system, DNA, Old system react to Karma, New system react to intent now for next life, Animals (around humans) reincarnate again, This Animal want to come back to the same human, Akashic Inheritance, Reincarnate as Family, Other Planets, Global Unity … etc.)

Question: Dear Kryon: I live in Spain. I am sorry if I will ask you a question you might have already answered, but the translations of your books are very slow and I might not have gathered all information you have already given. I am quite concerned about abandoned animals. It seems that many people buy animals for their children and as soon as they grow, they set them out somewhere. Recently I had the occasion to see a small kitten in the middle of the street. I did not immediately react, since I could have stopped and taken it, without getting out of the car. So, I went on and at the first occasion I could turn, I went back to see if I could take the kitten, but it was to late, somebody had already killed it. This happened some month ago, but I still feel very sorry for that kitten. I just would like to know, what kind of entity are these animals and how does this fit in our world. Are these entities which choose this kind of life, like we do choose our kind of Human life? I see so many abandoned animals and every time I see one, my heart aches... I would like to know more about them.

Answer: Dear one, indeed the answer has been given, but let us give it again so you all understand. Animals are here on earth for three (3) reasons.

(1) The balance of biological life. . . the circle of energy that is needed for you to exist in what you call "nature."

(2) To be harvested. Yes, it's true. Many exist for your sustenance, and this is appropriate. It is a harmony between Human and animal, and always has. Remember the buffalo that willingly came into the indigenous tribes to be sacrificed when called? These are stories that you should examine again. The inappropriateness of today's culture is how these precious creatures are treated. Did you know that if there was an honoring ceremony at their death, they would nourish you better? Did you know that there is ceremony that could benefit all of humanity in this way. Perhaps it's time you saw it.

(3) To be loved and to love. For many cultures, animals serve as surrogate children, loved and taken care of. It gives Humans a chance to show compassion when they need it, and to have unconditional love when they need it. This is extremely important to many, and provides balance and centering for many.

Do animals know all this? At a basic level, they do. Not in the way you "know," but in a cellular awareness they understand that they are here in service to planet earth. If you honor them in all three instances, then balance will be the result. Your feelings about their treatment is important. Temper your reactions with the spiritual logic of their appropriateness and their service to humanity. Honor them in all three cases.

Dian Fossey's birthday celebrated with a Google doodle

Dian Fossey's birthday celebrated with a Google doodle
American zoologist played by Sigourney Weaver in the film Gorillas in the Mist would have been 82 on Thursday (16 January 2014)

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Fur flies as US gets to grips with feral cats

Yahoo – AFP, Robert Macpherson, 14 April 2014

Cats are prepared to be spayed or neutered at the Washingon Human
 Society (WHS) Spay and Neuter Center, on April 6, 2014 (AFP Photo/
Mandel Ngan)

Cats are prepared to be spayed or neutered at the Washingon Human Society (WHS) Spay and Neuter Center, on April 6, 2014

Washington (AFP) - It's Friday night in Eckington, a quiet residential corner of Washington, and the back alley is crawling with feral cats -- rich pickings for seasoned cat-trapper Marty King.

"Here, kitty kitty kitty kitty," said King after setting four metal traps baited with flaked shrimp and fish cat food and lined with fresh newspapers.

Volunteer Marty King sets a trap for feral
 cats in a north-east Washington, DC,
neighborhood, on April 4, 2014 (AFP
Photo/Mandel Ngan)
"If they're hungry and they haven't seen traps before, they're not hard to catch," she explained.

"But some of them are very smart. There's a female I've been trying to get for a couple of years now and I haven't been able to get her yet."

Within 20 minutes, a young gray cat takes the bait -- and by Sunday lands on a veterinary operating table to be spayed or neutered under an ongoing program to bring Washington's feral cat population under control.

Coast to coast, the Humane Society of the United States estimates there are as many as 50 million feral cats, or "community cats" as their advocates prefer to call them. That compares to 95.6 million cats kept as pets.

For decades, standard procedure has been to round them up and euthanize them, but in recent years the trend has swung towards TNR -- trapping, then neutering, then returning cats to the places they were captured.

"Ultimately, our goal is to sterilize all outdoor cats and have them pass on through attrition," Scott Giacoppo, vice president for external affairs at the Washington Humane Society, told AFP.

"So if our plan or our goal happens, there won't be any feral cats."

Bird lovers disagree

Not everyone is convinced. Bird lovers in particular see a proliferation of homeless cats -- neutered, sterilized or otherwise -- posing a deadly threat to many avian species.

They cite a study from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and US Fish and Wildlife Service that estimated that "free-ranging domestic cats" kill a median of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals every year.

"Un-owned cats, as opposed to owned pets, cause the majority of this mortality," said the 2013 study, published in the scientific journal Nature, which called TNR "potentially harmful to wildlife populations."

The Centers for Disease Control has meanwhile asserted that "cats are more likely to be reported rabid in the United States" than dogs. Others say feral cats are potential carriers of infection and parasites.

Feral cats are prepared to be spayed or neutered at the Washington Human
 Society Spay and Neuter Center in Washington, DC, on April 6, 2014 (AFP
Photo/Mandel Ngan)

"The only sure way to simultaneously protect wildlife and people is to remove feral cats from the landscape," said the American Bird Conservancy in a petition sent in January to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

"It's certainly a hot-button issue," acknowledged Elizabeth Holtz, staff attorney for Alley Cat Allies, a Washington-based group that promotes TNR and rejects the oft-quoted Smithsonian study as "irresponsible and biased."

She cited the example of Jacksonville, Florida, which has seen "a huge decline in kittens entering their shelters and the number of cats they are euthanizing" since 2009 under a groundbreaking TNR scheme called Feral Freedom.

"Unfortunately, many communities in the United States still continue to trap and kill today, and those communities are not experiencing any change" in numbers of feral cats, Holtz told AFP.

Clipped ears

In Washington, every year, around 2,000 feral cats are trapped, sterilized, vaccinated and released -- with a clipped left ear to show for it -- under the Washington Humane Society's Cat Neighborhood Partnership Program, or CatNiPP.

The number has remained constant, something Giacoppo said might be due less to the cat population than to a growing number of volunteer trappers coming forward to help.

"It takes about five, maybe seven minutes for a female cat," said veterinarian Emily Swiniarski before 64 cats went under the knife one recent Sunday at the National Capital Area Spay and Neuter Center.

Feral cats run loose in a north-east
 Washington, DC, neighborhood, on
April 4, 2014 (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan)
"For a male tomcat, it takes less than 30 seconds," she added matter-of-factly. "It becomes a real production line -- a lot of cats, coming and going, coming and going."

Many cats get treated at the same time for various ailments.

"We see a lot of wounds," Swiniarski told AFP. "Occasionally we see old broken limbs that have healed over time. Lately we've been seeing a lot of upper respiratory infections -- snotty noses, stuff coming from their eyes."

As cats awaiting surgery meowed gently in towel-covered cages, Giacoppo recalled coming across a 1930s law book that informed humane societies that "part of our job is to round up all the stray cats and kill them."

"We've been doing that for years and years and it doesn't work," he said.

"We can't get people to help us trap cats to kill them -- but we can get people to help us trap cats to sterilize them so they don't make any more babies."

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