A blog by spcaLA president, Madeline Bernstein

May 20, 2016

Animals Happily Await Beer Drinking Boaters & Litterers!

see more photos from linked news item
A Florida brewery has proven that you can simultaneously be decadent and righteous - the ultimate multi task!

The company has created edible six-pack rings that can feed sea turtles, birds and other animal life that comes in contact with them. They are made from the byproducts of beer, including barley and wheat and are 100% biodegradable. This is so cool because the widely used plastic rings can entangle wildlife, cause digestive problems and can kill those ingesting them!

I also love this idea because it turns a problem into a solution. It acknowledges that you can't make everyone stop drinking and littering but you can ask them to, at least, use their litter to feed animals! How great is that!

There are already good corporate citizens that give back to non-profits like your spcaLA! We encourage people to indulge and spoil their pets by shopping in our marketplace, the proceeds of which support pets who have yet no home.

Imagine though, what more creative and exceptional innovation can do for us all!

Let's drink (and feed) to that!



May 17, 2016

Let Bison Be Bison

Tragically, a baby bison was euthanized in Yellowstone National Park after tourists, thinking the newborn needed help, put the calf in their car and drove to the ranger station. After unsuccessfully trying to reintroduce the baby to the herd, the National Park Service concluded that they lacked resources or options to care for the baby, and the baby was euthanized.

Wildlife and domestic pets are not the same. Wildlife responds differently to human intervention and unwanted touching. They are not domesticated. They abide by the rules of the wild. As such, there are laws that criminalize such interference whether it be a hummingbird (The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918), seals on the beach (The Marine Mammal Act) or United States Fish and Wildlife Rules regarding bison, In other words, the danger to humans notwithstanding, these laws are designed to allow our wildlife to behave naturally, in the wild.

Unfortunately, whether you mean well but are simply ignorant of the issues, determined to torment an animal in order to take a selfie, or just have an irresistible impulse to touch and get a closer look, the result is the same. The animal always suffers harm.

President Obama just declared the bison the Official Mammal of the United States. It is worth it to mention here that in the 1500's an estimated 30-60 million bison lived here. Now, there are about 500,000.

Today, there is 1 less.