It appears that instead of finding a solution to these horrific crimes, the law is working diligently to cover up these abuses and silence whistleblower employees. When this happens, illicit activities continue to occur behind closed doors.

Factory farms that are mistreating animals need to be put to an end. This includes industrialized agriculture with pigs, cows, or chickens. However, despite several attempts by individuals, non-profits, or journalists, there are still anti-whistleblower laws being passed.

Why does the law want to protect corporations treating animals inhumanely? Mainly to protect the agriculture industry from negative repercussions as well as their privacy. This continues to be an area of huge debate because if industries are not following protocol and treating animals inhumanely, they should be stopped, right?

An Overview on Ag-Gag Laws

Ag-gag laws are currently present in a total of 6 states (Wyoming, Iowa, Idaho, Utah, Missouri, and North Carolina). These bills were put in place to silence and punish whistle blowers who share information about animal cruelty within industrial farms. This includes taking photos, video recordings, or distributing materials that bring this serious issue to light.

The law seems to be silencing anyone who speaks about what happens behind closed doors because they pose a threat to massive organizations. Ag-gag laws also go against American values and principals. Polls continuously show that the majority of Americans are in favor of humane treatment of farm animals. This includes the moment they are born to the day they’re slaughtered.

Here’s are some of the things that ag-gag bills do:

• Ban individuals from taking a photo or video inside of a factory farm without prior permission from the owner.
• Considers it a crime for undercover investigators to be employed at a factory farm.
• Requires all violations to be reported immediately.

Fortunately, there are organizations like ASPCA that have defeated these bills in more than 20 states. Not only do these laws violate animals but they also present social issues negatively impacting food safety, workers rights, free speech, and environmental protection.

Who’s Against These Anti-Whistleblower Bills?

Americans are not happy about ag-gag bills. There are so many different organizations starting with the Humane Society of the United States that oppose these bills. More than 70 non-profit organizations and newspapers such as The New York Times and The Boston Globe are also against ag-gag bills.

Several other polls also show that the majority of Americans are in favor of whistleblowers, investigators, or journalists going undercover to expose these unhealthy practices. Americans are concerned about the suffering of animals and the food safety violations that are being brought forward by corporations.

As Americans, we deserve to know what’s happening behind closed doors especially if it affects the foods we’re eating. Without whistleblowers or undercover investigators, we would have never been exposed to the unsafe working conditions in industrialized animal agriculture. The activities that happen behind closed doors are horrific – it’s time we put an end to this devastating practice.

Join the Fight

If you’re ready to join the fight and help protect these animals, begin by learning more about this massive dilemma. Afterward, become a part of organizations like the Humane Society of the United States to learn about how you can help. This can include spreading awareness on this issue, reducing your consumption of animal products, and donating to the cause.

Photo Credit

Photo courtesy of the author

Guest Author Bio
Trenton J. Smith

Trenton is an aspiring writer who loves to research and write about a wide variety of topics. When he is not writing, he enjoys gardening and long walks with his dog Boomer.

What I found was not quite what I expected. The giraffes were kept inside a tall but narrow enclosure as the weather was too cold for them to stay outside, the penguins floated on a piece of plastic ice as it was just warm enough for the ice to melt, and there was little grass to be seen anywhere as it had not yet grown back after the harsh winter. I can still hear the pained roar of the tiger, still see the hopeless look in the eyes of the zebra, still feel the anxiety and hopelessness of the leopard as it paced around its cage. Many of the animals looked utterly depressed, quite in contrast to the humans around me, all smiling with churros and selfie sticks in hand.

It was a contrast that seemed illogical to me; so many people either did not care or did not notice what was to me the blatant unhappiness of the animals. I left the zoo with a pained and guilty heart. I had gotten my fill of fluffy animals. The meerkats seemed content enough in their small, windowed room as they climbed and perched on top of rocks with their tiny arms held at their chests, and my red panda swung playfully upside down on his little hut and practically made silly faces at his audience.

Still, I knew it wasn’t right for these animals to be kept under these conditions. The standards for this zoo were much too low, but about the same as the ones that govern animal enclosures around the world. Animal sanctuaries can be a place of recuperation and rescue, but no animal should be held captive except when necessary. Especially under these neglectful conditions.

Depression in Animals

Humans rely on animals as a source of happiness in more than one way: we watch cats spaz after laser pointers until they disappear behind furniture; we cuddle with our dogs who love us in a way that nothing else can; and some counselors even rely on animal-assisted therapy as a complementary form of therapy.

Unfortunately, humans don’t always return the favor. Scientists have researched depression in animals and have found many signs that indicate depression in them. Animals can show symptoms of depression through anhedonia (the loss of interest in pleasurable activities), changes in sleeping patterns, and changes in social interaction with other animals.

Mental health issues in people have only recently been taken seriously, but the same can’t be said for animals. Though the National Geographic reports that they have not yet been able to definitively prove depression in animals since animals can’t directly talk to humans, the evidence in favor of it is strong. Nonhuman primates in particular show human-like expression of emotion that trained observers can identify as depression, and this can be seen in other animals, especially in individual cases.

For example, in one case at an East Coast zoo, a female spotted leopard’s behavior drastically changed after its partner died. The 16-year-old animal was enclosed in a 12-foot-by-24-foot area and spent entire days lying on a eucalyptus tree that made up one of the very few features in the enclosure. The leopard also licked her tail until she was left with a bald spot and showed no interest in various treats the zoo provided for her.

This type of sad behavior is not limited to individual animals undergoing an emotional loss such as this leopard, but is widespread among zoo animals. In fact, the term “zoochosis” is used to describe “a repetitive, invariant behavior pattern with no obvious goal or function” that is only observed in captive animals. Caged elephants usually exemplify this by swaying, which can wrongly be confused as a playful, cute behavior. Unfortunately, what may be perceived as dancing is in reality a way for elephants to deal with the stress of living in a confined living area.

International Animal Enclosure Policies

Zoo animals exhibiting signs of depression emphasize that animal enclosure policies do not sufficiently meet basic living requirements for their inhabitants. Furthermore, animals that are not only on display but are also available for interaction are often abused. It is well known that zoos have come a long way in terms of the treatment of their animals, but the battle is far from over. The regulations for animal enclosures starts at an international level and tapers down to local legislation,

If the point of zoos was simply to enhance the lives of wildlife, there would be no reason to hold healthy animals captive. However, even last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved 18 elephants to be brought in from Swaziland to be exhibited and used for breeding.

In addition to countries bringing animals into zoos unnecessarily, some zoos around the world practice culling, the selective slaughter of healthy animals for population control. The New Yorker recently published an article on Danish zoos that have recently received backlash from around the world for culling. In 2014, a giraffe was euthanized, publicly dissected, and then fed to lions at the zoo. In 2016, a young, healthy lion was similarly dissected in front of a crowd.

In Denmark, culling is seen as an opportunity for education and providing extra meat, and though the practice was met with worldwide opposition, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) referred to culling as a management tool. EAZA also stated in response to opposition “that culling of animals is one of a range of scientifically valid solutions to the long term genetic and demographic sustainability of animal populations in human care.”

Internationally, the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) regulates the trade, import, and export of about 5,000 animals and their products. Participation in CITES laws is voluntary, and there are currently 183 parties to the convention.

Voluntary regulations make an important part of animal enclosure rules, but it makes it difficult to maintain a decent standard for the enclosures; only 2.3 percent of the world’s zoos are regulated, according to American Humane. This association has “developed the first-ever independent, scientific and evidence-based third-party humane certification program focusing solely on the well-being of the animals living in these institutions.” The American Human states that zoos all around the world, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia, are stepping forward to be audited to meet these standards.

Conflict of Interest

Research has found that the size of cages has a direct impact on the animal’s health and, despite the regulations in place, are not big enough for some species. Though some animals benefit from sanctuaries and don’t develop the necessary skills to survive in the wild, and the purpose for some zoos is species preservation and reversing animal endangerment, zoos shouldn’t exist unless they provide a better environment than what animals would otherwise live in. The only reason a wild animal should be put in an enclosure in the first place is if it was confronted with danger and needs to be protected.

Containing animals without proper cause in cages that don’t meet their needs is cruel and only speaks to the base desire of humans to view the animals for entertainment. The best way to protect wild animals is to protect their natural environments and respect their space. The Galapagos Islands exemplify this, as they place extensive animal and environmental protection laws while offering unique opportunities to experience unusual flora and fauna. The Lehe Ledu Wildlife Zoo in Chongqing city in China similarly allows for people to see animals without caging them. This zoo reverses the roles between captors and captives, where the animals roam free and the visitors step into a caged truck to separate themselves from the animals.

Similarly, National Geographic recently opened an exhibition called Encounter: Ocean Odyssey, in New York City. The key factor for this marine biology exhibit? It features no live animals, but instead screens the creatures using National Geographic’s archives of footage and animation from the Game of Thrones technology crew. The goal of the redefined aquarium is to enhance the scientific education for the public while respecting the health and safety of aquatic animals, and 27 percent of the ticket sales will be put towards conservation.

Though humans love animals, sometimes it’s best to do so from a distance, or at the very least put their interests before ours. By reinventing the concept of animal exhibitions we can put the focus on the well-being of animals instead of our own pleasure. There is no such thing as a zoo animal. All animals were born to live in the wild — hence the term “wildlife” — with the exception of a few domesticated breeds. Even so, we label certain species as “zoo animals,” as if they were born to live their lives in cages, when the cages we put them don’t meet the basic requirements for any animal to live in.

Photo Credits

Photos are pexels public domain

Guest Author Bio
Geo Sique

Geo Sique is a writer from Boise, ID with a bachelor’s’ degrees in Communication and French and a background in journalism. When she’s not travelling outside Idaho, she loves rock climbing, hot springs, camping, and exploring the world around her.

Website: Georgette Siqueiros 

There were two issues that made my knees shake. Firstly, how do we keep the attention of 150 teenagers in this day and age of multi-media and secondly, what is a good life?

I had just completed a book on our life called “The Unknown Path to Success” therefore it was apparent that when we started our journey we had no idea how to succeed in life so how was I to tell these teenagers how we eventually achieved our goals in a very unconventional way. Our take on school probably didn’t please the teachers but when you can’t function in a school setting, a person has be innovative or succumb to failure. I believe in the end the students understood what we were trying to tell them.

Robin and I were married in 1972 with absolutely no money in our pockets and a family and friends who voted us the least likely couple to succeed in our marriage or life. To their amazement we have now been married over 40 years.

We had no plans of failing and that topic never entered our minds even when the fridge was empty and the jobs were few.

We had three children and plugged along as any other family would do with lots problems but the constant was our love for each other.

To define a good life is difficult as one person’s perception of a good life may be different than mine. My explanation to the students evolved around one word which was ‘Passion’.

Let me tell you about our passion and you will notice that this passion is not singular as my husband and I worked together on a plan that lead us on a journey beyond even our comprehension.

Neither Robin or I had any schooling and failed miserably at what we did get. Robin was dyslexic and suffered through school waiting for the day of escape. I found school boring but excelled in drama and typing. Typing is what got me a job.

Our employment consisted of dish washing, janitorial work, office clerk, bank teller, and retail. Life was a struggle but we decided from an early age that we would set two goals and they were; always working for ourselves and to own our own property someday. We had to work harder than most people and sometimes our family suffered for it but in the end we achieved both those goals.

Finally we were able to go into partnership to own a convenience store and gas station. One day life changed when Robin found a Great Horned Owl in a barbed wire fence in the nearby property. The wing was completed mangled and the bird needed immediate assistance. That one bird turned into hundreds of injured animals and we started a wildlife recovery centre on central Vancouver Island.

We didn’t have a clue how to repair any of their injuries but we knew the people who did and that’s what life has been like. We may not be able to do it ourselves but we surrounded ourselves with intelligent and willing participants. Robin had the dream, I did the office work and others helped.

Today the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre is a world class rehabilitation centre which invites the public to visit our non-releasable birds and animals. The centre specializes in raptors and Vancouver Island Black Bears. We have seen things and met people that we shake our head at. Robin has been featured in the Daily Planet Book, received many awards for his work with wildlife and still continues to build on the centre. His school teacher told him he would do nothing other than dig ditches. Well, he was wrong.

But there is more to our life that most people do not know about. For the last twenty six years Robin and I have cared for three mentally challenged individuals who have lived in our home and were raised with our children. It is an immense task with a huge responsibility.

This brings us to the word ‘Passion’. We knew that to have a “Good Life” we needed to love what we did. We knew everything that we didn’t like so we set our sights on the outrageous or unique project that no one else would think of. It became our passion to care for animals and humans alike.

We allowed ourselves to discovery things about ourselves that not even we knew about. I failed every subject in school including English but in the last two years I have written three books. I put out two gospel CDs, paint, learned how to play a bass guitar and sang on a music video for the wildlife centre which won an award. I overcame my fear and volunteered in a men’s prison for eighteen years and recently stayed on the street for three days bringing attention to the homeless in our area.

I tell you these things not to brag but to encourage you to use the gifts that God has given you when others say you are not good enough. A Good Life is being free to find your passions.

Robin and I are partners and we support and up hold each other in our goals. We have lived our life using God’s wisdom and his leading. I believe we finally found our path to success and do live a good life.

Guest Author Bio – Sylvia Campbell
Born in l951 and raised in a small Alberta town, Sylvia was the youngest of four children from good and decent parents.

At fourteen years of age she began taking singing lessons and has pursued gifting her voice to others whenever she could, more recently teaching inmates guitar and gospel music in a men’s prison.

She is married to Robin Campbell and has three children and two grandchildren. Together they established the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre in Errington, BC on Vancouver Island and operate a group home for the mentally disabled. She founded the Errington Therapeutic Riding Program in l990 which still continues today.

Both Robin and Sylvia are born again Christians and live by the teaching of the bible.

Sylvia recently began writing and painting. She continues to ride her trike motorcycle and spends time with her grandchildren.

Although life has slowed down for her, she still is involved with animals and the care of humans.

Blog / Website:  North Island Wildlife Recovery Association (www.niwra.org)

Sun Spots © Alison Nicholls
Acrylic on Canvas 29 x 29″

In 2007 an Artists For Conservation fellowship grant allowed me to spend 6 weeks with the Painted Dog Conservation project (PDC) in Zimbabwe, tracking & sketching highly endangered African wild dogs.  On my own sketching trips I often aim to leave people and villages behind, seeking space to sketch the natural behavior of undisturbed animals, but visiting a conservation project is completely different. They often work closely with local communities, providing education about the natural environment or reducing human-wildlife conflict, and as a result I saw more clearly the difficult issues facing both people & wildlife in Africa today. My exciting artistic experience in Zimbabwe prompted me to contact the African People & Wildlife Fund (APW) in Tanzania, to see and sketch another project in action in a different part of Africa.  Shown below are 2 of my conservation-themed paintings based on my visits to PDC and APW.

On the Edge © Alison Nicholls
Acrylic on Canvas 24 x 30”

On The Edge is based on the doctoral thesis of Dr Esther van der Meer and shows African wild dogs leaving Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, and entering the surrounding buffer zone – a mix of commercial farms, communal areas, trophy hunting & photographic safari areas. The right-hand side of the painting represents the national park while the left-hand side represents the buffer zone. The border of the painting consists of the spoor (tracks) of kudu, impala, lion, hyena, people and vehicles.

The buffer zone contains similar densities of the dogs’ main prey species, impala and kudu, but thicker vegetation than in the national park, resulting in higher hunting success, shorter chases, better fed dogs and larger litters of pups. Lions and hyenas, which may steal kills, or even kill dogs & their pups, are also less common in the buffer zone.  On The Edge illustrates this with consistent numbers of impala and kudu tracks throughout, but more lion and hyena tracks inside the national park (right-hand side of painting). Dogs use these ecological clues to decide where to live, but in the buffer zone they unknowingly expose themselves to increased human activity and dogs are snared, shot and run over on the roads at a rate faster than they can reproduce. This is illustrated in On The Edge by the people & vehicle tracks which are only found in the buffer zone (left-hand side of painting).

Fencing the national park to keep dogs inside would restrict the movement of other species, while altering the vegetation density and lion/hyena numbers inside the park to entice dogs to stay there would be a daunting task with ramifications for the entire habitat. One viable conservation option is to make the buffer zone safer for dogs and other species by reducing snares, limiting speed limits on roads and educating people about living with dogs – all of which are areas of focus for the PDC project. 35% of the proceeds from the sale of On The Edge were donated to the PDC project to help make the buffer zone safer for Painted Dogs.

Maize Maze © Alison Nicholls
Acrylic on Canvas, 28 x 28”

Maize Maze shows a Maasai herder and his cattle surrounded by maize, much of it eaten by animals or dying through lack of water. The painting covers a topic discussed by the community of Loibor Siret during a Rangelands Management Seminar at Noloholo, headquarters of the APW in Tanzania. Pastoralists like the Maasai move their livestock seasonally to find better pasture (even though their family and some animals may remain behind at the homestead). Many are finding their seasonal movements restricted by the proliferation of agriculture, which often leads to their livestock overgrazing the areas still remaining to them. In addition, many of the new farms are unproductive, thanks to erratic & unevenly distributed rainfall, and the destruction of unguarded crops by wildlife.

The International Institute for Environment and Development estimates that 40% of Africa’s population lives in drylands, that the traditional livestock sector in Tanzania produces 70% of the country’s milk, and that 50 million livestock producers support their families with livestock fed solely on drylands pastures across East and West Africa. In ‘Modern and Mobile: the Future of Livestock Production in Africa’s Drylands’, IIED points out that pastoralism is vital for millions of people across Africa and could prove even more vital in the future as pastoralists, unlike farmers, can adapt to a changing climate. 30% of the sale proceeds of Maize Maze were donated to the APW in Tanzania.

Image Credits

All Images Are © Alison Nicholls

Alison Nicholls Artist Bio

Alison Nicholls is a member of Artists For Conservation, the Society of Animal Artists, the Explorers Club, the Salmagundi Club and a member of the Creative Board of Pencils For Africa. She lived in Botswana & Zimbabwe for a number of years and returns annually to sketch in the field and lead Sketching Safaris for Africa Geographic Magazine. Her Conservation Sketching Expeditions allow her to work closely with African conservation projects, visit them in the field, learn about their work and sketch on site. On return to the studio she creates a traveling exhibition and lecture series to raise awareness and funds for the conservation project. Alison is English by birth but has traveled widely and currently resides in Port Chester, New York, with her husband Nigel.

Website:  www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Blog:  Alison Nicholls: Art Inspired by Africa

Follow Alison Nicholls on:  Facebook

This statement probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to most people, because we know that most of us are assholes; in fact I bet you know a lot of people who are a lot more asshole-ish than you thought possible.

“Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” Ann Landers

I was listening to the radio the other day and heard about a scientist who had trained his dog to sit in an MRI; he (the scientist, not the dog) was able to come up with scientific evidence that dogs are thinking, feeling, sentient creatures. Now for most people that shouldn’t come as any kind of surprise. Most of us (at least I hope that most of us) are aware of the fact that dogs are in fact thinking, feeling, sentient beings. And I’m willing to bet that not only dogs, but cats, pigs, dolphins, whales, rats, etc…etc., are thinking, feeling, sentient beings who are nicer than most human beings. Again, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

“The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” Andy Rooney

But it is nice to hear that there are people – educated, thoughtful, kindly people – who use their time to dig into the lives of those creatures who we share this planet with, and who advocate for those animals. The scientist said that his findings not only changed how he thought about his dog, but how he thought about all the other animals on the planet.

What is not so nice to hear are those ignorant, self-deceiving, hateful people, who deliberately go out of their way to try and convince everyone that he is wrong. Not wrong because their specific scientific discoveries show the opposite findings, but wrong because they said so, or that their particular religion said so, or Uncle Cletus said so.

“If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.” James Thurber

“God gave mankind dominion over all the animals on earth,” these ignorant wags blather on. Which of course means that whatever cruelty, mistreatment, torture, and ignorance we choose to mete out to our pets, livestock, and wild animals is okay, “cause god said so. So there.”

Assholes.

When I was a kid I was taking a short-cut home and saw two boys throwing rocks at a dog which they had tied to a tree. It was obvious that quite a few of the rocks had hit their mark already because the dog was bleeding quite badly. When I started yelling at them to stop, one of them said that dogs don’t feel pain because it didn’t do anything when it got hit, and with that he let a rock fly which hit the dog with a thump. The poor dog just sat there with its tongue hanging out and panting. That was his proof.

I almost felt the pain of it myself, so not thinking, I picked up a long branch and struck the boy across the back as hard as I could. Both boys were at least two years older than me, and at least a head taller, but the cowards decided not to take on a screaming, crazed ten year old, who was swinging a branch like a club, and calling them every shocking name she could think of. Now had I been tied to a tree I’m pretty sure things wouldn’t have gone so well for me.

In those days we didn’t have a Humane Society, or an SPCA, but there was a lady in town who had started an organization to help animals in need. I had to carry the dog home because he was too injured to walk, and my mother called the woman to come and get it. Later we found out that he had to be put down because his injuries were too numerous to fix. I had nightmares for the rest of the year.

One of those boys was an altar boy in the church; he’s married now and has a couple of kids of his own. The other tried a short stint in politics, is divorced and works as a car salesman. Even forty years later I can’t stand the sight of either of them.

“I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.” Abraham Lincoln

We don’t need science to prove to us that animals have feelings; we can see that for ourselves. But as a species we’ve done a really good job convincing ourselves that the opposite is true. Probably because it’s easier to live in the land of denial than to acknowledge the pain and suffering we inflict on these poor beings.

I think that what we need to do is take all the proofs that are piling up and use them to better the treatment of all the inhabitants on the planet.

Perhaps then we wouldn’t be such major assholes.

Image Credits

“Dog Nurse II” by overdrive_cz. Creative Commons Flickr. Some rights reserved.

As filmmaker and writer, Patricia has a passion for large-brained megafauna – from dolphins, to primates, to elephants. Her quest to portray the interrelationships between humans and animals has led her around the globe in pursuit of the issues that threaten these relationships. She is currently working on an advocacy film to raise awareness about the plight of Asian elephants called “Elephants Never Forget.”

Patricia is also a regular author at Life As A Human.

Website: Elephants Never Forget         Follow: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

LAAH: What exactly is it that you do?

PS: I’m a documentary filmmaker, and I make films about environmental and wildlife conservation issues.  For the past four years I have been working on films about elephants.  Presently I am fund-raising to finish my feature-length documentary called “Elephants Never Forget”.

LAAH:  When did you start?

PS: I began making documentaries in the early 1990’s.  At that time I was working as a network television producer in Toronto.  I made my first television documentary in 1991.  It was about dolphin communication research, and the problems they face in captivity.  After that I moved to Japan, and worked on several documentary projects for international television about ocean conservation, and dolphin and whale issues.  Since then I have been an independent filmmaker, making documentaries around the world about our relationships with animals, and nature.

LAAH:  Why do you do it and what is the motivation or passion that keeps you going?

PS: Independent filmmaking is tough work. It requires focus and dedication, but it also has tremendous rewards.  My passion for the stories I follow is what keeps me going. I believe that spreading awareness through films is one of the most powerful ways to inspire change and make the world a better place – not only for humans, but for animals too.  People will be inspired to act on an issue if they care.  Film is an emotional medium.  Films inspire people to care.

LAAH: Do you feel that what you have done so far has made a difference? If so, can you explain how?

PS: As a filmmaker, one of the ways I know if I’ve made an impact is from audience response – and by watching how changes on the issue occur in culture over time.  As a filmmaker, I believe that I am a conduit for communicating the issues that are affecting our world.  Since my particular interest is in telling stories that reflect our relationship with the environment and wildlife, I strive to provide people with a new perspective on these issues.  Over the years, I have received a lot of positive feedback about the films I have made. People have shared with me how they have been inspired and educated about our relationships with nature and animals, and the issues that are threatening these relationships.  Change takes time. The first step is bringing awareness to what needs to be changed.  Then people can be motivated to act.

LAAH: Who are your allies and supporters in this enterprise?

PS: I am blessed to be working with an amazing team of creative people. Our current project “Elephants Never Forget” is an independent and self-funded production.  Making this film in this way would not be possible without the dedication, collaboration and shared vision of these people.
My long-time filmmaking colleague Michael Clark, who is an exceptionally talented editor and cinematographer, has worked with me on several documentaries and has been a great ally in these pursuits – no matter how impossible they seem!

LAAH: Do you have plans to grow your involvement, to expand the scope of your project? If so, can you elaborate on these plans?

PS: My first step is to complete the “Elephants Never Forget” feature-length documentary, which will be released internationally to audiences worldwide through diverse media outlets.  We are very active with social media for this project and are also developing an educational online strategy that will accompany the release of this film.  We are affiliated with several non-profit elephant conservation organizations that will be part of our educational outreach programme to educate young and old alike about the plight of elephants, the social and economic realities of these issues, and what the solutions can be.  The imminent extinction of elephants is a global issue that affects us all.  I believe that all of nature, which includes us, is interconnected.  What happens to animals, habitats and people in other places does ultimately impact the matrix of life that we are all a part of, and which we all share.

LAAH: Like anything in life worth working for, there must be difficulties and struggles too. Can you share with us what have been your greatest challenges?

PS: Funding is the biggest challenge. Convincing people that what we are doing is worthy is a challenge.  In the midst of adversity, not doubting yourself and your vision is a challenge that I have learned to overcome.  The work itself, making films, being creative with what we have learned and sharing it, is a joyful process filled with passion and focus – and that’s what keeps me going.

LAAH: How can people help you?

PS: People can help by spreading awareness about “Elephants Never Forget” and, if they can, by making a donation towards the completion of this film.  We are editing the film and require funding support to complete this crucial stage of the project.  Audience contributions towards the completion of “Elephants Never Forget” will help us meet this goal.

Patricia Sims talks about Saving Elephants

Help Finish Elephants Never Forget

Funding Deadline March 28, 2013 PST
Be an elephant and don’t forget!

The Life As A Human team thanks Patricia for all of the great work she is doing and for giving us this interview. If you know Patricia, or if her work has touched your life in some way, please leave her a comment.

We know she would love to hear from you!

Photo Credits

All Photos Are © CanazWest Pictures Inc

The CITES conference opened in Bangkok on March 3 with a pledge by Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to end Thailand’s domestic ivory trade. Could this be a small victory for elephants? Maybe. This landmark announcement is in response to the 500,000+ elephant advocates who signed the WWF petition, which was presented to the Prime Minister with a personal appeal from Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio.

This is a complex issue for Thailand. Elephants are highly revered in Thai culture and are important to the country’s history, economy and environment. But its long-standing domestic ivory trade is meant only for the buying and selling of ivory from domestic Thai elephants. Many believe that this domestic legal trade has been a convenient loophole that has allowed the illegal ivory from Africa to be smuggled through Thailand en route to China, and into the ivory market within Thailand too. There are a myriad of reasons why an amendment to this Thai law might curtail the smuggling, but it may also be missing the point. Will it stop the slaughter of thousands of elephants for their tusks?

China’s growing demand for ivory shows no sign of letting up. Decisions made over the next two weeks in Bangkok will determine the future fate of elephants. Changing the Thai law may be a small victory for elephants, but will it win the war? Our film Elephants Never Forget is the story about this fragile relationship between elephants and us. Please take a moment to visit our Indiegogo campaign to learn more about how you can help us complete this film. 

Photo Credit

Photo ©canazwest pictures – All Rights Reserved

I am haunted by the fact that every day I read more terrible news about the escalating slaughter of African elephants for their ivory; the increasing and senseless market demand for ivory by avaricious consumers who are unaware of the bloodbath their purchases are encouraging – or who simply don’t care; the depth of corruption across international borders that enables this illegal trade; the tragic deaths of both humans and elephants due to conflicts resulting from the loss of wild habitat; and most recently the awful poisoning of 14 endangered wild pygmy elephants in Borneo – the most endangered elephants of all.  It’s a startling fact that on every front the elephants, and their pachyderm cousins the rhinos, are the victims of an unprecedented genocide driven by humanity’s materialistic lust and greed.  What can any of us do about this?

Elephant Heaven

While the dedicated, brave conservationists and anti-poaching squads work on-the-ground in various African countries doing their best to fight the poachers and protect the elephants, they still must watch powerlessly as the elephants they can’t help in time get gunned down by people who are driven by other agendas.  These articles written by Iain and Oria Douglas-Hamilton of the Save the Elephants Foundation in Kenya passionately express the tragedy of this reality.

There are groups and individuals who work quietly and tirelessly behind the scenes trying to investigate and dismantle the corruption that enables this illegal trade to occur.  This corruption is riddled with complexity. It spans between countries. It involves governments and enforcement agencies whose efforts are hobbled by secret grafts that exchange hands and entice many to turn a blind eye to ivory passing through whatever border, port or airport, en route to the shops of Thailand, China, and beyond.   But it’s not just the mainstream ivory collector who drives this market demand.  Recent reports by journalist Bryan Christy expose that religious icons carved from ivory are highly coveted by the Catholic Church.

And what about the poachers, who are they?  In more and more cases they are trained militia who see ivory as currency, a means by which they or their leaders can acquire what they really seek – arms, drugs, power, control.  They are outfitted with the most sophisticated killing gear – hi-powered scope rifles, machine guns, helicopters, night vision cameras and the like – moving expertly in the night slaughtering herds of elephants in one spree.  But in other cases these killers are lowly impoverished hunters operating at a small scale to cull a few elephants to sell the ivory to local dealers for a fraction of its trading price, making just enough money to keep them, their families, their villages sustained for several months.  It’s true that in some of these cases these people too are the victims of exploitation and corruption.  Yet for all of the poachers who are arrested or killed, and for all of the ivory that is seized and stored in warehouses around the world from Tanzania, to Thailand, to Rome reports show it represents a mere fraction of the ivory and the killers that get away.  And the ones who really pull the strings – the international smuggling overlords and kingpins – they remain untouchable because there is simply too much money to be made.  The economics of extinction are high with raw elephant ivory now worth over $1,000 a kilogram. The resulting carvings created by skilled artists in workshops supported by the Chinese government can fetch tens of thousands of dollars or more.

Elephant RIP

Again, what can we do about this?   Many of us in the media have been documenting and following the escalation of reports coming from the conservation front lines of Africa and Asia.  As filmmakers, my team and I are trying to do our part by communicating these issues to a broader audience.  Mass mainstream awareness and education about the issues is the first step to bringing global change.  It is still a shocking fact to me that many Asian consumers don’t realize that most of the carved ivory available to purchase comes from wild African elephants that have been illegally killed. A wild elephant will not just stand by idly while its tusk is removed. The small amount of legal ivory that enters the market from legitimate sources, such as the trimmed tusks of captive elephants, elephants who have died of natural causes, or from the prehistoric mammoth carcasses unearthed from Siberia’s permafrost, represents a mere fraction of the tonnes of ivory from illegal sources that is sold to uninformed consumers. In 1989 the ivory trade was banned but this hasn’t seemed to matter much. In 2008 a one-time sanctioned sale to China and Japan of legal ivory stockpiled from elephants culled in South Africa is believed to have triggered the frenzy of poaching that has been escalating ever since.

By communicating these stories about what is happening to the world’s elephants we are igniting a much-needed international outcry.  We need to generate mass awareness during this most significant time in history for the elephants’ survival.  Public pressure is critical and it can make a difference at the CITES Conference taking place in Bangkok March 3 to 14.  Representatives from 176 countries will meet on the issues, the laws and provisions for wildlife trade, wildlife products, and if the ivory trade should be legalized or not. It’s very fitting that this year the CITES Conference is being held in Thailand – the land of elephants.  As we’ve been filming for Elephants Never Forget we have learned that Thailand has an old law that allows the trade of “legal” ivory from “domesticated” elephants – a legal loophole that has made Thailand the hub of ivory smuggling, permitting illegal poached ivory from Africa to be feigned as “legal” ivory and moved through Thailand and onwards to other Asian countries.  Read more about this issue here.

Why should we care?  Because the genocide of elephants is not just a local or regional issue.  It is a global issue. Elephants belong to this world as much as we do.  And by losing elephants we are losing one of the key pillars in the matrix of life on this planet.  What happens to elephants is what happens to us.

It’s important to remember that elephants play a significant role in nature.  As a keystone species, they are the caretakers of vast ecosystems –  from the forests and savannah of Africa, to the lush green jungles of SEAsia where they still roam.  Elephants shape and manage these habitats, creating biodiversity and making it possible for other plants and animals to live there.  Without the elephants these habitats would topple.  But there is another reason we should be concerned about the plight of elephants.  It’s because elephants are a lot like us.

As a filmmaker I have spent most of my career in nature filming wildlife and I’ve learned to respect and observe animals as wild.  I believe that all nature is sentient and essential.  But after four years of filming elephants under many different circumstances I’ve come to believe that elephants are more than just animals.  They are special.  They possess many of the higher qualities that we aspire to have ourselves.  I’ve seen elephants mourn their dead, care for each other, exhibit empathy, joy and sadness, and remember.  Science has shown that their large brains are comparable to ours, and they exhibit social behavior and empathy that is very human-like. Elephants feel emotions like we do. Their long memories suggest that they have an understanding of their environments and relationships with each other, and with us, which are more profound than we can imagine.  Their memory is their survival, and that’s why elephants never forget.  But when the magnificent bull and matriarch elephants who lead the social groups are killed for their tusks,  their precious elephant memory banks are lost forever, leaving traumatic impacts on the memory and survival skills of the younger elephants who remain.

Filmmaker Patricia Sims on location in Thailand

So what can any of us do?  On August 12, 2012 we launched World Elephant Day with a list of elephant organizations and things that we can all do to help elephants.  Support the elephant conservation organizations that are doing the on-the-ground work to fight poaching. Support the organizations that are protecting wild habitat where elephants can continue to live.  Support the organizations that are lobbying for new and stronger laws and enforcement measures to protect elephants, rhinos, and all wildlife from poaching and extinction.  Help us continue to get the word out through supporting the completion of our feature-length film Elephants Never Forget, which explores the deeper issues that affect the future for elephants and us. We have launched our Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign to raise the funds we need to finish this independent film that has been four-years-in-the-making.

Take action in any way you can.  Because if we lose the elephants, we will lose the greatest battle of all – the battle against greed and corruption.  And in doing so we will lose our humanity.

Photo Credits

All Photos ©canazwest pictures – All Rights Reserved

In the case of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, there are several habitats or tanks for marine mammals and they are joined so that animals can swim from one tank into another.  How do you get a whale to go from one tank into another when you want it to?  Simple.  You use positive training to teach the whale to move.  Ken Ramirez, director of training and animal husbandry for the Shedd Aquarium, has helped to develop training protocols for literally dozens of different animals.  Much of that training involves simple behaviours that make the day to day care and management of the animals easier for the humans and much less stressful for the animals.

If you can’t throw a fish, learn to train

The roots of reinforcement training based on behavioural science were in science labs at universities.  But marine mammal trainers quickly saw the value in positve training techniques and began adopting them as early as the 1960’s.  Offering a dolphin or whale a fish for offered behaviours provided an easy, stress free, and fun way to teach large marine mammals to do the things the trainers wanted.  But a simple problem cropped up.  If there is more than one animal in the tank, how to you provide the reinforcement without creating a competition for the fish?

Well, one solution would be to get really good at throwing fish accurately so that you can reinforce just the right dolphin for the behaviour he just gave you.  But there was an easier way.  Why not let the dolphin come to you?  Trainers again took a technique from university behaviour labs and began using a whistle to mark a correct behaviour.  The whistle served two purposes, it both marked the exact behaviour the trainer was looking for and also signalled the animal to come to the side of the pool to receive their reward.

This mark and reward technique was so successful that many professional animal trainers began using it to train not just sea mammals but many other species like horses and bears.  Animal Behaviour Enterprises (ABE), founded by Kellar and Marian Breland, trained more than 15,000 animals and 140 different species using their behavioural training techniques.  Along with animal trainer Bob Bailey, the Brelands and Animal Behaviour Enterprises literally revolutionized animal training with an approach firmly based in science.

What’s good for the chicken is good for the dog

Among the animals trained by ABE for use in advertising were chickens.  Some of these chickens were taught to play a short melody on a toy piano and others were taught to dance on a small platform.  Chickens can be difficult to train.  They are fast moving and do not possess the natural affinity to humans that dogs have.  This makes them excellent subjects for behavioural training and perfect helping trainers sharpen their skills with positive training techniques.

For nearly 20 years, Terry Ryan of Legacy Canine Behaviour & Training has been offering “Chicken Camps” to help trainers become more skilled at teaching animals.  The same principles that apply to carefully observing, marking, and reinforcing behaviours in chickens also apply to dogs.  If you can train a chicken with behavioural techniques, you can certainly use them to teach a dog.  Or a rhinoceros, as it happens!

Rhinos and Ibis and Bears?  Oh my!

What if you could teach a rhinoceros to “sit” on cue?  How about teaching it to lie down and roll on its side on cue?  This might sound ridiculous but that’s just what trainers at the Denver Zoo did.  And it wasn’t just an exercise to see if  they could do it.  The behaviours are very useful in performing routine maintenance and medical procedures as well.  You can see video of this amazing rhino on Karen Pryor’s column at clickertraining.com”; you will find it about half way down the page.

Bird keeper Elsa Mark of the Philadelphia Zoo had an issue with her Northern Bald Ibis.  It seems that these birds developed a skin condition that was related to stress in that particular species.  As you might guess, the routine maintenance of the Ibis habitat was a very stressful event for these birds.  Training the birds to take food from the hand of a keeper, move to a target mat in response to a pointing cue, and even to voluntarily move in and out of transport crates on cue was accomplished in less than 3 months.  And while this overall reduction in stress provided by the training improved the quality of the lives of the Ibis, something even more interesting happened.  The Ibis began to play!  For the first time since the Ibis had been kept at the Philadelphia Zoo, bird keepers began seeing an recording incidents of individual birds playing with leaves and then incidents where two or more birds would play the “leaf” game.  The overall reduction in stress that positive training had provided didn’t just yield new behaviours in the birds, it seemed to allow them to open up to a more fulfilling lifestyle.

And the good news doesn’t stop here.  Lizards, fish, birds of prey, hyenas, and even bears have been trained using behavioural science and reinforcement techniques.  There seems to be no end to how behavioural science can be applied to training all kinds of species, even humans.  The process of marking and reinforcing desired behaviours in humans is being developed by TAGteach International.  Applications of behavioural training have been developed for improving occupational safety, teaching proper techniques in sports, and working with the autistic and disabled.  It seems like positive training using behavioural science is making a positive contribution in the lives of many animals and many people as well.

Gone to the dogs

In a recent online interview, Canadian dog trainer Brad Pattison was quoted as saying that the idea of a Chicken Camp to teach animal trainers “sounds stupid.”  Pattison goes on to say “Training a Chicken isn’t going to teach you anything about yourself or your abilities with dogs.”  How is it that such a media personality and someone who certifies other dog trainers through his program could be ignorant of the fundamentals of behavioural science and how they apply to training not just to chickens, but to all animals including dogs!

There seems to be a separate world in which many dog trainers and dog owners live.  In that world, the lessons learned from science about training techniques and principles simply do not apply to dogs.  Behavioural and reinforcement training that works on everything from lizards to rhinos to people somehow doesn’t work as well on dogs, according to them.  They have developed their own training methods involving shock collars, choke chains, intimidation, and fear.  And where does their world and the rest of the world come together?  There methods produce the results that people want.  They can train well behaved dogs and do it well, if getting results is what matters.

But it does lead me to wonder how a dog trainer like Brad Pattison would solve the problem of moving a whale with his training methodologies.  Could you really use a shock collar to teach a rhino to “sit” or “stay”?  Maybe Cesar Millan would like to step into an enclosure with a bear and try one of his patented “Pssshhttt!” corrections on a black bear.  

Interestingly, Ken Ramirez the marine mammal trainer can also train dogs.  And monkeys.  And birds.  It seems that all of this positive reinforcement behavioural training works on dogs just as it has on dozens of other species.  Remarkably we haven’t seen books from Millan, Pattison, or a host of other force trainers showing how their techniques can be used on other species.  Perhaps that’s an important point.  Perhaps their methods can only work on a species that was bred to work with humans no matter what.  Perhaps they only work because the dog is just the right intelligence level, just the right physical size, and has just the right temperament to respond to their force-based approach.

Personally, my money is on the training science that works on hundreds of species and not just one.  Training is not magic.  Training is education.  It’s teaching.  And if everything from fish to birds to people can be taught using positive reinforcement, why would you waste time with anything else in training your dog?  Frankly, I’m baffled.

Until next time, have fun with your dogs.

Cooperation is better than intimidation.

Photo credits –

Killer Whale – Antony Pranata 2009  from Flickr
Chicken Training – http://www.bluefencebassets.com/training.html 2008
Rhino – DJRphoto36  2011 from Flickr 

The film is launched today for World Elephant Day, August 12, 2012
Watch the film on the www.worldelephantday.org home page.