Good News Tuesday: Ebola, No Kill Shelters, Donating a Bonus, and Tiger Come Back

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

 

Ebola May Be Curable!

Two experimental medications appear to dramatically boost survival rates for this disease which was once thought to be incurable.

“From now on, we will no longer say that Ebola is incurable,” said Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director general of the Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale.

Here’s the hopeful article.

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paw print from pixabay

Delaware Becomes the First “No Kill” Animal Shelter in the US

Best Friends Animal Society announced at its annual conference last month that Delaware has become the first no kill US shelter. To be considered “no kill” a state has to save at least 90% of the dogs and cats who come to their shelters. I’m guessing this makes allowances for the animals who are terminally ill, etc. to be euthanized.  Best Friends Animal Society’s goal is to make all US animal shelters “no kill” by 2025. They’re off to a good start. We as individuals can all do our part by spaying or neutering our pets and always adopting from a shelter instead of a breeder. Here’s the story from Good Morning America.

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School Superintendent Donates 10,000 Bonus to Seniors Applying for College

Grant Rivera, a school superintendent in Georgia, is eligible for a bonus every three years. In this CBS article he says, “I don’t believe that a bonus provided by the board should be earned on the backs of the teachers.” Maybe that’s one of the reasons he donated his bonus to help students pay college application fees.

 

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Tigers Are Coming Back  in India

This Guardian article indicates that, while tigers seem to be reproducing more in protected areas, they need to be able to disperse into a wider range for the numbers to be stable.  That is one of the challenges. Still, the increase in numbers is a significant achievement. I would love for the US government to take notice and follow this example to protect threatened wildlife.

Here’s more about tigers:

 

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Got good news? Feel free to share in the comments!

Or write your own good news post and link it back here. Good news can be global, local, or personal.

From Prison Cells to Sanctuaries

I have mixed feelings about zoos. I enjoyed taking my kids to the Milwaukee Zoo when they were young, and the zoo in Asheboro, NC had a lot of wide open spaces when we visited many years ago. Still, the big cats could have had more room. These zoos are more like parks, with some cages. The elephants, rhinos and antelope had plenty of pasture to roam. They were a far sight better than the roadside zoos which unfortunately still exist.

The zoos where animals are caged in spaces that remind me of prison cells should be illegal by now. I imagine what it would be like to have to stay in my living room all the time. That’s what some cages in roadside zoos are like for lions, and tigers and bears. They pace back and forth. I hate to even think about it.

In an ideal world, there would be no zoos, only sanctuaries and parks with natural habitats. But since zoos do exist, we can be sure to only support the most humane and natural facilities, or none at all. I applaud the work of Jane Goodall who has done so much to improve conditions for chimps, and those who create and maintain sanctuaries like the one Shirley goes to in this moving video:

We can make a world with no chains and no more cages, a world with love and compassion.

Today’s stream of consciousness prompt was, “zoo.” If you’d like to find out where your stream of consciousness take you, visit:

https://lindaghill.com/2016/04/29/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-3016/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

 

 

Saving Tigers

My Last Circus – Sentiments from the Big Top

My hope is that some day, not too far away, all elephants,
all lions, tigers and bears, will be wild and free or protected in natural sanctuaries.

I’m thankful to Jana Green for sharing her experience with such compassion.

The Beggar's Bakery

Photo by Jana Greene

By: Jana Greene

It would be my last circus.

I’d always loved the circus – everything about it. The popcorn and cotton candy, the distorted and loud fanfare music, the smell of sawdust in the enormous tent, and the animals. I especially loved the animals, garishly dressed in sequined headpieces that matched the tacky attire of their human counterparts. The animals – especially the elephants – always made my heart race.

But last year, the elephants only made my heart break.

I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but I knew in my heart of hearts that it would be the very last circus I’d  attend. I knew it for certain, because I couldn’t bear the pain on the animals’ faces. The elephants, in particular, with their intelligent eyes that don’t just reflect pain, but also the countenances of broken spirits. Listless, resigned, going through all…

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