Who is Jane Goodall

Every Sunday in church, the children get a handout that makes them think about how to become better, more caring people. Today’s handout listed four individuals that parents were to tell their children about. There was the Dalai Lama, Caesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, and Jane Goodall. We talked about all four, but as I was explaining who each was, I wondered how many adults know who Jane Goodall is. Goodall has spent the last 45 years of her life working with chimpanzees and it all started with a gift from her father. When Goodall was young, her father gave her … Continue reading

Chimpanzee Testing to Resume?

A chimpanzee at work for NASA Animal testing is a tricky issue. Given my love for animals I’d normally think I’d come down firmly against it, but it’s not that easy. For a while I worked for a medical journal, specifically, an immunology journal. Immunologists are the ones who research and cure diseases. Although it was hard to read over the studies in which they used animals for testing, their findings were always applied to fighting terrible diseases. But none of that is the case here. The Huffington Post published an article on August 23 examining the plight of more … Continue reading

Wolf Protection Restored

A federal judge temporarily restored endangered species status for gray wolves in the Rocky Mountains earlier this month. The judge’s decision halted plans in three different states to hold public wolf hunts. Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho were planning wolf hunts for this fall in order to control wolf populations and reduce the number of attacks on livestock. Back in March of this year, gray wolves were removed from the endangered species list. A decade of restoration efforts had increased the gray wolf population to around two thousand in the northern Rocky Mountains — enough of a population that they no … Continue reading

The Smartest Species

I saw a headline on MSN about the smartest animal species… of course I had to click that link! The article compared signs of human intelligence — like making tools, solving problems, self-awareness, and more — with animal behaviors. Humans are the top of the list of the smartest species (at least as far as we know). Next on the list of smartest animals came chimpanzees. Humans and chimps share a lot of the same genomes — and chimp behavior demonstrates that some of that is shared intelligence. Among documented intelligent behaviors in chimps are: Making and using tools Hunting … Continue reading

My Favorite Pet Blogs from the Past Year

Below is a list of my favorite articles I wrote during the past year, often with an explanation of what made them memorable. Five Non-Cash Ways to Help Animals/Shelters this Holiday Season: This was my first article to have a comment left on it. Is It Ever Okay to Kick a Dog?: This was my first article to ever get stars. The BMK Fund: This practice is very near and dear to my heart and it was neat to have a platform such as blogging for Families.com to share it on. How to Put Your Shopping Dollars to Work Helping … Continue reading

The Pets Blog Week in Review for November 19-25

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving weekend? In case you were busy shopping till you dropped at the after Thanksgiving Day sales, stuffing yourself on turkey leftovers, or in general enjoying time with your family and didn’t have time to stay up on the Pets Blog, here’s a recap of what Aimee and I wrote on: Monday, November 19 Murphy’s Fan Club He’s no TV or movie star, but that dog of mine has developed a fan club nonetheless. Green Anole This is one pet Murphy would like to have! Aimee detailed why this type of lizard makes a good … Continue reading

My Top 5 Animal Loving Role Models

For National Inspirational Role Model Month (which November is) over in Marriage I wrote about my favorite TV wives as role models from the 1950s thru the 1970s and 1980s thru the present. Here in Pets I’d like to do something similar: list those people involved with animals who influenced me to love and care for them like I do. 1. My dad, Ralph Mroch: My dad’s got to have one of the most tender hearts towards animals of anyone in my family. As I wrote about in Where My Compassion for Animals Comes From, I get my love of … Continue reading