Anthony Marr's CARE-7 tour blog #20 - Florida
It is 1.5 months from the much anticipated Animal Rights National Conference at the Hilton Mark Center in Alexandria VA (www.ARConference.org). Alex Hershaft, the chair of the conference, has assigned to me the following speeches (subject to change):
July 16, Friday, 10:30 am - Individual Activism (Camp, Corbett, Marr, Sikora)
July 16, Friday, 5:00 pm - Abuse of Wildlife on Land and Water (Marr, Muller, Vincent)
July 17, Saturday, 9:00-10:10 am plenary - Compassion into Action (Burgess, Hilgart, Lucius, Marr)
July 17, Saturday, 11:30 am - Abuse of Urban Wildlife (Marr, Muller, Robinson)
July 17, Saturday, 4 pm - Global Issues Affecting Animals (including global warming) (Marr, Moncrief)
July 17, Saturday, 5 pm - Wildlife Campaigns (Erenberg, Fullmer, Marr, Muller)
July 18, Sunday, 5 pm - Movement Networking (Marr, Moncrief, Muller, Shoss)
July 19, Monday, 1 pm - Funeral Motorcade & Lobbying (Marr, Muller, Wilkens)
Alex has also approved that in the Saturday evening awards banquet, a new painting by artist Catherine Garneau, based on my 1998 photo of the tigress Sita who lived in the Bandhavgarh National Park in India where I worked off and on for three years, but was later sadly poached, will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition.
Of note is the Saturday morning plenary speech (to the entire congregation of approximately 1000) to be shared with my friend Lt. Col. Robert Lucius of the U.S. Marines, host of my CARE-7 tour's Monterey CA event, whom I recommended to Alex as a speaker. This is no mean feat, since almost no new speaker at the conference could immediately garner a plenary speech. Of course, I was only the door opener; it was Robert's own impressive credential and exemplary work that won him the podium.
I arrived in Tampa on May 29, and gave a speech in the afternoon of the 30th at the Walsingham Park in whose lake alligators reside. It was organized by Sara Acord of the St. Petersberg Vegetarian/Vegan Meetup Group, who, along with her beau Mitch Day, also served as my lodging host, in whose house also live 3 dogs, 3 ferrets and an Abyssinian cat, and outside of which live another 3 cats who are semi-feral. Their dogs are vegan, and they make big pots of food for them - usually a kind of thick bean paste which, with a few drops of Tabasco sauce, actually tastes quite nice. Right from the start, they had asked me to raid their fridge whenever I wanted, but not until I had ingested a substantial amount of the paste did Mitch inform me that I had been gulping their dog food!
From Molly Rooke - "I am glad you came to speak on hunting and climate change, and that I was able to attend, Saturday at the vegan potluck in Bedford. I wish I could have stayed longer to speak to you afterward and I meant to give you a donation for your work (sorry I don't have much money, but I'm sure that any amount helps) so please... let me and others know how we can help support your efforts financially. Thanks for all you are doing for animals and the planet that supports us all."
One of the people present at the Walsingham Park talk was Carole Baskin, CEO of the Big Cat Rescue, which I was to visit the next day, May 31, at 3 pm. Her reaction to my talk at Walsingham would be the true test of the impact of my speech.
Another was a 10 year-old boy named Spencer, whose reaction was to immediately seek a solution, which reminds me of me. After the talk, he came to me and asked whether "aerial algae" could do the trick to capture carbon from the atmosphere. I cannot think of any aerial algae in nature, but it is certainly a good idea to use plants as a CCS (carbon capture and sequestration) system. His mother was very proud of him.
May 31, Monday, 3 pm, I arrived at the Big Cat Rescue sanctuary on Easy Street, which harbors 20 species of cats, with no more than half of them was I familiar. Last time I was there, back in 2004, there was a witty slogan there saying "Life on Easy Street". I pulled over at the entrance sign to take a pic of the Green Hornet next to it, and before I was done, a black truck with BIG CAT RESCUE painted on its door, and who but Carole Baskin in the driver's seat. After the "photo op", she led me through the sanctuary and gave me a guided tour fit for a dignitary.
The camera person conducted a stop-by-stop video interview of me, asking tough questions that only someone who has done the actual work can answer. We made no less than a dozen stops and the entire blitz lasted easily a hour and a half. They will process the raw footage into a mini-series and broadcast it in their network some weeks down the road. When the interview was done, she asked me if I would consider staying through the evening to give her staff and volunteers a talk. I was frankly a bit pooped due to the humid heat, and did not show immediate enthusiasm. She led me into an air-conditioned room, gave me a cold bottle of water, and left me to chill. After I had revived, she and Chris took me out again to shoot some casual walk-around footage for the mini-series after which she led my car to a separate build at the back of the 40 acre property where I'd be giving my talk. By 6:45, most of the people had assembled. I decide for a Q&A rather than a straight talk, and questions abounded. We did not wind up until 9 pm.
The next day, Carole released a blog about my visit to the sanctuary, which is blogged separately in my blogsite www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com, but here it is again:
[ http://socialcomputingtechnology.com/?p=40515
http://dogscatsbirdspets.com/catcareblog/uncategorized/big-cat-news-anthony-marr-visits-big-cat-rescue-of-care-7-tour
http://bigcatnews.blogspot.com/
Anthony Marr Visits Big Cat Rescue during his CARE 7 Tour
Anthony Marr Met With Interns, Staff & Volunteers to Talk Tigers and Global Warming tonight at the Lion's Lair Party Pavilion.
World renowned as the Champion of the Bengal Tiger, Anthony is on his 7th CARE tour. While in FL he wanted to be sure to visit Big Cat Rescue again and was gracious enough to let Chris film him on a wide range of topics including Tony the truck stop tiger, the plight of back yard tigers in America, poaching, tiger farming, canned hunts, lion meat on the menu, white tigers, the decline of lion populations, wild leopards and global warming. In the course of his film blitz through the sanctuary I asked if he would join us for pizza tonight and he rearranged his schedule to accommodate us. Due to the late nature of the event, we were only able to invite those who were working this afternoon, and I even missed a couple of people by just a few moments who had been working hard all day but had already gone home. Tonight was a rare treat for those left standing at the end of a long day.
For three hours Big Cat Rescuers got to hear about his adventures in India and get a first hand view of the magnificence and intelligence of cats living wild as well as all of the challenges they face because of the value of their skin, bones and organs. He shared stories of intrigue and suspense as poachers were stalked, captured and often right back on the street within hours. He brought the suffering of these cats to life in painting the struggle for survival that is shared by the big cats and the humans with whom they share dwindling resources. He separated the good from the bad and the corrupt from the dedicated in his captivating portraits of the politicians, law enforcement officials and conservation NGOs.
Anthony ended the night's discussion with the topic that is the fuel behind his cross country trek: global warming. Despite being a physicist he plainly set out in laymen's terms how it is that we are on the brink of disaster while the man on the street is still saying, "What global warming?" If you missed it tonight, you missed the simple analogy to a pot full of water and ice cubes, but you can be the interns who were there can explain it to you now. Or, you can read about it in Anthony Marr's latest books "Omni-Science and the Human Destiny" and "Homo Sapiens! SAVE YOUR EARTH". The most critical message that he brought to our awareness is that scientist now agree that the models they had currently predicted which gave Earthlings until 2040 to begin reversing the negative spiral we are on because of methane produced via the mass production of animals as food and our failure to implement green energy has now been shorted to the year 2013. To see the NASA report bearing this out visit:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7139797.stm
To learn more about Anthony Marr and to help sponsor him on this CARE 7 tour visit:
http://www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
http://www.homosapienssaveyourearth.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
Anthony Marr bio:
Anthony Marr has a physics degree and is the author of "OMNI-SCIENCE and the Human Destiny" (2003) and “Homo Sapiens! SAVE YOUR EARTH!” (2008). A full-time wildlife preservationist since 1995 and founder of the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC), he has been to India 3X for the tiger and Japan twice for the whales & dolphins. He founded Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE) in 1999 and leads HOPE’s Global Emergency Operation (GEO) on mass extinction due to global warming. A key speaker at the AR Conference since 2004, he is currently on his 7th Compassion for Animals Road Expedition covering 40 states in 7 months.
For the cats,
Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue
an Educational Sanctuary home
to more than 100 big cats
12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL 33625
813.493.4564 fax 885.4457
Carole.Baskin@BigCatRescue.org
http://www.BigCatRescue.org
Caring for cats - Ending the trade
Join more than 14,000 Big Cat Rescue fans http://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Cat-Rescue-Tampa-FL/122174836956?ref=ts
Twitter: Follow Me and get a free wild cat screen saver or ecard account @BigCatRescue
Posted by BigCatRescue at 9:12 PM ]
On June 1, Tuesday, I drove from Largo on the west coast of Florida to Indialantic on the east coast. The drive was about 4.5 hours, and I arrived in another Manhattan class apartment of Carole P, who took me to two exceptional places over the next two days.
The first, on June 2, is the Wild Horse Rescue Center on 4970 International Drive, Mims, FL, 32454, headed by Diane Delano, President. Being a horse-person since my birth (my Chinese surname Marr means "Horse"), and been an active horseman since my 20s, and being freedom-minded all my life, I am particularly interested in the wold horse and its treatment by humans, particularly the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). The Mustang is not a wild horse in the truest sense. It began as feral horses which were the descendants of the Spanish horse brought over from Europe in the Conquistador days. There was a breed of true wild horse in North America, but they were exterminated by the "native" people thousands of years ago. Still these Mustangs have lived in the wild for centuries, and have become truly wild in body, mind, behavior and way of life. And now, the cattle barons are taking over their land, and the BLM is doing their bidding, and the Mustang is being harassed, chased, cornered, corralled, captured and slaughtered, with only the lucky few being adopted. And adopting is what the Wild Horse Rescue Center is all about. But it is not easy to train a wild horse so that he is safe to handle and ride. And this is what the Wild horse Rescue Center is about.
Diane showed Carol and I the horses currently there for training and adoption, and they are mostly pony sized (14 hands) horses with lots of substance and bone, with hard feet, and of good conformation. In the training ring as we were watching was a young chestnut filly being gently led by the halter, and praised with every right move she made. I could see how tense she was, but not frightened. Just trying to understand what she was supposed to do, and resisting her flight response. She will loosen up by and by, and make a lovely equine companion for a girl. Diane showed us on her cell phone a pathetically thin horse which could hardly stand up to support his own meager weight, or lack there of. Then she showed us a handsome bay well muscled and proud of stance. "That's him," she said, with well deserve pride. If I had $125 on me, and I wanted a horse, I would have taken him away.
To learn more about rescuing displaced Mustangs from slaughter, and the Wild Horse Rescue Center, check out this link: www.mlwhr.com
On June 3, Thursday, Carol, who has a Mazda MX5 Miata, drove my car, a Mazda MX6 Mystere, with me as passenger, to Fort Lauderdale to visit the SPCA's Wildlife Care Center. When we arrived there, a rainstorm had just passed, and another was on the horizon.
And it was lunch time. So we were led by Director of Development Laura Gottlieb to a board room with a large table where we were served a vegan lunch. A few minutes into the lunch, I realized that I had left my cell phone in the car, so I excused myself and went out. While exiting the building a tall and slender middle-aged woman with flowing blonde hair and in business attire, entered the building while we were passing each other, we exchanged glances, and she smiled and nodded. I said, "Hi, I'm Anthony Marr." "I know who you are," she said, and entered the building. When I returned to the boardroom, she was seated at one of the chairs, and talking to Carol.
Laura introduced her to me as Sherry Slueter, the Executive Director. She is a supremely confident woman, speaking with great authority, and every word meticulously enunciated and every sentence superbly crafted. I was immediately impressed, and being usually the speaker in a group setting, I settled back and listened. She told us that she had spent 20 years as a Broward County Sheriff specializing in animal abuse, who, by retirement time just a year or two ago, had achieved the rank of Lieutenant. During her service, she all but revolutionized animal welfare enforcement. At one point, she related a dramatic event where she had to physically subdue a man twice her size, with some help from fellow officers, at the expense of several cracked ribs, as a result of which a new ordinance was instituted, without which it could not have been done. By then, my sense of humor could not be contained, so I said, looking at her intensely, "I have a serious question for you." While she usually had a faint smile on her lips as she was speaking, her expression turned serious too. "Tell me," I asked slowly, "was the episode staged?" Carol burst out laughing, and Sherry grinned and said, "Yes, with my broken ribs to show for it." I began to explain that when I was physically assaulted by a hunter, and had 3 facial bones fractured, some hunters said that it was staged, by me, to garner attention. Sherry said, "I know all about that incident." She had done her homework.
For a stretch, she talked about animal rights activism - from the law enforcement's view point, and gave excellent advice to us as activists. Of course, she also talked about her experience with animals both an a law enforcement officer and as the executive Director of the Wildlife Care Center. I was highly impressed by her highly professional presentation, until, at one point, while talking about how they cared about the animals in the center, tears welled in her eyes, and she had to recomposed herself before carrying on. This one little unspoken interlude spoke volumes about her, and she won me over completely.
After spending well over an hour with us, Sherry left to attend to her duties, and Laura gave us a guided tour through the facilities. While the Big Cat Rescue Sanctuary was scenic and the Wild Horse Rescue Center was rustic, the Wildlife Care Center was state-of-the-art. With a fully equipped animal hospital, three resident vets, dozens of staff members and volunteers, holding areas, aviaries, the center takes in and releases up to 14,000 wild animals every year.
One of the staff's titles was the releaser, about which I remarked that it must be the happiest job on the planet.
While leaving the Center, I said to Laura that I'd always felt ambivolent about the SPCA, but this Wildlife Care Center had changed my perception of it substantially.
To find out something more about the Wildlife Care Center, go to: www.WildlifeCareCenter.org
Catherine Garneau, co-Vice-President of the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition
["After you left, it was a little upsetting. In the words of my mom, we 'felt like our best friend was leaving'. And I know that might sound crazy since you weren't here very long, but we all enjoyed having you here so much. Well, I have to get going. There is a lot to do today. I hope you have a great day though and the rest of the tour is just as great. We all miss you. Talk to you soon hopefully, and take care!" - Abbie Daigle, June 5, 2010.]
["Hi Anthony, Thank you so much for coming to our meetup and enlightening all of us on all your knowledge of government pro hunting & global warming. I wish the world could hear your lecture all at once. Let's get you on live chat soon. I know many that would love to hear your message and want to get involved. Drive safe & ...look out for the deer!" - Evlin Ⓥ Lake, June 3, 2010]
=====================================================================================
Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.MySpace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.YouTube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com (search for “Anthony Marr Heal Our Planet Earth”)
www.ARConference.org
Touring cell 216-386-7362
4 comments:
I posted this is a bulletin yesterday but I see it was not in it's entirety and its excellent!
It's hurts me because it seems many just give up on our wildlife even though the death of these beautiful forest animals suffers just as much sometime EVEN MORE and in LARGE numbers. In deer hunting alone over 6 million die a horrible death for sports and trophy every year but sadly it's protected by the NRA and the hunting industry. Rather then these people who supposedly was part of the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition attacking us why could they not have exposed hunting cruelty along with crush? Is it because they want CRUSH to win so badly they did not want to upset the hunting industry? What cowards. CRUSH is going to be an easy win because just about everyone is fighting to stop it even non ARA and meat eaters so they have nothing to worry about yet the hunted animals will continue to suffer because people like Damiano gives up so easily. I thank God for Anthony Marr begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting who does not give up and will continue to fight no matter the danger and no matter how hard it is because one day anti-hunters will prevail.
Beautiful photos BTW.
Much love and thank you !
The Humane Society Wildlife Center sounds like a very good place and director. Good luck on your tour. Too bad about the problems with some of the people involved in the anti-crush videos.
Anthony, the Wildlife Care Center has it's own wildllife ambulances too.
I hope you saw a few of my rescues there. John, and Cory (who used to work there), have come out many times. I live on a lake where ducks constantly have hooks embedded from careless fisherman who are not supposed to fish here in the first place. Some of the wildlife ... See Moreconsisted of an Ibis with a broken wing, a whooperwhil with a injuries. pelicans with torn bills, and orphaned raccoons. Now lately turtles are showing up near the medians in the street. They are unable to go over the curb and get stuck there helplessly trying to climb it. I have to wonder if developement hasn't interferred with their instinctual egg laying spot. Could that be why?
Anthony,
It's always exciting to read your blog and tag along on with you this virtual journey across America. With each new installment I find myself enthralled and hanging on every word and photo. This blog is multifaceted in that your journey of peace is there, as always, but so is this reminder of what we have been up against lately. Is it a lesson? A challenge? I wish I could find some "positive" to pull from this negative experience...Maybe down the road we will see it. But, for now, we just focus on the goals and keep on going. you are still our hero and we travel on with you, in spirit, always.
Love,
Catherine
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