Get Them Off Death Row Now

Please watch this video and share. These cats are about to be euthanized and need people to help save them, even if it is only to temporarily foster.  Who wants to save a cute baby off death row? I have two shelter rescues myself and they are the bomb!

Here is a link with more pictures of the cats that need your help and more information on how to help, https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.273643025980870.80487.155925874419253&type=3

Please at least watch and share with others.

-Cara

Day 50 – Looking

Looking

I am not going repeat what I already wrote here. A quick synopsis, starting August 1st, 2010 I will publish a picture I take that day everyday for a year (well to be exact I will do this everyday until July 31st, 2011). This is the 50th of those photographs. Also, there is a Flickr collection called “The Awesome Leftovers” where I put the daily shots (if any) that didn’t make the cut.

This Sunday Marine came over to hang out for a bit.

Here are the rest of the photographs from that day, Day 50 – Marine and the Babies.

-Cara

Day 15 – Thinking

Thinking

I am not going repeat what I already wrote here. A quick synopsis, starting August 1st, 2010 I will publish a picture I take that day everyday for a year (well to be exact I will do this everyday until July 31st, 2011). This is the 15th of those photographs. Also, there is a Flickr collection called “The Awesome Leftovers” where I put the daily shots that didn’t make the cut.

Once I get up in the morning there is no room for me to ever go back. :\ Those cats are always chilaxing. Here’s some more action shots, Day 15 – Those Two.

Meow.

-Cara

Alley Cat Allies

I don’t know how these organizations get my name and address, but they do, and every few days I find what seems to be a good organization. This time it is Alley Cat Allies.  Don’t get crazy, this is not turning into a pet blog, but I covered a lot of dog stuff yesterday, so I thought this would be fair… Plus, you all may not know that October 16th is National Feral Cat Day, nor did I till today.  You’re welcome.

Their mission and vision are clear and concise.

Mission

To end the killing of cats and lead the movement for their humane care.

Vision

Society living non-violently with cats and all animals.

According to their site,

“Alley Cat Allies is the only national advocacy organization dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats. Alley Cat Allies has charted a course set on animal control and shelter industry reform and humane treatment through activities including:

• Advocating for pounds and shelters to keep public records of animal intake and kill rates, for public and mandatory government oversight, and for increased pound and shelter accountability;
• Mobilizing and educating the public and leading the national movement to end the killing of cats and to protect and improve their lives;
• Supporting the efforts of, and acting as the national voice for, thousands of individuals and groups across the U.S. who provide humane care for stray and feral cats.

Alley Cat Allies was founded in 1990 by two women who recognized that stray and feral cats’ needs were not being met by the animal control pound and shelter system. They realized that when well-meaning citizens called pounds and shelters about feral cats, their only response was to kill them. “

They are doing a really good thing I think. I am not sure about the catching, neutering, clipping their ear and releasing, but I am also ignorant to what happens if there are thousands of cats reproducing all over the world with no monitoring. I would think the same thing that has occurred with the humans on this earth. It would be crazy if someone just decided to euthanize or terminate people due to an overpopulation problem. Very THX 1138. It really does seem to always come back to THX 1138. :]

One thing I might suggest to Alley Cat Allies, is with their mailings, instead of using shinny paper to print their brochures on, they use recycled, colored if they wanted, flat paper. That way it is easier to recycle, better for the planet, and for super nerds like me, I can use it to make my own paper (a little fact: you can’t use shiny, glossy paper in the paper making process). What used to make a company seem more legit, like nice glossy brochures, now shows an organization’s oversight on how they impact the planet as a whole, including cats. I think e-mails are also a good idea, but I understand first you need to get people’s e-mails through marketing practices like mailings. I might not have heard of them and written this entry without receiving said mailing. It is a catch-22 perhaps.

Nevertheless, they are doing something to end the destruction and inhumane treatment of cats, so they are heroes in my book. Here is where to go to become more involved with the organization’s plight.

:]

-Cara

Let’s Take A Break

Stuff on my cat, today’s green activity. Let’s just have an entry that makes you smile, and it’s almost a carbon free activity. If you have a cat, maybe you might want to participate. Good times.

I will update with pictures of Zohara Lurlean and Jefferson Brooklyn. What to put on them, that is the question.

I love it.

-Cara

Sam Suds and the Case of PVC: The Poison Plastic

Marine is designing a crazy cat palace of some sort, so we went to Home Depot yesterday to look for stuff and get ideas. One of the materials Marine wanted to use was PVC…

I almost fainted. :) Marine this entry goes out to you. :* You’re welcome!

There’s an awesome documentary, Blue Vinyl (Netflix has it…just saying…), I watched a million years ago, that schooled me on the evils of PVC.

The most informative site on PVC. – http://www.pvcfree.org/

PBS TV’s “Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report“, a documentary that exposes workplace, and environmental poisoning. Some stuff about PVC and other such things in this one.

And last, but not least, a good read, PVC- A Health Hazard From Production through Disposal.

It’s a shame, I love the new shower smell, the smell of a new car. I can’t tell you how many times I inhaled that smell…deeply.

No PVC for us!

-Cara

Leather

I usually try to stay away from animal cruelty newsletters or web sites as they really upset me and as a vegetarian I feel like I don’t need to be exposed to these horrors. I don’t eat or wear animals because of said suffering, so I don’t want to read or see things that are so sad. That said a few months ago I signed up for PETA’s newsletter for the second time to remind myself that I should do more, even if I don’t want to see it, it does motivate me.

In the latest newsletter I got today, PETA talks about leather. I being a lover of super fresh shoes, always had leather and suede shoes, until a few years ago where I read about the horrors of leather and decided to give up buying any leather products. Recently, I started to see a few shoes made from animals that I thought were cute and I couldn’t quite remember why I gave up leather…

Then along came PETA, with their Shopping Guide To Compassionate Clothing and Cows Are Cool, with their page on, What’s Wrong With Leather. This information reminded me why I gave up leather and suede. I’d like to share some information from Cows Are Cool with you.

Leather may be made from cows, pigs, goats, and sheep; exotic animals like alligators, ostriches, and kangaroos; and even dogs and cats, who are slaughtered for their meat and skins in China, which exports their skins around the world. Since leather is normally not labeled, you never really know where (or whom) it came from.

Most leather comes from developing countries like India and China, where animal welfare laws are either non-existent or not enforced. Many of the millions of cows and other animals who are killed for their skin endure the horrors of factory farming—extreme crowding and deprivation as well as castration, branding, tail-docking, and dehorning, all without any painkillers. In India, a PETA investigation found that cows have their tails broken and chili peppers and tobacco rubbed into their eyes in order to force them to get up and walk after they collapse from exhaustion on the way to the slaughterhouse. At slaughterhouses, animals routinely have their throats slit and are skinned and dismembered while they are still conscious after improper stunning.

Most of the millions of animals slaughtered for their skin endure the horrors of factory farming before being shipped to slaughter, where many are skinned alive. Buying leather directly contributes to factory farms and slaughterhouses since skin is the most economically important byproduct of the meat-packing industry. Leather is also no friend of the environment since it shares all the environmental destruction of the meat industry, in addition to the toxins used in tanning.

With every pair of leather shoes that you buy, you sentence an animal to a lifetime of suffering. Instead, you can choose from hundreds of styles of nonleather shoes, clothing, belts, bags, and wallets. Fashion should be fun, not fatal! Read more about the cruelty of the leather industry.

…so nevertheless I have cured myself of my desire for leather, thanks to PETA and Cows Are Cool and my conscious.

Also, PETA has given shopping alternatives to leather, wool, silk, fur, down on their site. Here are the links and one link for companies who offer cruelty-free products to be listed in PETA’s guide:

Vegan Companies

Leather and Fur Alternatives

Search by Product Type

Animal-Friendly Companies Wanted

Remember all animals feel pain and nothing is done to alleviate these animals suffering in their processing and slaughtering. I don’t want to ever be a part of that.

Knowledge is enlightenment.

-Cara
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Reason 69 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
In 2005, a $7.1 billion plan to prepare the U.S. for a bird-flu pandemic was instituted by the Bush administration. It included very little to help poor countries slow the spread of the H5N1 strain already on the march. Pharmaceutical companies would get most of the largesse in order to stockpile and develop speedier methods to develop appropriate vaccines for American citizens. In addition, President Bush proposed that he be given the power to impose essentially martial law on the land in the event that a pandemic actually came about. The number of countries with bird flu increased from 14 to 55 in 2006.

My Official Site

Today on April 10th, 2008, I welcome the Official Web Site of Me, CaraReynolds.com into the world. Firstly, I would like to thank Marine Boudeau for all the work and time she put into creating this fantastical place and making it more than I ever expected. It has been a long journey, but we did it!

What is CaraReynolds.com all about you may be wondering? It is about me wanting to have a space for my photography that goes beyond Flickr, a place that not only showcases my photos, but my life as well. I think this site turned out amazing. It is as I say ALL the time, AWESOME!

So, sit back and enjoy the show… and remember, just like me, CaraReynolds.com will continually evolve, so come back sometime and see me again.

– Cara

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Reason 55 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Between 1980 and 2004, meat production in the developing world tripled, today amounting to well over half of the world’s output. Dense concentrations of corralled industrial livestock, which create vast quantities of manure, now skirt the edges of major cities in Asia and Latin America, causing severe environmental damages.