The Animal Resistance ... continues

[elfismiles]

Who is it that has that sig line... "the animal resistance has begun" ... ?

Couldn't find the thread that was in originally but...

Monster fish killed after terrorising Swiss swimmers

Police divers have ended the reign of terror of a huge fish that was attacking swimmers in a Swiss lake.

The zander, which was 70 centimetres (two feet three inches) long and weighed eight kilos (17.5 pounds), was harpooned on Sunday after it bit six swimmers over the weekend, fish warden Fabio Croci told local media.

Two swimmers were treated in hospital for bite wounds up to 10 centimetres (four inches) long after being attacked on Lac Majeur, which borders Italy, he added.

Police divers at first tried to capture the carnivorous fish with a net, but when this failed they pursued the zander with a harpoon and managed to kill it.

The meat from the captured fish was served up to tourists at the lake.

"It is quite unusual for zanders to bite humans", Croci said, adding he suspected the fish was suffering from a hormonal imbalance which could be responsible for its aggression.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

[RomanyX]

"It is quite unusual for zanders to bite humans", Croci said, adding he suspected the fish was suffering from a hormonal imbalance which could be responsible for its aggression.

The meat from the captured fish was served up to tourists at the lake.

Oh, great.

[smiths]

Pulang "appeared to free a rope from a bolt and swing herself into the visitor area in a planned escape"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2009/07/13/2623842.htm

[Penguin]

Chimp's stone throwing at zoo visitors was 'premeditated'

http://www.physorg.com/news155819694.html

Researchers have found what they say is some of the first unambiguous evidence that an animal other than humans can make spontaneous plans for future events. The report in the March 9th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, highlights a decade of observations in a zoo of a male chimpanzee calmly collecting stones and fashioning concrete discs that he would later use to hurl at zoo visitors.

Id say that is more unambiguous proof that some humans are utterly fucking stupid naive self-centered bastards of animals, and severely lacking in any kind of understanding of "animals". Plans for future events, wow no shit Sherlock!

"These observations convincingly show that our fellow apes do consider the future in a very complex way," said Mathias Osvath of Lund University. "It implies that they have a highly developed consciousness, including life-like mental simulations of potential events. They most probably have an 'inner world' like we have when reviewing past episodes of our lives or thinking of days to come. When wild chimps collect stones or go out to war, they probably plan this in advance. I would guess that they plan much of their everyday behavior."

While researchers have observed many ape behaviors that could involve planning both in the wild and in captivity, it generally hasn't been possible to judge whether they were really meeting a current or future need, he added. For instance, when a chimp breaks a twig for termite fishing or collects a stone for nut cracking, it can always be argued that they are motivated by immediate rather than future circumstances.

Oh....I guess so.
Maybe its just that we are special, my preciousss!

[Penguin]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8147566.stm

Video at the BBC link -

Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans.

Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a "soliciting purr" to overpower their owners and garner attention and food.

Unlike regular purring, this sound incorporates a "cry", with a similar frequency to a human baby's.

The team said cats have "tapped into" a human bias - producing a sound that humans find very difficult to ignore.

Dr Karen McComb, the lead author of the study that was published in the journal Current Biology, said the research was inspired by her own cat, Pepo.

"He would wake me up in the morning with this insistent purr that was really rather annoying," Dr McComb told BBC News.

"After a little bit of investigation, I discovered that there are other cat owners who are similarly bombarded early in the morning."

While meowing might get a cat expelled from the bedroom, Dr McComb said that this pestering purr often convinced beleaguered pet lovers to get up and fill their cat's bowl.

To find out why, her team had to train cat owners to make recordings of their own cats' vocal tactics - recording both their "soliciting purrs" and regular, "non-soliciting" purrs.

"When we played the recordings to human volunteers, even those people with no experience of cats found the soliciting purrs more urgent and less pleasant," said Dr McComb.

How annoying?

She and her team also asked the volunteers to rate the different purrs - giving them a score based on how urgent and pleasant they perceived them to be.

"We could then relate the scores back to the specific purrs," explained Dr McComb. "The key thing (that made the purrs more unpleasant and difficult to ignore) was the relative level of this embedded high-frequency sound."

"When an animal vocalises, the vocal folds (or cords) held across the stream of air snap shut at a particular frequency," explained Dr McComb. The perceived pitch of that sound depends on the size, length and tension of the vocal folds.
Cat (BBC)
Impossible to resist: Cats use sounds that humans are "highly sensitive" to

"But cats are able to produce a low frequency purr by activating the muscles of their vocal folds - stimulating them to vibrate," explained Dr McComb.

Since each of these sounds is produced by a different mechanism, cats are able to embed a high-pitched cry in an otherwise relaxing purr.

"How urgent and unpleasant the purr is seems to depend on how much energy the cat puts into producing that cry," said Dr McComb.

Previous studies have found similarities between a domestic cat's cry and the cry of a human baby - a sound that humans are highly sensitive to.

Dr McComb said that the cry occurs at a low level in cats' normal purring. "But we think that (they) learn to dramatically exaggerate it when it proves effective in generating a response from humans."

She added that the trait seemed to most often develop in cats that have a one-on-one relationship with their owners.

"Obviously we don't know what's going on inside their minds," said Dr McComb. "But they learn how to do this, and then they do it quite deliberately."

So how does Dr McComb feel about Pepo now she knows he has been manipulating her all these years?

"He's been the inspiration for this whole study, so I'll forgive him - credit where credit's due."

It took my other eary fellow not too long to learn to come bump my leg and then patiently wait between my legs for me to give her the salt lick to lick from my hand - since I dont keep it where she can reach it as she would otherwise lick it all up and probably die of salt poisoning.

If I dont give it at once, shell patiently bump a few more times before giving up

[elfismiles]

Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans.

I think I first came across this idea in the early 1990s reading either THE THROWING MADONNA or THE RIVER THAT FLOWS UPHILL by William Calvin.

Aha! I believe it is so...

2 The Lovable Cat: Mimicry Strikes Again
http://williamcalvin.com/bk2/bk2ch2.htm

As T S. Eliot intoned, "A CAT IS NOT A DOG.'As it is hardly a working animal, whatever caused the domestication of the cat? Perhaps it learned to mimic human babies, even though not looking anything like a baby? This chapter illustrates the 'instinct' level of brain organization, what Konrad Lorenz called innate action patterns and the stimuli which trigger them. A tale of evolution, nonpoisonous snakes impersonating poisonous ones, and what prompts people to respond to a cuddly baby. The reader is prompted to perform a similar ethological analysis of the dog's success in pleasing people.

http://williamcalvin.com/bk2/bk2.htm

Oh and BTW ...

“a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”

Thousands of aggressive jumbo squid invade San Diego shores; Spook divers…
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1


First Person: Giant Squid Invade Calif. Waters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_xdl4DZiss

Massive Squid Washes Up on Beach in Quake Aftermath
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Gi ... ake--.html

TED Talks - David Gallo: Underwater astonishments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVvn8dpSAt0

[eyeno]

I could not find the thread either elfsmiles. There was a topic named "The Animal Resistance Has Begun" but using the search feature I could not find it. Me and the search feature don't see eye to eye though so it may just be me.


--------------------------------

Monsanto GM Corn in Peril: Beetle develops Bt-resistance

Rady Ananda, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Nature herself may be the best opponent of genetically modified crops and pesticides. Not only plants, but insects are also developing resistance. The Western rootworm beetle – one of the most serious threats to corn – has developed resistance to Monsanto’s Bt-corn, and entire crops are being lost.

Farmers from several Midwest states began reporting root damage to corn that was specifically engineered with a toxin to kill the rootworm. Iowa State University entomologist Aaron Gassmann recently confirmed that the beetle, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, has developed resistance to the Bt protein, Cry3Bb1.

Bacillus thuringiensis – Bt – is a bacterium that kills insects. Different proteins are engineered into cotton as well as corn plants.


Two-thirds of all US corn is genetically modified per the USDA, and the bulk of that is Bt-corn. Monsanto has the biggest market share in the US, reporting about 35% in 2009.

In response to the July 2011 study, Monsanto said only the “YieldGard® VT Triple and Genuity® VT Triple PRO™ corn products” are affected.

“It appears he has demonstrated a difference in survival in the lab, but it is too early to tell whether there are implications for growers in the field.”

However, Kansas State researchers summarized the study, indicating that the specimens tested came from fields suffering severe rootworm damage and compared them to those from unaffected fields. In other words, it was a field study.

Resistance developed where the same Bt corn had been grown at least three years in a row. Gassmann found “a significant positive correlation between the number of years Cry3Bb1 maize had been grown in a field and the survival of rootworm populations on Cry3Bb1 maize in bioassays.”

Ag Professional’s Colleen Scherer explains that “the Cry3Bb1 toxin is the major one deployed against rootworms. There is no ‘putting the genie back in the bottle,’ and resistance in these areas is a problem that won’t go away.”

Monsanto urges farmers to try their “stacked” GM products where more than one trait is engineered and to employ integrated pest management (IPM) techniques.

Kind of like getting on a treadmill of ever increasing DNA manipulation and chemicals to maintain monocultures, instead of reverting to time-honored mixed farms that use companion plants (including weeds) for pest control. IPM does not have to include toxic chemicals or genetic manipulation for success. (See, e.g., Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture).

This year, Monsanto launched a “triple-stack” sweet corn which it envisions being sold at Farmers Markets. The FDA’s GMO label ban will certainly help, since most people who buy local are specifically trying to avoid genetically engineered foods.

In line with Monsanto’s goal to enter farmers markets, the Union of Concerned Scientists just came out with a report urging federal financial support in order to create jobs. The report notes that the number of farmers markets has doubled in the past ten years.

But, as we watch the feds target natural producers with raids and product seizure, while leaving Cargill’s 36 million pounds of tainted turkey alone until someone died, we can expect that any federal money put toward farmers markets will be used to support only that produce which is genetically modified, chemically doused and/or irradiated.

Click here to follow Iowa State’s work on the rootworm, and see the following pieces for more reasons to avoid herbicides and biotech foods:

Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark? Earth Open Source, June 2011
Herbicide-tolerance and GM crops Greenpeace, June 2011
Per USDA, Herbicide Use Increases with GE Crops, Beyond Pesticides, June 2011
More problems with glyphosate: Rice growers sound alarm, Food Freedom, May 2011
Scientists warn of link between dangerous new pathogen and Monsanto’s Roundup, Food Freedom, Feb 2011
Monsanto’s superweeds come home to roost: 11 million US acres infested, Generation Green, Oct. 2010
GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible? Superweeds and birth defects: A review of scientific evidence on genetically modified soy and the herbicide glyphosate, Sept. 2010
Three Approved GMOs Linked to Organ Damage, Food Freedom, Jan. 2010
.
.
Rady Ananda specializes in Natural Resources and runs the sites, Food Freedom and COTO Report.

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/08/mon ... .html#more

[cptmarginal]

Here's a couple of threads:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12048
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31037

BERLIN (Reuters) - An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.

(Advertisement)
The squirrel first ran into a house in the southern town of Passau, leapt from behind on a 70-year-old woman, and sank its teeth into her hand, a local police spokesman said on Thursday.

With the squirrel still hanging from her hand, the woman ran onto the street in panic, where she managed to shake it off.

The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.

"After that, the squirrel went into the 72-year-old man's garden and massively attacked him on the arms, hand and thigh," the spokesman said. "Then he killed it with his crutch."

The spokesman said experts thought the attack may have been linked to the mating season or because the squirrel was ill.

It's certainly strange to see an animal as tiny and helpless as a squirrel making a such a deliberate and sustained attempt to attack human beings. (Three separate people in three separate places!). If the animal was just "ill", as the report suggests, then it's a peculiar kind of illness. Maybe someone disturbed a nest?

Last year, Jason Godesky wrote a fascinating and frankly heartbreaking post about the increasing frequency and intensity of elephant attacks on humans - and on other species...:

"... Gay Bradshaw, a psychologist at the environmental sciences program at Oregon State University [..] has studied the phenomenon that's come to be called "the Human-Elephant Conflict," even abbreviating it H.E.C. Since the mid-1990's, elephants around the world have begun what seems almost like an all-out war on humans. Hindus have long worshipped elephants as the incarnations of Ganesh, the god of wisdom, but recently, an Indian newspaper ran an article with the headline, "To Avoid Confrontation, Don't Worship Elephants. [...] It is not so singularly romantic as an elephant war on humans, though; it would be more accurate to simply say that the elephants are going insane. Besides the attacks on humans, elephants are also taking their rage out on other species. Since the mid-1990's, young elephant males from the Pilanesberg National Park and the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve in South Africa have been raping and killing rhinos."

http://anthropik.com/2006/10/elephant-men/

Drunk elephant herd goes on deadly rampage after getting hold of fermented rice drink
Elephants electrocuted in drunken rampage
Drunken elephants die in accident

etc.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2583891.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/482001.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/241781.stm

Also relevant: Animals of War

[cptmarginal]

The Animal Resistance has begun.

Also posted here:

Orca Resistance at Sea World
Symbiotic Liberation Or Why Animal Rights Spell Human Rights

It was the first time that a trainer had ever been killed by a group of captive killer whales. There had been previous attempts, a great many actually. But the trainers involved, whether through rescue by other employees or a stroke of luck on their part, had always managed to survive. This attack, however, proved to be different and fatal. It occurred on February 21, 1991 at Sealand of the Pacific.

That day’s final performance had just ended at the Victoria, British Columbia based aquarium and the audience was pleased. They got to watch three killer whales, Nootka, Haida, and Tilikum, perform tricks, including one trick wherein a young female trainer rode on the back of one of these great sea mammals. It seemed to be wonderful fun—that is, until that particular female trainer fell into the water. As she attempted to climb out, an orca latched on to her. “The whale got her foot,” an audience member recalled to reporters, “and pulled her in.” We do not know which orca it was that started it, but all three, Nootka, Haida, and Tilikum, took their turns dunking the screaming woman underwater. “She went up and down three times,” another visitor continued. The Sealand employees “almost got her once with the hook pole, but they couldn’t because the whales were moving so fast.” One trainer tossed out a floatation ring, but the whales would not let her grab it. In fact, the closer that such devices got to the young woman, the further out the whales pulled her into the pool. It took park officials two hours to recover her drowned body.

Responding to the death, Sealand dismissed any claims that the whales had hurt the woman on purpose. “It was just a tragic accident,” the park manager lamented. “I just can’t explain it.” A few of the trainers speculated that Nootka, Haida, and Tilikum might have been playing “a game” that simply went wrong, and their coworker was mistakenly killed in the process. There was, however, precedent for a different interpretation.

In 1989, there had been two violent incidences involving Nootka. The first occurred in April. A trainer was in the middle of a routine activity, scratching the orca’s tongue, when that orca decided to turn the tables. Nootka “bit her hand and dragged her into the whale pool.” The woman had to be rescued by a fellow employee. Sealand, for its part, chose not to notify the authorities or the press. It believed that, although the trainer received lacerations and needed stitches, Nootka did not really intend to bite the person, and the situation remained in control. The trainer thought differently. Citing “unsafe conditions,” she quit her job.

Nootka struck again later that year. A tourist was taking pictures, when he accidentally dropped his camera in the water. The orca quickly noticed the object and put it into her mouth. When a trainer tried to retrieve the camera, Nootka used the opportunity to grab a hold of the man’s leg and jerk him into the pool. The trainer had to be rescued. Sealand administrators chose, once again, to deny that there was intentionality behind Nootka’s actions. No one needed to know about this incidence. Nevertheless, more trainers did resign their positions. Nootka, they believed, was purposeful and dangerous in her actions.

Elsewhere in Canada, other theme parks were having their own troubles. About a decade earlier, the Vancouver Aquarium had its hands full with Skana and Hyak. Both orcas were described by their trainer as “moody.” Working with the former was particularly precarious, as the female whale could switch from an obedient disposition to a rebellious one “in minutes.” “Skana once showed her dislike,” a Vancouver employee explained, “by dragging a trainer around the pool.” “Her teeth sank into his wetsuit but missed the leg.”

For Marineland, near picturesque Niagara Falls, it was the same but only with a different pair of whales. There was Kandu. She once yanked a trainer around the pool by the leg after the man fell off his back during a stunt. The employee was sent immediately to the hospital and a pale audience stumbled out of the stadium in disbelief. Than there was Nootka, a similarly named but all together unrelated orca to the one at Sealand. During a mid-1980s performance, she struck a trainer in the head with her pectoral fin. Aquarium administrators pronounced that it was an accident. Her trainers knew better. As one of them disclosed, Nootka often leapt out of the water in order to punch her trainers directly in the chest. She wanted to hurt people.

[marycarnival]

There's also this thread...

http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=24823&hilit=animal+uprising

Merge?