Saving Animals

Yesterday morning was spent mostly writing. I Joined Activate, a Born Free campaign group about a year ago and every 2 months I write letters to the Heads of countries where the designated animals are, hoping to get them released from captivity. It's an easy enough task. Born Free provide you with all the info and it only takes around 30 minutes to draft and write a letter to the relevant person.

So far I haven't had a reply from anyone, but I think this is quite normal. I've tried sending emails and snail mail but still nothing. I'm hoping that one day I will and even better that one of the animals I'm campaigning to be released is actually taken from a life of misery and cruelty and put back in it's natural environment.

Sadly the two bears still languish in a pit in Berlin, Lucy the elephant is still kept indoors in Toronto and 18 Dolphins are still confined to a training regime in the Philippines, all of these I've written letters to the relevant people in the hope that they will be released. Thankfully Tom and Misha, the two Dolphins rescued from Turkey are now in a deep sea pen in a peaceful marina - this happened quite quickly after we were sent details of the campaign, so I can't claim a helping hand in that one!

If you want to get involved, please visit - Born Free, I'm sure a few more people putting some weight behind one of the campaigns will make all the difference and you never know I may just be able to cross another task off my list ( 15. Rescue an animal from captivity).

I'm Still Here...

Well it's been a month of highs and lows since I last blogged. No sooner had we eventually moved to our new house, then I found out I was short listed to be made redundant, something which has sent me on a bit of a roller coaster ride. Some days I'm fine about it, others are really dark days when I can't quite get used to the concept that for the first time since I left school at 16, I will be out of work.

I've been thinking about my list an awful lot in the last month. Unfortunately other things have taken precedent over me completing anything, but I've been chipping away slowly but surely - update as follows:-

1) Chess - just need a few more games under my belt and then I can sign this one off (a chappie at work is going to teach me in his lunch hour, he just doesn't know it yet!)

2) BBC Top 100 Reads - currently reading Stephen King's The Stand which will make it 79 read once completed.

3) Rescue an animal from captivity - currently writing letters for various Born Free Projects including 'Free The Berlin Bears' (you can add your support by joining the Facebook group 'liberate the Berlin Bears') and 'Free Lucy', an elephant kept alone at Valley zoo in Canada (again you can add your support by going onto the zoo check website 'www.savelucy.ca/take-action-for-lucy). If any of these animals are successful rehoused then I will consider this task complete.

4) Create a short film to go onto You Tube - just need to get to grips with the basics of our very small camcorder and then go round to my friend, Phil's house for a coffee, few ginger nuts, oh and to film him of course.

5) Learn a new language - have a Learn French kit which I need to find out if it's compatible to my PC, if not then I'll purchase one and once I've finished it, will consider this task complete.

So now I can see all that in black and white, I don't feel so bad about me not actually completing anything, although it would be nice to get a few more completed, as time is ticking on and this chappie is now snapping at my heels http://grahamettridge-40thingstobeforeim40.blogspot.com. Not only is he (marginally) younger than me, he's also got some really cool things to do on his list, so go check him out.

And last but not least, I'm on BBC Radio Nottingham again this Friday - roughly around 8:30am, for all of you early risers!

Until we meet again...

Baby Steps

I think I spoke a little while back about how some of my tasks aren't as straight forward as they first appear and how sometimes I have to do a series of tasks within a task, just so I'm able to cross it off my list. I call it taking baby steps, each task being broken down into smaller sections in order to complete it. The BBC Top 100 is an obvious example - 100 things to do before I even get to strike my pen through that one. Another one that springs to mind is one of my new revised tasks 'rescue an animal from captivity'. No, I haven't got a clue how you rescue an animal from captivity either, but I gathered that 'Born Free' might, so I've joined their 'Activate' campaign , which means I get to write to some pretty important people to express concern over the welfare of wild animals within their country. Some campaigns are connected to the release of animals back into the wild, so I'm optimistic that my little steps, may just influence the release of an animal within captivity in the near future.

Wildest Dreams

Just recently me and Mr M have become hooked on the new BBC wild life programme 'Wildest Dreams', where Nick Knowles and James Honeybourne take nine contestants and try and turn them into wildlife film makers. We love it. Not only is it filmed in Africa, which in itself has the most breath taking scenery you could ever wish to see, you also get to see the most amazing wildlife in their natural habitat.

Every week the contestants are split into groups and given a specific animal to film and then whoever fails to gain the correct footage/behave appropriately is eliminated (think of it like a wildlife apprentice!) This week's task was to film under water and one of my favourite animals - the Dolphin. Not only had the contestants have to capture footage of the dolphins, they were also coached on approaching them in the correct manner and learning to pull out of filming if the dolphins became threatened in any way (unfortunately the dolphins were also a major tourist trap and the contestants were having to compete with the many vessels full of tourists trying to capture footage as well).

Which brings me quite nicely to my list and the fact it has been amended some what. For the eagle eyed readers I have now dropped 'swimming with dolphins' and replaced it with 'rescuing an animal from captivity'. When I really stopped and thought about it and actually read what damage this could do to the dolphin and also watched on this week's show the amount of over zealous tourists that were potentially harming the dolphins, my decision was made. Born Free are currently running a campaign challenge the European Dolphinaria industry - please visit their website to add your support.

I believe in the Born Free concept of 'wild animals should live in the wild'. I don't visit zoos for the simple fact I can't abide the fact that an animal is living behind bars purely to entertain humans and don't even get me started on the amount of animals that are kept inhumanly. So my task has been amended to convey my feelings and I look forward to reporting back to you, when I've managed to complete it. I will climb back down off my soap box now.