January 4, 2011 / by Danielle Thompson / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog
Our generous friends at VeganThis are donating the proceeds from their Vengeance shirt to GPS! Support VeganThis, GPS and animal liberation all in one shirt and for only $3! Order one at VeganThis!
We are all really excited about our new t-shirts! The logo was designed by our old pal Josh Hooten at Herbivore Clothing Co. in Portland, OR and printed by our new friend Amets at Kayrock Screenprinting Inc. in Brooklyn, NY. We were humbled when at the last minute, Amets told us that she would like to donate not only the screen printing but the shirts themselves! Thank you Josh, Herbivore, Amets and Kayrock! Please visit their websites and support these businesses and people who give back to their community so generously. Also, order a shirt here!
November 2, 2010 / by Danielle Thompson / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog
Great news! GPS is now a member of 1% for the Planet, a network of more than 1200 member companies giving 1% of their annual sales to environmental charities worldwide. As a member, we are eligible for that 1%. Ask your favorite businesses if they are a member, if so, you can ask that they support us! Learn more at their website or contact us for info!
We are also looking for a volunteer to contact 1% businesses and introduce GPS to them. Contact danielle@gpsociety.org if you are interested in helping out.
October 18, 2010 / by Danielle Thompson / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog
Ecuador Program Advisor, Maria Navarro blogged about her recent trip to Galapagos to coordinate our humane education program there!
GPS’s Humane and Environmental Education Plan is coming to schools in Galapagos Islands!
Last weekend I traveled to Santa Cruz for five days. While I was there, I met with colleagues Francisco Hurtado, a teacher at Cazares School and Paco Zambrano, a veterinarian for Darwin Animal Doctors (DAD) who both collaborate on GPS work.
I stopped by DAD’s new veterinary clinic and Paco gave me tour. It looks awesome! In just a couple months, GPS can start working with DAD to shelter dogs and cats on their way to new homes on the continent or beyond. It is very important because there is no place like it on the Islands.
During this trip to Santa Cruz I delivered humane education proposals to 20 different schools. At Tomas De Berlanga I met Sheila Roberts. I knew her from the Colegio Menor High School in Quito but she is now the Head Director Tomas De Berlanga. The school works with Fundacion Scalesia, a foundation dedicated to environmental education.
Sheila and I spoke for at least an hour. She told me about their education plans and how they work with every class. Sheila is very interested in our education plan and we are now formalizing plans to work together. Two other schools also responded positively.
I am happy to lead this Educational Plan in the name of Galapagos Preservation Society! I can’t wait to meet with the whole team in the coming months to solidify our plans!
October 7, 2010 / by Danielle Thompson / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog
The amazingly talented artist Kurt Halsey is auctioning off an original painting entitled “The ocean is a forest,” with 40% of the proceeds going to GPS and another 40% going to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
It is 32″ tall x 26″ wide in size, acrylic on canvas. It is 2 canvases that are hinged together on the back. Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse.
You can place a bid on the Ebay auction page.
Tell your friends!
September 20, 2010 / by Danielle Thompson / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog
Our friend Ketzel Levine, wrote a great piece in All Animals about her new calling helping animals. “From the get-go, I knew I wanted to work on ARCA’s behalf. I also wanted to work with the Galapagos Preservation Society, an animal rescue group active on Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, where feral dogs and cats were threatening the islands’ one-of-a-kind species.”
Read the full story on The HSUS’S website here.
September 12, 2010 / by Danielle Thompson / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog
Join GPS as we table at the Puppy Mill Awareness Festival in Los Angeles, CA! We’ll be educating festival-goers about the illegal transport of puppy mill dogs into the Galapagos Islands.
We need volunteers for two-hour tabling shifts. Email Danielle@GPSociety.org if you’d like to help out.
Where: Hancock Park, Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
When: Sat., Sept 18 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
September 2, 2010 / by Danielle Thompson / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog
“Penguin biologists from around the world, who are gathered in Boston this week, warn that ten of the planet’s eighteeen penguin species have experienced further serious population declines. Many penguin species evolved in extremely remote settings devoid of any mammal predators.. Prior to the arrival of humans, New Zealand’s only mammals were bats. Now, introduced weasels have had a large impact on the the small populations of Yellow-Eyed and Fiordland penguins. In Australia and Argentina, the arrival of foxes have had impacts while feral cats in the Galapagos have reduced penguin populations there.”
Read the full article here.
August 23, 2010 / by admin / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog
“BERTA LANGSTON (1926-2010), a founder and member of Solidarity, died of lung cancer at age 84 in Norwalk, Connecticut on June 23. Born Berta Green on the Lower East Side of New York City, she was one of four sisters. She joined the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the mid-1940s and throughout nearly four decades of activity she was widely esteemed on the Left as one of the party’s most devoted and capable militants, a person who could work with sundry individuals to develop coalitions and political defense committees of national and international import. From time to time she used the party name “Berta Graham,” and she received a Marxist education at the “Trotsky School” at Mountain Spring Camp in New Jersey. During the mid-1960s she served briefly on the SWP National Committee.
Berta moved from New York to Detroit in 1957 where she worked full-time for the SWP. Central activities in those years include her defense of the two victims in “Kissing Case” in North Carolina, when eight-year-old and 10-year-old African-American boys were charged with assault for having played a game in which they kissed white girls. A whisper campaign claimed attempted rape.”
Galapagos Preservation Society is sad to lose a good friend to the animals and planet. Berta came to us through our good friend Jeffrey St. Clair. He recommended our organization and she was on board with our mission. She supported many organizations throughout her life, a humanitarian, conservationist and animal rights activist! Who could ask for more. Thanks Berta! We love and miss you.
If you would like to read more about Berta’s impressive life, please visit the the Solidarity webzine.
July 30, 2010 / by Danielle Thompson / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog
At a meeting this week in Brazil, the World Heritage Committee voted to remove the Galapagos Islands from the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger citing the significant progress that Ecuador has made in combating increasing tourism, population growth and invasive species.
Although that may seem like good news, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Galapagos are still very much in danger. Australia, Sweden and Switzerland all voted agains the measure at the IUCN also took a strong stand against removing Galapagos from the list.
Progress may be taking place Galapagos is still threatened by ever increasing urban expansion due to population growth and tourism, as well as introduced and invasive species, including dogs and cats.
As I write this, I’m sitting outside the CIMEI office in San Cristobal. The Inter-Institutional Committee for the Management of Introduced Species was created to control introduced animals in urban and rural areas of each island. CIMEI conducts a dog and cat census, sterilization, controls rodents and garbage which attract rodents, pigeons and dogs. Although they are doing their best, they only have power over introduced species that are already on the island. And they have no permanent veterinarian so are unable to sterilize dogs on a continual basis.
AGROCALIDAD is the agency that works to stop smuggling of introduced plants and animal species to Galapagos but the are grossly under-staffed. We were told there is one inspector for the entire port of Guayaquil, Ecuador, where the six cargo ships depart to Galapagos loaded with necessary supplies but also illegal products, including goats, chickens, puppies and kittens. And inspection isn’t any better here on the islands. The AGROCALIDAD inspector only checks cargo at the port from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Any illegal cargo is simply off-loaded after the inspector goes home for the day.
As for the dogs and cats already on the islands, it is not mandatory that they are sterilized. Just yesterday we visited the home of a woman who has tied her unsterilized dog up to a tree in a trash-filled lot across the street from her house. We approached to woman to ask if we could build a fence for the dog. The dog may be pregnant now but she won’t let us spay her because she wants the dog to continue breeding. If the owner will not agree to sterilize, we cannot in good conscience provide a free-fence for in essence, a backyard breeder. Not only is there nothing we or CIMEI can do legally to remove the dog from her neglectful situation, CIMEI cannot even sterilize her without the owner’s permission. The dog will continue to have puppies that will be uncared for, chained to a tree or running the streets harassing wildlife.
Also, yesterday a man and woman walked past with a poodle and four puppies. He told us they were already sold and he charged $185 for the males and $200 for the female. We asked if we could spay the dog now and he told us they wanted her to have one more litter first.
Five minutes from here, near Playa Man they are building a new concrete dock and we expect to see even more construction, cars and tourists when we go to Santa Cruz tomorrow.
There is some good news, however. We visited the Alvear School yesterday, where we gave a humane education presentation to an auditorium of kindergarden through 3rd graders. We then gave presentations on the history of Galapagos, the native wildlife and problems caused by introduced species to the 6th through 9th graders. The kids were great! They asked a lot of good questions and wanted us to talk to the adults on the island too (which we are also doing.) Many of them were unaware they could adopt a dog and were excited to find out that was possible.
We also visited our first cargo ship and the Captain signed our pledge agreeing to be vigilant about preventing illegal animal cargo aboard his ship! Although the pledge in itself will not stop illegal animal cargo, it is a first step in the right direction to helping end the illegal transport of animals to the islands.
Certainly, progress is being made to save the Galapagos Islands from peril, however, Galapagos is still very much in danger. We are fearful that its removal from the Danger List will give people the false idea that Galapagos is out of harm’s way. Although it may no longer be on the official Danger List, the biodiversity of the Galapagos Islands is still very much at risk.
July 20, 2010 / by Danielle Thompson / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog
The island of Guam used to have a dozen endemic birds. Now, only a small group of koko birds remain. A few years ago the Guam Department of Agriculture released koko birds back into the wild. Disappointingly, they were quickly eaten by feral cats.
As they are in Galapagos, cats and dogs are an introduced species in Guam, capable of wreaking havoc on the ecosystem and native animals.
Although spay and neuter is essential, it has no impact on stray dogs and cats terrorizing and preying on wildlife, which is why GPS is working on finding homes for strays and preventing animals with homes from wandering the streets.
Read more about the problem in Guam here.
Imagine a place where hundreds of iguanas lay on rocks in the sun, sea lions slumber on the beach, birds nest on the ground and giant tortoises bathe in muddy pools. In the Galapagos Islands, this is not a stretch of the imagination, however, all of these animals are threatened by the thousands of street dogs and cats living in Galapagos.
