Poisons kill in a pretty ugly way and make their way up the food chain as you said. Snap traps don't work all the time, but using good ones minimizes the chances of suffering, but it's still going to happen, that's just somewhat unavoidable.
I help with wildlife rescue and see the effects of poison on raptors, so I appreciate people not going to poison as a first option.
Prevention (ie. building maintenance) is the real first step. Rodents want food, warmth, shelter just like we do, so they want to get in places. Remove their access and then nothing needs to get killed, at least not by humans.
Otherwise snap traps are largely considered the most humane, as they're relatively reliable, and as long as things go as planned they are quick and effective compared to most anything else. Nothing is going to be 100% reliable, hence the right thing to do is not let them in, which again, as they're housing large numbers of children, should be the priority of a halfway competent staff.
According to a POA complaint sent to Mark Scott, the institute's governor, "a rat was cornered and killed within a staff office using domesticated ferrets. This raises significant concerns in relation to animal welfare, health and safety, infection control, and professional conduct."
"It is particularly concerning that a young individual responsible for the ferrets was present and witnessed the incident. Exposure to such an event is inappropriate and potentially distressing, and warrants review"
Rather than destroy caught rats by approved pest control methods, a manager advised "stomping on them or throwing them against walls", the union's complaint said.
Ughhh, what the hell is wrong with people?!
First, how the hell do we still have children's prison??
Second, not humane to the rats or ferrets.
Third, making the children watch their therapy animal produce/receive gore, wtf? Hey kid, remember Rikki Tikki severing that rat's jugular? That's your only comfort in here!
Fourth, who allows their therapy animals to potentially get injured or spread disease? Are these animals not there for calmness, not to be hardening their wild instincts?
Holy hell, these people can't handle animals, let alone children with issues that need real help and compassion. 😡
It was our last day of mini-vacation, so I had "sunrise tacos" that were lightly fried corn tortillas with scrambled eggs, bacon, avocado, tomato, and hot sauce with a side of fried potatoes. It was at the ridiculous latte restaurant, so I also had a cherry cheesecake latte.
Same here! I always felt like the odd one out for not liking any beer. One day I was at a friend's house and they had a random assortment in their fridge and I saw one with a really cool label and it claimed to be from "the world's oldest brewery" which sounded promising.
It was Weihenstephaner Hefe Weißbier, which was of course the easiest thing in the world for me to remember and to request at the time 😆
After that, a local brewpub restaurant had a wheat beer with a hint of raspberry flavor that I liked, and eventually I learned to drink most any beer, but I still love a Weihenstephaner when I come across it.
We watch a ton of Youtube and have had premium for years. Twice now over maybe the last month, we've gotten errors stating "account in use at another location" or thereabouts, so we're waiting for them to cancel the old family plan that lets us share an account with separate profiles.
At that point she'll probably keep the account and I'll go the hack route to get sponsorblock, since premium only skips half the ads anyway with everyone doing promos mid video anyway.
That's pretty much how I thought it might go. Like, it sounds good in principle, but for one reason or another, they're people banks won't lend money to for profit. I'd have to think it's just inherently more risky. If one can afford to bet on people and accept the risk, I think it's great some people can get help and hopefully improve their situations.
I like donating local as I can see the people, and in my case, wildlife, that is being helped, and I can also see exactly what their needs are and how they're being filled. It gives me complete confidence where my donations are going, and that makes me happy with knowing I'll never see any of that money come back my way.
Like any other investing, one just needs to determine their risk acceptance and have a clear idea what they expect to get out of it.
There are things like microloans you can participate in where you loan very small businesses money to get them off the ground or stay funded for another month and what not.
I don't believe you make money, so I don't know if that is considered an investment in that regard, but you are investing in individuals and their communities.
I searched quickly and Kiva looks like it can give you an idea how microloans work. I have no experience with them, I just know this type of program exists.
Alternatively, fund and/or participate in a local charity. I volunteer time and give a humble donation to my local wildlife rescue, but you could also donate or work at your local food pantry, women's shelter, Food Not Bombs, etc. Again, no money back, but it's investing in your community and you can see "dividends" from that.
Any investment where you get more money back than when you started has strings attached, so that's an ethical consideration.
Tons of them. Just today I taught one person about bird biology in regards to feather replacement and another I am helping prepare their family farm to hopefully host a barn owl nest we desperately need in our state.
It is also due to the great conversations I had here with people everyday that encouraged me to get involved with wildlife rehabilitation 2 years ago and it's been one of the greatest adventures in my life. Everyone has been so supportive and has helped me develop my knowledge by asking great questions and sharing their enthusiasm with me about so many beautiful animals.
I've also participated in some political threads when the events were local and I'd been able to add nuance to the conversation. The trick is to just read the room and see if the thread is already trending hostile and just learn who is here to be combative vs to have real discussions.
I also just try to not be a jerk myself. I said something yesterday that got a more outspoken communists a bit insulated and I explained what my point of the original comment was a bit better and they calmed down when they saw I wasn't being insulting to their beliefs.
I just use the same guidelines for conversation I would in real life here, and almost all my interactions here are positive ones.
Very interesting article! I'm not Canadian, but while Canadians were the focus, the problems sound pretty universal. More reliance on tech, changing job markets, and people not continuously learning and practicing their more basic skills like reading, composition and math are going to be a major hinderance as tech starts to replace jobs where people have comfortably been able to coast on a lot of these skills and will have problems finding better jobs.
It was a real head scratcher. The anger seemed like the performance. The improved version seemed more authentic. I always assumed I "earned his respect" or some macho nonsense like that.
I'm happy with the current rate of progress. As it is, I easily spend way more time than I probably should talking to people here almost exclusively about a very niche topic. I don't need this place to be a be-all, end-all. I just come here to have nice conversations with whoever is around.
I worked in a Sear Hardware one summer during college. There was a loudmouthed old man that started coming in maybe once a week to buy one or 2 small things, and would make a scene over prices each time with whichever cashier he got. I don't recall if people gave him a discount or if he just liked the attention or what. Then he made the mistake of seeing me at customer service one day.
He started going off about he could go down the street to Lowes or whatever and get his drill bit set for $3 cheaper or whatever it was. In a polite and professional but firm way I told him: I see you come in here and every time you harass the cashiers and make a scene to where I have other customers apologizing for you. If you take your money to Lowes, me, my staff, and every other one of my customers will be better off and you can save your $3 so we all win.
I don't remember if he bought anything that day or not. What I do remember is that I did see him back repeatedly after that. He would greet me each time, as you entered past the service desk, and he'd usually come to me to check out and be very friendly and cordial. Never a grumpy peep out of him for the rest of the summer I worked there.
Not sure what changed his mood exactly, if it was just I was the only guy working up front, or if it was just someone finally telling him to cut the crap, but I hope that positive change carried over to other places he patronized. Seemed a legitimately decent guy afterwards. I'm sure this is not the usual way this would have played out, but for the whole $6.50/hr I was making, I wasn't much concerned, and I did handle him calmly and other customers told me they loved how I handled him professionally but sternly.
Poisons kill in a pretty ugly way and make their way up the food chain as you said. Snap traps don't work all the time, but using good ones minimizes the chances of suffering, but it's still going to happen, that's just somewhat unavoidable.
I help with wildlife rescue and see the effects of poison on raptors, so I appreciate people not going to poison as a first option.