Animal Cafe has been buzzing this week. Did you know that an artist is creating thousands and thousands of paintings representing the 5500 shelter dogs who do not make it out of shelters alive every day? Mark Barone will complete this project, An Act of Dog, next year. In the meantime, his partner Marina Dervan is talking to cities, and cities are contacting her, about providing a permanent space to accommodate showing these paintings.
The world’s first and likely only dog art museum is a memorial intended to bring visitors from everywhere to a tranquil space, bringing to the forefront the magnitude of what is happening. We toss numbers around and think nothing of 4 or 5 million dying each year, Marina remarked. Seeing these thousands of paintings of dogs in one space will inject the emotional component to bring those numbers, oddly enough, to life. The realization that many of those dogs could have had a different story is part of the mission. The no kill solution will be an educational component of this registered not-for-profit, and the museum will be the source of funding for no kill shelters and rescues. That’s a big idea! Check out the interview and see how you can be part of this project.
Steve Dale, noted journalist, author, speaker, broadcaster and certified pet behaviorist shared with Animal Cafe his recent experience on a wildlife safari, trekking the Rwandan mountains in search of gorillas. I was interested to find that these mountain gorillas were not discovered until 1902, and that their distinguishing feature is having more hair than others of their kind resulting from mountain temperatures. Their lifespan is 35 years. There are less than 500 mountain gorillas remaining in the mountainous areas of Rwanda, Uganda and the Congo, and ecotourism supports their care. Don’t miss Steve’s video – he’s so close to them, it’s pretty exciting!
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