Sentient Today

500,000 public comments were filed yesterday in support of the Endangered Species Act by the Animal Welfare Institute and 16 other conservation groups. At this point, there are more than 800,000 total comments in defense of endangered species.

Changes to the Endangered Species Act are being challenged across the country. A U.S. District judge just reinstated the Yellowstone grizzly bear’s threatened-species status. He claimed the administration wasn’t using the best science in its decision to remove the bear’s protections last year.

ICYMI 👉 North Carolina has its own definition of milk. We’ve got it covered for Huffington Post.
 

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1. 🐷 Tyson and Blue Apron are still using gestation crates, despite the major food suppliers’ efforts to establish better animal welfare standards. Tyson’s Open Prairie brand, which supplies Blue Apron with pork chops, says most of their pigs are from farms that do not use crates (keyword: most). [Bloomberg]
2. ❌  A conservation group at Cornell University plans to open its 226-acre deer sanctuary to bow hunting. Bow hunting is cruel but unfortunately, not an unusual method of population control. [Animal Rights News]
3. 👀 The #1 cause of death in the United States is diet. Americans consume less than 10% of foods from plants, and all those animal products add up to heightened risks of heart disease and cancer. [LIVEKINDLY]
4. 🙌 Would you risk your own life to save an animal? Watch rescuers battle North Carolina’s flood waters to get these animals onto dry land. [WCNC]
5. 🤣 Octopuses on ecstasy—it’s not a joke. It’s a science experiment. And they behave much like humans on E would. [Atlantic]

Read This Book

Do you ever think about how to be a good citizen of the world? It’s a big question, and not always a fun one to answer. Sometimes it’s easier to start more basic like, how can I be a good creature today? How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2018) asks just that. In her 208-page memoir beautifully illustrated by Rebecca Green, Sy Montgomery tells us the story of the life she dedicated to the study of animals that becomes a remarkably refreshing story about all of us.

Some people are bad with names, and others are so bad with names that they remember you by your pet’s name. There’s a tendency for people that feel different to associate with things—or in this case, animals—that feel different, too. The most beautiful piece of human nature is our relationship with animals. For all that we’ve done to them, they still care about us. Dogs can sense if you’re upset before you even know it. And we care for them in one of the most loving inter-species relationships known to humankind.

Bottom line: We tend to look to our peers for a fresh perspective when we could all spend a little more time with the animals around us. They really can teach us How to Be a Good Creature.