Thursday, April 5, 2012

"Animal Teachings From Hayley's Angels": A book to make the world a better place for animals and people.

Please share this link with your networks, such as Facebook, or other social networks that would appreciate it.  Thank you kindly!  Please see the accompanying video below.  This video depicts the 2011 "Caring For All Animals" event hosted by Hayley's Angels, as well as an overview of the work of Dr. Joanne Lefebvre, DVM.


How can we live in greater harmony with ourselves, our animals, and the world around us? How can we communicate better with our animals and improve the quality of life for all? What happens to people and animals when when we die, and how can we focus on the quality of the death experience as well as the quality of life experience? These are some of the questions Joanne asked in her book Animal Teachings from Hayley's Angels Methods.

When it comes to communicating with animals, I offer this example from my own life: My dog Velvet recently came barging into the bedroom, lay on the floor, and refused to leave. Velvet has free reign of the most the house and the backyard but not the bedroom. If it were up to me Velvet would also have free reign of the bedroom too, but relationships always require agreements that meet the needs of everyone. So with this in mind, not only did Velvet barge into the bedroom, but she refused to leave without me leading her out by the collar. While Beth was asking why this was happening, I realized it was because Velvet was telling me that she badly wanted for us to take her on a run. She had not been on one for a couple weeks and the weather that day was ideal for it. We were short on time, but I agreed with Velvet to take her on her walk. In exchange, I wanted from her a quick bath first because she spent some time rolling in the dust and was covered in dust and dirty. She wanted to run out in the Rillito riverbed but because of time constraints, we took her to a nearby area where she and Jane Doe, my other dog, could be let off the leash for a bit. After letting off some steam, the dogs were happy and good, and they didn't try to come and occupy the bedroom. The kind of animal communication that Joan speaks of in her book is along these lines.

She also speaks of controversial issues such as birth control for animals and people, medicine, living for a better world, and many other fascinating subjects. She advises people to know the personalities of the animals in their lives and recognize that many pets' behavioral problems are actually caused by humans. She even touches on the idea that people and their pets often show striking similarities in their ailments.

Joanne also seems to blend humanism with animal rights, two concepts that are too often more like and oil and water when in fact, both are necessary. She believes that taking good care of our animals is a major ingredient in the improvement of society. It is good to love both humans and animals. I can say that I've seen animals teach people lessons of compassion, caretaking, and other valuable living skills. I've also seen communities judged by how they treat their animals—some serious food for thought.

Hayleysangels.com hosts fundraisers for worthy causes, as well as helps the community in humanitarian, environmental, and animal causes. That is why I am asking you to share this link with your friends, as you will be helping Hayley's Angels help your community. Hayley's Angels does this in a well-rounded enough way that some part of it will seem worth your while. So, help get the word out and take a look at this video we put together for her. Joanne is definitely on to something that deserves our attention.  You can find her at the following contact information:
Dr. Joanne Lefebvre, DVM

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

West University neighborhood is getting stepped on and your neighborhood is probably next.

 Please pass the link to this blog entry around Facebook or other media because Tucsonans want to be able to build their own city without outside developers or the city government displacing them without their input!

As it turned out, once the petitions were submitted to the City for review, more than half of them had to be rejected due to a small technicality.  It was only long after the City reviewed the language and format of the petition, then accepted it, that it finally told WUNA about this technicality.  What happened was that some fine print had been omitted from the documents: 1) The right of a signer to look through the text of the entire petition before signing.  2) It is illegal for a person to sign more than once.  Petitioners knew enough to say these things to signers, but they needed to be in print to be legally binding.  Now, once WUNA found out about this, they made certain to correct these problems and then continued circulating the petition.  It didn't help those signatures that were rejected, though, and they had to be thrown out.  When I was at City Hall for the review, I observed that the officials who did the reviewing and made the announcement came across as rather sympathetic to the neighborhood's situation.  They apologized and acted as though they didn't want to have to reject the effort.  Interesting ... I hear nowadays that as time passes, it is becoming increasingly difficult for petition efforts to be successful because our elected officials seem to be increasingly opposed to grassroots political efforts from their constituents.  How anti-democratic!  This particular situation in West University isn't just limited to the one geographic location, either.  Other historic neighborhoods are and should be concerned because it opens them up to possible rezoning and veritable destruction, and the people will have no autonomy over their own living space.  The good news is that I'm also hearing that City Council has been receiving a good number of disgruntled phone calls about the results of the petition effort.  So, if you are inclined, I ask you to please assist with this call effort by contacting your respective city council member.  Follow this link to see a list of council members and click on your respective council member to get their contact information. Also, to see this event in action please watch the video below.

Thanks for reading my blog and supporting grassroots democracy.  We can expect to see more action taken by WUNA in some way and I'll be sure to update the blog as I find out more and continue to help.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Repeal the Main Gate Overlay: What's Next

The West University Neighborhood Association, along with a few other adjacent historic neighborhoods, ended up collecting almost 12,000 signatures for their petition.  The total amount of labor involved came to about 2,000 man-hours distributed among over 100 volunteers, most of whom turned down offers of payment for their legwork.  These data were announced on Thursday, March 29th at El Presidio Park next to City Hall in the presence of members of WUNA, other neighborhood associations, and other concerned citizens.  Someone also suggested that a coalition of neighborhoods be formed to give more of a voice to residents.  After all, if the City Council thinks it can just ruin a perfectly good historic neighborhood, evicting residents from their own houses, what's to say that the other neighborhoods like Iron Horse, Pie Allen, or Dunbar Spring would be any more immune?

I'd say that it was a victorious moment for WUNA!


As I promised, I helped to gather some signatures myself and promoted it however I could through my usual media channels.  So far, it's been an educational experience and I'm looking forward to more opportunities to help out.