Twice a week Dave Whitlow walks the figure-eight halls of the neonatal intensive care unit at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, gowned and gloved, looking for a nurse who can spare a pair of arms. He is seventy-three, a retired city manager, a grandfather, and not a clinician. For eight years his shift has been the same: hold the babies who cannot go home yet, watch the monitors, and give them the ordinary weight of a human chest.
On an ordinary visit he may take five or six infants, some of them two pounds, and rock until the numbers on the screen settle. On a heavy day the count climbs toward eight. Before each child goes back into the crib he leans in and says the sentence he has used for years: Grow strong, grow smart, grow kind. The hospital estimates the total in the hundreds. At a reunion he has seen seven- and eight-year-olds who once fit in the crook of that same arm.
Nothing in the work replaces a ventilator or a feeding tube. What it offers is time that medicine does not bill for, warmth that does not come from an incubator, and a voice that asks nothing of a patient too small to answer. One man, two mornings, a line of six words, and a unit that has learned to use him.
A heartbreaking investigation revealed that Trump's Bureau of Land Management is systematically rounding up thousands of America's wild horses, then quietly selling them off to buyers who are shipping them to slaughterhouses abroad.
Before, the U.S. government rarely sold wild horses. But since Trump took office, government sales have more than doubled.
Slaughterhouses pay up to $750 a wild horse, the investigation found.
The Bureau of Land Management is nominally in charge of protecting the 73,000 or so wild horses who roam America's public lands in the West. Under Trump, the Bureau is sending our wild horses to the slaughterhouse.
(Source: New York Times)
48-year-old Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman and his 14-year-old girlfriend Mandy Smith, 1984. Wyman and Smith went on to marry when she was about 18 and he was 52.
🚨 MAJOR WIN FOR ANIMALS! 🐙🎉
Today, we have some incredible news from Spain.
After years of campaigning, Nueva Pescanova has officially abandoned its plans to build the world’s first commercial octopus factory farm.
This is a monumental victory—not just for octopuses, but for everyone fighting for a more compassionate and sustainable food system.
Octopuses are among the most intelligent and complex animals on Earth. They are solitary, highly curious wild animals that simply do not belong in factory farms. Had this project moved forward, it would have opened the door to an entirely new industry built on the intensive confinement of one of the ocean’s most remarkable species.
This victory didn’t happen by chance.
It is the result of years of tireless work by my incredible colleagues at @CIWF_Global , alongside scientists, NGOs, supporters, and more than 43,000 people who took action by contacting the Port Authority in Spain.
To every single person who signed a letter, sent an email, shared the campaign, or stood with us—thank you. You helped stop a cruel industry before it could begin.
While today is a day to celebrate, our work isn’t finished. Interest in octopus farming still exists in other parts of the world, and we’ll continue fighting to ensure this cruel industry never gains a foothold anywhere.
Today proves something important: when people come together, we can stop cruelty before it starts.
Congratulations to everyone who made this historic victory possible. Today is a great day for octopuses—and a great day for animals everywhere. 💚🐙
#StopOctopusFarming #KeepThemWild #CompassionInWorldFarming #AnimalWelfare #FactoryFarming #ProtectOurOceans #OceanConservation #Animals #CampaignVictory
Filmed yesterday at Springs Shelter. The man is Daniel, 47. Came to "just look." Spent 20 minutes with a dog named Murphy. Three-year-old mixed breed. Returned twice for "clinginess." Visit ended.
Daniel stood up to leave. Murphy panicked. Didn't bark. Didn't bite. Jumped into Daniel's arms. Like a toddler. Wrapped his legs around Daniel's torso.
Pressed his face into Daniel's neck. Then went completely rigid. Frozen. Daniel tried to put him down. Murphy's grip tightened. Claws digging into Daniel's shirt. Staff watched. Nobody moved. Daniel said: "I can't just leave him like this." Carried Murphy to the tront desk. Signed adoption papers while Murphy was still wrapped around him. Shelter director told us: "Murphy wasn't being aggressive. He was holding on like someone who's been dropped too many times. Daniel couldn't put him down because Murphy wouldn't let go. And Daniel couldn't leave someone who needed him that desperately." Sometimes a dog doesn't beg. They just refuse to
BREAKING: Undercover footage shows the nightmarish warehouse cells where NYC carriage horses are trapped in deplorable conditions when not in dangerous NYC traffic.
These poor animals have a HORRIFIC LIFE of walking the busy streets , in and out of congested traffic in hot and cold temperatures. These horses NEVER touch grass, never graze in pastures and no socialization with other horses .
They have NO pasture for grazing and interacting with other horses as herd animals NEED to be healthy and they are denied proper veterinary care.
THIS HAS TO STOP. TAKE ACTION BELOW TO END THIS ABUSE.
Everyone can call NYC Council Health Committee Chair Lynn Schulman at 718.544.8800 and press 0 to leave a message to ask her to cosponsor and fast- track #RydersLaw Intro 967 to end this criminal horse abuse!
NEW YORKERS: please make a quick call or send an email to your own New York City COUNCIL MEMBER urging them to POST sponsor and pass intro 967,
#RydersLaw.
#CentralPark #BanHorseCarriages #centralparkcarriagerides #nychorses #nyctourism #CentralPark #BanHorseCarriages #NYClass
#centralparkcarriagerides #nychorses #nyctourism #RydersLaw
🎦 Credit: Unbridled Heroes.
VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKES: 1,430 people have been confirmed dead with 3,238 others injured.
68,900 remain missing, according to reports submitted by families to the Venezuelan government.
No matter our politics, there has to be a line. Using false reports to drag young children into a political attack is beyond the pale.
Pete, I’m thinking of your family. I’m grateful you’re all safe, and I hope whoever did this is held accountable.
Un niño de 12 años fue rescatado de los escombros, lamentablemente no consigue a sus padres, se sospecha que hayan fallecido en los escombros. La situación en La Guiara, Venezuela, es muy grave, miles de personas están dentro de escombros y aún no llega la ayuda suficiente. 🇻🇪
Después del terremoto en Venezuela, una familia buscaba a su bebé entre los escombros. El papá entre lágrimas lo llamaba a los gritos Y EL BEBÉ SALIÓ GATEANDO.
Esto es un milagro
Milagro entre los escombros que dejó el terrible terremoto en Venezuela. Miembros del Cuerpo de Bomberos escucharon un débil quejido y con paciencia, fuerza y mucho corazón, removieron toneladas de escombros hasta dar con él: un pequeño perrito sepultado vivo 🙏
Cuando finalmente lo sacaron a la luz, tembloroso, cubierto de polvo y con la mirada llena de miedo, el cachorro se acurrucó en los brazos de sus salvadores.
Un movimiento de cola y un suave lamido en las manos fueron su forma de decir “gracias por no rendirse”.
Muchas gracias a estos héroes. Todas las vidas son valiosas
Terremoto en Venezuela. Caracas
@therobbieharvey There was a man doing this (literally, semen) few years ago, in Allentown PA area. Thankfully, he has been long caught. Maybe a copycat 🤬. If it smelled like paint, hopefully this wasn’t actually that