Monday, August 26, 2013

Fundraiser for New Anti-Carriage Postcard Campaign


We're excited to launch a new campaign to ban the horse-drawn carriages in Victoria!

Our new postcard is targeted at City Hall, and asks Mayor Fortin and City Council to ban the horse-drawn carriages. City bylaws have a ban on all animal acts in Victoria, but there are exemptions for dogs and horses. We're asking City Council to update this, and remove horses from the exemption.

Life in the city is neither decent nor safe for horses, who when released, should reside in sanctuaries. Please help educate City Council – pressing them to end this antiquated commercial industry.

We hope to raise $400 with our Fundrazr effort to cover costs for printing postcards, other promotional materials and postage.

You can view a PDF of our postcard: http://thevictoriavegan.com/foa/files/foa-hdc-postcard-1.pdf

NEW! Our poster, to promote the cards, is here: http://thevictoriavegan.com/foa/files/foa-hdc-postcard-poster.pdf

Information on our carriage campaign, including our new FAQ leaflet is available here: http://thevictoriavegan.com/foa/

Your donation is appreciated, even if it's just $2 or $5 - any amount helps us print up more cards! Click here to support our Carriage-Free Victoria page: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/9aUC1

Finally, if you'd like some of our postcards to distribute in your area, please contact us, and we'll get some of our new cards to you!

Thanks kindly,

Dave Shishkoff
Canadian Correspondent
Friends of Animals
Web Site: http://FriendsofAnimals.org
Victoria: http://TheVictoriaVegan.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2496490922
Twitter: http://Twitter.com/FoA_Victoria
FoA Vegan Starter Guide PDF: http://bit.ly/foa-vsg

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Saving Beavers on the Sunshine Coast!

These last two Wednesdays I had the pleasure to join the Fur Bearer Defenders crew in going to the Sunshine Coast to help build and install a few 'beaver flow devices' (see Wikipedia entry and description here.)

It's a pretty neat concept: instead of tearing down the beaver dam, or trapping and killing the resident beavers when a dam becomes an inconvenience for humans, flow devices can be installed which maintain the water levels of their ponds, and barely disrupts the beaver family.

There are a number of designs and ways to install these devices. In this instance a culvert had been blocked decades ago by sediment build-up (and a pretty impressive amount, as we discovered! About half a meter deep, and a couple meters out from the end of the culvert!)

The device prevents culverts from being re-blocked, so water can continue to drain. It's a pretty simple solution that costs very little, but has been very effective in numerous areas in allowing us to live peacefully with beavers with minimal disruption to either.

Check out our two galleries below, and contact the Fur Bearers if you'd be interested in installing one of these in your community!



Direct link to Gallery #1.


Direct link to Gallery #2.

UPDATE: Story on the build in the Coast Reporter: http://www.coastreporter.net/article/20130819/SECHELT0101/308199998/-1/sechelt/volunteer-help-saves-beavers-and-highway

Second story: http://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/2013/08/20/did-you-know-the-cavalry-is-in-vancouver/

Dave Shishkoff

Victoria: http://TheVictoriaVegan.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2496490922