Stay tune for upcoming projects at our ranch; where we will be facilitating therapy riding programs for children, veterans, and people with disabilities. Our ultimate goal is to also provide sanctuary for predatory birds, wolves, and coyotes who cannot return to the wild. Updates soon!!

Did you know we dump 8 million tons of plastic into our ocean annually ? We wanted to take action so planned our very first women’s empowerment beach clean up! Stay tuned to find a beach clean up near you! Let’s keep our oceans pristine! Some shocking facts about plastic pollution:

Plastic pollution can now be found on every beach in the world, from busy tourist beaches to uninhabited, tropical islands nowhere is safe.

Scientists have recently discovered microplastics embedded deep in the Arctic ice.

In 1950, the world’s population of 2.5 billion produced 1.5 million tons of plastic; in 2016, a global population of more than 7 billion people produced over 320 million tons of plastic. This is set to double by 2034.

Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans.

There may now be around 5.25 trillion macro and microplastic pieces floating in the open ocean. Weighing up to 269,000 tonnes.

Plastics consistently make up 60 to 90% of all marine debris studied.

Approx 5,000 items of marine plastic pollution have been found per mile of beach in the UK.

Over 150 plastic bottles litter each mile of UK beaches.

Recent studies have revealed marine plastic pollution in 100% of marine turtles, 59% of whales, 36% of seals and 40% of seabird species examined.

100,000 marine mammals and turtles and 1 million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution annually.

'A killer whale who was spotted pushing the corpse of its short-lived offspring continued to carry her dead calf after 16 days, experts said.

Scientists and researchers on Wednesday saw the grieving orca known as J35, or Tahlequah, still carrying her dead calf in coastal waters near the border between British Columbia and Washington State.

Tahlequah, who gave birth on July 24, got to spend just 30 minutes with her offspring before the calf died. Since then, Tahlequah has been spotted pushing her dead calf sometime on her head, sometimes in her mouth.

The adult orca’s condition is being monitored, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration fisheries experts wrote on the agency's website.

“Our crew encountered J35 and she is indeed still with the carcass of her calf,” Sheila Thornton research scientist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada told reporters in a phone briefing Thursday.

Scientists are worried that Tahlequah’s behavior may harm her health, and they are keeping a close eye on her.

“We have obvious concerns about the displacement of her behavior away from foraging and feeding towards carrying the calf," Thornton said.

While Tahlequah is mourning her dead baby, another young whale is on the brink of death, said scientists, who are racing against time to save 3-year-old J50, also known as Scarlet.

“Biologists are mobilized and responding to an emaciated and ailing 3-year-old killer whale ... , J50 also known as Scarlet, of the critically endangered southern resident population,” NOAA wrote on its website on Thursday. “J50 appears lethargic at times with periods of activity, including feeding. Scientists observing her agree that she is in poor condition and may not survive.”

NOAA Fisheries and partner organizations are exploring options ranging from no intervention at all to providing medical treatment, potentially delivered via a live Chinook salmon for J50 to eat, a treatment method never before been attempted in the wild, the agency said.'

(via - https://abcnews.go.com/US/killer-whale-carrying-dead-calf-16-days/story?id=57122848)

So delighted to announce we successfully placed 11 Persian cats and kittens to new homes. These angels came from a hoarding situation, and now are happily thriving with their new furever families. We want to thank everybody who helped us! PLEASE remember when you’re looking to get a dog or cat that it’s always better to adopt or rescue. Interbreeding can be incredibly cruel and the consequences of it can cause so many defects and issues in dog and cat breeds. A lot of these cats were bred for being “best in show”, and the more scrunched faces with large eyes and a shorter distance between the nose and eyes would always win. These cats were bred over 50 years for these traits, causing them to have blindness and sinus issues. Some of their faces were so flat they couldn’t even drink water without almost drowning. Of course not all breeders do this, but why buy and supply the demand for breeders when there’s millions of angels who don’t have homes!? #ADOPTDONTSHOP!

Gopher snakes contract their muscles as they slither along the substrate. Since they are non-venomous snakes, they constrict and suffocate their prey when hunting. They mainly feed off of small rodents and birds, and because of their muscular bodies they can even climb trees to snatch prey, or burrow underground. Their scientific name is catenifer, which means “chain bearing” in Latin, referring to the splotched pattern on their backs. Their common name is gopher snake because gophers and ground squirrels are a main source of prey for them.

Completely outraged and speechless. What on earth makes someone pay thousands of dollars to slaughter an innocent? PLEASE SIGN THE LINK BELOW NOW TO SAVE GRIZZLIES !!!!

https://www.change.org/p/secretary-ryan-zinke-save-the-yellowstone-grizzly-stop-the-delisting-stop-the-trophy-hunt

It was amazing working with these little guys today at @animaltracksinc ! Did you know possums are marsupials and are only pregnant 12 days before giving birth!? They’re incredible animals!

"This tiny creature has gotten a fair bit of attention lately because of one simple reason: It’s absolutely crazy-looking. At first glance, it resembles a Pokémon or character from Final Fantasy more closely than a real biological animal. But the Glaucus atlanticus sea slug—commonly  known as the blue sea slug or blue dragon—is indeed a genuine species. And if you swim in the right places off of South Africa, Mozambique or Australia, you just might find one floating upside down, riding the surface tension of the water’s surface.

The species has a number of specialized adaptations that allow it to engage in a surprisingly aggressive behavior: preying on creatures much bigger than itself. The blue dragon, typically just an inch long, frequently feeds on Portuguese man o’ wars, which have tentacles that average 30 feet. A gas-filled sac in the stomach allows the small slug to float, and a muscular foot structure is used to cling to the surface. Then, if it floats by a man o’ war or other cnidarian, the blue dragon locks onto the larger creature’s tentacles and consumes the toxic nematocyst cells that the man o’ war uses to immobilize fish.

The slug is immune to the toxins and collects them in special sacs within the cerata—the finger-like branches at the end of its appendages—to deploy later on. Because the man o’ war’s venom is concentrated in the tiny fingers, blue dragons can actually have more powerful stings than the much larger creatures from which they took the poisons. So, if you float by a blue dragon sometime soon: look, but don’t touch."

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/glaucus-atlanticus-science-picture-of-the-week-65306082/#aKSPggYLOV1R8rgT.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
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Our annual holiday Kicks for Kids shoe drive was a huge success! We were able to distribute shoes to over 100 kids and teens thanks to the donations we received. We want to give an enormous thanks to the Boys and Girls Club for hosting, Kicx Unlimited for their donations, and Hot103.5 for aiding with promotion and providing music for the event!