Garnett Rogers "Small Victory"

This week our guest blogger is Scott Lajoie, who has substituted for me before as editor of Cape Cod Magazine. Now a writer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Yarmouth Port, Scott is writing about songs addressing animal welfare issues of today. 

The first time I ever heard this song, I became very emotional. Okay, I’ll say it: I cried a little.

I saw Garnett Rogers perform here on Cape Cod six or seven years ago. He put on a great show with a lot of moving songs. But this one stood out. I was amazed by his fingerpicking. I engaged with the lyrics from the first word. I related to the characters, even the friend “who turned to me and said, ‘you’re soft-headed, I can tell.”

The act of saving this horse makes for a great story, and the twist made me smile. (Is it a twist, or do you see it coming a mile away? Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me, even after I have hear it dozens of times.)

There are many stories like these. Right here on Cape Cod, a girl named Brittany Wallace had parted ways with her horse and then some time later found it online, up for auction where allegedly people buy horses for their meat (I wrote about her in Cape Cod Magazine’s “People to Watch” this year). Scribbles is now safely back with Wallace, but how many other horses face this fate?

I love what Rogers says about helping as an “impulse” in the intro of the video here. But a lot of us won’t find ourselves at a horse auction anytime soon and thus don’t know how we can make a difference. We feel helpless.

We shouldn’t have to. There are plenty of organizations that address the many animal welfare problems that exist worldwide. Although IFAW does not count horse rescue among its repertoire services, you can Google ‘horse rescue’ for a listing of places near you that could use some assistance. Of course, there is always the Humane Society and the ASPCA, too.

While some organizations strive for action on larger picture issues—preserving habitat, endangered species listings, cruelty legislation, etc.—many realize the importance of saving one animal at a time. It’s costly. But it’s worth it because it’s the right thing to do.

Do your research. Learn about how these non-profits operate. Find work that inspires you. And pledge your support.

You could be the one who helps make “one more small victory.”


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Samples "African Ivory"

This week our guest blogger is Scott Lajoie, who has substituted for me before as editor of Cape Cod Magazine. Now a writer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Yarmouth Port, Scott is writing about songs addressing animal welfare issues of today. 

The 90s alternative jam reggae band The Samples, a long-time fave of mine (in fact, I mentioned them the last time I guest-blogged), produced a lot of songs with socially conscious lyrics about the environment. I read them now and they sound a little corny:

Nature, it's all around me
Nature is so astounding
Puts me on a beach
Swims beneath the sea
It's never out of reach
It's even you and me

In the last two months, however, the song “African Ivory” has become very real to me, especially the two lines, There's a rhinoceros horn on our big TV and There's an elephant tusk on our big TV.
These lines address two of the worst products of wildlife trafficking, rhino horn and elephant ivory, both of which are horrendously sawed off the face of these charismatic megafauna after they are poached. Tusk and horn are not like wool or discarded antlers, folks; the elephants and rhinos must be killed to harvest it.

Along with human trafficking, drug running and illegal arms sales, wildlife crime—which includes a whole host of wildlife “derivatives” too numerous to mention—ranks among the most serious, dangerous, and damaging of international crimes, worth an estimated US $19 billion per year as noted in IFAW’s  “Criminal Nature – The Global Security Implications of the Illegal Wildlife Trade.”

As I write this on Monday, we at IFAW are lauding the ivory crush in Guangzhou, China. For those of you who are not familiar with a crush, it is a symbolic gesture on the part of a government to pulverize ivory. By doing so, it brings exposure to the poaching of elephants, the illegal trafficking of material across borders, and the conflicted morality of purchasing and even owning ivory. (For a very personal account of the latter, read True Blood actress Kristin Bauer’s blog on the topic.)

IFAW works everyday to address the myriad issues related to this often overlooked type of crime. It’s rarely on your “big TV.”

Band leader and song writer Sean Kelly posted a video for an acoustic version recently with a note:
Published on Jan 15, 2013:

In the mid eighties I saw a documentary on the severity of the poaching of Elephants for their ivory tusks and Rhinoceros for their horns. I had a helpless and nauseous feeling in my stomach and soul.
All this information was coming through my TV set. I wrote this song back in 1988 or 89 and as you can see from this article, sadly nothing has changed in regard to the sadistic need for a frickin bone!!!!

sean

The version I post here is of the original.


Hear the song on Youtube.

PFR "Goldie's Last Day"

This was the subject of some future Weekend Post.

Though I never heard it anywhere else, this one was a semi-frequent request at the station I worked at in the mid-90s in Virginia.

At the time I had always thought it was pretty dang goofy.  Writing about your dog dying under mysterious circumstances and throwing in a bit of Taps struck me as ridiculous.

A few years later, a friend of mine had her dog poisoned, and the goofiness of the song was undercut by the realness of that incident.

I mention this story because this week, I'm turning over the blog to my friend Scott Lajoie, who is now making his life's work about the concern for animal welfare.  

While it's easy to make light (or be like Nelson Muntz on The Simpsons and suggest we "Nuke The Whales"), there is important work to be done, and important issues to consider.  It is pretty impressive that right on Cape Cod, there is a worldwide-ranging organization working to protect and preserve rights for animals, and bring awareness to issues much larger, including the fur and ivory trade for instance.

Musicians have been bringing awareness to these topics in their songs for many, many years, and Scott will highlight a few of them, and talk about the organization he works for, The International Fund For Animal Welfare.

And if you still need to make thing light, when you say IFAW, you can say it like Nelson Muntz says "HAW-Haw!"

Hear the song on Youtube.