Quick update from the weekend

This weekend I came across the Animal Planet show called Killer Aliens. This is the basis of the show:


Welcome to ground zero in America for invasive species: Florida. The Sunshine State is being overrun by lethal Burmese pythons, feral hogs, Nile monitor lizards, and Gambian rats the size of cats - all non-native species that have been imported by humans. These foreign invaders are wreaking havoc on the ecosystem and natural species are being thwarted. With no natural predators, their populations continue to spread rapidly throughout the state, spreading disease, destroying vegetation and crops, preying on native species and in the worst cases harming humans. It's a race against time to fight this ecosystem nightmare. The front lines are expanding, and no one knows where they are headed next.    

Continuation of fur spheres

I've been working on putting together the fur spheres I wrote about in the previous entry. Originally I was going to create the spheres from wire and newspaper. The first newspaper and then wire spheres I created proved not to be sturdy enough. I decided to use foam balls instead but due to prices I had to change the size I had originally wanted to have (the largest one foot wide foam ball was $20 each and I would have needed 5 of them which just wasn't do-able).

John let me borrow two books of his, the first one being The Postmodern Animal (c. 2000) by Steve Baker. It explores how animal imagery has been used in recent and contemporary art and performance, and in postmodern philosophy and literature, to shape ideas about identity and creativity. I have not had a chance to actually read it, but I spent some time looking at the photos in the book. One of them (shown below) caught my attention. It is Tar and Feathers (1996) by Mark Dion, tree, wooden base, tar, feathers, various taxidermic animals. This photo has me thinking of different purposes for my fur spheres. Originally I was creating this just to hang from the ceiling and each sphere represents a different number of animals euthanized in Merced County, CA. I think when it is complete I will hang it outside, from a tree, and take a photo once a week of the condition of the spheres. The idea behind this would be the fact that some people leave their pets/animals out on the street to fend for themselves. I would in turn be leaving these spheres to "fend" for themselves with the elements. 

The second book is People, Property, or Pets? by Hauser, Cushman and Kamem from the Harvard Law School library. It's made up of articles discussing pets as property, animal ethics and legal status, animal's rights, moral and practical problems, and animal testing. I have read one of the articles so far and I am very intrigued by everything in this book because it's focusing on laws and rules. 


Lindsey made the suggestion of looking into familiars. That thought had never crossed my mind and I was really excited when it was brought up. I have read through wikipedia pages connected to the "familiars" one and have read through most of them. I find it really interesting so I looked up some discussion boards pertaining to this. I didn't find anything interesting on any of them. Mostly people just talking about (in my opinion) close bonds with pets that they take as spiritual. But I am going to keep on reading and searching this topic. 

An update from the end of summer: I had sent out several e-mails to organizations and animal controls through out Massachusetts. The majority received no response back. I was not able to get a hold of the information I was looking for. This led to me taking a step back and looking at subjects with a wider scope. From doing broader research I came across several interesting topics such as several states taking into consideration including pets in temporary restraining orders and I was also introduced to http://www.coolinfographics.com which is very interesting to me and has helped me start thinking of ways to display information. 

The semester so far: I am working on a side project right now. I am trying to construct structures and sculptures while having them correspond to the information I have so far. My first project is going to be constructing three different sized spheres covered in fur, each representing a specific number of animals euthanized in Merced County, CA for the year of 2009. 

I will also be listing links I have come across during my research, or stumble on through clicking through various sites and blogs. They may not have anything to do with my seminar research but the links will be of something that interested me, this being the first one:  http://colormekatie.blogspot.com/

I received a reply from ARL Boston... They do in fact keep records but they are not sure if they can release them to the public. I'm e-mailing the shelter manager today to ask more about getting these records.

I sent an e-mail to the ARL Boston tonight asking if they keep records.
Keeping my fingers crossed!

(e-mail which I sent):

Hello!

My name is Jennifer O’Brien. I was wondering if there is a chance the ARL keeps records of animals the shelters take in, such as where the animal was originally from and why they were taken into the shelter (such as a family just couldn’t care for them anymore, or someone found them on the street). I’m collecting information for my college seminar project. I’m trying to do research as to why certain areas of a town would have more abandoned animals than another part of town. I contacted several animal control offices but apparently they don’t keep track of calls they receive/respond to, who knew! SO now I’m trying to get information from local shelters and rescue leagues.

So, any information you could provide me with would be REALLY REEAALLLYYY appreciated! I know you have bigger and more important matters to attend to, but I’m just trying to do some in depth research into abandoned animals and possible causes.

Thank you SO much for your time!

-Jennifer O’Brien

My tasks for this summer regarding my senior design seminar project has been to collect the data I need and to accompany an animal control officer for one of their shifts so I could get first hand experience with what I would be researching.

I have borrowed several books from the library regarding Edward Tufte. I am completely amazed by the maps and graphs he has created.

My first city of which I was going to research was Chelsea, Massachusetts. I have spent a month chasing around an animal control officer with no returned phone calls or e-mails. After running into him in person and explaining once again what I was looking for, he informed that that animal control does not keep logs of calls they receieve or what they respond to. (Would it have been that hard to reply to the e-mails saying that?)I find it hard to believe that there are no records on what they do, because for all their employers knows they could be sitting on their butts all day ignoring calls.

I am going to attempt to get in contact with another city's animal control department to see if this is the way every animal control is run. While I am doing this I am going to be contacting several animal rescue leagues to see if they possibly have records of where their animals came from and if there are call logs. I believe this may be a better option because seeing as many animal rescue leagues are run by donations I would think they need to keep tabs on everything... or at least I hope so!