Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett
Dedicated animal expert MARION GARNETT, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair continues her column
ATTRACTING considerable attention at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at the Natural History Museum today wasn’t a photograph at all but the emptiness where a photograph should have been.
The photograph, “The night raider” – a picture of an anteater attacking a termite mound, had been removed after being disqualified for being thought to breach competition rules. (It’s believed the anteater was a stuffed specimen and not alive when the photo was taken).
One photo showed two polar bears in a snowy landscape who had stopped to investigate a dirty puddle. The photographer says that without hesitation, both bears lowered their heads to taste the stained snow. It was then the photographer felt ashamed as she realised the stained snow was leakage from her ship. Her photograph emphasises the contrast between the pollution and the bears’ pristine environment.
Animal rescue is full of contrasts. The contrast between those who ill-treat animals and those appalled at what humans are capable of doing to animals. This was seen in the photo of four Bornean elephants huddled together in a desolate, desecrated landscape, deforested for palm-oil.
With numbers of Bornean elephants and black rhinos at endangered levels, it seems that, unless humans pay more attention to the impact we’re having on our planet and its animals, it’s possible that, like the photo of the anteater this year, in future years, (albeit for a different reason) some species of animals will be represented only by an emptiness on the wall.
Two animals who, when I met them, also moved without hesitation and in synchrony are Jim and Smokey.
These two Labradors have lived together all their lives and came into the care of Dogs Trust last month due to the ill-health of their owner.
They are friendly boys who have been used to living outside as trained working dogs. They will need a new owner who will help them settle into a domestic environment and understands they may need housetraining. You can meet this gorgeous pair at Dogs Trust, Harvil Road, Uxbridge.