‘Tis International Women’s Day, which the cynic in me sees as just another day for brands to pay lip service to ideals they don’t actually hold. But let us not listen to her, though she is often spot on. Let us, instead, talk about rights.
The rights of human objects of care under Western patriarchy—whether women, children, people with disabilities, the list goes on—are historically connected to animal rights. I’ve been noodling on this since I wrote about a satirical letter that asked “are women animals?” back in 2017. Anyways. Just something I’m pondering.
GIF: An “International Cat Lady Day” poster featuring a woman encircled by cats. (Credit: Jade Schulz/Giphy)
Roundup
Things I read this week, sorted by the amount of time I suspect it will take you to get through them.
Shortish
Return of the burbot: ‘great lost fish’ to be reintroduced to UK (Guardian; Patrick Barkham; United Kingdom)
Even fish at the bottom of the ocean can’t escape climate change (Popular Science; Kate Baggaley; Gulf of California)
‘They are overwhelmed’: China’s animal shelters can’t cope with the number of pets abandoned due to COVID-19 (Time; Charlie Campbell; Shanghai)
The animal rights protestors disrupting Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders rallies, explained (Vox; Kelsey Piper and Dylan Matthews; United States)
Longish
Better rat control in cities starts by changing human behavior (The Conversation; Michael H. Parsons & Jason Munshi-South; rats are everywhere we are but most of the studies they talk about are American)
The strange reign of raccoons online (Hyperallergic; Justine Smith; the internet)
Pythons of the everglades (Bitter Southerner; Hal Sundt; Florida, United States)
Fallout: Threatened species in Australia continue to struggle after fires (Mongabay; Nick Rodway; Australia)
Washer lizards prey on insects that live in the cleaning facilities. They also consume undissolved detergent and dust that is high in protein. As mentioned above, the lizards will eat lint, in addition to the bits of bread of candy left behind by the laundromat staff.
—The Factory, Hiroko Oyamada, translated by David Boyd
Please read me
My most recent work.
The last word
New Neutrogena deep-cleanse just 130-pound chimp that rips your face off
Canada’s security alert level raised after threats by Radical Kokums
Are you there, Angry Vengeful God? It’s me, Angry Vengeful Margaret
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All images in The Quick Fox are used under Creative Commons licensing. Efforts have been made to ensure that photographs of living animals or natural scenes have been taken ethically, in responsible pet ownership conditions, at AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums or under safe, non-damaging conditions in the wild. If you see an issue with any image we share, please notify me.