(I'm hesitant to post this, cause it just gives publicity to some anonymous griefer. But it's for a good cause.)
So tonight I was zipping by Progressive Island in Second Life, visiting the new space created for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, when I was immediately assaulted by obnoxious music and a screen full of flying images. I realized immediately that the place was getting griefed, which really pissed me off.
I mean, here are these nice folks trying to promote the welfare of animals all over the planet, literally folks who wouldn't hurt a fly. And some idiot has to drop a grief bomb on their new build, full of hate speech. Really doesn't get much lower than that.
I started informing the Lindens and the responsible parties at IFAW, while documenting the grief in case it proved helpful. A Ms. Daisey Meadowbrook soon appeared and said that help was on the way.
Sure enough two second later, like a non-profit superhero, my buddy Nobody Fugazi flew in and saved the day. With a wave of his arms, the offensive sounds and images stopped. Then he started fixing the permissions on the build that created the opening for the griefer in the first place. Go, Nobody!
This build is just one part of IFAW's international "Stop the Seal Hunt" campaign. IFAW is calling on the Canadian government to cancel its annual commercial hunt of hundreds of thousands of seals off of eastern Canada, citing a disturbing lack of ice and ice-breeding seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence due to climate change:
In normal years, thousands of ice-breeding harp and hooded seals migrate to the Gulf of St. Lawrence to give birth and nurse their pups on ice pans, but this year’s lack of solid, stable ice means very few of these seals have been spotted. Last month IFAW released a scientific report highlighting the impacts of global warming on Canada’s ice-breeding seals, which revealed that in nine of the past 11 years, average ice coverage has been well below the average ice cover seen over the last 37 years.
“It’s absolutely unbelievable,” said Sheryl Fink, IFAW Senior Researcher. “Surveillance flights are reporting that there is not a single harp seal to be found in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.”
You can watch a video about IFAW's work, pick-up a free tee-shirt, and drop some lindens in the donation box. Daisey told me they plan on holding more events there in the near future. Meanwhile I encourage folks to head over to Progressive Island (Teleport SLURL) and check out IFAW's build. Then surf to www.stopthesealhunt.com to find out how you can help.
