Toronto Humane Society

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  11 River Street
Date: May 2019
Website: www.torontohumanesociety.com

  The Toronto Humane Society always has its doors open for stray animals.  During Doors Open Toronto it welcomed people to tour behind the scenes.  The Humane Society is always a place of great sadness when a lost or injured animal is brought into the shelter.  It can also be a place of great joy when these animals find a new home.

  The Humane Society building is hard to miss thanks to a bright mural by artist Uber 5000.  The mural fills the entire wall of the building which is located where King Street East meets Queen Street East.  As always in any Uber 5000 artwork there are little yellow birds hiding in the background.

  As we entered the building we noticed a dedication to thank Canadian pianist Glenn Gould for his contributions.  Glenn was alway known for his love of animals as well as his piano playing.

  The first animals we visited were the dogs.  As our group gathered, a volunteer brought out a small black dog and worked his way through the crowd.  Behind him followed an older man who said "He's going to be my dog".  A huge smile stretched across his face.  This was not the only dog to be successfully adopted.  As the dogs yipped and barked for our attention we could see from the signage that most would be on their way to new homes soon.

  After the dogs we visited the special species section.  A bunny door stop held the door open for us.

  Just inside the doors was Carmel the bunny.  Carmel was doing her best to look cute and adoptable.  Getting a pet on impulse is a bad idea without understading the long term cost and comittment.

  There were lots of information packages on caring for different animals.  We know a family who recently took in an African pygmy hedgehog so we picked up a booklet for them.

  Several pools at the back of the room held red-eared slider turtles.  Red-eared sliders are the most invasive turtle species in Ontario ponds.  Don't release your unwanted turtle into the wild.  Again think before you buy one as a pet.  Wild red-eared sliders are causing our local turtle species to head towards extinction.

  At the exit was a bearded dragon who was wearing a cone so he didn't touch or scratch where he shouldn't.  A note next to him stated that he was headed to a sanctuary.

  A lot of feral or street animals come into the shelter.  The only way to stop more and more of them from coming is to have them spayed or neutered.  This way they can no longer reproduce.

  A sign in the operating area shows how they clip the ears of spayed or neutered cats so they can easily be recognized.  This prevents cats being rounded up for repeat surgery that they don't need.

  The shelter is also home to many cats.  Cats like yarn and thread which can be a problem.

  We were shown some animal x-rays that showed broken bones and some that showed needles stuck inside a cat.  Cats love the thread but dont realize a needle is tied to the end.  Any metal in an x-ray shows up bright white like bones do.

  The Toronto Humane Society does a good job looking out for animals in our city.  They also do a good job for people who get the gift of a pet in their life.

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Map of Our World
Toronto Humane Society

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Post # 252

Natural Plasticity Toronto

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 55 St. Clair Avenue West
Date: April 2019
Website:  www.naturalplasticity.com

    Toronto has a big plastic problem.  Actually, the whole world does.  Right now on St. Clair West there are larger than life plastic replicas of water bottles and disposable cups.  These almost 30 foot tall replicas have been touring the world to make people think before they use single-use plastics.

    Natural Plasticity's Bottle Project has placed a giant water bottle and straw at 2 St Clair West and a giant cup with a green straw at 55 St. Clair West.  The green straw and cup look like they would hold a summer Starbuck's drink.

   We were already aware of how much plastic pollution is created in our city every day.  You don't have to go far to find discarded garbage in the streets.  There is still hope.  A lot of places in the city are using paper straws which is great.  We also bring our own reusable cups for coffee and thermoses for water when we are out and about.  Brita filtered water for when we are at home.

    The Bottle Project will be on display until May 1st.  Take a look at the big inflatable plastic and then see how you can reduce the amount of waste that you create.  Think before you drink.

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This location is near St. Clair subway. Visit other Toronto TTC stations.

Map of Our World
Natural Plasticity Toronto

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Post # 248

The Sun Voyager

Location: Reykjavik, Iceland
Address: Keilugrandi Sculpture & Shore Walk
Date: September 2015
Website:  visitreykjavik.is

  A curved steel boat points out to the water in Reykjavik's harbour.  It is a beautiful piece of art that reflects the light from the sun.  It is known as Solfar, or the Sun Voyager.

  The Sun Voyager was the winning artwork in a competition to celebrate Rekjavik's 200th anniversary.  The sculpture was created by Icelander Jon Gunnar Arnason.  Sadly, Gunnar died of leukemia before the sculpture was placed at the water's edge.

  There is a walking path that follows the water around Reykjavik.  There is lots of room to add more sculptures in the future.  Sun Voyager was the main attraction when we visited.

  Behind Sun Voyager stood some temporary artwork of a raven.  Further in the distance beyond that stands Hallgrimskirkja.  Hallgrimskirkja is a church which took 41 years to build.  It was finally consecrated in 1986 which is the same year that Sun Voyager won the art competition.

Sun Voyager looks out across the water at Mount Esja.  The steel looks like people rowing with their oars curved down into the water, striving forward towards new adventures.

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Map of Our World
The Sun Voyager

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Post # 247

Pizza & Bears On Kingston Road

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 1054 Kingston Road
Date: August 2018
Website:  www.uber5000.com

  Uber 5000 is a graffiti artist who calls Toronto home.  One building which is covered in his characters is a Pizza Pizza on Kingston Road.  We took a walk one day and visited this pizza place and some other art in the area.

  One character that seems to appear on almost everything Uber 5000 has done is the little yellow chick.  The Pizza Pizza is no exception as we counted at least a couple of dozen.

  Cats are also a favourite.  This cat above looks to be riding a red magic carpet along the wall.

  Another cat is holding a ghetto blaster and wearing a chain that is part of the building's gas piping.

  The back of the building is filled with a giant green octopus.

  In a doorway on the side of the building are more yellow chicks and a city of Toronto logo.  This makes us think the artwork was commissioned by the city.

  We enjoyed the playful and colourful display but we needed to get on our way.  We headed further west on Kingston Road.

  We hadn't gone too far when we noticed a swan painted up on a rooftop.  From the tag we determined this was from an artist called Half Decent.  Not half bad we thought.

  We walked another block or so and came to Scarborough Road.  Here there was a nice mural of a brown bear beside a waterfall.  It was on the wall of Dashwood & Dashwood law firm.

  The wall faces the patio area of a small restaurant called The Loop.

  Around the side of The Loop was more artwork.  This time it was a toucan balancing a beer on his beak and suggesting it would be a lovely day for a Guinness.  We looked behind us and were surprised by what we saw.

  Uber 5000 had struck again.  The utility box on the corner was covered with the same cats and chicks from the Pizza Pizza building.  Thanks again Uber 5000.

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Map of Our World
The Loop
Pizza Pizza (Uber 5000) , Half Decent Swan , Dashwood Bear Mural

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Post # 242

Alzu Petroport

Location: Middelburg, South Africa
Address: N4, Alzu Petroport,
Date: October 2018
Website:  www.alzu.co.za

  We left Johannesburg and we were headed towards Kruger National Park.  We were still more than half way to our destination when our tour group stopped for refuelling at Alzu Petroport.  So far we had not seen any large mammals on our trip and did not expect to see any until we were closer to the Kruger boundary.  What awaited for us at the rest stop was very unexpected.

  Behind the rest stop was a large watering hole surrounded by animals.

  The closest animals to us was a group of southern white rhinoceros.  Sadly all of these rhinos had been dehorned due to the poaching threat.  Don't worry the horns will grow back in a few years.

  The Petroport has a small museum set up explaining the plight of the rhino.  In the photo above there is a hippo skull on the left and a rhino skull on the right.

  Rhinos are hunted mainly for their horns.  The horns are made of keratin like our toes and fingernails.  Killing a rhino for their horn is like killing a person in order to clip their toenails.

  The Petroport also has a lot of artwork around the grounds.  There was a large rhinoceros sculpture outside.

  On our way to the washrooms there was a beautiful rhino mosaic on the wall.  This mosaic was sponsored by Nando's which was one of the restaurants in the Petroport.

  After visiting the facilities we came outside again onto a balcony.  Below us was a charging elephant bursting forth from the gift shop.  From the balcony we could get a better view of the animals.
 

  We could see cape buffalo as well as a group of eland (above).

  Far back along the fence was a group of antelope called red hartebeest. 

  For some reason there was an emu.  Emu are native to Australia.  Emu are the second largest bird in the world after the African ostrich.

  We also saw a few smaller birds like this cape sparrow which flew onto the fence.

  Greater striped swallow swirled around above our heads.

  As our tour group prepared to depart we had to leave these animals and the very entertaining Petroport behind.   We spotted a triangular spotted pigeon up in the rafters as we left the balcony.  Soon we would be spotting wildlife in the Greater Kruger area.  We never did see any wild rhinos, but hope that there will still be some to see when we have a chance to return.

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Map of Our World

Alzu Petroport

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Post # 234