ColumnWe love our pets, and the box office does too.

At the mere mention of a heartwarming tale starring a four-legged companion, many of us are happy to be front and center clutching a box of tissues.

Why is this? According to The Humane Society of the United States, thirty-nine percent of U.S. households own at least one dog. Thirty-three percent of U.S. households own at least one cat. That’s not even taking into account those burdened with pet allergies who long from afar. So it makes perfect sense that, as a culture, we’re a bunch of admitted saps eager to shell out our cash if it means we get to bask in the glow of animal love.

And boy, do we shell. Our love for animal weepers translates into big numbers. The 2008 feature “Marley and Me” currently holds a worldwide gross of $243,665,113. Adults and children alike flock to these often family-friendly films; after all, animal love crosses generations. It brings us together in the shared warmth of a Marley. Or Lassie. Or Seabiscuit.

But what’s really at the heart of our affinity for heart-warming films? Likely, it’s for the same reasons we love animals. Animal co-stars aren’t driven by pretense, or cynicism, or even acting. (And to any nonbelievers, consider the recent story of a dog stretched out next to the casket at the funeral of his owner, a fallen Navy Seal.) Animals love us unconditionally.

While Hollywood has given us film after film featuring our four-legged companions, these are the 10 which, for me, stand as the most heat-rending and tear-stained among them.

Old Yeller (1957)

This film’s tagline might read: “The ultimate timeless story of all timeless stories of a boy and his dog.” When young Travis Coates, a man before his time, befriends a yellow dog, adventures are had. And it’s Travis’ heartbroken endgame – “But he was my dog. I’ll do it” – that makes this Disney film a true classic.

Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009)

Hachi, thy name is emotional manipulation. Director Lasse Hallstorm brings out the big guns in this tear-drenched drama about a loyal dog who greets his master every day at the train station. When kindly Professor Wilson (Richard Gere) dies suddenly, Hachi continues to wait for him at the station – for 10 years. You likely won’t get two minutes into this film without reaching for a tissue. And it’s based on a true story.

Marley and Me (2008)

Marley is a rambunctious puppy adopted by the Grogans in the early years of their marriage. Untrainable, ornery, and very badly behaved, he provides a narrative thread to a relatable couple who weather marriage, miscarriages, career and kids. When Marley “goes to a better place” at the end, you’re weeping right alongside the finely-toned Grogans, played by Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson. Better yet? It’s inspired by a true story.

Lassie Come Home (1943)

Young Joe Carraclough (Roddy McDowall) is despondent when his Depression-era parents sell his collie, Lassie, to the Duke of Rudling. When the Duke carts Lassie off hundreds of miles away to Scotland, his granddaughter Priscilla (Elizabeth Taylor) helps Lassie escape. Lassie travels back to Joe, experience the good and bad of humanity along the way.

The Horse Whisperer (1998)

This drama western romance is really supposed to be about the love between a highly strung New Yorker (Kristen Scott Thomas) and a handsome cowboy (Robert Redford). But this healing film is really about the relationship between a traumatized girl (Scarlett Johansson) and her equally damaged horse.

Babe (1995)

A film that likely put a generation off pork permanently, the adventurous Babe is a pig who wants to be a sheep-dog. So when Babe learns how to herd sheep from Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell), he leaves most of us in the dust with his can-do spirit. That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.

Bambi (1942)
This Disney animated classic came out in 1942, embedding its place into so many of our childhoods. How many of us can count childhood trauma back to the moment Bambi’s mother is “taken away” by hunters? Nonetheless, we all, like Bambi, managed to survive.

Seabiscuit (2003)

Impossible odds? Check. Tragic character back stories? Check. Really happened? Double-check. This Depression-era racehorse lifted the spirits of anyone who has been told they can’t fulfill their dreams. His 21st century movie counterpart does the same.

Charlotte’s Web (1973)

Many of us saw this animated version of E.B. White’s classic tale before we could even read. To save Wilbur the pig from the axe, Charlotte the spider weaves into her web that he’s “some pig.” When Wilbur wins a prize at the county fair, his joy is cut short by Charlotte’s death.

My Dog Skip (2000)

Author Willie Morris’ memoir came to the big screen in this lovely tale of another boy and his dog. Willie (Frankie Muniz) is the shy, misunderstood lonely son to stoic parents in World War II-era Mississippi. Civil rights, post-traumatic stress disorder and young love are all highlighted in this film by the loyalty of one small dog.

This is the latest installment in Katherine Butler’s column, Shade Grown Hollywood, where celebrity becomes conscious. “Shade grown” refers literally to shade grown coffee, a farming method that “incorporates principles of natural ecology to promote natural ecological relationships.” Shade Grown is our sustainable twist on Hollywood.

Image: the_colmans/Flickr

ExclusiveArtist Alicia Escott’s intensely humane explorations of loss, longing, commercialism and ultimately, love.

“The best way I can express this is that I have lost enough hope to find a new hope.”

San Francisco-based artist Alicia Escott tells me this over coffee at The Summit, a popular cafe in the Mission District. We’re talking frankly, not philosophically, about pragmatic challenges of creativity and environmental issues, specifically, how one can retain any sort of optimism, much less focus, in the face of the enormous ecological challenges we face. (There have been six great “die offs”; we are poised for another.) “I heard an environmentalist being interviewed once,” she is saying. “The journalist asked him how he was okay with eating meat or some other destructive behavior. He answered, something like, ‘You know, you wake up in the morning, you take a shower then you walk around the corner to get coffee. It’s 9 a.m. and you have already walked over a mountain of skulls.’”

Escott is thoughtful, though not measured. She pauses for fresh lengths between questions.

“I function with a dichotomy that is extreme in a sense – I both think it’s perhaps ‘too late’ for humans but I also think about things from an evolutionary point of view,” she says. “Humans came out of great tumult. We are on the verge of another tumult. So I feel daily heartbreak; yet I also feel hope.”

Escott has already made a name for herself in environmental circles for her subtly captivating pieces that use disposable packaging as a medium for transcribing objects of both life and destruction. There is a bear on a bag seemingly expiring in undergrowth, a trout as litter in a stream (literally a fish out of water), and an atom bomb test on a to-go sushi container. (The last was too popular in a sense, says Escott. “They are so optically beautiful they trick you. That was a distraction from what I’m really wanting to talk about, so I did not make more.”)

The work, most notably that created on plastic sacks and film, is so fragile as to be temporary; the fleeting hand-drawn images are something like a compassionate catalog of the living past, or what will soon be our past. The art will not survive, and in fact, is not meant to – Escott has entire series expressly created to be recycled. But to describe her as an environmental artist or to view her work as somehow ironic is to miss the point.

“My approach is one of a thoughtful person, not only as an environmentalist, activist, or green advocate,” Escott says. “I am very hesitant about labels. I think we are making mistakes, and I have a lot of pain around these issues…but it’s really not for me to say. Us poisoning our oceans may return us, simply, to a primordial soup. Perhaps something better can come out of it. So my approach is holistic.”

There are eternal, contextually unsettling and shamanistic themes in Escott’s work. In a recently commenced series, she sends “Love Letters,” dated from the past, to acquaintances and friends alike. The letters include faded sepia and black and white photographs of simple scenes like children in yards and flocks of birds. The letters are poetic, eerie, profoundly haunting – and just slightly creepy. “It’s interesting playing with that tension,” she says with a mischievous smile. It’s clearly also enjoyable. My own Love Letter (“Love Letter to a Thick Billed Ground Dove. Extinct 1927.”) begins with “Last week I set the clock on my iPhone to December 18th, 1914″ and includes the following line:

“Then came rock n roll. More than anything I wish I could show you rock n roll, you would love it, I’m sure. And there was the telephone, and then answering machines and call waiting and then caller id, and now you can have that with you always. Honestly.

There would never need to be these distances anymore.”

My notebook contains this list of words I jotted down before meeting with Escott, and I share them with her.

Bereft

Buddhist

Longing

Acceptance

Human

Lonely

Heartbreak

Healing

I ask if the Buddhist tendency is intentional. I’m the first writer to do so, and she considers it for a long moment. “My work tracks the heart – attachment, loss.” There is an unmistakable healing quality to the approach. “I work from the perspective of the human condition and more so the condition of life,” she says.

Alicia Escott

“I used to talk more about the evils of plastic and was focused on didactic aims,” Escott says. “Now, I am talking about something more esoteric, I view plastic as [among other things] a metaphor for talking about the packaging of our lives. Ideas are virtualized. They are commoditized – they are Likes on Facebook.”

The works’ comment on contemporary culture’s materialism and collective isolation is a compassionate treatment. She says she deals with complex issues simply, but her creations are pure more than anything else. Hence the trouble with labels.

“Consciousness must occur on many layers; it’s not just green. It’s easy to get bogged down by categories – but we shouldn’t stay too long.”

Images courtesy Alicia Escott. Works featured are from the series Littered Drawings.

This is a healthy pelican – quite beautiful. Unfortunately, very sick pelicans are falling out of the sky these days. It’s one of many recent alarming indicators from our fellow creatures that things are seriously wrong.

Hundreds of sick pelicans have fallen to the ground from Mexico to Oregon, smashing into cars, boats and beaches, and experts are baffled. Authorities have ruled out domoic acid poisoning, which has affected wildlife before. It’s nothing short of a mystery. Surviving pelicans have been found in yards and on roads, disoriented and weak. So far, experts think the cause could be anything from unknown poison contamination to exposure to the toxic run-off from the recent Southern California fires to malnutrition due to evaporating fish stocks.

Though the exact cause is a mystery, it’s almost certainly due to human impact. And, it’s only the most recent case in a slew of disturbing mass animal deaths around the world.

• In Arkansas this week, there were sightings of 5,000 blackbirds dropping from the sky. The reason? Wildlife experts said that the birds have poor night vision, and with the sounds of New Year’s Eve fireworks, the birds became spooked, causing them to crash into houses and signs.
• On New Year’s Eve, 300 turtle doves mysteriously fell to their death in Faenza, Italy. Found with blue stains around their beaks, this rare occurrence was said to be either a result of hypoxia caused by suffocation or potassium cyanide, a poison which is often used by poachers.
• This week alone, two million fish have washed up on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, with the same occurrence happening in Spruce Creek, Florida, where thousands more have been found. Maryland Department of Environment said it is most likely caused by natural causes like cold water stress – “An increased juvenile population and limited deep water habitat would likely compound the effects of cold water stress.”
• In the last two years, California’s crops were affected by a mysterious disappearance of bee hives. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, the worker bees simply fly away and never return. Since October 2006, over 35% of the honey bee population in the United States has vanished. In some states, as many as 90% of bees have disappeared. Scientists don’t know what causes CCD, but theories range from stress due to travel (bees are trucked across thousands of miles, in some cases, to pollinate), or pesticide exposure. A case for local, organic food?

• Dolphins off the beaches of Cornwall, thought to be stressed by Royal Navy operations, apparently committed a mass suicide last summer. 26 dolphins consumed and inhaled debris and mud. Though dolphins have been found dead en masse before, this is the most baffling incident. The only other possibility, experts say, is that the dolphins may have been scared by a whale. Scared enough to willingly fill their lungs and bellies with mud?

• Cases of seals and sea birds washing ashore have been common in recent years. For example, over 1000 Shearwater sea birds were found dead in the Bahamas and parts of Florida in 2007. The cause wasn’t bird flu, as experts had suspected when shearwaters turned up dead in 2005. There is still no explanation, but every year sees an increase in sea bird deaths, with toxicity the most common culprit.

• Also last year, at least 40 endangered gharials in the Chambal river in India died of cirrhosis of the liver, due to apparent poisoning (a flood in 2007 is thought to have increased metal levels in the river). What was particularly odd about the incident was that only wild gharials, of breeding age, died – the captive bred animals were fine.

• And here’s a case for organic textiles in addition to food: in 2006, a controversy erupted over the plight of sheep and goats who became ill and died after eating genetically modified cotton. People working with the animals said they simply became “dull and lifeless and died”. They were found dead with swollen stomachs, mouth lesions and black stools. Bacterial and viral infections were ruled out; and no sheep grazing on non-modified cotton died. In 2007 the same thing happened, also in India, to cattle.

• Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of sea turtles were found floating dead or washed ashore in El Salvador in 2006. At first thought to be caused by fishing activities, experts quickly ruled this out and the case remains a mystery.

Image: sir mervs

Forever etched in my mind is the painful scene in Marley and Me when the cherished family lab is put to sleep on a vet’s table with his devoted sidekick nestled beside him. I saw the tear jerker with my extended L.A. family during a winter vacation and was moved by the chorus of sobs from siblings and cousins who are raising dogs and horses instead of children.

Sadly, I relived the Marley death scene this week when I put my my 16-year-old glamor puss, Audrey, to sleep.

My family gathered around her on the hospital table, hands on her bony five-pound body as her asparagus green eyes slowly lost focus and she drifted onto her next life. Karma might let her come back as a pug dog that is incessantly bossed around by a Grizabella. Karma might return her as a doomed house fly on a window sill tormented during a hunt. Or better yet, as a new bride loved unconditionally by a cuddly and playful fur ball.

Edwin and I adopted Audrey from the San Francisco SPCA right after getting married, plucking the marbled gray tabby from a box of foster kittens just delivered to the shelter. The moment my husband picked her up and put her close to his ear, she purred like a mad freight train; like no one’s business. “This is a good one,” he proclaimed. And she was, from her early days in a concrete Russian Hill flat to her final years in the grassy suburbs.

Last week, the purring stopped for the first time. Nothing. And I knew – they purr for pleasure and it takes energy. She couldn’t eat. She could hardly walk. The kidney disease had progressed and in vital ways, she was already gone. So I made that excruciating decision, and now I miss the loud meowing alarm that stirred me each morning and alerted me to meal or hug time. There is a deep hole in my heart and an empty, cold spot on my bed.

In the backyard, where we have buried countless goldfish and a pair of hamsters, there is a vintage ceramic cat doorstop marking the mound where Audrey Jane rests. My daughters decorated an organic cotton pillowcase to use as a shroud, and it was something, the sweet epithets penned, the sun and flowers scrawled. It offered closure but the pain and guilt still lingers.

It is hard to forgive yourself for choosing death for another being; any being that deserved life. That’s why humane organizations like the SPCA offer counseling to support people grieving the loss of a pet.

There was no sequel to Marley and Me offering tips on coping, so we depend on the wisdom of health care pros to guide us along that path to letting go. Pet euthanasia specialist, Hilary Brown, says our animals don’t consciously convey to us it is time to put them out of their misery, and that we must go with out instincts and understand that we are actually giving our terminally ill pets the “ultimate gift” in setting them free.

“From the moment we embrace these animals when they first grace our lives, every day is one day closer to the day they must abandon their very temporary and faulty bodies and return to the state of total perfection and rapture they have always deserved,” says Brown. Today is a good day, perhaps tomorrow will be, too, and perhaps next week and the weeks of months after. But there will eventually be a winding down and we must not let that part of the cycle become our enemy.”

Brown also offers a compassionate perspective when it comes to supporting our vets who have chosen a career of healing and must be the one to inject what she terms the “freedom elixir”.

“I always place my hand on top of his hand that holds the syringe,” Brown explains. “I want to shoulder that burden with him so he’s not alone. The law says the vet is the one licensed to administer the shot, not me, but a much higher law says this is the responsibility that I undertook on the day I welcomed that pet into my life forever.”

One could argue the responsibility isn’t anything compared to deciding to end life support for a failing, one-pound preemie infant or to call a Dr. Kevorkian when a terminally ill parent requests an end to intervention. But I say it’s all relative. And for some, cats and dogs make the best relatives of all.

Images: IMDB, Luanne Bradley

Once you’ve planted your summer garden, it’s a real pain to keep nibbling critters away from the lettuce, peppers, and cucumbers. Deer are particularly trying since they make quick work of eradicating an entire garden in one night. Shooing them away rarely works because they’re relentless little creatures who will keep coming back to feast on your in-ground buffet – which is why you need to take the appropriate steps to turn them away for good. Battling Bambi in a safe and humane way takes a little time, but with a little effort you can send those doe-eyed munchers packing.

DIY Life takes a look at a few different approaches including mesh fencing and border plants that make your vegetable garden less tantalizing. What really caught our eye was a solar-powered device meant to repel deer without harming a hair on their fuzzy little hides. The Guardener works two ways:

First with ultrasonic waves that are audible (and annoying) to deer but not people, and then with short blasts of water. (The base of the unit holds 3.5-gallons of water, enough for 30 or 40 cycles, so no piping is necessary.) The unit is triggered by a motion sensor, so be sure to place it where passersbys or wind will not be a problem. It works on other animals pests too.

If you’re not crazy about the idea of random blasts of water, there are some other options including a device that triggers lights and an FM radio – sure to be a huge hit with your neighbors when it’s triggered in the middle of the night.

Check out the post for additional ideas about keeping deer out of your garden. If you’ve got a great tip that’s worked for you, please share it in the comments below.

Image: Lemoncat1

Maybe it’s time for a tech break? A day-hike, maybe? Perhaps even an overnight in the woods, out in nature with no TV, no computers, no emails or phone calls. Ah, yes, leave that iWhatever behind, break out those boots (could it be they’ve never once been used? Not once?) and hit the trail. Shouldn’t you do this more often? You know, get more familiar with the local flora and fauna and – wait, isn’t there an app for that?! Ugh. Yes. Of course there is.

To help you with what probably should come naturally, MyNature has just launched its MyNature Tree Guide which helps you identify trees by answering a series of 15 questions (as many as you can, anyway). The app will match your answers against its database of 200 North American trees to find the one that most closely resembles what you’re encountering “in the field.” Once identified, you can see photos, range maps and profiles to learn more about the tree in question. For the drill-drown, you can access images of leaves, needles, fruit and bark, as well. There’s also a “MyNature Journal,” in which you can record the trees you’ve found, along with the location, weather conditions and whatever other musings you want to jot down to remember that not-quite-tech-free day when you encountered that killer oak.

As for the fauna, MyNature has you covered there, too, with its tried-and-true MyNature Animal Tracks application. This guy has a searchable database with track sizes and shapes in seven easy-to-place-what-you-see search categories. Like the Tree Guide, Animal Tracks features a ton of pics and drawings – even sound (.wav) files of animal “vocalizations” – that’ll help you figure out what’s what. You can check out a demo vid over at Treehugger or at the MyNature Site.

So add these apps to EcoSalon’s top 10 green things you can do with your iPhone and 10 green apps. Both are iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad ready and require iOS 3.0 or later (Animal Tracks is also available for Android). At $6.99 they’re not cheap, but c’mon, what is it worth to have access to the knowledge you need when you finally go for that tech-free day out in nature?

Just you, the fresh air, the birds and your smartphone. Mmmm.

Yesterday we looked at alternative therapies that are the veterinary equivalent to snake oil. Today, let’s consider a few that are scientifically proven. According to our expert, Dr. V, “There are some practitioners who solely do alternative treatments, though in my experience the majority of veterinarians use them as a complement to traditional Western medicine.”

Whichever treatment route you take with your animal, Dr. V suggests finding a specially-trained practitioner. “The good news is, for most of these modalities there are formal training programs to ensure your vet has at least a basic understanding of the principles before setting off into practice,” she said. “It’s a fair question to ask, and one any good vet should not be offended by, “˜What’s your training in herbs/chiropractic/acupuncture?’ If they just took a one hour course at a continuing education conference, I’d suggest you keep looking.”

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is used to treat chronic diseases or for pain relief for conditions like arthritis. Most veterinary acupuncturists undergo rigorous training from the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society or the Chi Institute where they learn the traditional Chinese medicine and the Western science that supports it. “Acupuncture can be a very helpful treatment modality in veterinary medicine,” she said. However, it’s important to recognize the limitations of acupuncture. “No holistic practitioner who wants to keep their license is going to recommend acupuncture to treat an open fracture, for example. Bacterial infections should be treated with antibiotics. With that in mind, a knowledgeable practitioner can incorporate alternative treatments to most disease processes.” To get the most bang for your holistic buck, work with a DVM and an acupuncturist to treat your pet’s condition.

Physical Therapy

When it comes to physical therapy, there are a range of specialties to choose from: chiropractic care, massage therapy, and physical rehabilitation, among others. While massage can do a lot of good for your companion animal, if you’re looking for a proven therapy, you can’t go wrong with a veterinary chiropractor. According to the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association, a certified animal chiropractor can help your pet with a variety of problems like joint, spinal, or limb pain; surgery recovery; bowel, bladder, or other chronic internal medicine issues; and orthopedic disease. If you consult with a chiropractor, ask where she trained, what certifications she earned, and if she is a DVM or works in conjunction with a DVM. The great thing about holistic treatments is that you can combine several to provide your pet with top-notch, well-rounded care. For instance, for an acute injury, a trained physical therapist can assist your DVM or chiropractor with treatments like hydrotherapy.

Traditional Chinese Herbs

“At the end of the day, all medicine originated with herbs, didn’t it?” said Dr. V. “Make sure the person prescribing the herbs is someone trained in veterinary herbal medicine,” she said. “If you are also going to a Western vet, make sure they know about the herbs your pet is taking! They often do have potent measurable effects, and just like any medication have the potential to react with other meds.” Avoid the homeopathic black hole and consult with practitioners trained at respected schools like the Chi Institute.

The Bottom Line

Alternative medicine focuses holistic health and preventive care, whereas traditional Western medicine focuses on treatment of disease. “The two can and should go hand in hand,” said Dr. V. “I think anyone interested in a long and healthy life for their pet should begin with a thorough evaluation of what type of nutrition their pet is getting; the importance of this can’t be overestimated!”

Images: markhillary

Can you imagine your grandchildren visiting a museum to look at the mere bones of animals that are alive today? We all expect to see a T-Rex in ancient, skeletal form, but an orangutan? When we were kids and we heard about animals becoming extinct in science class, the finality seemed grave but distant, like there was still hope and time, and their impending doom was so far off into the future we didn’t really need to worry about it.

Cut to twenty-five years later, and these endangered species are truly on the brink of being wiped off the planet. So let your kids get a good look at that polar bear at your local zoo, because they may not be around for another generation to see in the flesh. Here are five animals that will probably become extinct in your child’s lifetime.

Sumatran Orangutan

The Sumatran Orangutan seen above is threatened due to poaching and habitat destruction of the rainforests in Indonesia, where this species makes their home. Only about 6,500 remain in the wild, and they are poised to become the first great ape species to become extinct. Visit the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program website or Sumatran Orangutan Society to learn more.

Black Rhinoceros

During the 1970s half of the world’s rhino population disappeared. There are fewer than 2,500 Black Rhinos left on the earth. Considered the world’s most endangered mammal, the Black Rhinoceros faces severe endangerment due to poaching for his horn, which can fetch up to $24,000 in the Far East. The rhino’s horn is used in folk medicine in India and China as it is believed to cure headaches, and as a weapon and status symbol among men in North Yemen. Learn how you can help save rhinos in the wild.

Bactrian Camel

The Bactrian Camel is critically endangered due to habitat loss and drought. There are approximately only 950 Bactrian Camels left in the wild, struggling to survive in their native desert habitat in northwest China and Mongolia, which used to be used as a Chinese nuclear test range. These animals are also hunted for sport and killed because they are competition to domestic livestock for food and water resources. Learn more at the Wild Camel Protection Foundation.

Polar Bear

Iconic images of the polar bear swimming and sometimes drowning between melting patches of ice in his dwindling habitat have become synonymous with the case for global warming. Currently, between 20-25,000 polar bears still roam the wild, but if climate change trends continue, scientists predict that polar bears will be extinct within the next 100 years. Visit Polar Bears International to learn more.

Mountain Gorilla

Forest clearing and degradation are main contributing factors to the Mountain Gorilla’s pending extinction, and only 720 animals of this species remain on the planet. Additionally, in 2007, there were 10 Mountain Gorilla killings in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which severely threatened the conservation progress that had been made on their behalf. Visit the International Gorilla Conservation Program to learn more.

Images: Kabie Bakie, Matthew Field, Jeff Kubina, ltshears, Zouavman Le Zouave, and d_proffer

As millions of gallons of sticky black crude continue to gush out of a pipe in the Gulf of Mexico, we’re hearing a lot about how adorable animals like sea turtles, otters and dolphins are going to be affected. But while we love the cute animals, we don’t want to overlook the so-called redheaded step-children of the animal realm, either. They need just as much help as the fluffy furry ones, if not more because, according to a recent study, ugly animals are more likely to go extinct.

Manatees

There’s a reason that manatees are called sea cows – they sort of resemble what the remains of a drowned cow might look like after a week or so. These bloated, bulbous animals may not be beauty queens, but they definitely deserve our attention and protection. Scientists don’t know exactly what’s going to happen when manatees start swimming through the oil, but they’re going to find out all too soon; a group of seven animals was spotted swimming along the coast of Destin, Florida.

Marsh Rice Rat

Few animals are more reviled than rats, even though these animals are technically incredibly similar to the ones we think are so dang cute (think fuzzy bunnies). The semi-aquatic Marsh Rice Rat resembles its landlubber cousins with its grayish-brown fur and long naked tail, but its need to dive underwater to forage for food like plants, snails and subterranean fungus will put it at risk as the oil seeps into the marshes of Gulf states like Louisiana.

Gulf Sturgeon

The gulf sturgeon, a bizarre-looking relic of the dinosaur age, ended up on the Endangered Species list back in 1991 when its populations were nearly annihilated in the wild by centuries of demand for its meat and caviar. During the warmer months, Gulf Sturgeon spend their time in coastal rivers from Louisiana to Florida, but come cooler weather they’ll be back in the Gulf of Mexico, where they’re likely to face a battle for survival in the aftermath of the oil spill.

American Alligator

It’s got a spiky back, a powerful tail that could knock you to the ground in an instant and what seems like a sinister grin. But as imposing as the American Alligator may be to us, this animal is defenseless against the negative changes that are starting to occur in the marshes and wetlands that it calls home in Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Alabama.

Shrimp

Shrimping is big business in the Gulf of Mexico – or at least, it was. The fishing industry has been effectively shut down for obvious reasons, and even when the fisherman are allowed to start trawling again, consumers might not bite. While the oil may not have had a catastrophic effect on creepy-crawlies like shrimp that live along the sea floor on its own, BP’s toxic dispersants are actually spreading the contamination deeper into the water.

Oysters

Because each of these bumpy mollusks breathe 50 to 100 gallons of water a day, “the oyster is to Louisiana’s estuaries what the fabled canary was to coal mine safety,” according to NOLA.com. So water that has been contaminated both by oil and by toxic dispersants will be deadly to the intertidal oyster reefs that grow along and just inside the coast of Louisiana.  Ironically, the American Petroleum Institute once produced a video with a segment called “Lifeline to Oysters,” attempting to convince skeptical Gulf fishermen that oysters and offshore drilling get along just fine.

Smalltooth Sawfish

The critically endangered Smalltooth Sawfish has already seen its habitat shrink from a large portion of the Atlantic Ocean to a small area near the lower peninsula of Florida. But when the Loop Currrent, a strong flow of warm water in the Gulf, brings oil to the Florida Keys, this rare fish could be wiped out altogether.

Plankton

They’re literally at the bottom of the food chain in the sea, but that doesn’t mean that curious-looking zooplankton aren’t important – they serve as sustenance for small animals like snails, shrimp and jellyfish, including some endangered species.  These drifting organisms are just as much at risk from the oil spill as the larger animals whose suffering we can actually witness.

Images:Andrea Westmoreland, Wikimedia Commons (manatee, marsh rice rat, sturgeon, alligators, shrimp, oysters, smalltooth sawfish, plankton)