However, despite this reputation piranhas are helpless against the assaults of humans.

Every year, countless numbers of piranhas are unwillingly captured and kidnapped from their natural habitat so they can be exploited and commercialized for monetary gain. David M. Schleser’s Piranhas (Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.1997) states that humans are undoubtedly the major predators of adult piranhas.

It is a common misconception that fish do not feel pain. This belief has allowed many people to justify the cruelty they inflict upon piranhas (and many other fish species). However, fish can and do feel pain and recent studies have provided the scientific evidence to prove this. A study done by Joseph Garner of Purdue University (2009) reported that these animals do experience pain consciously, rather than simply reacting with a reflex. Many other studies have resulted in similar evidence.

The ability of fish to perceive pain and discomfort makes the bid for their welfare extremely important. The desecration and ill-treatment that piranhas endure as a result of the trades that harvest and profit from them is truly horrifying.

Piranhas are hunted extensively throughout their range and then sold to local food markets. Considerable numbers are intentionally caught in nets, traps and by hooks and lines. However, numerous other piranhas are accidentally caught in lines and traps set for other intended catch.

Piranhas are also harvested directly from the wild to be sent off to the exotic pet trade. This harvesting represents an unnatural loss in the populations. Piranhas are caught from their native South America and then exported to places all around the world.

Others are killed so that they can be dried and mounted, or encased in glass. These deceased piranhas are then sold as decorative ornaments and marketed towards tourists.

The piranhas’ fearsome reputation makes them susceptible to being directly persecuted by those who deem them as dangerous or nuisance. Individuals who encounter vulnerable piranhas are likely to kill them. This is especially true of piranhas who have become trapped in receding pools after the wet season.Piranhas are also fished and killed for sport. The reputation of piranhas as blood-thirsty killers often makes them the pursuit of outdoors men who want to prove their masculinity by targeting such animals.

Protecting piranhas is important for several reasons. Piranhas are absolutely paramount to the health of many eco-systems and to biodiversity as they are extremely valuable components to the ecological communities in which they live; playing several complex roles.

Piranhas are efficient predators in both lotic and lentic habitats. Piranhas largely prey upon sick, injured, dyeing, or deceased animals. By effectively removing sick or dyeing members from animal populations, piranhas help maintain the health of the aquatic eco-systems they reside in. They essentially act as a natural clean-up crew.

Aside from their predatory and scavenging roles, piranhas are also prey items for numerous other species including caimans, birds, otters, and dolphins.

There is much about piranhas that scientists still do not know. This fact could mean that piranhas may play even more integral roles in the natural world that we are simply unaware of.

Many individuals have a thought process that views human beings as the most intelligent, superior, and enlightened lifeforms on the planet. If people are to have such views of themselves then they must use such intelligence and perception to realize that the majority of treatment that piranhas (and all other animals for that matter) receive from humans is extremely unethical and deplorable.

Humans must use their privileged position to strive to live in such a manner that is not detrimental or cruel to the other species on the earth; many of which species have been here for millions of years before humans appeared. This gives non-human species every right (if not more then humans do) to live on this planet. It also gives them the right to live free of cruelty, persecution, and from infringements on their freedom.

Protecting piranhas is also important to furthering the animal rights movement.

Being a compassionate animal rights advocate means standing up for all animals, not just the visually appealing (cute and cuddly) ones such as charismatic mammals. If individuals can be taught the value in protecting and conserving an animal like a piranha (a so called ‘terrifying cold-blooded fish’), then they will certainly be able to see the value in all other animals as well!

For more information www.savethepiranhas.com

This is a guest post from piranha advocate Matt Ellenbeck. If you would like to write a guest post, contact chris (at) deeprootssanctuary.org.

Perhaps the largest marine disaster to happen in decades, and now considered the largest oil spill in the history of the United States, the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20, 2010 has led to an environmental catastrophe that continues without abatement and whose oily clutches extend from slicks on the ocean’s surface to deep swells near the ocean’s floor. Armed with mops and rags, seeming trifles compared to the magnitude of the oil’s reach, the human response to the disaster has been one of caution and vigilance. With no real solution in sight, coastal inhabitants, volunteers, even the government, can only try to redirect the slicks away from fragile coastal regions or don the tools of the domestic and use brooms and rubber gloves in an attempt to clean house. That, and wait.

While it goes without saying that the oil spill has led many consumers and legislators to question and call attention to our dependence on oil, the spill has also demonstrated to what extent our world is an ecological network, where the health and survival of one species depends on that of another; where the destruction of an environment may affect ecosystems across the planet. Carl Safina, president of the Blue Ocean Institute, has illustrated the importance of the Gulf Coast as an aviary highway and stopover for many migratory birds who depend on the food sources and breeding grounds found there. But with the toxic oil and dispersant residues permeating not only the shoreline and nesting habitats, but also killing and contaminating fish populations, the survival of bird species from as far north as the Canadian Arctic and as far south as the southern tip of South America is put in jeopardy.

We at Deep Roots Animal Sanctuary grieve for the lives, both human and non-human, lost to this terrible tragedy. While we mourn the ecological consequences of this catastrophic event and support efforts to clean-up and change energy consumption in the United States, we also recognize that habitat destruction and species endangerment is a chronic issue. That is why we at Deep Roots are dedicated to providing refuge and rehabilitation to wild birds and waterfowl. Now, more than ever, we need your help–bird species around the world need your help–to protect their livelihoods and preserve their futures.

If you would like to be a part of our efforts to rescue and protect birds and waterfowl, please visit us at deeprootssanctuary.org or contribute to our kickstarter campaign where we are raising money to build a bird rehab center.

“The Japanese government’s “scientific” whaling program is a sham and a source of diplomatic tension between Japan and countries that support whale conservation, like the United States. Whaling has no place in Antarctica – it’s a place of peace and science, and this is not science,” said Karli Thomas, expedition leader aboard Greenpeace’s Esperanza.

Greenpeace is collaborating with a team of scientists on the “Great Whale Trail” project to prove that you don’t need to kill whales to study them. The project uses data from satellite tagging of whales, harmless skin biopsies and fluke identification.

“Japan’s whalers are deceiving the Japanese public by painting the word “research” on their ships,” said Junichi Sato, Greenpeace Japan Whales Project leader. “Real scientists don’t need to kill whales to study them. This is commercial whaling poorly dressed up as science.”

The Japanese fleet will consist of four whaling ships, including the 8,000-ton Nisshin Maru (pictured to the right being approached by Sea Shepherd’s Robert Hunter). While Greenpeace has announced that they will track the Japanese fleet through the duration of its hunt, the Sea Shepherd says it will stick to its traditional role of enforcing international law and preventing the hunt from taking place using direct action.

“I did not establish the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as a protest organization,” said Captain Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd. “I have not gone to sea over all these years to simply bear witness to the atrocities that whalers continue to inflict upon the most gentle and intelligent beings in the seas. We are sea cops-operating legally under the guidelines of the United Nation’s World Charter for Nature, which allow for the enforcement of international conservation law by non-governmental organizations in international jurisdictions.”

If you would like to help stop the whale hunt, you can do the following:

Donate to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Tell Japan to stop the whale hunt
Donate to Greenpeace

Read more about this on from Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd.

Along with five friends, the 18-year-old actress from Australia paddled out on a surfboard to stop a pod of dolphins from being trapped and killed in a cull in Japan. Panettiere and friends were confronted by anglers who used their boat’s propeller and a boathook to force the surfers back to the shore.

From Sky News:

Panettiere, who is a keen surfer and a committed marine conservationist and supporter of the campaign to save the Japan dolphins, said: “It was really frightening.

“Some of us were hit by the boathook. But in the end all we really worried about was the dolphins.

“It was so incredibly sad. We were so close to them and they were sky hopping, jumping out of the water to see us.”

The six friends immediately drove to the airport and returned to Australia to avoid arrest by Japanese authorities. It is believe that the dolphins were taken into the cove and killed.

Click here to see a video of this story along with some background info on the dolphin slaughter.

More than 22,000 dolphins are killed in Japan each year. While this number pales in comparison to the number of other animals that are killed throughout the year for food, there is a nearly global consensus that dolphins should be protected. So now is the time to act on that consensus.

How You Can Help
Stop eating fish: Many of the dolphins are rounded up and killed as a form of pest control. They are seen as competition for the sea’s depleting fish population.

Boycott the captive dolphin industry: This includes zoos, aquariums, and the military. You can also send a letter. From Save Taiji Dolphins:

The tragic secret behind the slaughter is that the US and International dolphin captivity industry is fueling the massacre. They are organizing and funding the hunts in order to buy “show-quality” dolphins from the Japanese fishermen to use in dolphin shows, “Swim-with-the-Dolphins” programs and aquariums.

Donate to Save Taiji Dolphins: Help keep there team on the ground in Japan.