Animal Cruelty or Green Heroism?

Elephants from the Picadilly Circus have been commissioned (peanuts = living wage?) to assist in the post-tornado cleanup in Joplin, Missouri. As you can see in the video below, the elephants are highly efficient at moving cars and other large debris that would otherwise require several bulldozers.

So what do you think? Are these Elephants being exploited for free labor? Is this a nice break from circus life? Is this a green alternative to using bulldozers and other construction machinery?

Watch the video and then cast your vote in the poll in the left sidebar!

The Best Cat Video on the Whole Internet... Seriously

The Best Cat Video on the Whole Internet? I know that's saying a lot. The internet is chock full of cat videos and photos. (Have you seen the I Love My Cat flickr pool? They have to limit submissions to one per day, otherwise we'd all collectively crash the internet by uploading too many of photos of our fuzzy friends all at once.)

But this cat video is just too sweet.

It's not because the cat is any cuter than, say, this little guy. It's more about the owner. Her cat had been lost for nearly a month after a tornado destroyed her house, but miraculously, during a CNN interview, the cat returns. Watch what happens...

And, of course, if you want to help survivors of disasters like the recent tornadoes and floods you can always donate.

(This post has been reblogged from Cross Blog, the blog of the Oregon Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross.)

Red Cross of WNC Responding to Storm Damage in Eastern North Carolina

The American Red Cross in Western North Carolina has begun deploying staff, volunteers and resources to the eastern part of the state in the wake of powerful storms and tornadoes that killed at least 21 people and caused extensive property damage over the weeeekend.

The WNC region’s disaster director, Tony Reid, has been deployed to an operations center in Rocky Mount to oversee response activities in the Northeast quadrant of North Carolina, the area hardest hit by the storms. In addition to the deaths and injuries reported, more than 1,600 homes were damaged or destroyed in the eastern part of the state, thousands are without power and numerous Red Cross shelters have been established to temporarily house those displaced by the violent weather.

In addition to Reid, three volunteers from WNC have been dispatched to the hardest hit areas along with Asheville’s Emergency Response Vehicle which is being used to distribute supplies to those affected by the storm and emergency responders.

Regional Red Cross CEO Patrick Fitzsimmons says he expects additional volunteers to be called into service as the eastern part of the state recovers from some of it’s worst spring weather in 30 years. “We have placed all of our disaster response volunteers on stand-by and expect at least some of them to be deployed,” Fitzsimmons said. He added that the regional office has more than 150 trained disaster volunteers on its roster.

Fitzsimmons said the best way individuals in the mountains can help is to make a financial donation to help defray costs of the response operations. Donations can be made on-line at www.redcrosswnc.org , by mailing a check to The American Red Cross, 100 Edgewood Road, Asheville, NC, 28804, or by calling 828-258-3888, Ext. 226. Designate “NC Tornadoes” on your donation.

UPDATE: 3:00pm, 4/18/11: Our texting campaign in now active. You can text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to the disaster response efforts in the Eastern Carolina Region. Select "Disaster Domestic" when you are prompted (Disaster in Japan in the second option).