fearlessly and forever

Toastystats: AO3 in 2020

I started doing some analysis of how AO3 has changed in 2020. Then a chronic health issue flared up, and I can’t currently use a computer.  So I’ve posted my existing draft to AO3, and perhaps I’ll add more later when I’m feeling better.  The above are a few highlights.  Click through for explanations of these data visualizations, plus more data!

Hi! My name is Dawn and I’ve been living out of my car/tent for a number of weeks with my partner. We are pretty much homeless. We enjoy tenting and luckily have a lease that’s starting in October, so it hasn’t been a huge burden to live in this way. HOWEVER, yesterday on September 10 our car’s engine basically failed on us out of nowhere while we were using it for a grocery store trip.

Because we totally depend on the car for everything right now (from getting to places we can legally & freely set up camp …. to getting food, water, & public shower areas)  this is kind of a disaster. It also hit us really suddenly, and we are looking at anywhere from $2000 - $5000 to either get a new engine or buy us a different used car (since at this point getting a different car might be cheaper than repairs).

We are pretty poor and basically in a place where we are very worried about our ability to pay for both this and our rent/food in the near future. We are autistic and queer/ nonbinary. I’m asking for kind & generous donations to help us cover a fraction of this nauseatingly huge and unanticipated expense. I’m also offering THANK YOU SKETCHES in exchange for donations of $10 or more, and MORE DETAILED DRAWINGS for donations of $30 or more. If you donate and want me to make you a drawing, please message me and tell me an animal or plant species you like. I’ll send you a drawing within a month’s time, but probably sooner. Here’s some examples of my art-

Thank you so much for reading, & please share if you can <3 I know this COVID world is really stressful and pressing for everyone so I’m grateful for any small kind gesture at all, and I hope everyone else is faring well in these times.

CLICK FOR MY KO-FI ACCOUNT!

HYENAS CAN LOAF LIKE HOUSECATS

Penguins are really magnificent.

I’m working on a series of infographics roughly representing the amazing evolutionary journeys of some animal groups like horses, whales and elephants! If you want to see more like this, check out my Patreon!

special thanks to @franzanth for helping me with this amazing idea.

mt baker, 2020. phone bg version available on my patreon!

Colourised footage of Benjamin, the last know Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine).

Benjamin died on September 7th, 1936 in Hobart zoo. It is believed that he died out of neglect, as he was locked out of his shelter and was exposed to the searing hot sun and freezing cold night of Tasmania.

The Thylacine was one of the last large marsupials left on Australia (the other being the Kangaroo) after a great extinction event occurred around 40 thousand years ago. This extinction event, caused mainly by the arrival of humans, wiped out 90% of Australia’s terrestrial vertebrates, including the famous Megafauna.

The Thylacine was around 15-30kg (33-66lbs), were carnivorous, and had numerous similarities to other species like dogs, despite not being related and purely by chance, in a phenomenon known as convergent evolution (just like the ability to fly of bats and birds, despite following different evolutionary paths). Not only that, they could open their jaws up to 120 degrees, could hop around on two legs like a kangaroo, and both males and females had pouches.

Books, movies, TV, and internet videos from Youtube, Instagram, and The Dodo often show animals in their best moments, or even acting because they’ve been trained to do certain tasks (or are animated as humanlike characters). The fact is that the vast majority of people, even those who already have pets, have a very low or nonexistent level of animal literacy; what they take away from that kind of media oftens turns into “I want that animal as a pet.” 

People who watched Finding Nemo created an explosion of demand for clownfish and blue tangs; Harry Potter, owls; 101 Dalmatians for dalmatians, etc etc etc. When the decision to get a pet modeled after the cute, photo-ready animals seen on a screen is made, there is zero consideration as to whether or not their needs can be met and if people can actually handle them. 

Media featuring animals inevitably creates a boom of abandonment and huge environmental impact precisely because people who were in over their heads and acted purely on a whim got their dose of reality, and it’s incredibly heartbreaking to have to see the news detailing such cases. These are just some examples: 

Yearly reminders have to be passed around telling people not to buy rabbits on Easter unless they’re committed to actually taking care of them  

Thousands of dalmatians were abandoned when families discovered that they are very energy intensive, broody work dogs that are not suited to families with small children, unlike the cuddly Perdita and Pongo

Similarly, huskies and malamutes were surrendered to shelters when people realised they are not loyal Westeros direwolves

Entire ecosystems in Europe and southern Asia lost valuable apex predators when people began poaching them to sell to fans who wanted their own Hedwigs and Errols, and again abandoning them en masse when they discovered owls are highly aggressive, loud, messy, and nocturnal

Japan imported thousands of North American raccoons after the release of the Disney movie Rascal, people let them loose in the wild, and Japan now has a problem trying to figure out what to do with their enormous pest population that has no natural predator in place to control their numbers

Pacific Reefs suffered greatly when people demanded to have clownfish and blue tangs as pets, especially considering they were caught by being stunned with sodium cyanide, which, additionally, severely damages coral as well. NatGeo estimates that up to 90% of tropical fish imported by the US are caught by way of cyanide fishing; this often ends up for naught as these fish are often flushed down the toilet or released to the wild in other ways, which is also why the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico are under threat by voracious invasive species like lionfish   

The gist is that the media perpetuates this cycle of people reading about or seeing animal characters, demand is created, people impulse buy those animals, and then leave them for shelters to care for or release them to the wild when they get a rude awakening and find they’re actually unable to deal with those animals. 

This isn’t even counting other animals like “mini” pigs, chihuahuas, snakes, foxes, etc etc etc. And we can’t exactly blame this on over enthusiastic children when it’s adults who have the purchasing power to buy a pet, and who choose to do zero research, and who choose to indulge said children or even themselves when that I Want the TV Animal as a Pet urge comes on. 

Ignoring what is essentially weaponised cuteness used for online likes is hard, especially when faced with such palatable stuff like that gif of the owl riding the tablet stylus, or the plethora of cat videos. But it costs very little effort to not only educate yourself on the needs of animals and to also not encourage a rapacious pet trade industry, but to communicate that to others so that, hopefully, we won’t have to see things like Peter Dinklage and Jo Rowling having to make statements to the news because of this problem.