(I’m hesitant to post this, cause it just gives publicity to some anonymous griefer. But it’s for a good cause.)
So tonight I was zipping by Progressive Island in Second Life, visiting the new space created for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, when I was immediately assaulted by obnoxious music and a screen full of flying images. I realized immediately that the place was getting griefed, which really pissed me off.
I mean, here are these nice folks trying to promote the welfare of animals all over the planet, literally folks who wouldn’t hurt a fly. And some idiot has to drop a grief bomb on their new build, full of hate speech. Really doesn’t get much lower than that.
I started informing the Lindens and the responsible parties at IFAW, while documenting the grief in case it proved helpful. A Ms. Daisey Meadowbrook soon appeared and said that help
was on the way.
Sure enough two second later, like a non-profit superhero, my buddy Nobody Fugazi flew
in and saved the day. With a wave of his arms, the offensive sounds and images stopped. Then he started fixing the permissions on the build that created the opening for the griefer in the first place. Go, Nobody!
This build is just one part of IFAW’s international "Stop the Seal Hunt" campaign. IFAW is calling on the Canadian government to cancel its annual commercial hunt
of hundreds of thousands of seals off of eastern Canada, citing a
disturbing lack of ice and ice-breeding seals in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence due to climate change:
In normal years, thousands of ice-breeding harp and hooded seals
migrate to the Gulf of St. Lawrence to give birth and nurse their pups
on ice pans, but this year’s lack of solid, stable ice means very few
of these seals have been spotted. Last month IFAW
released a scientific report highlighting the impacts of global warming
on Canada’s ice-breeding seals, which revealed that in nine of the past
11 years, average ice coverage has been well below the average ice
cover seen over the last 37 years.“It’s absolutely
unbelievable,” said Sheryl Fink, IFAW Senior Researcher. “Surveillance
flights are reporting that there is not a single harp seal to be found
in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.”
You can watch a video about IFAW’s work, pick-up a free tee-shirt, and drop some lindens in the donation box. Daisey told me they plan on holding more events there in the near future. Meanwhile I encourage folks to head over to Progressive Island (Teleport SLURL) and check out IFAW’s build. Then surf to www.stopthesealhunt.com to find out how you can help.
It was a bit silly, really. They also hit SL Netroots on the other side of the island (which is where I flew in from after freezing on for an impromptu photo op).
Oddly, they knew where the permissions were not set properly. And they ignored 2 other builds which had the same loopholes.
Personally, it was mildly amusing to see that there are still people like this around – and they sort of helped me make a point about security on the island. Thus, the problems are solved.
The IFAW build will be morphing over time. I suggest checking it out. Also see: http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/03/20/seal-hunt-watch-in-sl/
This ‘Save Our Seals’ campaign gets my ‘Walrus of Approval’.
Why?
Because using seals to approve of a campaign like this is a little untenable.
Just wanted to say thanks for this post. I was at the IFAW event too. IFAW is really trying to do something great to save the lives of countless numbers of seals who’s lives are taken during the Canadian seal hunt.
Thanks for being an IFAW Advocate! We appreicate all the help we can get.