Cassandra Szklarski, THE CANADIAN PRESSTORONTO - Canadian rock icon Bryan Adams says he rang in the new year with troubled soul singer Amy Winehouse and believes that a strong support system is key to handling the pressures of fame.

Adams was in Toronto on Wednesday to promote his new album, “11,” being released in Canada on March 18. The frequent philanthropist, whose pet causes include animal welfare and children’s issues, was also in town to perform at a hospital fundraiser Thursday with singing stars Josh Groban and Sarah McLachlan.

Mingling with such superstars is just a day in the life for the jet-setting performer, who said he just flew in from New York where he was photographing pal Mick Jagger for a Rolling Stones concert film being shot by director Martin Scorsese.

Adams said he and Jagger became friends when he opened for the Stones on their “No Security” tour in 1999, and marvelled at the road his life has travelled since his childhood in Kingston, Ont.

The 48-year-old’s creative pursuits have led to Oscar nominations for best song and a successful photography career, as well as musical collaborations with industry legends Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand and Tina Turner and a closely guarded friendship with the late Princess Diana.

“It totally amazes me,” Adams said of his whirlwind lifestyle, which he said is largely lived out of hotels around the world these days.

“You can never have imagined doing the things that you do as your life goes on… but I kind of believe that you make your own luck.”

Adams’ latest album of 11 guitar-driven tracks sticks largely to the romantic themes he’s become known for, and was written during travels to the Caribbean, Germany, Italy, France and Portugal.

Although it lands in stores in mid-March in Canada, Adams said it’s been a chore to find the right distributor in the United States.

“We haven’t really got a record company in America, so my management has to be clever about how they get the record to everybody,” he said of the delayed release, adding that talks are ongoing with an independent company rather than a big-name firm.

“It’s not that it didn’t find a home, it’s that we didn’t want it to find a home right away. We wanted to make sure we did it our way.”

Adams said a Canadian tour may come at the end of the year, but immediate plans involve visits to South America, the United States and European festivals.

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On the Net: http://www.bryanadams.com
Source: The Canadian Press, 2008

Picture of Bryan Adams above : Musician Bryan Adams in this, Jan. 15, 2007, file photo. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Mark J. Terrill

Prince Fielder is on an all-sunflower seed diet

By ‘Duk

Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 5:42 pm EST

Well, not quite. But the Brewers’ hefty slugger showed up to camp on Wednesday and dropped the mother of bombshells for someone of his considerable size: He is now a vegetarian. After learning the dirty truth about how cows are cut up, he now eats no meat and no fish but he does consume plenty of ketchup-drowned Boca Burgers. > How are cows treated at farms ?

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

It wasn’t always this way. Fielder used to enjoy a stacked burger or a juicy steak as much as any carnivore, but a few weeks ago he received a book from his wife, Chanel, that changed his outlook on what he puts in his massive frame. The book described how certain animals are treated and slaughtered for food. (learn how veal and foire gras are made ) > How can we help ?

…

“After reading that, (meat) just didn’t sound good to me anymore,” Fielder said. “It grossed me out a little bit. It’s not a diet thing or anything like that. I don’t miss it at all.”

Over here at the BLS, I wish Fielder the best of luck with his new lifestyle, especially once he reports back to the knockwurst-laden burg of Milwaukee.

But I speak from experience when I say it’s not going to be easy. While a sophomore at the UW, I once tried to dabble in vegetarianism, but it only lasted all of about five or six hours. I blame Madison’s famous Plazaburgers for the death of my idealism.

Because how are you supposed to say no to an all-beef patty topped with a lot of secret sauce and grilled with just the right amount of love? If Prince bucks the odds and continues being all-veggie, all-the-time, I’d like him to tell me.

• Diet fit for a Prince / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
• Tofu prince? / Chuckie Hacks

> Vegetarian Recipes (1) (2) (3)

Getty Images photo

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/mlb_experts/post/Prince-Fielder-is-on-an-all-sunflower-seed-diet?urn=mlb,67984

This caretaker sure did…

An Iraqi Dog Has His Day

SPCA International Baghdad Pups program transports a dog named Charlie, of Charlie Company, for a soldier in Iraq who befriended the 9-month-old Border Collie mix.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

By Karin Brulliard

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 15, 2008; Page B01

He hesitated just a bit as he rounded a corner inside Dulles International Airport yesterday and spotted the flock of television cameras and cooing journalists awaiting him. Then, with posture erect like a soldier’s, he trotted straight toward the action — he was used to bomb blasts and gunfire, after all, so this was nothing.

This Story

• Making a Home for Charlie, Away From Baghdad’s Slums

• An Iraqi Dog Has His Day

Post-escape from Baghdad and fresh off a 13-hour flight from Kuwait, Charlie the border collie mix actually seemed to be smiling for the crowd.

Five months after the SPCA International received a plea from American soldiers hoping to transfer their beloved Iraqi stray to U.S. terrain, the 9-month-old mutt became the first beneficiary of the animal advocacy organization’s effort to rescue pets from the war zones where they provide solace to service members. Charlie eventually will live in Phoenix with one of his caretaker soldiers.

It being Valentine’s Day, the SPCA dished out the emotional hyperbole. Charlie’s bond with his caretakers, the organization said, “is the ultimate love story between a man and his dog.” The soldiers, too, were effusive.

“We can’t wait for him to get his first taste of the good old USA,” one wrote in an e-mail to the SPCA. “We especially can’t wait until we can see him again.”

Parts of Charlie’s back story were obscured to protect those he left behind. In his case, they were U.S. soldiers based at a Baghdad outpost — the SPCA identified the unit only as Charlie Company — who were barred by military rules from keeping pets. But when the soldiers came upon a flea-infested and starving puppy while on patrol, they could not resist sharing their affection and their ready-to-eat meals.

One soldier, identified by the organization as “Sgt. Watson,” sent e-mails to animal rescue groups. The SPCA took up the case, and Operation Baghdad Pups was born.

But first, program manager Terri Crisp interviewed Watson in Phoenix when he was on leave in October. Watson wanted to adopt Charlie at the end of his tour in March.

“He was a soldier and tough, and toward the end, I said, ‘Why are we bringing Charlie home?’ And he said, ‘Because I made a promise’ ” not to abandon the dog, Crisp said yesterday, her voice choked with tears.

Eleven other dogs and two cats adopted by service members in Iraq or Afghanistan are in the pipeline for rescue, said Stephanie Scroggs, a spokeswoman for SPCA International. The SPCA will pay about $4,000 per rescue, Scroggs said. She acknowledged that the sum could aid many more stateside animals but said the program also supports the troops.

“It’s too much to ask them to leave, go to Iraq and then to desert their companion animals,” Scroggs said.

To prime Charlie for departure, rabies and distemper vaccines were shipped to Baghdad, where a veterinarian at the Ministry of Agriculture was prepared to administer them. Although the soldiers lived near the ministry, Crisp said, they needed to generate a “mission” to justify the visit because they are not allowed to have pets.

Click HERE .

Can we do something about this ?

 

I often go by the name “Brian.” It’s not my real name, of course. But I’m an undercover investigator for The Humane Society of the United States. And I must remain anonymous.

As for my work, that’s a different story. I want everyone to know when animals are being mistreated. Far too often, cruelty against innocent animals happens in the shadows, out of sight of the public. My work is to bring this misery into the sunlight, where it cannot survive.

Please help support the work of investigators like me by making an emergency contribution to The HSUS’s Investigations Fund.

You probably saw the results of my most recent work. I was The HSUS investigator at the Hallmark Meat Packing Company slaughter plant in Chino, California. I was there for six awful weeks. Day after day, I witnessed — and recorded — the most horrifying cruelties inflicted on dairy cows.

Animals cannot talk. But they can scream. Their faces convey pain. Sadly, the only way to end this needless suffering is to make people aware that it’s happening. But we can’t do it without you.

The slaughterhouse investigation landed with a wallop. It should have. The USDA shut down that slaughter plant. And from school cafeterias in more than two dozen states to the halls of Congress, reaction has been swift and calls for meaningful reform loud and clear. The awful agonies of the animals who were mistreated at this plant were not in vain.

I was asked to write this note because investigations are one of the most powerful weapons that The Humane Society of the United States can bring to bear against the mistreatment of animals — whether pets, wildlife, or farm animals. But it’s costly work. It takes lots of time. My colleagues and I can’t get the job done without you standing with us. Today, please support our Investigations Fund with a gift of $35, $50, $100 or more.

As I write this, I am about to undertake my next assignment. It’s not easy to live a normal life with friends and family, only to disappear for weeks or months at a time when I get embedded in an investigation. But with your support and the knowledge that my work will save potentially thousands of animals from suffering, it’s the most meaningful kind of quest I can imagine.

Please help ensure that we have the resources to allow my work — and that of our entire team of undercover investigators — to continue. Donate to our Investigations Fund today.

Sincerely,

PHOTOGRAPHS of a mother whale and her calf being dragged on board a Japanese ship after being harpooned in Antarctic waters have been described as sickening by Australia’s environment minister. ‘I guess when I saw the photos I just felt a bit of a sick feeling as well as a sense of sadness,’ Environment Minister Peter Garrett told Nine Network television. ‘It’s very disappointing. It’s distressing when you think that it can take up to 15 minutes after a harpoon actually hits a whale for the whale to die. It’s even sadder when you consider there’s a calf involved.’ A gaping wound visible on the side of the calf as it is hauled up a blood-slicked slipway into the boat was caused by an explosive-packed harpoon, the Daily Telegraph said. The paper quoted scientists as saying that the small minke whale was probably less than 12 months old and still suckling.

Dear Readers,

“Please take a few minutes now to tell the EU you support a ban on seal product trade.”

—Paul McCartney

Like me, you’ve probably seen the horrifying images of helpless baby seals being beaten and shot for their fur. Wounded seals left to suffer in agony. Conscious pups sliced open. And the reason for their pain? So that someone can sell their fur.

For so many years, we’ve tried to stop this senseless brutality. Today, you and I have a chance to stop this cruelty forever.

Twenty-five years ago, the European Union made history when it ended its trade in products from newborn harp seals. Commercial seal hunting in some countries came to a virtual standstill, and countless baby seals were saved. But the hunters began to kill the pups when they were slightly older — and the products from those seals are legally traded in the EU. Today, some commercial seal hunts are twice as large as they were when the EU first took action.

But there is new hope for the seals. The EU is considering ending all seal product trade in the European Union, regardless of the age of the seals. This move would save millions of seals from brutal slaughter, and help put a final end to commercial seal hunting globally.

Right now, the EU is asking people around the world to submit their opinions on the historic proposal. Please take a few minutes today to tell the European Union you fully support a ban on seal product trade.

I’m lucky: I was able to visit a harp seal nursery in Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence before the hunters descended. The sight of mothers and their pups on the pristine ice is one I won’t forget, and I’ve committed myself to working to preserve that wondrous spectacle for generations to come.

Commercial seal hunting doesn’t simply cause unimaginable suffering to the seals; it is also dehumanizing and often dangerous work, contributing very little to the incomes of the hunters. A European Union ban on all seal product trade would force nations where seal huting has taken place to invest in real alternatives — jobs that will provide safe and sustainable futures.

Lets work together to make a better life for seals and people. Say no to the cruel trade in seal products in the European Union. It doesn’t matter where you live — your voice counts. Please take action to save the seals today.

The deadline for the European Union to hear your views is February 13.

Sincerely,

Paul McCartney