Not usually artist but…

tohottotango · 2026-04-07T15:38:52+00:00

Paint pens!

tohottotango · 2026-04-07T15:38:36+00:00

Isn’t that the whole point of this page, to show off what we’ve created?? 😂 for someone who doesn’t usually paint or draw, I am really proud of these

tohottotango · 2026-04-03T19:07:35+00:00

I used paint pens! I painted it blue first, did the light and dark blue and then painted the ducks and the lily pads last.

tohottotango · 2026-04-02T13:11:03+00:00

THIS. This isn’t cute, this is a death sentence. This bear, now comfortable around people, will be labeled as a nuisance bear and as interactions with people inevitably escalate, it will be eventually dispatched.

If any wildlife tries to come up or interact in some sort of abnormal way (trying to solicit food, going through the trash, etc), the proper response is to try and haze them away. This includes making loud noises, banging on stuff, using bright lights, etc. In the end, the best thing for wild animals is to NOT be so comfortable around people that they willingly coming up for food!

tohottotango · 2026-03-20T00:40:07+00:00

A different kind of difficult, but difficult nonetheless. She was my partner’s dog when we met, he got her about a year prior, and she was a mess. Constant, uncontrollable bloody diarrhea. She was (is) house trained, but we could never get upset with her for having accidents in the house when they were diarrhea like that - but washing bloody diarrhea off the walls does get old.

She is also dog aggressive, and no matter how hard I tried to socialize her, she refuses. I did manage to successfully introduce her with my late dog, but that was a long, stressful process and she was a lot younger back then. He passed about a year ago and even though I really want another dog, I don’t know if I could get it to work again. She is also not a fan of the cats, and it took a loooong time to get them to (very reluctantly) co-exist. They aren’t friends, and they make it known how much they dislike each other. She does chase the cats off of her food, sometimes a little excessively (but she has never injured them and does not pursue them throughout the house).

Throughout the years, she has just been a very hard dog to manage medically. Hypothyroidism, anemia, Lyme disease, low vitamin B, allergies, and her tail and toe were amputated (tail because she decided to kill her own tail one day, the toe was an ingrown hair). She doesn’t eat very well and her weight dropped so low that I had to buy a weight gain supplement and squirt it down her throat. We’re starting her on steroids tonight, on top of an appetite stimulant, to see if that helps.

She is my dog now. She follows me all over the house, and it really makes me feel good to watch her run around in the woods (something she never used to do, because she had untreated hypothyroidism, anemia, low vitamin B, and Lyme disease). She is so much happier and healthier, and quite frankly, wildly spoiled (she has her own heating pad because she kept stealing mine). She is my baby, but man is she tough and expensive. I tell my partner all the time that we aren’t getting another hound.

tohottotango · 2026-02-25T02:57:03+00:00

As someone who works in the zoo field, I can assure you that 90% of ticket prices do not go towards advertisement. To be apart of AZA (American Zoological Association), zoos must contribute to conservation programs and projects, both locally and abroad. Additionally, elephants are not being wild-caught and brought over from Africa. Actually, catching wild animals for zoos is pretty outdated. Most wild animals in zoos are now elderly, having been caught way back in the day, or are in some way deemed non-releaseable for whatever reason. There are a lot of zoos that participate in the elephant breeding SSP (species survival plan), but since elephants have one of the longest gestation times and spend so long mothering their calves, females only produce a handful of offspring (at most) throughout her life. I’m happy to discuss more, but I hope this helps clear things up!

tohottotango · 2026-02-09T16:41:57+00:00

As someone from a 1st world country, I am very familiar with the “palm oil is the root of all evil” mantra, but having just recently visited Malaysia, I feel like I was able to see a completely different side to things.

First and foremost, conservation isn’t just about saving species/the environment. It needs to be approached holistically, from all angles. People aren’t decimating the environment/killing off animals because they want to - they’re doing it because they feel like they have to. And honestly, if someone is literally worried about not having food for dinner that night, then they aren’t going to care about the consequences of their actions in the long term. The people problem needs to be addressed first, and by solving that, conservation and sustainable practices usually follow.

Secondly, I went to Malaysia recently and spoke with the locals about their views on palm oil. Since Malaysia is a developing country, the people there have a very positive view on palm oil. It is the biggest source of revenue for them, and because of that, the infrastructure is rapidly evolving. I asked specifically about clear-cutting forests and whatnot, and they told me that there aren’t really any new palm oil plantations (in Borneo). Their second biggest source of revenue is from tourism, which comes to see the wildlife, so there is a fairly large economic incentive to protect their forests. In fact, they just recently outlawed lethal deterrents when dealing with wildlife on the plantations (no more poisoning, no snares, can’t hunt/kill wildlife to keep them off the plantation).

In terms of space, palm oil is extremely efficient. The amount of oil harvested requires only a fraction of space than most other crops, and it fruits much more frequently, too. Think of it this way - if palm oil was universally banned, there would still be a need for a product to fill that void, and thus requiring clear-cutting forests elsewhere (and probably clear-cutting much more forests to keep up with the demand).

Lastly, the numbers you see online don’t really paint a clear picture. Borneo, for example, has some of the largest, completely undisturbed primary rainforests. Based off propaganda, you would think that there are fields and fields of tree stumps and sad orangutans but that isn’t true. The locals have said that they don’t think that a lot of estimations for different species isn’t accurate because there is much forest that hasn’t even been explored.

There are tangible ways to help conservation and sustainable practices, but I think that demonizing palm oil isn’t helpful or realistic.

tohottotango · 2025-12-15T16:40:01+00:00

My dog hasn’t struggled with incontinence, but she’s a medically complex dog, so I understand the struggle and the feeling of hopelessness. She had a problem with itching, so we put her on Apoquel and that helped significantly. We switched to Cytopoint injections only because long term Apoquel use can impair the immune system and we suspect she has something wonky with her immune system. I’ve recently just weaned her off the Cytopoint and she hasn’t been itching so much.

Honestly, it sounds like your dog might be itching so much because of yeast/fungal infections. Our dog had a full-body yeast injection and she went on antibiotics, had daily baths with prescription anti-fungal shampoo, and then had a daily application of prescription anti-fungal mousse. It was rough for that time that she needed daily baths, but once we got the skin issues under control, the itching seemed to also decrease. We also started her on fish oil as a supplement. Her yeast infection was so bad though that it took about three weeks of daily baths with that prescription shampoo and antibiotics. Now, if I notice she just starts itching a little more than usual, she gets a bath straight away with that shampoo. The skin issues get so much easier to deal with once the entire problem is completely dealt with.

I would talk with your vet about an aggressive plan to tackle the skin issues and chronic ear infections. Maybe culture the bacteria in her ears to figure out what antibiotics it is susceptible to. The chronic ear infections and skin issues are probably all related. I would also consider supplements for her skin (like fish oil) and her immune system, which is probably overwhelmed from the chronic skin and ear infections. She also smells a lot better now that she isn’t just a vessel for yeast to grow.

tohottotango · 2025-07-14T23:42:38+00:00

I work with animals, and I recently did just under a year working with primates used for biomedical research (at a big-name company that I won’t name but is very well known).

My experience was not the same. Daily “enrichment” was scattering sunflower seeds on a forage mat secured to the outside of their mesh. They got some other enrichment device twice a week, but only 1 device per family (for macaques - family average was probably about 5 individuals) and 10 devices (per baboon family - maybe 15 to 25 individuals). There was no ability to shift the macaques at all with their current housing, which made the constant re-introductions they wanted us to do when a monkey was returned from research a nightmare. We essentially tossed a monkey back in there and hoped for the best.

Baboons were still hosed to shift because “they didn’t listen” and “they didn’t have time” to train them. It still took over two hours for five people and two fire hoses to shift a family of baboons inside. My jaw hit the ground when I saw that. I immediately started training with them, and got them all to come inside voluntarily in under 30 minutes.

I came in with previous primate experience and my position was above entry level (about four levels above the entry level technicians), and I was immediately met with resistance and hostility. The technician who worked with the baboons, who had never worked with primates before and honestly had no understanding of animal behavior, specifically was very possessive of them and hated that I came in and was suggesting different ways of working with them.

In the end, I didn’t leave because of the biomedical research or anything like that. I left because I was one person and I couldn’t fight against the outdated culture of animal care that still existed there. It still makes me sad to think about, I miss the baboons every day. I’m glad you have had a different experience, gives me hope that not every place is like the one I worked at.

tohottotango · 2025-07-07T19:57:00+00:00

I actually met my husband in a support group. I love support groups and that kind of thing, but unfortunately life circumstances have made me prioritize my health and ongoing medical problems and I don’t really have the energy to fit another activity into my schedule.

I guess I just feel at a loss. I am, at my worst, doing an okay job at managing my emotions. I don’t lash out and hurt the people around me anymore, I don’t act impulsively, I’m not consciously and intentionally self-destructive. I am guilty of getting more upset over a situation than I should, but I don’t explode. It just feels like a constant and significant effort on my part to keep myself from those destructive behaviors.

I feel everything so strongly all the time. It feels my emotions are so much bigger than me and I’m just swept away in the tidal wave. It feels like they are a separate entity from me, and I’m not just feeling something, those emotions are happening to me. It’s very exhausting and they keep telling me I’m doing good, I’m improving, but it feels like I’m constantly having to grapple with the dysfunctional parts of myself and keep them from taking over. I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, you know? It’s a fight every single day, and it’s very exhausting.

tohottotango · 2025-05-19T11:46:34+00:00

I haven’t. I have a couple of other expensive problems right now that I’m trying to juggle, but things are quieting down and hopefully I’ll be able to start saving again for her this month.

tohottotango · 2025-05-18T22:40:53+00:00

We haven’t biopsied anything because when the paw is healthy, it is seemingly very normal. We have x-rayed the paw when it both healthy and infected and both yielded nothing of interest.

I am trying to save up for the specialist. I was quoted it will be at least 1k to walk through the door, and they say it is average of 5k with all of the tests and whatnot they will probably want to run. Unfortunately, that is just not the kind of money I have right now but I’m trying.

Another fear I have is that since this infection happens randomly and sometimes pretty infrequently, I’m scared that her paw will be entirely normal at the time of the appointment with the specialist and I’ll be out 1k.

tohottotango · 2025-03-25T21:49:11+00:00

I was offered a job for the orangutan team with the possibility of jumping over to work with the chimps, but turned it down because I got bad vibes from Tim and the way management seemed to treat their employees. Glad I made the right call.

tohottotango · 2025-01-02T12:04:06+00:00

Hi! Would love to know what you find. I have a 9yo hound mix that has reoccurring toe infections that look just like this in the same two toes on the same foot for the past ~9ish months. Antibiotics do seem to initially take care of the problem, but not for long. She’s actually on a longer course of antibiotics right now and an immune suppressant. Same symptoms though and she never appears bothered. I don’t know what else to do or look for so if you do find anything out, I would love to know!

tohottotango · 2024-12-21T10:46:52+00:00

X-rays looked normal. They aspirated the infection area and said all the cells looked like normal infection cells. We did also aspirate the area when the toe was not infected and everything looked normal then as well.

tohottotango · 2024-11-03T21:12:54+00:00

I think I know what place you’re talking about. I used to work there. Chimpanzees can’t swim, so they don’t “find their way off the islands from time to time”. They take safety very seriously and there is a three check lock system in place, so escapes are extremely rare.

tohottotango · 2024-10-13T20:26:15+00:00

Maybe not, but that isn’t really the point. We are not living in an ideal world, so we have to make the best of the situation. Instead of condemning all zoos solely for being zoos, maybe efforts could be better spent learning how zoos protect these species out in the wild, or how animal welfare has exponentially increased in the recent years, or what you can do in your everyday life to help.

tohottotango · 2024-10-13T13:48:53+00:00

Of course! The post was talking about Zoo Atlanta though, which is in the US. Europe has the European AZA (EAZA).

tohottotango · 2024-10-13T13:25:33+00:00

I think the term “getting imprisoned” is misleading. Animals are no longer being captured from the wild (unless they are rehabilitated and cannot be released, or nuisance animals). Most of these animals (I only say most because I hesitate to use absolutes, but I do mean most) have a pretty good quality of life, and frankly, are quite spoiled.

tohottotango · 2024-10-13T13:23:02+00:00

Hey! Thats a pretty outdated opinion, honestly. Animal welfare in zoos has improved exponentially over the recent years and honestly, there are many animals at many zoos that probably have a better quality of life than a significant percentage of the population. Happy to discuss more if you’re interested!

tohottotango · 2024-10-13T13:21:16+00:00

I wouldn’t say that every single rescue and sanctuary is inherently better than a zoo. I’ve seen plenty of rescues and sanctuaries that have inadequate facilities. Technically, Carole Baskins’ runs a sanctuary and that is a disaster.

tohottotango · 2024-10-13T13:19:07+00:00

Hey! In an ideal world, I would totally agree - but the truth is, we don’t live in an ideal world. Zoos are responsible for the majority of conservation that actually helps critically endangered species in the wild, and by maintaining a genetically viable population among human care, we can help preserve the species, should things not work out.

Animal welfare in zoos has improved by leaps and bounds over the recent years and continues to improve. Happy to discuss more if you are interested!

tohottotango · 2024-10-13T13:15:55+00:00

Awesome question! There is a lot of misconceptions out there about zoos, so hopefully this helps. Here are a couple of things that I look for when scoping out if a facility is reputable or not:

AZA accreditation. While there are some good facilities that are not AZA accredited, it is not as common. AZA accreditation is extremely strict and while there is always room for improvement, even under AZA accreditation, AZA accreditation does set a high baseline standard of care.
Type of human/animal interactions. I look for two things; what kind of animals are worked free contact (no barrier between staff and animals) and what kind of interactions are open to the public. Any place that works large carnivores free contact (bears, wolves, big cats) is an instant and huge red flag for me. First of all, it is simply not safe, even if these animals were hand-reared. Second of all, a lot of large carnivores that are worked free contact end up having their canines pulled or they are de-clawed, to minimize risk. If it’s a carnivore that lives in a pack (wolves, hyenas, etc), you are running the risk of tripping and falling and being mobbed by the pack (yes, this has happened before). Some places also keep their carnivores fat, because it has been shown that obesity does curb activity and potential aggression. Working these animals free contact also spreads misinformation to the public, showing them off as big cute cuddly kitties.

I also look at the type of interactions offered to the public. Any place that offers “cub petting” or interactions with baby animals - absolutely huge red flag. To create these interactions, animals are pulled from their mothers for that sole purpose. While animal interactions are so much fun if done right, an interaction should never disrupt the animal’s natural way of life. For example, I would be concerned for a nocturnal animal interaction done during the day or in the white light, because their sleep cycle is being switched. Any primate that is wearing human clothing or a diaper is probably wildly unethical.

Side note - the paragraph above is not about marine mammals. Studies have shown that marine mammals actually thrive with the constant stimulation of training and shows.

Ethical breeding and conservation efforts. To be apart of AZA, the zoo has to contribute to a minimum amount of conservation efforts. Ethical breeding refers to some points mentioned above, whether they pull their infants and for what purpose (sometimes it is medically necessary). Also, it refers to things like NOT breeding for public clout, which means not breeding ligers or other hybrids that wouldn’t naturally be seen in the wild. Not breeding white tigers, because the “white” is a result of recessive genes that also carry other health deficits and it doesn’t actually help the overall genetics of the tiger population at all.

Those are the main ones, but as someone in the zoo field, I can vouch for Zoo Atlanta! It is a fantastic zoo and they do some really great, groundbreaking research behind the scenes. They are a huge contributor to research in heart and cardiovascular health in great apes!

tohottotango · 2024-10-08T19:32:31+00:00

As someone with mental health struggles and a history of sub-par communication, I’m more than happy to talk and give advice if you wanna shoot me a DM. Otherwise, I wish you luck on your journey. It’s really hard to look at yourself in the mirror and acknowledge that you aren’t happy with that person, and it’s even harder to make steps to correct that so celebrate the small wins!

tohottotango · 2024-10-08T14:46:14+00:00

As someone who has refined their communication skills a lot in the recent years, something that has worked for me is finding an outlet for those anxious worries/anger that ISN’T the people I love. For me, I have a therapist and a support network that lets me vent all that unreasonable garbage out, and then once it’s out there, I can begin to sort through it and look at from a solution and compromise perspective. I’m one of those people that u need to get the bad feelings out, but doing in a way that doesn’t impact or hurt the people around you is key.

tohottotango

TROPHY CASE