In “Do Toms Shoes Really Help People?”, Kiera Butler the idea of buy-one-give one companies are looked at to see how actually helpful they are to the countries that they ‘help’. The concept of Toms is every shoe that is bought another will be donated to a child in a third world country that is in need of shoes. Although in some countries Toms are not helping when needed. The reasons Toms are donated are for children to be able to go to school but the shoes are only distributed in schools in which children already have shoes to wear. Other companies like Warby Parker and Two Degrees Foods work with the community to produce the needs of the community. This is expressed as the smarter and more innovative way to help the people instead of donating unneeded products. Nonetheless the philanthropy that the business are doing is honorable it cannot be determined if the buy-one-give-one method is helpful to the third world countries.

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/01/portraits-elderly-animals

In the short film, “A meditation on elderly animals”, Mark and Angela Walley, the end of animals life is documented through photographs taken by Isa Leshko. After not taking any picture while caring for her mother and father during their last days Leshko felt the need to photograph something at the end of their time on earth. She discovered this unique topic when she visited her relative who owned an elderly horse who had a certain beauty to her. The attitudes of the elderly animals mirrored those of elderly humans; they had the same look of exhaustion or even content of knowing that their time on earth is limited. These photos helped the photographer, Isa Leshko find closure of not documenting these moments of her parents.

Do Toms Shoes Really Help People?

The Ringling Brothers circus has been an American pastime for 107 years. The main attraction of a circus is the beautiful, majestic and talented elephants. It was without a thought that the most prized possessions of the world renowned Barnum & Bailey’s circus would be treated with love and care. This was not the case in  “The Cruelest Show on the World”, Deborah Nelson,   blew off the bigtop after a year-long investigation of the treatment of the elephants that preform day in and day out. After years of denying any types of abuse towards their elephants the company admitted to using bullhooks, electric shocks, and whipping the elephants. The curtain was pulled away from the world renowned Barnum & Bailey’s circus after three-year-old elephant, Kenny was found dead after not being treated for an unclear illness. Days before Kenny past he was clearly sick the circus veterinary was never alerted until it was too late. The elephants would be left in cramped spaces for days without breaks. One of the most disturbing discoveries is that a lot of the captive elephants are infected with tuberculosis and herpes, these diseases only happen in captivity. Circuses have been able to get away with this treatment of their animals because of oversight of the USDA. The USDA has become very lenient toward violators by only giving the circus companies a warning after clear evidence of abuse. Other circus companies were investigated and the same problems were found, abuse, malnutrition, and general care for their elephants was overlooked. Even after former attendants that cared for the circus elephants explained the cruelty that happened behind the scenes they slightest thing to a repercussion was a small fine. The investigation help the elephants by making holding the trainers more accountable for handling the elephant as well as alerting the USDA on case that they may have overlooked.

The Cruelest Show on Earth