Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Milagros Caninos – A Haven for Mexico’s Disabled and Tortured Dogs

Posted: 16 Jan 2013 07:38 AM PST

Milagros Caninos, or Miracle Dogs, is a very special canine shelter in Mexico City. For years it has been a true paradise for dogs suffering from terminal illnesses, are blind, paralyzed or have been tortured and abandoned on the streets of Mexico’s capital.

Patricia Ruiz, the founder of Milagros Caninos lost her pet dachshund, Clavo (Spanish for “Nail”) in 2004. She knew the meaning of his life – to love her and her family, to play with her children, to bring joy to their lives – but she couldn’t understand the meaning of his death. Like she would have done for any lost member of the family, Patricia posted a eulogy in the newspaper as a symbol of the love and respect she had for Clavo. After that, she started getting all these emails from like-minded people, who shared her pain at the loss of their four-legged companions, and that motivated her to become involved in rescuing animals. She first rescued one dog, then another, and so on, to the point where she needed a place to keep them all. Her eyes and ears were always focused on pain, so she ended up with a number of animals suffering from severe illnesses like cancer, were paralyzed, or had been tortured or drugged by humans who didn’t share her compassion. So she founded Milagros Caninos, a haven for dogs in extreme situations, in need of special care and attention. That’s when she understood the meaning of Clavo’s passing…

Photo: Milagros Caninos/Facebook

There are no cages at Milagros Caninos. No dog is ever tied or locked up. It’s Patricia’s philosophy that they have suffered enough, and they should now be allowed to run around freely and be treated with kindness. “This is not a prison”, she says on the shelter’s website. “Thousands of dogs suffer terribly when they have born and grown on the streets without food or water. They look for a way to survive, but this is not enough because there will always be a leg that kicks them, a stick that beats them, a car that runs over them or someone who burns them.” Luckily, she’s there to pick up the pieces. She and her team surround the dogs with love and care, and are always rewarded with licks, swinging tails and eternally-grateful looks.

Photo: Milagros Caninos/Facebook

There are currently 128 abused dogs running around this special animal shelter in Southern Mexico, many of them victims of human cruelty. Some of them have had their legs cut off by members of drug cartels who practice slicing off victims’ fingers on dogs. One of these poor cases is Pay de Limon (Lemon Pie) , who was found dumped in a garbage after his front legs had been cut off. Ruiz managed to raise $6,000 and ordered a pair of prosthetic legs from a Colorado company that “biomechanically correct orthotics and prosthetics for animals.” Now Pay de Limon lives a normal life at Milagros Caninos.

Photo: Milagros Caninos/Facebook

People can adopt dogs from Milagros Caninos, but they, as well as the canine, have to go through an evaluation process. “ I will never give in adoption an elderly dog, with cancer, or that suffers from any difficult or expensive disease,”Patricia Ruiz says. “If you are interested in physically adopting a dog, that is, to take him to live with you, we should evaluate the dog's condition as well as the adopter's. I will never ever allow that any of the Canine Miracles dogs suffer again.” But people can also adopt a dog, even if not physically. They can choose a canine from the online gallery, and donate a sum of money every month for his care. They will receive a monthly report as well as photos of the dog, and if the dog passes away or behaves badly, they will be informed. They can also schedule visits at the shelter.

 

I know there’s nothing weird or odd about Milagros Caninos, but Pay de Limon’s tale and Patricia Ruiz’s dedication to abused dogs really inspired me to share their story with you guys.

Source: Milagros Caninos

Milagros Caninos – A Haven for Mexico’s Disabled and Tortured Dogs was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Self-Taught Ninja Slices Soda Cans with Plastic Playing Cards

Posted: 16 Jan 2013 05:20 AM PST

A man from China’s Hubei Province has recently become an internet celebrity of sorts, after a video of him throwing plastic playing cards at soda cans and actually putting holes in them, went viral.

Who says there’s no such thing as comic-book-like superpowers? And I’m not talking about the funny ones you can buy at the Superhero Store, but real superpowers that actually capture people’s imagination. Take 23-year-old Feng Yangxu, from Xishui county, Hubei Province, China, who can throw plain playing cards with such speed and accuracy that they slice even full aluminum cans. In a video that recently went viral on the Chinese internet, Feng wows his young audience by launching cards at hanging cucumbers and slicing them to pieces, as a warm-up for his most impressive trick – puncturing soda cans from three feet away. Now that may not seem like a big distance, but keep in mind this guy is putting wholes in metal containers with flimsy plastic cards. His fellow countrymen were so impressed with his feat that they’ve given him a cool nickname – Awesome Flying Cutter. And you thought “Batman” was a cool superhero name…

Photo: YouTube

Feng Yangxu is one of many Chinese fascinated with card-throwing. Back in August, we featured Ye Tongxin, another master of the trade, who could slice tough fruits like apples and watermelons with playing cards. But there are thousands more who practice their talents every day, hoping to become modern ninjas. Feng himself admits he couldn’t even cut a sheet of paper when he first started, but after years of practice, he’s now moved on to aluminum. "These pull-top cans… I must have sliced at least 10 million or so," he jokes, adding that he also  used thousands of playing card sets.

 

Still don’t believe superpowers are real? Well, then maybe the samurai who can cut a speeding bullet in half, or the guy who can put out candles with his speedy punches will convince you. It’s funny how all these guys are Asian, right?

via Beijing Cream

Self-Taught Ninja Slices Soda Cans with Plastic Playing Cards was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

The Fattening Farms of Mauritania – Force-Feeding Young Girls in the name of Beauty

Posted: 16 Jan 2013 04:15 AM PST

While the whole world is obsessed over getting thin, it seems there are far-flung places in the world today where fat is still considered a thing of beauty. Not in a good way, though. In the West African nation of Mauritania, it is so important for girls to be fat that they are sent away to fat camp – the opposite of the western version – during school holidays, to put on oodles of weight.

According to women's rights campaigner Mint Ely, girls as young as five are subjected to the tradition known as Leblouh each year. Leblouh is an attempt to groom young girls for potential suitors, involving the consumption of gargantuan amounts of food; even vomit, if it refuses to stay down. Ely says that in Mauritania, a woman's size indicates the space she occupies in her husband's heart. So to make sure no other woman can ever have room, girls are sent away for Leblouh at special farms where older women will administer the necessary diet. It's rather appalling to know that 5, 7 and 9-year-olds are expected to consume a daily diet of two kilos of pounded millet mixed with two cups of butter and 20 liters of camel's milk. Their daily consumption comes up to a whopping 16,000 calories.

Photo:  JOOST DE RAEYMAEKER/Marie Claire Magazine

This process is usually done during school holidays or in the rainy season when milk is plentiful. Torture methods are employed in case the girls aren't eating as much as they are expected to. Fatima M'baye, a children's rights lawyer, says, "The girl is sent away from home without understanding why. She suffers but is told that being fat will bring her happiness. Matrons use sticks which they roll on the girl's thighs, to break down tissue and hasten the process." Some other torture methods include ‘zayar’, where two sticks are inserted on each side of a toe. If a child refuses to eat or drink, the matron will squeeze the sticks together, causing a lot of pain. If successful, the fattening process will cause a 12-year-old child to weigh 80kg. "If she vomits, she must drink it," says M'baye. "By the age of 15, she will look 30."

Photo: BBC News

As strange as it seems, the practice of Leblouh is a respected ancient tradition in Mauritania. It supposedly dates back to pre-colonial times, when the white Moor Arabs of the region were all nomads. The richer the husband, the less his wife would have to do around the house. The rich wives were able to sit around the house all day while black slaves took care of all the household chores. Invariably, they got fat, and round bodies became a sign of affluence and of good husbands. Stretch marks, known as 'tebtath' were seen as a woman's jewels. 'Lekhwassar', which is fat around the waist, was given lyrical pride. In recent times, however, things were slowly starting to look better for the women of Mauritania. "We had a Ministry of Women's Affairs. We had achieved a parliamentary quota of 20% seats. We had female diplomats and governors. The military have set us back by decades, sending us back to our traditional roles," says Mint Ely, about the military coup in 2008. "Until the military coup, we had made strides. Ten years ago we ran information campaigns about the dangers of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The government even commissioned ballads condemning fattening." But things went back to they were again since General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz seized power after the elected president tried to sack him.

Photo: Ametxa

While several middle-class Mauritanians claim that they have abandoned the practice of force-feeding, Leblouh seems to be rampant in the rural areas. According to Mohamed el-Mounir, a political scientist, "Fattening is something from the 1950s. These days girls watch fashion shows on television. Their role models are American actresses or Lebanese singers in sexy dresses. Girls do sport. Yes, Mauritian men like slightly round women. But there is no way we want them obese." Health and development consultant Mounina Mint Abdellah agrees. She was force-fed as a child, but she says that things have changed tremendously now. "When I left school in 1980, it would have been unthinkable for me to go abroad to study. But now, 30 years later, my daughter is doing her master's degree in France. We owe a great deal to the fact that all girls are now expected to go to school. Fattening just seems out of date to a large part of Mauritanian society.

 

Force-feeding young girls may not be as popular as it once was, but there are still areas of Mauritania today were mothers tell their daughters of a magical place where they will go on vacation to the desert to meet other girls and eat sweet food, and return home a beautiful woman. Leblouh, unfortunately, is not as exciting as it sounds, as the poor girls find out soon enough. As Tijanniya, a 14-year-old puts it, "I don't think fat is beautiful. I love sports and I'm scared I won't be able to run fast when I'm fat."

Sources: Marie Claire, The Guardian

The Fattening Farms of Mauritania – Force-Feeding Young Girls in the name of Beauty was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

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