For a limited time, Starvin Marvins will give away one free 450g pack of treats to every online purchase of our book. Yep, just purchase our book online and your dog will be munching happily in no time at all.

A link to the offer and a promotional code will be included in your purchase receipt, which is emailed to your nominated address after you order the book.

Simply click on the link, fill in the form and presto – happy dog! Hurry, this offer is only for a limited time. To purchase, click here

Please note: You must have an Australian address to receive this promotion.

The mulch, sold at home and garden centres is made from cocoa bean shell, which contains theobromine, most commonly found in chocolate. Dogs, in particular, are likely to ingest it as it smells like chocolate and many find it palatable. Because dogs metabolise theobromine much more slowly than humans, poisoning can occur, hence, why you should never feed your dog or cat chocolate.

Theobromine is also toxic to cats (particularly kittens), horses and parrots. The first signs of theobromine poisoning are vomiting and diarrhoea. In severe cases, muscle seizures and tremors occur and eventually death.

If your pet has ingested this mulch, we recommend you seek immediate veterinary care for your pet.

Apparently, this was also a problem in America several years ago. For more information on the email campaign and the facts surrounding it click here.

One – Have a very cooperative elephant to raise her leg

Two – Place your right hand over her ear

Three – Hoist yourself up and pretend you’re getting on a very massive horse!

Elephants are simply amazing creatures, gentle giants who are also intelligent and as individual as any human – although on the whole much more patient and kind. Asian elephants are smaller than their African cousins and many rely on the partnership they have with their mahout (elephant carers) for survival, as has been the case for generations of Asian elephants. Unfortunately, changing habitats and changing work means that the Asian elephant is highly endangered. In 2007, it was estimated (and it’s only an estimate) only 60,000 Asian Elephants were left; about 45,000 in the wild and around 15,000 domesticated elephants. In a continent where hundreds of thousands of elephants used to roam, habitat loss is the single most influencing factor in the decline of Asian Elephants.

We visited two places in Asia to see elephants – Laos and Thailand. In Laos, the elephant population is thought to be between only 500 to 1,000. At the Elephant Village we attended in Laos, all their elephants are ex-logging. Two are blind in one eye, in their 60s and are best friends. I fell in love with both of them, they were the grand dames of the village – Mae Cot and Mae Boun Nam.    

We’ll have a series of elephant articles coming up in the next few weeks.

Photo: Christina Wolfe – Adore Animals Foundation’s Lisa Louden with elephant Mae Nam at Elephant Village near Luang Prabang, Laos.

My first elephant experience will be a mahout’s course in Luang Prabang, Laos. Experiencing life as a mahout is about the needs of the elephant and offers the chance to follow this natural rhythm, including bathing and feeding them. This program is part of a conservation project, rescuing elephants from logging. Click on this link for more information

The next animal experience involves another conservation project, and for this one you stay in tree houses! It’s a little wild and we’ve heard many different stories about this one. ‘The Gibbon Experience’ is in the Bokeo Nature Reserve in north-west Laos and is a unique project designed to help conserve the forest by utilising tourism in a very different way. Using ’flying foxes’ to get around, this is a hands-on, bird’s eye view of the forest and its occupants. I’ll be sure to tell you all about this one. For more information, check it out here.

Lastly, is Elephant Stay, which we have done quite a number of articles on in the past. I’ve heard so many positive stories about this non-profit, who are one of the most successful breeders of elephants in the world (if not the best), I just know it’s going to be amazing! Their relationships are simply incredible and show just how important the family bond is to elephants. For more information on Elephant Stay click here.    

For all of you, while I’m away, we’ll be running a series on articles on the beauty industry from Briony Kennedy, Founder and Director of Adorn Mineral Cosmetics. An Australian company, Adorn’s products are cruelty-free, environmentally sustainable and vegan, so stay tuned for those articles.  

See you in a month!

Lisa Louden, MD Adore Animals Foundation

Without having read the first book of the series, released today (June 1)  or without the opinion (to date) of a child, we couldn’t bring you much about them, so instead, a few things the publishers, Random House, wanted to share.

Firstly, Bindi is the co-creator not the writer; she chose the story lines and animals and checked the animal facts (and with her already quite remarkable knowledge, kids should be getting the right information). Secondly, Bindi’s dream for animal conservation in the future:  ‘I hope that one day people will stop buying wildlife products, because when the buying stops the killing can too.’ 

Well she’s definately got the logic right … and if there are any kids’ opinions (or adults!) out there about the books, share with with us here 

Bindi Irwin’s Wildlife Adventure book series is out today.  Here are a few Bindi Q & As:

What do you hope kids will get out of these books?
I hope that kids will feel empowered to be the hero of their own story and want to make a difference in our world. I also think that reading is important and fun, so I hope that kids will want to read more because it opens up whole new worlds.

What’s your favourite story from within the books?
My favourite story within the series is the book Camouflage. It is a very action-packed and fun story so you will not be able to put it down. It is about Robert and me trying to find a Komodo Dragon that has disappeared from its enclosure.

What’s your favourite animal?
I love crocodiles and snakes, but my favourite animal is the echidna. I love them because they are monotremes, which means they are egg-laying mammals. Did you know there are only two monotremes in the world? One is the echidna and the other is the platypus.

Some of your other favourite books?                                                                                                                                                 
I love the book The White Giraffe by Lauren St John. It is a beautiful tale set in Africa. I like the book Juliet Dove Queen of Love by Bruce Coville, too.

The Adore Animals Foundation is now a registered charity in Australia. While we’ve always been a non-profit organisation, we also are now a recognised charity. We are wrapped with this endorsement – a recognition that all our volunteered work is paying off.

And while as yet, we still don’t have Tax Deductibility status (there’s no category for our work in the animal industry for facilitation, research and promotion) we are optimistic that this will change, furthering our ability to help animals and their habitats.

We don’t receive government funding; we rely solely on our social enterprise products which enable win-win benefits across the board. So if you have bought one of our products – thank you.

We select our products carefully, so we’re also pleased to announce that soon we’ll be adding a range of gift cards to our online store. These amazing photography cards are from Australian photographer Anita Norris. Like the Adore Animals Foundation, Anita is passionate about animals and their welfare, so every card gift pack purchased from our site goes to helping the Adore Animals Foundation continue its work.

You’ll be able to order these cards in the coming weeks and find out more about Anita and her amazing work.

So in answer to this:
Firstly, dogs and other pets are not commodities, they should not be sold or traded when circumstances change.
Secondly, pets have enormous benefits on kids growing up. In fact, we were so blown away about the research we wrote an article about it, which you can read here.

This article also led to us devoting a book to the subject and then publishing the book to raise funds to help animals and habitats recover from the Black Saturday bushfires. You can help us by buying this book Moments of Connection, which is featured on this website.

We do not receive government funding but we do have a vision to help animals. This is not a donation – it’s buying a quality product at a quality price while spreading the word about the benefits of animals and respect for all of earth’s inhabitants. The difference is that the money we make goes to making a difference to animals and their habitats, not to someone’s bank account.  

We have four projects we’d like to undertake in the Black Saturday Bushfire area – but we cannot do this without your help! So please, buy a book, hell, buy a few and help the ones that can’t help themselves today!

You might remember seeing the two likable Queensland Parks and Wildlife Rangers Frank Manthey and Peter McRae (who’s also a Zoologist) who started this Fund in 1999 on 60 Minutes a couple of years back. Due to a number of factors, mainly the introduction of feral animals, the Bilby is highly endangered and in fact it’s thought the Lesser Bilby is now extinct. The Save the Bilby Fund aims to raise awareness about the Bilby’s plight, with the majority of funds helping to fence-off feral-free areas for the Bilby to live.  

This amazing Australian marsupial is tiny - the males are just 2.5 kilograms and the females about half the size of male. No match in other words, for a fox or feral cat. They really are an iconic Australian animal, so, if you’re giving the gift of chocolate this Easter, why not give the gift of hope to a Bilby as well? To find a Darrell Lea store in your area, click here.

Following the year anniversary of Black Saturday, the Adore Animals Foundation has identified four projects in the bushfire area we are committed to supporting. Funds from the book have already gone to Animal Aid to help with hands-on bushfire animal recovery and now we’re currently finalising these four local projects, which will all be funded by the sale of our book Moments of Connection.

And so you can help us help the animals, we’ve made it even easier to buy our book. Thanks to generous support from our new retail partners AWPL Retail Solutions, Moments of Connection is now available at airports across Australia. From Thursday February 18, AWPL Retail Solutions will sell our book at no profit to them. That’s right, thanks to the generous support of Costa and his team at AWPL Retail Solutions - just like sales on our website – all the proceeds from the sale of books at these stores will go straight to our bushfire appeal.

Not only that, to celebrate, we have dropped the price of Moments of Connection to just $29.90 to make it even more accessible – we’re not shy in admitting that we want to sell as many books as possible to fund these four projects. We don’t receive government or any other funding, so in line with social enterprise ideals, we produced Moments of Connection to create a win-win situation – you receive a benefit and so do the animals.  

AWPL are at airports across Australia – so if you or your friends are flying or picking up friends at the airport, purchasing is easy. And if you’re heading overseas to meet friends, this book with our front cover of Jo kissing a joey in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory is the perfect, iconic Australian gift!

From Thursday February 18, Moments of Connection is available at:

• News Travels – Melbourne Virgin
• News Travels – Sunshine Coast
• News Travels – Launceston
• Runaway News – Hobart
• Runaway News – Newcastle

Of course, you can still purchase the book right here on our website and get the book sent straight to your door. Did we mention it’s the perfect gift? Or if you’re in Melbourne and would like to save on postage, then you can also order the book online and do a free pick-up from our friends at Diggiddydoggydaycare in South Melbourne. Pick-up details are emailed with your order receipts.

So go on and get buying as there’s lots still to be done in the area. In the coming months we’ll announce our four projects – two in animal recovery and two in animal bushfire prevention.

Pandas are an endangered species, in fact, in the wild it’s thought only about 1,000 remain. Worldwide, zoos help boost the population with roughly 100 Giant Pandas in capavity including pandas, Wang Wang and Funi who arrived at Adelaide Zoo last December. The only Giant Pandas in the Southern Hemisphere and the first to live permanently in Australia, it’s hoped Wang Wang and Funi will one day breed to boost population numbers.

Not only are Giant Pandas rare, they’re highly elusive. Imagine then, my delight at finding this BBC footage of Giant Pandas in the wild narrated by the guru himself, David Attenborough. I hope you enjoy it too!

Founded in 1987, with six Giant Pandas, The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is a non-profit organisation engaged in wildlife research, captive breeding, conservation education and educational tourism. They also care for the endangered Red Panda. To find out more click here.

To see this video in high definition and our other favourite animal videos from across the globe, visit the Adore Animals YouTube channel.