Spain’s Sanchez Ramps Up Flood Aid After Valencia Protests

By Rodrigo Orihuela and Thomas Gualtieri

November 11, 2024

(NASA Global Precipitation Measur)

(Bloomberg) -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a new economic relief package for victims of the storms that killed more than 220 people in the country’s worst natural disaster in more than six decades. 

Spain is committing €3.8 billion ($4.1 billion) in a new aid relief package for victims of the Oct. 29 floods in Valencia, Sanchez said in a speech in Madrid on Monday. The package lists 110 different measures and joins a previous package announced earlier in the month which earmarked €10.6 billion, between direct aid and loan guarantees.

The new package includes €500 million to remove “thousands of tons” of mud and debris and repair sewages, Sanchez said. The package also seeks to help hundreds of workers keep their income and offers €200 million in direct aid to farmers who lost at least 40% of their production, among other things, Sanchez said. 

So far, some 400 companies have requested to take part in furlough programs because of the floods, affecting some 9,000 workers, he said.

The announcement comes amid growing frustration among local residents in Valencia, fueled by a feeling that both regional and central governments did too little, too late. More than 100,000 people are estimated to have taken part in a march on Saturday to protest over management of the floods and its aftermath, with the anger largely aimed at the president of the region of Valencia, Carlos Mazon, but also partly targeted at Sanchez.

Sanchez had said on Nov. 5 that Spain would earmark as much as €10.6 billion for its first relief package. At the time, Sanchez said that package would include direct compensation for residents to cover houses that were destroyed, as well as home appliances and cars. The aid includes waiving or delaying certain taxes and levies.

Thousands of soldiers, police officers, firefighters and volunteers continue to operate across the areas impacted by the storms, which hit 75 towns in Valencia and three others in two more regions. Entire houses need to be rebuilt while others that remained standing still need to be cleaned from the mud created by the rain. 

The central government on Nov. 10 said that 222 deaths have been recorded so far due to the floods, with 214 in the region of Valencia alone, and more bodies are still being identified and missing people searched for. 

Anger against Mazon has been compounded by revelations late last week that he had been at a lunch for more than three hours with a local journalist on Oct. 29, as the Valencia emergency committee that he presides met and discussed what to do. The local government sent an alert after 8 p.m. telling people to seek shelter, when floods had already started and some 13 hours after the national weather agency had issued a red alert.

Mazon and Sanchez, who belong to rival parties, were walking together with King Felipe VI on Nov. 2 in one of the worst-hit towns when a furious crowd started throwing mud and objects at the three men. Sanchez was rushed off by his security detail.

The total cost of the floods is still unknown. Total insurance losses will exceed €3.5 billion, the government said last week, based on the first 72,000 insurance claims. The bulk of insurance claims is expected to be met by a special government agency that exists to cover natural disasters, among other incidents.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Was 'Snowball Earth' a global event? New study delivers best proof yet

by University of Colorado at Boulder

Dark brown bands of Tava sandstone cut through other rocks. 

Credit: Liam Courtney-Davies

Geologists have uncovered strong evidence from Colorado that massive glaciers covered Earth down to the equator hundreds of millions of years ago, transforming the planet into an icicle floating in space.

The study, led by the University of Colorado Boulder, is a coup for proponents of a long-standing theory known as Snowball Earth. It posits that from about 720 to 635 million years ago, and for reasons that are still unclear, a runaway chain of events radically altered the planet's climate. Temperatures plummeted, and ice sheets that may have been several miles thick crept over every inch of Earth's surface.

"This study presents the first physical evidence that Snowball Earth reached the heart of continents at the equator," said Liam Courtney-Davies, lead author of the new study and a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Geological Sciences at CU Boulder.

The team will publish its findings the week of Nov. 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Co-authors include Rebecca Flowers, professor of geological sciences at CU Boulder, and researchers from Colorado College, the University of California, Santa Barbara and University of California, Berkeley.

The study zeroes in on the Front Range of Colorado's Rocky Mountains. Here, a series of rocks nicknamed the Tavakaiv, or "Tava," sandstones hold clues to this frigid period in Earth's past, Courtney-Davies said.

The researchers used a dating technique called laser ablation mass spectrometry, which zaps minerals with lasers to release some of the atoms inside. They showed that these rocks had been forced underground between about 690 to 660 million years ago—in all likelihood from the weight of huge glaciers pressing down above them.

Courtney-Davies added that the study will help scientists understand a critical phase in not just the planet's geologic history but also the history of life on Earth. The first multicellular organisms may have emerged in oceans immediately after Snowball Earth thawed.

"You have the climate evolving, and you have life evolving with it. All of these things happened during Snowball Earth upheaval," he said. "We have to better characterize this entire time period to understand how we and the planet evolved together."

Searching for snow

The term "Snowball Earth" dates back to a paper published in 1992 by American geologist Joseph Kirschvink.

Despite decades of research, however, scientists are yet to agree whether the entire globe actually froze. Geologists, for example, have discovered the fingerprints of thick ice from this time period along ancient coastal areas, but not within the interior of continents close to the equator.

Which is where Colorado enters the picture. At the time, the region didn't sit at the northern latitudes where it does today. Instead, Colorado rested over the equator as a landlocked part of the ancient supercontinent Laurentia.

If glaciers formed here, scientists believe, then they could have formed anywhere.

Going deep

The search for that missing piece of the puzzle brought Courtney-Davies and his colleagues to the Tava sandstones. Today, these features poke up from the ground in a few locations along Colorado's Front Range, most notably around Pikes Peak. To the untrained eye, they might seem like ordinary-looking yellow-brown rocks running in vertical bands less than an inch to many feet wide.

But for geologists, these features have an unusual history. They likely began as sands at the surface of Colorado at some point in the past. But then forces pushed them underground—like claws digging into the Earth's crust.

"These are classic geological features called injectites that often form below some ice sheets, including in modern-day Antarctica," Courtney-Davies said.

He wanted to find out if the Tava sandstones were also connected to ice sheets. To do that, the researchers calculated the ages of mineral veins that sliced through those features. They collected tiny samples of the minerals, which are rich in iron oxide (essentially, rust), then hit them with a laser. In the process, the minerals released small quantities of the radioactive element uranium. Because uranium atoms decay into lead at a constant rate, the team could use them as a sort of timekeeper for the planet's rocks.

It was a Eureka moment: The group's findings suggest that the Tava sandstone had been pushed underground at the time of Snowball Earth. The group suspects that, at the time, thick ice sheets formed over Colorado, exposing the sands to intense pressures. Eventually, and with nowhere else to go, they pushed down into the bedrock below.

"We're excited that we had the opportunity to unravel the story of the only Snowball Earth deposits that have so far been identified in Colorado," Flowers said.

The researchers aren't done yet: If such features formed in Colorado during Snowball Earth, they probably formed in other spots around North America, too, Courtney-Davies said,

"We want to get the word out so that others try and find these features and help us build a more complete picture of Snowball Earth."

More information: Courtney-Davies, Liam, Hematite U-Pb dating of Snowball Earth meltwater events, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2410759121. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410759121

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

Provided by University of Colorado at Boulder New date for Earth's largest iron deposits offers clues for future exploration

New Zealand offers ‘unreserved’ apology to 200,000 survivors of ‘horrific’ abuse in care

Historic apology by PM Christopher Luxon comes after landmark report that exposed decades of abuse in state and faith-based care institutions


Eva Corlett in Wellington

Tue 12 Nov 2024 

New Zealand’s prime minister Christopher Luxon has formally apologised to the more than 200,000 children and adults who suffered “horrific” and “heartbreaking” abuse and neglect while in state and faith-based institutions.

The historic apology follows a harrowing landmark report, released in July, which laid bare the scale of abuse that occurred across care institutions from the 1950s onwards. It was the most complex royal commission inquiry the country has held. The judge who chaired the inquiry, Coral Shaw, described the abuse as a “national disgrace and shame”.


Luxon delivered the national apology at parliament on Tuesday. Survivors attended events around the country and filled the public gallery to witness the address. Many quietly wept as the prime minister spoke.

“Today I stand before you as the representative of not only this government, but all of the governments that have gone before us to offer a formal and unreserved apology for the abuse you suffered while in state care, churches and other faith-based places,” Luxon said.

“It was horrific. It was heartbreaking. It was wrong. And it should never have happened.”

New Zealand PM apologies for widespread abuse of children in care – video

Luxon apologised to survivors for not being believed, for the staff who turned a blind eye and for the state’s poor oversight of people in care.

“Your stories left many of us stunned that this could have happened here in New Zealand. But not you – you knew the truth because you lived it, and you have waited and waited for people to start listening to you. Now New Zealand has listened.”

The inquiry estimated that of the 655,000 people who went through New Zealand’s care institutions from the 1950s, roughly 200,000 were abused, and said the true number of survivors could be much higher.

It found sexual, physical and emotional abuse and neglect was widespread and systematic, resulting in significant trauma to the survivors – many of whom went on to experience homelessness, poverty, addiction, devastating effects on health and mental health, and reduced opportunities for education and work. Some survivors were subjected to torture.

Māori were disproportionately affected and faced disconnection from their culture and identity, and in some cases were put on a path towards gang membership, imprisonment, and suicide.

The perpetrators included caregivers, religious leaders, social workers, and medical professionals.

Tupua Urlich, who suffered sustained abuse after being placed with a non-family caregiver aged 5, travelled from Auckland to attend the apology. Urlich told the Guardian he was attending for himself, his father and his uncles who had all been abused in care and who had since died, some from suicide.


“It was about being here to hear the government acknowledge the role they played in the pain and the trauma they’ve inflicted upon my family – today is not a day of justice but for acknowledgment.”

Urlich, who was heavily involved in the inquiry, said the prime minister had clearly read the report, but an apology would be meaningless without a survivor-led overhaul of the care system.

“The door to consultation is open,” he said in plea to the government. “We don’t trust you to get it right on your own – we need accountability and transparency on every move that is made – without transparency, abuse of power continues.”

In his apology, Luxon said “words must be accompanied by actions,” adding there were two “big lessons” from the inquiry that the government must act on quickly.

“First, we must do the right thing by you and provide you with the support that you need. Second, we must do all we can to prevent abuse happening in the future.”

Luxon said the government had begun or completed work on 28 of the more than 200 recommendations and announced further resourcing towards establishing a new redress system. A national remembrance day was announced for 12 November next year, while the names of prominent offenders who carried out abuse would be removed from street signs.

The government also introduced legal changes on Tuesday afternoon that would “better protect people in state care”, including removing strip-searches of children and strengthening restrictions for people working with young children.

Speaking after the prime minister, the leader of the opposition, Chris Hipkins, joined in apologising on behalf of successive governments that did not act.

“We are sorry. Today all of Aotearoa New Zealand will bear witness to the truth, to what survivors experienced, to our decades of wilful ignorance, denial, minimisation and to our conviction to end such horror and vile acts from continuing,” Hipkins said.

At an event in parliament’s banquet hall just prior to the prime minister’s address, the heads of seven agencies, including the acting head of police, the chief executive of the ministry for social development and the solicitor general, apologised to survivors. At times, their words were drowned out by boos.

Three survivors, who were selected to speak at the event, expressed their desire to see urgent transformation within the care system and meaningful redress.

State care survivor, Keith Wiffin, who spoke at the event and later watched the apology from the public gallery, told the Guardian it was important he attended the address in person.

“It’s such a huge historical day, for survivors in the first instance, but for the country as well.”

Wiffin, who was placed in state care aged 11 and experienced ongoing sexual assault and psychological abuse, said he believed Luxon and Hipkins’ apologies were authentic.

“It gave hope that there would be change, for the future of those who go into care, that there will be genuine focus on prevention … but also there was a commitment – albeit slightly disappointing it was not immediate – for redress to happen, which is essential.”

Canada should be ‘world leader’ on alternative PTSD therapies, veteran says

By Sean Boynton Global News
Posted November 10, 2024

WATCH: After being injured in Canada's longest, most expensive war effort, one veteran created and fundraised an exhibit to help ensure the efforts of those who served — and the memories those who died — aren't forgotten. Mercedes Stephenson explains  

A Canadian Forces veteran who served in Afghanistan says Canada should be a “world leader” on alternative therapies for treating veterans’ post-traumatic stress disorder and other post-combat trauma, including the use of psychedelics.

Retired MCpl. Gordon Hurley says psychedelic treatments such as ketamine and psilocybin, or “magic mushrooms,” can give veterans “a breath of relief” from their trauma or addictions, pointing to his own experience, and is calling for further study and coverage for physician-assisted therapies.

“I really think we’re in a unique position as a country, with such a liberal view on health care and life, that we should be able to be a world leader in providing alternative therapies,” he told Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block ahead of Remembrance Day.

“We should be doing the same thing with our veterans just how you send us to war. A majority of the time we’re saying, ‘Send me, send me.’ We can do the same thing with these types of treatments.”

Hurley deployed to Afghanistan in the summer of 2008, just 15 months after joining the military and completing basic training. He was injured by an improvised explosive device but returned to the battlefield just three weeks after surgery.

2:21

Nova Scotia company to examine magic mushrooms as PTSD treatment



More than 40,000 Canadians served in Afghanistan, many on multiple tours during the 20-year global War on Terror, and 165 Canadian Armed Forces members died there.

Many veterans of that war returned to Canada suffering not just from PTSD but also traumatic brain injuries and effects from toxic burn pit exposure, among other traumas.

Research has suggested recent veterans have had a higher rate of mental health and addiction issues compared to older veterans and the overall Canadian population.

Veterans Affairs Canada is conducting research and clinical trials into the use of ketamine as a treatment for traumatic brain injuries and depression, but has yet to launch a similar project on psilocybin. Independent studies have been launched across Canada in recent years into psychedelic treatments

A Senate committee report last December urged the federal government to “immediately” conduct a “major research program” into how psychedelics can help veterans suffering from PTSD. The report said research already exists into the effectiveness of such treatments and warned Canada is falling behind other countries in studying them.

The United States has funded research into psychedelic treatments for veterans, but the U.S. FDA this year rejected an approval for MDMA treatment, calling for further study.

Briefing notes prepared for the veterans affairs minister last year say the department only provides financial coverage for treatments that are supported by solid research, and says approved psychological and psychiatric treatments are the “first-line evidence-based” approach to treating PTSD and other mental issues.

2:01

Psychedelics approved for medical use in Canada

“Western treatment is completely fine,” Hurley said. “There’s nothing wrong with prescription drugs or SSDIs (antidepressants), whatever is going to work to get that person off the ledge is worth it. But there are other treatment options.”

Hurley said he travels to Mexico to receive treatment through psychedelics through a clinic run by Canadian doctors, and touted their effectiveness.

Besides psychedelics, Hurley also pointed to a treatment known as stellate ganglion block, which numbs nerves in the neck and “basically resets your nervous system,” he said. The treatment has been studied at multiple Canadian hospitals and universities and has been called “miraculous” in treating PTSD.

“To get that initial breath and that initial pause where they don’t have the cravings for their addiction, or they don’t have the annoyances of trauma, of post-traumatic stress, of perhaps being too freaked out to go into public spaces or noises and all these other detriments to the veteran’s life … we could be fixing with different types of treatment,” he said.

Hurley said the government should particularly cover assisted treatment programs that allow doctors to work with patients and ensure veterans are taking the proper treatments and dosages.

“The doctor is going to have specific training to deal with psychedelics and how that integrates into a person’s life,” he said.

“We’re so new to it. It’s not anyone’s fault, but we should really be ahead of the curve on this.”

Psychedelic therapy provides hope for veterans

Story by Maya Goldman


Psychedelic therapy provides hope for veterans

Veterans are campaigning to take psychedelic therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder mainstream, despite the Food and Drug Administration's rejection of an ecstasy-based therapy in August.

Why it matters: About 29% of veterans who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq will have PTSD at some point in their lives, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veteran suicide rates are also higher than in the general population.

"The thirst is very palpable among our generation" of veterans for alternative mental health therapies, Allison Jaslow, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told Axios.

Catch up quick: Psychedelics like magic mushrooms, LSD and ecstasy can alter a person's state of mind and cause hallucinations.
It's been nearly impossible to research their effects, because they've been criminalized and classified as controlled substances since 1970.
But interest in psychedelics' potential to treat mental health conditions — particularly in veterans — has grown in recent years.
The FDA in 2017 granted fast-track review of a PTSD treatment that mixes ecstasy with talk therapy.

The VA started funding research into psychedelic therapies this year. Congress also passed bipartisan legislation directing the Pentagon to study the treatments.
In the meantime, more than 1,200 veterans traveled to other countries for psychedelic therapies through one nonprofit alone, said Jesse Gould, founder of that organization, Heroic Hearts Project.

But the FDA in August rejected the therapy it had originally fast-tracked, following an independent review that highlighted concerns like missing safety data and allegations of misconduct in clinical trials.

Zoom in: The decision felt like a major setback to veterans.
"It was emotionally just gut-wrenching, thinking about all of those veterans, and all the other people, for that matter, that were just really counting on being able to access this as a solution for their debilitating PTSD," said Juliana Mercer, a Marine Corps veteran and director at veterans advocacy group Healing Breakthrough.
The FDA rejection pushes mental health progress back years, added Gould, a former Army Ranger. It "indicates to veterans that they are not being listened to and they're not a priority."

Where it stands: Veterans are continuing to work toward broadening access to psychedelic therapies.
State-level action is also picking up. Oregon and Colorado have legalized psychedelic mushrooms for therapeutic use. But Massachusetts voters last week rejected a ballot proposal to legalize psychedelics.

What's next: The company behind the rejected ecstasy-based therapy now has a new acting CEO and chief medical officer, and it announced last month that it will run a new clinical trial on the PTSD treatment.

The VA has reportedly said it would consider funding the trial.
The FDA also fast-tracked review for a psychedelic mushroom therapy, though the company running that trial announced recently that it's delaying a key data release.

The new clinical trials will likely take at least two more years, Mercer predicted.
But the extended timeline means the VA "is going to be more prepared to effectively roll out a psychedelic program," she said. "I'm choosing to look at that as a silver lining."

Smoking toad venom helps veterans with PTSD, addiction, and depression

Allan Rose Hill
Mon Nov 11, 2024
BOING!BOING!


image: Deep Desert Photography/Shutterstock (manipulated)

Zach Skiles is a veteran and clinical psychologist who, informed by his own experiences, is helping other veterans deal with PTSD, depression, and drug addiction. As a researcher with University of California at San Francisco, Skiles leads veterans through psychedelic experiences to help alleviate some of their suffering. The participants are first given ibogaine—a natural stimulant with psychedelic properties found in the West African shrub iboga. After a long "group healing" session, they are administered 5-MeO-DMT, an extremely powerful and short-lasting psychedelic found in the venom of the Sonoran Desert toad. (Both compounds can also be synthesized in a laboratory.) Unfortunately. both of these compounds are illegal in the United States so the veterans must travel to Mexico for the actual treatments. In honor of Veteran's Day, the always-excellent Microdose republished Jan C. Hu's 2021 interview with Skiles:

What aspects of psychedelic therapy might help treat veterans in particular?

In treating PTSD, psychedelics enhance your ability to bring up trauma and simultaneously see it from different angles. Everything feels new, more revelatory and connected. There's the ability to take a step back and experience something in a totally new way.

One of the cooler things about psychedelic assisted therapies is you're not only getting those cognitive pieces, but you're also getting somatic, cathartic experiences at the same time. For people who've experienced sexual assault or combat exposure, you cut off a lot of sensation from your body and reconnecting to it is actually one of the main goals of all therapies. Having that experience along with these cognitive pieces is something that they call a codex condensed experience — it's happening in different constellations of the mind and body[…]

These therapies aren't legal in the U.S. What drove you and other vets to seek out these experiences in Mexico?

There's a bit of desperation; people have to leave the country to be able to get these therapies. These are folks who have spent careers in the U.S. Special Forces, with blast injuries or lesions on their brain. It's a group of folks who have tried every single therapy that's offered in the United States and have come up wanting more. They had to leave the country in order to have a therapeutic experience, and not be arrested for it.

It's important to give guys an ability to have the most up to date therapeutic access, but in the U.S.; it's also important for this to become regulated. We operate in the underground because that's the only place we can do this kind of thing.

Previously:
• FDA denies approval of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD
• These psychonauts are in training to take DMT trips that last hours or even days and report back… for science
• 'Please refrain from licking' toads, says National Park Service in unusual warning

 

I got my life back.' Veterans with PTSD making progress thanks to service dog program

'I got my life back'

Nick Ingram And Jim Salter, The Associated Press - Nov 11, 2024 /  | Story: 516791

AP Photo/Nick Ingram

Air Force Staff Sgt. Heather O'Brien holds her labradoodle service dog, Albus, on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024, in Kansas City, Kan.  

After working at a crowded and dangerous internment camp in Iraq, Air Force Staff Sgt. Heather O'Brien brought home with her anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

A bouncy labradoodle and a Kansas City-area program helped her get back on her feet.

Dogs 4 Valor, operated through the Olathe, Kansas-based organization called The Battle Within, helps retired veterans and first responders work with their service dogs to help manage depression, anxiety and other challenges.

“A lot of times the veteran with severe PTSD is homebound,” said Sandra Sindeldecker, program manager for Dogs 4 Valor. “They’re isolated. They’re very nervous. They won’t make eye contact. Some won’t leave the house at all.”

The program involves both group and one-on-one training. The goal is to get the veteran and the dog comfortable with each other and understanding each other. The group takes outings to help the veterans regain their footing in public places like airports. Program leaders also provide mental health therapy at no cost.

The veterans and dogs graduate in six to nine months, but group gatherings continue.

There is growing evidence of the value of service dogs for veterans with PTSD. A small study published in JAMA Network Open in June looked at a program operated by K9s For Warriors. Service dogs in the program are taught to pick up a veteran’s physical signs of distress and can interrupt panic attacks and nightmares with a loving nudge.

Researchers compared 81 veterans who received service dogs with 75 veterans on the waiting list for a trained dog. After three months, PTSD symptoms improved in both groups, but the veterans with dogs saw a bigger improvement on average.

O'Brien, 40, recalled that the camp where she worked in Iraq sometimes had over 20,000 detainees. Violence and rioting were common and it left her with severe anxiety.

“When I got out of the military, I just assumed that you’re supposed to be on edge all the time as a veteran,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien’s mother spotted the frisky lab-poodle mix on Facebook and convinced her daughter to adopt the dog she named Albus. Months later, O'Brien learned about Dogs 4 Valor, and the pair joined the program in October 2023.

O’Brien says she can now go out in public again — she even went on vacation to Branson, Missouri, “things that I never would have thought I would do really, probably ever again.”

Mark Atkinson, 38, served in Afghanistan as a corporal in the Marine Corps. He returned home with PTSD and major depressive disorder, causing sleeplessness and anxiety. He adopted Lexi, now 5, in 2020.

Lexi, a muscular cane corso breed, needed Atkinson as much as he needed her. Her previous owner had kept Lexi in chains before surrendering her. Since joining Dogs 4 Valor, the two can get out together and enjoy life.

“I don’t really like leaving the house because I’m safe there, you know?" Atkinson said. “And having Lexi has just made me get out to be more social.”

Having a group of fellow veterans facing the same challenges has also helped, Atkinson said.

“We come from the same backgrounds, different branches,” Atkinson said. “Same issues. You know, PTSD or traumatic brain injuries. And they’re all very welcoming, as well. There’s no judgment.”

O’Brien compared living with Albus to a relationship with a sometimes pushy best friend who often wants to go out.

“The best friend constantly wants to make you do things that make you nervous,” O’Brien laughed, acknowledging that it is ultimately up to her.

“I have to decide to walk out and just deal with life," O'Brien said. "And so that has been hard. And it still is hard from time to time, but it’s it’s getting manageable.”

Some veterans said their family relationships have improved since they started the program.

“I’m able to talk, not fly off the handle and just get along with people and not be as stressed, not have as much anxiety,” Atkinson said. “Or even if I do, she (Lexi) is right there with me.”

Timothy Siebenmorgen, 61, said his relationships also are better with help from his 1-year-old American bulldog, Rosie, and Dogs 4 Valor, which he joined in July. He served in both the Marines and the Army, deploying 18 times.

“You’re in the military, kind of taught not to show weakness," Siebenmorgen said. "So you figure you can tackle everything yourself and you honestly believe that. And then you realize you can’t do it on your own.”

'The only reason I'm alive': BC Guide Dogs offer loving therapy to VI veterans

Saanich resident Stephane Marcotte speaks to how his relationship with his dogs saved his life

Sam Duerksen
a day ago

Stephane Marcotte gets out to the park four times a day with Bunker, his PTSD service dog.Samantha Duerksen/Black Press Media


BC & Alberta Guide Dogs is helping veterans one dog at a time, and they need ongoing support to continue the "life-changing" mission.

To date, they've placed 147 PTSD service dogs with veterans and first responders – that's about 24 a year – but demand is much, much higher. Hundreds of veterans alone come to the organization each year, said director of service dogs Mike Annan.

"We'll never keep up," he said.


Saanich's Stephane Marcotte, 56, is one of the veterans who has been lucky to get a dog through the program and he spoke to how it's changed his life. Marcotte spent 28 years in the military, mostly as a marine engineer, which included 18 years on a submarine and a ship in the Persian Gulf. While he did not want to go into the 1995 events behind his PTSD, he said he struggled for almost 20 years before being officially diagnosed.

"When I got out [of the military] in 2014, I was in my basement for the whole year," he said. "I was just watching TV and good thing I was not drinking because I probably would.

"I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even go get milk."

He compares that life to the one he has now, thanks to 10 years with service dogs – first a now-retired Lab named Sarge, and Bunker, his current dog. Now Marcotte goes grocery shopping, to events and parties, and even volunteers with Wounded Warrior Canada. "[The dogs are] the only reason why I'm alive today," he said.
Veteran Stephane Marcotte said his service dogs, Sarge (left, retired) and Bunker, saved his life. Samantha Duerksen/Black Press Media

Through BC Guide Dogs, veterans with debilitating PTSD are given the already-trained service animals and then go through a program to learn skills such as their public access rights and how to adapt the skills that the dog is taught to mitigate their own PTSD. Because everyone's is a little different, Annan said.

"The dogs adapt very, very intimately to their sympathetic nervous system through the training course," Annan said. That means learning to be hyper-sensitive to smell (which can indicate things like blood sugar) and looking for signs of dissociative states, agitation and anxiety.

Marcotte provided several examples of how the dogs have helped him through hurdles he faces with PTSD. Sarge, for instance, would wake him up during nightmares. He will also alert Marcotte if his blood sugar is too low. "He's actually saved me from not waking up again," he said. "Sometimes I don't realize that something happened to me, and they do before I do."

And if Marcotte doesn't respond when stressed, Bunker will put his nose in his lap. Bunker also watches out for him in public in case he goes into a dissociative state.

"He's always attentive," Marcotte said.

"For the OSI PTSD program, we specifically select dogs that we find are adaptive and sensitive to somebody's emotional state or sympathetic nervous system, but they can do it without stress. So it doesn't stress them out, but they do notice," Annan said.

He described the bond between man and dog through the program as a "life-changing relationship."

Marcotte recalls how effective being around dogs was from the first time he visited a BC Guide Dogs booth at a Wounded Warriors Canada retreat.

"One dog was there, and when I laid down, the dog just licked my face. For me, that was kind of three years of therapy in that one moment; I felt so good."

Unfortunately, demand is always high and service dogs are not covered for veterans through government programs. In order to keep the dogs at no cost to the veterans, BC & Alberta Guide Dogs relies on donations from the public and their two main donors the Royal Legion Command and Wounded Warriors Canada.

They also are always looking for more volunteers, including puppy raisers, puppy trainers, and boarders.

"You know, I don't think that any school in the world will ever keep up with the need. The need for service dogs is definitely great and growing each year," Annan said. "But we work very hard at trying to keep up with demand."

Veterans said the dogs, and the program, have given them new hope and a renewed ability to move forward.

“I got my life back,” O’Brien said.

Visit bcandalbertaguidedogs.com for more information/ DONATE

 

First emperor penguin known to reach Australia found on tourist beach

Emperor penguin visit a first

The Associated Press - Nov 11, 2024 / 10:25 am | Story: 516819

Photo: The Canadian Press

In this undated photo provided by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, a male emperor penguin dubbed Gus, stands on a scale after being discovered on a beach near Denmark, Australia, on Nov. 1, 2024, thousands of kilometers from its normal habitat on Antarctica.  

An emperor penguin found malnourished far from its Antarctic home on the Australian south coast is being cared for by a wildlife expert, a government department said Monday.

The adult male was found on Nov. 1 on a popular tourist beach in the town of Denmark in temperate southwest Australia — about 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) north of the icy waters off the Antarctic coast, according to a statement from the Western Australia state’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.

The largest penguin species has never been reported in Australia before, University of Western Australia research fellow Belinda Cannell said, though some had reached New Zealand, nearly all of which is further south than Western Australia.

Cannell said she had no idea why the penguin traveled to Denmark.

Cannell is advising seabird rehabilitator Carol Biddulph who is caring for the penguin, spraying him with a chilled water mist to help him cope with his alien climate. The penguin is 1 meter (39 inches ) tall and initially weighed 23 kilograms (51 pounds).

A healthy male can weigh more than 45 kilograms (100 pounds).

The department said its efforts were focused on rehabilitating the penguin. Asked if the penguin could potentially be returned to Antarctica, the department replied that “options are still being worked through.”