Alt.Cardiff Magazine: The Reptile Issue

alt.cardiff

january 2023. issue one.

Cold-blooded More and casualties more reptiles are being abandoned.

Why?

Rates of reptile abandonment are soaring as the price of UV lighting increases.

But some argue that energy costs aren’t the real reason. reptiles are being cared for at home. According to a recent report from the RSPCA, his fears are not unfounded.

Pet abandonment is on the rise. In Wales, there has been a 23% increase in the number of cases of animals, including reptiles, being

“To abandon a reptile, particularly in winter, opens them up to a host of cruel, life-threatening conditions.”

Photo Credit: Jenny Jones

discarded by their owners over last year. This meant there was a staggering 1,554 incidents of abandonment in the first half of 2022 alone.

The charity attributes the problem to the pet-buying boom that occurred over the pandemic, in which lockeddown owners had more time to care for their animals than they would otherwise.

Now, with household energy bills projected to increase even further, the RSPCA have stated that they are

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alt.news

Can spicy noodles really get you high?

Alternative drag with a twist

Launched by the Cardiff-based LGBTQI+ collective, Lone Worlds, the alternative drag event,Twp not only features a vibrant array of performing queens, but also allow anyone in the crowd to take the stage.

Ivy Kelly, the creative producer of Lone Worlds, explained that alternative drag is about allowing artists to explore their own methods of self-expression and empowerment.

Put down your bongs and pick up your Cathays station chopsticks to try TikTok’s latest trend lacks disability access hile most people but it’s fun,’ he explained.

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on a budget may ‘You know when you go to simply know ramen the dentist they give you an as a cheap, last-ditch meal to anaesthetic. It’s a similar way when you have hot noodles.’ whip out on a lazy evening, The delirious effects of the for Cardiff University spicy dish have been so potent astrophysics postgraduate for Prashant that he has student Prashant “She wasn’t even experienced auditory Semwal, 26, the ‘One of actually hallucinations: noodles provide my housemates who is a much more speaking not from India started exhilarating Hindi. She in Hindi, speaking experience. wasn’t actually speaking Known for their but it felt in Hindi, but it felt to me that she was.’ painful levels of spiciness, Buldak 2x to me that Though it may seem farfetched, the phenomenon ramen packets have she was” of spicy food producing become a sensation a high is one that some on TikTok, and scientists have confirmed.

Prashant confirms he According to Per Helix, experiences a kind of high a blog run by scientific after eating them. researchers at Northwestern Videos of people tasting University, Evanston, Illinois, them having garnered over the flavour added by spicy food is not so much a real ten million views, showing taste as it is a sensation. When how popular the effects from we eat hot food, it causes a the noodles are. Here in reaction with our taste buds Cardiff, the Buldak packets that makes us feel as though can be found in select Asian our mouth is burning. supermarkets, or ordered In order to counteract the online. pain, our brain releases Prashant revealed that he endorphins and dopamine, consumes the noodles on which are also chemicals a monthly basis in order to released by other illicit experience “the rush” that the substances, such as MDMA, says the Northwestern extreme spice gives him. researchers.

‘It’s not exactly pleasant,

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A recent twitter post has brought attention to the fact that despite being amongst the top ten busiest train stations in Wales, Cathays still lacks vital facilities for those with disabilities.

Currently, the station does not provide lifts, meaning that many people with disabilities have to travel around the station via Senghennydd Road and Park Place to cross between Platforms 1 and 2.

The station says while it does offer a ramp, induction loop and a height adjusted ticket office counter, there is no facility for wheelchair users, mobility scooter users or persons with reduced mobility to cross between Platforms 1 and 2 due to the steep footbridge.

At the time of writing, TFW has not responded to a request for comment.

alt.news

alt.interview oppressed under the regime.

Friends in unlikely places

Photo credit: Sahar Saki

“I

don’t see myself as an activist, I’m just an artist”

Sahar Saki on becoming one of Cardiff’s loudest voices for Iranian women’s rights through street art Sahar Saki, 36, has been campaigning fearlessly for women’s freedom by spraypainting murals across the city’s streets. Cardiff ’s loudest advocate for the Women Life Freedom (WLF) movement, she has been running a street art festival to raise awareness of the feminist revolution happening in Iran. On the 25 November, she joined a protest at the Senedd to raise awareness of the abuses of women’s rights and the treatment of Iranian protesters. She continuously fights for the movement through her social media.

In the cosy setting of a Syrian restaurant, Iranian-born Sahar presents none of the justiceseeking ferocity that you see online. She has a soft-spoken voice, a shyness in her dark eyes. She confesses that being a spokesperson does not come naturally to her. “I don’t see myself as an activist,” she says.

“I’m just an artist, expressing myself, expressing things I care about.”

Forbidden to dance

Sahar’s Iranian heritage is something deeply important to her. Having grown up a part of the Lori tribe in

a small, northern city, she draws fondly from its culture in her art; the bright, sapphic blues, the Persian calligraphy.

However, Iran’s harsh restrictions against the rights of women have made living there untenable.

“You don’t have the right to choose what you want to wear,” she explains. “You can’t dance on the street or in public. You can’t sing legally. You don’t have the right to divorce.

If you want to travel abroad, you have to get permission from your husband or your father. It’s a very patriarchal community. It’s all based on men and what they want.”

It is the country’s misogynistic laws that led to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who was caught by Iran’s morality police for allegedly not wearing a headscarf properly. She was taken into custody where eye witnesses say she was brutally beaten. She subsequently passed away from her injuries.

The grief and outrage of the people erupted into a series of protests that are still occurring today, known as Women Life Freedom – a movement born to fight for the rights of women and girls who have been

It was in the pursuit of freedom that Sahar first came to Cardiff eight years ago. In an unfamiliar culture with no English, she initially began work as a jewellery designer.

It wasn’t until she started making street art that her career began to take off. “I didn’t do it on purpose,” she says. Looking back, it was a way for her art to be seen.

It was also where she found a community. She laughs as she reminisces how the “rough” swagger of the other street artists used to intimidate her. “I used to be so shy, so introverted,” she says.

Fighting back

Sahar’s experience with the graffiti community has not been smooth-sailing, however.

Since the beginning of her WLF campaign in September, she has had several of her murals repeatedly vandalised. She continued to paint over them until she decided to create more murals elsewhere.

“I never considered myself as a fighting person,” she says, despite these attacks having forced her to become one. “If there is toxic energy, I like to channel my energy to another direction.”

Sahar does not sympathise with those who claim they are too busy to support the movement. She pauses with her fork mid-air. “If you want to categorise people, it’s just very simple,” she says, leaning forward. “People who love and people who don’t. How can you love your kid and not love a kid in Iran?

“You don’t have to be an artist,” she insists, to find a way to make a difference. “You can be creative if you love.”

Sahar admits that the constant campaigning is tiring. Next year she hopes to focus on her craft, “just a little bit.” She smiles as she says that one of her favourite activities to unwind now is to dance.

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alt.feature

A

t Valley Veterinary Hospital, exotic animal specialist Dr Tariq Abou-Zahr was presented with a leopard gecko whose bones had become so soft that it could no longer walk properly. When he examined the lizard’s jaw it was so mushy that he could squeeze it between his fingers. He discovered that it was being kept in a dark room without any UV light, which is a requirement for most reptiles to produce healthy levels of

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calcium. As a result, it had begun to suck the nutrients out of its own bones.

Cases of owners not having done enough research is something that Dr AbouZahr encounters regularly as a vet that works with more unconventional pets. And though he expects to see this particular gecko again soon, this isn’t always the case. “We call them Lost-to-Follow-Up,” he explained, a phenomenon in which the owners disappear and stop picking up the

phone. “You don’t know where they’ve gone. They could’ve died, or moved to another practice.” Sometimes the owners just simply can’t afford the expense of the veterinary bills.

With the steadily escalating cost of living, Dr AbouZahr worries that this troubling brand of ghosting may become even more commonplace. He is equally concerned with how the increasing expense of UV equipment will affect how

Cold-blooded casualties Rates of reptile abandonment are soaring as the price of UV lighting increases.

But some argue that energy costs aren’t the real reason. reptiles are being cared for at home. According to a recent report from the RSPCA, his fears are not unfounded.

Pet abandonment is on the rise. In Wales, there has been a 23% increase in the number of cases of animals, including reptiles, being

“To abandon a reptile, particularly in winter, opens them up to a host of cruel, life-threatening conditions.”

discarded by their owners over last year. This meant there was a staggering 1,554 incidents of abandonment in the first half of 2022 alone.

The charity attributes the problem to the pet-buying boom that occurred over the pandemic, in which lockeddown owners had more time to care for their animals than they would otherwise.

Now, with household energy bills projected to increase even further, the RSPCA have stated that they are

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alt.feature “braced for a surge in abandonments” of exotic pets.

Darling can you hear me SOS For many, the surge is already happening. Several reptile charities based in Cardiff have reported that over the past few months they have consistently been at the point of capacity.

With no government-funded support, these centres are being placed under extreme pressure.

Welsh ecologist, Jenny Jones, is one of the people fighting to counteract the problem. As the founder of the Facebook page, Reptile Rescue S.O.S, Jenny connects reptile owners across the UK who either wish to adopt or to rehome their pets.

It’s a network that is sustained by private individuals rather than a charity, but Jenny is concerned that even this solution may be put under strain. “It’s working at the moment,” she said, “but most people I know, especially people who take bigger things, like snake specialists who have got spare sheds that are heated, are all at capacity.”

However, one anonymous reptile charity believes that the extreme increase in dumping isn’t due to energy prices alone. The average kilowatt per hour cost in South Wales is 49.2p. To keep a 24W UV lamp lit for an average of 12 hours a day (an average for most reptiles) costs an extra £2 per week. Unless someone is on an extremely tight budget, such small-scale price increases shouldn’t warrant an animal being abandoned.

So why are they?

Cested gecko. Credit: Jenny Jones

Snake King Dr Abou-Zahr has always been fascinated by reptiles.

He owned his first corn snake at eleven years old (which he named Fred) and then “just sort of went from there.” Now he is currently the proud keeper of thirty-five snakes, which he occasionally breeds and exchanges with other snake enthusiasts. Though the vet does not have much of an emotional connection with the animals, he values them and cares for them as he would a “piece of nature.”

It may sound like an unusual hobby, but breeding large reptile collections is a surprisingly common enterprise among pet owners in the UK. It’s also almost completely unregulated. This means that breeders can sell non-venomous snakes without needing a licence.

It’s the owners of these large collections who some reptile charities suspect are driving the huge upscale in abandonments, since the costs involved are considerably multiplied. Dr Abou-Zahr admits his own snakes are costing him an extra couple of hundred pounds a month.

He also admits that there are a minority of snake breeders who do not treat their collections properly, but rather like a “piece of art.”

Intent to breed reptiles is something that Jenny is careful to ask about when screening prospective owners.

She says that while she is not “totally against it,” she is wary of people who go into reptile breeding purely for financial gain.

One common practice is the genetic engineering of “morphs,” which is a term used to describe snakes bred for the purpose of creating exotic patterns. These morphs can be prone to complicated medical issues and since these breeders are looking for the biggest payout possible, they often don’t check whether

the people buying them have the means or knowledge necessary to care for them.

Jenny also takes issue with pet shops that exacerbate the trend of treating reptiles as collectibles by advertising them as “buy one get one free.” They perpetuate the idea that they are toys that can be discarded as one would their other luxuries during a time of financial struggle, rather than real, living creatures.

Though they do not show it as obviously as mammals, reptiles do feel pain. The gecko that Dr Abou-Zahr treated was in an extreme amount of suffering. To abandon a reptile, particularly in winter, opens them up to a host of cruel, life-threatening conditions.

Dr Abou-Zahr emphasised that abandonment is never a good option. “It would probably be kinder,” he said, “for the animal to be humanely euthanised.”

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