Most dog lovers know about the often horrid conditions of puppy mills, the unregulated breeding facilities owned by disreputable breeders. Dogs are often bred far too frequently, are kept cramped together in squalor, and are not socialized with humans. In addition, these breeders do not always care about the health and strength of the breed, which often results in genetic illnesses, poor health in general and unlikable personality traits. But many of these same dog aficionados, who have t-shirts and bumper stickers denouncing puppy mills, don't know that most puppies sold at pet stores come from there.

There are some pet stores that buy their puppies from commercial kennels regulated by the Department of Agriculture. However, even these pups tend to be unhealthy and unsocialized. This is partly due to the fact that commercial kennels tend to breed many different breeds in one facility and they breed for quantity, not quality. Therefore, their interest does not lie in the healthy promotion of a certain breed but rather in how many sales they can get. So, before you buy that cute puppy in the window, consider the downsides of pet store pups:
10 Reasons Not to Buy From a Pet Store

1. Bad Health: Because so many pet store pups come from puppy mills, they are not the result of careful breeding and they are usually not well cared for before coming to the store. Some common illnesses and conditions are neurological problems, eye problems, hip dysplasia, blood disorders and Canine Parvovirus.

2. Behavioral Problems: Because breeding is indiscriminate, behavioral problems are not weeded out generationally. You'll also find that a pet store's staff is not likely to have any training in dealing with behavior issues so the puppies continue to do the wrong things, which become habit.

3. No Socialization: Pet stores pups are often pulled away from their litter at far too young an age, often at only four or five weeks. The earliest a puppy should be separated from his pack is eight weeks and most reputable breeders will say at least 10 weeks. This lack of time socializing with his siblings means that puppy will not develop important canine skills. Likewise, a puppy who has not been handled by people from about three weeks will not naturally socialize well with them.

4. The Downfall of the Standard: In a broad sense, purchasing a puppy from a pet store and then breeding her means you are ruining the standard of that breed because the previous breeders were not concerned with it.

5. Lack of Information: A member of a pet store staff is not an expert on a breed and often not on dogs in general. Purchasing a puppy from a store means you will not get the lowdown on that breed or likely help with any behavioral or other questions.

6. Return at Your Puppy's Peril: Most pet stores do offer a warranty of sorts where you can bring the puppy back if he has problems. They don't tend to tell customers that the puppy's fate, once returned, is usually euthanization.

7. Housebreaking is a Chore: Pet store puppies have spent all their short lives in cages. They do not have the opportunity to develop the natural canine instinct of eliminating away from their food and bed. This causes problems when you try to housebreak them.

8. What You See Isn't Necessarily What You Get: If you see what looks like a Maltese in the window, you may find, as she grows, that there's a little Maltese in there somewhere but mostly she looks like a Terrier. There is no guarantee you will get a purebred dog if that's what you're after.

9. Poor Value: A puppy from a pet store generally costs between $400 and $2,000. This is often more than you'd pay at a reputable breeder who can ensure you get a healthy puppy and provide support afterward.

10. Questionable Pedigree: You're paying for a pedigree, or AKC papers, when you buy a puppy from a pet store but it's very likely that it's not genuine. If the papers are genuine, it still doesn't mean the puppy is a good example of its breed - you need a reputable breeder to prove that.

What are our options other than pet store puppies? Find a reputable breeder or adopt your next dog from the local animal shelter or breed-specific rescues!

Reputable breeders are knowledgeable about the breed they represent and can help with behavioral and physical issues that might come up later. These breeders socialize their puppies early on, breed in good traits and breed out bad ones and they can show you your puppies' parents and give you their history. Human Societies, local animal shelters and breed rescues are all good places to look. True, you don't have the benefit of meeting your pup's parents but rescued puppies are thoroughly examined for any illness or condition, are socialized by staff and trained early on. Also, if you adopt a mixed puppy you will likely find he is very healthy as mutts are often healthier than purebreds.

So the next time you see that adorable puppy in the window, pause and think about the downsides of pet store pups. Buying from such a store is, in essence, supporting them and the horrible practice of puppy mills. And it is also almost a sure bet that you'll have a bad experience.

They're at the top of the ocean's food chain -- but it is still a mystery how the oil disaster is affecting the shark population in the Gulf of Mexico.

Even if sharks never touch the oil slick, their sources of oxygen and food are at risk. And a reduced shark population could impact the entire Gulf ecosystem, according to Neil Hammerschlag, a researcher at the University of Miami, who has been studying sharks for a decade -- tagging them to determine their migratory patterns and other behaviors.

Today, his research focus has changed.

"The oil spill opens up a whole new avenue for critical research," says Hammerschlag.

As with most weekends, Hammerschlag leads a university research team packed into a boat with interns and high school students, to fish for sharks.

They research the impact of the oil on sharks and other species of fish in the Gulf of Mexico.

Because sharks eat nearly everything beneath them on the food chain, they provide a lot of information about the ecosystem.

"If you see high levels of oil in a shark, you better believe it's in the whole food chain," says Hammerschlag's assistant, Austin Gallagher.

In order to take biological samples from the sharks, first they must be caught.

Ten lines are baited in areas believed to be attractive to sharks.

"Sharks don't chew their food they swallow it," Hammerschlag says.

The lines are equipped with special circle-shaped hooks to prevent the sharks from harming themselves when they swallow the bait.

Swallowing a circle hook, with an inward point does not hurt the shark, Hammerschlag says. The shark swallows the bait and, as it starts to swim away, the hook turns and catches the animal's jaw.

He compares it to a lip piercing.

"It heals very, very quickly," he says.

Once a shark is on the line, it is pulled up to the side of the boat. Larger sharks are kept in the water.

The researchers lean over the side of the boat and gather tissue and blood samples, before attaching a tag to the fin.

The process usually takes just a few minutes from the time it is reeled in until the shark's release.

The information has been used for creating protected marine areas, as well as medical research.

Large sharks that migrate long distances -- bull, hammerhead, and tiger sharks -- are outfitted with satellite tracking devices with sensors.

When the shark breaks the water's surface, its location is sent to a satellite. Hammerschlag then receives an e-mail containing the coordinates.

The data on the sharks' movement -- published on the University of Miami's website -- will tell researchers whether the sharks encounter the oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hammerschlag thinks the odds are high that sharks will swim through water filled with oil, but he can't be certain because there's no precedent.

He's hopeful the sharks can outsmart the environmental disaster.

"There is a possibility that these animals might be able to anticipate the oil and sense the oil and actually move away from it," he said.

Swimming through the oil could be deadly for sharks.

"Sharks breathe through the water," says Hammerschlag. "They take in the water, the water goes over their gills and they extract oxygen out of the water."

If the water is mixed with oil, it would hinder their normal breathing pattern, he says.

It's still too early in Hammerschlag's research to determine whether sharks are swimming through the oil.

"Hurley" the hammerhead shark had transmitted a signal nearly every day for three months, until just a couple of days after the rig explosion that caused the oil spill.

"The tag could have failed or it could have headed off somewhere else into deep water and just not come up in the last few months," Hammerschlag says. "But that's very unlike the shark's characteristics."

Either way, as long as there are fish in the oiled area, Hammerschlag and his team will be looking at the effects on sharks.

"You know, there's fishing areas closed in the Gulf of Mexico because they don't want people catching and eating that fish," he said. "But I don't know if the sharks got the memo."

In recent years, this has definitely become a question that all dog owners ask. Since raw food diets for dogs have become more and more popular, more dog owners are looking to see what kind of raw foods they can give their dogs in order to keep them healthy from the inside out. However, raw feeding is definitely a decision that an owner must make. Even today veterinarians are split on whether or not giving a dog raw food, like a raw egg is healthy, or if in the end it can cause some sort of ailment that may ultimately hurt the dog.

If you decide that raw feeding may be a good option for your dog, it does take a lot of research and time in order to ensure that you are feeding your dog healthy food that won’t hurt his digestive tract. Of course a raw diet for dogs consists of raw meat, fruits, and vegetables, but owners can also feed their dog nuts, dairy products, and even raw eggs. Raw eggs are always on the chopping block so to speak, but many owners that do feed their dog raw eggs report that it does wonders. Since egg products are in most dog foods, owners don’t see why giving their dog a raw egg is a problem.

Owners who give their dog a raw egg once a week say that the egg is extremely helpful when it comes to shaping a dog’s coat and fur. Eggs are a great source of protein and the protein helps to protect the coat and keep it shiny. When you feed your dog a raw egg, even the shell is okay if the dog wants to eat it.

Many people worry about salmonella due to the fact that the egg is raw. But, dogs have great immune systems, and their body doesn’t react the same way a human’s body does when it is introduced to salmonella. If you are extremely concerned, you can always cook the egg by frying it, blanching it, or boiling it.

Dog owners who do feed their dog raw eggs point out that it’s important that the dog is given no more than one raw egg a week. Too many raw eggs can upset a dog’s stomach, as well as affect the dog’s white blood cell count. Too many raw eggs can also cause your dog other ailments as the yolk is extremely fatty and contains a lot of cholesterol. This can be a problem, so be sure not to feed more than one raw egg a week.

A young 37-foot whale stranded on the shore in West Seattle, and it had a summary of what we're doing to our oceans held within its stomach. As photographer Chris Jordan documented in birds' guts, our marine animals are filling up not on nutritious sea life, but the junk we toss out that makes its way into the oceans. Fifty gallons of contents were examined from this near-adult male gray whale, and you won't believe some of the garbage this poor beast had swallowed.

According to Cascadia Research Collective, 50 gallons of stomach contents were sorted through. Most of it was real food - algae and other bits common to a gray whale diet - but also included were more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves, sweat pants, plastic pieces, duct tape, and a golf ball.

If there were any doubt before, there is none now - the ocean has become a landfill. However, if there's a bit of a silver lining, the trash made up just about 2% of the total contents, and it doesn't seem to have been the cause of death. But what Cascadia Research points out, "It did clearly indicate that the whale had been attempting to feed in industrial waters and therefore exposed to debris and contaminants present on the bottom in these areas."

Gray whales are bottom feeders and get their nutrition from the sediments in shallow waters. They filter small organisms as their food, but apparently they aren't always able to filter out human pollution. Researchers are currently studying the whale to find out the cause of death, which could be anything from not getting enough food (three other whales that died in April during migration appeared emaciated and perhaps didn't get enough to eat in Alaska last year) to pollution and chemicals in the water. The results won't be known for several weeks.

Learning the basics to dog food is a must for all dog owners.
Please spend 10 minutes and read this honest and helpful article on the basics to dog food and it's ingredients. Don't worry we left the discussing stuff out, this is more about what is good for them to have and not how bad some companies dog food is.

Pet-nutrition experts say that the best dog food is made from human-grade ingredients like meat, whole grains and vegetables. What you don't want is a lot of filler as the primary ingredients; these are items that have less nutritional benefit. According to the Born Free USA united with Animal Protection Institute website, dogs can absorb almost all the nutrients from white rice, but grains like oats, flour and wheat have almost no nutritional value for dogs. Corn products aren't very valuable either, and peanut hulls have no value at all. Glutens are another group of ingredients that experts say don't provide much nutritional value to dogs, and are a particular concern since 2007's massive recall of pet foods tainted by contaminated wheat and rice gluten from China.

According to reviews, better-quality dog food results in a healthier coat, fewer digestive problems and firmer stools. Since your dog will absorb more nutrients from better-quality dog food, less will be passed as waste.

Dogs love meat and they need protein. Unlike cats, who need high amounts of protein and no carbohydrates at all, dogs need a diet that contains as much as 50 percent carbohydrates. Still, experts say meat should be the first ingredient, followed by healthy carbohydrate sources such as potatoes, or more absorbable grains like rice. If you've read any dog food labels, you might have noticed the term "by-product." Meat by-product consists mainly of animal parts that are not used for human consumption, such as bones, organs, blood, fatty tissue and intestines. If a label says "chicken by-product," all the parts must come from chicken; the same goes for lamb, beef, etc.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to by-products in dog food. Some say that because a dog in the wild would eat the entire animal when killing prey, including skin, organs and bones, some amount of by-products in dog food is just fine. What you don't want, say reviews, is unidentified by-products, often listed as "meat by-products." Experts say this could include zoo animals, road kill and what's often referred to as 4-D livestock (dead, diseased, disabled, dying). Most shockingly, meat by-products can even include euthanized dogs and cats. In 1990 the American Veterinary Medical Association and the FDA confirmed that some pet food companies were using the bodies of euthanized pets as by-products in their foods. It turns out that this practice wasn't widespread, but limited to small rural rendering plants and a few other assorted links in the pet food manufacturing chain. For these reasons, reviews that do approve of some by-products in pet food say that dog owners should look for specific origin, such as chicken by-product or lamb by-product.

Note that in poultry-based dog foods, the term "by-product" is used to identify by-product meals. However, in other types of dog food, by-product meal can be labeled as "meat and bone meal" (MBM) or even "beef and bone meal." This type of labeling is legal, but clearly misleading.

The other -- and prevailing -- school of thought is that by-products should be avoided entirely, and that a dog's diet should contain meat, vegetables and absorbable grains. These critics say that it's simply too hard to know what exactly is included in by-products, and some say that these unwanted animal parts may contain bacteria or even parts from cancerous animals. MBM used in cattle feed is suspected of being the primary agent in the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (also known as "mad cow" disease).

Related to meat by-products is a low-quality ingredient called animal digest, which is the dry or liquid by-product of the meat rendering process. Experts say that while there is meat content in animal digest, it's of little nutritional value as it is not very digestible.

In dry foods, be aware that listing meat at the top of an ingredient list can be misleading, as meat has a high water content that is removed when processed into dry pet food. However, so-called "meat meal" is meat with the water removed, and finding it high up in the ingredient list is a good indication of a high-protein dry food. Again, beware of foods that contain meat and bone meal or beef and bone meal, as those are low-quality ingredients.

Dog food companies are making moves to get away from using artificial preservatives in dog food. Chemicals used as preservatives, like BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin, have been under scrutiny, and many companies are switching to natural preservatives like vitamin C (ascorbate) and vitamin E (tocopherols). Reviews say natural preservatives are much safer.

According to reviews, better-quality dog food results in a healthier coat, fewer digestive problems and firmer stools. Since your dog will absorb more nutrients from better-quality dog food, less will be passed as waste.

Dogs love meat and they need protein. Unlike cats, who need high amounts of protein and no carbohydrates at all, dogs need a diet that contains as much as 50 percent carbohydrates. Still, experts say meat should be the first ingredient, followed by healthy carbohydrate sources such as potatoes, or more absorbable grains like rice. If you've read any dog food labels, you might have noticed the term "by-product." Meat by-product consists mainly of animal parts that are not used for human consumption, such as bones, organs, blood, fatty tissue and intestines. If a label says "chicken by-product," all the parts must come from chicken; the same goes for lamb, beef, etc.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to by-products in dog food. Some say that because a dog in the wild would eat the entire animal when killing prey, including skin, organs and bones, some amount of by-products in dog food is just fine. What you don't want, say reviews, is unidentified by-products, often listed as "meat by-products." Experts say this could include zoo animals, road kill and what's often referred to as 4-D livestock (dead, diseased, disabled, dying). Most shockingly, meat by-products can even include euthanized dogs and cats. In 1990 the American Veterinary Medical Association and the FDA confirmed that some pet food companies were using the bodies of euthanized pets as by-products in their foods. It turns out that this practice wasn't widespread, but limited to small rural rendering plants and a few other assorted links in the pet food manufacturing chain. For these reasons, reviews that do approve of some by-products in pet food say that dog owners should look for specific origin, such as chicken by-product or lamb by-product.

Note that in poultry-based dog foods, the term "by-product" is used to identify by-product meals. However, in other types of dog food, by-product meal can be labeled as "meat and bone meal" (MBM) or even "beef and bone meal." This type of labeling is legal, but clearly misleading.

The other -- and prevailing -- school of thought is that by-products should be avoided entirely, and that a dog's diet should contain meat, vegetables and absorbable grains. These critics say that it's simply too hard to know what exactly is included in by-products, and some say that these unwanted animal parts may contain bacteria or even parts from cancerous animals. MBM used in cattle feed is suspected of being the primary agent in the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (also known as "mad cow" disease).

Related to meat by-products is a low-quality ingredient called animal digest, which is the dry or liquid by-product of the meat rendering process. Experts say that while there is meat content in animal digest, it's of little nutritional value as it is not very digestible.

In dry foods, be aware that listing meat at the top of an ingredient list can be misleading, as meat has a high water content that is removed when processed into dry pet food. However, so-called "meat meal" is meat with the water removed, and finding it high up in the ingredient list is a good indication of a high-protein dry food. Again, beware of foods that contain meat and bone meal or beef and bone meal, as those are low-quality ingredients.

Dog food companies are making moves to get away from using artificial preservatives in dog food. Chemicals used as preservatives, like BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin, have been under scrutiny, and many companies are switching to natural preservatives like vitamin C (ascorbate) and vitamin E (tocopherols). Reviews say natural preservatives are much safer.

To some it up:

1. Make sure the food has meat (unless your dog is a vegetarian) as the first ingredient and that it says a kind of meat, but not with (meat name)meal or bone meal this means it can be almost anything.
2. If it has by-products then it's best to know that the by-products are from a chicken or cow so it should say beef by-products or chicken by-products. If it just says byproducts it could be dogs or roadkill. (But most likely it's not)
3. Corn is o.k. it's just means your dog will poop more and as it's only might have a hard times digesting it.
4. Most foods are fine and most dogs will be healthy on them, but some higher end foods have less risk for for diseased meat or causing digestive problems.

Vegetarian dog food

I would also like to throw in that I believe dogs can be vegetarians and be healthy and happy. At this time there is no food or process that has figured out the needs to compensate for not eating meat. Mainly dogs need lots of protein, so I would imagine they will have a soy high protein dog food with added healthy nutrients coming out in the near future. For now you can give carrots for dog treats and find a way to get him protein without meat. Like your own blend with bulk soy from Costco, or mushrooms have high protein.

Vegan pet food -- and the decision to force one's pet to go vegan -- is suddenly very buzzy. ABC News reports that it's a bit easier for a dog to go vegetarian than it is for a cat, and one person they interviewed said she suspects that "vegan" cats are supplementing their diets by hunting.

But there are some strong proponents of the idea:

Now artists and activists (with one more feline in the family) in Ithaca, N.Y., Moore and her partner, Shira Golding, are part of a relatively small but deeply dedicated group of vegan pet owners who believe their cats' and dogs' diets should reflect their own beliefs about the treatment of animals and environmentally sustainable lifestyles.

Despite the anecdotal evidence the group has amassed that supports vegan pet diets, many veterinarians are reluctant to recommend the meatless option.

Polar bears will not survive without action to tackle climate change and save their rapidly disappearing Arctic habitat, conservationists have warned

WWF, the conservation charity, said that the five countries which are home to the polar bear must commit to action on global warming to save the animal, which is reliant on the sea ice

Recent analysis by the US Geological Survey and World Conservation Union found that two-thirds of the 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the world could be lost in the next 50 years as warming temperatures melt the ice

But WWF said an agreement signed in 1973 by the five Arctic states - Canada, Russia, the US, Greenland/Denmark and Norway - commits them to saving protecting the bear and its habitat

While the original deal focused on threats from hunting that had decimated populations, WWF's polar bear co-ordinator Geoff York said polar bears could not now be protected without addressing climate change

"Without the sea ice habitat, the polar bear will not survive in the long term..."

"...There are other threats, such as oil and gas drilling, shipping and toxins, but they pale in comparison to climate change and the loss of the sea ice," he continued

Next week the five nations which are party to the 1973 Agreement for the Conservation of Polar Bears and Their Habitats will meet in Norway for the first formal meeting in more than 25 years

Mr York said delegates must agree to push their countries to commit to urgent and effective action to cut the greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change

"Anything less would be an abdication of the responsibilities of these nations under the polar bear agreement," he said

WWF wants the representatives of the five polar bear nations to formally call for urgent global action on climate change and to show strong leadership in attempts to achieve a new international deal on cutting emissions in Copenhagen in December

He said while the polar bear was important, tackling climate change was about much more than one species - and that human survival could also be at risk without action

galapagos

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, ECUADOR -- A few weeks ago, 19 Ecuadorean citizens detained on these world-renowned islands were marched onto a plane and sent back to the continent under armed guard. Their crime? Illegal migration.

So far this year, the government has expelled 1,000 of its citizens from the Galapagos -- a living laboratory of unique animal and plant species -- who were there without residency and work permits. It has also "normalized" 2,000 others, in effect giving most of them a year to leave.

The migrants are attracted not by the tortoises or blue-footed boobies but by the islands' booming economy, which offers plentiful jobs and good pay. Typical wages run 70% higher than on Ecuador's mainland, the public schools are good, and violent crime is nonexistent.

Last year, Ecuador was stung by a United Nations warning that the islands, whose human population has doubled in 10 years to about 30,000, are at risk from overcrowding and mismanaged tourism.

Priming the economy is the apparently insatiable demand by foreign tourists for a close-up look at giant tortoises, elephant seals, flamingos, marine iguanas and other species in their native habitat. As a result, scientists warn, that habitat is becoming increasingly less pristine.

The 2007 report issued by UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural arm, placed the islands on its "in danger" list, a designation upheld in July.

The rising tide of tourists, residents and suppliers has introduced alien species, including rats, goats, cats and, more recently, mosquitoes and fire ants, UNESCO's Marc Petry said by telephone from Paris. Such intrusions, as well as sewage and oil discharged from boats, threaten the islands' plant and animal life, he said.

The expulsion of Ecuadorean nationals has sparked a debate about whether the government should be more concerned with imposing a cap on tourism than culling residents.

Scientists at Galapagos National Park want to see a limit on visitor traffic, which in the last decade has grown 13% a year on average. Tourists visiting the park this year are expected to total about 180,000, more than officials say they can keep up with.

"When visitors reached 50,000 a year, we said to ourselves, this really is the limit. We can't handle any more. But now it's triple that figure," said Sixto Naranjo, the park's coordinator and former director.

The government of President Rafael Correa has resisted any move to cap the number of visitors. Environment Minister Marcela Aguinaga said in a September interview that there was no sign that tourism was "oversaturated." Migration controls, resident training and the development of a new "tourism model" are the answers, she said.

"President Correa declared the islands in danger four months before UNESCO and already had taken several measures to confront the problems," Aguinaga said.

The new tourism model, which is being studied for a report due by mid-2009, might try to freeze visitation levels with strategies such as raising the entrance fee for foreigners to $300 or more from $100.

The government has also launched a training program designed to reduce the number of fishermen. Too many are plying the waters for too scarce a resource, especially since overfishing in the 1990s decimated the stock of sea cucumber, a delicacy in Asia. Shark and lobster populations also have been illegally exploited.

The management of Galapagos tourism is a sticky issue for Correa, a self-described green president who briefly taught college economics. Galapagos tourism generates an estimated $200 million a year in revenue, about one-fourth of which ends up in the pockets of local ship captains, cooks, guides and other suppliers living on the islands. The rest goes to airlines and tour packagers on the mainland.

Despite rising prices and global economic downturns, the number of visitors has increased tenfold since 1980, with middle-aged Americans and Europeans making up the fastest-growing market segment. These tourists, in contrast to the shoestring-budget backpackers of two decades ago, are increasingly affluent.

Nearly half the Galapagos visitors this year will be from the U.S., and most will spend $2,000 to $3,000 for a four-to-seven-day boat tour of selected islands, on top of the not-inexpensive airfare. Half the islands' visitors have annual incomes of $50,000 or more and one-third are older than 50, said Fabian Zapata, director of INGALA, the regional planning agency.

Most will emerge as amazed as naturalist Charles Darwin, whose 1835 visit inspired his “The Origin of Species,” the tract in which he laid out his theory of evolution.

UNESCO declared the archipelago a World Heritage Site in 1978, the inaugural year for the designation.

Correa's government was the first to strictly enforce laws that require formal "visas" for Ecuadoreans to visit the Galapagos. The papers of all arriving at the islands' two airports are checked. Many with limited-stay tourist visas simply remain to look for work.

Checkpoints and patrols have become routine on Santa Cruz Island, home to the port town of Puerto Ayora, at 20,000 residents the Galapagos' largest city and the embarkation point for most tours.

But the undocumented still slip through security and now represent an estimated 20% of the islands' population.

Businesses say they are besieged by undocumented Ecuadoreans looking for work.

"I put up a sign to fill a waiter position today and I got five applicants, none of whom had papers," said Hernan Herrera, owner of the popular Cafe Hernan in Puerto Ayora.

"It's a privilege to live here," Herrera said. "But also a responsibility."