Nonprofit Animal Fundraisers
Nonprofit Animal Fundraisers
Brushstrokes for Biodiversity is a non-profit organization run by students from San Diego, California. Our mission is to fundraise and spread animal awareness by creating and selling custom-made animal paintings, keychains, stickers, cards, and more through local farmers' market and online. All of the fundraiser money will be directly donated to Helen Woodward Animal Center to help homeless animals. Please click on the Meet the Team page to learn more about us.
San Diego, California, United States
Canyon Crest Academy - Westview High School - Rancho Bernardo High School - Del Norte High School
Learn about us!
The Animal of the Month is the chinchilla! They have extremely soft fur with over 80 hairs per follicle. This dense fur makes them perfectly adapted to the cold region in the Andes Mountains in South America. However, they cannot take baths like most animals due to their dense fur. Instead, they roll in volcanic ash which helps remove excess oils and cleans their fur.
Chinchillas have been roaming the earth for 41 million years but were nearly extinct by the 1900s because they were poached for their fur. In fact, the word Chinchilla comes from the native Andes Tribe, Chicha who hunted wild chinchillas for clothing.
In 1920, almost a dozen chinchillas were imported to the US.
Nearly all chinchillas here are a direct descendant of the eleven chinchillas brought to this country.
In the wild, Chinchilla forage for grass, leaves, and twigs to eat at night, away from the predators.
Some examples of wild chinchilla predators are owls or hawks, who hunt from the sky, while foxes, cougars, and snakes hunt them from the ground. Besides their natural instinct to hide, chinchillas employ 2 mechanisms to escape predators. Chinchillas release fur if they are ever grabbed or bitten, and spray urine whenever threatened to scare away predators.
The sad part is chinchillas are still hunted for their fur. Due to their super soft fur, they are commonly bred and killed to make fur coats. This is one of the main reasons why they are declared critically endangered by the IUCN. While it is illegal to kill wild chinchillas now, many breeders are still breeding chinchillas to make fur coats. They are also forced to live in tiny enclosures and aren’t able to interact with other chinchillas. It’s like being locked in a closet with nothing to do and no one to play with. For social animals like chinchillas, it can lead to many behaviors such as biting their own fur and more.
By supporting organizations like Save the Wild Chinchillas or by signing petitions to stop the killing of chinchillas, you can stop the heartless killing of chinchillas. We can stop this… Tell your friends, family, any anyone to not buy any fur coats. And remember, to reuse reduce and recycle to stop the damage on their habitat.
Copyright © 2024 Brushstrokes for Biodiversity - All Rights Reserved.
BfB is a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit organization
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