Letters and a map document the humane & racial justice movements when they were one and the same ARK, Virginia––Bus driver Alan Lemon, 59, hoped to find antiques that might be sold online in 2018 when he and a friend decided to explore the attic of his great grandfather John W. Lemon’s long … [Read More...]

Four black leaders who built the humane movement
More people recognized William Key, John W. Lemon, Richard Carroll, & F. Rivers Barnwell in their own time than would have recognized ASPCA founder Henry Bergh INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana––“I am the only colored speaker on the program, and in fact I have not seen a single colored … [Read More...]

Aurora repeals pit bull ban; pit bull advocates in trouble in three states
$2 million payout to family of Janet D'Aleo, 95, killed on November 6, 2019 by "rescue" pit bull belonging to Humane Society of the U.S. state representative Annie Hornish AURORA, Colorado––Overturning an ordinance banning pit bulls that was endorsed by 64% of the electorate as recently as … [Read More...]

Siegfried Fischbacher, 81, follows tiger act partner Roy Horn, 75, in death
Illusionist Fischbacher, of Siegfried & Roy, created image of partner Horn as "positive reinforcement" trainer & conservationist Both were role models for "Joe Exotic" et al LAS VEGAS––Entertainer Siegfried Fischbacher, 81, died of pancreatic cancer on January 14, 2021, at the Las Vegas home he had shared with Roy Horn, his partner in life and performance, for nearly 50 … [Read More...]

Trump allies in the animal world squirm after U.S. Capitol storming
From "Joe Exotic" to Wayne Pacelle WASHINGTON D.C.––Soon-to-be-former U.S. President Donald Trump and his die-hard defenders who are now facing criminal charges for storming the U.S. National Capitol building on January 6, 2021 were scarcely the only big losers from the events of the day. Former U.S. Air Force security dog handler Ashli Babbitt, 35, lost her life, shot by a … [Read More...]

Tips bring two bear poaching busts in two days
Help Asheville Bears celebrates $10,000 payout to anonymous tipster BELINGTON, West Virginia––Bear poaching busts on January 5, 2021 in Grady County, Georgia and the following day in Belington, West Virginia, suggest that campaigns offering rewards for tips leading to the arrest and conviction of suspects are paying off. Information about the January 5, 2021 arrest is so far sparse. The … [Read More...]

Barry Lopez, 75, “literary naturalist,” inspired animal advocates
Death came four months after Lopez lost home of 50 years to wildfire Barry Lopez, 75, died on Christmas Day 2020 in Eugene, Oregon, after a years-long battle with prostate cancer. Sometimes described as a “literary naturalist,” Lopez wrote often about animals, but hardly exclusively, and as often about the animals of Native American myth and legend as about the real animals he spent … [Read More...]

Dead fisher played “chicken” with Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat
Would have passed safely if he had not cut to the right SAN FELIPE, Baja California, Mexico––What fisher Mario García Toledo, 56, had in mind when he swerved his small but speedy panga across the bow of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Farley Mowat on the morning of December 31, 2020 in the northern Sea of Cortez may never be known. Rescued from the water by Sea Shepherd crew … [Read More...]

Alleged cockfighters who attacked Steve Hindi identified by ANIMALS 24-7 and tipster
New suspect named Suspects were videotaped in the act of committing an array of apparent state, local, and federal offenses. WATERLOO, Ohio––Showing Animals Respect & Kindness [SHARK] at 9:35 a.m. west coast time on January 5, 2021 posted video of alleged cockfighters violently assaulting SHARK founder Steve Hindi two days earlier, destroying SHARK equipment, and running a … [Read More...]

Congress rejects immediate repeal of dog breed bans in military housing
U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, & U.S. Air Force bans on pit bulls, Rottweilers, & wolf hybrids stand, at least until uniform military policy is adopted WASHINGTON D.C.––The first U.S. Senate action of the New Year, on the morning of January 1, 2021, quietly affirmed for at least 90 days and perhaps indefinitely the existing breed-specific dangerous dog policies of the … [Read More...]

Investigators survive ambush attack at alleged cockfight in Ohio
Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi is bloodied & drone lost in Wayne National Forest––a federal jurisdiction WATERLOO, Ohio––Ambushed by at least four alleged assailants while sending a Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK) drone aloft to videotape the crowd at what he told ANIMALS 24-7 was by far the biggest cockfight he had ever investigated, … [Read More...]

2020 began & ended with pit bulls killing babies in Dayton, Ohio
Raelynn Larrison death on New Year's Eve warrants further in-depth investigation DAYTON, Ohio––The year 2020 ended as it began in Dayton, Ohio, with a pit bull killing the four-month-old daughter of a mother with drug issues while a parent slept nearby. The differences between the December 31, 2020 death of Raelynn Larrison, to date the last reported dog-inflicted death of the … [Read More...]

Legendary giant turtle, believed extinct, resurfaces in Hanoi lake
Five years after the "last" giant softshell turtle died, one and possibly three more turn up, plus one in zoo HANOI, Vietnam––Five years after the January 2016 death of Cu Rua in Hoan Kiem Lake plunged Vietnam into national mourning for the legendary giant softshell turtle, then believed to have been the last of his species in the wild, 2021 could scarcely have opened on a more … [Read More...]

Ethiopian woman who saved rare Italian goat breed is raped, killed
"Happy Goat" farmer/sanctuarian Agitu Ideo Gudeta, 42, was reportedly killed by Ghanian she gave a job VALLE dei MOCHENI, Trentino, Italy––Goat herder Adams Suleimani, 32, an immigrant to Italy from Ghana, has reportedly confessed to raping Happy Goat [La Capra Felice] farmer/sanctuarian and cheesemaker Agitu Ideo Gudeta, 42, and bludgeoning her to death with a hammer, multiple Italian … [Read More...]

Pit bull advocate Steffen Baldwin, facing 39 felonies, flunks drug test
Charges originating out of allegedly killing dogs & defrauding donors could bring Baldwin a maximum of 81 years in prison MARYSVILLE, Ohio––Pit bull advocate Steffen Baldwin, already facing 42 criminal charges that could potentially bring him 81 years in prison, including 39 felonies and three misdemeanors, was on December 15, 2020 further charged with violating the terms of his bail bond … [Read More...]

Trump signs anti-race horse doping bill & $60 million gift to horse industry
Tax break for Paycheck Protection Program loan/grant recipients appears to have been the dangling carrot that brought horse racing industry support for omnibus funding bill WASHINGTON D.C.––U.S. President Donald Trump on December 27, 2020 “signed H.R. 133, an Act making consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, providing coronavirus emergency … [Read More...]

Cockfighting in Kentucky: showdown on January 2, 2021
Cockfighting promoters advertise in open defiance of the law; SHARK demands enforcement BIG LAUREL, Kentucky––Will sundown on Saturday, January 2, 2021 bring a new age in Kentucky cockfighting law enforcement, or just another hangover from a long history of police indifference toward culturally entrenched crimes, from moonshining to wife-beating and statutory rape? Whatever happens that … [Read More...]

Nashville needed giant Gambian pouched rats on Christmas morning
But all the giant Gambian pouched rats in the U.S. were dodging wildlife law enforcement on Grassy Key GRASSY KEY, Florida––Giant Gambian pouched rats, deployed in Nashville at the right hour of Christmas morning, might have prevented the 6:30 a.m. explosion of a bomb inside a recreational vehicle that damaged at least 43 businesses, may have killed one person, and at this hour still has law … [Read More...]
ANIMALS 24-7 Statement of Purpose

Beth & Merritt Clifton
ANIMALS 24-7 is a nonprofit independent online investigative newspaper and information service reporting about humane work worldwide, with emphasis on the intersection of animal issues with public health & safety.
All factual content is multi-sourced and verified to the best of our ability, including factual statements in editorials, guest columns, comments, and other opinionated material. Opinionated content from non-staff contributors does not necessarily reflect the views of ANIMALS 24-7.
Corrections and clarifications are posted as rapidly as we are able to identify errors and/or confusing statements.
ANIMALS 24-7 personnel clearly identify ourselves in all communications with news subjects and sources.
ANIMALS 24-7 prefers to receive information in writing, via email or other means of messaging in a verifiable format, so that there is no question that news subjects and sources have said what they meant. When it is necessary to receive information in a non-verifiable format, for instance direct oral communication, ANIMALS 24-7 will confirm the information by verifiable means.
ANIMALS 24-7 reports about zoonotic diseases (zoonoses) shared among animals and humans. For example, see our extensive news coverage of issues associated with COVID-19, SARS, and other diseases found to have jumped from wildlife to humans; our investigations of rabies outbreaks both among domestic animals and wildlife; African swine fever; and poultry diseases, such as H5N1 avian flu, and Newcastle disease, commonly spread by both factory farming practices and by cockfighting. (Use our search engine to find coverage by disease name.)
ANIMALS 24-7 is especially noted for our in-depth news coverage of pit bull attacks, attacks by other dangerous dogs, and attacks by exotic pets such as big cats and snakes. Our dangerous dog data library includes sub-menus on pit bull statistics, pit bulls & public safety, pit bulls & the humane community (including animal shelters and rescues), voices of pit bull experience, pit bull liability, pit bull legislation, pit bull history & sociology, pit bull behavior, dogfighting, pit bull advocates, pit bulls abroad, bad dogs & minority communities, wolf hybrids, with additional sub-menus on Rottweilers, Dobermans, Presa Canarios, and Boerboels.
ANIMALS 24-7 is a leading voice for compassionate conservation, a gentler approach to wildlife conservation, which emphasizes working with nature, including understanding that humans are a part of nature, that human activity creates wildlife habitat as well as harming it, that zoonoses have become a problem largely through human conflict with nature; and that adaptive species such as cats, horses, cattle, and poultry often contribute to the survival of wildlife, if management approaches emphasize coexistence. (We have sub-menus of cat-related coverage and on the compassionate conservation concept itself, including a great deal about feral cats, rotating on our home page.)
ANIMALS 24-7 also reports extensively about progress toward adoption of vegan, vegetarian, and other plant-based diets; the development of plant-based alternatives to meat, dairy, and leather products; and the many global issues associated with raising cattle, pigs, poultry, farmed fish, and other livestock for human consumption, including effects on hunger, climate change, pollution, water scarcity and human wellness.
ANIMALS 24-7 covers how natural disasters affect animals, including dogs, cats, cattle, horses, poultry, and wildlife, with emphasis on the responses of shelters and rescuers.
ANIMALS 24-7 is further noted for our attention to the many contributions to humane work and animal well-being made by Africans, Asians, and Americans of color. Our unique Black history & animals archive includes sub-menus on topics including Leadership, Institutional racism, the Ku Klux Klan, Pit bulls & the black community, Slavery & resistance, Environmental justice, African animal advocates, the Africa Network for Animal Welfare, and the Integration era.
ANIMALS 24-7, in addition, does extensive ongoing statistical research of humane issues and crimes against animals, such as abuse and neglect, dogfighting and cockfighting, even theft of horses and cattle rustling. We have been doing this for longer, in greater depth and on a wider range of relevant topics, than anyone else in the animal rights, animal welfare, and compassionate conservation fields. Our staff experience with animal rescue, management of animal shelters, gathering related data, and reporting our findings dates back into the early 1960s.
ANIMALS 24-7 has no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. Our role is to report the news and provide informed perspective for people who care about animals and nature, from dogs, cats, horses, marine mammals, and endangered species, to feral animals, hunted species, and so-called nuisance wildlife, with breaking news, in-depth background, and the experienced perspective of our staff and our many guest commentators.
ANIMALS 24-7 readers include people who operate animal shelters and participate in animal rescue; wildlife conservationists; vegans; vegetarians; zoonoses researchers; and investigators of both crimes against animals, such as cockfighting, and crimes against nature and habitat. Also among our most avid readers are quite a few colleagues in reporting the news, who look to us for unique informed perspectives on animals and nature.
ANIMALS 24-7 is incorporated to conduct activities which are exclusively charitable, literary and/or educational within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, for the purpose of exposing the existence of cruelty to animals and educating the public of the need to prevent and eliminate such cruelty; and studying animal-related issues via research, surveys, and investigative reports.