Spreading disease by air is much easier than containing it by any method LANGLEY, Washington––About sixty feral Belgian hares, long beloved village pets in Langley, Washington, may be the latest casualties of deliberate releases of the rabbit hemorrhagic disease RHD-1 in Australia and … [Read More...]
Brother Wolf: “Warehousing is not working,” says director of no-kill experiment
"Keeping aggressive animals isn't the solution for lifesaving" ASHEVILLE, North Carolina––“We are warehousing aggressive animals at Brother Wolf when we know this isn’t the solution for lifesaving,” executive director Leah Craig Fieser acknowledged in “Warehousing is not working,” a December 5, … [Read More...]
Livestock shipment to Middle East goes sideways; to Hawaii, goes backward
Drowned sheep & asphixiated cattle result from opposite approaches to maximizing profit MILILANI, Hawaii––Compared to the drowning deaths of more than 14,350 sheep on November 24, 2019 aboard the capsized Queen Hind in the port of Midia, Romania, the deaths of 21 Angus heifers aboard a Young … [Read More...]
Gadhi Mai 2019: more animals killed than in 2014, but fewer people watched
But drone videos show––again––that the body count was vastly lower than is often claimed BARIYARPUR, Nepal––More animals were slain at the 2019 Gadhi Mai sacrificial massacre in Bariyarpur, Nepal, than in 2014––a deeply disappointing discovery, after 15 years of international efforts to stop the every-five-years bloodbath held in honor of a local goddess. Drone video analysis of the … [Read More...]
Bullhead City shelter break-in: owner & pit bulls on the lam
Pet theft in the 21st century more often involves pit bulls under euthanasia order than laboratory supply BULLHEAD CITY, Arizona––Rhonda Kathrine Johnson, 51, on the lam with her pit bulls Melony and Ginger, sprung on Thanksgiving 2019 from the animal shelter in Bullhead City, Arizona, is unlikely to make the FBI “Ten Most Wanted List.” Johnson, however, has rung up an impressive list … [Read More...]
Why we didn’t send you a direct mail appeal to arrive on Black Friday
Dear friends & readers: You may have noticed the absence of anything from ANIMALS 24-7 among the ever-increasing blizzard of direct mail appeals from charities of every kind that are timed each year to land in your box on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Very likely, most of those appeals urged you to donate generously on the following Tuesday, called “Giving Tuesday” by the fundraising … [Read More...]
HSUS, Donald Trump, & the PACT Act: The Art of the Deal
Good publicity for Trump, fundraising photo-op for HSUS & friends, but not much in it for animals WASHINGTON D.C.––One could almost suspect a quid-pro-quo deal––Latin for “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine”––among U.S. President Donald Trump and major U.S. animal charities, especially the Humane Society of the United States, in arranging the heavily publicized November 25, 2019 … [Read More...]
Protecting purity from pollution, or protecting pollution from purity?
The Golden Age, Garden of Eden, and Thanksgiving Myth of Origin by Karen Davis Ph.D., president, United Poultry Concerns (See also Turkeys: Sympathy, Sensibility, and Sentience and The “Thanksgiving” turkey: object of sentimentality, sarcasm, & sacrifice.) “The question before us is, which images of the universe, of power, of animals, of ourselves, will we represent in our food?” – … [Read More...]
Pit bull or hunting hounds? Who killed Elisa Pilarski & unborn child Enzo?
DNA data may decide which dog did the killing, but maybe not who was at fault SOISSONS, France––Pack hunters and pit bull enthusiasts are pitted against each other in a melodrama gripping French media since November 16, 2019, when someone’s dog or dogs killed Elisa Pilarski, 29, six months pregnant. Anxiously awaited DNA test results may establish which dog, and whose, inflicted the … [Read More...]
Suspect in faux fur-related stabbing previously tried to hire a killer
Third alleged attempt to kill a fur-wearer since 2012 CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio––Unable to hire a hit man to kill “someone who is wearing fur” in 2012, Meredith Marie Lowell, 35, on November 20, 2019 apparently decided to try to do the killing herself––for the second time in less than a year. Cleveland Heights police chief Anne Mecklenburg told media that Lowell was charged with … [Read More...]
The “Thanksgiving” turkey: object of sentimentality, sarcasm, & sacrifice
Each year a litany of sarcasm accompanies the sentimentality of Thanksgiving by Karen Davis, Ph.D., president, United Poultry Concerns “Nothing so unites us as gathering with one mind to murder someone we hate, unless it is coming together to share in a meal.” – Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, p. 33. The turkey & the eagle in American myth The turkey is … [Read More...]
Iran to keep six cheetah conservationists in prison. Two more await fate.
Sentences of six to 10 years come amid violent repression of anti-government protests & five-day Internet shutdown TEHRAN, Iran––The Iranian theocracy headed by Hassan Rouhani on November 20, 2019 celebrated “victory” over six days of public protest over fuel prices soaring by as much as 300%––and sent a warning to the protesters––by sentencing six of eight Persian Wildlife Heritage … [Read More...]
Vegan Man hopes Florida jury will have it his way in case against Burger King
Can expect to be grilled in cross-examination MIAMI, Florida––Vegan Man on November 18, 2019 served notice on the Miami-based Burger King fast food chain in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida that he hopes to meet twelve Florida men––and Florida women––in a jury box soon, with a judge presiding. Seeking class action status on behalf of vegan and vegetarian Burger … [Read More...]
Why is Trump EPA chief cutting animal testing while the NRDC defends it?
Natural Resources Defense Council has fought for 50 years to make EPA enforce chemical safety standards WASHINGTON D.C.––How has the Natural Resources Defense Council, whose emblem is a polar bear, become the front line of public defense of the animal testing industry? Why is Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler leading the most aggressive effort yet by any branch of … [Read More...]
Turkeys: Sympathy, Sensibility, and Sentience
Plus Social Dancing and Driving Off Predators by Karen Davis, PhD, president, United Poultry Concerns Turkeys express social sympathy An emotional behavior in turkeys that has been said to “defy logic” is “the great wake” they will hold over a fallen companion. In one episode, cited by A.W. Schorger in The Wild Turkey: Its History and Domestication on page 149, the wing beat of a turkey hen … [Read More...]
Don’t know pigeons from bowling balls? Among pigeon rollers, you’ll fit right in
Local humane society says nothing ESSEX, Ontario––Why has the Harrow Fair, the official fair of Essex County, Ontario, elected to become internationally notorious for promoting so-called “parlor pigeons” as “the bowling balls of the avian world?” Why has the county allowed it? Why did the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society say and do nothing about it for seven … [Read More...]