Frequent model for his father's bowhunting magazine BOISE, Idaho––The Blake Owen Fischer baboon family killing-and-display saga did not end on October 15, 2018, when Idaho Governor Butch Otter announced that Fischer, 40, had resigned from the Idaho Fish & Game … [Read More...]
Wyoming trophy hunters blame mountain goats for lack of bighorn
Shaky science may doom mountain goats in their own habitat JACKSON, Wyoming––Mountain goats, already scapegoated for much else, are now blamed and are perhaps at risk of massacre in Wyoming for allegedly transmitting ovine pneumonia––a common disease of domestic sheep––to the … [Read More...]
Witch hunts & wildlife
$53,000 reward offered in panic A $53,000 reward, believed to be the biggest ever in a case of this sort, is currently posted in Thurston County, Washington, for information leading to the apprehension of an alleged serial cat killer who has supposedly tortured and dismembered at least 13 cats … [Read More...]
Snail & mountain goat race toward extinction in New Zealand Alps
Endangered native snail & introduced Himalayan tahrs thrived together until the New Zealand government got involved WELLINGTON, New Zealand––Plans for a cull of 17,500 Himalayan mountain tahr across the Southern Alps of New Zealand are on hold, likely to be scaled down but not abandoned, after the New Zealand Tahr Foundation and allied organizations representing trophy hunters … [Read More...]
Moms of babies killed by pit bulls want foster agencies to pay
Kansas case filed; Florida case likely CLEARWATER, Florida; TOPEKA, Kansas––A lawsuit filed on September 21, 2018 against the Kansas Department for Children & Families and the nonprofit child fostering agency KVC Behavioral Healthcare by survivors of foster child Piper Dunbar, age 2, killed by two pit bulls in 2016, may presage a case in development against the multiple … [Read More...]
1,000 wild horses expelled from the Devil’s Garden
Largest wild horse herd in California to be thinned in the Modoc National Forest ALTURAS, California––Heavy rains brought the largest wild horse population in California a short reprieve before the start of potentially the most controversial wild horse gather of 2018. But the rains gave the horses just one more day to run free. Modoc National Forest personnel and Cattoor Livestock Roundup … [Read More...]
Safety agencies failed woman, infant killed by pit bull mixes
Why were the victims & the killer dogs in the same homes? LAS VEGAS, Nevada; CLEARWATER, Florida––Pit bull mixes were on October 5, 2018 disclosed to have killed 58-year-old Susan Sweeney of Las Vegas four days earlier, and seven-month-old foster child Khloe Williams that afternoon in Clearwater, Florida, under circumstances in each case suggesting significant dereliction of duty on the … [Read More...]
$10 billion from China buys big changes in Kenya wildlife tourism
Effects parallel those of bringing rail travel to Yellowstone in 1902 NAIROBI, Kenya––Looming over Kenya like the Standard Gauge Railway trestle at the northern edge of Nairobi National Park, or the marabou storks overlooking the dense traffic on the highway into Nairobi from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, is the question of how $10 billion in recent Chinese investment in … [Read More...]
Feline Fix by Five: the F-word campaign
One simple change can have profound results by Philip A. Bushby, DVM, MS, DACVS The Veterinary Task Force on Feline Sterilization for Age of Spay and Neuter Surgery was convened in January 2016 to review issues surrounding the overpopulation of cats and the standard recommendation that ovariohysterectomy and castration of cats be delayed until cats are six months old or older. Resulting from … [Read More...]
“Shoot drones, not pigeons,” SHARK founder dares gun clubs
Current drones have pigeon-like flight qualities GENEVA, Illinois––Showing Animals Respect & Kindness [SHARK] founder Steve Hindi, gambling on video surveillance missions for more than a decade that he is a better drone pilot than pigeon shooters are anti-aircraft gunners, on October 2, 2018 formalized the contest in a video entitled Drone Challenge for Cruel, Cowardly Pigeon … [Read More...]
Disease linked to cockfighting menaces California poultry industry
Gamecocks carrying Newcastle disease to domestic flocks killed millions in 1971 and 2003 LOS ANGELES––The billion-dollar-a-year California poultry industry is betting the farm that state and federal authorities can get a two-year series of outbreaks of Newcastle disease under control before it becomes the biggest threat to profits in decades. An outbreak discovered in California in … [Read More...]
Pit bull impounded, drifter kills police chief
Stabs chief in sidewalk ambush RODEZ, France––Furious that his pit bull had been impounded a week earlier, on September 18, 2018, homeless drifter Alexandre Dainotti, 39, on September 27, 2018 reportedly drank two cups of coffee at a sidewalk café while waiting in ambush for Rodez police chief Pascal Filoé, then fatally stabbed Filoé from behind as he passed. The … [Read More...]
“What would you say your legacy has been?”
Dear ANIMALS 24-7 readers: Beth and I, through the generosity of a donor who funded us specifically to attend, are just back from the 2018 Africa Animal Welfare Conference, held at the United Nations complex in Nairobi, Kenya. Though our daily online readership has never been greater, we have worked for half pay or less for more than a year now, and without that donor’s help, would have had to … [Read More...]
Gambling––on dogs & dollars––erodes animal care & control ethic
Embezzling cases & pit bull attack deaths both reflect crap game culture SYRACUSE (NY), DAYTON (OH), COLUMBIA (MD)––The U.S. animal care-and-control community has an untreated gambling problem, getting worse instead of better. In the first half of the 20th century, when humane education was closely linked to moral education, no major humane conference would even have been … [Read More...]
“Natural” horse herd control advocate Sussman loses ranch
International Society for the Protection of Mustangs & Burros is sued for unpaid rent EAGLE BUTTE, South Dakota––Attorney, author, and marine biologist John Christopher Fine, of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on August 29, 2018 sued the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs & Burros and society president Karen Sussman, “seeking nearly $135,000 in delinquent … [Read More...]
Bleak future for Kenya donkeys, sold to slaughter or left to go feral
Beasts of burden for 5,000 years, but now out of work NAIROBI, NAIVASHA, Kenya––Donkeys in Kenya, as in much of the rest of the developing world, are rapidly disappearing, but not all in the same direction. Some are trucked to slaughter; others gallop into the bush. Tens of thousands of Kenyan donkeys have already been killed in recent years to satisfy booming Chinese demand … [Read More...]