Animals 24-7

News on dogs, cats, horses, wildlife, zoonoses, & nature

Alleged rhino poaching gang served trophy hunters as well as Asian medicinal demand

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Rhino industry insiders in the dock JOHANNESBURG––Startling photos of the September 22,  2010 arraignment of 11 alleged members of an international rhino poaching syndicate reached the world despite the officially unexplained efforts of police to keep photographers out. News photographers Werner Beukes of the South African Press Agency,  Herman Verwey of Beeld,  and Lewellyn Carstens […]

How Shelter Pets Are Brokered for Experimentation: Understanding Pound Seizure

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by Allie Phillips Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc. (4501 Forbes Blvd.,  Suite 200,  Lanham,  MD  20706),  2010.  220 pages,  hardcover.  $34.95. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton American Humane Association director of public policy Allie Phillips has in How Shelter Pets Are Brokered for Experimentation written by far the best researched report on pound seizure to appear between book covers […]

German zoo staff convicted of cruelty for killing hybrid tigers

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MAGDEBURG, Germany––Magdeburg Zoo director Kai Parret and three members of the zoo staff were on June 17, 2010 convicted of cruelty for killing three tiger cubs at birth in May 2008 because their father was found to be a hybrid of the Siberian and Sumatran tiger subspecies. A fine of 8,100 euros was suspended on […]

Ingesting bear bile can kill, warns top Vietnamese traditional doctor

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HANOI––People’s Doctor Nguyen Xuan Huong,  chair of the Traditional Medicine Association of Vietnam,  on July 21,  2010 warned that consuming bear bile products can cause potentially fatal liver and kidney damage. Huong,  who served two terms in the Vietnamese National Assembly,   “joined Animals Asia’s campaign to end bear bile farming after seeing the shocking effects of bile consumption on […]

Toronto Humane Society raided,  execs arrested,  by Ontario SPCA

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  TORONTO––Nearly 30 years of turmoil over control of the Toronto Humane Society reignited on November 26,  2009 when Ontario SPCA investigators backed by Toronto police arrived at the THS shelter with search warrants and led THS president Tim Trow,  veterinarian Steve Sheridan,  general manager Gary McCracken,  and senior staff members Romeo Bernadino and Andy […]

Off-exhibit secrets of troubled zoos

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 by Merritt Clifton UBUD,  GIANYAR–The Bali Zoo,  featuring exhibits from which animals often “go walkabout,” might be described as emphasizing form over substance. Occupying a six-acre forested ravine in a residential neighborhood in Singapadu,  a suburb of Ubud,  the Bali Zoo has been described by tourism media as a “hidden jewel”–and it is,  at a […]

Dog bite prevention weak

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  by Merritt Clifton ALBANY,  CHICAGO,  DENVER, INDIANAPOLIS,   NEW YORK CITY, WASHINGTON D.C.–Dog Bite Prevention Week 2009 opened with opponents of breed-specific legislation claiming victories in Indianapolis and Highland Park,  a Chicago suburb,  but closed with a 13-page verdict against pit bull advocates in Loudoun County,  Virginia. The Indianapolis city/county council on May 12,  2009 voted […]

Scientists confirm: Hurt crabs feel pain

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And try to avoid it BELFAST–Hermit crabs feel pain when injured and change their behavior to avoid the source of pain,  reported Robert Elwood of the School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University in Belfast,  Northern Ireland,  on March 27,  2009. “With vertebrates we are asked to err on the side of caution and I believe this is the approach to take […]

Rabies risk is medically identified from eating dogs & cats

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HANOI–People who prepare dog and cat meat for human consumption are at risk of contracting rabies,  warned medical researcher Heiman Wertheim,  M.D.  in the March 18,  2009 edition of PLoS Medicine. PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed open-accesss online scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science.  With offices in San Francisco and Cambridge,  England, PLoS […]

Russia halts seal hunt

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  MOSCOW,  OTTAWA––Russian minister of natural resources Yury Trutnyev on March 11,  2009 told the world that Russia has halted hunting seals under one year old on the frozen White Sea. “This bloody hunting is from now on banned in our country,  as in most developed countries,”  Trutnyev told media. Trutnyev described the ban as […]