Animals 24-7

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

Project Chimps paints walls in lieu of giving chimps daily outdoor time

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Paint job was not “whitewashing” because Project Chimps used bright colors BLUE RIDGE, Georgia–– Humane Society of the U.S. representatives once upon a time derisively denounced as eyewash meant to impress human visitors,  not the imprisoned animals, the common zoo practice of painting scenic backdrops on bare concrete walls. Staff and volunteers at the Project […]

Sheriffs ignored chimp in their own back yard until they shot him

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Two sheriffs and many deputies helped to found and run the former Buck Brogoitti Animal Rescue,  named for the chimp PENDLETON, Oregon––Tamara Brogoitti,  68,  closed the 800-acre Buck Brogoitti Animal Rescue on the outskirts of Pendleton in January 2019. Knowing she was no longer either physically or financially capable of running the sanctuary,  looking after large […]

Factory farming scheme in Zambia threatens wildlife over half of Africa

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Straw-colored fruit bats,  giving birth in just one place,  pollinate trees throughout central Africa             LUSAKA, Zambia––Public comment on what appears to be one of the most ecologically destructive development projects in all Africa,  menacing Kasanka National Park,  Zambia,  and especially threatening to straw-colored fruit bats,  closes on June 16,  2021. Who cares about African […]

Former child star chimp Cobby, 63, had troubling hidden past

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“Golden age of television” survivor had caregivers influential in the rise of animal rights opposition to zoos and circuses SAN FRANCISCO––The San Francisco Zoo chimpanzee Cobby,  63,  who died on June 5,  2021,  was remembered by mass media as “the oldest male chimp living in an accredited North American zoo.” But that may have been the […]

South Africa debates end to “canned lion” industry & ivory sales

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“High-Level Panel Report on Lions, Rhinos, Elephants & Leopards” recommends turnabout in national wildlife policy             JOHANNESBURG, South Africa––A South African government wildlife policy study recommends an end to breeding captive lions for cub-petting, trophy shoots of captive-bred and raised lions,  and exports of lion bones for use in traditional Chinese medicine. The paper also […]

Factory-farmed pigs get a break from vaccine breakthrough

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For factory-farmed pigs,  avoiding African swine fever may be about as good as the grim news gets GREENPORT, New York––With all eyes on the progress of vaccination against the global COVID-19 pandemic,  which has to date killed nearly 3.5 million people,  the U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Service in early May quietly announced a breakthrough […]

Remembering Rory Young, Glenn Summerlin, & Helen Marston

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Soldier,  fundraiser,  & campaigner:  three animal advocates whose work & approaches could scarcely have differed more Rory Young,  49,  founder of the anti-poaching organization Chengeta Wildlife,  was killed on April 26, 2021,  along with Spanish journalist David Beriáin,  44,  and photographer Roberto Fraile,  47,  in an ambush in Burkina Faso attributed to the jihadist militia […]

Five animal advocates of British accent remembered in passing

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Two zookeepers,  two activists,  & a publisher Sharon Matola,  Jeremy Mallinson,  Brian Gunn,  Brian Gunn-King,  and Jon Wynne-Tyson were respectively two zookeepers dedicated to the conservation of endangered species,  an anti-vivisection activist,  a vegetarian activist of similar name,  and a book publisher,  of many overlapping associations. Matola and Mallinson,  for instance,  were both friends of […]

Vultures: canaries in the pharmaceutical waste coal mine?

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Diclofenac-related vulture death in Spain may point toward a much bigger problem Should the end times be near,  whether through global warming,  loss of fish from the oceans,  nuclear war,  or any of myriad other calamities,  vanishing vultures might  be among the early harbingers of the apocalypse. Vultures might be expected to descend on the […]

Did Namibia sell 170 elephants to China to make way for oil drilling?

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Murky Namibian elephant deal might involve as much as $22 million paid to someone,  even if oil rights are not involved WINDHOEK,  Namibia––Two weeks after the Namibian government sold 170 elephants to five undisclosed buyers,  to be transported to parts unknown,  Namibian minister of environment and tourism Pohamba Shifeta has yet to reveal the details […]