Animals 24-7

News & perspective for the humane community

Bleak future for Kenya donkeys, sold to slaughter or left to go feral

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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 […]

“Undertaker birds” replace street dogs in African cities

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Marabou storks eat everything along the roads except the cars             NAIROBI,  Kenya––Marabou storks have replaced the street dogs. Twenty years ago the drive from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport past Nairobi National Park and into the central city via the Mombasa highway was an exercise in start-and-stop driving and sudden swerves to avoid the […]

Trophy hunting scheme & Chinese-built railway fire debate in Kenya

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ANIMALS 24-7 reports from the scene             NAIROBI,  Kenya––Most of the delegates to the 2018 Africa Animal Welfare Conference,  opening on September 3 at the United Nations Complex in Nairobi,  will have already seen the second most controversial wildlife-related topic in Kenya,  a four-mile Chinese-built railway overpass crossing Nairobi National Park,  on their 20-mile ride […]

Death of Koko, 46, raises question what will become of her rejected mate Ndume?

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Koko was among the last great apes used in still controversial 1970s language research             WOODSIDE,  California––With Koko deceased,  what now will become of Ndume,  37,  the last and least famous of the three gorillas who once shared the Gorilla Foundation sanctuary and primate language research laboratory in the Santa Cruz Mountains,  south of San […]

“Kenya’s wildlife should remain in the wild” –– Sidney Quntai, 57

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Little known outside Kenya, hugely influential within             NAIROBI,  Kenya––Pioneering Kenyan journalist and wildlife advocate Sidney Quntai Tauwo,  57,  died “on the morning of April 20,  2018 after a short illness which he courageously fought,  but lost,”  Africa Network for Animal Welfare senior officer for communications and advocacy Sebastian Mwanza emailed to ANIMALS 24-7 on […]

The poop on live transport, whaling, & Ramadan 2018

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Old ships,  ancient customs             FREMANTLE,  Australia––Seventy thousand Australian sheep aboard the 38-year-old livestock carrier Al Messilah,  or anyhow those who survive the journey,  are due to reach Kuwait on May 14,  2018,  according to VesselFinder.com. The voyage continues a trade that Animals Australia likens to whaling in terms of cruelty and obsolescence,  but which […]

Daphne Sheldrick, 83, showed Kenya that wildlife is worth most when alive

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Known for elephant & rhino rescue,  but contributions were much bigger than that             NAIROBI,  Kenya––The facts of the life of the late Daphne Sheldrick,  who died at age 83 on April 12,  2018 after a long battle with breast cancer,  are much more easily summarized than her legacy to wildlife,  elephants in particular,  and […]

A matriarch remembers, by Daphne Sheldrick,  D.B.E. (1934-2018)

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The first 65 years of the life of the world’s first mom to orphaned elephants in her own words Editors’ note:  Daphne Sheldrick,  83,  founder of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and of the elephant orphanage the trust operates at the edge of Nairobi National Park,  Kenya,  died on April 12,  2018,  after a long battle […]

Yellow fever mosquitoes now killing at 10 times the rate of pit bulls

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Monkey killings contribute to disease outbreak death tolls in Brazil & India             RIO DE JANEIRO,  Brazil;  SINGHUDURG,  India––Panic-driven monkey massacres are contributing to human illness and death,  with yellow fever deaths up 60% since the end of fiscal 2017,  and could help to spark global epidemics,  warn Brazilian health officials. More than 718 Brazilians […]

South Sudan bans hunting; but will the ban last? by Sebastian Mwanza

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Does the history of South Sudan favor the ban? [Sebastian Mwanza is senior officer for communications & advocacy with the Africa Network for Animal Welfare,  based in Nairobi,  Kenya.] On March 6, 2018,  as ANIMALS 24-7 reported,  the world woke up to good tidings from the Xinhua News Agency that South Sudan’s Ministry of Wildlife […]