Both black vultures & turkey vultures are rapidly expanding U.S. range and numbers Feeling down about global warming, chemical pollution, and reports about loss of species? See the vultures circling overhead? Both black vultures and turkey vultures are rapidly expanding in numbers and range across the U.S. Turkey vultures have even appeared in southeastern Alaska […]
Jane Goodall joins voices against livestock gift charities
Livestock gifts, Goodall warns, “can result in unintended consequences” WASHINGTON D.C.––Primatologist, anthropologist, and philanthropist Jane Goodall, 87, on December 20, 2021 added her globally influential voice to those of the growing number of critics of livestock gift charities. Livestock gift charities include, most prominently, Heifer International, Oxfam, World Vision, and the Cargill’s “Hatching Hope” […]
Irish farmers have a beef––and that’s our problem, too
Pastoral nations object to cattle cutbacks recommended for greenhouse gas emissions based on factory farm data GLASGOW, Scotland––“Cutting methane,” specifically methane emitted by cattle, “is the biggest opportunity to slow [global] warming between now and 2040,” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead reviewer Durwood Zaelke suggested in August 2021, during the run-up to the 2021 […]
Ethiopian woman who saved rare Italian goat breed is raped, killed
“Happy Goat” farmer/sanctuarian Agitu Ideo Gudeta, 42, was reportedly killed by Ghanian she gave a job VALLE dei MOCHENI, Trentino, Italy––Goat herder Adams Suleimani, 32, an immigrant to Italy from Ghana, has reportedly confessed to raping Happy Goat [La Capra Felice] farmer/sanctuarian and cheesemaker Agitu Ideo Gudeta, 42, and bludgeoning her to death with a hammer, […]
Spay/neuter resumes in Italy despite COVID-19, Camorra & Nigerian mobsters
Quarantine keeps crime in check––for now ROME, CASTEL VOLTURNO, Italy––The deadly global COVID-19 pandemic, killing nearly 32,500 Italians to date, might if anything have made Castel Volturno, the unlikely spay/neuter hub of the nation, just a little bit safer. Certainly stay-at-home orders seem to have at least temporarily reduced the mob violence for which […]
Ravaging Asia & Africa: a much deadlier plague than COVID-19
World fiddles while grasshoppers munch NINGBO, China; NAIROBI, Kenya––A much deadlier plague than the COVID-19 coronavirus is sweeping westward from China through Pakistan, across Central Asia, and throughout the Horn of Africa, flying 100 miles a day, devouring crops enough to feed as many as 34 million people, according to the United Nations Food […]
Two inches of rain means life or death to animals in Kenya
Flash floods broke devastating drought, but not drought cycle menacing wildlife & livestock NAIROBI, Kenya––Just two inches of rain over two days, about what Seattle gets on average in just two weeks, in mid-March 2018 triggered flash floods killing at least 15 Kenyans, marooning six tented camps for wildlife tourists in the Maasai Mara […]
Kenya crisis shows need to transition out of animal agriculture
The issue is not just grazers vs. wildlife U.S. and European concern over the drought-driven conflict besetting central Kenya in early 2017 tends to focus on the impacts afflicting wildlife, wildlife habitat, and eco-tourism. This is understandable because these are the aspects of Kenya most often seen by outsiders, as viewers of wildlife documentaries, films […]
Keeping the Horn of Africa impaled on dilemma
How rebuilding drought-stricken herds perpetuates starvation & poverty PARIS, NAIROBI––The 2014 film documentary Cowspiracy was rarely mentioned among the many conspiracy theories pertaining to global warming and climate change that were bandied about in connection with the recent COP 21 Paris Climate Conference. Most of the COPs, “COP” in this context being short for United […]
Fallen crane & stampede take spotlight from haj animal victims
At least 900,000 animals killed among 24 nations RIYADH, Saudi Arabia––After decades of global controversy over animal transport and slaughter in connection with Eid al Adha sacrificial rites, the animal victims of the 2015 Islamic pilgrimage season went almost unnoticed amid furor over human victims. The start of the pilgrimage season, called the haj […]