Rumors of death penalty for poachers never held water, Agence France Presse reports––but Patrick Mwalua’s projects do VOI, Kenya––Rumors stoked since April 2018 by a Xinhua news agency report that Kenya will soon introduce the death penalty for poachers not only have no legal or legislative foundation, as ANIMALS 24-7 reported in February 2019, […]
Four people who changed how humans see animals
Charlie Russell, Mary T. Hoffman, Aubrey Manning, & Dorothy Cheney Russell made “Spirit Bears” famous Canadian bear researcher and author Charlie Russell, 76, died on May 7, 2018 in Calgary, Alberta, from complications after surgery. Born in Pincher Creek, Alberta, where his parents Andy and Kay Russell were hunting outfitters and guides, Charlie Russell […]
TNR protects African wildcats from “genetic pollution” & ferals from cruelty
Alley Cat Rescue begins project at Kruger National Park KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, South Africa––Alley Cat Rescue, of Mount Ranier, Maryland, is now “working to implement trap-neuter-return programs for stray/feral cats around Kruger National Park,” according to founder Louise Holton, to keep African wildcats from hybridizing with their domestic descendants. Having “advocated for the humane […]
$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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
“Undertaker birds” replace street dogs in African cities
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
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 […]
“Kenya’s wildlife should remain in the wild” –– Sidney Quntai, 57
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 […]
Daphne Sheldrick, 83, showed Kenya that wildlife is worth most when alive
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 […]