Animals 24-7

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

Failed livestock gift schemes leave developing world animal charities to clean up their messes

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Culprits not easily identified (See also How plastic reindeer can feed the world.)          ALBERTON,  South Africa;  KOCHI,  India––Animal charities in the developing world often have first-hand experience with the failures of livestock gift schemes meant by well-meaning western donors to relieve hunger and poverty. But developing world animal charities tend to […]

Feral Cities: Adventures with Animals in the Urban Jungle

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by Tristan Donovan Chicago Review Press 814 North Franklin Street Chicago, Illinois 60610 256 pages, paperback. $16.95. $16.95 (US $16.95) (CA $19.95) http://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/feral-cities-products-9781569760673.php Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Among the species Tristan Donovan encounters in Feral Cities, at chapter length, among his “Adventures with Animals in the Urban Jungle” are rattlesnakes in Phoenix, feral chickens, snails, […]

Ian Player, 87, saved South African rhinos from extinction, only to see them at risk again

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“Player was a true gentleman and one of the best conservationists in Africa”          JOHANNESBURG, South Africa––“We were deeply saddened to learn that Dr. Ian Player passed away this morning after suffering a stroke last week,” Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force chair Johnny Rodrigues e-mailed to ANIMALS 24-7 early on November 30, 2014, seven hours before […]

Trophy hunters vs. horn poachers: an arms race that rhinos can only lose

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Hunting money has raised the “floor price” for rhino horn WASHINGTON D.C., WINDHOEK, JOHANNESBURG–– Who covets rhino horn most, Vietnamese nouveau riché who believe powdered rhino horn can cure them of cancer, or U.S. trophy hunters willing to pay almost any price to hob nob with the elite of Safari Club International? Who is really to […]

U.S. proposal to “protect” African lions hands their heads to hunters

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Double-edged proposal to list African lions as a “threatened” species WASHINGTON D.C.––“Wild” African lions may in the future exist only as a species cultivated for trophy hunting, anticipates an October 29, 2014 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service proposal to list them as a “threatened” species. Published in the October 29, 2014 edition of the Federal Register, […]

Kenya adds humane education curriculum

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          NAIROBI––“For the first time in Kenya, animal welfare will be integrated into the national school curriculum,” Africa Network for Animal Welfare founder Josphat Ngonyo e-mailed to ANIMALS 24-7 on July 17, 2014. ANAW and the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development on June 6, 2014 signed a memorandum of understanding that “sets the structure for […]

Anthony Hall Martin, 68, founder of African Parks Foundation

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  Anthony Hall-Martin, 68, died of cancer on May 21, 2014. Author of 10 books and more than 80 published scientific papers, Hall-Martin during a long tenure as chief of conservation development for the South African National Park Service led the establishment of Table Mountain National Park, overlooking Cape Town, and other national parks including […]

Awards & honors, 2nd quarter 2014

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            The C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar Foundation,  Animal Welfare Board of India,  and Winsome Constance Kindness Trust on March 23,  2014 saluted the students of the Shri B.S. Mootha School in Chennai for presenting the best Kindness Kids program in a contest involving 17,000 children in four cities of Tamil Nadu and […]

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 […]