Or is hippo overpopulation even really the issue? LUSAKA, Zambia––Why has Zambian tourism minister Charles Banda revived a five-year-old plan to cull up to 250 hippopotamuses per year from South Luangwa National Park, only two years after scrapping it? “The South Luangwa National Park has a population of more than 13,000 hippos but the area […]
“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 […]
Trump words had no teeth: elephant & lion trophy imports resume
Under current rules, Walter Palmer might have imported Cecil’s head with little fuss WASHINGTON D.C.–– In 20-20 hindsight, the November 19, 2017 Twitter message by U.S. President Donald Trump hinting that he might protect African elephants and lions from trophy hunting by executive order looks more like camouflage than a decision. Twittering that trophy […]
Who killed ivory trade investigator Esmond Martin, why?
Survived more than 30 years of work in some of the world’s most dangerous places, only to be stabbed in his bed NAIROBI, Kenya––Nairobi police homicide detectives appear to believe that renowned elephant ivory and rhino horn trafficking investigator Esmond Bradley Martin Jr., 75, was murdered on February 5, 2018 in connection with a […]
Trump stalls elephant & lion trophy imports after meal of shark fin soup
Appointees had put elephants & lions back on trophy hit list WASHINGTON D.C.––Tweeting “Put big game trophy decision on hold until such time as I review all conservation facts,” U.S. President Donald Trump on November 17, 2017 unexpectedly suspended U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services decisions –– trumpeted by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and praised by both […]
Boerboel dogs: “bull-biters” became symbols of apartheid
North Carolina breeder killed by one of her own “Beloved Boerboels” ASHEVILLE, North Carolina; DURBAN, South Africa––Buncombe County Animal Services on May 1, 2017 removed five boerboel dogs and a Great Pyranees from the home of Jane Marie Egle, 59, after shooting a sixth boerboel who had fatally mauled Egle. Relocating to the Asheville […]
Hunters can’t just kill elephants to claim to save them, says judge
Just funding “conservation” is not enough, absent evidence that elephants benefit WASHINGTON D.C.––The claim that shooting elephants in Zimbabwe helps to save them no longer stands up in U.S. federal court, even if the money hunters pay to kill the elephants is nominally spent for “conservation,” U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled on September […]
Fatal dog attacks & dogfighting explode in South Africa
Pit Bull Union of South Africa executives convicted on related charges CAPE TOWN, South Africa––Faith Hendricks, 18 months old, was on September 1, 2016 killed in her parents’ yard by the family pit bull in Mount Pleasant, South Africa, a suburb of Port Elizabeth on the Eastern Cape. Marchen Hoffman, age 6, was killed […]
Hippos out of water: easy trophy targets
May be shot even in Colombian mini-refuge CAPE TOWN, LUSAKA, MEDALIN–– Hippopotamuses, under the gun now in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, decried as a menace by fishing villages in Kenya, Uganda, and Malawi, and perhaps soon to be shot in Colombia, might be described as casualties of global warming. Evolved due to global warming […]