Guest column by Katrina Love Katrina Love, of Franklin, Tasmania, Australia, describes herself as “an animal activist, politician, vegan advocate, pluviophile, photographer, writer, Earthling and animal,” and multi-time political candidate for the Animal Justice Party. Formerly campaign manager for Stop Live Exports, in Fremantle, Australia, Katrina Love continues to closely monitor live animal transports, not […]
Kangaroos, mink, & crocs have skin in the game; politicians do not
Republicans try to undo legislation against kangaroo leather and the mink trade; IUCN favors crocodile & snake farming DETROIT, SACRAMENTO, WASHINGTON D.C., MELBOURNE, Australia––2026 began most auspiciously for those of us who believe fur and hides belong on the animals who grew them, not to human scavengers, but that was before politicians got involved on […]
War is hell for cats in Lebanon, but brings reprieve for cattle & sheep at Eid
Threat of rockets deters livestock shippers but not Beirut cat rescuers STRAIT OF HORMUZ, BEIRUT––Crisis situations involving animals and war were just behind the headlines in New York City’s two most prestigious newspapers on the morning of Friday the 13th of March 2026, without animals ever being mentioned. Bombing in Lebanon brought disaster to both […]
Live transport plot: “Crocodile Dundee” & “The Uruguayan Connection”
The characters & events depicted in this fictional film plot have been invented for your entertainment. Any resemblance to real life is strictly coincidental. PERTH, Australia––Imagine this as a movie plot: gangster cartels move massive amounts of cocaine from South America to the more affluent parts of the world by hiding it in barrels beneath […]
Christine Townend, 81, founded the animal rights movement in Australia
Animal Liberation was only the second explicitly “animal rights” organization in the world Christine Townend, 81, remembered by Animal Justice Party member of the New South Wales legislative council Emma Hurst, 44, as “essentially the founder of the entire animal rights movement in Australia,” died from Parkinson’s disease in Leura, New South Wales, on August […]
How solving the blue pork mystery might save cats, hawks, owls & eagles
Anti-coagulant rodenticides are less & less effective, so people use more & more of them GRAFTON, Massachusetts; MONTEREY, California––Blue pork from wild pigs in early August 2025 put secondary poisoning caused by toxic accumulations of the anti-coagulant rodenticide diphacinone into tabloid headlines. To wildlife advocates, however, the relatively remote possibility of people suffering illness or […]
San Diego Rodeo, SF live markets, & the last refuge of scoundrels in California
Cultural defenses of abuse prevail over cultural mandate to “Be kind to animals” SAN DIEGO, SAN FRANCISCO––Samuel Johnson, author of the first dictionary of the English language, never saw and most likely never even heard of either San Diego or San Francisco, let alone saw or heard about either the San Diego Petco Park rodeo […]
Lumpy skin disease––what’s that?––hits cattle from Africa to Nepal
Lumpy skin disease––yes, it’s ugly––also set Australia & Indonesia at odds for months. KATHMANDU, Nepal––Best known as the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, circa 564 B.C., and as the land of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, Nepal during the summer of 2023 gained a more sinister distinction as ground zero for arguably the […]
Brazil & New Zealand end livestock exports––for a while, anyhow
Will ruling by Brazilian judge hold? Will New Zealand agriculture minister keep his seat? Will Australia ever do anything effective to stop live export disasters? SAO PAULO, Brazil; WELLINGTON, New Zealand––Upstaging a New Zealand ban on live cattle and sheep exports, to take effect on April 30, 2023, Brazilian federal judge Djalma Gomes on April […]
“Kangaroos are not shoes” campaign kicks back against ghost of Pelé
Demand for soccer shoes helps to drive increased kangaroo culling BETHESDA, Maryland––When Pelé, the most famous and perhaps the greatest soccer player of all time, died on December 29, 2022, almost nobody figuratively jumped on his grave. There was, however, one exception, Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action president Wayne Pacelle. […]