Communications down, info scarce, but rescuers are on the job WAILUKU, Maui, Hawaii––With 53 human dead and counting, 1,700 homes burned, 3,000 acres razed, cell phone and internet service down all over the island, and more than 13,000 people homeless, animal news from the Maui fire disaster area as of the evening of August 10, […]
Tigers menaced by Nepal bureaucrat as well as by poaching, et al
New environment minister Birendra Prasad Mahato proposes to auction tiger hunting rights KATHMANDU, Nepal––“We could charge $25 million for every tiger killed,” Nepalese minister for forests and environment Birendra Prasad Mahato reportedly told a podcast audience in mid-July 2023, as International Tiger Day, July 29, 2023, approached. Mahato recommended that Nepal should begin auctioning tiger […]
Jail break for Colombian owl monkeys; hippos remain on the lam
Arbitrarily assigned conservation status protects owl monkeys, but designates hippos Public Enemy Numero Uno. CALI, Colombia––What a difference 15 million years makes! The most distant ancestors of Colombian owl monkeys, a subspecies of night monkey, are believed to have floated across the then much narrower South Atlantic ocean circa 30 million years ago on logs […]
Joe Biden signs the Big Cat Public Safety Act
Fifteen-year campaign nears climax for Howard & Carole Baskin WASHINGTON D.C.––U.S. President Joe Biden on December 20, 2022 endorsed the Big Cat Public Safety Act into law. The Big Cat Public Safety Act on December 6, 2022 was unanimously passed by the U.S. Senate on a voice vote, after clearing the House of Representatives […]
What happened to the Shalom Zoo baby tigers, why?
Why did the Shalom Zoo strive for a year to obtain baby tigers at apparently any cost? WEST BEND, Wisconsin––Two tiger cubs born on August 6, 2022 at the Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary in West Bend, Wisconsin, formerly known as the Shalom Wildlife Zoo, in the early morning of November 19, 2022 drowned in an […]
Elephant release marks 75th anniversary of Indian independence
(Adapted, with some explanatory text added and legal details deleted specific only to India, from a much longer version by Norma Alvares, president, People for Animals, Goa, and Alok Hiswarwala Gupta, Centre for Research on Animal Rights, published by Herald Goa on August 14, 2022.) While the people of India prepared to celebrate 75 […]
Big Cat Public Safety Act clears House again, heads toward passage
Odds for Senate approval look good this time WASHINGTON D.C.––Clearing the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 278-138, the Big Cat Public Safety Act pushed since 2007 by Carole and Howard Baskin of Big Cat Rescue appears likely to win U.S. Senate approval as well, and be signed into law by President Joe […]
Amit Deol saved camels, Anton Mzimba saved rhinos, & both died young
Deol & Mzimba became legendary in India & South Africa, respectively SIROHI, Rajasthan, India; ACORNHOEK, Mpumalanga, South Africa––Amit Deol, 46, spent most of his short life helping camels in the Thar desert of Rajasthan state, India. Anton Mzimba, either 42 or 49 according to various sources, spent his life protecting rhinos from poachers on the […]
Floods: Yellowstone animals don’t need Noah, but animals might in Assam, India
High water raises hell in both the Rocky Mountains & below the Himalayas YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, U.S.A.; GUWAHATI, Assam, India––While unprecedentedly catastrophic flooding closed Yellowstone National Park for a week in mid-June 2022, also unprecedentedly severe monsoon flooding closed Manas National Park in Assam state, India, earlier and for longer. Both Yellowstone National Park, […]
Busted again: the secret life of “Tiger King” Kevin “Doc” Antle on the lam from Iowa
Does Antle fear identification with the ordinary more than felony charges? Charged with money laundering mucho bigtime MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina––Kevin Antle, 62, self-styled as “Bhagavan” and “Doc” Antle, was late on June 3, 2022 reportedly apprehended by agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Antle and alleged accomplice Andrew Jon Sawyer, 52, also known […]