Manicured image as “positive reinforcement” trainer & conservationist was, like the Siegfried & Roy show, largely illusory LAS VEGAS––Entertainer Roy Horn, 75, whose illusion acts with longtime partner Siegfried Fischbacher famously featured white tigers, pythons, and elephants, died on May 8, 2020 in Las Vegas, his home for nearly 50 years, from complications of […]
Last acts for animal circuses in Russia, India, New Jersey, & Hawaii
Russian law protects Moscow State Circus monopoly MOSCOW, NEW DELHI––New legislation in Russia, whose circuses have for almost a century been the most attended worldwide, and in India, where the circus tradition started, appear to be among the final acts in several thousand years of traveling exhibitions of performing animals. The new Russian “Law […]
“We can still save them”: wild cat conservationist Alan Rabinowitz, 65
The “Indiana Jones of wildlife conservation” was an optimist in a field dominated by doom-and-gloom NEW YORK CITY––Wild cat conservationist Alan Rabinowitz died of cancer on August 5, 2018 in Manhattan, New York City, after an 18-year struggle that began with a diagnosis of leukemia in 2001 and spanned most of the achievements for […]
Tony, the truck stop tiger since 2001, dies at 17––will he be the last?
Had at least 13 predecessors in 30 years IBERVILLE PARISH, Louisiana––Tony, 17, the latest and perhaps the last of a succession of at least 13 tigers exhibited for 30 years at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, was euthanized due to advanced kidney failure on the evening of October 16, […]
Payments for predation losses spark alleged attempts to get away with murder
Schemes meant to save lives may be “gamed” for profit PILIBHIT, India; MADISON, Wisconsin; KALAMAZOO, Michigan––As many as seven alleged murders in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve of northern India, near the border of Nepal, may help to spotlight a fatal flaw in schemes to pay compensation for wildlife depredation, already evident in the U.S. […]
“Ban white tigers & lion/tiger hybrids,” sanctuarians beg feds
Petition seeks rulemaking under Animal Health Protection Act & Animal Welfare Act WASHINGTON D.C.––Nearly 200 years of entrepreneurs speculatively breeding white tigers and lion/tiger hybrids are enough, say a coalition of animal advocacy organizations and several leading sanctuaries where “tigons,” “ligers,” and “liligers” have lived out their days after proving no longer profitable for […]
The Big Five: Peter Jackson, 90, helped to save Indian tigers
Part I of a three-part series (See also John & Margaret Craighead led fight to save grizzly bears and Browder helped save the Everglades, Kellert found the current changing for animals.) Journalist Peter Jackson, instrumental in saving Indian tigers, died on December 9, 2016 in London, England at age 90. Biologists John and Margaret Craighead, instrumental in […]
Tigers and Tigerwallahs
Including Tiger-Wallahs: Saving the Greatest of the Great Cats by Geoffrey C. Ward with Diane Raines Ward Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett The Secret Life of Tigers by Valmik Thapar Tiger Haven by Billy Arjan Singh Oxford University Press (YMCA Library Bldg., Jai Singh Rd., New Delhi 110 001, India), 2002. Circa 750 pages, hardcover. […]
Ashok Kumar, 81, brought India’s most notorious poacher to justice
Co-founded Wildlife Trust of India NEW DELHI, India––Ashok Kumar, 81, the quiet man of Indian wildlife conservation, died on August 19, 2016, after a lifetime of undercover and behind-the-scenes work on behalf of tigers, elephants, and every other iconic, rare, or struggling species on the subcontinent. Co-founder and president emeritus of the Wildlife […]
Washington voters trounce hook-&-bullet crowd on behalf of endangered species
71% in favor OLYMPIA––Washington state voters on November 3, 2015 overwhelmingly approved Initiative Measure 1401, introducing state-level felony penalties for the purchase, sale, and/or distribution of products made from elephants, rhinos, lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, sea turtles, pangolins, sharks and rays. At least 50 individuals have reportedly been apprehended in possession with such contraband […]