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, […]
Horses die by the hundreds on pilgrimage to honor the Hindu “God of all animals”
What if 600 horses died climbing Pikes Peak? DEHRADUN, Uttarakhand, India––One might imagine that the annual pilgrimage to Kedarnath, a temple in the Himalayas built in honor of Lord Pashupatinath, the Hindu god of all animals, might be undertaken with particular attention to animal welfare. But then, one might also expect all four legs of […]
Vultures: canaries in the pharmaceutical waste coal mine?
Diclofenac-related vulture death in Spain may point toward a much bigger problem Should the end times be near, whether through global warming, loss of fish from the oceans, nuclear war, or any of myriad other calamities, vanishing vultures might be among the early harbingers of the apocalypse. Vultures might be expected to descend on the […]
Will videotaped beatings kill the last elephant polo tournament?
PETA video shows mahout hit elephant on the head “approximately 15 times” BANGKOK, Thailand––The likelihood that the recently completed 16th annual King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Bangkok, Thailand will mark the end of the sport increased on March 9, 2018, the second day of the four-day event, concluded on March 11, when PETA/Asia […]
Elephant polo follows woolly mammoths toward extinction
Scheduled at only one place, for just four days, in 2018 BANGKOK, Thailand––Elephant polo might in theory stagger on for years or even decades after the four-day 2018 King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament––if the last tournament host, Anantara Hotels & Resorts, remains willing to pour promotional effort into it and mahouts have elephants to […]
What if the U.S. Supreme Court ruled rodeo unconstitutional?
It happened in India! NEW DELHI, India––Imagine the U.S. Supreme Court resoundingly rebuking the Donald Trump presidential administration by holding rodeo to be unconstitutional, regardless of how culturally entrenched it is among “red state voters,” his support base. Difficult though it may be to imagine newly appointed U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions moving under […]
Shaktimaan the police horse dies of complications from assault
Lost leg, suffered infection DEHRADUN, Uttarakhand, India––Shaktimaan the police horse died at about 5:30 p.m. on April 20, 2016, of causes officially unknown pending necropsy, but believed to be a post-operative infection. “It is extremely unfortunate and heart-breaking for us that the horse is no more. Post mortem will confirm the cause of death,” […]
The good guys don’t harm horses
Facing charges, protesters claim they didn’t DEHRADUN, KANSAS CITY––Populist protest leaders in Dehradun, India and Kansas City, Missouri are facing charges and on the defensive in the court of public opinion for alleged assaults on police horses during political rallies. The big white equine alleged victims look enough alike to have been a matched […]
Elephant sanctuarian Carol Buckley takes up fencing
“Good fences make good neighbors.” ––Robert Frost Whatever became of Carol Buckley, the former circus elephant trainer who founded the world-renowned Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, but made a controversial exit in March 2010? “Buckley is currently in Thailand installing the country’s first solar powered chain-free corrals for captive elephants,” Elephant Aid International publicist Patricia Jones […]
Elephant polo ends in Jaipur, but elephant use & abuse in tourism continue
From Azam Siddiqui, New Delhi, India: I have immense joy in sharing the news that elephant polo organizers have pledged not to hold elephant polo matches in the state of Rajasthan, India. Reported Rachna Singh for the Times of India on January 9, 2015, “Tour operators are now informing the foreign agents not to book […]