Animals 24-7

News on dogs, cats, horses, wildlife, zoonoses, & nature

Puppies & kittens everywhere, but none in shelters to adopt

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Suspension of spay/neuter & intake services due to COVID-19 cuts adoptions by a third from 2019             NEW YORK CITY––Celebrating rehoming every dog and cat in custody soon after COVID-19 shutdowns began,  animal shelters from coast to coast are suddenly––and predictably––weeping,  wailing,  and tearing hair about having no adoptable animals to offer in response to […]

“Asian murder hornet”: surrogate for COVID-19 terror

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Or,  how two “great sparrow bees” incited a national hunt for alleged Chinese alien invaders             BLAINE, Washington––How did the Asian giant hornet,  known for centuries in Japan as the “great sparrow bee,”  generally regarded as beneficial to farmers for killing insect pests,  suddenly become feared in the U.S. as the so-called “murder hornet”? After […]

COVID-19: India feeds stray dogs; ASPCA says “don’t fix them”

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ASPCA advice to shelters could increase puppy & kitten litters by about half a million  While pet keepers in the developed world fret about the apparently infinitesimally small risk of pets and humans infecting and reinfecting each other,  following the discovery of COVID-19 infecting one cat in Liege,  Belgium,  and two dogs and a cat […]

Ravaging Asia & Africa: a much deadlier plague than COVID-19

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World fiddles while grasshoppers munch             NINGBO,  China;  NAIROBI,  Kenya––A much deadlier plague than the COVID-19 coronavirus is sweeping westward from China through Pakistan,  across Central Asia,  and throughout the Horn of Africa,  flying 100 miles a day,  devouring crops enough to feed as many as 34 million people,  according to the United Nations Food […]

Sperm-sorting comes to India through cow-loving Modi government

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Slippery business may stop the bull calf surplus          NEW DELHI,  India––Cracking down hard against illegal cattle slaughter and exports to slaughter,  while boosting milk production,  the Hindi nationalist Nahendra Modi regime ruling India since 2014 caused the perennial Indian bull calf surplus to explode. Now,  however,  the Modi government has reportedly […]

Heart failure fells Vier Pfoten (Four Paws) founder Helmut Dungler, 56

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Dungler died at the Lionsrock sanctuary he founded             BETHLEHEM,  South Africa––Helmut Dungler,  56,  founder of the international animal charity Vier Pfoten (Four Paws),  died on January 5,  2020 from a sudden massive heart attack suffered on one of his frequent visits to the Lionsrock sanctuary,  among the biggest and most ambitious of the many […]

Gadhi Mai 2019: more animals killed than in 2014, but fewer people watched

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But drone videos show––again––that the body count was vastly lower than is often claimed BARIYARPUR,  Nepal––More animals were slain at the 2019 Gadhi Mai sacrificial massacre in Bariyarpur,  Nepal,  than in 2014––a deeply disappointing discovery,  after 15 years of international efforts to stop the every-five-years bloodbath held in honor of a local goddess. Drone video […]

Uttam Dahal, 33, was dynamo for animals in Nepal despite ill health

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Dahal won 2014 Supreme Court of Nepal case against Gadhi Mai mass sacrifice             KATHMANDU, Nepal––Nepal Animal Welfare & Research Center founder Uttam G.P. Dahal,  33,  died on July 26, 2019 after battling illness for most of his brief but dynamic life. Dahal left Santana Sharma,  his wife of just two years and two months,  […]

Why vultures are not circling over the drought-parched world

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It isn’t that vultures don’t feel the threat from global warming             GABORONE,  Botswana––Scarce over much of drought-parched India,  Central Asia, and Africa,  vultures still converge over dead livestock and wildlife in Botswana,  stripping the corpses of even elephants and hippos down to the bones within hours––but for how much longer? The Botswana Department of […]

Will lawsuits slow use of dogs as “ambassadors” for dangerous breeds?

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Attacks by “service dog” and “reading dogs” illustrate risky practices             ATLANTA, Georgia;  BAKERSFIELD, California––Pending lawsuits on behalf of the victims of dog attacks aboard a Delta Airlines flight and in an elementary school classroom could potentially slow down the deployment of dangerous dog breeds as “canine ambassadors” in public places––or not,  depending on the […]