New policy allows waterfront cats to be killed “by any means deemed necessary” MILILANI, Hawaii––Hawaii Department of Land & Natural Resources chair Suzanne Case “is moving at a hurried pace to kill cats with a lead pellet fired from a high powered pellet rifle to the head or heart,” alleges Carroll Cox––who is not […]
Which are more deadly, balloons or alligators?
Editorial by Merritt Clifton Readers who troll my wife Beth’s personal Facebook page have probably seen a collage image she posted last summer showing me jogging along an embankment littered with alligators, stepping over their heads as I go, trailing a leaky helium balloon behind me. Obviously I didn’t really go hopping past alligators: the […]
Street dogs in the U.S.? Nathan Winograd has gone barking mad.
by Merritt Clifton Among the most vociferous critics of ANIMALS 24-7 guest columnist Jeff Young’s essay We cannot adopt, warehouse or rescue our way out of dog & cat overpopulation! was No Kill Advocacy Center founder Nathan Winograd. Winograd’s own recommendations in response to the homeless dog and cat problem have long been a hodgepodge of wishful […]
What if an island has no cats?
Birds on remote islands are sometimes better off with cats than without them Part II of a two-part series. See also When the cats are away, the mice will play––and the rats & rabbits. Gough Island, also in the South Atlantic, never had any cats. “Today, the British-owned island, described as the home of the most […]
When the cats are away, the mice will play––and the rats & rabbits
Purging cats from South Atlantic islands often harms birds more than helps them (Part I of a two-part series. See also What if an island has no cats?) LONDON, U.K.––Fourteen years after declaring victory over feral cats on remote Ascension Island, on behalf of sooty terns, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds […]
“Jaws 13, Cecil 0” at Johannesburg endangered species meeting
Hunters prevail on African lion listing JOHANNESBURG, South Africa––The final score in the last contentious rounds at the 12-day CITES CoP 17 meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa might be posted as “Jaws 13, Cecil 0,” with a series of landmark decisions for sharks but nothing good done for African lions. Concluding on October 5, […]
Marine mammal activist Mark “The Bermanator” Berman, 63
Helped to lead campaigns against dolphin captivity & Taiji massacres, & for dolphin-safe tuna & freeing Keiko Mark Ira Berman, 63, the primary spokesperson for Earth Island Institute on marine mammal issues since 1991, died on May 13, 2016. E-mailed Mark J. Palmer, an Earth Island Institute colleague for more than 25 years, “Mark had chronic […]
Why is cockfighting the blood sport most often linked to murder?
Cockfighting & murder occur together worldwide FORT WORTH, Texas––Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Deanna Boyd mentioned almost as an afterthought the murderous history of Robert Eugene Coleman, 56, one of three alleged cockfighters arrested on February 28, 2016: “Tarrant County court records show Coleman had previously been sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1998 […]
Will Solomon Islands dolphin hunters profit from crackdown on Taiji?
TOKYO, BERKELEY––The Japanese Association of Zoos & Aquariums may have sunk the profits from “drive fishery” dolphin massacres at Taiji, Japan, but what does the JAZA decision mean for the apparently bigger “drive fishery” killings at Fanalei, in the Solomon Islands? Facing expulsion from the World Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the […]