High pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 hits in unexpected places around the globe GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, Ecuador; PUGET SOUND, Washington; DES MOINES, Iowa––Beyond the birding world, and only the small segment of that who pay attention to avian diseases, hardly anyone noticed the “canary in the coal mine” when on September 20, 2023 the Galapagos National Park […]
Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project celebrates a triple dolphin release in Bali
Culminates 12-year campaign BALI, Indonesia––Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project on September 3, 2022 celebrated the release into the open ocean of the bottlenose dolphins Johnny, Rocky, and Rambo, after three years of rehabilitation and a decade-long campaign to free them from the captive dolphin exhibition industry. “We’re tracking them now,” Ric O’Barry emailed to ANIMALS 24-7. […]
Buffalo attack death mystery recalls injuries & deaths of other animal advocates
Shando Mathebula, Steve Ross, Jerry W. Brown, & Angela Glover JOHANNESBURG––The South African National Park Service [SANParks] and South African Police Service [SAPS] are reportedly investigating the May 4, 2022 death of Kruger National Park field ranger and dog handler Shando Mathebula, 36. Mathebula, while on patrol in the park, was either fatally gored by […]
Busting cockfights by people of color but ignoring the good old boys
Why do cockfighters in majority white conservative states get a free pass from big animal advocacy groups & law enforcement? by Steve Hindi, founder, Showing Animals Respect & Kindness Recently I have read a number of posts from animal organizations applauding the failure of cockfighters’ efforts in the courts to continue cockfighting in the U.S. […]
Deaths in Tahiti: pit bull mayhem hits “tropical paradise”
Victim survived nuclear bomb tests, but not four Staffordshires and a bull terrier PAPEETE, Tahiti––Maria Liu Sing ép. Layoussaint, 87, was on May 12, 2020 torn apart by four American Staffordshire pit bulls and a bull terrier pit bull variant. She had survived World War II, the 1946 annexation of Polynesia by France, and 193 […]
“Invasive” grey squirrels, feral pigs, & rats: leave ’em alone, say scientists
Studies suggest grey squirrel, feral pig, & rat control are barking up the wrong tree BELFAST; GUAM; VANCOUVER––“Invasive” grey squirrels are allegedly extirpating red squirrels in the British Isles by transmitting squirrel pox. Feral pigs allegedly run amok to the detriment of rare native plants on Guam, a remote Pacific island. Rats present a perennial […]
How killing cats helped to keep Aussie Liberal Party in power
Cat purge masks otherwise weak record on endangered species CANBERRA, Australia––Cats were nowhere on the May 18, 2019 Australian federal election ballot, and were not among the official campaign issues for any of the contestants, either. Yet the Liberal Party scheme to kill two million cats by 2020 lurked just behind the polling results […]
An Easter bunny, cat, & mongoose story from a Japanese island
Predators wrongly blamed for losses, ancient Amami rabbits make a comeback AMAMI, Amami-Oshima, Japan––The Easter 2019 bunny story of the year, and island ecology story, too, with even an angle involving egg hunts by ornithologists, is underway on Amami-Oshima and Tokunoshima islands, between Japan and Okinawa. Much to the evident embarrassment of the Japanese Environment […]
Mercury Toxicity as a Cause for Stranded Marine Mammals is not a Mystery
by Bill McGraw (Ph.D. in aquaculture, Boquete, Panama; www.newaquatechpanama.com) Approximately 37% of marine mammal species are in danger of extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Among the most often reported concerns regarding deaths of whales and dolphins are the phenomena of these animals beaching or “stranding” themselves en masse. Episodic […]
Why killing cats on remote islands will not help biodiversity
And why killing dogs, rats, pigs, goats, mice & mongooses too would be mainly make-work for exterminators SANTA CRUZ, California––Appealing for funding to kill cats, dogs, rats, pigs, goats, and mongooses on at least 107 islands belonging to 34 nations, in the name of promoting biodiversity, the previously obscure 25-year-old organization Island Conservation scored […]