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 […]
Why is Hawaii “moving at a hurried pace” to kill cats at boat harbors?
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?
Jogging with the alligators 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 […]