Four human victims DENPASAR, Bali, Indonesia––Someone brought a rabid dog to Bali. Yachting, fishing, or trading goods, the culprit apparently came by boat, docking near Ungasan village, where about 170 families live on a peninsula forming the southernmost part of Bali. The rabid dog arrived at about the same time that more than 200 animal […]
Through enemy lines to save his animals
Valentine Holdosi was among the first, youngest, and least known heroes of World War II Among the first, youngest, and least known heroes of World War II, 15-year-old Valentine Holdosi may have developed his extraordinary courage and compassion through his own harsh experience. Fleeing Communist purges, they reached Shanghai, where they survived in desperate poverty […]
Bear rescue season follows tsunami
Wildlife SOS on the job AGRA, CHENGDU––Wildlife SOS founder Kartick Satyanarayan spent most of the first two months of 2005 often literally up to his hips in post-tsunami swamp water and sometimes displaced salt water crocodiles, gorged on human remains. Still, Satyanarayan did not forget that his primary objective for the year was to rescue […]
New killer diseases: nature strikes back against factory farming
GUANGZHOU, Guangdong province, China––Representing the unholy marriage of wildlife consumption with factory farming, an estimated 10,000 masked palm civets, tanukis, (also called raccoon dogs), and hog badgers were sacrificed in the first 10 days of January 2004 for the sins of the meat industry. Mostly cage-reared from wild-caught ancestors, the civets, tanukis, and hog […]
Cat-eaters may get, spread SARS
GUANGZHOU––Laboratory studies of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome directed by virologist Albert D.M.E. Osterhaus of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, published in the October 30, 2003 edition of the British journal Nature, demonstrate that cats and ferrets could potentially carry SARS from filthy live markets to humans. Osterhaus said his experimental goal was simply to […]
SARS spread from live markets, but when?
BEIJING––Blood tests indicate that about 1% of the children in 17 provinces of China were exposed to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome before the outbreaks of 2002-2003 that hit 24 of the 31 provinces. Evidently passing from animals sold in filthy live markets to humans working in food preparation, and then spreading from human to […]
China to control wildlife cuisine but will not close live markets
HONG KONG––Hope that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome epidemic of 2002-2003 might permanently close the notorious Chinese live wildlife markets was dealt a setback on July 10, 2003 when 12 government ministries and state administrations jointly announced that legal sales of domesticated wildlife would be “encouraged, guided, and supported.” The wildlife traffic will be more […]
How no-kill dog control came to Kolkata, India
by Debasis Chakrabarti, founder, Compassionate Crusaders Trust (June 2003) Kolkata (Calcutta) is the largest truly no-kill city in the world. It grieves me beyond measure to think of the possibility of a resumption of slaughter of street dogs. I would like to share our experience with everyone involved in this work, because I believe that the method we use […]
SARS shuts live markets, may change Chinese menus
HONG KONG––Animals sold in the live markets of Guangdong province, China, suffered first and worst from the conditions that afflicted the world with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic of the past nine months––but Asian animal defenders are hopeful that a legacy of the epidemic may be the end of live markets for […]
Care for bears in China
BEIJING, HONG KONG, SHANGHAI––China cares about bears. That was clear from nationwide outrage erupting in February 2002 after a 21-year-old engineering student poured sulfuric acid and caustic soda over five bears at the Beijing Zoo to see if bears are really stupid. International Fund for Animal Welfare representative Zhang Li offered help to the zoo […]