Animals 24-7

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

When parrot “conservation” consisted chiefly of shooting them

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Vista Nieve by Melbourne R. Carriker Blue Mantle Press (36901 Marshall Hutts Rd.,  Rio Hondo-Arroyo City, TX  78583),  2001.  312 pages,  paperback.  $18.95. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton On July 28,  2002,  Colombian ornithologists Jorge Velasquez and Alonso Quevado photographed 14 examples of Fuertes’ parrot among tall trees in an alpine forest near the summit of […]

Animal Agriculture is Immoral: vegan activists respond to COVID-19

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Anthology edited by Sailesh Rao, Ph.D. 156 pages,  paperback.  $9.99 from Amazon.com. Reviewed by Richard Schwartz             Animal Agriculture Is Immoral is an anthology of scholarly,  insightful, thought-provoking essays from environmental, social, religious, and spiritual perspectives by leading vegan activists,  assembled in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic,  about the very negative effects of animal-based […]

Barry Lopez, 75, “literary naturalist,” inspired animal advocates

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Death came four months after Lopez lost home of 50 years to wildfire Barry Lopez,  75,  died on Christmas Day 2020 in Eugene,  Oregon,  after a years-long battle with prostate cancer. Sometimes described as a “literary naturalist,”  Lopez wrote often about animals,  but hardly exclusively,  and as often about the animals of Native American myth and […]

 “Cleansing the temple was an act of animal liberation” says Bible scholar

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The Lost Religion of Jesus: Simple Living & Nonviolence In Early Christianity by Keith Akers Lantern Books  (128 2nd Place,  Garden Suite Brooklyn, NY 11231),  2001.  260 pages,  paperback.  $20.00. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Denver vegetarian advocate Keith Akers, perhaps best known for compiling A Vegetarian Sourcebook (1983), earned his B.A. in philosophy in 1970 at […]

Making a Thanksgiving place for Tofurky

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Eventually live turkeys joined the feast.  But not at first. Chloe Sorvino,  food and drink editor for the business magazine Forbes,  marked Thanksgiving 2020 by looking back 40 years to the invention of Tofurky in 1980,  by then-nature educator Seth Tibbott. Described as a “turkey alternative,”  blending tofu and wheat with a wild rice and […]

“My Octopus Teacher” meets the Kraken

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Or, “The Call of the Wild” underwater My Octopus Teacher,  a 2020 Netflix Original documentary,  directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed,  might already be the most watched and talked about cephalopod drama since Kirk Douglas fought the giant squid in the 1954 Walt Disney epic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,  based on the 1870 […]

How Henry Bergh threw pigeons to the dogs for the next 150+ years

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ASPCA founder Henry Bergh hated pigeon shooters,  except when he wanted something from them Henry Bergh,  who founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866,  might have perfectly understood Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi’s frustration,  expressed on November 14,  2020 in his ANIMALS 24-7 guest column “Talk […]

A Traitor To His Species:  Henry Bergh & The Birth Of The Animal Rights Movement

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by Ernest Freeberg 322 pages,  hardcover.  $30.00. Basic Books Hachette Book Group 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104 www.basicbooks.com Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Perhaps the first question to ask about a new biography of Henry Bergh,  of whom more than 50 have reputedly been written already,  with at least four close to […]

Can killing an animal be compensated for by the creation of a new animal?

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by Karen Davis, PhD, president, United Poultry Concerns (with afterword by Merritt & Beth Clifton) There is a line of thought in moral philosophy that says “yes” to killing an animal,  so long as the animal lived a pleasant life and the method used to kill the animal is humane – quick and painless. This […]

Jan Salter, 82, mastered the arts of animal & human aid in Kathmandu

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Founded leading Nepal humane organization past age when most people retire             KATHMANDU,  Nepal––Jan Salter,  82, artist,  humanitarian, and founder of the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre in Nepal in 2004,  died in Lyme Regis,  United Kingdom,  on April 29,  2018. Word of her death did not reach ANIMALS 24-7 until nearly 90 days later. Born Janette […]