Doesn’t everyone order 10 double cheeseburgers at McDonald’s after killing three catfishers? FROSTPROOF, Florida––Brandon Rollins, 27, Keven Springfield, 30, and Damion Tillman, 23, were shot to death at Lake Streety, Florida, on the night of July 17, 2020, much as the three of them had cornered and killed countless feral pigs. But Rollins, Springfield, […]
Kentucky state cops let 33 cars leave alleged cockfight before investigating
Showing Animals Respect & Kindness caught the “great escape” on video PINE KNOT, Kentucky––Duane Pohlman, chief investigative reporter for the Cincinnati television station WKRC, aired quite a scoop about cockfighting continuing in Kentucky on Monday, July 6, 2020, using undercover video collected by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK) with Humane Farming Association Funding. […]
More cockfighters than stars in Doris Day/Clint Eastwood country?
Cock-breeding explodes around Carmel-by-the-Sea MONTEREY, California––By the look of it, more might have been done in Monterey County to enforce legislation against breeding gamecocks if California had remained a U.S. territory in 1850 instead of becoming a state, four years after overthrowing Spanish rule. Exulted Humane Society of the U.S. president Kitty Block […]
Cockfighters vs. coal miners, Taiji vs. Hong Kong: animal suffering gets lost
What happens when animal issues are overwhelmed by current events? HARLAN COUNTY, Kentucky; TAIJI, Japan; BALI, Indonesia––A trainload of coal worth $1.4 million, blockaded for six weeks by illegally laid off miners whose last pay checks bounced, might at a glance appear to have nothing to do with an alleged cockfighting ring run by […]
Cockfighters “win” from delay of hurricane aid to Puerto Rico
Frustration at lack of help fuels defense of cockfighting against U.S. federal “meddling” SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico––Puerto Rican cockfighters and politicians who boast of standing beside them may have been the only winners when U.S. Representative Chip Roy on May 24, 2019 blocked more than $900 million in disaster relief funding for victims of […]
Pit hags, rescue angels, crazy cat ladies, dog men & chicken fighters: what’s in a name?
The late linguist, lexicographer, and “crazy cat man” Reinhold Aman would have relished the question SONOMA, California––Researching the etymology of the terms “pit hag,” “rescue angel,” “crazy cat lady,” “dog man” and “chicken fighter,” absent from most dictionaries yet almost universally understood within the animal advocacy world, would have fascinated Reinhold Aman, 82, who died […]
Rather than kill pit bulls, Ontario SPCA quits busting dogfights
Ontario SPCA also quits investigating cockfighting, farmed animal, & horse-related cases TORONTO, Ontario––Paid $5.75 million per year by the Ontario government to enforce animal-related legislation, the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has unilaterally––and without public announcement or prior disclosure to the government––opted out of enforcing laws including the 2006 provincial ban […]
Disease linked to cockfighting menaces California poultry industry
Gamecocks carrying Newcastle disease to domestic flocks killed millions in 1971 and 2003 LOS ANGELES––The billion-dollar-a-year California poultry industry is betting the farm that state and federal authorities can get a two-year series of outbreaks of Newcastle disease under control before it becomes the biggest threat to profits in decades. An outbreak discovered in […]
A year in jail for the life of Christmas Eve pit bull victim Lorraine Saylor
Death demonstrates that responsible dog-keeping begins with what dogs are kept ARJAY, Kentucky––Johnny Dale Lankford, 42, already jailed on other charges when his two pit bulls killed Lorraine Brock Saylor, 66, on Christmas Eve, was sentenced to serve a year in jail on January 3, 2018 after pleading guilty to a single charge of harboring […]
Hawaiian Humane Society CEO Pamela Burns dies after colorful 27-year tenure
Burns remained on the job to her final days HONOLULU, Hawaii––Pamela Burns, 65, Hawaiian Humane Society chief executive since 1990, on September 18, 2017 “died peacefully at her home after taking a leave of absence approximately a week ago for health reasons,” the humane society announced. Burns, who was among the longest tenured humane society […]