Animals 24-7

News & perspective for the humane community

Pit hags, rescue angels, crazy cat ladies,  dog men & chicken fighters:  what’s in a name?

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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 […]

Noted in passing: Tresz, Muliro, Ndou, Hanson, Broecker, Lagerfeld

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Six people with little in common except influencing how humans see animals Hilda Tresz,  Freddy Mahamba Muliro,  and Joel Celestine Mambou Ndou,  none of them ever famous,  in various ways devoted their lives to great apes. Wade Hanson spent the last 24 years of his life as a humane officer. Wallace Broecker for more than 50 […]

“Dog Fighting Awareness”: what the ASPCA ignored

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Busts plummet as pit bull advocacy has all but legalized dogfighting             NEW YORK CITY,  N.Y.––Designated National Dog Fighting Awareness Day by the American SPCA,  April 8,  2019 and the next several days appear to have passed without a single dogfighting bust or other noteworthy event pertaining to dogfighting occurring anywhere in the United States. […]

“Joe Exotic” convicted, could get up to 20 years in a cage

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Guilty on 17 counts,  including soliciting murder of Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin             OKLAHOMA CITY,  Oklahoma––A federal court jury on April 2,  2019 convicted self-styled “Joe Exotic” Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage,  56,   formerly known as Joe Schreibvogel,  on two counts of having solicited the murder of Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin in 2018. […]

No apology from Olbermann for selling turkey sandwiches

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Apologized for asking Twitter followers to make turkey hunter’s life “a living hell,”  but made point of pitching pit bulls             KILN, Mississippi––Sports announcer,  broadcast journalist,  and political commentator Keith Olbermann,  60,  on March 27,  2019 apologized “unreservedly” for calling upon his Twitter followers two days earlier to make the rest of Hunter Waltman’s life […]

Alleged “horses for ransom” brokers busted in Louisiana

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“Killer buyers,”  associates of killer-buyers,  & partners in questionable rescues             FORT POLK,  Louisiana––Thompson Horse Lot owner Gary Thompson,  64,  of Pitkin,  Louisiana,  who held a controversial contract to remove an estimated 700 to 750 wild horses from the 198,000-acre Fort Polk military installation,  is facing 18 counts of cruelty to animals for alleged severe […]

Spanish Supreme Court ends 566-year-old bull-spearing rite

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Judges rule against hearing further appeals against order to stop MADRID––A March 18,  2019 decision by the Spanish Supreme Court to hear no further appeals of a Castilla y León provincial order banning the traditional Toro de la Vega bullfight appears to have finally ended one of the oldest annual celebrations of cruelty persisting into […]

Will Santa Anita figure out what’s killing race horses? Don’t bet on it!

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Investigators are only 3,500 years behind Chinese potters in figuring out that wood ash hardens clay ARCADIA,  California––Cro-Magnon troglodytes apparently never figured out that wood ash hardens clay,  despite having many millennia of opportunity to do so. Thus the failure of the Santa Anita Park management to investigate the effects of soot and ash fallout […]

Fire, horses, & Santa Anita: ashes,  ashes,  they all fall down?

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A global warming connection to record racehorse deaths? ARCADIA, California––All eyes concerned about horses and horse racing have had the Santa Anita Park turf and track surfaces under microscopic examination since Ash Wednesday,  March 6,  2019. Yet hardly anyone so far seems to be looking at the possible track-hardening effects of soot and ash deposition […]

20 racehorses die in 10 weeks at Santa Anita Park––why?

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Santa Anita deaths revive debate over track surface safety             ARCADIA, California––Famed as the oldest horse racing venue in California,  hosting races 1904-1909,  1934-1941,  and 1945-present,  and as the scene of some of the most memorable wins by Seabiscuit and come-from-behind specialist Silky Sullivan,  Santa Anita Park is suddenly notorious for 20 horse deaths in […]