New York City keeps 1989 ferret ban NEW YORK CITY––The New York City Board of Health on March 10, 2015 voted 3-2 with three abstentions to retain a 25-year-old ban on possession of ferrets. The vote left New York City and Washington D.C. as the two largest cities to prohibit ferrets, […]
North Carolina ends gassing
Once the most common fate of pound animals, carbon monoxide gassing is now nearly history RALEIGH, North Carolina––The last dogs and cats in North Carolina to be killed in animal shelter gas chambers died as anonymously toward the end of February 2015 as most of the 21 million or thereabouts before them. Gassing dogs […]
International Animal Rescue cofounder John Hicks dies at 63
John Hicks, 63, cofounder of Animal Activists, International Animal Rescue, and International Animal Rescue/Goa, “passed away earlier this week,” Federation of Indian Animal Welfare Societies spokesperson Varda Mehrotra e-mailed to FIAPO membership on February 27, 2015. “All of us at FIAPO are saddened to hear of this,” Mehrotra continued. “Our thoughts are with Jo, his […]
Steve Hindi repeats 15-year-old challenge to NRA to debate pigeon shoots
Hindi challenged NRA originally in Tuscon, home of Safari Club International CHICAGO––Reprising a 15-year-old challenge to debate the ethics and morality of pigeon shooting, made originally in person, that the National Rifle Association leadership never accepted, Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi on February 12, 2015 called out the NRA leaders again in […]
Anti-Vaxxers and the pit bull advocacy movement
by Barbara Kay & Merritt Clifton Reasonable people tend to overestimate the role that reason plays in history and in their own culture, and also tend to overestimate the power reason has to combat the theories, belief systems and emotions that drive people to action––or inaction ––much of the time. Unreasonable theories, belief systems and […]
Beauty Without Cruelty-India exposes Gadhi Mai scam
Multi-year investigation PUNE, India––Gullible opponents of the Gadhi Mai mass sacrifice in Nepal have inadvertently helped the priests behind it to scam some of the poorest people in the world, a multi-year investigation by Beauty Without Cruelty India has discovered. Held approximately every five years in Bariyarpur, Nepal, 26 kilometers from the border with Bihar […]
Norm Phelps, 75, spiritual mentor to the animal rights movement
A vegan since 1984, Phelps quit eating meat in response to the death of his dog Czar Norm Phelps, 75, died on December 31, 2014 at the Meritus Health Hospital in Hagerstown, Maryland. Phelps had battled myasthenia gravis, an auto-immune neuromuscular condition that causes severe fatigue and weakness, since 2002. A vegan since 1984, survived […]
Would-be duckling rescuer is sentenced for acts that killed two people
90 days in prison for not thinking before acting MONTREAL––Would-be duckling rescuer Emma Czornobaj, 26, of Châteauguay, Quebec, was on December 18, 2014 sentenced to serve 45 weekends (90 days) in prison, and do 240 hours of community service for causing the June 2010 deaths of motorcyclists Andre Roy, 50, and his daughter Jessie, 16. […]
Courts rule that orangutan in Argentina has more rights than chimp in New York state
Judge says an orangutan named Sandra has been improperly imprisoned for 20 years at the Buenos Aires Zoo BUENOS AIRES, Argentina; ALBANY, New York––Ruling opposite to the findings of the New York Court of Appeals just two weeks earlier, the Argentinian Second Appeals Court on December 19, 2014 agreed that an orangutan named Sandra has […]
The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA
by Norm Phelps Lantern Books (1 Union Square West, Suite 201, New York, NY 10003), 2007. 367 pages, paperback. $20.00. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton If anyone wrote a history of animal advocacy before Noah built the ark, it missed the boat. Histories of animal advocacy have mostly missed the boat ever since. Many have been […]