“Monkey menace” emerged first & will likely be around a lot longer BANGKOK, Thailand––Nightmares that a flying monkey army might ransack Thailand leaped across the Indian Ocean during the second week of March 2020, out of Hindu mythology and the daily fears of Buddhist temple keepers, and into the imagination of social media video-watchers […]
COVID-19 & “The Next Big One”: Spillover revisited
Science writer David Quammen saw COVID-19 coming COVID-19, though renamed twice just in the first few months of 2020, “is not as novel as you might think,” explained veteran science writer David Quammen in the January 28, 2020 edition of The New York Times. Quammen, 72, was uniquely positioned to comment, not only because he […]
Why COVID-19 is NOT the zoonotic illness most likely to kill you
Panicked stress may be killing more people than the disease itself SEATTLE, ATLANTA, HONG KONG––Amid escalating global panic over the worldwide rapid spread of the recently identified coronavirus COVID-19, a person not familiar with ProMED–mail might expect the most panic-stricken person of all to be ProMED–mail deputy editor Marjorie P. Pollack, M.D. ProMED-mail is […]
“No injuries” says Michael Foods of fire that killed 400,000 hens
Cage-free complex has been much praised by animal advocates BLOOMFIELD, Nebraska––If anyone imagined that going cage-free would substantively change the egg industry, the headlines alone reporting a February 27, 2020 barn fire at a Michael Foods cage-free complex in Knox County, Nebraska should explode that illusion. The Michael Foods fire killed as many as […]
Poisoning Australia in the name of wildlife recovery after bushfire losses
And kangaroos shot, koala trees bulldozed MELBOURNE, CANBERRA, SYDNEY, BRISBANE––Six months of bushfires ravaging Australian coastal forests and grasslands stretching into parts of the Outback are reportedly almost at an end. The last two dozen fires in New South Wales and a comparable number left in Victoria state are smoldering on at the lowest […]
Helping animals through the Australian firestorm
Reports from 25 of the hundreds of animal aid charities working in the hot zones CANBERRA, Australian Capital Territories––More than 100 wildfires raging in Australian coastal forests and wooded parts of the Australian interior in September 2019 exploded beyond immediate hope of control and burst into global consciousness during the first days of 2020, splitting […]
Krefeld Zoo fire killed 30+ animals due to poor design & preparation
Candle-powered flying paper lanterns allegedly caused the fire. But inadequate attention to fire safety caused the deaths. KREFIELD, Germany––A fire that killed more than 30 apes, monkeys, bats and birds at the Krefeld Zoo in the first minutes of 2020 apparently began when one or more flying cylindrical paper lanterns propelled by small votive candles […]
Livestock shipment to Middle East goes sideways; to Hawaii, goes backward
Drowned sheep & asphixiated cattle result from opposite approaches to maximizing profit MILILANI, Hawaii––Compared to the drowning deaths of more than 14,350 sheep on November 24, 2019 aboard the capsized Queen Hind in the port of Midia, Romania, the deaths of 21 Angus heifers aboard a Young Brothers barge en route from Honolulu to Kauai, […]
Concern for rare birds of the Bahamas rises after Hurricane Dorian
Little chance yet to assess the losses––but the Abaco parrot almost certainly survived CAPE FEAR, North Carolina––Hurricane Dorian, downgraded to Category 2, with peak gust speed dropping by half to a still dangerous 110 miles per hour, killed five people as it pushed north past the Carolinas, but as of midnight on September 5, […]
Hurricane Dorian helps to solve the mystery of the extinct Abaco wild horses
But Dorian destroys remnants of a 50-year effort to save the herd TREASURE CAY, Little Abaco, Bahamas––“This is like listening to a cosmic version of Ravel’s Bolero. Feeling nervous about when the brass kicks in,” wrote would-be wild horse savior and local dog rescuer Milanne “Mimi” Rehor, in her last posting to Facebook before […]
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