Animals 24-7

News & perspective for the humane community

Aussie prof challenges “invasion biologists” on their own turf

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Contends “compassionate conservation” is most effective protection of biodiversity             SYDNEY,  Australia––The conservation establishments of both Australia and Israel might like to designate Arian D. Wallach an “invasive species” and slate her for extirpation. Indeed,  Wallach’s arguments could eventually put the entire global industry of exterminating “invasive species” out of business. Like any successful adaptive […]

How a shelter “Blackjacked” adopters with the “nanny dog” myth

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Four-year-old nearly lost eye to pit bull rehomed by the Humane Society of Catawba County             LENOIR,  North Carolina––Responding to a week of intensive pit bull adoption promotion by the Humane Society of Catawba County,  mother of two toddlers Justina Danielle Turner on April 28,  2018 visited the Catawba County Animal Services shelter in Newton,  […]

Are Southern California coyotes eating 68% fewer cats than 20 years ago?

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Data indicates steep drop in the feral cat population             LOS ANGELES,  California––Southern California coyotes may be eating 68% fewer feral and free-roaming pet cats in 2018 than they did 20 years ago,  indicate comparisons of findings from five major studies of coyote diet. Since coyotes are opportunistic predators who tend to eat whatever they […]

Four lionesses: women who made a difference for animals

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Remembering Lynette Shanley,  Tammy Sue Kirkpatrick,  Coby Siegenthaler,  and Lorraine Blake Roth Lynette Shanley,  Tammy Sue Kirkpatrick,  Coby Siegenthaler,  and Lorraine Blake Roth,  widely separated in geography,  ages,  life experience,  and focus in activism,  likely never met,  nor even heard of each other,  yet––like tens of thousands of other relatively anonymous women––lent strength to the ever-growing […]

Retired: Bob Rohde personified “your Dumb Friends” for 45 years

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Worked his way to the top from cleaning cages DENVER,  Colorado––Possibly the longest serving executive ever of a humane society that he did not himself found,  Robert “Bob” Rohde,  68,  on February 9,  2018 turned over the presidency of the Denver Dumb Friends League to Apryl Steele,  DVM,  after nearly 45 years with the organization […]

Steve Hindi & SHARK up the ante & call Alex Pacheco’s bluff

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Hindi bets $10,000 that Pacheco can’t prove his claim to be developing a “spay/neuter cookie.”             GENEVA,  Illinois––Raising $10,000 for dog-and-cat contraceptive development might never before have been so easy––if Alex Pacheco and his organization “600 Million Stray Dogs Need You” really had a scientific breakthrough to be developed,  even […]

Cats: Life in the Great Indoors, by Gavin Ehringer

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The following is an excerpt from Leaving the Wild: The Unnatural History of Dogs, Cats, Cows, and Horses by Gavin Ehringer, which explores the ever-evolving relationship between humans and domesticated animals. Preamble,  by Jessica Case,  deputy publisher,  Pegasus Books: The domestication of animals changed the course of human history. But what about the animals who […]

“Pit bull roulette” killed 38,000 other animals in 2017

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Pit bulls killed 92% of dogs killed by dogs & 96% of cats killed by dogs “Pit bull roulette” cost the lives of 38 humans,  plus nearly 13,000 dogs,  5,000 cats,  and more than 20,000 farmed animals in 2017––and,  only two weeks into 2018,  has already killed Happy Hound Hotel boarding kennel worker Laura Williams […]

All cats want for Christmas are their two front paws (and hind paws too, intact)

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Nova Scotia and Denver ban declawing             FREDERICTON,  Nova Scotia;  DENVER,  Colorado––Christmas came early in 2017 for cats in Nova Scotia province,  Canada,  and in Denver,  Colorado. Both jurisdictions recently banned elective and non-therapeutic declawing surgery,  but through starkly different legal approaches. Nova Scotia vets make declawing “unethical” The Nova Scotia declawing ban was adopted,  […]

Leaving The Wild:  The Unnatural History of Dogs, Cats, Cows & Horses

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by Gavin Ehringer Pegasus Books,  distributed by W.W. Norton & Co. 364 pages.  $27.95 hardcover.  In stores December 5,  2017. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Remember the most gripping and informative few books you ever read about dogs,  cats,  cows,  and/or horses,  by authors as thorough as the multi-time best sellers Desmond Morris,  Elizabeth Marshall Thomas,  […]