Two seven-figure settlements in five days might make “socially responsible sheltering the new norm––if the idea isn’t corrupted LOS ANGELES, California; FORT WALTON BEACH, Florida––Representatives of pit bull attack victims twice in five days in early September 2019 announced apparent record-setting damage awards from animal care and control agencies for alleged negligence in allowing […]
Feral cats poop where someone feeds them––& that’s the big problem
Two studies confirm skepticism of waiting for studies to confirm the obvious LOS ANGELES––The unacknowledged takeaway lesson from two new studies of neuter/return feral cat control, published respectively by the City of Los Angeles and the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science, may be that by the time academia, the courts, and public policymakers […]
Neuter/return requires impact study, says Los Angeles judge
City support of feral cat population control program stopped by lawsuit brought by American Bird Conservancy LOS ANGELES––California municipal governments may not assist or promote neuter/return of feral cats without first completing an environmental impact report, ruled Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas McKnew on December 4, 2009. McKnew ruled on behalf of five organizations […]
Deborah Sue Culwell gets a year in jail for Coachella puppy dumping
Unsympathetic suspect, but shelter policies may have been accessories to the alleged crime COACHELLA, California––Riverside County Superior Court Judge Harold Hopp on August 14, 2019 sentenced Deborah Sue Culwell, 59, to serve 365 days in custody for abandoning seven puppies in a trash bin on a hot day in April. Counting time already served […]
30-year ASPCA rep Julie Morris, 1955-2019: The paradox of “St. Julie”
Morris mostly told the humane community what it wanted to hear NEW YORK, N.Y.––Julie Morris, 63, an American SPCA staff member since 1990, and a 41-year veteran of humane work, died on August 3, 2019 after a multi-year battle with cancer. Among the best-liked and most recognized people in animal welfare, Morris was widely […]
New York bans declawing cats; Massachusetts next?
2015 “Favorite Vet” contest outcome tipped balance toward declaw bans across North America ALBANY, New York––Governor Andrew Cuomo on July 22, 2019 signed into law Assembly Bill A-1303, making New York the first U.S. state to ban declawing cats. There are about 4.2 million cats in New York state, about half of them in […]
White hats & black hats revisited, 25 years into the “no kill” era
The 1994 San Francisco “Adoption Pact” recast the roles of animal control & humane societies––but not as intended Again, in hundreds of cities and towns across the U.S., and indeed around the world, factions are polarized in furious conflict over what their local animal control agencies, humane societies and shelterless, volunteer-run “rescues” should be doing. […]
Why is the ASPCA stonewalling about the deaths of 20 dogs in transport?
Three-week silence howls for answers NEW YORK CITY––Twenty dogs died on May 15, 2019 aboard an American SPCA vehicle that was hauling them from one or more Mississippi shelters to Wisconsin to be offered for adoption. That could be called just a really bad accident, except that three weeks after Emily Jacobs and Ben […]
Secrets of Doris Day’s life & work for animals
Publicity added much spin & gloss to what was already a positive record CARMEL, California––Doris Day, 97, died from pneumonia on May 13, 2019. Day was remembered worldwide as a singer who recorded more than 650 songs between 1939 and 1967; an actress who starred in more than 40 films between 1947 and 1968, […]
How killing cats helped to keep Aussie Liberal Party in power
Cat purge masks otherwise weak record on endangered species CANBERRA, Australia––Cats were nowhere on the May 18, 2019 Australian federal election ballot, and were not among the official campaign issues for any of the contestants, either. Yet the Liberal Party scheme to kill two million cats by 2020 lurked just behind the polling results […]
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