Animals 24-7

News & perspective for the humane community

$1.5 million DC Cat Count: useful, make-work, or compiling a hit list?

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Counting cats in Washington D.C. & how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall             WASHINGTON D.C.––For $1.5 million,  one could catch,  sterilize,  and microchip all of the approximately 7,000 free-roaming,  not-yet-fixed cats who may be at large in the 68.34 square miles of Washington D.C.,  at an average cost per cat of […]

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 […]

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 […]

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,  […]

Hurricane Maria: St. Croix Animal Welfare Center welds the door shut

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Whatever didn’t blow away was stolen ST. CROIX, U.S. Virgin Islands––“It is with a very heavy heart that we were forced to weld the door to our clinic closed today,”  the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center posted to Facebook on September 28,  2017. Even before Hurricane Maria crushed the U.S.,  Dutch,  and British Virgin Islands, […]

Hawaiian Humane Society CEO Pamela Burns dies after colorful 27-year tenure

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Burns remained on the job to her final days HONOLULU,  Hawaii––Pamela Burns,  65,  Hawaiian Humane Society chief executive since 1990,  on September 18,  2017 “died peacefully at her home after taking a leave of absence approximately a week ago for health reasons,”  the humane society announced. Burns,  who was among the longest tenured humane society […]

Why is Hawaii “moving at a hurried pace” to kill cats at boat harbors?

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New policy allows waterfront cats to be killed “by any means deemed necessary”             MILILANI, Hawaii––Hawaii Department of Land & Natural Resources chair Suzanne Case “is moving at a hurried pace to kill cats with a lead pellet fired from a high powered pellet rifle to the head or heart,”  alleges Carroll Cox––who is not […]

The Ripple Effect by Marcy Eckhardt

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A Novel Exploring the Challenges and Triumphs of Running an Animal Shelter 268 pages,  paperback ($17.99) or e-book ($7.99.) https://www.amazon.com/Ripple-Effect-Exploring-Challenges-Triumphs/dp/0615630154 Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Probably close to 100% of the ANIMALS 24-7 readership have at some point either worked or volunteered in an animal shelter.  Thus probably close to 100% will either intensely identify with […]

The Animal Shelter by Patricia Curtis

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Lodestar Books (c/o E.P. Dutton),  1984. 164 pages,  hardcover.  $13.95 original price. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton The Animal Shelter,  by Patricia Curtis,  introduced a generation of young people to humane work. “I wrote The Animal Shelter 28 years ago,  so it is badly out-of-date,”  Curtis told me in May 2011,  seemingly surprised to be looked […]

Cat rescuer & advocate AnnaBell Washburn, 90, had global influence

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Pioneer of neuter/return transformed & healed wounds within the animal advocacy community AnnaBell Leinbach Washburn, 90,  “seen as the matriarch of an entirely new way of thinking within the animal rights movement” in the words of longtime friend and Alley Cat Allies founder Becky Robinson,  died on August 12,  2017 in New York City. More […]