Animals 24-7

News & perspective for the humane community

How killing cats helped to keep Aussie Liberal Party in power

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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 […]

300 cats found in apartment near the scene of multiple murders

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Neighbors reportedly complained of corpse-like odor for seven years             NORTH YORK, Ontario––Even before nearly 300 cats were found on May 3,  2019,  huddled in Apartment 1811 at 30 Falstaff Avenue,  North York,  Ontario,  the suburban Toronto building was well-known to police. Built in 1970,  Falstaff Towers,  a cluster of buildings including three 19-story public […]

Pit hags, rescue angels, crazy cat ladies,  dog men & chicken fighters:  what’s in a name?

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The late linguist,  lexicographer,  and “crazy cat man” Reinhold Aman would have relished the question SONOMA,  California––Researching the etymology of the terms “pit hag,”  “rescue angel,” “crazy cat lady,”  “dog man” and “chicken fighter,”  absent from most dictionaries yet almost universally understood within the animal advocacy world,  would have fascinated Reinhold Aman,  82,   who died […]

Should giving shelter dogs & cats to university labs count as “live release”?

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USDA says pound animal giveaways to vet schools are not covered by the federal Animal Welfare Act              BATON ROUGE,  Louisiana;  TUSKEGEE, Alabama––Recent transfers of shelter animals to the Louisiana State University and Tuskegee University veterinary schools have allegedly been reported by shelter personnel as “adoptions” or transfers to “rescue.” The disputed transactions appear to […]

An Easter bunny, cat, & mongoose story from a Japanese island

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Predators wrongly blamed for losses,  ancient Amami rabbits make a comeback AMAMI,  Amami-Oshima,  Japan––The Easter 2019 bunny story of the year,  and island ecology story,  too,  with even an angle involving egg hunts by ornithologists,  is underway on Amami-Oshima and Tokunoshima islands,  between Japan and Okinawa.  Much to the evident embarrassment of the Japanese Environment […]

“No-kill” debacle: will Pueblo bring “responsible sheltering” into vogue?

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90% “live release” mandate failed catastrophically in less than 90 days             PUEBLO,  Colorado––“You can’t manage an animal shelter to a number,”  Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region president Jan McHugh-Smith told Pueblo Chieftan reporter Anthony A. Mestas,  hours after her organization returned to running the Pueblo Animal Services shelter on April 9,  2019,  […]

Why killing cats on remote islands will not help biodiversity

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And why killing dogs, rats,  pigs,  goats,  mice & mongooses too would be mainly make-work for exterminators             SANTA CRUZ,  California––Appealing for funding to kill cats,  dogs,  rats,  pigs,  goats,  and mongooses on at least 107 islands belonging to 34 nations,  in the name of promoting biodiversity,  the previously obscure 25-year-old organization Island Conservation scored […]

Kay McElroy, 74; her Cedarhill Animal Sanctuary carries on

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With partner Cheryl Craig,  planned transition CALEDONIA,  Mississippi––Cedarhill Animal Sanctuary founder Kay McElroy,  74,  died at the sanctuary after a multi-year illness on January 3,  2019. “In the final weeks of her life, as McElroy’s illness progressed, she was confined to her bedroom. From there, she could look out and watch the animals she had nurtured […]

Ahmed el Sherbiny, 66, brought “humane spring” to Egypt

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Headed three leading organizations CAIRO,  Egypt––Ahmed el Sherbiny,  66,  who with his British-born wife Jackie led the Egyptian Society of Animal Friends,  the Egyptian Federation for Animal Welfare,  and the Middle East Network for Animal Welfare,  on March 7,  2019 died at home in Shabramont,  Giza,  a Cairo suburb,  after several years of fighting multiple […]

How to count feral cats & street dogs in the 21st century

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Spay/neuter success makes old projection methods obsolete––& makes doing new surveys essential Counting feral cats and street dogs in the early 21st century is not what it was in your grandparents’ time,  or your own time any more,  either,  if you have lived much longer than the oldest cat or dog of your acquaintance. For […]