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
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, […]
Hawaiian Humane Society CEO Pamela Burns dies after colorful 27-year tenure
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?
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 […]
“Rabies roulette” in Tampa: the odds favor TNR
You are 32,250 times more likely to hit double zero than to meet a rabid cat in Hillsborough County TAMPA, Florida––With the 2016 final numbers yet to be reported by Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the lowest annual total of rabid cats ever found in the U.S. came in 2015, the second lowest […]
Talking about cats in Holy Week
ANIMALS 24-7 visits with Stacy LeBaron of Community Cats podcast Yes, it is Dog Bite Prevention Week, according to the U.S. Postal Service, and Easter week according to the world’s 2.2 billion Christians, and Friday is Passover, celebrated by about 17.4 million Jewish people. But somewhere in the vicinity of 400 million people worldwide worship […]
Street dogs in the U.S.? Nathan Winograd has gone barking mad.
by Merritt Clifton Among the most vociferous critics of ANIMALS 24-7 guest columnist Jeff Young’s essay We cannot adopt, warehouse or rescue our way out of dog & cat overpopulation! was No Kill Advocacy Center founder Nathan Winograd. Winograd’s own recommendations in response to the homeless dog and cat problem have long been a hodgepodge of wishful […]
Aussie feds inflated feral cat population 3 to 10 times to push cull policy
New study reports the findings but ignores their meaning BRISBANE, Australia––Normally, if a major study discovers an alleged ecological problem to be just 10% as bad as was previously imagined, one might expect celebration to follow. The researchers, other experts, nonprofit organizations, and every politician who ever addressed the issue, however transiently, might be expected […]
What if an island has no cats?
Birds on remote islands are sometimes better off with cats than without them Part II of a two-part series. See also When the cats are away, the mice will play––and the rats & rabbits. Gough Island, also in the South Atlantic, never had any cats. “Today, the British-owned island, described as the home of the most […]
When the cats are away, the mice will play––and the rats & rabbits
Purging cats from South Atlantic islands often harms birds more than helps them (Part I of a two-part series. See also What if an island has no cats?) LONDON, U.K.––Fourteen years after declaring victory over feral cats on remote Ascension Island, on behalf of sooty terns, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds […]