Animals 24-7

News on dogs, cats, horses, wildlife, zoonoses, & nature

Jan Salter, 82, mastered the arts of animal & human aid in Kathmandu

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Founded leading Nepal humane organization past age when most people retire             KATHMANDU,  Nepal––Jan Salter,  82, artist,  humanitarian, and founder of the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre in Nepal in 2004,  died in Lyme Regis,  United Kingdom,  on April 29,  2018. Word of her death did not reach ANIMALS 24-7 until nearly 90 days later. Born Janette […]

Mark Twain’s Book of Animals

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Edited with Introduction,  Afterword,  & Notes by Shelley Fisher Fishkin University of California Press https://www.ucpress.edu/ 325 pages,  hardcover.  $27.50. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Wrote Ed Duvin,  whose 1989 Animalines newsletter essay “In The Name of Mercy” prophesying  “no kill” animal sheltering is widely considered a classic of humane literature,  to ANIMALS 24-7 a few days […]

Spay/neuter resumes in Italy despite COVID-19, Camorra & Nigerian mobsters

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Quarantine keeps crime in check––for now             ROME,  CASTEL VOLTURNO,  Italy––The deadly global COVID-19 pandemic,  killing nearly 32,500 Italians to date,  might if anything have made Castel Volturno,  the unlikely spay/neuter hub of the nation,  just a little bit safer. Certainly stay-at-home orders seem to have at least temporarily reduced the mob violence for which […]

Deaths in Tahiti: pit bull mayhem hits “tropical paradise”

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Victim survived nuclear bomb tests, but not four Staffordshires and a bull terrier PAPEETE,  Tahiti––Maria Liu Sing ép. Layoussaint,  87,  was on May 12,  2020 torn apart by four American Staffordshire pit bulls and a bull terrier pit bull variant. She had survived World War II,  the 1946 annexation of Polynesia by France,  and 193 […]

Puppies & kittens everywhere, but none in shelters to adopt

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Suspension of spay/neuter & intake services due to COVID-19 cuts adoptions by a third from 2019             NEW YORK CITY––Celebrating rehoming every dog and cat in custody soon after COVID-19 shutdowns began,  animal shelters from coast to coast are suddenly––and predictably––weeping,  wailing,  and tearing hair about having no adoptable animals to offer in response to […]

We need to open up spay/neuter – now!

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by Bryan Kortis, National Programs Director, Neighborhood Cats When the shutdowns in our country began due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus,  in early March 2020,  the animal welfare field reacted quickly.  Shelters were closed to the public,  services were curtailed to the bare minimum,  and cages were emptied through adoptions and recruitment […]

COVID-19: India feeds stray dogs; ASPCA says “don’t fix them”

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ASPCA advice to shelters could increase puppy & kitten litters by about half a million  While pet keepers in the developed world fret about the apparently infinitesimally small risk of pets and humans infecting and reinfecting each other,  following the discovery of COVID-19 infecting one cat in Liege,  Belgium,  and two dogs and a cat […]

Heart failure fells Vier Pfoten (Four Paws) founder Helmut Dungler, 56

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Dungler died at the Lionsrock sanctuary he founded             BETHLEHEM,  South Africa––Helmut Dungler,  56,  founder of the international animal charity Vier Pfoten (Four Paws),  died on January 5,  2020 from a sudden massive heart attack suffered on one of his frequent visits to the Lionsrock sanctuary,  among the biggest and most ambitious of the many […]

Bali: fighting rabies & dolphin captivity amid mud & ashes of a live volcano

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Long uphill struggles pay off             DENPASSAR, Bali,  Indonesia––Fireballs and lava are no longer flying from Mount Agung,  the reputed Balinese home of the gods,  but smoke,  steam,  and noxious gases are still rising from thermal vents,  keeping most humans at a distance,  Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA) dog rescuers excepted. Rabies persists in three […]

Will Nairobi shoot dogs, vaccinate them, or serve them for dinner?

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Governor’s proposals confuse & alarm Kenya             NAIROBI, Kenya––Does Nairobi County governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko want to shoot street dogs,  vaccinate them against rabies,  or serve them for dinner? Three and a half months after the Sonko administration began running the three proposals up the flagpole to see who might salute,  neither Nairobi citizens,  news […]