Animals 24-7

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

International animal advocacy influencer Brian Davies dies at 87

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Founded IFAW to fight the Atlantic Canada seal hunt             CAPE COD,  Massachusetts––Brian Davies,  87,  founder of the International Fund for Animal Welfare,  Network for Animals,  the Political Animal Lobby,  and Animal Survival International,  died after a prolonged illness on December 27,  2022. Born on February 4,  1935 in Tonyrefail,  Wales,  an impoverished mining village,  […]

What’s worse than coal for Christmas? 10 years for dogfighting!

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Dogfighting,  drugs,  & firearms AKRON,  Ohio––Convicted dogfighter Ronald Smith,  39,  of Akron,  Ohio was on December 19,  2022 sentenced to serve ten years and three months in jail,  after pleading guilty to a 22-count indictment,  including charges of dogfighting,  drug trafficking,  and being a felon in possession of a firearm. U.S. District Judge John R. […]

Rats or guinea pigs––which rodent will inherit New York City?

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Pending bill to ban guinea pig sales is far more likely to succeed than rat control bills passed by 44-6 margins             NEW YORK CITY–– “Legislation to prohibit New York City pet stores from selling guinea pigs has 35 co-sponsors in the New York City Council – this is incredible!” exulted Voters for Animal Rights […]

“The Conversation” & the pit bull shit

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Five howling factual errors in just the first three lines The Conversation,   an online periodical publishing only academic authors,  claiming to reach more than 10 million people throughout the English-speaking world,  prides itself on fact-checking and peer-reviewed content,  albeit allowing little or no opportunity for non-academics to respond to errors and offer corrections. The Conversation […]

Dogo Argentinos running at large kill 80-year-old woman out for a walk

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Supersized pit bull variant bred to kill BALDY MESA,  California––Soon Han,  80,  picked wind-swept and barren Baldy Mesa as her hill to live on. Having lived through World War II and the Korean War,  Soon Han was out for her morning walk at about 11:00 a.m. on October 7,  2022 when two Dogo Argentinos running […]

Big dogfighting busts follow plea bargains by alleged perps in South Carolina

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305 pit bulls impounded from suspects in weekend raids COLUMBIA, South Carolina—Raiding alleged dogfighters in the Carolinas for at least the seventh time in 10 months,  “a joint team of more than 60 federal and state law enforcement officers executed nearly two dozen warrants” over the weekend of September 24-25,  2022 “in what is believed to […]

Pahrump dog breeders Platunov & Higgins allegedly starved 300 Ovarchkas

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Having one of the worst-ever neglect cases in Nye County,  Nevada,  is not easy PAHRUMP,  Nevada––Caucasian Ovcharka breeders Vasili Platunov and Oksana Higgins strung the authorities of Nye County,  Nevada along for years with one excuse after another for failing to comply with some of the lightest and least enforced animal care and control ordinances in the […]

Animal & human heroes & the most overlooked lesson of 9/11

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Remembering national trauma September 11,  2022 marks the twenty-first anniversary of the national trauma the U.S. experienced as result of the terrorist attacks of September 11,  2001 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The aftermath of those attacks brought global traumas including ongoing warfare in much of the Middle East,  Central Asia,  and […]

“English bulldog”: two dog breeds, one name, & a rising body count

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Pug mixes vs. pit bulls in thin disguise             SELMA, California––Much of the public did a double-take on July 31,  2022 as word spread that five “English bulldogs” belonging to breeder Victor Carranza,  of 4 Brothers Bulldogs,   killed neighbor Richard “Hutch” Barry,  59,  as he walked home from his brother’s house around the corner. Fatal […]

Beagle breeder Envigo shortchanged shareholders too, lawsuit alleges

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Wolf of law firm files class action against alleged “pump-&-dump” scheme CUMBERLAND, Virginia––Even as animal advocates celebrate the ongoing rescue of beagles from the soon-to-be-closed Envigo breeding kennels in Cumberland, Virginia,  and the decision of Air France to get out of the monkey transport business,  the most influential blow to animal use in biomedical research […]