Kim Jong-un reportedly calls dogs “decadent” and a “tainted trend” PYONGYANG, North Korea––Kim Jong-un, 36, ruling North Korea since 2011, has declared pet dogs a “decadent” luxury and a “tainted trend reflecting bourgeois ideology,” according to an August 17, 2020 report published in the English edition of the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo. Founded in 1919, […]
Did Nagaland ban dog meat, or did a politician just repeat an empty promise?
Advocacy groups in 2020 again claim the same “victory” they claimed in 2016––which never happened KOHIMA, Nagaland, India––Two weeks after Nagaland chief secretary Temjen Toy on July 3, 2020 announced an impending ban on dog meat, in the last part of India where dogs had been legally eaten, how, when, and if the ban […]
Deaths in Tahiti: pit bull mayhem hits “tropical paradise”
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 […]
Got a pit bull, a Rottweiler, or tosa? Insure it or else, says South Korea
Dangerous breeds banned from daycare centers, kindergartens, & elementary schools SEOUL, South Korea––Cracking down on possession of dangerous dogs for the third time in three years, the South Korean Ministry of Agriculture, Food, & Rural Affairs has since April 21, 2020 paired public education about social distancing due to COVID-1 with warnings that a new […]
COVID-19 & “The Next Big One”: Spillover revisited
Science writer David Quammen saw COVID-19 coming COVID-19, though renamed twice just in the first few months of 2020, “is not as novel as you might think,” explained veteran science writer David Quammen in the January 28, 2020 edition of The New York Times. Quammen, 72, was uniquely positioned to comment, not only because he […]
Will African swine fever make China vegan?
Whatever happens, most of the world will eat less pork SYDNEY, Australia; HONG KONG––Will African swine fever, a viral disease now projected to kill at least half the pigs in China and a quarter of all the pigs in the world, accelerate the trend toward vegan eating? Or speed the transition toward factory farming? Or […]
Will Nairobi shoot dogs, vaccinate them, or serve them for dinner?
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 […]
South Korean court rules that killing dogs for meat is illegal
Verdict for the first time upholds 1991 law BUCHEON, South Korea––Upholding parts of the Korean Animal Protection Act which have been on the books since 1991, but were never before successfully prosecuted, a Bucheon city court judge has fined a dog meat farmer the equivalent of $2,050 in U.S. dollars for “killing animals without […]
Dog rescue on the slopes of Agung, Bali’s erupting “Mount Doom”
BAWA rushes to save animals beneath clouds of hot ash UBUD, Bali, Indonesia––More than 4.2 million people, 350,000 dogs, and perhaps a million other animals from monkeys and chickens to goats and cattle, plus wildlife, are looking over their shoulders at a 30,000-foot column of steam, smoke, and ash boiling out of Mount Agung. […]
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 […]