Zoo births one rhino, scientists make five rhino embryos, trophy hunters buy rights to shoot dozens, & poachers kill 1,000-plus per year DUBBO, Australia; BERLIN, Germany––The Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, Australia, on March 1, 2021 informed media that it “is celebrating the birth of a critically endangered black rhino calf.” Born to a four-time […]
How ancient bison survived in the land & times of Good King Wenceslaus
Wenceslaus, 911-935, left bison alone. Successors alternately hunted & protected them. BIALOWIEZA FOREST, Poland––European wood bison, also called wisent, at risk of extinction for far longer than their North American cousins, are no longer “vulnerable,” and have accordingly been removed from the “Red List” maintained by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The […]
Geoffrey Deckers & Marion Bienes brought animal rights to the Netherlands
Holocaust survivor Bienes inspired organization builder Deckers Award founded in Deckers’ name––see Comments, below. Geoffrey Deckers, 51, co-founder of the Dutch animal advocacy organization Een Dier Een Vriend [An Animal, A Friend], died suddenly on June 29, 2020. Deckers suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on November 20, 2017, but appeared to have made a full recovery. As […]
Trump administration obliges airlines to carry “service” pit bulls
But only pit bulls who “fit within handler’s foot space on the aircraft” WASHINGTON D.C.––Elaine Lan Chao, U.S. Secretary of Transportation throughout the Donald Trump presidential administration and almost certain to soon leave office, on November 30, 2020 introduced a revised Air Carrier Access Act regulation on the transportation of service animals by air […]
Hitler’s pit bull, Sergeant Stubby the Boston terrier, & other dogs of war
Many dogs worth remembering on Veteran’s Day “Cry, ‘Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war,” wrote William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar (1599), but the most famous dogs of war remain those of World War I––ironically a war in which dogs were not officially used by the militaries of any of the victorious Allied nations. […]
Why Europe will not eat U.S. & Australian wild horses
Dutch & Danish seizures of illegally trafficked German horse meat do not mean revived demand WASHINGTON D.C., BRUSSELS––Yes, the Bureau of Land Management under Donald Trump appointee William Perry Pendley is desperately eager to dispose of as many as 45,000 wild horses in holding pens, plus about 68,000 of the estimated 95,000 wild horses […]
Animals for ransom: zoos & the COVID-19 cash flow crunch
Is COVID-19 really Armaggedon for zoos, or just another funding pitch? HONG KONG, LONDON––Seven thousand animals at Ocean Park in Hong Kong and as many as 20,000 animals at the London Zoo and subsidiary Whipsnade Zoo are only the most politically conspicuous of thousands of menageries now at risk––and perhaps being held for ransom […]
Science races law to end culling seven billion male chicks a year
No more fingers up chicks’ anal vents PARIS, France; BERLIN, Germany––Racing to appear to be ahead of egg industry science, French agriculture minister Didier Guillaume on January 28, 2020 announced that his administration would ban mass culling of male chicks and castration of piglets without anesthetic. “From the end of 2021, nothing will be […]
Heart failure fells Vier Pfoten (Four Paws) founder Helmut Dungler, 56
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 […]
Krefeld Zoo fire killed 30+ animals due to poor design & preparation
Candle-powered flying paper lanterns allegedly caused the fire. But inadequate attention to fire safety caused the deaths. KREFIELD, Germany––A fire that killed more than 30 apes, monkeys, bats and birds at the Krefeld Zoo in the first minutes of 2020 apparently began when one or more flying cylindrical paper lanterns propelled by small votive candles […]