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 […]
The incredible, recent, global rise in the stranding of marine mammals
by Bill McGraw, Ph.D. Boquete, Panama During late September, 2020, Australia experienced the largest mass stranding of whales in the history of that country. Two weeks later, during early October 2020, the stranding of 7,000 cape fur seals on the coast of Namibia was identified as a major marine mammal stranding event. Disturbingly, this was […]
Mink ranching survives in Denmark despite risky COVID-19 mutation
Danish mink industry was to be liquidated from fear that COVID-19 mutation could neutralize vaccines in development COPENHAGEN, Denmark––The Danish mink industry, on the verge of liquidation as of November 4, 2020 to control a COVID-19 coronavirus mutation, appears to have politically mobilized to win a reprieve––for the mink ranchers, however, not the mink […]
Mink the missing link? COVID-19 deaths & new data suggest yes.
Dutch findings come as COVID-19 hits mink farms & humans in Wisconsin & Utah GREEN BAY, Wisconsin; SALT LAKE CITY, Utah––Which came first, the COVID-19 coronavirus infecting humans, or infecting mink? No one right now knows for sure whether mink might have been the incubator species through which COVID-19 passed from horseshoe bats in […]
Mink & pig massacres due to COVID-19 may help to kill fur & pork industries too
Netherlands may end fur farming four years before ban takes effect LIMBURG, Netherlands; SIOUX CITY, Iowa––The good news, if it could be called that, about the scheduled massacre of as many as 30,000 ranched mink on June 6, 2020 is that it may put 10 mink farms owned by eight companies permanently out of business, […]
The minks’ jinx: is COVID-19 an exploited species’ revenge?
Dutch disclose second case of mink-to-human COVID-19 transmission WAGENINGEN, the Netherlands; WUHAN, China––“A second case has become known on one of the infected mink farms where, most likely, SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19]passed from mink to human,” Dutch minister of health Hugo DeYoung and minister of agriculture Carola Schouten jointly advised the Dutch parliament on May 25, 2020. […]
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 […]
“That touch of mink” & COVID-19: Dutch outbreak hints mink may be host
Fur farming to end in The Netherlands by 2024 WAGENINGEN, The Netherlands––The discovery that ranched mink can become infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus may lend momentum to the Dutch national plan to phase out mink farming entirely by 2024. Concern that mink themselves might become a COVID-19 reservoir may also dampen Chinese enthusiasm for rebuilding […]
How COVID-19 and pit bulls show we are in pain
by Roderick Balt Despite not being evidently more dangerous than a heavy flu, which can kill tens of thousands of the most vulnerable people without sparking panic, and did as recently as the 2018-2019 flu season, the COVID-19 virus has terrified much of the public worldwide, resulting in disproportionate measures being taken to manage the […]