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 […]
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 […]
Pit bull or hunting hounds? Who killed Elisa Pilarski & unborn child Enzo?
DNA data may decide which dog did the killing, but maybe not who was at fault SOISSONS, France––Pack hunters and pit bull enthusiasts are pitted against each other in a melodrama gripping French media since November 16, 2019, when someone’s dog or dogs killed Elisa Pilarski, 29, six months pregnant. Anxiously awaited DNA test results […]
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 […]
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 […]
Why U.S. furriers don’t advertise much any more
Mink coat ads vanish from newsprint SACRAMENTO, California––A furrier somewhere in the U.S. may yet buy a page of advertising, in what little remains of 2019, in one of the thousands of newspapers that are electronically searchable at www.NewspaperArchive.com. As of December 29, 2019, however, the year appeared to be ending without a single NewspaperArchive […]
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 […]
Feds probe alleged rapes & murders by WWF-funded anti-poaching militias
U.K., Germany, & Switzerland also concerned about World Wildlife Fund-backed paramilitary operations WASHINGTON D.C.–– The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and other federal agencies are investigating allegations repeatedly raised for more than a dozen years by media––chiefly by the online periodical BuzzFeed News, but also including ANIMALS 24-7––that funds granted by the U.S. government […]