Part IV of a five-part series. (See also Will U.K. leaving E.U. mean leaving animal welfare behind?, Farmed animals & the Brexit “diet plan,” Farmed animals & money talks, and Back to the Jungle Book: U.K. wildlife law post-Brexit.) LONDON, U.K.––Among the signal achievements for animal welfare during the 43 years that the United Kingdom has been […]
Attack of the sausage-swingers: what was behind the raid on the vegan Kiwi Cafe?
Raid may have been more anti-gay than anti-vegan TBILISI, Georgia––The headline “Sausage-wielding protesters attack patrons at vegan café” and the shorter version, “Sausage thugs target vegan café,” flew around the world on June 1, 2016 at social media warp speed, amplified by at least 11,500 online media, before the bizarre story was upstaged by […]
WHO to recommend against global restrictions on ketamine
Regulators consider request from China (See also Loss of access to ketamine threatens progress in humane euthanasia, by Ruth Steinberger.) GENEVA, Switzerland––The World Health Organization Expert Committee on Drug Dependence is to recommend at the March 2016 meeting of the United Nations Single Commission on Narcotic Drugs that the drug ketamine not be internationally regulated. […]
Pigs investigated as possible Ebola vectors
Pigs can get Ebola, but do they spread it? KAMPALA, Uganda; NAIROBI, Kenya––Domestic pigs may already be among the vectors transmitting deadly Ebola viruses to humans, though no one knows for sure yet, warns a five-member International Livestock Research Institute team in a soon-to-be-published edition of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Transboundary and Emerging Diseases. The […]
Pain in my heart: Why the lack of attention to animal welfare in international development?
by Janice Cox The many ways in which the development of industrial animal agriculture harms humans, animals and the environment in developing nations have been subjects of concern to far-sighted thinkers for more than a century. The lineage of intellectual concern about such issues includes Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948), E.F. Schumacher (1911-1977), Barbara Ward (1914-1981), Lester Brown (1934-), Frances Moore Lappe […]
Shelter rabies cases remind of the risk in trying to “save them all”
“He was a kitten. He came in at four weeks old.” PITTSBURGH, LONDON––Alerts to the risk that animal shelters, shelterless rescues, and adoption transport may spread rabies came simultaneously in December 2014 from no-kill organizations on both sides of the Atlantic. “He was a kitten. He came in at four weeks old,” Washington Area Humane […]
Lithuania advised against plan to kill 90% of wild boars to fight African swine fever
“Has little or no chance of success” VILNIUS, Lithuania––The European Food Safety Authority on March 17, 2014 reported that a Lithuanian government plan to fight African swine fever by killing wild boars has little or no chance of success. “No evidence was found in scientific literature proving that wild boar populations can be drastically reduced by […]
Georgia Aquarium appeals NOAA ruling against proposed first beluga whale imports since 1992
Wants to import whales from Russia ATLANTA––The Georgia Aquarium on September 30, 2013 appealed an August 6, 2013 ruling by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration that it had not satisfied the requirements to import 18 beluga whales from Russia. The appeal put the future of beluga whale exhibition before the U.S. District Court in […]
Russia halts seal hunt
“This bloody hunting is from now on banned” MOSCOW, OTTAWA––Russian minister of natural resources Yury Trutnyev on March 11, 2009 told the world that Russia has halted hunting seals under one year old on the frozen White Sea. “This bloody hunting is from now on banned in our country, as in most developed countries,” Trutnyev […]