Even if no marine mammals are displaced by fire at the Yeisk Dolphinarium, hundreds from failing dolphinariums have nowhere to go YEISK, Russia; TARANTO, Italy; ANTIBES, France; NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario; MIAMI, Florida––A marine mammal population of unknown size, including Black Sea dolphins, a beluga whale, sea lions, and seals, reportedly survived a September 9, 2025 […]
Ukrainian dogs may be the winners of Putin’s war
Indifferent a generation ago toward suffering street dogs, Ukraine is now a dog-loving nation KIEV, Ukraine––The outcome of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has yet to be determined, eleven years after Russian troops seized Crimea and more than three years after Russian tanks rolled into the Ukrainian mainland, but Ukrainian dogs––for the time […]
Putin’s pet? Attack of the Russian baby-killing dachshund from hell
And other truly weird tales of one of the dogs statistically least likely to kill anyone: only two fatalities on record anywhere, ever SEVERSK, Siberia, Russia––An eight-year-old longtime family pet dachshund on March 10, 2025 killed a month-old baby girl in Seversk, Tomsk Oblast. Little news escapes Seversk, a “closed city” located north of the […]
Iceland whaling halt upstages Ric O’Barry appeal for Russian beluga
Paul Watson & crew wait near Iceland to see if fisheries minister sticks to her guns against last whaling baron Kristján Loftsson NORWEGIAN SEA––Ric O’Barry, 83, on June 20, 2023 issued an urgent appeal on behalf of Hvaldimir, possibly the most famous of all beluga whales. But Paul Watson, 72, again upstaged O’Barry, as he […]
Pahrump dog breeders Platunov & Higgins allegedly starved 300 Ovarchkas
Having one of the worst-ever neglect cases in Nye County, Nevada, is not easy PAHRUMP, Nevada––Caucasian Ovcharka breeders Vasili Platunov and Oksana Higgins strung the authorities of Nye County, Nevada along for years with one excuse after another for failing to comply with some of the lightest and least enforced animal care and control ordinances in the […]
Victims escaped dangerous nations but could not escape deadly dogs
Marina Gabunia Verriest & Omar Ghawtah had little in common but shared their fate ALBERTSON, New York; HOUSTON, Texas––Marina Gabunia and Omar Ghawtah fled to the U.S. to escape threats of violence and persecution in their nations of birth, but in July 2022 both became victims of canine violence, eight days and 1,700 miles apart. […]
Erika Brunson, 86, animal advocate, actress, interior decorator, & furniture maker
Rose from rough start in life to philanthropic success Animal advocacy and spay/neuter philanthropist Erika Devore Brunson, 86, died in Los Angeles, California on May 17, 2022. Maria Erika Knab, her original given name, was born on September 4, 1935, “in the small fishing town of Konigsberg in East Prussia,” according to an October 16, 2013 […]
Russian war on Ukraine kills dolphins, but fishing kills more
The Black Sea was hard habitat for dolphins even before the shooting started ISTANBUL, Turkey––That war kills animals as well as humans is scarcely in doubt, but whether war is worse than peace for Black Sea dolphins may be disputed. Nearly three months after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 2022, evidence is surfacing along […]
Israeli vegan honey could leave Russia & Ukraine holding the honey bucket
Lab-produced honey goes into industrial-scale production just as global supply from bees is disrupted by Putin’s War JERUSALEM, Israel––Regardless of whether Ukraine staves off the Russian invasion or suffers the genocide threatened by Russian use of heavy weapons against civilian targets, the biggest and perhaps only winner of what is now known worldwide as […]
Mad Russians overrun Ukraine rabies belt; refugee canines flee west
Invasion stops progress against fox rabies outbreak raging since 2004 KHARKIV, Ukraine; ATLANTA, Georgia; SURPRISE, Arizona––The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] web site has quietly announced, without an accompanying media release, that it “is working to expedite import permit requests for dogs that originate in Ukraine and surrounding countries for persons wishing […]