Drone found 90 belugas & 13 orcas allegedly held pending sale to China VLADIVOSTOK, Russia––Responding to international outrage over drone video showing 90 belugas and 13 orcas in small holding pens in Srednaya Bay near Nakhodka, just north of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, the Russian government in 2019 will prohibit whale captures, reports the […]
From Uzbekistan to Whidbey Island, Washington: Vegan Runner Eats
and goes the distance LANGLEY, Washington––“I’m going to become a mommy to a little girl this fall!,” Alina Zavatsky posted to the Vegan Runner Eats Facebook page on May 31, 2017. “I’ll be sharing more info on Vegan Runner Eats,” Zhukova Zavatsky pledged, “including my experience with running a 5k [five kilometer roadrace] a few days ago while 20 weeks pregnant––stay tuned!” Running blog Explains […]
Reindeer stand between us & the next Great Flood
How the gift of reindeer presence dwarfs the value of Christmas Admit it: you have not thought about reindeer even once since Christmas. Even when you last did think of reindeer, you thought about them in association with Santa Claus, not as either defenders of the Far North ecology or potential victims of global warming, […]
Reindeer are the presents for remote Yamal herders
Gift reindeer may help for a while, but global warming dooms the herding way of life YAMAL PENINSULA, Siberia––Reindeer did not deliver presents to 45 families of herders on the remote Yamal Peninsula of Siberia at Christmas Eve 2016, but rather were the presents. The reindeer were sent to help the Yamalo-Nenets residents recover […]
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 […]
Lithuania advised against plan to kill 90% of wild boars to fight African swine fever
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 hunting or trapping in Europe,” the European […]
Georgia Aquarium appeals NOAA ruling against proposed first beluga whale imports since 1992
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 Atlanta at the same time […]
Russia halts seal hunt
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 told media. Trutnyev described the ban as […]