21st century versions of taking unwanted animals to Crazy Cat Lady HOUSTON, DENVER––Are adoption transport and feral cat translocation truly intelligent free-market approaches to reducing shelter killing, or just the 21st century versions of taking unwanted animals to Crazy Cat Lady? In India, cities without federally subsidized Animal Birth Control programs often covertly hire truckers […]
For Animal Rights & Human Rights: A Case for Breed-Specific Legislation
Why do we let people breed “bully” dogs, let alone sell them? by Lee Hall The orientation for new U.S. mail carriers includes a half-day of video clips showing guard dogs charging professional dog trainers. The carrier learns: When taken on by an aggressive dog—and as a mail carrier you will be, probably soon and […]
Casualties of the “save rate”: 40,000 animals at failed no-kill shelters & rescues
25,000 dogs and 15,000 cats At least 25,000 dogs and 15,000 cats found at failed no-kill shelters and rescues from 2005 through 2014 might be politely described as casualties of the “save rate,” also known as the “live release rate.” The numbers of dogs and cats impounded by law enforcement from failed shelters and rescues dropped […]
California sea lions, starving in their rookeries, take heat for salmon losses
Marine mammal rescuers struggle for the third consecutive winter with effects of global warming ASTORIA, Oregon; SAN FRANCISCO, California––From the Channel Islands to the Farallons, the heart of California sea lion breeding habitat, marine mammal rescuers are struggling for the third consecutive winter to save some of what appears to be fast becoming a lost […]
High pathogenic avian flu hits U.S. through backyard flocks
Outbreaks throughout the Northwest BELLINGHAM, Washington––Backyard poultry have become an incubator for high pathogenic strains of avian influenza throughout the Pacific Northwest, with recent outbreaks occurring from the Fraser Valley of British Columbia to northern California, and as far east as Idaho. The Oregon Department of Agriculture and the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection […]
Anti-BSL Washington legislator Appleton misstates the law
OLYMPIA, Washington––Testifying before the Washington House Judiciary in support of her own bill to ban breed-specific legislation, HB 1018, state representative Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo) on February 11, 2015 misrepresented 95 years of relevant jurisprudence from the Supreme Court of the United States so completely as to invert the entire meaning of it. Washington news media […]
Arrest made in suspected dogfighting-related 2013 triple murder
Severo Luera, 35, served Idaho felony warrant in connection with triple homicide MALAD, Idaho––An arrest has been made in connection with an April 2013 triple murder in rural Idaho near the Utah border, believed to have been linked to dogfighting. Oneida County Sheriff Jeff Semrad on February 12, 2015 announced in a written release distributed to […]
Anti-Vaxxers and the pit bull advocacy movement
by Barbara Kay & Merritt Clifton Reasonable people tend to overestimate the role that reason plays in history and in their own culture, and also tend to overestimate the power reason has to combat the theories, belief systems and emotions that drive people to action––or inaction ––much of the time. Unreasonable theories, belief systems and […]
Is this the most mismanaged U.S. National Wildlife Refuge?
Not so much as glimmering eyes to indicate the presence of the Columbian whitetailed deer for whom refuge was created by Merritt Clifton CATHLAMET, Washington––Traversing the Steamboat Slough dike at the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge with headlights and a jacklight on the night of January 29, 2015, Beth and I spotted a large Roosevelt […]
Bali governor Made Mangku Pastika invites public to kill dogs
“If you see a free-roaming feral dog just kill it” DENPASAR, Bali, Indonesia––Raged Bali governor Made Mangku Pastika on January 31, 2015, seven years into the most badly bungled rabies control program of the 21st century, “There’s so much rabies. Our money has been depleted just to purchase rabies vaccine. Please help. If you see […]