Draft carriage horse ban to go before the full New York City council NEW YORK CITY––Horse-drawn carriages have never before appeared closer to being banned from New York City. New York city council speaker Julie Menin on October 13, 2026 announced that she and Mayor Zohran Mamdani had reached agreement on draft legislation to end […]
Cockfighting, Cubanos, Castro, & why no Commie connection
Cockfighting is tolerated in Cuba, barely, but in most of the Communist world is a symbol of the decadent west MIAMI, Florida; HAVANA, Cuba; MOSCOW, Russia––The 3,110 gamefowl impounded and euthanized from a ten-acre suspected cockfighting site in Miami-Dade County, Florida on October 3, 2026, near Little Havana, may be more than the sum total […]
Will flagrant probation violations send SHARK assailant back to prison?
Dope, guns, evidence of cockfighting; why isn’t James Newcomb back behind bars now? IRONTON, Ohio––Why is alleged cockfighter James “Bubba” Newcomb, of Waterloo, Ohio, not back in the Ohio state penitentiary, after Lawrence County probation officers and sheriff’s deputies caught him on August 27, 2026 in flagrant violation of his terms of early release? Newcomb, […]
FDA finally moves to comply with 2022 law ending animal testing mandate
Compliance with FDA Modernization Act 2.0 comes only after FDA Modernization Act 3.0, compelling compliance, has already passed U.S. Senate & House of Representatives WASHINGTON D.C.––The U.S. Food & Drug Administration [FDA] on September 21, 2026 issued a long delayed “direct final rule,” it announced, “that updates regulations to clarify that non-animal methods can be […]
Dogs & cat use in labs is up under Trump/Kennedy, says White Coat Waste
Former Trump ally details new use of beagles & kittens in report MAHA Betrayed WASHINGTON D.C.––Apologists for the abysmal record of the second Donald Trump administration on animal issues have thus far tended to offset harm to wildlife, farmed animals, and horses, both wild and domestic, by citing purported huge reductions in animal use for […]
Five alleged cockfighters indicted; ex-NFL star convicted of dog fighting
Good news from the Department of Justice on both the cockfighting & dog fighting fronts––but what took so long? BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky; MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma––September 10, 2026 brought dramatic demonstrations both in the Appalachians and on the Great Plains of why Congress needs to pass––and enforce––the FIGHT Act to knock the money out of cockfighting and […]
Why are those men in black swinging chickens over their heads?
Yom Kippur, Kapporos, & what Jewish animal advocates are doing about it NEW YORK, N.Y.––Yom Kippur, to be celebrated in 2026 from sundown on Sunday, September 20, until dusk on Monday, September 21, 2026, is to observant Jews the holiest and most solemn day of the year. To the other 97.5% of Americans, if baseball […]
Catalina Island Conservancy invokes drone ban, starts killing 2,000 deer
Deer cull may do more for wine-growing relatives of Catalina Island Conservancy founder than for either nature or claimed pretext of fire suppression LOS ANGELES––Henry David Thoreau, had he been an observer of the Catalina Island mule deer cull now underway, might have observed that “Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find […]
Remembering the animal & human heroes of 9/11 twenty-five years later
A quarter of a century later, recollections remain vivid & the aftershocks rumble on September 11, 2001, though it reshaped our world, is now as remote as Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941, was to Americans born in 1966, who have now reached or will soon be reaching 60 years of age. Yet the current […]
Wendell Berry, Gloria Steinem, & animal rights: idols meet (meat) reality
Berry raised animals for slaughter. Steinem believed “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.” Neither Wendell Berry and Gloria Steinem, each deceased at 92, on August 31, 2026 and September 2, 2026, respectively, were known primarily––or perhaps even at all––for their considerable influence on the late 20th century rise […]