Animals 24-7

Dogs, cats, horses, wildlife, zoonoses, & nature

The price of defiance: COVID-19 vs. the Cottondale Mother’s Day Rodeo

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Whoever that masked man was, he was not in the rodeo arena             COTTONWOOD,  California––There are sound epidemiological arguments against outdoor mask-wearing to fight the spread of COVID-19,  and in favor of getting more people out into the spring sunshine,  but those arguments were not much in evidence at the 58th annual Mother’s Day Rodeo […]

COVID-19: Trump order reopening slaughterhouses was not about food

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But preserving profits, “red state” votes,  and keeping workers on the job despite risk were of paramount concern             SIOUX CITY, Iowa––Risk of a U.S. food shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic had nothing to do with the April 28,  2020 decision of U.S. President Donald Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act to keep slaughterhouses running. […]

COVID-19: far more U.S. meat workers hit than Wuhan “wet market” staff

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Infectious as “wet markets” are,  U.S. slaughterhouse conditions appear to be much worse             WATERLOO & SIOUX CITY, Iowa;  SIOUX FALLS,  South Dakota––COVID-19 has infected hundreds of U.S. slaughterhouse workers,  who may have spread the pandemic disease to whole cities,  USA Today reported late on April 22,  2020. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan,  […]

Jill Biden upstages vegans’ attempt to upstage husband Joe

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Kept “Let Dairy Die!” signs from grabbing more than a split second of TV time LOS ANGELES––Michael Bloomberg and spokespersons for Direct Action Everywhere sounded much like each other on March 4,  2020,  congratulating themselves for fiascos that respectively knocked Bloomberg out of the U.S. presidential race and made a national heroine of Jill Biden,  […]

Miyoko’s taking the case for vegan cheese to the people as well as the court

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Will grill vegan cheese sandwiches as well as California Department of Food & Agriculture officials PETALUMA,  California––Taking the case for plant-based cheese products straight to the people,  as well as to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California,  Miyoko’s Creamery on March 4,  2020 intends to begin distributing 15,000 free vegan cheddar and pepperjack […]

Calf massacre looms in Ireland: dairy sales up, beef sales drop

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“Every sperm is sacred,”  as are profits,  but calf welfare is not DUBLIN,  Ireland––Irish dairy farmers,  having bred an expected 800,000 more bull calves to be born in spring 2020 than they can profitably sell in a contracting global beef market,  may resort to shooting hundreds of thousands at birth,  Guardian newspapers reporters Sophie Kevany […]

Sperm-sorting comes to India through cow-loving Modi government

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Slippery business may stop the bull calf surplus          NEW DELHI,  India––Cracking down hard against illegal cattle slaughter and exports to slaughter,  while boosting milk production,  the Hindi nationalist Nahendra Modi regime ruling India since 2014 caused the perennial Indian bull calf surplus to explode. Now,  however,  the Modi government has reportedly […]

Livestock shipment to Middle East goes sideways; to Hawaii, goes backward

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Drowned sheep & asphixiated cattle result from opposite approaches to maximizing profit MILILANI, Hawaii––Compared to the drowning deaths of more than 14,350 sheep on November 24,  2019 aboard the capsized Queen Hind in the port of Midia,  Romania,  the deaths of 21 Angus heifers aboard a Young Brothers barge en route from Honolulu to Kauai,  […]

Gadhi Mai 2019: more animals killed than in 2014, but fewer people watched

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But drone videos show––again––that the body count was vastly lower than is often claimed BARIYARPUR,  Nepal––More animals were slain at the 2019 Gadhi Mai sacrificial massacre in Bariyarpur,  Nepal,  than in 2014––a deeply disappointing discovery,  after 15 years of international efforts to stop the every-five-years bloodbath held in honor of a local goddess. Drone video […]

Miyoko to dairy farmers:  “Don’t have a cow,   man!”

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“Nuts to you each morning!”             DALLAS,  Texas;  SONOMA,  California––Almost simultaneously in mid-November 2019,  Dean Foods declared bankruptcy,  leaving 12,000 dairy farmers across the U.S. potentially up Manure Creek without a butter churn,  and Miyoko’s Creamery,  one of the fastest-growing makers of nut-based alternatives to cheese and butter,  announced that in early 2020 it will […]