Animals 24-7

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

Montreal carriage horse trade ends, after 354 years

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“Calèche” industry was long intertwined with defunct harness track,  start of the Premarin industry,  horse slaughter,  and a notorious glue factory              MONTREAL, Quebec––The last vehicle-pulling horses in Montreal,  Quebec,  are to be off the streets before sunset on December 31,  2019––an hour which,  as this article is posted,  has already come and gone. “Far […]

Fire & ice puts Australian koalas and Icelandic horses at urgent risk

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Songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1982 recommended “50/50 fire and ice” as the best response to a crisis.  That isn’t working for either Icelandic horses or koalas.              REYKJAVIK, Iceland;  SYDNEY, Australia––Eco-disasters afflicting Icelandic horses and Australian koalas starkly illustrate extreme and contrasting effects of global warming as 2019 comes to an end. Hundreds of Icelandic […]

Race track deaths upstage notice of horses “retired” due to injury

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45 horses dead on three Southern California tracks during 2019 seasons––and 39 at Belmont alone LOS ALAMITOS,  California––Two horse deaths in the first race of the next-to-last-day of the Los Alamitos Race Course on December 14,  2019 renewed attention to high injury toll in horse racing,  but upstaged the disintegration of the California Equine Retirement […]

California Equine Retirement Foundation runs into deep muck

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Current leadership allegedly squandered assets & 27-year positive track record under ousted founder SAN JACINTO,  California––Among the 80-odd animal shelters,  sanctuaries,  and nonprofit rescue organizations foundering in 2019,  the California Equine Retirement Foundation (CERF) has probably run through the most money over the past five years. Along the way,  CERF blew the the best reputation […]

Are NYC foie gras ban & other new “pro-animal” bills all they’re quacked up to be?

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“Horsefeathers,”  says Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages founder NEW YORK CITY,  N.Y.––Voters For Animal Rights was quick to declare victory on October 30,  2019 when the New York City Council passed a bill banning the sale of foie gras from force-fed ducks and geese and a bill creating a Mayor’s Office of Animal Welfare within […]

Santa Anita deaths just a fraction of the toll in horse racing

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Breeding & slaughter drive the industry             SANTA ANITA,  California;  SYDNEY, Australia––A year-long nightmare string of fatal racehorse breakdowns continued at Santa Anita Park through October 2019 with the deaths of horses named Emtech,  Colonel,  Satchel Paige,  and C Q Covergirl,  the 35th fatality on the Santa Anita dirt,  turf,  and training tracks since December […]

Wild horse problem needs 15 years, $5 billion, says acting BLM chief

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“I’m not going to speculate on what Congress is going to do about money,”  Pendley adds.             FORT COLLINS,   Colorado;  CALGARY,  Alberta––Returning the U.S. wild horse population to the officially estimated sustainable level of about 27,000,  without mass roundups for  slaughter,  will take 15 years and $5 billion of investment,  acting Bureau of Land Management […]

Obits: defenders of cats, dogs, wild horses, bees, crabs, & elephants

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Elaine Adair, Dayton Hyde, Susan Rudnicki,  Alana Cutland,  & Matthew Talbot had in common service to animals Elaine Adair Elaine Adair,  cofounder of the Mississippi Spay & Neuter Alliance (MS-SPAN),  born Elaine Girton on October 15, 1950 in Bloomsburg,  Pennsylvania,   died after a long struggle against cancer on October 14, 2019,  one day before what would […]

Fur sales, wildlife acts, & hiding dog bite history banned in California

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Fur-bearing animals & adopters of shelter/rescue dogs win protections             SACRAMENTO,  California––The new animal-related law in California that Governor Gavin Newsom and mass media said least about,  to help protect Californians against recklessly rehomed dogs with bite history,  may in the end become the most emulated among the raft of bills sent to Newsom’s desk […]

Hurricane Dorian helps to solve the mystery of the extinct Abaco wild horses

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But Dorian destroys remnants of a 50-year effort to save the herd             TREASURE CAY, Little Abaco,  Bahamas––“This is like listening to a cosmic version of Ravel’s Bolero.  Feeling nervous about when the brass kicks in,”  wrote would-be wild horse savior and local dog rescuer Milanne “Mimi” Rehor,  in her last posting to Facebook before […]