Animals 24-7

News on dogs, cats, horses, wildlife, zoonoses, & nature

Mark Twain’s Book of Animals

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Edited with Introduction,  Afterword,  & Notes by Shelley Fisher Fishkin University of California Press https://www.ucpress.edu/ 325 pages,  hardcover.  $27.50. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Wrote Ed Duvin,  whose 1989 Animalines newsletter essay “In The Name of Mercy” prophesying  “no kill” animal sheltering is widely considered a classic of humane literature,  to ANIMALS 24-7 a few days […]

Rare Aussie animals save themselves, no thanks to Compound 1080

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Brush-tailed rock wallabies & long-nosed potoroos need habitat,  poison drops CANBERRA,  ADELAIDE,  MELBOURNE,  Australia––Investigators are finding,  in the wake of bushfires that ravaged protected habitat right around the forested coastal perimeter of Australia,  that many rare Australian animals apparently know how to save themselves,  with or without human help. More than a billion animals are […]

Girl, 11, & father killed over a bull mastiff? Race horses involved too?

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Former thoroughbred owner shot son & granddaughter of renowned jockey & racing judge PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida—Why did Ronald John Delserro,  82,  on July 6,  2020 fatally shoot two of his longtime Port St. Lucie neighbors,  11-year-old Harper Hansman and her father Guy Alexander Hansman,  55? Was Delserro’s grievance only because the Hansman family brought […]

Horse racing fails to win, place, or show in Georgia, despite HSUS support

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Why is the Humane Society of the U.S. helping horse racing to expand into new territory? ATLANTA, Georgia––Again the perennial horse racing industry attempt to legalize pari-mutuel betting and introduce thoroughbred racing to Georgia failed during the 2020 state legislative session,  closed on July 3. Opposition to legalizing pari-mutuel betting came chiefly from religious groups […]

“Animals & thugs”: horses, dogs, police & the George Floyd protests

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Horses & dogs used and misused by both cops & demonstrators              NEW YORK, N.Y.–– “Stop treating us like animals and thugs,  and start treating us with some respect!” fumed New York Police Benevolent Association president Mike O’Meara to a June 9,  2020 media conference. That was all O’Meara had to say about animals. The passing mention,  however,  raised […]

Why Europe will not eat U.S. & Australian wild horses

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Dutch & Danish seizures of illegally trafficked German horse meat do not mean revived demand             WASHINGTON D.C.,  BRUSSELS––Yes,  the Bureau of Land Management under Donald Trump appointee William Perry Pendley is desperately eager to dispose of as many as 45,000 wild horses in holding pens,  plus about 68,000 of the estimated 95,000 wild horses […]

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 […]

Gabriel Wortman & Tara Reade: what would animals testify?

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Animals might have had quite a bit to say about both rampage killer & alleged character assassin––if they could talk PORTAPIQUE, Nova Scotia;  FRANKFORT, Kentucky;  SANTA CRUZ, California––Denturist and hunter Gabriel Wortman,  51,  of Portapique,  Nova Scotia,  on April 18 and 19,  2020 shot 13 people to death with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle,  including a […]

Pit bull or hunting hounds? Who killed Elisa Pilarski & unborn child Enzo?

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DNA data may decide which dog did the killing,  but maybe not who was at fault SOISSONS,  France––Pack hunters and pit bull enthusiasts are pitted against each other in a melodrama gripping French media since November 16,  2019,  when someone’s dog or dogs killed Elisa Pilarski,  29,  six months pregnant. Anxiously awaited DNA test results […]

“Whoa!” shouts Chicago to horse-drawn carriages

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Last ten horse-drawn carriage licenses will not be renewed             CHICAGO––150 years of horse-drawn carriages plying downtown Chicago––interrupted by a 17-year suspension,  1962-1979––are to end by January 1,  2021,  the Chicago City Council resolved on April 24,  2020. The 46-4 vote ratified a March 2020 decision by the Chicago Committee on License & Consumer Protection […]