Animals 24-7

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

Hurricane Laura: mouse takes the spotlight while 10 dogs die on truck

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Marine life are major wildlife casualties             COOKEVILLE,  Tennessee––Pipsqueak the three-legged mouse,  a cow dead for perhaps 160 years,  ten dogs succumbing to heat exhaustion aboard a rescue transport,  and acres of decomposing marine life scattered across beaches more than 300 miles from where Hurricane Laura made landfall at Cameron Parish,  Louisiana,  appear to be […]

Wildfires, COVID-19, & cockfighting besiege Monterey County

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Cockfighting may be accelerant behind COVID-19 explosion MONTEREY, California––The 50,000-acre River wildfire,  destroying at least 13 homes,  and the 7,000-acre Carmel wildfire,  razing 50 homes,  reportedly forced the evacuation of more than 500 animals to the SPCA for Monterey County shelter during the fourth week of August 2020––and then forced the animals’ re-evacuation to the […]

Pro-cockfighting rally draws fewer participants than local cockfights

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Apathy thwarts “Call To Action BBQ” VERBENA, Alabama––One inept attempt to rally nationwide support for cockfighting,  convened on short notice amid a global pandemic,  scarcely means the multi-million-dollar cockfighting industry is unraveling,  protected as it is by “good old boys” in legislatures and law enforcement. But that fewer people rallied in defense of cockfighting on […]

Birds in the mail: U.S. Postal Service changes kill thousands

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Trump appointee DeJoy puts animal advocates, factory farmers, cockfighters, & captive bird-shooters all on the same side of the fence WASHINGTON D.C.––Changes to U.S. Postal Service policy and practice implemented by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy,  appointed in May 2020 by U.S. President Donald Trump,  on August 21,  2020 improbably aligned animal advocates,  factory-style poultry farmers,  […]

Slaughter workers, animals, & advocates: can there be justice for all?

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Not all social justice interests are compatible by Karen Davis, Ph.D., president, United Poultry Concerns “It really does something to your mind when you stand there in all that blood, killing so many times, over and over again.” – Virgil Butler, former Tyson chicken slaughterhouse employee  If I see or hear the word “meatpacking” one […]

Kentucky state cops let 33 cars leave alleged cockfight before investigating

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Showing Animals Respect & Kindness caught the “great escape” on video             PINE KNOT, Kentucky––Duane Pohlman, chief investigative reporter for the Cincinnati television station WKRC,  aired quite a scoop about cockfighting continuing in Kentucky on Monday,  July 6, 2020,  using undercover video collected by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK) with Humane Farming Association Funding. […]

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,  […]

“No injuries” says Michael Foods of fire that killed 400,000 hens

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Cage-free complex has been much praised by animal advocates             BLOOMFIELD, Nebraska––If anyone imagined that going cage-free would substantively change the egg industry,  the headlines alone reporting a February 27,  2020 barn fire at a Michael Foods cage-free complex in Knox County,  Nebraska should explode that illusion. The Michael Foods fire killed as many as […]

Ravaging Asia & Africa: a much deadlier plague than COVID-19

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World fiddles while grasshoppers munch             NINGBO,  China;  NAIROBI,  Kenya––A much deadlier plague than the COVID-19 coronavirus is sweeping westward from China through Pakistan,  across Central Asia,  and throughout the Horn of Africa,  flying 100 miles a day,  devouring crops enough to feed as many as 34 million people,  according to the United Nations Food […]