Metrics of misery: a flawed live release rate Editor’s note: ANIMALS 24-7 guest columnist Ed Duvin, often called “The Father of the No-Kill Movement” for his widely distributed 1989 essay In the Name of Mercy, wrote in that essay, “If our movement spent as much time soberly evaluating our policies and programs as we do […]
Mute swans & trumpeter swans: bird artist Barry Kent Mackay testifies
“The trumpeter swans where I live, in southern Ontario, associate with non-native mute swans” Barry Kent Mackay, a friend for 47 years, a longtime colleague on the animals and nature news beat, and among the senior animal advocates in Canada, also happens to be a distinguished ornithological painter with an especially strong fondness for waterfowl. […]
A personal tribute to vegan author John Robbins, by Vasu Murti
Diet for A New America author John Robbins dies at 77 from legacy of polio, ANIMALS 24-7 headlined on June 24, 2025, above an extensive obituary covering the facts of Robbins’ life and briefly reviewing his teachings. Robbins’ longtime friend Vasu Murti here offers his further and more personal perspective. The number of animals killed […]
Managing wolf hatred, by Robert Schmidt
“Care for your neighbors. Let natural processes go to work. Have patience. That’s my 100-year plan.” Robert Schmidt is Emeritus Faculty of the College of Natural Resources, Environment and Society Department, at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. He now lives in Colorado. Standing underneath the red fir, about 50 feet off the trail, the […]
“We do not ‘kill,’ but we do humanely euthanize” by Debra Boswell
Why does quality of life receive no consideration? We are located in Jackson, Mississippi. Our agency, the Mississippi Animal Rescue League will celebrate 55 years of operation in October. I have was the Mississippi Animal Rescue League director from 1978 to 2021, and remain communications coordinator. The Mississippi Animal Rescue League has been widely recognized […]
The Fourth of July, Diwali, the Big Bang, & entropic dissolution of the universe
Fourth of July fireworks are not the end of the world, but animals do not know that ANIMALS 24-7 has a version of the Big Bang Theory, which holds, quite apart from theories about the origin and eventual end of the universe, that few human activities, involving animals or anything else, are more pointless, useless, […]
What happened when I tried to ban rodeo in New York? by Irene Muschel
More cosponsors signed on to the rodeo ban bill than big groups helped to try to pass it (Irene Muschel, a longtime New York City animal advocate, school teacher, and social worker, lives about a mile from the American SPCA head offices as the crow flies, but a world away as ethics evolve. See Why […]
It is time to make rodeo illegal, by Peggy W. Larson, DVM, MS-Path., JD.
“In my youth, I rode bareback broncs in the rodeo.” I am a both an attorney and a veterinarian, who has treated both ranch and rodeo animals. (See Who will fix Vermont cats with Peggy Larson retired?) In my youth, I rode bareback broncs in the rodeo. After law school, I worked as a state […]
The “Thanksgiving” turkey: object of sentimentality, sarcasm, & sacrifice
Each year a litany of sarcasm accompanies the sentimentality of Thanksgiving by Karen Davis, Ph.D., president, United Poultry Concerns (See also Karen Davis, Ph.D., United Poultry Concerns founder, dead at 79.) “Nothing so unites us as gathering with one mind to murder someone we hate, unless it is coming together to share in a meal.” […]
Maui Humane Society CEO’s 4-week review of Lahaina rescue work
350 animals found alive after National Guard adjutant general Kenneth Hara said there were none, details Lisa Labrecque, DVM. Editors’ note: Though dated September 5, 2023, the statement below from Maui Humane Society chief executive Lisa Labrecque, DVM, just reached ANIMALS 24-7 as a media release today, September 11, 2023, and is posted for the […]