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Mercury Toxicity as a Cause for Stranded Marine Mammals is not a Mystery

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by Bill McGraw (Ph.D. in aquaculture, Boquete, Panama;  www.newaquatechpanama.com) Approximately 37% of marine mammal species are in danger of extinction,  according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.  Among the most often reported concerns regarding deaths of whales and dolphins are the phenomena of these animals beaching or “stranding” themselves en masse. Episodic […]

“Send Ndume back to Cinci!” says gorilla case Solomon

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“Enough poop––move him or lose him,”  judge tells Gorilla Foundation             SAN FRANCISCO––The Gorilla Foundation,  of Woodside,  California,  ain’t said @#$%,  either to mass media or through social media,  since Judge Richard Seeborg of the U.S. District Court of Northern California,  who was asked to play Solomon between claimants to Ndume the feces-flinging silverback gorilla,  […]

China cloning advance to cut monkey use in research, say scientists

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Critics appear not to have read either the Chinese scientific journal reports or media release about them clear to the end SHANGHAI, China––Had the Institute of Neuroscience at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai put the last three lines of a January 24,  2019 media release announcing the births of five cloned monkeys at […]

Arun Rangsi, 39, “heart gibbon” of IPPL founder Shirley McGreal

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Arun Rangsi was living link to IPPL origins             SUMMERVILLE,  South Carolina––“The International Primate Protection League is devastated to report the loss of our first lab gibbon, Arun Rangsi,  who was also my ‘heart gibbon,’”  IPPL founder Shirley McGreal posted to social media. Arun Rangsi was a living link to IPPL cofounder Ardith Eudey,  Ph.D.,  a […]

Pseudo-science & the Alex Pacheco “Spay & Neuter” Cookie

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No product,  no scientists,  nothing else that makes sense             POMPANO BEACH,  Florida––The pseudo-science in a “Spay and Neuter Cookie Science Update and Overview” fundraising appeal emailed by “600 Million Stray Dogs Need You” founder Alex Pacheco to potential donors on December 19,  2018 began in the first sentence beneath the headline.             Pacheco has […]

Four people who changed how humans see animals

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Charlie Russell,  Mary T. Hoffman, Aubrey Manning, & Dorothy Cheney  Russell made “Spirit Bears” famous            Canadian bear researcher and author Charlie Russell,  76,  died on May 7,  2018 in Calgary, Alberta,  from complications after surgery.             Born in Pincher Creek,  Alberta,  where his parents Andy and Kay Russell were hunting outfitters and guides,  Charlie Russell […]

Can plant-based “meat” be made to satisfy the Yellow Vests?

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Demand for more & cheaper meat underlies strikes over high fuel cost             PARIS,  SAN FRANCISCO–– The “yellow vest” riots ripping apart France,  bringing at least 412 arrests on December 1,  2018 alone,  more than 260 injuries,  half of them in Paris,  and two reported deaths,  are behind the scenes adding a social peace-and-justice imperative […]

Could Zambia contracept wild hippos instead of culling?

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Or is hippo overpopulation even really the issue? LUSAKA,  Zambia––Why has Zambian tourism minister Charles Banda revived a five-year-old plan to cull up to 250 hippopotamuses per year from South Luangwa National Park,  only two years after scrapping it? “The South Luangwa National Park has a population of more than 13,000 hippos but the area […]

Mystery marine toxo host kills sea mammals; cats wrongly blamed

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Toxoplasma gondii finding in beluga whales points same way as sea otter and monk seal studies––& not toward cats             MONTREAL––A new study widely publicized for allegedly linking domestic cats to losses of endangered beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River estuary actually shows almost the opposite,  read in context––and contributes to a growing stack of […]

“Meat-eating is never neutral”: Mary Midgely, 99

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Author of Animals & Why They Matter             NEWCASTLE ON TYNE,  United Kingdom––“The symbolism of meat-eating is never neutral,”  wrote Mary Midgely on page 27 of her 1983 opus Animals & Why They Matter. “To himself,”  Midgely observed,  “the meat-eater seems to be eating life.  To the vegetarian,  he seems to be eating death.  There […]