Animals 24-7

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

Barn fires begin to be noticed by animal advocates but not yet agribiz

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Animal Welfare Institute & Humane Society International make recommendations             WASEKA, Minnesota––Twelve thousand pigs,  including 9,000 piglets and 3,000 sows,  died in a May 16, 2021 fire that razed two barns at the Woodville Pork Farm in Waseca,  Minnesota. Nine different rural fire departments sent water tankers,  but as the first barn was already fully […]

Montreal SPCA sues SPCA International to try to get back web name

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“Having difficulty finding valid legal addresses,”  says plaintiff’s attorney MONTREAL––Proceedings in a lawsuit filed by the Montreal SPCA to try to recover the use of the domain name <spca.com> from SPCA International have been delayed because the plaintiffs are having difficulty finding valid legal addresses at which to serve notice on some of the defendants, […]

Seal-shooting salmon farmers have a £5,000 price on their heads

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U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act brought law to save seals in Scottish waters             EDINBURGH,  Scotland––Seal-shooting salmon farmers have a £5,000 price on their heads,  posted by Animal Concern Scotland on February 1,  2021. The reward is specifically for information leading to the first successful prosecution under a new Scottish seal protection law,  adopted on […]

Barry Lopez, 75, “literary naturalist,” inspired animal advocates

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Death came four months after Lopez lost home of 50 years to wildfire Barry Lopez,  75,  died on Christmas Day 2020 in Eugene,  Oregon,  after a years-long battle with prostate cancer. Sometimes described as a “literary naturalist,”  Lopez wrote often about animals,  but hardly exclusively,  and as often about the animals of Native American myth and […]

Strychnine for Christmas: Alberta gift to wolves, caribou & other wildlife

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Big Bad Wolf blamed for habitat loss due to global warming             EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada––Again this Christmas season,  Alberta Environment & Parks will welcome Santa’s reindeer by setting out strychnine. The strychnine will be not for Santa,  nor for the reindeer,  the North American variety of whom are called caribou,  but rather for the Big […]

Pig transport truck kills animal advocate Regan Russell outside slaughterhouse

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Accident reprises 1995 death of British protester Jill Phipps             BURLINGTON, Ontario––Regan Russell, 65,  of Hamilton,  Ontario,  was on June 19,  2020 crushed to death by an 18-wheel livestock transport truck delivering pigs to slaughter at Fearman’s Pork Inc.,  the largest and oldest slaughterhouse in Ontario. A local landmark since 1852,  and the scene of […]

Prince Charles, sea lice, & why salmon farming stinks

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Norwegian investors hope to delouse the salmon industry with new facility in Maryland BALTIMORE, Maryland––Salmon farming stinks. Business media worldwide have for weeks failed to mention that fact in amplifying a July 7,  2020 announcement that the Norwegian firm AquaCon plans to build a $300 million land-based salmon farm on the eastern shore of Chesapeake […]

Wrestler Megan Milner is first Canadian pit bull fatality of 2020

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Milner is fifth of six dog attack deaths in two weeks, four by pit bulls             HALIFAX, Nova Scotia––Wrestler,  martial arts expert,  and experienced pit bull owner Megan Milner,  38,  of Middle Musquodoboit,  Nova Scotia,  on the morning of June 9,  2020 became the twentieth known pit bull fatality of the year in the U.S. […]

Fatal truck crash spotlights lack of attention to safety in dog transport

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Pit bull rescue was hauling 48 dogs to Canada             SHELLEY, Idaho;  PHOENIX, Arizona––Dog rescue-and-rehomers elsewhere around the U.S. on May 20,  2020 celebrated “National Rescue Dog Day.” Many from Phoenix,  Arizona,  and southern Idaho,  however,  searched the hills and woods around U.S. Interstate 15 milepost 105,  just south of Shelley,  Idaho,  for nine dogs––mostly […]

Pandas follow the Calgary Stampede out of town––and back to China

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COVID-19 red ink left the Calgary Zoo with a black-and-white choice  CALGARY,  Alberta,  Canada––Giving up hope that a rare giant panda exhibit will continue to pay for itself––and of managing to keep the pandas fed through the COVID-19 pandemic––the Calgary Zoological Society on May 12,  2020 disclosed to media that it has asked the Canadian […]