COVID-19 shows “Eat @#$% & die!” is a warning, not a metaphor KUNMING, China; LONDON, U.K.; SEATTLE––One might imagine that the midst of a global pandemic of COVID-19, a disease apparently originating in bats, would not be the best time for selling bat-processed coffee. At this writing, COVID-19 has infected nearly 175,000 people, worldwide, killing […]
Wild Kingdom star Jim Fowler, 89: the truth behind the legend
Florida roadside zoo showman starred on TV for 50 years NORWALK, Connecticut––Few viewers of the NBC nature documentary television series Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom during the original run of the program, 1963-1971, might have expected that host Jim Fowler would die quietly at home at age 89––but he did, on May 8, 2019, in […]
“We can still save them”: wild cat conservationist Alan Rabinowitz, 65
The “Indiana Jones of wildlife conservation” was an optimist in a field dominated by doom-and-gloom NEW YORK CITY––Wild cat conservationist Alan Rabinowitz died of cancer on August 5, 2018 in Manhattan, New York City, after an 18-year struggle that began with a diagnosis of leukemia in 2001 and spanned most of the achievements for […]
Florida: Bashing the brains out of iguanas as alleged illegal aliens
Iguanas were in Florida first––by 16 million years FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida––Bashing or shooting the brains out of iguanas essentially for the hell of it would be illegal almost anywhere if done to pets. Braining iguanas in the name of research, however, brought University of Florida wildlife biologist and research coordinator Jenny Ketterlin and 14 […]
Death of Florida 6-year-old reminds that bat rabies can strike anywhere
Humans & bats evolved to live in frequent proximity, yet rarely meet. That keeps us both safe. ORLANDO, Florida––The January 14, 2018 death of Ryker Roque, 6, at the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, just 20 minutes from Disney World and half an hour from Walt Disney’s Wild Animal Kingdom, came as […]
Favor to speedboaters: Trump administration downlists manatees
But manatees may benefit from global warming HOMOSASSA SPRINGS, Florida––After a record 104 Florida manatees were killed by speeding boaters in 2016, one might almost expect the March 30, 2017 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announcement that Florida manatees are no longer officially endangered to be followed by a shout of “April Fool!” But […]
Questioning the claims of “crisis”
Bio-xenophobia (Part 4 of a four-part series. See also The animal issue that made Donald Trump a presidential candidate; How an ant doctor came to be driving public policy; and How the Twin Towers fell on animals too.) In the first decade after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 there was little opposition to mass killing […]
Four poachers get life for killing Costa Rican sea turtle defender
Convictions for the killing of Jairo Mora Sandoval reverse 2015 acquittal LIMÓN, Costa Rica––Four poachers have received prison sentences ranging from 74 to 90 years for the May 30, 2013 murder of Costa Rican sea turtle defender Jairo Mora Sandoval, 26, and the kidnapping and robbery of four volunteers who were helping Mora to […]
Katherine Bolland Gibson, 60, inspiration to a generation of humane workers
by Merritt Clifton Katherine Bolland Gibson, 60, a pioneer of promoting spay/neuter in rural areas of the developing world, and an inspiration to a generation of humane workers for whom post traumatic stress developed on the job was a way of life, died on November 11, 2014 in San Jose, Costa Rica, after more than […]
Elected on pro-animal platform, new Costa Rican president allows anti-dogfighting bill to become law without a signing ceremony
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica––New Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís either failed to sign into law the anti-dogfighting law he helped to push through the legislature or did not announce signing it, but the law took effect anyway on May 29, 2014, when published in the official government gazette. The […]