Animals 24-7

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

Parents try to raise children safely; pit bulls et al have other ideas

By

Mourning on Valentine’s Day Having taken to heart the pit bull advocacy claim that “It’s all in how you raise them,”  young people in at least eight communities scattered among Argentina,  Britain,  and the U.S. spent Valentine’s Day 2021 in shock and mourning after eight pit bulls,  a Dogo Argentino mix,  and a Rottweiler unexpectedly […]

World Federation for Animals seeks “One ring to bind them all”

By

But progress for animals is not achieved with “rings of power”             BOSTON, Massachusetts––Any resemblance between mild-mannered World Federation for Animals founder Wim DeKok,  a longtime exemplar of peaceful cooperation,  and Sauron,  the vengeful Satanic wizard of the Lord of the Rings trilogy authored by J.R.R. Tolkien,  would be difficult to discover. Yet there is […]

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

By

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 […]

Murder along the equator: seven die defending parrots & gorillas

By

Colombian and Congolese wildlife guardians were ambushed RONCESVALLES,  Colombia;  VIRUNGA NATIONAL PARK,  Democratic Republic of Congo––Simultaneous sad reminders of the human cost of wildlife conservation came on January 10,  2021 from the Reserva Loros Andinos in southwestern Colombia and Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Reserva Loros Andinos and Virunga […]

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

By

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 […]

Dead fisher played “chicken” with Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat

By

Would have passed safely if he had not cut to the right SAN FELIPE, Baja California, Mexico––What fisher Mario García Toledo,  56,  had in mind when he swerved his small but speedy panga across the bow of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Farley Mowat on the morning of December 31,  2020 in the northern […]

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

By

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 […]

Ice age rock art find exposes nearly 200 years of horse manure

By

The discovery does not improve  the case for horses having survived the Ice Ages in the Americas CHIRIBIQUETTE NATIONAL PARK, Colombia––Images of ice age horses,  among thousands of other animals painted along an eight-mile mural of rock art recently found in southern Colombia,  have revived hopes among wild horse advocates––and Mormon literalists––that horses somehow remained […]

Pig transport truck kills animal advocate Regan Russell outside slaughterhouse

By

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 […]

Dolphin death incidents illustrate why ANIMALS 24-7 exists

By

Finding the truth amid emotive incidents “What Have We Done to the Whale?” headlined the August 17,  2020 online edition of The New Yorker. Added the subhead,  “The creatures once symbolized our efforts to save the planet;  now they demonstrate all the ways we have devastated it.” The hand-wringing essay by Amia Srinivasan that followed also appeared […]