Animals 24-7

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

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 […]

Kathi Travers, 69, vehemently non-“animal rights” animal advocate

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Legendary for deeds with ASPCA & WSPA,  but worked nearly twice as long for the British Columbia SPCA in St. George             PRINCE GEORGE,  British Columbia,  Canada––If Kathi Travers,  69,  could still shout aloud,  she might be shouting yet,  more than six months later,  about the first sentence of her Prince George Citizen obituary. Belatedly […]

Takaya the “sea wolf” headed for home, but hunter shot him

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Lived for eight years almost within sight of British Columbia provincial parliament             VICTORIA, B.C.,  Canada––Takaya,  10,  the “sea wolf” star of the 2019 CBC Nature of Things documentary “Takaya: Lone Wolf,”  was on March 24,  2020 shot by a hunter near Shawnigan Lake,  British Columbia,  possibly after being chased and/or mauled by the hunter’s […]

COVID-19 hot tip for coffee growers:  don’t go [email protected]#$% nuts!

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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 […]

“Invasive” grey squirrels, feral pigs, & rats: leave ’em alone, say scientists

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Studies suggest grey squirrel, feral pig,  & rat control are barking up the wrong tree BELFAST;  GUAM;  VANCOUVER––“Invasive” grey squirrels are allegedly extirpating red squirrels in the British Isles by transmitting squirrel pox. Feral pigs allegedly run amok to the detriment of rare native plants on Guam,  a remote Pacific island. Rats present a perennial […]

Are conservationists becoming an endangered species?

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Three alleged murders among five recent deaths of note The butterfly guys             OCAMPO,  Mexico––Monarch butterfly conservationists Homero Gómez González, 50,  and Raúl Hernández Romero,  44,  were found dead on January 29,  2020 and February 1,  2020,  respectively,  at the El Rosario butterfly preserve that they helped to found and develop […]

Montreal carriage horse trade ends, after 354 years

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“Calèche” industry was long intertwined with defunct harness track,  start of the Premarin industry,  horse slaughter,  and a notorious glue factory              MONTREAL, Quebec––The last vehicle-pulling horses in Montreal,  Quebec,  are to be off the streets before sunset on December 31,  2019––an hour which,  as this article is posted,  has already come and gone. “Far […]

Don’t know pigeons from bowling balls? Among pigeon rollers, you’ll fit right in

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Local humane society says nothing             ESSEX,  Ontario––Why has the Harrow Fair,  the official fair of Essex County,  Ontario,  elected to become internationally notorious for promoting so-called “parlor pigeons” as “the bowling balls of the avian world?” Why has the county allowed it? Why did the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society say and do nothing about it […]