The Gaza dogs are hungry, but are they hungry enough yet to eat people? NUSEIRAT, Gaza; RAMAT GAN, Israel––Claims that starving Gaza street dogs are eating unburied victims of the Israel/Gaza war are helping to fuel controversy over the Israeli Defense Force response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks. The claims may be […]
Disaster authorities in Lahaina move to save banyan tree, but not animals
The banyan tree is alive––but so are the animals, if they get help now! KAHULUI, Maui, Hawaii––Ten days and counting after the August 8, 2023 firestorm that razed Lahaina, efforts to save a banyan tree spreading over almost two acres have taken the mass media spotlight away from the human body count, stalled over the […]
FY 2022
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Five paws up for Stephen Best dog rescue film “Saving Dinah”
Saving Dinah Directed by Stephen Best Starring Amanda Langille, Craig Martin, and Paul James Saunders. 90 minutes. $1.99 from Amazon Prime Video (rental) or $4.99 to purchase. Produced by the Animal Alliance of Canada. Reviewed by Merritt & Beth Clifton. Bill Sikes, arch-villain of the 1838 Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, might justly be called one of […]
Why the USDA cannot effectively enforce the Animal Welfare Act
The USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service was designed to fail WASHINGTON D.C.–– Responsible for federal Animal Welfare Act enforcement, such as it is, the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA-APHIS] on May 20, 2022 got a public butt-kicking from National Geographic writer Rachel Fobar. The […]
USDA proposes to cover birds under the Animal Welfare Act––sort of
Disease outbreaks afflicting poultry producers lend regulatory urgency to protecting birds––some birds, anyhow––that 50 years of activism did not WASHINGTON D.C.––The worst outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza on record, ravaging European flocks both wild and domestic since 2020, now killing birds by the million in poultry barns, especially in the upper Midwest, may soon help […]
FY 2021
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Is mink farming “too dirty to die”? Or is pending bill the coup-de-grace?
Some in the U.S. mink industry see COVID-19 as a growth opportunity WASHINGTON D.C.––Will the COVID-19 delta variant finally kill mink farming in the U.S., after COVID-19 in all forms has killed more than 633,000 Americans? Or will HR 4310, dubbed the MINKS Act as acronym for “Minks in Narrowly Kept Spaces Are Superspreaders Act,” […]
Shooting war: cats win, feeders lose in East Bay Regional Park District
East Bay Regional Park District agrees to ceasefire if cat rescuers remove cats from sensitive wildlife areas OAKLAND, California––Histrionic headlines and activist alerts aside, what the East Bay Regional Park District board of directors really did at a heated June 15, 2021 meeting over cat policy was to: Permanently reassign staff biologist David “Doctor […]
Factory-farmed pigs get a break from vaccine breakthrough
For factory-farmed pigs, avoiding African swine fever may be about as good as the grim news gets GREENPORT, New York––With all eyes on the progress of vaccination against the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has to date killed nearly 3.5 million people, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Service in early May quietly announced a breakthrough […]