Use of all species but macaques appears to be declining NORMAN, Oklahoma––The University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center baboon research and breeding program is to end by 2019, university president David Boren announced on September 8, 2015. The University of Oklahoma thereby became the most recent of a growing number of U.S. academic institutions […]
“Xi & Obama: please talk tigers!”
Fourteen leading tiger experts appeal to Chinese and U.S. presidents Discussion of China’s tiger farms and its growing domestic trade in luxury tiger products was unfortunately not on the table for President Xi’s September 24, 2015 visit with U.S. President Barack Obama. Between 5,000 and 6,000 tigers are being farmed today in China for a luxury […]
Opening doors, by Gary Ferguson
Carole Noon & Her Dream to Save the Chimps Save the Chimps (P.O. Box 12220, Ft. Pierce, FL 34979), 2014. 176 pages. 250 photos; hardcover. $24.95. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Opening Doors: Carole Noon & Her Dream to Save the Chimps is the second publishing venture undertaken by the Save The Chimps sanctuary in less than a […]
Abandoning Vilab II chimps in Liberia, New York Blood Center did it before in Ivory Coast, SAEN charges
Founding scientists had committed to lifelong care NEW YORK CITY, MONROVIA, CINCINNATI–– “The New York Blood Center––already embroiled in charges it has abandoned 66 former research chimps to starve to death in Liberia––apparently discarded another largely unknown group of 20 chimps in Ivory Coast in 1983, on an island adjacent to Azagny National Park,” […]
Elephant sanctuarian Carol Buckley takes up fencing
“Good fences make good neighbors.” ––Robert Frost Whatever became of Carol Buckley, the former circus elephant trainer who founded the world-renowned Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, but made a controversial exit in March 2010? “Buckley is currently in Thailand installing the country’s first solar powered chain-free corrals for captive elephants,” Elephant Aid International publicist Patricia Jones […]
Nine lives running out at Serenity Springs Wildlife Center
Has taken heat from PETA COLORADO SPRINGS––If the Serenity Springs Wildlife Center, of Calhan, Colorado, had only nine lives, it might have been closed already. But if big cats really had nine lives, the Serenity Springs Wildlife Center might still have the 138 animals it claimed to house circa 2010, instead of the 113 […]
Judge marks “Dog Bite Prevention Week” with $100 million award to pit bull victim
But victim Steve Constantine is unlikely to ever see the money DETROIT––Wayne County Circuit Judge Daphne Means Curtis on May 19, 2015 awarded $100 million to pit bull attack victim and care volunteer Steven Constantine, 50, sending a “Dog Bite Prevention Week” warning to animal shelters and rescues nationwide. The $100 million award, against […]
Living the Farm Sanctuary Life
by Gene Baur & Gene Stone Rodale Press & Raincoast Books (33 East Minor Street, Emmaus, PA 18098), 2015. 320 pages, hardcover. $29.99. Reviewed by Beth Clifton “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” ––VICTOR HUGO (French novelist) Living the Farm Sanctuary Life […]
Update: Elephants, high mountains, and snow still don’t mix, Woodland Park Zoo learns––2,233 years after Hannibal
Bamboo & Chai to resume journey to Oklahoma City SEATTLE, SAN DIEGO, OKLAHOMA CITY––The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle on May 8, 2015 denied Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants’ application for an injunction to keep the former Woodland Park Zoo elephants Bamboo and Chai in temporary […]
Big Cat Rescue: remembering every large & exotic cat
Memorial Wall includes nearly every cat species TAMPA, Florida––Visitors to Big Cat Rescue will see almost every species of cat whom anyone has ever raised in captivity. The cats are without exception kept in exemplary conditions, displaying the relaxed ferocity in repose that most cats take as a birthright. But visitors will see no “Wall […]