Animals 24-7

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

Would you shoot bison for scratching their butts on your house?

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Bison leaving Yellowstone National Park looking for something to eat are shot in record numbers at the Montana border HELENA,  Montana––With unusually heavy snow driving bison out of Yellowstone National Park into Montana in record numbers,  and bison being killed in record numbers too for following their ancient migration route from the Rocky Mountains into […]

For Josh & Sarah Bowmar,  it’s the fire next time they appear in court

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Fined but no jail time in poaching-related plea bargain,  truck-burning & cabin-burning cases still ahead OMAHA,  Nebraska––Self-promoted online celebrity bowhunters and physical fitness gurus Josh and Sarah Bowmar on January 12,  2023 escaped jail time for misdemeanor conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act,  which prohibits transportation of illegally obtained wildlife and wildlife parts across state […]

Did a deer hunter murder Goldie Smith? By accident, or was it a hit?

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Killed by arrow in deer hunting stronghold,  but in mid-town STEELTON,  Pennsylvania––Imagine an avid archery deer hunter,  a poacher actually,  who spots a big buck in rut just before dawn on Chambers Hill,  overlooking Steelton,  Pennsylvania. Leaving his pickup truck,  the archer follows the buck down into town through several cemeteries and/or the Dauphin Highlands […]

Alleged game farm money-laundering may oust South African president

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Cyril Ramaphosa raised animals to hunt,  purportedly had $580,000 stashed in his sofa,  & was suspected of taking a bribe linked to $42 million scam by David Wills,  former Humane Society of the U.S. exec doing life for child sex trafficking             JOHANNESBURG––Win or lose a confidence vote at the African National Congress convention beginning on […]

Celebrity bowhunters Josh & Sarah Bowmar cop a plea

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Claim victory despite accepting penalties totaling $138,000 OMAHA, Nebraska––Charged in July 2020 with six counts each of violating the Lacey Act,  the U.S. federal law prohibiting interstate wildlife offenses,  self-promoted online celebrity bowhunters and physical fitness gurus Josh and Sarah Bowmar for more than two years squawked defiance. (See Celebrity bowhunters Josh & Sarah Bowmar […]

Hours after Uvalde school killings, Iowa lawmakers authorize AR-15 deer hunt

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New doe-and-fawn season DES MOINES,  Iowa––Hours after Salvador Ramos used an AR-15 automatic rifle he gave himself as an 18th birthday present to massacre 19 fourth graders and two teachers in Uvalde,  Texas,  the Iowa state house of representatives ratified a bill to create a special January antlerless deer hunting season for AR-15 users. The […]

Sonoran desert pronghorn: safer on a bombing range than in a refuge

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Fastest land animals in North America,  yet not quite faster than a speeding bullet,  nor more powerful than the gun lobby  SONORAN DESERT NATONAL MONUMENT, Arizona––Why is the endangered Sonoran desert pronghorn safer on the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range,  strafed and bombed day and night since 1941 by 20 squadrons of U.S. Air […]

No more bullshit saves National Wildlife Refuge for endangered deer

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But the Columbian white-tailed deer came off the U.S. endangered species list before the refuge even began to recover from 45 years of cattle grazing             CATHLAMET, Washington––Thanks to wetland restoration,  the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge for the Columbian white-tailed deer now looks more like protected habitat than a feedlot. Fifty years after […]

Dying tule elk need water now diverted to cattle; can lawyers save them?

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Cattle ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore was to end by 1987,  but now 10 times more cattle crowd the habitat than before the land was “protected”             POINT REYES, California––The remains of at least 18 endangered tule elk at drought-parched Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County,  California,  38 miles north of San Francisco,  attest […]

Hunter gets 7 to 20 years for killing teen he mistook for a groundhog

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Rare stiff sentence for “hunting accident”             DOYLESTOWN, Pennsylvania––Kenneth Troy Heller,  52,  of Warminster Township,  Pennsylvania,  was on July 7,  2021 sentenced to serve from seven to 20 years in prison for a so-called “hunting accident” that on October 24,  2020 killed 18-year-old Jason Kutt at Nockamixon State Park,  Bucks County. The unusually stiff sentence […]