Animals 24-7

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

Charges against pigeon killer recall humane & labor movement landmarks

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Boys from Bridgeton were once in the movements’ vanguard          BRIDGETON,  NJ;  PHILADELPHIA,  PA––Cruelty charges have been filed against an unnamed 17-year-old Bridgeton,  New Jersey resident for allegedly torturing pigeons wounded in live pigeon shoots at the Philadelphia Gun Club by kicking the wounded birds and throwing rocks at them. Previous cases dismissed Filed by […]

Hunting lobby sets a leghold trap for Democrats

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NRA & Safari Club push Republicans to pass election year boondoggle that Obama may not dare to veto          WASHINGTON D.C.––The National Rifle Association,  Safari Club International,  and allied hunting industry lobbyists on February 26,  2016 advanced closer than ever before,  in eight years of trying,  to push through Congress an omnibus package of special […]

Killing for Fun(ds)

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The centerpiece of agency interactions with wildlife by Laura Nirenberg,  Trevor Desane,  & E. Anne Benaroya Center for Wildlife Ethics Historically, wildlife agencies’ primary objective has been to increase preferred game species’ populations for the purpose of satisfying hunters’ demands for more live-targets to shoot.  State agency budgets, reliant on the sale of hunting licenses […]

Who eats the most Floridians––pythons, pit bulls, bears, or alligators?

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Feral species challenge understanding of predator/prey relationships          MIAMI––Florida hosts 1.3 million alligators,  about a quarter of a million pit bulls, a few billion mosquitoes,  and––according to promotional material for the 2016 Python Challenge Burmese Python Removal Competition––perhaps 100,000 pythons,  the species officially deemed most in need of killing after the first Florida bear hunt […]

Washington voters trounce hook-&-bullet crowd on behalf of endangered species

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71% in favor          OLYMPIA––Washington state voters on November 3,  2015 overwhelmingly approved Initiative Measure 1401,   introducing state-level felony penalties for the purchase, sale,  and/or distribution of products made from elephants,  rhinos,  lions,  tigers,  leopards,  cheetahs,  sea turtles,  pangolins,  sharks and rays. At least 50 individuals have reportedly been apprehended in possession with such contraband […]

Controlling deer the natural way

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A New Deer Advocacy Paradigm Guest columnist Lee Hall makes the case for government to quit hunting deer and start respecting natural predators (See also Coyotes: nature’s animal control officers,  by Merritt Clifton.) Forcible deer control gets broad support from all levels of government and from many conservation organizations—all reacting to a perceived crisis of deer […]

Cecil-the-lion killer Walter James Palmer walks

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But photo safari guide killed by lion in destabilized population paid the ultimate price HARARE,  Zimbabwe––Zimbabwe environment minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri on October 12,  2015 announced that Minneapolis dentist Walter James Palmer,  55,  will not be charged for killing Cecil the lion during an early July 2015 trophy hunt. Cecil had been perhaps the most photographed […]

Cormorant massacre underway

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by Bob Sallinger,  Audubon Society of Portland Further to my ANIMALS 24-7 posting of September 14,  2015,  Feds resume killing cormorants despite admitting “nesting population targets were met,  for the past two weeks, federal government employees from the Wildlife Services office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been shooting double-crested cormorants from a boat […]

The Buffalo Field Campaign Road Show

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Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Opening in Williams,  Oregon on September 12,  2015,  the Buffalo Field Campaign Road Show is scheduled to present 24 concerts up and down the west coast through October 10,  then swing inland to perform in the Rocky Mountain region until November,  when Yellowstone bison begin wandering north into Montana. From then […]

Shot hits SHARK drone during Senator James Inhofe pigeon shoot

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Sheriff & state police refuse to investigate          ALTUS,  Oklahoma––An alleged participant in the 11th annual fundraising pigeon shoot hosted by U.S. Senator James Inhofe marked September 11,  2015 by shooting one of the engine covers off of an eight-engine drone helicopter operated by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi. “Senator Inhofe was […]