Animals 24-7

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

DNA & vets agree: pit bull Curtis, not hunting hounds, killed Elisa Pilarski

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Findings could lead to prosecution of fiancé of pregnant victim, who found her body, has denied both that Curtis did it and that he is a pit bull             PARIS, France––DNA test results released on November 3,  2020 by Eric Boussuge,  prosecutor for the district of Amiens,  support the finding of two court-appointed veterinarians that […]

Wolves, grizzly bears, wolverines & right whales sacrificed to Trump re-election bid

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Handouts to hunters, fishers, loggers, miners, & the oil and gas extraction industries             BLOOMINGTON, Minnesota––U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on October 29,  2020 announced that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is removing gray wolves from Endangered Species Act protection throughout the Lower 48 states. The wolf delisting is widely seen as a blatant […]

Feds quit funding guns & ammo for “anti-poaching” militias

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MacGregor throws the World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society & others out of the lettuce patch             WASHINGTON D.C.––Deputy Interior Secretary Katharine MacGregor on September 18,  2020 quietly ordered major reforms of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and U.S. Agency for International Development [USAID] programs which have for decades routed millions of dollars in funding […]

Shoving tule elk & bison aside, National Park Service favors cattle ranchers

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Point Reyes National Seashore & Yellowstone National Park allegedly managed for cows over native wildlife             POINT REYES, California;  BOZEMAN, Montana—Burning since an August 18,  2020 lightning strike,  the 4,900-acre Woodward Fire at Point Reyes National Seashore is reportedly contained at last. Issues rising with the smoke and cinders,  though,  smolder on,  including the National Park […]

Expanded hunting access goes up in smoke, burning Trumpists

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Trump administration opened 2.3 million acres of protected habitat to hunting,  but wildfires have forced closure of more than 10 times as much             WASHINGTON D.C.––Staunch support for U.S. President Donald Trump among gun-owning households might be said to have backfired on hunters in the wildfire-stricken West Coast and Rocky Mountain states.             Courting hunter […]

Wildlife Waystation closure: where are the animals now?

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32 chimps still need homes             SYLMAR, California––32 chimpanzees are the last residents of the former Wildlife Waystation sanctuary in Little Tujunga Canyon,  east of Glendale and Los Angeles. A year after Wildlife Waystation closed,  on August 13,  2019,  by order of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife,  finding the funds to rehome the […]

“To kill a mocking bird is a crime,” judge reminds Trump administration

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Ruling reverses attempt to gut the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1919             NEW YORK CITY––“It is not only a sin to kill a mockingbird,  it is also a crime,” wrote U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni in an August 11,  2020 decision upholding enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 as it […]

Three-legged bears in the Great Smokies may be no accident

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U.S. bear hunters & Asian gangsters cut paws & deals             ASHEVILLE,  North Carolina––Jody Williams and his Facebook group Help Asheville Bears want to catch the perp,  or multiple perps,  responsible for their recent discovery that at least 15 three-legged North American black bears are struggling for survival in the Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains,  […]

Guerrillas gun down 12 gorilla guards & five others in Virunga, DRC

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Resurgent Ebola and COVID-19 escalate threats to already high-risk habitat VIRUNGA NATIONAL PARK,  Democratic Republic of the Congo––At least 17 people,  including 12 Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation rangers whose primary duty is protecting critically endangered mountain gorillas,  were killed in an April 24,  2020 ambush attack. No gorillas are known to have been caught […]

Add to COVID-19 toll expanded hunting on U.S. Wildlife Refuges

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Trump administration appointees open more federal refuges to hunting than last three administrations combined             WASHINGTON D.C.––Opponents of hunting might imagine that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service chief Aurelia Skipwith waited until the public was distracted by soaring daily death tolls from the COVID-19 global pandemic to announce the biggest-ever […]