Animals 24-7

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

Did Namibia sell 170 elephants to China to make way for oil drilling?

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Murky Namibian elephant deal might involve as much as $22 million paid to someone,  even if oil rights are not involved WINDHOEK,  Namibia––Two weeks after the Namibian government sold 170 elephants to five undisclosed buyers,  to be transported to parts unknown,  Namibian minister of environment and tourism Pohamba Shifeta has yet to reveal the details […]

Murder along the equator: seven die defending parrots & gorillas

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Colombian and Congolese wildlife guardians were ambushed RONCESVALLES,  Colombia;  VIRUNGA NATIONAL PARK,  Democratic Republic of Congo––Simultaneous sad reminders of the human cost of wildlife conservation came on January 10,  2021 from the Reserva Loros Andinos in southwestern Colombia and Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Reserva Loros Andinos and Virunga […]

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 […]

From gorillas to shelter dogs: animals caught in the COVID-19 crunch

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No animals other than bats & humans are known to get COVID-19,  but millions are affected by the human response             WASHINGTON D.C.––Animals and animal-related projects from Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo to National Institutes of Health-funded laboratories are feeling the impact of the international COVID-19 scare underway throughout early 2020,  […]

Noted in passing: “Turtle God” & rhino, elephant, & lion advocates

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Victims of cancer,  assassins,  & two killed by the species they loved “Turtle God” Peter Pritchard,  76,  died in hospice care on February 26,  2020.   Known as “the Turtle God,”  recalled longtime Tampa Times environmental reporter Craig Pittman,  Pritchard at his home in Oviedo,  Florida kept what Pittman believed to be “the largest private collection […]

Deadly Wuhan coronavirus may be pangolin’s best friend

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Pangolins carry a 99% identical coronavirus,  report Chinese scientists             GUANGZHOU, China––Will the Wuhan coronavirus,  newly linked to pangolins,  save one of the world’s most endangered animals? Headlines over the weekend of February 8-9,  2020 amplified global panic that the number of confirmed Wuhan coronavirus deaths had soared beyond the 2003 toll from severe acute […]

Obits: defenders of cats, dogs, wild horses, bees, crabs, & elephants

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Elaine Adair, Dayton Hyde, Susan Rudnicki,  Alana Cutland,  & Matthew Talbot had in common service to animals Elaine Adair Elaine Adair,  cofounder of the Mississippi Spay & Neuter Alliance (MS-SPAN),  born Elaine Girton on October 15, 1950 in Bloomsburg,  Pennsylvania,   died after a long struggle against cancer on October 14, 2019,  one day before what would […]

Feds probe alleged rapes & murders by WWF-funded anti-poaching militias

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U.K., Germany,  & Switzerland also concerned about World Wildlife Fund-backed paramilitary operations             WASHINGTON D.C.–– The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and other federal agencies are investigating allegations repeatedly raised for more than a dozen years by media––chiefly by the online periodical BuzzFeed News,  but also including ANIMALS 24-7––that funds granted by the U.S. government […]

Elephants, giraffes, sharks, Asian otters & seahorses fare well in Switzerland

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African elephants win protection near where exports for display began             GENEVA, Switzerland––Live elephant exports from Africa for exhibition at least nominally ended by plenary vote at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Triennial Conference of the Parties on August 27,  2019 in Geneva,  Switzerland,  about 200 miles north from where the […]

Feds must hide names of hunters who kill for show, rules Trump appointee

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Brave enough to shoot a cage-raised lion,  but not enough to face the public             WASHINGTON,  D.C.––Ruling that trophy hunters’ right to privacy trumps the public right to know what animals they kill,  even though the goal of trophy hunting is showing off,  U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly on August 19,  2019 ruled that the […]