Animals 24-7

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

Seal-shooting salmon farmers have a £5,000 price on their heads

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U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act brought law to save seals in Scottish waters             EDINBURGH,  Scotland––Seal-shooting salmon farmers have a £5,000 price on their heads,  posted by Animal Concern Scotland on February 1,  2021. The reward is specifically for information leading to the first successful prosecution under a new Scottish seal protection law,  adopted on […]

Fish farming foe Kurt Oddekalv, no bunny-hugger, dies trying to save dog

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The dog died too Fish farming foe Kurt Willy Oddekalv,  63,  on January 11,  2020 died from drowning and hypothermia suffered in attempting to rescue his daughter’s dog Kompis,  who had fallen through ice on a lake near their home in Kalandseidet, Bergen, Norway. The dog Kompis was found dead nearby. As a sergeant in the […]

Dead fisher played “chicken” with Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat

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Would have passed safely if he had not cut to the right SAN FELIPE, Baja California, Mexico––What fisher Mario García Toledo,  56,  had in mind when he swerved his small but speedy panga across the bow of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Farley Mowat on the morning of December 31,  2020 in the northern […]

Trixie the whale shark dies young at the Georgia Aquarium

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Three whale sharks left of six brought from Taiwan in 2006-2007             ATLANTA, Georgia––Trixie the whale shark,  who could have lived up to 130 years in the wild,  died on November 27,  2020 after just 14 years at the Georgia Aquarium. Trixie,  believed to have been about 32 feet long,  still about eight feet short […]

China prosecutes 10 times more wildlife scofflaws in 2020 than U.S.

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COVID-19 triggers sustained crackdown on illegal fishers,  poachers, & traffickers BEIJING, China—Cracking down on wildlife-related crime in response to the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic,  China prosecuted more than 15,000 alleged perpetrators in the first nine months of 2020. About 7,000 prosecutions were for illegal fishing,  4,000 for poaching land animals and birds,  and 3,000 for […]

Florida fishers break ranks to denounce cruelty to fish

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Nothing suggests fishers are becoming as sensitive as fish themselves, but even discussing fish sentience & suffering marks a sea change             SARASOTA, Florida––Cruelty to fish,  just a few years ago,  was a topic attracting little attention,  and only derision from media serving recreational fishers,  but three topics hotly discussed in Florida during October 2020 […]

Killing the dam sea lions is about hook-&-bullet votes for Trump

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And Jaime Herrera-Beutler, Trump stooge in Congress             PORTLAND, Oregon––As many as 540 California sea lions and up to 176 Stellar sea lions are to be sacrificed to placate frustrated recreational salmon fishers,  beginning during the run-up to the November 2020 election and continuing throughout what would be President Donald Trump’s second term if re-elected. […]

Prince Charles, sea lice, & why salmon farming stinks

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Norwegian investors hope to delouse the salmon industry with new facility in Maryland BALTIMORE, Maryland––Salmon farming stinks. Business media worldwide have for weeks failed to mention that fact in amplifying a July 7,  2020 announcement that the Norwegian firm AquaCon plans to build a $300 million land-based salmon farm on the eastern shore of Chesapeake […]

Scotland to stop shooting seals to save salmon farm profits––but not until 2021

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50-year effort by Scottish seal defenders––but Humane Society of the U.S. blasts out media releases claiming credit DUMBARTON,  Scotland––Culminating a half century of effort by the Save Our Seals Fund,  and Animal Concern Scotland,  led for decades by John Robins of both organizations,  the Scottish Parliament on June 17,  2020 ratified a new Animals & Wildlife […]

COVID-19 brings no net gains for marine life––except in Iceland

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“There is no market,”  but fish,  shellfish,  seals,  & whales are all still hunted WESTERLY,  Rhode Island;  HONOLULU,  Hawaii;  REYKJAVIK, Iceland––Restaurant closures ordered because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have economically crippled the U.S. commercial fishing industry from Long Island Sound to Hawaii,  and have hit the fishing industry worldwide,  but––except in Iceland,  where a case […]