Betting sealing will recover is like saving Confederate dollars in hopes the South will rise again (Donald Trump not withstanding) ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland––CBC Morning listeners, recipients of fundraising “alerts” from the Humane Society of the United States, and readers of The Dodo awakened on March 28, 2017 to reports, devoid of context, that the 2017 […]
Which are more deadly, balloons or alligators?
Jogging with the alligators Readers who troll my wife Beth’s personal Facebook page have probably seen a collage image she posted last summer showing me jogging along an embankment littered with alligators, stepping over their heads as I go, trailing a leaky helium balloon behind me. Obviously I didn’t really go hopping past alligators: the […]
“Salmon farming is an environmental disaster”
by John F. Robins, Animal Concern Scotland About thirty years ago an Animal Concern Director and I attended one of the first annual conferences of the Scottish fish farming industry. It was held in a wee hall in Oban and there were perhaps a hundred people attending. A student from University of Stirling gave a […]
Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtse River Dolphin
by Samuel Turvey Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016), 2008. 224 pages, paperback. $29.95. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Samuel Turvey, born in Lohja, Finland, as a child enjoyed a rare sighting of the Lake Saimaa seal. Landlocked by receding glaciers about 9,500 years ago, the Saimaa seal has adapted to […]
The dolphin stories that made two authors famous
Build Me An Ark: A Life With Animals, by Brenda Peterson WW. Norton (500 5th Ave., New York, NY 10110-0017), 2000. 256 pages, hardcover. $23.95. Journey Of The Pink Dolphin: An Amazon Quest, by Sy Montgomery Simon & Schuster (1230 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10020), 2000. 320 pages, hardcover. $26.00. Reviewed by […]
U.S. law to save seals in Scotland
Save Our Seals Fund invokes Marine Mammal Protection Act where Scottish law failed DUMBARTON, Scotland––Believed to be allowing more seals to be killed than any nation without an actual seal hunt, Scotland may soon have to stop the mayhem or risk losing access to U.S. markets, under new U.S. trade rules. […]
Feds kill 2,400 cormorants but claim why colony fled nests is a mystery
Sea lions are meanwhile killed upstream PORTLAND, Oregon––Hiring USDA Wildlife Services to kill double-crested cormorants near the mouth of the Columbia River, while other agencies killed sea lions beneath the Bonneville Dam, nominally to protect chinook salmon runs on behalf of sport fishers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on May 19, 2016 admitted […]
Holy cow! Humane Society of Canada loses last bid to keep tax-exempt status
Canadian Revenue Agency finds speculating in comic books “inappropriate” TORONTO, Ontario––Losing a last appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Humane Society of Canada appears to be on the verge of losing tax-exempt status, nine years after flunking a Canadian Revenue Agency audit over alleged misuse of donated funds by Michael O’Sullivan, the […]
Could SeaWorld survive if founded today?
In quest of aquatic novelty SAN DIEGO, ORLANDO, SAN ANTONIO––A false alarm that SeaWorld San Diego might phase out orca exhibitions in early November 2015 upstaged word that would-be aquarium magnate Ammon Covino had been arrested––again––for wildlife trafficking. Even in San Antonio, Texas, where Ammon’s brother Vince Covino operates an aquarium almost in the […]
Will new Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau be “Justin other bad guy” for animals?
Stephen Harper government, notorious for defense of Atlantic Canada seal hunt, ousted after 10 years OTTAWA, VANCOUVER––“The reign of the Stephen Harper government has collapsed,” exulted Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals executive director Lesley Fox on October 20, 2015, the morning after Harper’s 10-year Conservative Party of Canada regime collapsed in the 2015 […]