Animals 24-7

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

Dolphin death incidents illustrate why ANIMALS 24-7 exists

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Finding the truth amid emotive incidents “What Have We Done to the Whale?” headlined the August 17,  2020 online edition of The New Yorker. Added the subhead,  “The creatures once symbolized our efforts to save the planet;  now they demonstrate all the ways we have devastated it.” The hand-wringing essay by Amia Srinivasan that followed also appeared […]

Iconic animal use events fall to COVID-19: “Running of the bulls” is latest

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“Social distancing” also shuts down SeaWorld, seal hunt, fur auctions, Kentucky Derby,  & the carriage horses in Central Park             PAMPLONA,  Spain ––The 700-year-old Festival of San Fermin, featuring bullfights and the “running of the bulls” through the cobbled streets of the oldest part of Pamplona, Spain, was on April 21, 2020 indefinitely postponed due […]

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 […]

Pogo: the Porpoise with a Purpose

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A Serious Appeal to Kids for Ocean Life,  Conservation,  & Climate Change by Lorie Givens Available in hardcover,  paperback,  and ebook formats from Amazon,  Barnes & Noble,  and other major online booksellers.  43 pages.  Prices vary by seller and format. Reviewed by Beth Clifton Pogo,  a harbor porpoise with a purpose and a message comes […]

Sidney Holt, 93, achieved goal that great whales would outlive him

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70-year scientific career focused on whale conservation PACIANO, Italy––Marine scientist Sidney J. Holt,  93,  died on December 22,  2019 at his home in Paciano,  Italy,  about 80 miles north of Rome and 10 miles north of his previous longtime home in Citta della Pieve,  Italy. Holt thereby realized his often stated life’s ambition of having […]

Bali: fighting rabies & dolphin captivity amid mud & ashes of a live volcano

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Long uphill struggles pay off             DENPASSAR, Bali,  Indonesia––Fireballs and lava are no longer flying from Mount Agung,  the reputed Balinese home of the gods,  but smoke,  steam,  and noxious gases are still rising from thermal vents,  keeping most humans at a distance,  Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA) dog rescuers excepted. Rabies persists in three […]

Dolphin defender Ric O’Barry, cleared by Tokyo court, plans return to Japan

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Three-judge panel rules O’Barry was wrongly barred entry & deported in 2016 TOKYO––“I’m gonna go back and do it again!” dolphin defender Ric O’Barry emailed to ANIMALS 24-7 late on October 3,  2019,  after attorneys Megumi Wada and Takashi Takano won a Tokyo District Court ruling on O’Barry’s behalf that O’Barry is free to return to […]

What you do when duck hunters start shooting up a county beach?

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Dear friends & readers: Shotgun blasts boomed out across the Saratoga Passage,  almost directly below our home three short blocks away as we started down toward Hidden Beach with our dogs,  Teddy,  a young Jack Russell/Shi tzu mix,  and Bo,  an old cattle dog mix.  A startled flock of surf scoters hurried out across the […]

Bali hotel dolphins rescued––but will they be freed?

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10-year effort gets animals out of sub-par facility             BALI,  Indonesia––The Jakarta Animal Aid Network and Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project on August 7,  2019 celebrated the transfer of two dolphins and a menagerie of other animals from “deplorable conditions” at the Melka Excelsior Hotel in Lovina,  North Bali, Indonesia to a variety of other Bali animal […]

Dolphins in undersized tank to be moved (March 1995)

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Amphitrite & Thetis are moving! SAN FRANCISCO––Amphitrite and Thetis are moving. Kept in an admittedly undersized tank at the Steinhart Aquarium since 1975 and 1978, respectively, the two female Pacific whitesided dolphins will join others of their kind at a state-of-the-art oceanarium elsewhere “within three to nine months,” new Steinhart director Robert Jenkins told ANIMALS […]