Animals 24-7

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

If plants have feelings, how does this affect our advocacy for animals?

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by Karen Davis, PhD, president of United Poultry Concerns Can a tree be “strategically responsive, and exhibit kinship, or a sense of self? Is a tree intelligent?” ––Rebecca Giggs, “The Trees Are Talking,” The Atlantic, July /August 2021,  published online as A Better Way to Look at Trees. This intriguing article in The Atlantic recounts […]

What does the Taliban mean for animals in Afghanistan?

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Sharia law may be much better for animals than for western-funded animal advocacy organizations             KABUL,  Afghanistan––Six days after the Taliban retook Kabul,  the national capital of Afghanistan,  the one certainty for the status of animals may be that dogfighting will be prohibited and firmly suppressed,  along with a violent regional sport called buzkashi in […]

Project Chimps paints walls in lieu of giving chimps daily outdoor time

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Paint job was not “whitewashing” because Project Chimps used bright colors BLUE RIDGE, Georgia–– Humane Society of the U.S. representatives once upon a time derisively denounced as eyewash meant to impress human visitors,  not the imprisoned animals, the common zoo practice of painting scenic backdrops on bare concrete walls. Staff and volunteers at the Project […]

Dying tule elk need water now diverted to cattle; can lawyers save them?

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Cattle ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore was to end by 1987,  but now 10 times more cattle crowd the habitat than before the land was “protected”             POINT REYES, California––The remains of at least 18 endangered tule elk at drought-parched Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County,  California,  38 miles north of San Francisco,  attest […]

Marine mammal activist Ben White,  53,  dies of abdominal cancer

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Long problematic career Ben White,  53,  died on July 30,  2005,  in Friday Harbor, Washington,  after a six-month struggle against abdominal cancer. White “cut open dolphin-holding nets in Japan,  scaled buildings to hang anti-fur banners, jumped in front of naval ships in Hawaii to stop sonar tests,  and slept atop old-growth trees to protest logging,” […]

Fixing for a fight of Leviathans

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The Makah Harpooners vs. Willy the Whale,  alias Killer Keiko [Originally published in September 1998] NEAH BAY,  Washington;  NEWPORT,  Oregon––If the September 1998 media drama underway in the Pacific Northwest was a professional wrestling match,  it would be billed as the Makah Harpooners vs. Willy the Whale,  alias Killer Keiko,  orca star of the hit […]

Tiger exhibitor Marcus Cook: ex-cop has dodged the law for 20 years

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Carole & Howard Baskin aim to stop Cook by persuading feds to do their job KAUFMAN, Texas––Having already put tiger cub exhibitors “Joe Exotic” Schreibvogel Maldonado Passage,  Tim Stark,  and Jeff Lowe out of business,  Carole and Howard Baskin of Big Cat Rescue are metaphorically gunning now for Marcus Cline Hines Cook,  doing business as […]

Hunter gets 7 to 20 years for killing teen he mistook for a groundhog

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Rare stiff sentence for “hunting accident”             DOYLESTOWN, Pennsylvania––Kenneth Troy Heller,  52,  of Warminster Township,  Pennsylvania,  was on July 7,  2021 sentenced to serve from seven to 20 years in prison for a so-called “hunting accident” that on October 24,  2020 killed 18-year-old Jason Kutt at Nockamixon State Park,  Bucks County. The unusually stiff sentence […]

Sheriffs ignored chimp in their own back yard until they shot him

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Two sheriffs and many deputies helped to found and run the former Buck Brogoitti Animal Rescue,  named for the chimp PENDLETON, Oregon––Tamara Brogoitti,  68,  closed the 800-acre Buck Brogoitti Animal Rescue on the outskirts of Pendleton in January 2019. Knowing she was no longer either physically or financially capable of running the sanctuary,  looking after large […]

Shooting war: cats win, feeders lose in East Bay Regional Park District

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East Bay Regional Park District agrees to ceasefire if cat rescuers remove cats from sensitive wildlife areas             OAKLAND, California––Histrionic headlines and activist alerts aside,  what the East Bay Regional Park District board of directors really did at a heated June 15,  2021 meeting over cat policy was to: Permanently reassign staff biologist David “Doctor […]