Mainstream reportage focused on the bad news, but reptiles remain likely to outlive us WASHINGTON D.C.––All dinosaurs except birds, all ichthyosaurs, and all pterosaurs are confirmed extinct. Dragons, griffins, and Godzilla are alive and well in human imagination, the only habitat they ever actually occupied. Among the other 10,196 reptile species for whom population and […]
CITES doomed the vaquita, sold the elephant in the room, & worse
U.N. Environment Assembly calls for yet another report on “the interlinkages between animal welfare, the environment and sustainable development” after ignoring a mountain of others produced at least since 1950 LYON, France––This is not just a fish story, nor just a fish-and-elephant story, nor even just another story about the failures and shortcomings of […]
Seaspiracy: seas, piracy, & Cowspiracy meet fishy business
Fishing industry screams bloody murder Reviewed by Merritt & Beth Clifton Seaspiracy, whose title is a fusion of “seas” and “piracy,” and a play on Cowspiracy, the 2014 independent blockbluster documentary also produced by Kip Anderson, on March 24, 2021 premiered worldwide on Netflix. Within 10 days Seaspiracy had become a runaway hit, seen by […]
World Federation for Animals seeks “One ring to bind them all”
But progress for animals is not achieved with “rings of power” BOSTON, Massachusetts––Any resemblance between mild-mannered World Federation for Animals founder Wim DeKok, a longtime exemplar of peaceful cooperation, and Sauron, the vengeful Satanic wizard of the Lord of the Rings trilogy authored by J.R.R. Tolkien, would be difficult to discover. Yet there is […]
Free Willy! six years later (June 1999)
Quick victory for Ric O’Barry OSLO, Norway––Responding on four days notice to a Japanese plan to capture four orcas in Norwegian waters, former Flipper trainer Ric O’Barry recently scored one of the biggest, quickest victories of his 30-year crusade against marine mammal captivity. Yet mass media and even Internet animal rights forums scarcely noticed. O’Barry […]
Mink ranching survives in Denmark despite risky COVID-19 mutation
Danish mink industry was to be liquidated from fear that COVID-19 mutation could neutralize vaccines in development COPENHAGEN, Denmark––The Danish mink industry, on the verge of liquidation as of November 4, 2020 to control a COVID-19 coronavirus mutation, appears to have politically mobilized to win a reprieve––for the mink ranchers, however, not the mink […]
Feds quit funding guns & ammo for “anti-poaching” militias
MacGregor throws the World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society & others out of the lettuce patch WASHINGTON D.C.––Deputy Interior Secretary Katharine MacGregor on September 18, 2020 quietly ordered major reforms of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and U.S. Agency for International Development [USAID] programs which have for decades routed millions of dollars in funding […]