Brigitte Bardot: provocative on film, but even more provocative for animals, for more than twice as long PARIS, France––Brigitte Bardot, 91, a fashion model for four years, a film actress for 20 years, and a full-time animal advocate for the last 52 years of her life, died on December 28, 2025 of undisclosed causes at […]
Bali: rabies is back. Vaccines can stop it. Killing dogs cannot. Will officials listen?
The time to vaccinate is now, ahead of recovering tourism & ahead of panic BALI, Indonesia––Tourism to Bali is back, rebounding from a two-year bout with COVID-19, but resurgent canine rabies may menace the Balinese economic recovery. That can practically be guaranteed if the Bali government repeats past mistakes, trying to kill rabies by killing […]
COVID-19: India feeds stray dogs; ASPCA says “don’t fix them”
ASPCA advice to shelters could increase puppy & kitten litters by about half a million While pet keepers in the developed world fret about the apparently infinitesimally small risk of pets and humans infecting and reinfecting each other, following the discovery of COVID-19 infecting one cat in Liege, Belgium, and two dogs and a cat […]
Bali: fighting rabies & dolphin captivity amid mud & ashes of a live volcano
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 […]
Dog rescue on the slopes of Agung, Bali’s erupting “Mount Doom”
BAWA rushes to save animals beneath clouds of hot ash UBUD, Bali, Indonesia––More than 4.2 million people, 350,000 dogs, and perhaps a million other animals from monkeys and chickens to goats and cattle, plus wildlife, are looking over their shoulders at a 30,000-foot column of steam, smoke, and ash boiling out of Mount Agung. […]
Mad dogs and Bali governor Made Mangku Pastika
Governor repeats mistake that touched off an island-wide rabies outbreak DENPASAR, Bali, Indonesia––If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly, each time expecting a different result, Bali governor Made Mangku Pastika on June 26, 2014 fitted himself for a strait jacket. Disregarding four years of steady progress toward quelling a canine […]
Political foes close Bali Animal Welfare Association
Veterinarians complained UBUD, Bali, Indonesia––The Bali Animal Welfare Association was on September 30, 2013 closed by police for allegedly operating without permits, apparently following complaints from veterinarians about competition from the BAWA street dog clinic. “Our ambulance and spay/neuter team are not allowed to work until we get the clinic permit, which will take a […]
BAWA achieves Bali rabies turnaround
UBUD, Bali, Indonesia–Vaccinating 210,000 dogs in the six months ending on March 31, 2011, the Bali Animal Welfare Association achieved a 48% reduction in human rabies deaths and a 45% decrease in dog rabies cases. This was the fastest containment of a rabies outbreak in the history of Indonesia, achieved even as a 13-year-old outbreak continues in Flores, where […]
U.S. issues rabies advisory for Bali visitors as control effort stumbles
“The CDC advises travelers to take precautions” JAKARTA, DENPASAR––The U.S. embassy to Indonesia on January 12, 2009 issued the outbreak notice that the Bali tourism industry had feared would be coming since mid-November 2008, when reports first circulated about four human rabies deaths resulting from dog bites in two villages on the peninsula south of […]
Bali animal welfare societies battle rabies outbreak
Four human victims DENPASAR, Bali, Indonesia––Someone brought a rabid dog to Bali. Yachting, fishing, or trading goods, the culprit apparently came by boat, docking near Ungasan village, where about 170 families live on a peninsula forming the southernmost part of Bali. The rabid dog arrived at about the same time that more than 200 animal […]