Felled by cancer after surviving two wars, poachers’ gunfire, & the Mugabe regime QUARTEIERA, Portugal––Johnny Rodrigues, 69, founder of the the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force and an enthusiastic contributor of information and occasional guest columns to ANIMALS 24-7, died on September 17, 2018 at his daughter Lorraine and son-in-law Gavin Randall’s home in Portugal, after […]
South African lion breeders hear whispers of doom
Death at game reserve overshadows Parliamentary resolution that could kill the wildlife breeding, viewing, & hunting industries JOHANNESBURG, South Africa––The fatal mauling of a 22-year-old female visitor to “lion whisperer” Kevin Richardson’s tented camp in the Dinoken Big 5 Game Reserve stole headlines on February 27, 2018 from Parliamentary action promising to turn the South […]
China halts ivory sales, but leads the world in live elephant imports
No more “state-approved ivory dealers” BEIJING, China; HARARE, Zimbabwe––All trade in elephant ivory is now illegal in China, effective January 1, 2018, except in Hong Kong, which is reportedly soon to enact a similar prohibition, to take effect in 2022. “From now on, if a merchant tells you ‘this is a state-approved ivory dealer’… […]
Zimbabwean animal advocate Cheryl Rodrigues, 59
Co-founded Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force Cheryl Ann Rodrigues, 59, instrumental in making the Cecil the lion poaching case known worldwide in mid-2015, died in Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 29, 2016. “We have lost one of the best conservationists on this earth,” e-mailed Johnny Rodrigues, her husband of 41 years, who with his wife cofounded the […]
Cecil-the-lion killer Walter James Palmer walks
But photo safari guide killed by lion in destabilized population paid the ultimate price HARARE, Zimbabwe––Zimbabwe environment minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri on October 12, 2015 announced that Minneapolis dentist Walter James Palmer, 55, will not be charged for killing Cecil the lion during an early July 2015 trophy hunt. Cecil had been perhaps the most photographed […]
How the Cecil killing helps Mugabe to squeeze more money out of trophy hunters
Cecil was slain just in time to help Mugabe increase the government cut (See also Killing the most famous Cecil in Zimbabwe since Rhodes of Rhodesia, part one of a series about the Cecil slaying and what it means.) HARARE––Robert Mugabe was already hoping to extract more money from trophy hunters when alleged trophy poachers […]
Killing the most famous Cecil in Zimbabwe since Rhodes of Rhodesia
“I’m a-comin’, Cecil lad!” (See also How the Cecil killing helps Mugabe to squeeze more money out of trophy hunters.) Few people today remember Cecil the puppet sea serpent, who starred from 1949 to 1962 in various incarnations of the satirical “Beany & Cecil” radio and television broadcasts. Nominally produced for children, the “Beany & Cecil” […]