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All in Animal Welfare
The US Fish and Wildlife Service under the Biden Administration concocted a plan to save spotted owls in the West by killing off hundreds of thousands of barred owls that have invaded the smaller species’ habitat. Now four lawmakers from rural Oregon are asking the new administration to stop the cull before it can begin.
Molly Elwood runs “Elwood’s Dog Meat,” a company that raises dogs the way grass-fed beef farms raise cattle: ethically and humanely, so that the meat is delicious and consumers can feel good about eating it.
As fires rage in southern California, hundreds of animals – dogs, cats, horses, pigs, parrots, the works – are in desperate need of food and shelter. Local shelters are stretched thin to take in animals as the wildfires have forced human residents to flee to safety.
In Arlington, Virginia, a wild barred owl flew into a home through the chimney and shocked the family inside, first by flying around the living room, then by perching atop the Christmas tree.
This week the Los Angeles Zoo announced the birth of two baby perentie lizards, the first of the species to be bred there.
Lawmakers have passed a bill to formally designate the bald eagle as the national bird of the United States. When President Biden signs off on the bill – which breezed through the Senate and House – it will be official.
The day will come when the albatross named Wisdom, the oldest wild bird in the world (by a staggering amount) no longer completes her annual migration to Midway Atoll, never again takes a mate, builds a nest, or starts a family. Today is not that day.
Humane Society International is celebrating a south-of-the-border success this week, as Mexico announces it has enshrined animal protection as a fundamental value in its constitution.
US zoos have paid millions to China for the privilege of housing pandas, with the expectation that China invests the money in panda conservation. A New York Times investigation reveals that the funding has been spent on projects unrelated to pandas, while American zookeepers look the other way.
Five years ago a bottlenose dolphin strayed far from his usual habitat and ended up in the chilly waters off the Danish coast. He hung around, the locals named him Delle, and marine biologists at the University of Southern Denmark began studying the 17-year-old loner.
This week the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing four species of giraffes under the Endangered Species Act. Giraffes live in Africa of course, but under the ESA it would be illegal to import any part of a giraffe into the US; the protections would also boost conservation funding for animals in the wild.
Your turkey did not die well, according to philosopher Peter Singer, and its life was no great shakes either. That’s the gist of Singer’s new book, Consider the Turkey, a short account of the bird’s miserable existence.
A baby red panda named Roxie died last week at the Edinburgh Zoo, apparently from stress induced by fireworks on Bonfire Night. Veterinarians at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland say the three-month-old panda choked on her own vomit while pyrotechnics boomed across the city.
During the holiday season, wine consumption spikes (in some households it skyrockets). But those extra glasses or two don’t have to be mere empty calories, not when you’re drinking Rescue Dog Wines from California.
“Why are one of my puppies that my American Pit had ... green?” dog owner Annise Tooley asked Google last week.
A 9-year-old girl who fell in love with the goat she raised for a California county fair was devastated when deputy sheriffs seized, and eventually had butchered, the floppy-eared pet named Cedar. Now the County Sheriff's office must pay $300,000 to settle this atrocity.
A squirrel with a huge social media following was taken into custody last week and euthanized by New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation. The DEC said it had received reports of “unsafe housing of wildlife that could carry rabies and the illegal keeping of wildlife as pets.”
It’s usually good news when a roadside zoo shuts down. One of the worst of these miserable facilities was Waccatee Zoo in Myrtle Beach, which was closed down last year following a prolonged lawsuit with PETA.
A brutal drought in southern Africa threatens food supplies across at least six countries. Among them, Namibia and Zimbabwe have recently announced plans to cull hundreds of wild animals, including nearly 300 elephants, as they struggle to feed their populations.
