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Ringling Caves!
The elephants are packing their trunks. By any standard, today’s decision by the Ringling Circus to phase out its elephant acts represents a seismic shift in the use of…
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Collapse of Antarctic Ice Sheet Irreversible
One of the six major glaciers being eroded from below by warm water What does it mean when two major studies this week tell us that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is…
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2013 Game Changers
Two events share top prize as game changers for the year just ending: The Nonhuman Rights Project's lawsuits have started a whole new conversation about how we relate to other…
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Mother Carries Shot Pit Bull to Safety
It started out as the same hike that Andi Davis does every day to the top of one of the mountains near where she lives in Phoenix, Arizona. But this time, close to the top,…
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Liberators or Terrorists?
When 100 people, mostly women from various rescue groups, rescued 178 beagles from a research lab in Brazil last week, nobody called them terrorists. The five security officers…
The Right Music for Cats
Greyhound Shock Angers Australians
Holiday Gift for Elephant Music Lovers
The Yeti Bear
Costa Rica Bans Sport Hunting
Costa Rica has become the first Latin American country to ban sport hunting. The nation’s Congress voted unanimously on the ban.
Who ‘Owns’ This Baby Elephant?
It was all smiles last week when the Oregon Zoo announced the birth of Lily, a 300-pound, super-cute, gangly baby elephant. But the smiles started turning sour as soon as the shady business dealings that underlie Lily’s future life came to light.
Inside the Beef Industry
* At age 84, Margaret Lamkin (photo right) went to dinner at Applebees and ordered a steak. Today she wears a colostomy bag. The E.coli bacteria…
Dogs Pass Driving Test
Following their test drive last week, Monty, Porter and Ginny headed out to the auto racing track in Auckland, New Zealand, where Monty joined other great…
Farewell to a Rock Star
She was the best-known wolf in the world – one of Yellowstone’s top tourist attractions. Wildlife watchers called her as a “rock star.” She was the…
Your Favorite Big Cat
Miss PoPsicle and I watched a preview of Nat Geo Wild’s Big Cat Week, and are now trying to decide whether our top favorite big kitty…
Driving Miss Dogsy
Monty settles into the driver’s seat, starts the car, puts it in gear, and heads off down the road, carefully steering as he goes. You’ve probably…
Elephants and Slavery
The mindset that has permitted atrocities to be inflicted on humans is the same mindset that allows the abuse of animals to occur. Just as my…
Just Visiting
The face at the window this morning – and with all his family in tow.
Inside the World of Zoo Elephants
Zoos love baby elephants. When baby Packy was born at the Portland Zoo in 1962, people lined up for half a mile to see him. Life magazine devoted an 11-page spread to the event.
But real life for zoo elephants is a whole other story, and it’s told in this remarkable series of stories, videos and photos from the Seattle Times.
Don’t Bet on a Climate Agreement in Qatar
Lots of luck trying to get the nations of the world to do anything meaningful about our rapidly warming planet. As the talks in Qatar enter…
Attack of the Clones
They say that you get what you paid for. Four years ago, Upper West Side New Yorker Gary Rintel paid $140,000 to have his collie/Great Pyrenees…
Pope Greets Circus Animals
Here’s Pope Benedict welcoming the circus to town and petting the lion cubs. Does he really not know how terribly wrong it is for circuses to…
Moses in the Bulrushes – a Cow and Her Calf
A very touching story by veterinarian Holly Cheever about a mother cow and one of her calves. Beyond being touching, though, it raises important questions about…
Humpback Whale Freed from Fishing Gear
The whale had probably been dragging this fishing gear around for months. Now he was weakened to the point where he could barely move or lift his tail. Thick rope was wrapped around his body – so tightly that it was clear that he had become entangled when he was younger and smaller, and, over the months, had grown deeply into the ever-tighter synthetic material.
Toronto, Edmonton in Elephant Fight
Lucy the elephant at the Edmonton Zoo. The mayor of Edmonton is unhappy. He doesn’t like the fact that the Toronto city council has voted to…
Poland Bans Kosher and Halal Slaughter
Poland’s top court has ruled that ritual slaughter of animals according to religious requirements is illegal. Specifically this means that the kosher and halal method of slaughter, by which a conscious animal is held upside down while her throat is slit, cannot be continued.
Sea Levels Rising Ever Faster
New research shows that sea levels are rising considerably faster than previously calculated. The study shows that children being born today can expect to see low-lying…
How Young People Are Drawn into Vivisection
The Michigan Daily reports on the “adjustment process” for a student at the U. of Michigan who is learning how to experiment on live animals. [readon]…