Farewell to Eeyore
He was, as far as we know, the world’s oldest donkey. Eeyore was just shy of his 55th birthday when he passed away peacefully last week at the Hunters Moon animal sanctuary in England.
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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
Getting Humans to Dance for Food
They’re becoming like the bears who “dance” for tourists on the streets of various Asian countries. The tourists think it’s all very cute … but like every other kind of exploitation, what goes on behind the scenes is horrific.
Hooray for Ricky Gervais and Ireland!
Brilliant, Ricky Gervais! I’ve been a devoted fan since the original version of The Office. But even if you don’t love his humo(u)r, you’ve got to respect Gervais’s partnership with the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).
Five Minutes to Doomsday
The famous Doomsday Clock has just ticked closer to midnight. Two years ago, the symbolic clock that represents how close we are to global disaster, was moved back a minute to six minutes to midnight. This week, the scientists who maintain the clock, moved it forward again to five minutes to midnight.
Frogs on a Dime
The tiny P. amanuensis lives in the New Guinea rainforest, makes a cricket-like sound, and, at about seven millimeters long, is the smallest vertebrate (animal with a backbone) known to scientists.
Scientists Produce Monkey Chimeras with Multiple Parents
Researchers at the infamous Oregon National Primate Research Centre are applauding themselves for having basically “manufactured” a group of rhesus monkeys who were formed by sticking together embryos from up to six other rhesus monkeys who were in the early stages of their development.
Air Canada Wants Out of Monkey Business
Air Canada has been one of the few airlines willing to transport monkeys from inhumane overseas farms to vivisection laboratories in Canada. But the airline has been under increasing pressure to join other airlines in refusing to carry this kind of “cargo.”
Pet Dog Shot at Airport
When a pet dog escaped from his carrier at an airport in China and ran out onto a road near the runway where planes were landing, airport officials decided they had to shoot him.
The Cat Who Takes the Bus
In Dorset, England, this 15-year-old feline shows up regularly at the bus station, sits under the shelter until his favorite bus arrives (the one that makes the round trip from Bridport to Charmouth), waits for the door to open, and hops aboard.
How Much Is a Family Pet Worth?
“Special value must be more than the market value of a well-trained dog … We believe that the special value…may be derived from the attachment that an owner feels for his pet.”
Why to Avoid the Cat Stew!
It was a toxic mix of greed, jealousy, forestry, business and cat stew. A Chinese CEO is dead and a deputy director of agriculture is in handcuffs.
How Dogs Tune Into You
Dogs have been around humans long enough to figure out that staring and pointing are referential – it’s not about the finger or the eyes; it’s all about the direction.
What Happened to the Egyptian Cat Goddess
Ancient Egypt was, to the best of our knowledge, where cats first became household pets. It began when cats made themselves welcome by keeping the storehouses of grain free from rodents. Soon after that, they just moved – as cats have a way of doing.
An Act of Dog
It’s hard to grasp the sheer number of homeless dogs put to death in shelters each day. Shelters estimate 5,500. But that’s just a number that can’t tell the story. Nor can bios or memorials. But it can perhaps be accomplished in art.
The Beagle Freedom Project
The animal test subject of choice for many testing laboratories is the beagle. Beagles are bred to be friendly, docile, and trusting of humans, so they’re easier for technicians to handle as they force toxins into their blood streams on a routine basis, whether by injection, inhalation, or force feeding. Beagles usually don’t fight back.
Orcas Frolick in the Ocean near Seattle
A family of orcas in Puget Sound off the coast of Seattle yesterday.
No Change for Utah City Gas Chamber
Update to our story on Andrea, the cat who survived being gassed twice at Utah’s West Valley City shelter. A group of volunteers from the shelter, led by the rescue group CAWS (Community Animal Welfare Society), asked the city council to get rid of the gas chamber altogether. The city council declined.
The Week for Farm Animals
Paul Shapiro’s weekly round-up of news from the world of farm animals – January 6, 2012.
New Theory on Bee Collapse
What’s killing the bees? We’ve heard numerous theories over the past few years, from pesticides to viruses to cell phones. Now there’s a new theory: A parasitic fly is turning bees into zombies.
Shocking Conditions for Orangutans at Zoo
It doesn’t get much worse than this for an orangutan being kept at a zoo. Sean Whyte, who runs the grassroots British group Nature Alert, says that these gentle primates are kept in cages 5 feet by 5 feet where they can barely stand up or turn around.