A new relationship with animals, nature and each other.

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…

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.

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.

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…

Vivisection, UCSF-Style

A rhesus monkey, named Petra, kept in a botched brain study with screws and a piece of acrylic waste buried in her head. Mice having their toes cut off without a drop of anesthesia. Others dying of thirst. Birds cut open without anesthesia. All of this, and much more, at the University of California at San Francisco, which experimented its way through 800,000 animals last year.

"The Elephant Ate My Tickets!"

Claudia Flisi visited the Elephant Orphanage Sanctuary in Malaysia, which is helping to save Asian elephants from extinction. In order to remain open, the sanctuary encourages visitors and offers elephant rides. But this is no commercial zoo; its mission is to protect elephants who have been in captivity or who need to be relocated from forests where they are in increasing danger.

Worst Place to Hold a Climate Conference

It’s a bit like McDonalds hosting a conference on the obesity epidemic. You can’t help wondering who decided that the best location for what may be the world’s last-chance climate convention would be the fabulously wealthy Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar.