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All in Animal Welfare
In early June, a homing pigeon named Bob set off from Guernsey in the Channel Islands on a 400-mile route to Gateshead, a flight that’s supposed to take 10 hours. Several days and 4000 miles later, the four-year-old bird showed up on the other side of the pond, very lost in Mexia, Alabama.
A giant African land snail has been spotted in the New Port Richey area of Pasco County in Florida. The snail (Lissachatina fulica) will feed on more than 500 types of plants but nothing will feed on it, nothing in Florida anyway. The invader was first spotted here in 1969 and has since been “eradicated” twice – in 1975 and again last year – but life finds a way.
We’re celebrating the birthday of Pamela Anderson, animal rights activist among other credits, who was born on July 1, 1967. Vogue earlier this year dubbed Anderson “Hollywood’s Top Bombshell.” All good, but we love her for her inner beauty, radiating specifically from her love of animals.
Last week fishers in Cambodia landed the world’s largest freshwater fish, a giant 13-foot stingray weighing 661 pounds. The fish the size of a baby grand piano was mercifully returned to its rightful place in the murky waters of the Mekong River.
Last week fishers in Cambodia landed the world’s largest freshwater fish, a giant 13-foot stingray weighing 661 pounds. The fish the size of a baby grand piano was mercifully returned to its rightful place in the murky waters of the Mekong River.
Life is hard for a turtle in Rhode Island these days. "We see a lot of mortality in turtles this time of year and sadly, it's all female turtles carrying the next generation and now sadly we have a poaching crisis,” Lou Perrotti, director of conservation programs at Roger Williams Park Zoo, told NBC affiliate WJAR.
The rarest of birds is getting a new lease on life. The beautiful Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), which was declared extinct in the wild in 2019, is being reintroduced to its natural habitat, the tropical dry forest in northeastern Brazil.
Happy the elephant has had her day in court, but that court decided she is still an animal and not a person with basic rights. She will continue living out her life in the Bronx Zoo. The New York State Court of Appeals decided in a 5-2 decision that the principle of habeas corpus — which prevents unlawful confinement for human persons – does not apply to Happy, a female elephant in her fifties.
Zoo Miami is about to open its Sea Turtle Hospital, but it already has taken in a patient – a 50-year-old, 388 pound loggerhead turtle. On May 22, the zoo got a call from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: a large female loggerhead was just rescued near the Port St. Lucie Power Plant. She had a severe wound on her left front flipper, probably from a shark attack.
The Nashville Zoo has just announced a new arrival: a bouncing baby fanaloka. The male cub is the first spotted fanaloka born in the United States, according to the Associations of Zoos and Aquariums database. In fact the baby boy and his parents are the only known group of fanalokas in the US.
A visit to the dentist can be pure terror for small kids, but a clinic in Quito, Ecuador has found a soothing presence that can calm the most anxious nerves: a dog named Aldo.
Dallas Bans Sale of Puppies and Kittens – Last week the Dallas City Council Committee passed the Dallas Humane Pet Store Ordinance, banning the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores. The legislation is intended to encourage would-be pet owners to adopt from shelters and to crack down on puppy-mill suppliers, which are infamous for the wretched conditions in which expensive breeds are raised.
