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All in Animal Welfare
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claim that global food-delivery giant HelloFresh uses coconut milk obtained by monkey labor in Thailand. The animal-rights group this week posted its third report on Thailand’s coconut industry, “in which chained monkeys are forced to spend long hours climbing tall trees and picking heavy coconuts.”
Ornithorhynchus anatinus is one odd duck. With a tail like a beaver’s, webbed feet, nostrils that can clamp shut for underwater foraging, this egg-laying mammal seeks prey by detecting electrical fields using receptors on their bills. Having no nipples doesn’t stop them from nursing their young, which feed through pores in mama’s skin.
When neuroscientist Margaret Livingstone published “Triggers for a mother’s love,” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in September, there wasn’t much of a reaction in scientific circles. Then social media began discussing the details of the study and a backlash began, leading to a damning letter to PNAS, co-signed by 250 scientists calling for retraction.
In the past couple of weeks, local news outlets across the US (to the extent they still exist) have published articles on dangerous chemicals polluting our waterways. That’s because the Waterkeeper Alliance just published an exhaustive report on “per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances,” more handily known as PFAS.
Joaquin Phoenix turns 48 on Friday (October 28), which means the Academy Award-winning actor has been an advocate for animal rights for a solid 45 years.
A female African lion named Zuri has raised eyebrows (and other bodily hair) at the Topeka Zoo & Conservation Center. For the past two years the 18-year-old has been growing a mane, just like a dude.
For the first time, Alaska has canceled its winter snow crab season in the Bering Sea because of a shocking decline in the crab population. There were an estimated eight billion snow crabs in 2018, a number that dropped off a cliff to a mere one billion last year.
The only real surprise in a new report on wildlife populations, compiled by the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London, is that climate change is not the main villain (yet). After analyzing years of data on thousands of wildlife populations across the world, the authors of “Living Planet Report 2022” find that animal populations declined by an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018.
Two animal-rights activists were acquitted this week of felony burglary and theft charges, five years after breaking into one of Smithfield Foods’ factory farms in Utah. After taking damning video footage of the farm’s horrendous conditions the pair departed with two piglets.
This week Live Science asks, “Is it safe to give cats milk?” The answer is unequivocal: nope. Kittens start their lives on mother’s milk but most lose the ability to digest lactose as they age. Milk has limited nutritive value, is fatty, and contains phosphates, which are especially hard on cats with kidney issues.
Pine Island, Florida, took a massive hit from Hurricane Ian. The overseers of the Malamu Manu Sanctuary, Will Peratino and partner Lauren Stepp, refused to abandon their island compound, choosing instead to save some 275 parrots (and two lemurs) from a horrible fate.
Bonobos, like humans and other great apes, spend a long time in childhood dependent on their parents. And like humans, when a baby brother or sister bonobo arrives on the scene, there can be friction.
This week Sinogene Biotechnology of Beijing showed off its latest creation, a clone of a Canadian Arctic wolf born to a surrogate beagle mom. The cub, named Maya, was born (if that’s the right term) on June 10. The surrogate mom remains nameless. (Why?)
It’s that time of year when residents of Iceland’s Westman Islands gather thousands of baby puffins and heave them off a cliff. The chicks not only survive the strange annual intervention, it’s crucial to their survival.
Alameda County has banned the rodeo spectacle of “wild cow milking,” in which lactating beef cows are separated from their calves, chased around an arena until roped and tackled into submission, then forcibly milked. The Mercury News calls this barbarism “one of the sport’s more popular local events.”
A grey seal emerged from the sea off the Massachusetts coast and flopped into the seaside town of Beverly. The seal took up residence in the inland Shoe Pond where local authorities failed repeatedly to capture the wayward mammal.
The world’s largest pelicans have survived many threats, but in Albania a planned airport construction could finally do them in. The Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus) is listed as ‘near threatened’ by the IUCN.
Prime minister Narendra Modi himself opened the gate to release the new arrivals into their quarantined pen. “Cheetahs have returned to India after decades. There is new energy in India’s wildlife lovers,” the prime minister said. “I am sure that these cheetahs will teach us about our values.”
Three bottlenose dolphins swam to freedom last week after years of confinement and degradation for the amusement of tourists. The three males – Johnny, Rocky and Rambo – were released off the island of Bali in Indonesia.
The rise of the lithium-ion battery has been essential to the tech revolution, as it is a crucial component of smartphones, electrical vehicles, and every electronic gizmo in between. But lithium exacts a harsh price on the environment, from cradle to grave: mining trashes local environments at the point of extraction, a
