Humane or Organic Meat?

This is a GREAT summary of meat labeling. If you are a carnivore or an omnivore you should get the scoop so you can put pressure on your local stores and make a difference in what you purchase. Believe it or not, conscious choices through your purchasing power makes a good impact…because money talks.

An animal kingdom that spans several countries…conservation in Africa is complex. War, ivory trafficking, and dismal economic issues create problems most urbanites outside of the country are not aware of.

Hmm, disovering a new species on eBay? This news article talks about a seashell that is suspected to be an incorrectly identified species of sea urchin.

Back to urban wildlife, there have been a few run ins with black bears in South Carolina. Two dogs are missing and a couple actually escaped from a mother bear. Check out the comments on this article, too.

A few years back I traveled to Missouri and found that the captive elephant herd at a zoo actually broke the fencing to let the delinquent elephant calf out to run around. They were tired of his antics. Here is an article about baby proofing an elephant enclosure at Dickerson Park Zoo.

In the past I’ve often been in trouble from colleagues when I’ve mentioned the memory or emotions of animals. In the animal profession this is often attributed to “anthropomorhism” or attributing human emotions and feelings to animals. How arrogant! First we are animals, second just because other animals are different does not mean they don’t have emotions. Dogs are famous for reading the emotional states or their owners and therapy animals are very astute…anyway, here is an article that discusses that elephant dynamics related to sick and dying pachyderms will be published in a professional journal soon. The pictures will strike a cord.

Marine World Africa USA is celebrating its 45th anniversary. I worked for one of the former owner’s of Africa USA. Marine World has always been an innovator with land animal care and well respected trainers and handlers such as Ron Whitfield who now cares for his charges at a new organization.

A cancer that spreads from animal to animal?

Top dogs fight terrorism and more

Regular readers may remember my link and discussion about dog park aggression and the dog that was killed by another in the past 60 days or so. I explained that I run a supervised Puppy Club and Canine Club and no problems occur because canines are guests in my group and so mind their manners. This article talks about the escalation of dog park perils…and now classes are held to help mitigate the problems through owner education.

Is something lurking in your sewer or local river? Don’t dump pets of any kind as they pose all sorts of problems and it is very inhumane.

Need a fashionable answer to crating? Here is a designer dog crate that also functions as furniture.

This kitty got some gold tooth caps.

Do you think dolphins are dim-wits? The article talks about recent research indicating that they are not as smart as some have thought. The problem with scientific studies is that they look at singular aspects and not the whole picture. You can train anything but the idea presented in the article about the goldfish jumping out of the tank in comparison to a dolphin not…is pretty darn stupid. Decide for yourself.

Humane Issues in the News

Although this article may disturb you a bit, the local option is a good one and better than some of the commercial slaughterhouses. The community gets local food and supports their local ranchers, farmers and butcher. Today most everything is so franchised that the small mom and pop or quality outlets are difficult to find. Anyway, read about how this small slaughterhouse/butcher works and get connected to the real story.

I regularly see splashes about animal abandonment by owners from Canada but this is one of the first I come across lately for the USA. Don’t get the wrong idea that it is not a problem here, it is. Read about the overflooded shelter problem.

For those unfortunate victims of disaster who lost or were forced to give up their pets, Katrina pet ownership disputes have arisen.

The ongoing battle over defining “pet guardians” from “pet owners” remains a signficant in the legal department since ownership allows the Katrina pet victim parents to get them back via the courts since the property return time limitation period is defined. Keep your eye on this issue as I suspect it will keep rearing its head in different ways.