Climate Conference: ‘We’re at the Tipping Point’
Our planet is on the edge of a series of tipping points that will make it irreversibly hotter, according to scientists from around the world who have been meeting in London this week.
Our planet is on the edge of a series of tipping points that will make it irreversibly hotter, according to scientists from around the world who have been meeting in London this week.
Just for starters, they are the only mammals known to live in an “open society.” That means they don’t patrol or defend territorial boundaries against other groups. Rather, dolphin society is characterized by multiple levels of alliances and counter-alliances.
It’s official. If you take undercover video of farm animal abuse in Utah, you’re breaking the law, are guilty of a Class A misdemeanor, and could face jail time. Gov. Gary Herbert has signed H.B. 197 into law
In Ireland, yesterday, one of the elephants tried to do just that. While being steered around a Blackpool, Cork, parking lot by trainers from the Courtney Brothers circus, a depressed-looking elephant decided she’d had enough, dodged her captors, and began running away.
A survey of racing statistics from 29 states shows that more than 3,000 horses died during racing or training from 2009 to 2011. Every one of those horses showed drugs – often multiple drugs – in their bodies.
“He came right up to our boat and almost mouthed, like, a thank you,” Dave Anderson said . “It was pretty awesome.” Anderson was one of a team of rescuers from the whale-watching group DolphinSafari.com who had just spent seven hours rescuing a California gray whale from 50 feet of wire fishing net.
The irrepressible Bob Barker has offered pay $880,000 for the three elephants at the Toronto Zoo to be flown to the PAWS sanctuary in California.
Mexico City is close to approving a bill that would ban bullfights. Three of the members of a legislative panel voted to endorse the measure, two others abstained, and a sixth member walked out before the vote.
Just like the residents of The Haven, a community for seniors in England’s West Midlands, the local badgers like big houses. The trouble is: they like their houses to be right under the human houses.
The ever-bizarre government agency DARPA, or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has launched another would-be-funny-if-it-weren’t-sad research project. This one involves turning snails into hybrid robots for use in war.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has declared victory for the whales of the Southern Ocean. Once again, Japan’s whaling fleet has left the Antarctic after collecting just one third of its planned catch for the year.
A bill working its way through the Missouri legislature would prevent any future legislation in the state from granting “human-like” rights to animals. State representative Ward Franz said his bill is prompted by “outside animal-rights organizations coming into the state trying to impose their will on Missouri’s people and businesses.”
The no-kill philosophy extends way beyond homeless pets. It’s a way of living that takes killing off the table – in every area once and for all. You can’t be no-kill and go hunting. You can’t be no-kill and be pro-abortion, pro-capital punishment or pro-vivisection. And you certainly can’t be no-kill and support going to war.
Animal psychologist Charles Snowdon explains that while nonhumans do experience and enjoy music, it’s of a very different kind, depending on the species.
Scottish bank worker and singer Douglas Hamilton has become something of an Internet sensation after posting a video of himself with lion cubs on his last day volunteering at a wildlife sanctuary in South Africa.
happened upon a website called The Poultry Site, which describes itself as a “portal for the global poultry industry.” Its news section includes a Guide to Avian Flu, where you can “catch up with the latest bird flu news from across the globe.”
What rights might a chimpanzee or a dolphin have when we consider these nonhumans as persons with the capacity for legal rights. Eric Michael Johnson writes about this in his “Primate Blogs” at Scientific American:
John Rennie, former editor-in-chief of Scientific American, looks at each of these species and wonders which of them might qualify for recognition as legal persons as opposed to legal things.
As an investigator for the Humane Society of the U.S., Cody Carlson got a job last year at four Iowa egg farms. Today, in the wake of the new law in Iowa that bans undercover investigations, Carlson writes about his experience in The Atlantic.
Today’s young Americans are less interested in the environment and in conserving resources — and often less civic-minded overall — than their elders were when they were young.