Reward for information on Florida cat killer doubled to $15,000

Alley Cat Allies, leader of a global movement to protect cats and kittens, has doubled its reward offer from $7,500 to $15,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for killing several cats in the town of Lake Clarke Shores, Palm Beach County, Florida, around April. According to investigators, the cats appeared to have been shot. Anyone with information on the cat killer or killers is requested to...

Alarming drop in elephant numbers in India, says report

Less than two months ago, on August 12, conservationists globally observed World Elephant Day. On the occasion, TheSnout.in posted a short article about the state of elephants mostly in Asia. Among other things, the report said 3 out of 5 Asian elephants are to be found in India, and the country has about 27,000 of the 45,000 pachyderms estimated to survive across Asia. Now it appears that the situation of the Indian elephant may have...

IBM roped in to design systems to monitor keystone species

IBM, provider of global hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence, and consulting expertise to clients in more than 175 countries, and the World Wide Fund for Nature-Germany have announced that they will work together to develop a solution to help monitor keystone species. The first keystone species to be taken up by the project is the critically endangered African forest elephant. The International Union for Conservation of Nature defines keystone species as those that are critical to...

Bill to ban octopus farming placed in U.S. Senate

Remember Paul the Octopus? Yeah, the one who became a sensation during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, with his reported “ability” to predict the winners of football matches involving the country he was born and lived in, Germany. At the World Cup, Paul predicted, correctly, the results of all seven matches involving the German team and of the final between Spain and The Netherlands. (For those who did not know, Spain won...

Bangalore’s rules for pets, strays curb RWA high-handedness

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, or Greater Bangalore Municipal Corporation, has issued guidelines for the care of pets and stray animals, finally ending the abuse of position and power by the tinpot dictators of residents’ welfare associations, commonly referred to as RWAs, local newspapers reported. Under the guidelines, these ‘welfare’ associations, usually dominated by people who are derisively referred to by progressive citizens and younger generations as WhatsApp uncles, have been told to ensure that...

Don’t leave pets behind, says PETA, but do policymakers care?

As Typhoon Carina swept across the Philippine Sea towards Taiwan and the Chinese coast earlier this week, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known by its acronym PETA, issued an urgent appeal to people in the countries in the storm’s path not to leave their pets behind if they needed to evacuate because of flooding or landslides. The appeal was a fresh reminder of the lack of consideration for pets and, indeed, animals...

Osteoarthritis: Why you should monitor your pet closely

Keeping a pet is a huge responsibility, bigger at times than nurturing a child. The child will tell you what is bothering it, where it hurts, what it wants to do or doesn’t want to do, but a pet simply can’t. That is why it is imperative for the owner or caretaker to be watchful for any sign of distress or discomfort in the animal. One such ailment that is becoming fairly common in pets...

Pets may know when it’s time to say goodbye, says scientist

Do animals know when they are about to die, and say a final goodbye to their owners or families? Dr Rupert Sheldrake, a researcher in the U.K. who is considered a ‘heretic’—curiously, a term that originated in religion—by the “scientific” community, certainly seems to think so. Sheldrake, who worked at an agricultural institute near Hyderabad, India, 50 years ago, developing new varieties and cropping systems in chickpeas, or chana, says he has spent almost a...

Your pet is at far greater risk from plastic than you think

A new report released by Earthday.org, a leader in advocacy for Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22 since 1970, reveals that the exposure of pets to harmful plastics is much higher than many pet owners may have imagined. The report, “Pets Vs. Plastics”, explores the exposure of pets to microplastics and toxic plastic chemicals and follows Earthday.org’s s recent “Babies Vs. Plastics” report, the organization said in a press release. “Pet owners should...

Welfare group exposes travel giant’s complicity in animal cruelty

A new report from World Animal Protection, a global organization working to end factory farming and wildlife exploitation, has exposed the tourism industry’s abusive treatment of animals and accused a popular travel company of being a key partner in this abuse. The report, entitled “Making Memories Misery: How GetYourGuide Profits from Animal Cruelty”, profiles some of the worst animal tourism operators that partnered with it, where captive animals endure abusive training, get inadequate food and...