Archive for March, 2008
Desert Forests Are Being Graded And Walled Away
The ecosystem of the desert is even more fragile than that of those other forests. Developed in an environment of extreme temperature, low rainfall that often comes in torrential downpours which lead to flash flooding, and rooted in decomposed granite, the Joshua trees, along with other flora typical to this region, have an important position [...]
Bird Exhibition
The world’s only wingless bird is the kiwi of New Zealand.
The most yolks ever found in a single chicken’s egg is nine.
The American turkey vulture helps human engineers detect cracked or broken underground fuel pipes. The leaking fuel smells like vulture food (they eat carrion), and the clustered birds show repair people where the lines [...]
A Dog’s Purpose
Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.
I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t [...]
Punished for Selling Poached Meat
A Nebraska sausage-maker has been put out of business after federal agents discovered Jack McClanahan was processing some 10,000 pounds per year of black-market deer meat in a “filthy garage,” the Omaha World Herald reported.
McClanahan apparently poached most of the animals used to create summer sausage, salami, jerky and snack sticks.
According to federal authorities, McClanahan [...]
Marks & Spencer Goes Cruelty Free
Marks & Spencer has announced it is the first high street retailer to exclusively offer BUAV (British Union for the Abolition of
Vivisection) “Cruelty Free” approved household cleaning products and beauty collections. M&S customers can shop with a clean conscience from the largest range of “cruelty free” household and beauty products available on the high street [...]
Animals Have Rights, Too, You Know?
If any good comes from the carnage of dead horses on a northern Alberta ranch, it’s that it sparks debate over animal rights versus those of property owners. Twenty-seven horses died of starvation near the town of Andrew, another was euthanized and 100 more are under a vet’s care, expected to recover despite suffering varying [...]
Judge rules poultry are not ‘livestock’
By Alicia Karapetian on 3/5/2008 for Meatingplace.com
A San Francisco judge has ruled that chickens are not “livestock,” and, as a result, are not subject to the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, according to court filings.
A lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States against the Agriculture Department argued that USDA has misinterpreted the [...]