HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Many wishes for a joyful, successful and animal-friendly 2009!

From,
THE CRITTER NEWS TEAM

(aka Anna, Patrick, Charlotte, Sonia, Jennie, Cleo, Chay, Doris, Heidi, and Lou!)

Weird Things Pets Eat

I used to have a dog that ate rocks thrown at him (and he was as fast with the jaws as a cobra). Here is a list of strange items eaten by pets from a British charity.

US Fish and Wildlife Offers Ivory Identification Guide

Wonder if something is made from illegal ivory? US Fish and Wildlife has a guide for identification.

From the web page....

This is a web version of the Identification Guide for Ivory and Ivory Substitutes by Edgard O. Espinoza and Mary-Jacque Mann, published in cooperation with the CITES Secretariat, and was developed to give information about a nondestructive and visual means of tentatively distinguishing clearly legal ivory from suspected illegal ivory at ports of entry....

One point which must be emphasized: while the methods described in this handbook are reliable for the purposes described (i.e. tentative visual identification, and "probable cause" to seize as evidence), an examination of the carved ivory object by a trained scientist is still necessary to obtain a positive identification of the species source.

Animal Cruelty Database at Pet-Abuse.com

There are 14,436 cases in the animal abuse database. You can search for all kinds of crimes against animals in the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Spain.

Great research tool. Amazing work.

Elephants Missing in Chad, Presumed Poached

This situation sounds a lot like the the mountain gorillas, the Congo and Virunga National Park.

Elephants in Zakouma National Park, the last stronghold for the savannah elephants of Central Africa's Sahel region, have crashed to just 1,000 animals from an estimated 3,000 in 2006. Ivory poachers using automatic weapons have decimated elephant populations - particularly when herds migrate seasonally outside of the park.

Civil unrest in has made conservation exceedingly difficult in Chad. Several park guards have been shot and killed in recent years. However, safety conditions have recently improved somewhat and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is optimistic that it can increase on-the-ground elephant conservation work in and around Zakouma to protect the remaining population.

Attempt to Recover Sumatran Rhino Species

A breeding program in Malaysia will attempt to breed a rescued Borneo Sumatran rhino in order to save the endangered species.

Tam, whose species is known for its solitary nature, has been resettled in a wildlife reserve in Malaysia's Sabah state, the last preserve of the Borneo Sumatran rhino _ a subspecies of the bristly, snub-nosed Sumatran rhino.

Authorities hope to bring at least five male and female rhinos into the reserve over the next few years so that they can mate and produce offspring, said Junaidi Payne, the senior technical adviser for the World Wildlife Fund's Malaysian Borneo chapter.

"Their numbers are so low that they might drift into extinction if no one does anything," Payne told The Associated Press.

Experts cannot confirm how many Borneo Sumatran rhinos remain in the wild, but estimates range from 10 to 30 individuals, many of them isolated from others in their species.

Video of the Week

This is why the internet was invented. So you could watch important stuff like this:

Stray Dog Rescued in Mumbai

An old stray dog was wounded in the Mumbai attacks and rescued. He is now recovering and will hopefully find a home. Sadly, he is the lucky one in a city filled with starving strays. But still....

Sheru was a stray dog hit by an errant bullet when two gunmen opened fire in a crowded railway station during the first night of the assault. The survival of the aging Sheru, despite a gunshot wound to his left shoulder, has become an uplifting and soothing symbol of Mumbai's recovery to many of the city's anxious and angry citizens....

"Some may ask why a dog is being saved when so many human lives were lost," said J.C. Khanna, a retired lieutenant colonel and head veterinarian in the Indian army. "But saving all creatures big and small shows the love and affection for all life that [Mumbai] has shown again and again. Sheru's life stands for something, for all of us getting back on our feet."

How To Care for Wild Babies

If you find any out there during these cold winter months, or at any time of the year, read this before you act.

Pet Love Closes its Doors in Beverly Hills

This is awesome. (Pet Love is a business that sells animals from puppy mills.)

The Beverly Center, an upscale shopping mall in Beverly Hills, California, has announced it will terminate Pet Love’s lease sometime in the next few months. Best Friends made the announcement at a news conference Tuesday.

“Our work here in Los Angeles sends the strongest possible message everywhere that pet shops are supplied by puppy millers,” said Paul Berry, Best Friends chief executive officer. “If a pet store can be closed down in the iconic Beverly Center, it can happen anywhere in the country – New York, Chicago, Boston and other large metro areas.”

Pet Love isn’t just your average little neighborhood pet shop. It has been a fixture at the high-end, celebrity-filled mall for more than 15 years. Pet Love is to pet stores what FAO Schwarz is to toy stores, says Julie Castle, director of Best Friends’ Community Programs and Services.

Best Friends is an amazing organization. Please do support their work. Not only do they advocate, but they train advocates as well. And this Pet Love is only one of several stores that have closed as a result of Best Friends' Puppy-Store-Free L.A. campaign started last summer.

Sea Shepherd Goes After Japanese Whalers Again

I guess I haven't been paying attention, as I didn't know this was going on again.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Steve Irwin closed in on one of the vessels of the Japanese whaling fleet at 0730 Hours GMT (1930 Hours Sydney Time) on December 26th off the coast of the Australian Antarctic Territory north of the Mawson Peninsula.

The Kaiko Maru emerged from dense fog in front of the Steve Irwin. The Sea Shepherd crew pursued and delivered 10 bottles of rotten butter and 15 bottles of a methyl cellulose and indelible dye mixture.

"That is one stinky slippery ship," said Sea Shepherd 2nd Officer Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden.

The Japanese ship was ordered out of the territorial waters of Australia by Australian citizen Jeff Hansen from Perth, Western Australia. The message was delivered in Japanese.

As the Steve Irwin came alongside the starboard side of the Kaiko Maru, the whaler steered hard to starboard and struck the Steve Irwin lightly crushing part of the aft port helicopter deck guard rails on the Sea Shepherd ship. There was no serious damage to either ship.

Animal Legal Defense Fund Ranks States on Animal Protection

The ALDF has released a report on how different states' animal protection laws stack up.

Among the best: California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Oregon.

And the worst: Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arkansas, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, South Dakota, Wyoming

You can check out the whole report on their web site.

UK Animal Rights Activists Profiled

Here is n article in the Guardian about several activists involved in SHAC (Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty).

Happy Holidays!

From all of us here at Critter News!

Efforts Being Made to End Eating Cats in China

Disgusting to read about, but there are people in China who are just as outraged at cat eating.

Kudos to the many people in China that do care.