Timeline of Animals
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750Mil BC Researchers at UC
Riverside in 2009 reported evidence in rock sediments that indicated
the presence of sponges dating back from 750 million to 635 million
years ago. Sponges were believed to be one of the first animals to
evolve from single-celled organisms.
(SFC, 2/6/09, p.A8)
575Mil BC-160 Mil BC Rangeomorphs, a world-wide
feathery life form, lived during this period known as the Ediactaran.
They fed by filtering tiny organisms from seawater were later
considered as the 1st examples of complex animal life.
(SFC, 8/20/04, p.A12)
397Mil BC Four-legged creatures were mucking around a
muddy basin in what is now Poland about this time. In 2010 scientists
reported the discovery of their the fossilized footprints in the Holy
Cross Mountains in southeastern Poland.
(http://tinyurl.com/ybp6x78)
375Mil BC In 2006 scientists reported the discovery
of a predator fossil fish dating to this time in on Canada’s Ellesmere
Island in the High Arctic. It was later named Tiktaalik roseae and
further analysis found it to have developed a mobile neck, an important
development for living on land. The fish displayed bones at the ends of
its fins suggestive of developing fingers and toes.
(SFC, 10/16/08, p.A10)(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A8)
170Mil BC The semi-aquatic platypus is thought to
have split off from a common ancestor shared with humans approximately
about this time. In 2008 scientists laid bare the platypus genome of
2.2 billion base pairs spread across 18,500 genes.
(AFP, 5/8/08)
166Mil BC Monotremes split off from ancestral mammals
about this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.88)
148Mil BC Marsupials parted company with placentals
about this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.88)
67Mil BC In 1987 scientists in India found the
fossilized remains of an 11½-foot snake, dating to about this
time, coiled around a dinosaur egg.
(SFC, 3/3/10, p.A3)
50Mil BC Placentals split into four superorders about
this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.88)
50Mil BC The dog traces its ancestry back to a
5-toed, weasel-like animal called Miacis, that lived about this time.
(MT, Fall 02, p.14)
49Mil BC The Ambulocetus natans, a walking and
swimming whale, inhabited the warm seas which covered eastern Pakistan.
In 1996 fossils of the creature, about the size of a modern sea lion,
were found by paleontologist Hans Thewissen.
(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A8)
40Mil-35Mil BC Cynodictis resembled a modern dog and
lived about this time.
(MT, Fall 02, p.14)
34Mil BC -23Mil BC Indricotherium, a 15-foot tall
mammal, lived during this period. It was later said to be the largest
known mammal and related to the modern day rhinoceros.
(SFC, 4/2/10, p.C5)
1Mil BC DNA evidence in 2008 suggested that the black
rat originated in South-East Asia about this time and then split into 6
lines, one of which colonized India and the Middle East and then spread
to Europe.
(Econ, 3/15/08, p.97)
135,000 BCE DNA evidence in 1997
indicated that the modern dog has been around since about this time.
(SFC, 6/13/97, p.A10)(MT, Fall 02, p.14)
c15,000BCE Dogs first began to associate with some
humans as people began to form settlements.
(WSJ, 11/22/02, p.B1)
14,000 BCE The earliest fossils of domestic dogs date
to this time. They were found in Germany.
(MT, Fall 02, p.14)
8000BC The 15-foot, 3-toed Macrauchenia, a native of
Patagonia, went extinct about this time. It had a body like a camel, a
neck like a giraffe, and a flexible nose like an elephant’s trunk. Its
fossil was discovered by Charles Darwin during his trip to the region
(1833-1834).
(SFC, 4/2/10, p.C5)
c7,500BCE A research team in 2004 uncovered a
carefully buried cat on Cyprus, placed just inches from a human burial
that also contained polished stones, shells, tools and jewelry. The
graves were estimated to be 9,500 years old.
(AP, 4/9/04)
246BC-222BC Ptolemy III Euergeter
served as Egypt’s 3rd ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. In 2010
archeologists discovered a temple, thought to belong to Queen Berenice,
wife of King Ptolemy III who ruled Egypt in the 3rd century B.C.
Archeologists believed that the temple might have been dedicated to the
ancient cat-goddess Bastet.
(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)(AP, 1/19/10)
565 Aug 22, St. Columba reported
seeing a monster in Loch Ness.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1751 Feb 25, The 1st performing
monkey exhibited in America was in NYC.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1751 Pietro Longhi painted
“Exhibition of a Rhinocerous at Venice.” It depicted Clara, a touring
Indian rhinoceros owned by Dutch sea captain Douwemout Van der Meer.
(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.E1)
1755 The “last specimen” of a dodo
bird, a stuffed but rotted relic, was burned at the Ashmoleum Museum at
Oxford, England. Fortunately, someone removed the head and the foot of
the specimen and saved them. In 1996 by David Quammen authored
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions. In
2003 Clara Pinto-Correia authored “Return of the Crazy Bird.” The
London Museum of natural History later displayed a mounted specimen of
Raphus cucullatus.
(www.complete-review.com/reviews/divsci/pintocc.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/c9zpyw)
1765 Mar 24, Austrian Empress
Maria Theresa issued a decree to establish a School for Healing Animal
Diseases.
(StuAus, April '95, p.23)
1780 A Japanese whaling ship ran
aground near the western end of the Aleutian Islands. Rats from the
ship reached the nearest island giving it the name Rat Island. The
incident introduced the non-native Norway rat, also known as the brown
rat, to Alaska. The rats terrorized all but the largest birds on the
island. In the Fall of 2008 poison was dropped onto the island from
helicopter-hoisted buckets for a week and a half. By mid 2009 there
were no signs of living rats and some birds had returned.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.43)(Reuters, 6/12/09)
1796 Apr 3, The 1st elephant was
shipped to the US from Bengal, India, by Broadway showman Jacob
Croninshield.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.B3)
1796 Apr 13, The 1st elephant
arrived in US from India.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1831-1832 Animals from the Tower of London menagerie
created the core of the London Zoo.
(Hem, 9/04, p.71)
1835 Jun 2, P.T. Barnum and his
circus began 1st tour of US.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1845 Mar 5, Congress appropriated
$30,000 to ship camels to western US. [see 1855]
(MC, 3/5/02)
1845 Walter Potter, English
taxidermist, opened his stuffed animal museum in Bramble, south of
London. Admission was 2 cents.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.K8)
1847 Dr. Thomas Savage, American
doctor and missionary, brought back to the US partial skeletons of
gorillas, and gave them the scientific name Troglodytes gorilla.
(ON, 11/04, p.11)
1851 Jan 27, John James Audubon
(b. 1785), wildlife painter and conservationist (Audubon Society),
died. He was buried in NYC. In 2004 Duff Hart-Davis authored "Audubon's
Elephant," and account of his 12 year sojourn to Europe to oversee the
production of "Birds of America." In 2004 William Souder authored
“Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of the Birds of
America.”
(HNQ, 7/15/01)(MC, 1/27/02)(WSJ, 3/26/04,
p.W6)(SSFC, 6/20/04, p.M6)
1855 Mar 3, Congress approved
$30,000 to test camels for military use. [see 1845]
(SC, 3/3/02)
1856 Sep 2, Paul Du Chaillu
(1831-1903), French-American journalist and hunter, shot and killed his
1st gorilla in Gabon. Over the next 3 years he killed 31 gorillas. In
1861 he published “Explorations & Adventures in Equatorial Africa.”
(ON, 11/04, p.12)
1859 The London Fish House
unveiled 4 seahorses, long believed to mythical creatures. Seahorses
are the only species in which the males become pregnant, providing the
young with food and oxygen before giving birth to up to 1,000 babies,
each the size of a flea.
(Econ, 9/12/09, p.93)
1866 Apr 10, The American Society
for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was incorporated.
(AP, 4/9/97)
1874 Mar 17, Kincsem, a horse that
never lost a race, was born.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1874 Jul 1, The 1st US zoo opened
in Philadelphia.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1874 Cattleman Charles Goodnight
rounded up 5 orphaned buffalo calves and set them loose on 10,000 acres
in the Palo Duro Canyon of the Texas Panhandle. The herd grew to 250
animals and a number were sent to start herds elsewhere. In 1997 the
herd was put under the guardianship of the state. By 2001 it was
realized that inbreeding put the herd at risk of extinction. In 2005
Ted Turner agreed to provide 3 bulls from his herd in New Mexico to
help the Texas herd.
(WSJ, 8/2/05, p.A1)
1876 Mar 1, Guernsey Cattle Club
formed in Farmington, CT.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1878 Mar 26, Sabi Game Reserve,
world's 1st official designated game reserve, opened.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1879 P.T. Barnum (60) teamed up
with James A. Bailey to create "The Greatest Show on Earth." [see Mar
28, 1881]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R40)
1881 Mar 16, Barnum & Bailey
Circus debuted. [see Mar 18]
(MC, 3/16/02)
1881 Mar 18, Barnum and Bailey’s
Greatest Show on Earth opened in Madison Square Gardens. [see Mar 16]
(HN, 3/18/98)
1881 Mar 28, "Greatest Show On
Earth" was formed by P.T. Barnum and James A. Bailey. [see 1879 and Mar
16,18, 1881]
(MC, 3/28/02)
1882 Aug 28, Belle Benchley, the
first female zoo director in the world, who directed the Zoological
Gardens of San Diego, was born.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1888 Jul, Harold P. Brown, on
behalf of Thomas Edison, zapped dogs at Columbia College to demonstrate
the supposed danger of alternating current, a mode of power favored by
Edison’s rival George Westinghouse. The NY state legislature had
recently designated electrocution as the official means for capital
punishment.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A26)(ON, 10/04, p.7)
1889 The British Royal Society for
the Protection of Birds was founded.
(www.infomat.net/infomat/rd741/rd1/database/rspb/index.asp)
1890 In California the first
opossums were released by humans in Los Angeles County about this time.
Tow more releases were documented in 1910 and 1924.
(SFC, 11/26/08, p.G3)
1891 Feb 26, The 1st buffalo was
purchased for Golden Gate Park in SF under John McLaren. A pair of
bison, named Benjamin Harrison and Sarah Bernhardt, were settled in
Golden Gate Park following reports that only 1000 were left in the US.
(SFC, 12/13/99, p.A18)(SC, 2/26/02)(SFC, 10/30/08,
p.B1)
1892 Mar 3, 1st cattle
tuberculosis test in US was made at Villa Nova, PA.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1893 Feb 26, 2 Clydesdale horses
set a record by pulling 48 tons on a sledge in Michigan.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1894 Mar 8, NY passed the 1st
state dog license law. [see Mar 10]
(MC, 3/8/02)
1894 Mar 10, New York Gov. Roswell
P. Flower signed the nation's first dog-licensing law. The license fee
was $2, renewable annually for $1.
(AP, 3/10/99)
1894 May 31, Victor Horsley,
medical researcher, published a report in Nature indicating that cats
shot through the head stop breathing and that resuscitative efforts
helped them survive.
(WSJ, 8/21/96, p.A15)
1897 Apr 6 & 16, Frank M.
Chapman, ornithologist with the American Museum of Natural History,
observed large numbers of flying hawks over Veracruz, Mexico.
(NH, 10/96, p.37)
1897 The Royal Pigeon Racing
Association formed in England. In 2004 it began drug testing among its
members for the use of steroids in their pigeons.
(WSJ, 11/11/04, p.A1)
1900 May 25, President William
McKinley signed the Lacey Act of 1900, or more commonly The Lacey Act,
16 U.S.C. § 3371–3378. It banned the illegal commercial
transportation of wildlife. The conservation law was introduced by Iowa
Rep. John F. Lacey. It has been amended several times. The most
significant times were in 1969, 1981, and in 1989.
(Econ, 9/12/09,
p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey_Act)
1903 Jan 4, Topsy the elephant was
poisoned electrocuted in Luna Park, Coney Island, NYC. The 10-foot
elephant had killed 3 keepers over the last 2 years. Edison used the
opportunity to demonstrate the lethal potential of alternating current,
promoted by rival George Westinghouse.
(Econ, 7/26/03, p.33)(Internet)
1903 Mar 14, The 1st national bird
reservation was established in Sebastian, Florida.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1905 East Coasters including
Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie and Frederic Remington set up the
American Bison Society. In 1907 they sent 15 animals by rail to the new
Wichita Bison Refuge in Oklahoma. The society met for the last time in
1935. The society was revitalized in 2005 to secure the ecological
future of the animal. In 2009 Steven Rinella authored “American
Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon.”
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.82)
1905 California banned the
collection of condor eggs. By 1982 only 22 condors were left in the
state. In 1987 government biologists caught the last of 5 wild condors.
Between 1992 and 2004 161 condors were released of which about half
survived.
(CW, Winter 04, p.26)
1908 Aug 28, Roger Tory Peterson,
author, was born in Jamestown, NY. His work included the innovative
bird book “A Field Guide to Birds.”
(HN, 8/28/00)
1909 Mar 4, US prohibited the
interstate transportation of game birds.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1910 Feb 17, In San Francisco 3
elephants appearing at a Broadway vaudeville house went on a rampage
while parading in North Beach.
(SSFC, 2/14/10, DB p.42)
1914 Sep 1, Martha, the last known
passenger pigeon, died at Cincinnati Zoo.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1916 Jul 11, Dan Patch (b.1896), a
record-breaking, Indiana-born, harness race horse, died and was buried
in Minnesota. He was the first harness race horse to break the 2-minute
mile. In 2008 Charles Leersen authored “Crazy Good: The True Story of
Dan Patch, The Most Famous Horse in America.” Here Leersen details the
pharmacopoeia used in racing at the turn of the century.
(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.W9)
1917 Mar 29, Man O'War, racehorse
(winner of 20 out of 21 races and $249,465), was born.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1920 Dec 6, In Boston, Mass., a
dog with spectacles was shown at the annual fair of the Animal Rescue
League.
(http://tinyurl.com/5hbur6)
1920-1935 In the US thousands of mustangs were sent
to slaughter to provide cheap meat in what came to be called the “Great
Removal.” In 2008 Deanne Stillman authored “Mustang: The Saga of the
Wild Horse in the American West.”
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.90)
1922 Jul 15, 1st duck-billed
platypus was publicly exhibited in US at a NY zoo.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1924 An Ohio state spider count
recorded 306 species.
(USAT, 5/18/04, p.17A)
1926 The last grey wolf
disappeared from the Yellowstone region. By 1973 only a few wolves
remained in northern Michigan and Minnesota. In 1995 the federal
government reintroduced wolves to the greater Yellowstone region
(Idaho, Montana, Wyoming) and by 2008 their population reached 1,500.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.44)
1928 May 19, The 1st annual "Frog
Jumping Jubilee" at Angel's Camp, Ca., drew 51 frogs.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1929 Feb, Morris Frank and Jack
Humphrey began operating the 1st Seeing Eye school in the US in
Nashville, Tenn. Frank had trained under Humphrey in Switzerland at a
kennel owned by Dorothy Eustis. Buddy was Frank's 1st dog and in 1936
became the 1st seeing-eye dog to ride as a passenger on an American
commercial airline.
(ON, 12/03, p.5)
1931 Jul 27, Grasshoppers in Iowa,
Nebraska and South Dakota destroyed thousands of acres of crops.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1932 Mar 31, 150 wild swans died
in Niagara waterfall.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1932 Aug 14, Rin Tin Tin, US
Hollywood-dog, died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1932 Phar Lap, an Australian race
horse, took ill and died after being taken to the United States. The
giant New Zealand-born chestnut became an icon in Australia during the
Great Depression, winning 37 of his 51 races, including one Melbourne
Cup in 1930 and two Cox Plates in 1930 and 1931. In 2008 tests proved
that Phar Lap was poisoned by arsenic.
(AFP, 6/19/08)
1933 May 3, A white buffalo calf
was born in western Montana. He was later named "Big Medicine" and
lived until Aug 25, 1959. His hide was molded to a mannequin and that
went on display at the Montana Historical Society on Jul 13, 1961.
(Helena Museum flyer, 9/11/97)
1934 Apr 3, Jane van
Lawick-Goodall, ethologist (studied African chimps, 1974 Walker Prize),
was born in London, England. She was a British anthropologist, known
for her work with African chimpanzees. In 2000 her autobiography
"Africa in My Blood: An Autobiography in Letters, The Early Years,
1934-1966," was edited by Dale Peterson.
(HN, 3/4/99)(SFEC, 6/18/00, BR p.6)(SC, 3/4/02)(MC,
4/3/02)
1935 In Australia cane toads (Bufo
marinus) from Hawaii were introduced to wipe out beetles that were
devastating Queensland's sugar cane industry. The beetles survived and
the toads became a pest and a threat to the native quolls, small
spotted marsupials. On March 28, 2009, a festive mass killing of the
creatures began as “Toad Day Out.” The corpses were turned into
fertilizer for the very farmers who've battled the pests for years.
(Econ, 7/12/03, p.38)(SFC, 6/10/06, p.B8)(AP,
3/26/09)
1936 Nov 9, In China Ruth Harkness
and her party found a 3-lb giant panda cub, eyes not yet open, in a
hollow tree. They named the cub Su-Lin - Chinese for "something very
cute."
(http://femexplorers.com/full_article.php?article_id=17)
1936 Dec 18, Su-Lin, the 1st giant
panda to come to US from China, arrived in SF. The giant panda,
captured by Ruth Harkness, was the 1st ever seen in the US. In 2005
Vicki Constantine Croke authored “The Lady and the Panda.”
(http://femexplorers.com/full_article.php?article_id=17)(SSFC, 7/17/05,
p.F2)
1937 Mar 18, In Missouri Jim the
Wonder Dog died at age 12 at the Lake of the Ozarks. The dog had
uncanny abilities that were verified but never explained.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A3)
1938 Florida passed a law making
it illegal to export alligators.
(SSFC, 5/15/05, p.C2)
1939 Mar 3, The new Goldfish
swallowing craze began to sweep college campuses getting a start at the
Ivy League's Harvard University.
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)
1939 Jul 17, Paddy the Wanderer, a
stray Airedale, died. The dog had become the unofficial mascot of the
docks in Wellington, NZ. A fleet of black taxis led its funeral
procession.
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.F11)
1945 Maria Dickin decorated Rip, a
dog, for finding more than 100 people trapped by German bomb damage in
World War II. Dickin was the creator of the Dickin Medal program,
Britain's highest honor for animals. Rip died in 1948 and is buried in
a pet charity cemetery in east London. In 2009 the medal sold at
auction in London on Friday for 24,250 pounds ($35,700).
(AP, 4/24/09)
1946 Paul Falknor Iams
(1915-2003), self-taught animal nutritionist, started Iams Food Co.
(SFC, 11/3/04, p.B15)
1947 Aug 28, Legendary bullfighter
Manolete was mortally wounded by a bull during a fight in Linares,
Spain; he died the following day at age 30.
(AP, 8/28/97)
1952 Mar 14, J. Fred Muggs, chimp
on the Today show, was born.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1957 Mar 1, Kokomo the Chimp
became the Today Show animal editor.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1957 Mar 23, US army sold its last
homing pigeons.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1958 Apr 14, Sputnik 2 (with dog
Laika) burned up in the atmosphere.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1959 May 28, Monkeys Able &
Baker zoomed 300 mi (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile and became
the 1st animals retrieved from a space mission.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1959 Rex Burch (d.1996),
microbiologist, and William Russell, a classics scholar, outlined how
the use of animals in scientific research could be made more humane in
their book: “The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique.”
(www.nal.usda.gov/awic/newsletters/v7n2/7n2burch.htm)(Econ, 5/9/09,
p.84)
1959 The Usutu virus, a life
threat to birds, was 1st observed in South African mosquitoes. By 2004
it had spread to Europe and ravaged the blackbird population.
(SFC, 8/21/04, p.B10)
1960 Aug 19, Korabl-Sputnik-2
(Spaceship Satellite-2), also known as Sputnik 5, was launched. On
board were the dogs Belka ( Squirrel) and Strelka (Little Arrow). Also
on board were 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. After a day in
orbit, the spacecraft's retrorocket was fired and the landing capsule
and the dogs were safely recovered. They were the first living animals
to survive orbital flight.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1960 Aug 23, World's largest frog
(3.3 kg) was caught in Equatorial Guinea.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1961 Jan 31, Chimpanzee Ham landed
safely and became the 1st primate in space after a 16 minute flight
aboard a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1961 Mar
9, Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9, was launched with a dog
named Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission. Also onboard the
spacecraft was a dummy cosmonaut, mice and a guinea pig.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1961 Aug 27, Francis the Talking
Mule was the mystery guest on "What's My Line."
(MC, 8/27/01)
1962 Mar 21, A female black
bear was taken aboard a B-58 bomber out of Edwards Air Force Base in
California, flown up to 35,000 feet at a supersonic speed of 850 miles
per hour, and ejected from the bomber in a specially made capsule. She
landed safely, and became the first living creature to survive a
parachute jump from a plane flying faster than sound.
(www.worldhop.com/Journals/J1/Bear1.html)
c1962 Macaque monkeys began
bathing in the hot springs near Nagano.
(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.C10)
1965 Jul 3, Trigger (25), the
golden palomino horse of Roy Rogers, died. Trigger was mounted by
Bishoff's Taxidermy of California and were on display for years at the
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Victorville, California. The
original Trigger is currently on display at The Roy Rogers - Dale Evans
Museum in Branson, Missouri.
(SFC, 7/7/98,
p.A2)(www.surfnetinc.com/chuck/hoss-rr.htm)
1965 A Navy dolphin named Tuffy
carried tools and messages to Sealab II divers off the coast of La
Jolla, Ca.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.D1)
1965 Martin Seligman,
psychologist, conducted experiments with dogs subjected to electric
shock and found that they “learned helplessness” when unable to escape
shocks.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.63)
1966 Mar 10, Kelso, 5 time Horse
of the Year, retired.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1966 Jun, Allen and Beatrix
Gardner of the Univ. of Nevada began teaching sign language to a
10-month-old female chimpanzee named Washoe (d.2007).
(www.friendsofwashoe.org/timeline_project_begins.shtml)(SFC, 11/1/07,
p.A2)
1967 Peru and 3 other countries in
South America banned trade in vicuna, a relative of the llama, after
numbers had severely dwindled. A CITES ban followed in 1975.
(Econ, 3/8/08,
p.86)(www.rumbosonline.com/articles/4-46-vicuna.htm)
1969 American Museum of Natural
History in NYC installed a 94-foot, 21,000-pound, synthetic Blue Whale.
It was based on a female carcass found in the South Atlantic in 1925.
(WSJ, 7/24/03, p.D10)
1969 Fish and wildlife officials
in New York and Vermont banned fish shooting. In 1970 the Vermont
Legislature re-instated the sport.
(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A2)
1969-1971 Yellowstone Park officials attempted to
force grizzly bears to return to a wild diet. 220 bears, unable to quit
junk food, were shot and killed during this period.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.88)
1970 Mar 1, End of US commercial
whale hunting.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1970 Mar 30, Secretariat, race
horse, triple crown (1973), was born.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1970 Dec 24, A US Animal Welfare
Act was passed expanding the list of animals covered by the 1966 Animal
Welfare Act. It included guidelines for the use and care of laboratory
animals.
(www.nal.usda.gov/awic/legislat/usdaleg1.htm)
1970 The US sent a 5-dolphin team
to Vietnam to guard the Army munitions pier at Cam Ranh Bay.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.D1)
1970 Mister Ed the talking horse,
star of the 1961 TV sitcom, died. By the time Mister Ed reached the age
of 19 he was suffering from a broken leg and a variety of health
problems, and was quietly put to death with no publicity. However, in
an interview on Los Angeles station KECT's program "Life and Times",
Alan Young stated that Mr. Ed died from an inadvertent tranquilizer
administered while he was "in retirement" in a stable in Burbank,
California.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Ed)
1971 Nov 18, The US federal
Airborne-Hunting Act prohibited shooting animals from planes without
license.
(WSJ, 12/9/03,
p.A1)(www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/AIRBORN.HTML)
1971 Dec 15, Pres. Nixon signed
the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act. An $18 million Wild
Horse and Burro Program, headed by the Bureau of Land Management, was
designed to find homes for wild horses. "Excess" animals were annually
culled. The 10-17,000 wild horses grew to some 43,000 in 1998. In 2004
Conrad Burns, Republican Senator for Montana, introduced an amendment
that removed protection for wild horses over age 10.
(www.fs.fed.us/rangelands/ecology/wildhorseburro/whb_faqs.shtml)(WSJ,
8/25/98, p.A1)(Econ, 6/28/08, p.90)
1972 Apr 16, The Republic of China
presented two Pandas to the US National Zoo: Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling.
Ling-Ling died in 1992.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.C14)(HN, 4/16/98)
1972 Jul 10, Herd of stampeding
elephants killed 24 in the Chandka Forest of India.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1973 Feb 26, Triple Crown horse
Secretariat was bought for a record $5.7m.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1973 In Uganda some 14,300
elephants were in the Murchison Falls National Park at this time. By
1980 only 1,400 were left.
(NG, May 1985, p.627)
1974 Dr. Charles Lieber at the VA
Medical Center in the Bronx, NY, fed alcohol to baboons along with a
nutritionally complete diet. He found that the animals developed every
stage of human alcoholic liver disease.
(SSFC, 8/23/09, p.K6)
1975 May 23, The US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) banned the sale of turtles with shells that
measured less than four inches in length. The turtles were identified
as major carriers of salmonella bacterium and had been widely sold as
pets for kids.
(WSJ, 5/30/96, p.B1)(http://tiny.cc/IEWJ3)
1975 Jul 28, The US Dept of
Interior designated the grizzly bear a threatened species in the lower
48 states under the US Endangered Species Act. Most of the bears in the
lower US lived in and around Yellowstone National Park in Idaho,
Montana and Wyoming.
(http://fieldguide.mt.gov/detail_AMAJB01020.aspx)(Econ, 11/5/05, p.88)
1979 Nov 22, Penny Patterson led
Koko the gorilla from Stanford to a new home at the Gorilla Foundation
in Woodside.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.F2)
1980 Jun 2, The California State
Senate voted 30-0 to pass a bill prohibiting the destruction of any pet
through instructions left in an owner’s will.
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.F5)
1980 Jun 2, The California State
Fish and Game Commission approved a captive-breeding plan to save the
vanishing California condor from extinction.
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.F5)
1980 Jul 10, Nepo (14), a killer
whale, was found dead in his Redwood City Marine World show tank.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.F2)
1982 May 3, Sinbad the Sailor, the
star horse of Ronald Reagan’s “Death Valley Days” TV series, died when
he was struck by lightning at Kanab, Utah.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.C12)
1982 Jul 23, The Intl. Whaling
Commission (IWC) voted for a total ban on commercial whaling starting
in 1985.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling)
1983 Jul 25, 1st nonhuman primate,
a baboon, was conceived in a lab dish in San Antonio.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1987 Apr 19, The last free-flying
condor in California, a 19-pound, 7-year-old male, was captured. He was
released in 2002.
(SFC, 3/3/00, p.A21)(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A6)
1988 Apr 29, Molloko, the 1st
California condor chick conceived in captivity, was born in the San
Diego Zoo.
(www.highbeam.com/library/docFree.asp?DOCID=1G1:6703253)
1988 Jun 6, In NYC 2 large
snapping turtles were found in a Bronx sewage plant.
(http://ebeltz.net/column/chs/1988colu.html)
1988 Belgium passed a law that
forbade the ritual execution of animals at home.
(WSJ, 1/4/07, p.A1)
1989 Nedim Buyukmihci, animal
rights leader, founded the nonprofit Animal Place sanctuary in
Vacaville, Ca.
(SFCM, 8/24/03, p.8)
1989 The UN Convention on Int’l.
Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) imposed a total ban on the trade of
ivory and elephant hide. In 2007 the ban was extended for another 9
years.
(WSJ, 1/7/97, p.A1)(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A20)(SFC,
4/18/00, p.A9)(Econ, 3/8/08, p.85)
1990 Apr 10, H.J. Heinz said it
would not sell tuna caught in nets that also trap dolphins.
(http://tinyurl.com/kj7mq)
1990s A movement began to
establish the Australian bilby, an long-eared, endangered marsupial of
the bandicoot family, as a symbol for an Australian Easter.
(WSJ, 3/25/05, p.A1)
1991 The Canary Islands banned
bullfighting.
(SFC, 3/6/10, p.A2)
1994 Prof. Melvin Bradley (d.2203
at 83) authored his 2-volume "The Missouri Mule: His Origin and Times."
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A16)
1995 Carol Buckley and Scott Blais
founded the Elephant Sanctuary on a 800-acre farm in Hohenwald, Tenn.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, Par p.14)
1996 Mar 10, Birdwatchers noted
the "act of raptor love" between two red-tailed hawks on the Hotel
Carlyle at 2:30 p.m. in New York City. It lasted a full five seconds.
(WSJ, 4/17/96, p.A-18)
1996 Apr 13, The annual Canadian
seal hunt in Newfoundland went out of control and some 16,500 seals
were slaughtered instead of the 8,000 quota.
(SFC, 4/13/96, p.A-15)
1996 Jul 4, Koko, the first
gorilla to use sign language, turned 25 and asked for a box of scary,
rubber snakes and lizards. Koko was the offspring of Jackie, who was
donated to the SF Zoo by benefactor Carroll Soo-Hoo (d.1998 at 84).
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.A24)(SFC, 7/3/98, p.D6)
1996 Aug 16, In Brookfield, Ill.,
a 3-year-old boy fell 15-feet into a concrete area of a zoo’s gorilla
exhibit and was rescued by Binti-jua, a 7-year-old gorilla with her own
2-year-old on her back.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A3)(MC, 8/16/02)
1996 Aug 21, In Australia rescuers
worked to save some 200 pilot whales on the southwestern coast near
Dunsborough. Most were herded to sea but 14 died.
(SFC, 8/22/96, p.E3)
1996 Sep 1, In India wolves were
reported to have killed 33 children in the area of Banbirpur in the
state of Uttar Pradesh. Some reports had it that at least some of the
killings were by disguised human beings.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A16)
1996 Frans de Waal authored "The
Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and other Animals."
(MT, Fall 02, p.33)
1997 Mar 1, At Spring Lake near
Santa Rosa, Ca., Paul Duclos caught a 24-pound largemouth bass,
photographed it, weighed it and released it. The official record was a
22-pound, 4-ounce bass caught in Montgomery Lake, Ga. To be official
the fish has to be killed, properly weighed and certified by the Int’l.
Gamefish Assoc.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.C3)
1997 Apr 28, It was reported that
a type of Mad Cow Disease was killing deer and elk in the Fort Collins
region of Colorado and Wyoming. The "spongiform encephalopathies"
riddled the brain with holes and it was wondered if the disease might
be transmitted to humans as the fatal Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A5)
1997 A North American ban on
cattle feed that included bovine brain and spinal tissue went into
effect to prevent the spread of mad cow disease, bovine spongiform
encephalopathy.
(SFC, 12/30/03, p.A1)
1997 May 10, It was reported that
Iceland would resume whaling. Whaling had stopped there in 1989.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1997 May 17, From Gabon it was
reported that controlled logging in the tropical forests has led to
savage territorial wars among the native chimpanzees. The population
was estimated to have dropped from 50,000 to 30,000.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A4)
1997 May 31, It was reported that
more than 60 monk seals were killed from eating fish that had ingested
a toxic algae off of Mauritania’s Atlantic coast. It was estimated that
only some 350 of the monk seals were left worldwide.
(SFC, 5/31/97, p.A17)
1998 Feb 7, It was reported that
over 1200 Hooker’s sea lion pups had died in the sub-Antarctic islands
south of New Zealand from an unknown disease.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A5)
1998 Mar 30, In eastern Arizona
nearly a dozen Mexican gray wolves were released into the White
Mountains after an absence of 30 years.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 3, In Austria Hermann
Nitsch (b.1938) ignored animal rights protestors and began a 6-day
festival during which he planned to kill pigs and bulls and paint
pictures with their blood. This was his 100th such performance (named
the 6-Day Play after its length) and it took place at his castle,
Schloss Prinzendorf.
(SFC, 8/4/98,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Nitsch)
1998 Aug 15, In Britain it was
reported that 6,000 mink from a fur farm in Ringworm had been released
by animal rights activists. The released mink caused a wildlife
disaster as they preyed on all wildlife.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A5)
1998 Aug 29, A England new type
of mosquito was reported to be breeding in the underground Tube with a
taste for the rats and mice that lived there.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.A5)
1998 Sep 10, Keiko the killer
whale, star of the 1993 "Free Willy" movie, was returned to Iceland,
where he was captured in 1979 at age 2. Much of his early life was
spent at a Mexico City amusement park.
(SFC, 9/11/98, p.A10)(SFC, 10/17/03, p.D1)
1998 In France Eric Baratay and
Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier authored "Zoo: A History of Zoological
Gardens in the West." An English translation by Oliver Welsh was
published in 2002.
(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.M6)
1999 May 17, In Neah Bay,
Washington state, Makah Indian hunters legally harpooned their first
gray whale in 70-75 years.
(SFC, 5/18/99, p.A3)(AP, 5/17/00)
1999 May 19, Researchers reported
that pollen from corn infused with genes from the Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt) is toxic to monarch butterfly larvae when sprinkled
on milkweed, a natural food source for the caterpillars. The
genetically manipulated corn comprised about 20% of the US crop.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A1,15)
1999 Aug 20, The Peregrine falcon
was removed from the list of endangered species.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.A2)
1999 Aug 25, It was reported that
Mickey Rooney had joined animal rights activists to support legislation
to outlaw "crush" videos, which depict small animals being killed by
scantily clad women.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.C5)
1999 Barbara Smuts authored "Sex
and Friendship in Baboons."
(MT, Fall 02, p.12)
2000 Feb, Rescue Bear 0001 arrived
at the Animals Asia Foundation in Chengdu, China. He was named Andrew
by the Hong Kong philanthropist who donated $1 million to create the
animal sanctuary. Andrew (15) died in 2006 from a liver cancer likely
related to years of being tapped for bile fluid.
(SFC, 2/16/06, p.A14)
2000 Jul 15, From China it was
reported that an attack force of 700,000 ducks and chickens, trained to
hunt and eat insects at the sound of a whistle, were placed in the
locust-plagued fields of Xinjiang province.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A24)
2000 Jul 24, In Minneapolis,
Minn., 80 people were arrested as demonstrators protested against a
meeting of the Int’l. Society for Animal Genetics.
(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A4)
2001 Mar 6, The EU ordered all
livestock markets closed for 2 weeks to contain foot-and-mouth disease.
(SFC, 3/7/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 21, In Vermont a flock of
234 sheep were seized by federal agents over fears of infection with a
version of mad cow disease. The sheep had originated in Belgium in 1996.
(SFC, 3/22/01, p.A3)
2001 Apr 28, It was reported that
researchers at the Univ. of Pennsylvania had used gene therapy to
reverse a form of congenital blindness in dogs.
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.A3)
2001 Aug 14, In India it was
reported that 15 wild elephants had died in Nameri National Park in
Assam state from an unknown disease.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 1, Scientists gathered in
the French Alps to discuss a medicine called ivermectine given to
livestock to protect them from parasites. Dung from the animals was
toxic and virtually indestructible and threatened the survival of
insects, birds and bats.
(SSFC, 9/2/01, p.A20)
2001 Rome declared the ruins of
the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary to be a cultural heritage.
(SFC, 11/15/02, p.J1)
2002 Mar 6, It was reported that
new regulations (Kuschelregel, the cuddle rule) required German pig
farmers to spend at least 20 seconds each day looking at each pig.
(WSJ, 3/6/02, p.A1)
2002 May 11, It was reported that
a dead orca whale found off the Washington state coast contained toxic
PCBs so high that test equipment needed to be recalibrated. Levels were
measured at 1,000 parts-per-million.
(SFC, 5/11/02, p.A5)
2002 Sep 24-25, In the Canary
Islands over a dozen beaked whales beached themselves following NATO
exercises that involved a cluster of warships and submarines. 9 of the
whales washed ashore dead and showed lesions in the brain and hearing
system, consistent with acoustic impact.
(SFC, 9/26/02, p.A20)(SFC, 10/7/02, p.A6)
2002 Sep 7, In Portugal the town
of Reguengos de Monsaraz openly flouted a new bullfighting law, killing
a bull in the ring without government permission, and selling the beef
for human consumption afterward. The matador and the festival
organizers will be arraigned in the first legal test of the new
anti-bullfighting law. Killing in the bullring had been banned since
1928. However, Parliament voted in July to allow bulls to be put to
death, but only in cities and towns that have carried on the
bullfighting tradition for 50 years or more.
(AP, 9/8/02)
2002 Sep 14, In Ivory Coast’s
Azagny National Park there are only 39,000 western chimpanzees left of
an original 600,000. The western chimpanzee, one of four subspecies of
the common chimpanzee, is already extinct in the wild in Benin, Gambia
and Togo. It is almost extinct in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea
Bissau and Ghana.
(AP, 9/14/02)
2002 Sep, At least a dozen beaked
whales beached themselves following NATO exercises that involved a
cluster of warships and submarines. 8 of the whales died.
(SFC, 9/26/02, p.A20)
2002 Oct 24, It was reported that
over 8,000 backyard poultry had been killed in southern California to
stop the spread of Exotic Newcastle disease. The deadly avian infection
last surfaced in California the 1970s when some 12 million birds were
destroyed. The number of chickens killed reached 100,000.
(SFC, 10/24/02, p.G2)(SFC, 10/26/02, p.A3)(SFC,
12/28/02, p.A3)
2002 Oct 28, It was reported that
200 farms in China tap 7,000 live, caged bears for their bile in an
excruciating process. Owners slice into the bears to milk bile from
their gall bladder with a tube. Bear bile is viewed as a panacea in
traditional Chinese medicine. Many bears do not survive the initial
operation and few live longer than 10 years, less than half the average
life expectancy.
(Reuters, 10/28/02)
2002 Oct, Pat Derby opened the Ark
2002 elephant sanctuary in San Andreas, Ca.
(SFC, 6/21/04, p.A8)
2002 Nov 13, A U.N. body voted to
restrict the international trade of bigleaf mahogany, sea horses and 26
species of sea turtles, but failed to pass legislation to protect two
species of threatened sharks.
(AP, 11/14/02)
2002 Nov 20, Louisiana began
offering a $4-a-tail bounty on the swamp-dwelling nutria rodent, due to
wetlands damage from devoured plants.
(SFC, 11/20/02, p.A2)
2002 Dec 1, The US federal Bureau
of Land Management (BLM) began rounding up over 2,650 wild horses in
Nevada to prevent starving and rangeland destruction.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.J7)
2002 Matthew Scully authored
"Dominion: The Power of Man, the suffering of Animals, and the Call to
Mercy," in which he pleaded for the humane treatment of animals.
(WSJ, 10/30/02, p.D8)
2002 Oklahoma banned cockfighting
following a referendum. In 2005 state senator Frank Shurden proposed
gamecock boxing with cocks wearing foam-filled muffs and protective
vests.
(Econ, 2/5/05, p.27)
2002 The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration found 64,700 pounds of shark fins on a
single Honolulu-bound vessel they boarded southwest of Mexico. Federal
agents estimated that they were taken from 28,000 sharks, most of them
blue.
(CW, Winter 04, p.14)
2003 Jan 15, The EU Parliament
voted to ban the use of animals to test cosmetics by 2009. Imports of
cosmetics using animal testing would also be banned.
(WSJ, 1/16/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 12, It was reported that
the Congo Ebola outbreak was decimating the gorilla population with up
to 800 lost at the Lossi sanctuary.
(WSJ, 3/12/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 22, In Rome,
Italy, some 2,000 cat lovers marched in the city’s 1st Cat Pride march
and demanded protection for the many, local stray cats.
(SSFC, 2/23/03, A2)
2003 Feb 23, In Malawi a
lion, who escaped from Kasungu National Park and attacked and killed
about 7 people, was shot and killed by game hunters.
(AP, 2/24/03)
2003 Mar 12, It was reported that
the Congo Ebola outbreak was decimating the gorilla population with up
to 800 lost at the Lossi sanctuary. The ape population of west
equatorial Africa had fallen 50% since 1983 due to hunting and Ebola.
(WSJ, 3/12/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/7/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 25, The US Navy brought
in 2 specially trained bottle-nosed Atlantic dolphins to help ferret
out mines in the approaches of the port of Umm Qasr.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Apr 1, A cloned Javan bantang
was born by a beef cow in Iowa. Only 3-5,000 cattle-like bantengs
remained worldwide.
(SFC, 4/8/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 9, A large shipment of
African rodents, including Gambian rats, dormice and sun squirrels,
arrived in Dallas aboard a commercial flight from Ghana. An "unusually
large number of sick and dead animals." Some of the larger animals had
consumed the smaller ones. African rodents imported as pets caused a
monkeypox outbreak in the Midwest that sickened dozens of adults and
children with a virus related to smallpox.
(AP, 11/29/06)
2003 Apr 17, The prairie dog
population stood at 10-15 million over some 1.5 million acres. A
century ago they numbered in the billions over some 100 million acres.
(WSJ, 4/17/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 18, In the Florida Keys
at least 28 pilot whales stranded themselves and 5 were reported dead.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A4)
2003 Apr 29, California biologists
reported that some 92 southern sea otters had died since the beginning
of the year between Point Conception and Half Moon Bay. A cat parasite,
Toxoplasma gondii, was cited as one factor weakening the animals.
(SFC, 4/30/03, A1)(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A1)
2003 May 3, It was reported that
British researchers had shown that fish feel pain.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B8)
2003 May 28, Prometea, the world's
1st cloned horse, was born in Cremona, Italy.
(SFC, 8/7/03, p.A2)
2003 Jun 25, An Australian
military spokesman said the army will kill as many as 15,000 kangaroos
to keep a southeastern army base from being overgrazed.
(AP, 6/25/03)
2003 Jul 7, It was reported that
the night crawler, Lumbricus terristris, was not native to northern
American forests and that its introduction was causing problems on the
forest floor.
(WSJ, 7/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 2, Two South China
tigers, the first ever to leave the country, arrived in South Africa as
part of a project to save the endangered species.
(AP, 9/3/03)
2003 Oct 17, A new family of frogs
was reported from the western India. The purple, burrowing frog family,
named Nasikabatrachus sahydrensis, appeared to date back some 200
million years.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.A10)
2003 Nov 7, Prof. Donald Griffin
(88) of Harvard, leading proponent of animal consciousness, died.
"There is now abundant evidence of non-human cognition and
consciousness."
(WSJ, 11/28/03, p.B1)
2003 Dec 11, Scientists reported
on a partial list of genes that make people human based on comparisons
with the chimpanzee genome.
(AP, 12/12/03)
2003 Dec 12, Keiko the killer
whale (27), whose early life inspired the film "Free Willy," died in
Norway of apparent pneumonia.
(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 16, Taiwan's lawmakers
banned the selling of dog meat and introduced heavy fines for killing
pets for food or fur.
(AP, 12/18/03)
2003 Dec 23, A cow, slaughtered in
Washington state on Dec 9, was reported to have tested positive for mad
cow disease, the 1st such US case. The $2.6 billion beef export
industry was hit as 7 nations quickly suspended imports of US beef:
Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and
Australia. The infected Holstein was imported into the United States
from Canada about two years ago. A US beef recall soon spread to 8
states and Guam.
(AP, 12/24/03)(SFC, 12/24/03, p.A1)(AP,
12/27/03)(SFC, 12/29/03, p.A1)
2003 Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
authored "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm
Animals."
(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.M3)
2003 Sharman Apt Russell authored
"An Obsession with Butterflies."
(WSJ, 6/20/03, p.W10)
2003 Alaska resumed limited aerial
wolf hunting. In 1996 and 2000 Alaska voters turned down proposals to
resume aerial predation control.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.36)
2003 Some 3,951 bears were killed
by hunters in Maine. 92% of them were bagged by the use of bait or dogs.
(WSJ, 10/28/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 8, A mountain lion was
shot and killed following 2 attacks on people. Mark Jeffrey Reynolds
(35) was found dead and partly eaten near his bike in the Whiting Ranch
Wilderness in Orange County, Ca.
(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.A23)
2004 Mar 18, Jahari, a 13-year-old
lowland gorilla, broke out of the Dallas Zoo and was shot to death
after snatching up a toddler with his teeth and attacking 3 people.
(SFC, 3/20/04, p.A2)
2004 Apr 15, It was reported that
over 20 sea otters have turned up dead or sick at Morro Bay over the
last week. Scientists suspected a natural marine toxin. 62 otters died
by the end of the month and the opossum parasite Sarcocystis neurona
was later found to be responsible.
(SFC, 4/15/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/21/04, p.B10)
2004 Apr 28, The Dian Fossey fund
reported that the lowland gorilla population in eastern Congo has
dropped over 70% since 1994 due to human warfare.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A1)
2004 May 11, In West Virginia it
was reported that some 2,000 bats and 200 birds were likely killed by
whirling blades at a Tucker County wind farm.
(USAT, 5/11/04, p.10A)
2004 May 18, Kubi, SF Zoo’s
29-year-old gorilla, died, 11 days following his May 7 surgery to
remove a diseased lung.
(SFC, 5/19/04, p.A1)
2004 May 20, Detroit Zoo officials
said they will stop exhibiting elephants on ethical grounds because
elephants can develop arthritis and stress-related ailments in
captivity.
(Reuters, 5/20/04)
2004 Jun 10, German researchers
reported that a border collie named Rico understands more than 200
words and can learn new ones as quickly as many children.
(AP, 6/10/04)
2004 Jun, In Georgia Chris Griffin
reportedly killed a 1,000-pound hog with 9-inch tusks at the River Oak
Plantation. Only a photo portrayed the “Hogzilla” kill. In 2005 experts
from National Geographic confirmed the kill but reduced the size to
about 800 pounds.
(AP, 7/29/04)(SFC, 3/22/05, p.A2)
2004 Jul 16, Peru’s National
Agrarian Research Institute launched a new super-cuy (guinea pig),
weighing up to 10 pounds, to help improve the Peruvian diet.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.37)
2004 Jul, In Tanzania over 10,000
flamingos died at the Lake Manyara National Park. Officials were
puzzled and no other wildlife appeared affected.
(SFC, 7/24/04, p.B10)
2004 Aug 9, Officials in South
Africa prepared to kill some 30,000 ostriches following the deaths of
over 1,500 due to avian influenza.
(SFC, 8/10/04, p.A3)
2004 Aug 12, I was reported that a
huge ant colony measuring 100 kilometers (62 miles) across had been
found under the southern Australian city of Melbourne. The ants were a
mutant variety of Argentine ants.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 12, Laboratory monkeys
that started out as careless procrastinators became super-efficient
workers after injections into their brains that suppressed a gene
linked to their ability to anticipate a reward.
(LAT, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 21, A Chinese official
said a lethal strain of avian influenza had been found among pigs at
several farms.
(SFC, 8/21/04, p.A9)
2004 Aug 23, Researchers presented
results on genetically engineered mice capable of running farther and
longer than those bred naturally.
(SFC, 8/24/04, p.A2)
2004 Sep 8, It was reported that
some 60 hippos had died of unknown causes over the last 2 months in
Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park.
(SFC, 9/8/04, p.A6)
2004 Sep 28, Kenya said it will
push for an international ban on trade in lion trophies and skins,
expressing concern that the African lion is "under threat."
(AP, 9/28/04)
2004 Jan 1, In Norway a new law
went into effect to allow foreign hunters to hunt seals. The
legislation raised the seal kill quota to 2,000.
(SFC, 11/27/04, p.A10)
2004 Nov 28, On southern
Australia’s King Island about 80 whales and dolphins died after
beaching, and about 50 more were still at risk.
(AP, 11/29/04)
2004 Dec 7, In Illinois after Babs
the gorilla died at age 30, keepers at Brookfield Zoo, decided to allow
surviving gorillas to mourn the most influential female in their social
family. One by one, the gorillas filed into the Tropic World building
where Babs' body lay, arms outstretched. Curator Melinda Pruett Jones
called it a "gorilla wake."
(AP, 12/8/04)
2004 Dec 22, A Texas woman paid
$50,000 for a cloned cat, Little Nicky, created by Genetic Savings and
Clone of Sausalito, Ca.
(SFC, 12/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Stanley Corem authored “How
Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind.”
(NH, 2/05, p.48)
2004 Mark Derr authored “A Dog’s
History of America.”
(SSFC, 10/3/04, p.M3)
2004 M.R. Montgomery authored “A
Cow’s Life: The Surprising History of Cattle and How the Black Angus
Came to Be Home on the Range.”
(NH, 2/05, p.52)
2004 Mark Obmascik authored "The
Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession." It was about a
1998 competition to see as many birds as possible in one year.
(SSFC, 3/28/04, p.M1)
2004 John Jeremiah Sullivan
authored “Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter’s Son,” an eloquent
tour of the history of men and horses.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.80)
2005 Feb, Vietnam signed an
agreement with the World Society for the Protection of Animals to phase
out its bear bile farms, where an estimated 3,000 bears were held for
their bile. In China an estimated 7,000 caged bears were milked for
their bile.
(SFC, 4/25/05, p.A8)
2005 Mar 10, It was reported that
a Texas ranch has implemented a computer-assisted remote hunting
website allowing paying hunters to bag big game from their home
computers.
(SFC, 3/10/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 14, Experts said poachers
are killing between 6,000 and 12,000 elephants a year to supply illegal
ivory markets in Sudan to meet growing Chinese demand. Most of the
elephants are killed in southern Sudan, Congo and the Central African
Republic, with some ivory also coming from Kenya and Chad.
(AP, 3/14/05)
2005 Apr 11, Some 12,000 Wisconsin
citizens took part in an advisory poll on shooting free-roaming
domestic cats. 57% voted to allow shooting them. An advisory committee
dropped the issue May 13 following an outcry from animal rights groups.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.27)(SFC, 5/14/05, p.A2)
2005 Apr 26, In Australia, a state
official said thousands of wild camels will be shot in the Outback from
helicopters in an effort to reduce their numbers.
(AP, 4/26/05)
2005 May 1, Thai fishermen netted
a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish believed to have been the world's
largest freshwater fish ever caught in Thailand.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 May 6, An Indian federal
probe into disappearing tigers in a state-protected reserve has found
the entire population of big cats has been wiped out by poachers. "The
special investigation team in its preliminary assessment report has
indicated that there was no evidence to prove the presence of tigers in
Sariska (national park)."
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 11, The Wildlife
Conservation Society announced that the Laotian rock rat, also called
kha-nyou, belonged to a new species with the formal name Laonastes
aenigmamus.
(SFC, 5/12/05, p.A2)
2005 Jul 15, It was reported that
an estimated 100,000 gamecock breeders operated in the US, where
cockfights were only legal in Louisiana and New Mexico. Breeders
prepared the birds with injections of testosterone and methamphetamines.
(WSJ, 7/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Richard Adams authored “The
Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire.”
(Econ, 2/26/05, p.85)
2005 Vilmos Csanyi authored “If
Dogs Could Talk: Exploring the Canine Mind.”
(NH, 2/05, p.48)
2006 Dec 5, Knut became the first
polar bear born to be born in Germany’s Berlin Zoo in 30 years. He was
rejected by his mother and spent his first 44 days in an incubator.
Zookeeper Thomas Doerflein (d.2008 at 44) raised the cub by hand.
(www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,461624,00.html)(SFC, 9/26/08, p.B9)
2006 William J and Winifred A.
Krause authored “The Opossum: Its Amazing Story.”
(http://web.missouri.edu/~krausew/Histology/Home_files/opossum.pdf)
2007 Mar 6, In western India
wildlife officials said poachers had killed three highly endangered
Asiatic lions in their only remaining sanctuary, removing their claws
and bones and raising fears for the future of these rare cats.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 24, Thieves in Cambodia
poisoned a 62-year-old domesticated elephant and sawed off its tusks to
sell on the black market. In 2008 2 men were arrested for the killing
and faced up to 3 years in prison for the intentional destruction of
private property.
(AP, 3/27/07)(AP, 3/26/08)
2007 Jun 23, Authorities said an
outbreak of distemper has been killing seal pups off the coast of
Denmark, warning that thousands of seals could die if the disease
spreads to other northern European countries.
(AP, 6/23/07)
2007 Aug 20, In China Jia Youling,
chief veterinary officer, said that the Porcine Reproductive and
Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), aka as blue-ear pig disease, head been
brought under control. He said 257,000 pigs in 26 provinces had been
infected. 68,000 had died from the disease and 175,000 were destroyed.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.41)
2007 Oct 9, In Puerto Rico animal
control workers seized dozens of dogs and cats from housing projects in
the town of Barceloneta and hurled them to their deaths from a bridge
in the neighboring town of Vega Baja. Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez blamed a
contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter. In 2008 a Puerto
Rican judge found a contractor and two of his workers not guilty of
animal cruelty due to lack of evidence.
(AP, 10/13/07)(AP, 9/10/08)
2007 Oct 30, Washoe the chimp
(42), who had learned American sign Language, died at Central
Washington Univ. in Ellensburg, Wa. Cognitive researchers had adopted
the 10-month-old chimp from military researchers in 1966.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.A2)
2007 Nov 11, Animal rights
activists attacked as inhumane an Australian state government's plans
to shoot more than 10,000 wild horses to protect the environment.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Dec 25, A Siberian tiger
named Tatiana (4) escaped its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo,
killing Carlos Sousa (17) of San Jose and mauling two others. The same
animal had chewed a keeper’s arm during an attack last December.
(AP, 12/26/07)(SFC, 12/26/07, p.A1)(SFC, 12/27/07,
p.A1)
2007 Dec 29, Nonja (55), a
Sumatran orangutan, was found dead at the Miami Metro Zoo. She had
lived in Miami since 1983 and was believed to be the world’s oldest
orangutan.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2008 Jan 3, Sir David Attenborough
told the Independent that between a third and half of the world's 6,000
amphibian species could be wiped out in the next few decades by a
species chytrid fungus.
(http://tinyurl.com/38tyec)(SFC, 1/5/08, p.B6)
2008 Jan 30, It was reported that
bats were dying off by the thousands as they hibernated in caves and
mines around New York and Vermont, sending researchers scrambling to
find the cause of mysterious condition dubbed "white nose syndrome." Up
to 11,000 bats were found dead last winter and many more were showing
signs of illness this winter.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Mar 23, It was reported that
1,195 migrating bison had been culled in Montana after leaving
Yellowstone in search of food. The culling was expected to continue
through April.
(SSFC, 3/23/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 28, The grey wolf of the
northern Rocky Mountains was taken off the federal protection list
after reaching a population of some 1,500 in the greater Yellowstone
region. Wolves were reintroduced in 1995 after disappearing from the
area in 1926. On July 18 a judge restored protection for the wolves in
Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, derailing plans for public wolf hunts this
fall. On Sep 29 a federal court overturned the Bush administration’s
decision to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list in the
Great lakes region.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.44)(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A4)(WSJ,
9/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar, In South Africa tens of
thousands of swallows fell dead in Limpopo province as wet weather
prevented them from eating properly less than a week before their
migration for Europe.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.B6)
2008 May 1, South Africa lifted a
13-year ban on killing elephants. The country had some 18,000 elephants.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A8)
2008 May 3, Big Brown pulled won
the Kentucky Derby 4 3/4 lengths ahead of the filly Eight Belles, who
was euthanized by injection on the track with 2 broken ankles.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In the Cayman Islands
5 captive Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas, critically endangered lizards that
resemble miniature turquoise dragons, were found scattered across a
breeding park in the British dependency after they apparently were
stomped and gouged.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 13, Timothy Kooyman (24),
a homeless man in Rancho Cucamonga, Ca., was arrested on animal cruelty
charges. In 2009 additional charges of using scissors to cut off feline
tails was added to counts of soaking cats in gas and torching them.
Kooyman pleaded insanity.
(www.animalshelter.org/forum/Serial_Cat_Torturer,_Timothy_Kooyman/m_1804/tm.htm)
(SFC, 2/27/09, p.B4)
2008 May 14, US Interior Sec. Dirk
Kempthorne said the government will list the polar bear as threatened
under the Endangered Species Act, making it the 1st animal to win
protection due to global warming.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 19, In Australia the
Tasmania state government said the Tasmanian devil will be listed as an
endangered species this week as a result of a deadly and disfiguring
cancer outbreak. Animal rights activists said Australian authorities
have started the controversial killing of about 400 kangaroos on the
outskirts of Australia's capital of Canberra.
(AFP, 5/19/08)(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 22, Several companies
agreed to pay a combined $24 million to pet owners to resolve lawsuits
over contaminated pet food linked to the illness and death of animals.
The settlement involving Canada-based Menu Foods Income Fund and other
pet food manufacturers and suppliers was outlined in documents filed in
the US District Court in New Jersey.
(Reuters, 5/23/08)
2008 Mar 28, The grey wolf of the
northern Rocky Mountains was taken off the federal protection list
after reaching a population of some 1,500 in the greater Yellowstone
region. Wolves were reintroduced in 1995 after disappearing from the
area in 1926. On July 18 a judge restored protection for the wolves in
Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, derailing plans for public wolf hunts this
fall. On Sep 29 a federal court overturned the Bush administration’s
decision to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list in the
Great lakes region.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.44)(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A4)(WSJ,
9/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 25, Spain's parliament
voiced its support for the rights of great apes to life and freedom in
what will apparently be the first time any national legislature has
called for such rights for non-humans.
(Reuters, 6/25/08)
2008 Jul 22, California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed SB685 giving state pet owners the right to set up
a legally enforceable trust to care for their animals. The bill was
sponsored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo).
(SFC, 7/26/08, p.C1)(http://tinyurl.com/5uppps)
2008 Sep 7, The conservation group
WWF said Australian koalas are dying by the thousands as a result of
land clearing in the country's northeast, while millions of birds and
reptiles are also perishing. Queensland state last week revealed that
375,000 hectares of bush were cleared in 2005-06, a figure WWF said
would have resulted in the deaths of two million mammals.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 9, Morocco said it would
start vaccinating all livestock after the outbreak of Peste des Petits
Ruminants, a deadly viral disease, ahead of the Eid festival when
millions of animals are sacrificed.
(AFP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 22, in Australia 400
sheep died in a road accident, prompting animal rights activists to
repeat their call for an end to the long distance transportation of
livestock for slaughter.
(AFP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 27, It was reported that
the elephant population in Congo’s Virunga National Park had dropped to
under 200, mostly due to poaching. In 1964 there were an estimated
2,900. In 2006 the number had dropped to 400.
(Econ, 9/27/08, p.62)
2008 Oct 1, In Australia a major
report to the government on global warming suggested that Australians
should eat kangaroos instead of cattle and sheep.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 14, Gray wolves in the
northern US Rocky Mountains returned to the endangered species list,
thanks to a court victory by environmental groups over the US
government [see Mar 28, 2008].
(AFP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 20, In China, a
veterinarian said some 1,500 dogs, bred for their raccoon-like fur,
have died after eating feed tainted with the same chemical that
contaminated dairy products and sickened tens of thousands of babies
nationwide.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 28, Namibia sold more
than seven tons of ivory for $1.1 million, in the first legal auction
of elephant tusks in nearly a decade, exclusively for Chinese and
Japanese buyers.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 30, In Australia 4
teenagers were charged with attacking an almost blind greater flamingo
at Adelaide Zoo. The bird is believed to be the oldest of its kind in
the world.
(AFP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 31, The Leakey Foundation
awarded its Leakey Prize to American primatologist Jane Goodall and
Japanese scientist Toshidada Nishida for their work with chimpanzees.
(SFC, 10/30/08, p.B1)
2008 Nov 3, Zimbabwean officials
say they have sold almost 4 tons of ivory for over $450,000 and the
money will go to the country's cash-strapped wildlife authorities.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 17, The Kenya Wildlife
Service (KWS) said a ton of ivory items and 57 suspects were netted in
a four-month operation billed Africa's largest-ever crackdown on
wildlife crime. Operation Baba also seized cheetah, leopard, serval cat
and python skins as well as hippo teeth at several markets, airports
and border crossings in Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and
Zambia.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Dec 9, A South African man
accused of attempting to smuggle hundreds of rare chameleons, snakes,
lizards and frogs out of Madagascar inside his jacket and luggage was
convicted and sentenced to a year in jail.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 James Lever, a book editor,
authored “Me Cheetah: My Life in Hollywood,” a pseudo-autobiography by
Tarzan’s friendly chimpanzee. It was first published in Britain before
the author’s name was revealed. The American edition came out in 2009.
(WSJ, 3/13/09, p.W10)
2008 Marion Nestle authored “Pet
Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine,” which illuminates the
connections between the food supplies of humans, farm animals and
pets.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.97)
2008 Irene Pepperberg authored
“Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Uncovered a Hidden World
of Animal Intelligence – And Formed a Deep bond in the Process.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.100)
2009 Jan 16, In India a herd of
nearly 150 hungry elephants rampaged through a village in the remote
northeast, trampling to death a young family as they slept in their hut.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 16, South African police
and game park rangers said they have arrested 11 suspects in an
international rhinoceros poaching ring. Some of the rhinos had their
horns hacked from them while they were still alive.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 30, Indian officials said
tigers have killed at least three children and four adults in northern
Uttar Pradesh in recent weeks, forcing frightened villagers to stay
indoors while forest rangers search for the wild cats.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 4, Arkansas Gov. Mike
Beebe signed into law new animal-cruelty restrictions that make
aggravated cruelty to cats, dogs and horses a felony on the first
offense. According to the US Humane Society Arkansas became the 46th
state to make cruelty to animals a felony.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 16, In Stamford,
Connecticut, a 200-pound domesticated chimpanzee was shot dead by
police after a violent rampage that left a friend of its owner badly
mauled. Travis (15) had once starred in TV commercials for Old Navy and
Coca-Cola. The chimp was acting so agitated earlier that afternoon that
the owner gave him the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in some tea. Owner
Sandra Herold later denied giving Xanax to the chimp. Charla Nash lost
her hands, nose, lips and eyelids in the attack. Doctors later said she
will be blind for life.
(AP, 2/17/09)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.A5)(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Feb 21, In western Indonesia
a Sumatran tiger mauled two illegal loggers to death, bringing to 5 the
number of people killed by the critically endangered cats in less than
a month.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Mar 9, In Sweden researchers
reported that a chimpanzee named Santino had collected a stash of rocks
and then hurled them at visitors at the Furuvik Zoo, confirming that
apes can plan ahead just like humans.
(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 14, In Algeria Islamists
cut the throat of a shepherd and 300 of his sheep in Chatabia village
near the Tunisian border. Three family members and an elected official
died in a bomb explosion the following morning as they headed to the
site of the killing.
(AFP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 18, Russia said it was
banning the hunting of baby harp seals, weeks after PM Putin reportedly
called the hunt a bloody industry.
(SFC, 3/19/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 19, A report issued by
the US Interior Department said one-third of the nation's endangered
birds are in Hawaii. 31 Hawaiian bird species were listed as
endangered, more than anywhere else in the country. The native birds
were threatened by the destruction of their habitats by invasive plant
species and feral animals like pigs, goats and sheep, habitat loss and
insect born diseases. The report also said energy production of all
types — wind, ethanol and mountaintop coal mining — was contributing to
steep drops in bird populations.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 23, Canadian officials
declared the nation’s annual seal hunt open, despite a potential EU ban
on the improt of seal products.
(SFC, 3/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 23, In eastern Indonesia
2 Komodo dragons mauled a fruit-picker to death. An 8-year-old boy was
killed in 2007, the first recorded deadly attack on a human by one of
the endangered lizards in three decades.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Mar 24, In Indonesia rangers
found the bodies of 2 rare Sumatran elephants with gunshots to the head
hours after they were used for a patrol against illegal loggers and
several hundred yards from their camp.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Mar 25, Conservation
International, a Washington D.C.-based conservation group, announced
the discovery of over 50 new animal species in a remote, mountainous
region of Papua New Guinea. The group spent the past several months
analyzing more than 600 animal species found during its expedition to
the South Pacific island nation in July and August.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 25, China’s state media
said forestry officials in far western China have resorted to
scattering abortion pills near gerbil burrows in a bid to halt a rodent
plague threatening the desert region's fragile ecosystem.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 29, In Australia
thousands of poisonous cane toads met their fate as gleeful hunters
gathered for a celebratory mass killing of the hated amphibians, with
many of the creatures' corpses being turned into fertilizer for the
very farmers they've plagued for years.
(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 Apr 20, In Florida 7 more
Venezuelan polo horses sickened just before a tournament died
overnight, raising the death toll to 21. Officials said they may have
been killed by some type of poison. On April 23 Franck’s Pharmacy
admitted to having prepared a generic version of Biodyl, a vitamin
supplement banned in the US, which was administered to all the dead
horses.
(AP, 4/20/09)(SFC, 4/24/09, p.A7)
2009 Apr 24, In India's remote
northeast Assam state wild elephants demolished two thatched-roof huts,
killing five villagers in a pre-dawn attack. India's northeast has the
world's highest number of wild Asiatic elephants, with 7,000 estimated
in the states of Assam and Meghalaya alone.
(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 27, America, Canada,
Europe and Japan promised to cooperate on validating alternatives to
using animals in medical research. An estimated 50-100 million animals
were used in research annually around the world.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.18)
2009 Apr 27, In Kenya 2 men
pleaded guilty in court to illegally possessing 1,500 pounds (700
kilograms) of elephant tusks in what was believed to be the largest
seizure of illegal ivory in recent years. Rangers and police arrested
the two, a Kenyan and a Tanzanian, on April 25, when the Kenya Wildlife
Service acted on a tip about planned ivory smuggling in Amboseli
National Park.
(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 Apr 29, Egypt began
slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country as a precautionary
measure against the spread of swine flu even though no cases have been
reported here yet.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 30, The Iraqi government
decided to kill three wild boars at the Baghdad Zoo amid worldwide
fears of swine flu. No date was set for their killing. Two US Marines
and a sailor were killed during combat operations in Anbar province.
(AP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A2)
2009 May 2, Mine That Bird, a
gelding from New Mexico trained by Bennie Woolley Jr., won the 135th
Kentucky Derby. With an inspired ride on the rail from Calvin Borel the
50-to-1 odds win was one of the greatest upsets in America's most
famous horse race.
(AP, 5/3/09)(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.C1)
2009 May 2, In Trinidad 4 police
officers allegedly hijacked a smuggling boat from Venezuela and stole
1,000 endangered birds and monkeys along with 400 pounds of wild animal
meat. Investigators acting on a tip found birds and monkeys in people's
homes, in pet shops and even along roads in Port-of-Spain.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, Wolves in parts of the
northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the endangered
species list, opening them to public hunts in some states for the first
time in decades. States such as Idaho and Montana planned to resume
hunting the animals this fall, but no hunting has been proposed in the
Great Lakes region. About 300 wolves in Wyoming will remain on the list
because the US Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the state's plan for
a "predator zone" where wolves could be shot on sight. An estimated
4,000 wolves lived in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 5, Australia's army
started shooting 6,000 kangaroos to thin their population on an army
training ground near the capital, outraging conservationists who have
vowed to protest.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 5, The European
Parliament voted to update the rules on the use of animals in research
and to ban imports of seal products, including fur coats and even
omega-3 pills, trying to force Canada to end the annual seal hunt that
animal rights groups call barbaric.
(AP, 5/5/09)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.84)
2009 May 7, Animal welfare
activists said more than 300 stray dogs, dumped on isolated islands in
Malaysia’s Selangor state, turned to cannibalism after weeks of
starvation.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 7, In northwestern
Indonesia 2 rare Sumatran elephants, believed to have been poisoned
with cyanide-laced pineapples, were found dead with their tusks
removed. Just 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to still be living
in their natural surroundings.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 14, In Australia a court
suspended a government program to kill 7,000 kangaroos on federal land
near the Australian capital, halting efforts to thin a mushrooming
population of the beloved marsupials that authorities say are
threatening endangered species.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 18, A leading animal
rights group criticized Egypt for using "shocking and cruel" methods to
slaughter the country's pigs over swine flu fears, responding to a
YouTube video that showed men skewering squealing piglets with large
kitchen knives and hitting others with crowbars.
(AP, 5/18/09)
2009 May 19, Scientists in New
York unveiled the skeleton of what they said could be the common
ancestor to humans, apes and other primates. The tiny creature,
officially known as Darwinius masillae, but dubbed Ida, lived 47
million years ago and is unusually well preserved. The monkey-like
creature, discovered in 1983, was preserved through the ages in
Germany's Messel Pit, a crater rich in Eocene Epoch fossils.
(AFP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 19, Environmental groups
in Indonesia said Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper, one of
the world's largest paper companies, plans to clear a large swath of
unprotected forest in Indonesia being used as a sanctuary for
critically endangered orangutans.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 23, It was reported that
millions of bats in at least 7 US states (Connecticut, New York,
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia) have
died from white-nose syndrome, a fungal diseases.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.36)
2009 May 26, In New Zealand an
animal keeper was mauled to death by a rare white tiger at a wildlife
park in New Zealand while visitors watched in horror. South African
national Dalu Mncube was attacked after he and a colleague entered the
cage at Zion Wildlife Park on New Zealand's North Island to clean it.
(AP, 5/27/09)
2009 May 30, In South Africa 55
pilot whales beached near Cape Point, prompting a massive rescue
operation. The rescue efforts failed and 44 of the whales were shot to
end their suffering. The rest died of stress and organ failure.
(AP, 5/30/09)(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 Jun 8, In Malawi an
international organization began moving more than 60 elephants from
Phirilongwe village, south of Lake Malawi, to the Majete Wildlife
Reserve. Local farmers had used violence to protect their crops from
raids by the elephants, and at least 10 people and a number of
elephants have recently died in such confrontations.
(AP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 12, In Indonesia a male
Sumatran elephant was found dead in a pulp plantation in Riau province,
Sumatra with its tusks removed. Six other endangered Sumatran elephants
had been killed in Riau in the last two months and two were found with
missing tusks.
(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 14, In Florida Tyler
Hayes Weinman (18), whose divorced parents live in the neighborhoods
where many of the cats were killed, was charged with 19 counts each of
animal cruelty and improperly disposing of an animal body. Police said
they investigated more than 30 cat deaths since May and were flooded
with tips from concerned citizens.
(AP, 6/15/09)(SFC, 6/15/09, p.A6)
2009 Jun 17, The number of
Nebraska cattle herds quarantined because of bovine tuberculosis
concerns jumped to 42 and Colorado and South Dakota were warned the
disease may have already spread there.
(AP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 18, Canadian officials
said about 70,000 harbor seals were killed in this year’s hunt out of a
commercial quota of 273,000 animals. The 7-month hunt had ended earlier
this week.
(SFC, 6/19/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 21, Ukrainian border
guards seized 250 turtles being smuggled into the country on a train
from Uzbekistan, where they had been hidden and strapped down with tape
to prevent them from moving.
(AFP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jul 1, Bolivia enacted what
animal rights defenders called the world's first law that prohibits the
use of animals in circuses. A handful of other countries have banned
the use of wild animals in circuses, but the Bolivian ban includes
domestic animals as well. The law would become effective on July 1,
2010.
(AP, 7/30/09)(AP, 4/16/10)
2009 Jul 1, In Namibia the annual
seal hunt opened despite objections by animal welfare groups. Hunters
were expected to club over 90,000 seals including 85,000 pups by Nov 15.
(SFC, 7/7/09, p.A2)(AFP, 8/4/09)
2009 Jul 1, In San Sebastian,
Spain, a meeting was underway of five regional fisheries management
organizations, tasked primarily with protecting tuna populations
worldwide. The groups representing 80 countries met for the first time
in two years to assess stocks of the fish and determine what more can
be done to save the 23 tuna populations, nine of which are under threat.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 1, In southern Thailand a
rampaging elephant stomped three rubber tappers to death after it was
left to wander freely by its handler.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 14, In Nairobi, Kenya,
authorities seized over 660 pounds of illegal ivory and black
rhinoceros horn, some of it still bloody, on a Mozambique-to-Asia plane.
(SFC, 7/15/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 17, In Namibia 2 European
journalists were fined $625 (US) by a court for filming the annual seal
hunt along the coast of the southern African nation. On July 31 British
investigative journalist Jim Wilckens and South African cameraman Bart
Smithers were found guilty of violating the Marine Resources Act by
entering a restricted area without permission.
(AFP, 7/18/09)(AFP, 8/4/09)
2009 Jul 23, In China female panda
You You (pronounced Yo Yo) gave birth to the new cub at the Wolong
Giant Panda Research Center in southwestern Sichuan. This was the first
successful birth of a panda cub from artificial insemination using
frozen sperm, giving a new option for the notoriously poor breeders.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 27, European Union
nations gave their final approval to a ban on imports of seal products
in an effort to force Canada to end its annual seal hunt.
(AP, 7/27/09)
2009 Aug 12, In Montana a grizzly
bear named Maximus, one of the largest in the state, was found shot to
death on a ranch near Dupuyer. He had stood 7½ feet tall and
weighed 800 lbs.
(SSFC, 8/23/09, p.A7)
2009 Aug 16, In Uruguay some 20
dead Fraser's dolphins turned up this weekend on the Punta Negra beach
in Piriapolis outside Montevideo. Experts theorized the tropical
dolphins became disoriented or were carried there by changing water
currents.
(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 22, In Indonesia a group
of thieves killed an endangered Sumatran tiger in a zoo in Jambi
province on Sumatra island and stole most of its body. Police suspected
the theft was motivated by the animal's valuable fur and bones. The
number of Sumatran tigers has dwindled to about 250 from about 1,000 in
the 1970s, according to the Washington DC-based World Wildlife Fund.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 22, The West Australian
town of Broome, with deep historical ties to Japan, voted to sever its
sister city relationship with the Japanese village of Taiji to protest
an annual dolphin slaughter near there. At an extraordinary meeting on
October 13 Broome rescinded the decision, which it said was made in
haste and without wide consultation, and issued an apology to the
Japanese community in Broome and Taiji, their families and friends for
any disrespect caused by council's resolution. But it noted that it did
not condone the harvest of dolphins in Taiji, with which it forged
sister-city relations in 1981.
(AP, 8/24/09)(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 Aug 24, It was reported that
Peruvian police expecting to find a shipment of cocaine hidden in a
crate holding two live turkeys were surprised to discover the drug
surgically implanted inside the birds.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Sep 1, Idaho hunters began
stalking gray wolves, following their removal from the federal
endangered species a few months earlier. The quota for this season was
220. The quota in Montana was set at 75.
(SFC, 9/2/09, p.A8)
2009 Sep 1, In the Bahamas an
amended fisheries laws took effect to give full protection to all sea
turtles found in the Atlantic archipelago's waters by banning the
harvest, possession, purchase and sale of the endangered reptiles,
including their eggs.
(AP, 8/30/09)
2009 Sep 9, Conservationists said
poaching and drought-related hunger have killed more than 100 of
Kenya's famous elephants in the north of the country so far this year.
Around 23,000 elephants live in Kenya but populations can be devastated
by poaching within a couple of years. A recent survey in Chad showed
its elephant population had declined from 3,800 to just over 600 in the
past three years.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 25, An environmental
group said a gecko with leopard-like spots on its body and a fanged
frog that eats birds are among 163 new species discovered last year in
the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia, which included Laos,
Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 25, Palau announced to
the UN General Assembly that it is creating a shark and ray sanctuary
over some 240,000 square miles around its coastline. Palau had just one
boat to patrol the protected waters. Some 20,000 people populated the
190-square mile archipelago.
(SFC, 9/25/09, p.A6)
2009 Sep 29, Ethiopian and Kenyan
authorities seized more than 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms) of ivory
from nearly 100 illegally killed elephants. Specially trained dogs
sniffed out a consignment of bloodstained tusks at Kenya's national
airport. Another shipment of tusks sent by the same individual had been
seized a day earlier at the airport in Ethiopia's capital.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Sep 30, Bangladesh awarded a
farmer who killed more than 83,000 rats and launched a monthlong
campaign nationwide to kill millions more, to protect crops and reduce
the need for food imports.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 13, Montana wildlife
commissioners shut down gray wolf hunting in backcountry adjacent to
Yellowstone National Park after 9 wolves were killed in recent weeks.
The statewide quota was kept at 75.
(SFC, 10/14/09, p.A4)
2009 Oct 19, Japan said it has
caught 59 whales off Hokkaido, one short of the maximum allowed by
international guidelines, under a research program that critics say is
a cover for commercial whaling.
(AP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 22, The Obama
administration said it is designating over 200,000 square miles in
Alaska and off its coast as critical habitat for polar bears.
(SFC, 10/22/09, p.A7)
2009 Oct 27, In Canada 2 coyotes
attacked and killed Taylor Mitchell (19), a singer-songwriter from
Toronto, as she hiked alone in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in
Nova Scotia.
(SFC, 10/29/09, p.A2)
2009 Oct 30, The BBC said Anton
Turner (38), a British guide working on a children's television show in
Tanzania, was killed after being charged by an elephant. The show
"Serious Explorers" followed David Livingstone's famous 19th-century
trek across the African continent.
(AP, 10/31/09)
2009 Nov 2, In Kashmir the bodies
of 2 senior rebels, mauled to death by a wild bear, were recovered.
Police said they were members of the region's most powerful group,
Hizbul Mujahedin and had been active in Indian Kashmir for more than
six years.
(AFP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 13, India officials said
all elephants living in Indian zoos and circuses will be moved to
wildlife parks and game sanctuaries where the animals can graze more
freely.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 16, Thai police arrested
Samart Chokechoyma (36) and Kanokwan Wongsaroj (38) on charges of
smuggling African ivory into the country to supply shops that sell
jewelry and trinkets, including to customers in the US. DNA tests
showed that it was of African origin.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 19, Four whaling ships
left Japan for a five-month hunt in the Southern Ocean, using a
loophole in an international moratorium that allows their killing for
lethal "research."
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 24, In Nepal the 2-day
Gadhimai festival, celebrated every five years, was attended by many
Hindus from India as well as Nepal. More than 200,000 buffaloes, pigs,
goats, chickens and pigeons were expected to be slaughtered this year.
(AP, 11/20/09)(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 25, Australian Northern
Territory officials said some 6,000 feral camels are running wild in
the remote outback community of Docker River in search of water,
smashing infrastructure and invading the airstrip.
(AFP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 27, Bison returned to
Mexico for the first time since the 1800s, with Mexican authorities
releasing 23 donated US animals in northern Chihuahua state. The
donated bison came from the Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota.
(AP, 11/27/09)
2009 Nov 30, Interpol and the
Kenya Wildlife Service said African authorities over the last 3 months
had raided shops, intercepted vehicles at checkpoints and used sniffer
dogs to detect and seize over 3,800 pounds (1,768kg) of illegal
elephant ivory in a six-nation operation. This involved the wildlife
authorities, police and customs departments of Burundi, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(AP, 11/30/09)
2009 Dec 2, Cambodian police
confiscated two tons of live snakes and tortoises and arrested two men
trying to smuggle the slithering cargo up a river from Cambodia to
Vietnam. Police arrested two Cambodians, aged 17 and 20, who said they
were hired to transport the cargo but did not know the identities of
their employers.
(AP, 12/3/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Ohio a barn fire
killed two workers and 43 horses at a harness racing track in Lebanon.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, ITV, the British TV
channel behind hit show "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!",
apologized for the death of a rat during filming in Australia, as the
stars who killed it faced police charges.
(AFP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 11, Australia's PM Kevin
Rudd threatened legal action against Japan if it does not stop its
research whaling program that kills up to 1,000 whales a year.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 12, In Italy at least 5
sperm whales died after a pod of nine beached on the southern coast.
Experts called it a rare and puzzling mass beaching for such a large
species. Officials were considering euthanizing the last two whales
still trapped in high waves.
(AP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 15, Australian scientists
reported the discovery of an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut
shells for shelter, unusually sophisticated behavior that the
researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an
invertebrate animal.
(AP, 12/15/09)
2009 Dec 15, Mexican authorities
found the decapitated bodies of four men in the border city of Tijuana.
A grenade attack on a police station in western Mexico wounded a
pregnant woman and her 3-year-old daughter. US officials delivered five
helicopters to Mexico to help the country in its fight against drug
cartels. 7 vehicles were burned in Mexico City. Investigators found
evidence linking an animal rights group to homemade bombs that burned
the cars.
(AP, 12/15/09)(AP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 17, Malaysian marine
police rescued 62 pangolins. 2 days later Malaysian wildlife
authorities said they rescued 130 pangolins and arrested two men
attempting to smuggle the protected species. They were expected to be
illegally exported to China, Japan and Hong Kong, where animal's meat
is considered a delicacy with medicinal qualities.
(AFP,
12/20/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangolin)
2009 Dec 20, Four of the world's
last known 8 northern white rhinos landed in Kenya and were transported
to a game park. No white rhinos are known to remain in the wild, and
the animals transported have produced no offspring after nearly 24
years in a Czech zoo. Officials hoped the endangered mammals will
reproduce and save their subspecies. Two northern whites remained
behind; two others are in San Diego.
(AP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 22, Chinese local media
reported that a man who killed and ate what may have been the last wild
Indochinese tiger in China was sentenced to 12 years in jail. Kang
Wannian, a villager from Mengla, Yunnan Province, met the tiger in
February while gathering freshwater clams in a nature reserve near
China's border with Laos. He claimed to have killed it in self-defense.
(Reuters, 12/22/09)
2009 Dec 23, Japanese whalers and
militant conservationists clashed in the Antarctic Ocean over two days,
with weapons including water cannon, blinding lasers and bottles of
rancid acid.
(AP, 12/23/09)
2009 Dec 26, In New Zealand some
20 pilot whales died on Colville Beach after stranding but
holiday-makers and conservation workers managed to coax 43 others back
out to sea. Some 105 long-finned pilot whales, stranded on South
Island, died.
(AP, 12/27/09)(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Dec 28, In northern Nevada
federal officials began a 2-month roundup of some 2,500 wild horses due
to overpopulation. Federal managers on Feb 5 said the roundup was
completed with 1,922 mustangs removed from the Calico Mountains
Complex. 86 horses died in the government roundup, mostly from stress
and trauma.
(SFC, 12/29/09, p.A8)(SFC, 2/6/10, p.A6)(SFC,
4/20/10, p.A6)
2009 Dec 28, In central Kenya
poachers killed an endangered southern white rhino in a privately owned
ranch and cut off its horns. Wildlife Service rangers tracked down the
suspected poachers and suspected buyers on Dec 3 and caught them with
two rhino horns weighing more than 7 kg (16 pounds) and 647,000 Kenyan
shillings ($8,500) in cash. 12 suspects, all of them Kenyans, were
arrested as other suspects escaped.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2009 Dec 31, In St. George, Utah,
a trailer at an RV park containing some 19 pet pythons caught fire. 11
of the snakes survived.
(SFC, 1/2/10, p.A4)
2009 Jonathan Safran Foer authored
“Eating Animals.”
(SSFC, 11/8/09, p.E1)
2009 Brad Kessler authored “Goat
Song: A Seasonal Life, A short History of Herding and the Art of Making
Cheese.”
(Econ, 7/4/09, p.81)
2009 In Florida the tally of
manatee deaths reached a record 429 for the year, surpassing the 2006
record of 417.
(SFC, 1/9/10, p.A4)
2009 In the Netherlands 6 people
died this year from Q-fever. Some 2,300 had become infected by Coxiella
burnetti, the infectious bug responsible for the disease. The bug is
released into the air during birthing or miscarriages by infected
goats. 40,000 pregnant goats were slated to be destroyedin early 2010.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.52)
2010 Jan 1, It was reported that
Australian researchers have cracked the genetic origin of the deadly
cancer that is threatening to wipe out Tasmanian devils, raising hopes
that the animal's future is safe.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Kenya US citizen
Sharon Brown (39) and her daughter Margaux (1) were trampled to death
when a lone elephant charged out of the brush just outside Mount Kenya
National Park.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Puerto Rico
officials said they have killed 800 monkeys blamed for scavenging crops
and damaging natural resources in southwest region. Most of those
killed were patas monkeys. About 200 rhesus monkeys were sent to the
Caribbean Primate Research Center at the University of Puerto Rico and
to other countries. The monkeys had escaped from research labs in the
1960s and '70s.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Florida a 3-day
state-coordinated hunt began to track down invasive pythons. It was
feared that the African rock python would begin breeding with the
Burmese python, which has already gained a foothold in the Everglades,
and produce a new “super snake.”
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 13, In Seattle,
Washington Tohru Shigemura (71), a Japanese psychiatrist traveling the
world as a big game hunter, was charged in connection with smuggling
black bear gall bladders. He had pretended to be a US citizen to buy
guns, which he used to kill 6 black bears in and around the Quinault
Indian Reservation.
(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 14, Austrian scientists
stopped a 2-week old avalanche experiment that involved burying pigs in
snow and monitoring their deaths, following vehement protests by animal
rights activists.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 19, The World Wildlife
Fund warned that the wild tiger faced extinction in China after having
been decimated by poaching and the destruction of its natural habitat.
(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Vietnam 19 rare
Asiatic moon bears, found at an illegal Taiwanese-owned operation in
southern Vietnam, reached a new home at Tam Dao National Park, joining
29 bears already at the rescue center. Ultrasound tests had found
evidence of thickened gall bladders, a telltale sign of gall bladder
milking. Some may need to have the organ removed because of extensive
damage.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Police in Mexico City
rescued 150 ferrets from armed robbers after a high speed chase. 14
boxes of ferrets imported from the US were taken by force by 3 robbers
from a truck after it left the Mexico City airport. Two suspects were
under arrest and another escaped.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In South Africa the
national parks authority said poachers have killed 14 rhinos this year.
The parks authority announced military patrols in Kruger National Park,
where 7 of the rhinos were killed. The other 7 were killed in the North
West province.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, In New Zealand 48
pilot whales stranded at Port Levy on South Island, but scores of
volunteers joined Department of Conservation workers to refloat them
off the shallow, muddy inlet. By the next day rescuers managed to coax
33 back out into deep waters, but another 15 of the pod died.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Thailand 13 tiger
range states attended the first Ministerial Conference on Tiger
Conservation. The aim of the 3-day meeting was to convince countries to
pledge to spend more on tiger conservation and set targets for boosting
their numbers. The meeting was being organized by Thailand and the
Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in 2008 by the World Bank,
the Smithsonian Institute and nearly 40 conservation groups. It aimed
to double tiger numbers by 2022. The 13 countries attending were
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 29, In New Zealand police
seized weapons used by two men to slaughter more than 30 dogs owned by
a neighbor in what animal welfare authorities said could be the
country's worst animal cruelty case.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Thailand a dozen
Asian nations and Russia vowed to double the number of wild tigers by
2022, crack down on poaching that has devastated the big cats and
prohibit the building of roads and bridges that could harm their
habitats. The 13 countries included Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia,
China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia,
Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Feb 6, Spanish matador Jairo
Miguel Sanchez Alonso (16) killed six bulls in one afternoon, pulling
off a feat normally attempted only by seasoned veterans and winning
trophies for his skill, ears from animals he had just slain.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 8, The Obama
administration said it will spend $78.5 million on efforts to contain
the Asian carp, which threatened to endanger the Great Lakes’ $7
billion fishing industry.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 8, In Australia ITV
Studios, producer of "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here," was
fined 3,000 Australian dollars ($2,615) after pleading guilty of animal
cruelty after two reality show contestants skinned, cooked and ate a
rat during filming in Australia.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 11, In the Antarctic
Ocean Sea Shepherd protesters shot butyric acid, produced from stinking
rancid butter, at Japanese whalers to try to disrupt the annual whale
hunt. The activists maintained that butyric acid is nontoxic.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 11, Willem Wijnstekers,
head of the UN program to protect endangered species, said that
Zimbabwe security forces had killed over 200 rhinos over the past 2
years putting that population on the verge of extinction.
(SFC, 2/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 14, In New Zealand
Department of Conservation workers found 9 whales dead on Stewart
Island's West Ruggedy Beach after they were alerted by a passer-by.
Wild seas and strong winds made it impossible to mount a rescue for 19
survivors. Conservation officials were forced to euthanize the animals.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 17, It was reported that
a mysterious illness was killing brown pelicans along the northern
California coast. Some 100 birds were in for treatment at the Int’l.
Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia. Some 300 others found
treatment at the center’s San Pedro branch. Biologists on Feb 22 said
stormy weather had caused the disappearance of prey in stirred up
waters possible due to El Nino and recent big storms.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A1)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.C2)
2010 Feb 23, It was reported that
Florida wildlife officials have created a special python hunting season
to stop the spread of the nonnative snakes throughout the Everglades. A
$26 permit allow hunters to kill the reptiles from March 8 to April 17.
(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 24, In Orlando, Florida,
SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed after Tilikum, a 12,000
pound killer whale, grabbed her hair and pulled her under water.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 24, Thailand officials
seized two tons of elephant tusks from Africa hidden in pallets labeled
as mobile phone parts in the country's largest ivory seizure.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 26, Mozambique state
media said 2 young men accused of having sex with a goat in central
Mozambique are facing criminal charges, and the goat's owner is
demanding they make traditional wedding arrangements.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 27, Militant anti-whalers
declared an end to this season's pursuit of Japanese harpoon ships in
Antarctic waters, saying it was their most successful and intensely
fought campaign so far.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Spain the regions
of Madrid, Valencia and southern Murcia said they will keep
bullfighting legal and give the sport cultural heritage protection.
(SFC, 3/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 7, In the US Academy
Awards the film “The Hurt Locker” triumphed with six prizes and made
Kathryn Bigelow the first woman ever to win the directing Oscar. Sandra
Bullock won as best actress for "The Blind Side"; Jeff Bridges as best
actor for "Crazy Heart"; Mo'Nique as supporting actress for "Precious:
Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire"; and Christoph Waltz as
supporting actor for "Inglourious Basterds." The best documentary
feature was won by “The Cove,” an examination of a bloody dolphin hunt
filmed with hidden cameras in Taiji, Japan.
(AP, 3/8/10)(SSFC, 3/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 8, In Alaska the body of
rural teacher Candice Berner (32) was found a mile outside of Chignik
Lake. Wolf tracks surrounded the body.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A8)
2010 Mar 13, In Qatar a two week
UN conference opened with a focus on the Atlantic bluefin tuna and
other marine life in the world's overfished oceans. The 175-nation
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
discussed new proposals on regulating the trade in number of plant and
animal species.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 15, At the CITES
conference in Qatar a top official with the UN wildlife agency said the
world has "failed miserably" at protecting tigers in the wild, bringing
an animal that is a symbol for many cultures and religions to "the
verge of extinction."
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 16, At the CITES meeting
in Qatar a marine conservation group, Oceana, said surging demand for
shark fin soup among Asia's booming middle classes is driving many
species of these big fish to the brink of extinction.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 18, In Qatar the CITES
convention said consumer appetite for caviar is pushing sturgeon to the
brink of extinction. Fishing nations led by Japan rejected a US backed
proposal to ban export of the Atlantic bluefin tuna. A proposal to ban
the int’l. sale of polar bear skins also failed to pass.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A2,5)
2010 Mar 19, In Las Vegas a fire
at the private Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary killed over 250 exotic birds
and a dog.
(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 19, Polish authorities
said a herd of some 300 bison in southeastern Poland is at risk from
tuberculosis after one recently died of the disease.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 21, Conservationists at
the CITES meeting in Qatar said the Internet has emerged as one of the
greatest threats to rare species, fueling the illegal wildlife trade
and making it easier to buy everything from live baby lions to wine
made from tiger bones.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Indonesia a rare
Sumatran tiger dragged a man, identified as Darmilus (26), from a hut
in Seponjen village near the protected Berbak National Park, and broke
his neck as friends tried to rescue the victim.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 23, At the CITES
convention in Qatar Asian nations blocked US-backed proposals to
protect the heavily fished hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks on
concerns that regulating the booming trade in fins could hurt poor
coastal nations.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 24, The UN and Interpol
released a joint report saying gorillas in central Africa are in danger
from illegal logging, mining and from hunters who are killing great
apes for meat.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Qatar the CITES UN
wildlife meeting rejected efforts to regulate the trade in overfished
porbeagle sharks, reversing an earlier ruling at the conference and
leaving none of the proposed shark species with protection. Asia
nations managed to reopen the debate on the final day of the conference
and voted to kill the proposal.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Apr 3, It was reported that
some 4.5 million animals in Mongolia had perished over the last 3
months. A dry summer in 2009 followed by low temperatures and a heavy
snow cover, a phenomenon called the zud, afflicted 19 of the countries
21 provinces.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.44)
2010 Apr 7, Innovation for the
Development and Protection of the Environment (IDPE) said that from
March 3-28 Congo government troops killed 7 hippos and 5 elephants as
well as five antelopes, four baboons, three chimpanzees and two buffalo
in Virunga national Park, a UNESCO world heritage. The soldiers "use
their wives and cousins to sell the meat" in villages near the park,
the IDPE said in a report that included photos of decomposing elephant
carcasses.
(AFP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 8, Canada’s annual seal
hunt began with this year’s quota raised by 50,000 to 330,000 due to a
rising seal herd population estimated at 6.9 million.
(SFC, 4/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Apr 20, The US Supreme Court
struck down a federal law aimed at banning videos that show graphic
violence against animals, saying it violates the right to free speech.
(AP, 4/20/10)
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