Author: LATimes

SPARKS, Nev. — Workers at a Nevada research lab were checking on a primate room when they came across a ghastly sight: Thirty dead monkeys were essentially cooked alive after someone left the heater on. Two others were near death and had to be euthanized.

At a lab run by the same company, a monkey died last year after it was sent through a washer while still in its cage. The temperatures were so scalding the monkey never had a chance.

The two cases have led to calls for greater oversight and enforcement of the animal research industry after an alarmingly high number of deaths in recent years.

Critics say fines for violations at animal research labs are so puny that they do nothing to deter violations. The lab where the monkeys died in Nevada was fined a mere $14,000 for the two incidents, according to records from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"The penalties have given them virtually no motivation whatsoever to cease violating the law," said Michael Budkie, the executive director of the Ohio-based Stop Animal Exploitation Now. "If they are literally killing animals through negligence, something is wrong with the system."

The group asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last month for an independent investigation into animal deaths at research labs.

Agriculture Department records show there were 97 negligent animal deaths at research facilities nationwide over the last two years, a figure that does not include lab mice and rats.

One of the biggest violators was Charles River Laboratories, where the 33 monkeys died at facilities in Reno in 2008 and Sparks in 2009.

The Massachusetts-based company is one of the world’s largest suppliers of clinical and laboratory research services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

It also is a leading importer of research animals and breeds some of its own animals for medical research. Its researchers in Nevada are working to find a cure for cancer, new flu vaccines and better ways to treat obesity.

Spokeswoman Amy Cianciaruso said survival rates for major diseases are at an all-time high thanks to the discovery of new drugs made possible in part by the work of scientists at Charles River labs. The company has called the monkey deaths a "terrible and unfortunate tragedy," but said they were isolated cases and corrective actions were taken. Agriculture Department records show one employee was fired and another disciplined.

"Charles River’s work is an essential component of the research that has led to these discoveries and has played a vital role in medical advances for humans as well as animals," Cianciaruso said.

The dead monkeys represent a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of primates used for research around the country.

Charles River is one of 26 registered U.S. importers of non-human primates, a group that includes zoos, universities and private labs, said Christine Pearson, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Together they imported 27,388 animals in fiscal year 2008 and have averaged approximately 25,000 primates per year over the past four or five years, she said. Charles River alone reported it housed nearly 10,000 primates nationwide in 2008.

Congress first passed the Animal Welfare Act in 1966 and amended it in the 1980s to set new minimum standards for dogs used in research and the psychological well-being of primates. It was amended again in 2008, raising fines from $2,500 to the current $10,000 per violation for negligent acts.

Budkie said if the Agriculture Department fails to act on his group’s request for an investigation into research animal deaths, the group will appeal to Congress to step up enforcement and raise fines.

The monkey deaths have become a public relations headache for Charles River, an 8,000-employee company that had sales of $1.2 billion in 2009.

The company’s roots date to the 1940s when a young veterinarian, Dr. Henry L. Foster, bought a Maryland rat farm and began breeding the rodents in Boston. Foster later began breeding rhesus monkeys following a trapping expedition in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Those animals were used to create a stock of 800 that were transported to two isolated islands in the Florida Keys, where workers trapped 400 to 500 young a year to sell to labs around the world.

Charles River remains a frequent target of animal rights activists over what happened in the primate quarantine room on May 28, 2008.

A series of errors began when a repair technician left the heater in the "ON" position at 8:20 a.m. An alarm three minutes later warned the temperature in the primate room had risen to an unsafe 84 degrees, but no one noticed it, a Department of Agriculture report shows. Another alarm went undetected nearly two hours later.

It wasn’t until 12:30 p.m. that lab personnel found 30 dead monkeys. Surviving monkeys were moved to a cooler location and given fruit; two later had to be put down.

Workers quickly opened the doors to circulate air and gently sprayed down the monkeys with a hose, according to a government report. It’s not known how hot it got in the quarantine room.

It wasn’t the only problem for the company.

Another monkey died after going through a cage washer last year. In 2007, Agriculture Department reports show two monkeys at the now-closed Sparks lab had fingers amputated after they were caught in the wiring of their cages while being moved, and a third monkey suffered a cut to the tip of its tail.

In addition, the former director of laboratory sciences at the Sparks lab has filed a civil lawsuit accusing the company of mistreating research animals, falsifying records to cover up the abuse and firing him in October 2007 for complaining about it.

The company denied the allegations and said the worker was fired because he made derogatory and sexual comments to women.

Charles River refused a request from The Associated Press to tour its Reno facility.

The company says it has moved beyond the monkey deaths.

"We have discussed the incidents in Reno extensively. We don’t have anything new to add about that," Cianciaruso said. She said that as a matter of policy, the company doesn’t respond to "animal activist groups."

"They just make false claims so we don’t engage in a ‘he said, she said’ back and forth," she said.

— Associated Press

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Photo: The Charles River Laboratory in Reno, Nev. Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press

ARANSAS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Texas — After the poisonous snake slithered into the whooping crane family’s marshy grounds and sank its fangs into the chick’s neck, death seemed certain.

The bird’s head quickly turned red and swelled to the size of a basketball. He refused to eat for days and was too weak to even stand. Somehow, though, he survived.

And now the bird — dubbed Scarbaby — is a healthy adult whose resilience offers a speck of hope for the endangered species. Just a year after a record number of cranes died in their south Texas wintering grounds, wildlife managers embrace even the smallest successes.

"To me, it symbolizes the fight to survive," said Tom Stehn, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who’s studied them for nearly 30 years. "They’re pretty tough."

There are about 400 wild whooping cranes in the world, and biologists had feared that number would drop further this winter after last year’s record 23 Texas deaths. Even though the birds fared better than expected — only one died this winter — the cranes face many obstacles to survive as a species.

They’ve got a 2,500-mile migration back to Canada later this month, food and water shortages could take their toll, and then there’s the usual hazards of deadly power lines and encroaching development. Last year, 34 cranes died after spring.

"We don’t really know how strong they are, how much body fat they have and how they’ll do on the migration north," said Ron Outen, director of conservation group The Aransas Project.

Scarbaby’s flock of 264 birds is the world’s only group of naturally migrating whooping cranes. Conservationists say it is the species’ best chance for survival because it’s self-sustaining. The flock spends its winters at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge near Corpus Christi.

There’s another flock in Wisconsin that is guided by an ultralight aircraft on migrations to and from Florida. A third flock in Florida is small and doesn’t migrate.

The cranes — the tallest birds in North America at about 5 1/2 feet — have made a remarkable comeback from just 15 birds in 1941. Yet experts see disaster ahead.

"I’ve been screaming for about 10 years now that they’re walking toward a cliff," Stehn said. "The birds are fighting like crazy. They’re doing everything they can. It’s really just if man can leave them alone."

In Texas, one of the biggest concerns is the prospect of more drought. Last season’s brutally dry conditions left cranes without enough crabs and water.

The Aransas Project has sued the state over the 23 crane deaths. The group alleges Texas allows too much water to be drawn from rivers, which could lead to recurring drought conditions and more bird deaths. The state environmental agency isn’t commenting on the lawsuit, but has defended its processes for allocating river water.

Stehn says if the waterways aren’t viable, the flock will die.

A similarly bleak outlook was predicted for Scarbaby in 2005, when the deadly snake bit him.

Tommy Moore, a birding tour boat captain who saw the drama unfold, remembers watching the bird collapse again and again into the shallow water. Biologists were so worried about Scarbaby, Stehn formed a team to check on him.

Soon, Scarbaby was nibbling on crab chunks and even caught one. Whooping cranes migrate in family units, but once Scarbaby started eating independently his parents took off for Canada without him. He did fine in Texas, though, taking up with other young birds that stayed behind.

Aside from a small scar on his neck, Scarbaby looked perfectly healthy one recent afternoon. He posed and preened for a packed tour boat before flying overhead to bird lovers’ "oohs," "aahs" and clicking cameras.

"It’s really a cool story," said Moore, a gruff character who was so touched by Scarbaby’s ordeal he wrote a children’s book about it. "The way I look at it, it means that’s one tough bird."

— Associated Press

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Photo: Scarbaby carries a crab at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on Feb. 25. Credit: LM Otero / Associated Press

Their tendency to eat farmers’ crops, destroy property and, even, occasionally attack, has not endeared China’s tiny (and dwindling) population of Asian elephants to their human neighbors in the country’s southwest. Far from it, in fact.

Despite the fact that most Chinese who’ve come in contact with wild elephants would prefer they hadn’t, a coordinated effort by animal activists, environmentalists and the Chinese government is helping the people learn to respect the elephants.

Approximately 300 wild elephants remain in China. Their fans in the country hope a combination of stiff penalties for poaching; monetary compensation to farmers in order to grow crops elephants won’t like; and public education about what really happens when ivory is harvested for consumer products will help turn the tide in the pachyderms’ favor.

No cases of elephant poaching have been reported since four people were executed for the crime in 1995. A program organized by the International Federation for Animal Welfare pays farmers up to $150 to grow tea, which elephants turn up their trunks at, rather than corn, which they gobble up with vigor. (A similar program aimed at dealing with rampaging elephants in southern Africa helps farmers to grow a thick barrier of chile peppers around their more delicious crops to keep them out.)

Advertisements in some of China’s large cities inform the public that elephants are actually killed when their tusks are harvested, a fact which many were previously unaware of. "We see young mothers taking photographs of the posters and saying to us later, ‘Gee, if I knew I wouldn’t have bought that bracelet,’" Grace Gabriel, director of IFAW’s work in Asia, said of the campaign.

Of course, those working to protect China’s few remaining elephants still have hurdles to deal with; land development continues to threaten the animals’ habitat and has pushed their small population into three separate, unconnected areas. But environmentalists and the Chinese government are working, albeit slowly, to set up corridors by which the elephants can travel between the three distinct areas.

Another concern is the danger of genetic diseases spreading because the number of elephants reproducing is so small. Some local authorities in the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan province, which is home to the famous Wild Elephant Valley preserve, have expressed interest in creating a captive breeding facility for elephants similar to Chinese facilities where giant pandas are bred.

Learn more about the efforts to save China’s elephants in Sunday’s story by The Times’ Beijing bureau staffers Barbara Demick and Nicole Liu.

— Lindsay Barnett

Photo: A group of wild elephants is seen in the Wild Elephant Valley in 2008. Credit: Liu Shiyang / New China News Agency

Complaints of dogs and cats injured and sometimes even killed by flea treatments have increased significantly, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday as it outlined plans to make the products safer.

The EPA says it will develop stricter testing and evaluation requirements for flea and tick treatments that are applied to pets’ skin. The agency also will begin reviewing labels to determine which ones need to say more clearly how to use the products.

The EPA’s effort follows increasing complaints from pet owners that the "spot-on" products have triggered reactions in dogs and cats, including skin irritation,  neurological problems and deaths.

Steve Owens, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, said new restrictions will be placed on flea and tick products, with additional changes for specific products as needed — including possible changes in their formulas.

Pet owners "need to carefully read and follow all labeling before exposing your pet to a pesticide," Owens said.

The agency announced last April it was increasing scrutiny of topical flea and tick products because of the growing number of bad reactions reported.

The EPA said it received 44,263 reports of harmful reactions associated with topical flea and tick products in 2008, up from 28,895 in 2007. Reactions included skin irritations, vomiting, seizures and, in about 600 cases, the death of the animal.

An EPA spokesman said he did not have a breakdown of how many deaths were dogs and how many cats.

Dog and cat owners say their pets have suffered burns and welts on their skin; started to drool excessively; begun to shake uncontrollably; lost control of their legs or experienced other neurological problems after using the flea and tick treatments.

A 2009 study by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reported that the majority of illnesses linked to proper use of topical flea and tick products were mild. Cats were more susceptible than dogs to illnesses and deaths from misuse of the products, the report said.

"The important take-home message is that although adverse reactions can occur with all flea and tick products, most effects are relatively mild and include skin irritation and stomach upset," said Dr. Steven Hansen, ASPCA veterinary toxicologist and senior vice president of animal health services.

Pet owners should keep using the products as directed when faced with a flea infestation, Hansen said.

A statement released by Georgia-based Merial Ltd., which makes the popular Frontline tick and flea treatment, defended its own product.

"The number of adverse events reported for FRONTLINE has remained consistently low since the product’s introduction in 1996," the statement said. The vast majority of reactions are minor, the statement said.

— Associated Press

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Photo: Frontline, a tick and flea treatment manufactured by Merial Ltd., is among the products that would be subject to stricter testing and evaluation requirements the EPA says it plans to develop due to pet health problems connected to spot-on treatments. Merial released a statement in the wake of the EPA’s announcement that stated that adverse reactions reported for its product had "remained consistently low" since Frontline was introduced and that such reactions were typically minor. Credit: Associated Press

Although we don’t typically support the idea of keeping "exotic" pets, we’re big fans of YouTube user TamanduaGirl‘s tamanduas, Stewie (above) and Dua. (Dua, for the record, was born in the wild but wouldn’t have survived on her own due to illness; TamanduaGirl brought her to the U.S. from Guyana and nursed her back to health. Stewie came to live with TamanduaGirl after his previous owners gave him up because of their own health concerns.)

The tamandua — of which there are two varieties, northern and southern — is a genus of anteater that’s native to parts of Mexico, Central and South America. As anteaters, they love to eat insects, of course — but TamanduaGirl also feeds hers things like raw ground beef, flax meal, beans, spinach, cottage cheese, shrimp and insects (including ants). 

Of course, in addition to the snacks listed above, Stewie is a big fan of cheese — so much of a fan, in fact, that he’ll even hold his own spoon in order to eat some. Anteaters — they’re just like us! (Well, kind of.)

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— Lindsay Barnett

Video: TamanduaGirl via YouTube

Environmentalists are asking the federal government to set aside an area of the Southwest more than half the size of California to help protect the endangered jaguar.

The area proposed as critical habitat by the Center for Biological Diversity would represent one of the largest swaths of land set aside for any single species, spanning more than 53 million acres across New Mexico, Arizona, Southern California and West Texas.

"As an animal at the top of the food chain, jaguars roam over vast distances and we need to think beyond individual animals and instead plan for managing a recovered population," the center’s Michael Robinson said Tuesday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is evaluating what the elusive cats need to survive and areas in the Southwest where they would have the best chance. The agency has acknowledged "physical and biological features" in the region that can be used by jaguars.

The largest cats native to the Western hemisphere, jaguars live primarily in Mexico and Central and South America. They once inhabited an extensive area that spanned California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana, but there have been only rare glimpses of the animals along U.S.-Mexico border in recent years.

Jaguars were spotted in 1996 near the Arizona-New Mexico border and again in 2006. Most recently, a snare captured a jaguar last year in southern Arizona. That cat was eventually euthanized after falling ill, sparking criticism over jaguar recovery efforts.

The Fish and Wildlife Service decided this year to set aside critical habitat for the jaguar based on information from the last three years, but indications show that amount of land will be far less than what environmentalists want, given that the southwestern United States represents only a fraction of the jaguar’s current range.

"Just because we’ve seen a couple of jaguars doesn’t mean that’s suitable habitat for a viable population. It’s at the edge of the species’ range, and that’s the worst place in the world to try to understand the life history characteristics of an animal," said Paul Krausman, a biologist and professor at the University of Montana.

The other hurdle is the sheer magnitude of the group’s proposal, which includes more than 27 million acres in Arizona and another 26 million in New Mexico, or nearly 83,000 square miles.

Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, said designating such a large swath of critical habitat would have wide-ranging implications for land managers and would serve as "another nail in the coffin" of the region’s rural livelihoods.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said it will review the Center for Biological Diversity’s proposal along with other comments received on jaguar habitat. The agency plans to have a draft proposal ready early next year.

"We’re going to concentrate on the fact that the jaguar barely occurs in the U.S. and so the amount of habitat that is truly critical to its recovery is going to be much smaller than it would be for a widespread species such as a spotted owl or a lynx," said Steve Spangle, field supervisor of the agency’s ecological services office in Arizona.

Large areas of critical habitat are not unheard of. The agency has designated about 39,000 square miles in six northern states for the Canada lynx, 13,000 square miles for the Mexican spotted owl and 9,600 square miles in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah for the desert tortoise.

A proposal is also pending to set aside more than 200,000 square miles for the polar bear, but most of that is sea ice.

Robinson said the areas outlined in the center’s proposal were chosen based on a review of several models and maps assessing potential jaguar habitat in the Southwest. The areas would provide a protected avenue for the cats to travel northward from Mexico, he said.

"This would enhance the northern jaguar population’s chance of survival and recovery by conserving habitat that could potentially support dozens if not hundreds of jaguars," Robinson said.

— Associated Press

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Photo: Rick Sammon / Associated Press

It’s a good-news day for the endangered California red-legged frog, an amphibian that reached new heights of celebrity with the publication of Mark Twain’s "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" in 1867.

Despite the frog’s fame, it’s proved difficult to protect its habitat, which has been imperiled by land development. Two previous attempts to designate critical habitat for the species have failed, the first because of a 2001 lawsuit from developers. Failure of the second was related to an investigation that determined that a Bush Administration Interior Department official had pressured scientists to alter their findings. (The official, Julie MacDonald, later resigned.)

Now, it looks as if the frog will finally receive the critical habitat after all — about 1.6 million acres of it, including land in nearly half of the state’s 58 counties. "It’s not common to do this three times, but this is an icon species for California," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson Al Donner told the Associated Press. The new critical habitat designation is to be published Wednesday in the Federal Register.

"With protection of its habitat, the California red-legged frog has a chance at survival," Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. But Greenwald apparently couldn’t resist getting in a dig at former president Bush’s environmental policies, adding that the fish and wildlife department "still has a long way to go to dig itself out of the hole left by the Bush administration’s efforts to deny endangered species protections."

Learn more at The Times’ environment blog, Greenspace.

— Lindsay Barnett

Photo: A California red-legged frog waits for a passing meal in a pool on East Las Virgenes Creek in 2001. Credit: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Whale researchers returned from Antarctic waters Monday after a six-week expedition that they said proved Japan’s annual kill of whales for scientific purposes is unnecessary.

During the voyage, Australian, French and New Zealand scientists used nonlethal techniques to study whales. It was a challenge to Japan’s scientific program, which kills up to 1,000 of the mammals a year, an allowed exception to the International Whaling Commission’s 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

Critics say the program is a front for commercial whaling, with the whale meat sold for consumption in Japan.

The expedition that ended Monday was the first in a five-year research program in Antarctica that was proposed by the Australian government and agreed to by the commission.

The scientists’ research focused on whale numbers, what they eat, how they move between food patches and how they travel to and from their breeding grounds in the central Pacific.

"All of those questions can be and are being answered using nonlethal techniques," expedition leader Nick Gales told reporters Monday.

Although Gales acknowledged that Japan does some "marvelous" nonlethal whale research, he said "the component of their work that results in the killing of the whales" is not the type of science the commission  requires.

Toshinori Uoya, a Japanese Fisheries Agency official in charge of whaling issues, told the Associated Press in Tokyo that there are some data "we can obtain only through lethal approach," including age, stomach contents and fertility rate.

He said Japan is open to any new nonlethal methods if they are proved effective.

Peter Garrett, Australia’s environment minister, said in a statement that the research showed "effective and achievable ways to collect a whole range of important data without the need to kill these mammals."

The scientists counted mainly humpback whales, taking photos and biopsy samples from 60 of them and attaching satellite tracking devices to about 30 of the animals to study their feeding and travel patterns.

The researchers found fairly strong recovery in some populations of humpback whales, but Gales said blue whale numbers are down around 2% in Antarctic waters, after being "enormously heavily exploited during the industrial whaling era."

The group saw quite a few Antarctic minke whales along the ice edge, Gales said, but the scientists were unable to study them because of difficult ice and weather conditions.

Minke whales make up most of Japan’s annual hunt in Antarctic waters.

Other member countries of the 13-nation Southern Ocean Research Partnership will participate in future trips, Gales said.

Results of the voyage will be reported to the commission at its annual meeting in Agadir, Morocco, in June.

— Associated Press

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Photo: A humpback whale swims in the waters off Santa Cruz Island in 1998. Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

Have a non-emergency question about your pet’s health? Dr. Heather Oxford of L.A. veterinary hospital California Animal Rehabilitation (CARE) is here to help! In this installment of Ask a Vet, Dr. Oxford offers some tips to reader Janet Ishikawa about dealing with her dog’s apparent numbness:

Janet’s question: My male pug’s hind legs seem like they are numb; he has a hard time climbing steps and maneuvering his back legs and can’t seem to control his bowels. His back legs seem almost paralyzed.

Heather Oxford, DVM: It sounds like the problems in the back legs and loss of control of his bowels may be caused by a neurological problem. As dogs age, their intervertebral discs can degenerate and become unable to absorb the compressive pressure between the vertebrae in the back. Usually, the pet jumps down off of furniture or plays too roughly, and all of a sudden one or more of these discs can herniate and put pressure on the spinal cord.

This is when you start noticing outward signs, such as difficulty moving the legs in a coordinated fashion, lack of feeling and, sometimes, urinary and fecal incontinence.

Pugs do develop other diseases in their spinal cords besides disc herniations that can cause similar symptoms, and sometimes medications can help. Your veterinarian can help determine what is causing these problems with a neurological examination and X-rays of the neck and back. He or she may even need to refer you to see a veterinary neurologist.

At California Animal Rehabilitation, we see several pets each day with all of the symptoms that your pug is exhibiting. We instruct their owners how to do daily exercises that will rehabilitate the nervous system to improve their pet’s coordination and function. One such exercise is as easy as pinching your pet’s toes to stimulate a response to pull the leg back. Also, encouraging walking on grass, gravel, or another less stable surface than sidewalks, is helpful in reestablishing the neuromuscular coordination necessary for recovery. Repeatedly working with your pet multiple times throughout the day is key in rebuilding control of the back legs. Acupuncture can help stimulate nerve endings in the back legs to help regain sensation, and can help with the incontinence too.

To submit your question for Dr. Oxford, just leave a comment on this post or send us a tweet @LATunleashed and look for her answer in an upcoming installment of Ask a Vet!

About our vet: Dr. Oxford received her bachelor of science degree at Bowling Green State University, Ohio.  She also received a master’s of public health degree in epidemiology from Emory University and went on to work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. She then went to the University of Tennessee, College of Veterinary Medicine, where she received her doctor of veterinary medicine degree.  She practices at California Animal Rehabilitation and is also certified in veterinary rehabilitation and acupuncture. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Wade, and German shepherd, Tess.

Photo: A pug (not Janet’s). Credit: Shannon Sano / Shannon Sano Photography

LONDON — It seems the British government’s bark is worse than its bite.

Authorities say they will not require all dog owners to take out insurance — just days after proposing the measure in a bid to clamp down on dangerous canines.

The plan would have made millions of dog owners buy insurance against the risk of their pet attacking someone.

The government said it wanted to stop people who use pit bulls and other aggressive dogs to intimidate others, but critics said the idea was unfair.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said Tuesday that he had ruled out compulsory insurance because he didn’t want to penalize responsible dog owners.

The opposition Conservatives accused ministers of turning the issue into a "political dog’s dinner."

— Associated Press

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: A pit bull relaxes on a picnic table at a dog park in L.A.’s Silver Lake neighborhood in 1998. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

We love the way YouTube user Gislileet‘s husky registers his sympathy with the new baby in his family (although we can’t be certain we wouldn’t go crazy if we lived in the same house with the mewling, howling pair of them).

Gislileet, apparently, has received a fair bit of criticism from YouTube commenters who argue that dogs shouldn’t be allowed to get so close to human infants. But Gislileet says it was important that the dog feel like part of the family and be allowed to interact with his new "brother" — and the two are never left together without supervision.

If your own dog or cat (or, heck, rabbit or llama or pony) is great with kids, we’d love to see it! Share your photos or videos in the Best Babysitters album at Your Scene, The Times’ photo-sharing site. Be sure to include a caption that tells us a bit about your pet!

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— Lindsay Barnett

Video: Gislileet via YouTube

AUSTIN, Texas — Global climate change poses a significant threat to migratory bird populations, which are already stressed by the loss of habitat and environmental pollution, according to a report released Thursday.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joined scientists and conservation organizers at an Austin news conference to release the study, "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change."

The report says oceanic birds, such as petrels and albatrosses, are at particular risk from a rapidly changing marine ecosystem and rising sea levels.

Birds in arid regions and forests show less vulnerability to climate change, but the report says many species struggling in arid regions now, including the endangered golden-cheeked warbler and black-capped vireo in Texas, could be further imperiled by shifting climate conditions.

"Birds are messengers that tell us what is going on in our environment," Salazar said. "For too long, in my view, we have stood idle as the climate changes and as the crisis has grown."

A 2009 report on bird populations found nearly a third of the nation’s 800 bird species are endangered, threatened or in decline due to challenges such as the loss of wetlands, commercial hunting and pesticides.

Last year’s "State of the Birds" report also mentioned climate change as a threat to birds. But the 2010 report focuses on that factor as a significant danger to their habitats and food supplies.

All 67 ocean bird species in U.S. waters are at medium to high vulnerability to climate change, according to the study. Seabirds tend to have low reproductive potential and often nest on islands that can be inundated by rising sea levels, changes in water chemistry and other disruptions to the marine ecosystem. Hawaiian birds are among those in greatest peril.

The report cites increased threats to bird populations from deeper and longer droughts, more intense flooding, hotter fire seasons and other weather phenomena associated with climate change.

In Texas, Republican Gov. Rick Perry and his appointees to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, have expressed skepticism about the science linking climate change and carbon emissions and are fighting federal efforts to force industrial facilities to curb emissions.

Salazar said he expected vigorous discussion about how to deal with climate change, but he told reporters there was no point in talking about whether it’s happening.

"I think the debate about whether or not climate change is occurring is a debate that is over," Salazar said. "I think the scientific community is unanimous in its opinion that we are seeing climate change upon us. We would be foolhardy not to move forward and to address the impacts of climate change."

The report makes several suggestions for mitigating the negative effect on birds, including habitat restoration, the creation of new wildlife refuges, regulations to reduce bird kills in fishing operations and the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Miyoko Chu, director of communications for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, who was on the team that assembled the report, said the study was not "all doom and gloom." She said some bird populations have shown an ability to adapt to changing climate conditions and stressed that research and monitoring programs held promise for preventing further declines.

"When doctors can detect symptoms early, they can save lives," Chu said. "And when conservationists can detect problems early enough, they can prevent extinction."

— Associated Press

Photo: A nesting pair of Laysan albatross on Midway Atoll in 1996. Credit: Los Angeles Times

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FRESNO, Calif. — The knives at the slaughterhouse weren’t properly sanitized, a government investigator said, and employees at the meatpacking plant didn’t know how to test the carcasses of days-old veal calves for a dangerous pathogen. Food safety conditions were so poor at the Vermont processing facility that it should close before someone got sick, officials warned.

Instead, the plant stayed open for months. It wasn’t until an undercover video surfaced with images of calves being kicked, dragged and skinned alive that the federal government ordered Bushway Packing Inc. to close last November for the inhumane treatment of animals.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at that time called the abuse "inexcusable," and vowed to redouble efforts to enforce laws aimed at protecting farm animals.

A report by the Government Accountability Office released last week, however, found that although stringent animal protections may be on the books, the federal government is doing a lax job of enforcing them.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat who has held hearings on the issue, said animal treatment is key to food safety.

"How can the public have confidence in the safety of the food they eat if inspections at plants aren’t consistent or in some cases, if they’re not happening at all," Kucinich said. "There is a direct connection between humane animal handling and food safety."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not return calls from the Associated Press seeking further comment, but said in a written response to the GAO that it planned to use auditors’ findings and recommendations to improve efforts to enforce humane slaughtering laws.

In May 2008, the Agriculture Department banned the slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand, because so-called downer cows pose an increased risk for mad cow disease, Escherichia coli and other infections.

That change came in the wake of the nation’s largest beef recall, after the Humane Society of the United States released another video in early 2008 showing the abuse of downers at the Chino, Calif.-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co.

Nearly two years later, the report released by the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, found that the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service still has no standardized method for determining how many times a sick animal can be stunned before it constitutes "egregious" abuse.

Enforcement of humane slaughtering laws was so inconsistent that the two busiest meatpacking districts, in Chicago and Des Moines, Ill., did not suspend a single plant from 2005 through 2007, a period when 10 other districts together suspended 35, according to the GAO.

Meatpacking industry officials said leaving so much up to the discretion of individual inspectors and veterinarians also puts companies in a tight spot, because they can’t anticipate how strictly the rules will be enforced.

"You want consistent enforcement in your everyday life, and we’re no different," said James Hodges, executive vice president of American Meat Institute, the nation’s oldest and largest meat and poultry trade association. "We were the first organization to develop animal handling guidelines in the plants, but that doesn’t mean everyone in the system pays attention."

The meatpacking industry has long opposed animal welfare advocates’ efforts to draw a link between the treatment of farm animals and public health. The industry contends that consumers shouldn’t be worried about eating contaminated meat.

Kucinich, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee that is monitoring USDA’s oversight efforts, quizzed Obama administration officials at a hearing last week about how they planned to improve the agency’s enforcement standards.

"We are deeply committed to the humane handling of livestock," Jerold Mande, a Agriculture Department deputy undersecretary, testified. "If [companies] don’t have control of their humane handling processes it raises the question of how they can have control of their food safety processes."

Dean Wyatt, a USDA veterinarian who witnessed the mishandling of calves at Bushway Packing in Grand Isle, Vt., said the two processes were intertwined and that his supervisors should have listened to his warnings before the video by the Humane Society of the United States surfaced.

Three times last year, he called for the plant to suspend operations for abuse of male veal calves, including an incident in which a weak and injured calf was dragged across a holding pen. But after each suspension, his supervisors allowed the plant to reopen, he said.

An enforcement investigator from the Albany district office also found 23 violations of food safety laws there, including improper E. coli testing procedures and faulty sanitizing processes for slaughter knives, according to e-mails provided by Wyatt. But Food Safety and Inspection Service supervisors in Albany later ordered those noncompliance records to be rescinded even though officials "could not determine if the food produced and shipped by the establishment is safe," the e-mails show. The USDA did not immediately comment on the incident.

Peter Langrock, a lawyer in Middlebury, Vt., who represents Bushway, said company officials had worked to correct problems and hoped to reopen the facility and enter into a consent decree with the USDA to settle a criminal investigation in the next few weeks.

"These are really good country farmers who never intended in any way to inhumanely handle an animal," Langrock said. "This was a case of somebody looking only to find problems."

— Associated Press

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Photos, from left: Rep. Kucinich testifies during a 2008 House Judiciary Committee hearing. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press. U.S. agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack speaks during a National Press Club luncheon on Feb. 23. Credit: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg News

At the Leningrad Zoo in St. Petersburg, Russia, two polar bear cubs took advantage of the snow in their enclosure by "sledding" — albeit sans sled — and roughhousing on a chilly Friday last week. (They looked for all the world like two joyous kids whose school has been canceled due to snow, we think.)

The cubs were born last November at the zoo, which is Russia’s second largest (behind the Moscow Zoo).

Twins like these cubs are common among polar bears (even the Berlin Zoo’s famously cute polar bear, Knut, had a twin, although it didn’t survive to adulthood). At birth, polar bear cubs are tiny (about one pound), toothless and blind — but, of course, they become adorable rather quickly.

See more photos of the cubs after the jump!

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Your morning adorable: Polar bear cubs venture out at Ouwehands Zoo

— Lindsay Barnett

Photos: Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP/Getty Images

DOHA, Qatar — 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," a top official with the United Nations wildlife agency said Monday.

Just 20 years ago, there were 100,000 tigers in Asia, but now only 3,200 remain in the wild, according to U.N. Willem Wijnstekers, the secretary general of the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES.

He called on countries to come up with strategies and cooperate with international agencies such as Interpol to end poaching and illegal trade in tiger products.

"We must admit that we have failed miserably," Wijnstekers said at the two-week conference in the Gulf state of Qatar. "Although the tiger has been prized throughout history … it is now literally on the verge of extinction."

Tigers are poached for their skins, and parts of their bodies are prized for decoration and traditional medicine.

Delegates at the U.N. conference will also consider the spike in rhino poaching and ways to combat criminal networks involved in the illegal trade in horns in parts of Africa and Asia. All in all, there are 42 proposals on the table, ranging from stopping elephant poaching to banning trade in polar bear skins.

Later this week, an all-out ban on the export of Atlantic bluefin will also be discussed, a contentious issue that has the countries of Asia and the West locking horns over a fish prized in sushi.

Global stocks of bluefin are dwindling, especially in the Atlantic, and some governments around the world are increasingly supporting a complete trade ban to let the fish recover.

The issue pits the Europeans and Americans against fishing nations in North Africa and Asia, especially Japan, which has already vowed to ignore any bluefin ban.

About 80% of the species fished ends up in Japan. Raw tuna is a key ingredient in traditional dishes such as sushi and sashimi, and the bluefin variety — called "hon-maguro" in Japan — is particularly prized.

A bid to regulate the trade in red and pink corals — harvested to make expensive jewelry — could also divide the delegates.

— Associated Press

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Photo: Two adult male tigers are seen at Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, on Jan. 20. Credit: David Longstreath / Associated Press

TSAVO EAST NATIONAL PARK, Kenya — Tracking the wounded elephant to its deathbed was easy for the ranger. Hit by a poison arrow, the huge mammal could only drag its hind leg, creating a wide gash across the bush.

Poachers’ footprints were all around the kill, but the hunters did not have time to remove the valuable ivory tusks before Mohamed Kamanya’s team of armed rangers arrived. Instead, the emotional task fell to the rangers, who cut off the tusks so they could not be sold.

Beginning this weekend, the international community will debate proposals from Tanzania and Zambia to allow a one-time sale of ivory to clear out stockpiles. Kenyan officials are warning that if sales are approved in neighboring countries, elephant poaching will soar.

"We totally believe that any experiments to allow partial lifting of [the] international ban in ivory trade stimulates elephant poaching and leads to ivory laundering," the Kenyan Wildlife Service’s Patrick Omandi said. "Indeed there has been an increase in poaching across the entire continent, with some countries losing their entire population."

Poaching of elephants has risen seven-fold in Kenya since a one-time ivory sale was approved in 2007 by CITES — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species — for four African countries, the wildlife officials say. Last year 271 Kenyan elephants were killed by poachers, compared with 37 in 2007, Omandi said.

Tribesmen have lived among wildlife for centuries in Tsavo East, a huge expanse of wilderness where some 6,000 elephants live. But park officials say those locals are increasingly turning to poaching. An average set of tusks can net $2,000 or more locally — a huge sum to an impoverished rural family in an area where seasonal rains have failed the last five years, ruining crops and spreading hunger.

Kenyan officials are particularly angered that Tanzania wants to sell its ivory stocks. Kenya and Tanzania share a long border where parks like Kenya’s Masai Mara and Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park intertwine. As Omandi likes to point out, elephants carry no passports, and cross the border freely.

At the CITES meeting in Qatar from March 13 to 25, Tanzania is asking the 175 members to allow it to sell almost 200,000 pounds (90,000 kilograms) of ivory. It noted in its proposal that its elephant population has risen from about 55,000 in 1989 to almost 137,000, according to a 2007 study.

Zambia wants to sell 48,000 pounds (21,700 kilograms) of ivory. Zambia says its elephant population of 27,000 is steadily increasing.

While populations might be healthy in those two countries, Omandi warned that populations elsewhere in Africa are being driven to extinction. Sierra Leone, in northwest Africa, lost its last elephants in December, and Senegal has fewer than 10 left, he said.

In its proposal, Tanzania argues that trade in elephant products is essential to conservation.

"Human-elephant conflicts are growing and the view by the communities is that elephants are a pest. Elephant products such as ivory picked up from the wildlife management areas could increase the value of elephants to those communities and this can only result in the community appreciating elephants more," the proposal says.

Critics of the proposal point to poaching practices that drove down Africa’s elephant population from 1.3 million in 1979 to about 600,000 in 1989, when CITES banned the ivory trade, and say that poaching has surged since the 2007 ivory sale approval.

"I believe the risk of the sale is enormous," Samuel Wasser, the director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington, said. "If the current situation continues unabated, poaching is going to continue to rise. This will negatively affect many countries, not just Kenya and Tanzania. Effort needs to be put into stopping poaching, not arguing over whether we should have more sales."

Omandi said African ivory is used to make rubber stamps and necklaces in Asian countries like China and Japan. Some consumers buy the tusks whole.

Though the majority of the ivory trade ends up in Asia, the United States also has an internal ivory market, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. From 1989 to 2007, the number of seizures of illegal ivory made by the service accounted for about 30 percent of all reported seizures in the world.

The U.S. has not yet said whether it will vote to allow the sales. The Fish and Wildlife Service said it is waiting for a ruling from a CITES panel of experts.

In Tsavo East National Park, three-quarters of the 500 park staff are security personnel trained in paramilitary techniques, said Senior Warden Yussuf Adan. Last month, a team of rangers got into a shootout with six poachers, one of whom died of wounds from the exchange, he said.

"We think if the Tanzanians are allowed to sell their ivory stock, even the poachers in Kenya would be motivated," Adan said. "They would know it’s easy to kill in Kenya and cross to the other side and sell."

— Associated Press

Photo: Kenya wildlife ranger Mohamed Kamanya stands in front of a herd of elephants at Kenya’s Tsavo East National Park on March 9. Credit: Karel Prinsloo / Associated Press

There are a whole host of events designed with animal lovers and pets in mind happening in Southern California in the coming weeks. We’ve got the details on a number of them, from mobile pet-adoption events to a St. Patrick’s Day party for dogs! (Don’t worry; people are invited, too.) If you think we’re missing something, let us know by leaving a comment or tweeting the details to us @LATunleashed.

Saturday, March 13, spcaLA hosts PAWS to Read at the Hermosa Beach Library, 550 Pier Ave., from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Beginning and independent young readers up to age 12 are eligible to participate; the program is free, but advance registration is recommended. More information at spcaLA.com.

Saturday, March 13, the L.A. Department of Animal Services holds mobile pet-adoption events in Rancho Palos Verdes at Fred Hesse Jr. Memorial Park, 29301 Hawthorne Blvd., from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; in West Hills at Sunrise Senior Living Community, 9012 Topanga Canyon Blvd., from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and in West Hollywood at AHF Pharmacy, 8212 Santa Monica Blvd., from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. See photos of adoptable pets at LAAnimalServices.com.

Saturday, March 13, the Four-Legged Friends Foundation hosts its first St. Patrick’s Day block party for dogs and their people in Culver City on the 11800 block of Teale Street. The block party is a fundraiser for the group and includes a "Pinups for Pups" fashion show, a dog costume contest, pet-themed vendors and animal-loving celebrity guests including host Debra Skelton (MADtv). Cost is $25 and includes the price of admission for your leashed, well-behaved dog. For $50, you and your dog can have access not just to the block party but also to a private VIP party in the adjacent Zoom Room agility training center. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit FLFF.org.

Sunday, March 14, the city of Beverly Hills hosts "Woodstock 90210," a community event for people and pets, at Roxbury Park, 471 S. Roxbury Drive, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event features a pet parade, agility and disc-catching dog demonstrations, adoptable pets, animal-themed vendors and more. Pet parade begins at 1 p.m. Event is free, but participation in the pet parade is $5 per dog. Actor/natural dog food mogul Dick Van Patten and his dogs will pose for photos with event guests. Free parking is available at nearby Beverly Hills High School, with pet-friendly shuttle service to Roxbury Park. More information at BeverlyHills.org.

Saturday, March 20, spcaLA hosts a low-cost vaccination and microchip clinic from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. behind West Hollywood City Hall, 8300 Santa Monica Blvd. The clinic will offer rabies vaccinations for cats and dogs ($5); DHPP vaccinations for dogs ($15); bordetella vaccinations for dogs ($10); FVRCP and leukemia vaccinations for cats ($15 each); and microchipping for cats and dogs ($25). In honor of Spay Day U.S.A., goodie bags will be available during the clinic while supplies last. More information at spcaLA.com.

Sunday, March 21, the California Wildlife Center, which rescues and rehabilitates orphaned and injured wild animals in the L.A. area, invites the public to an open house event at its Calabasas facility, 26026 Piuma Road. Guests can meet CWC staff and ask questions about wildlife, take a guided tour of the facility and see some of the animals being cared for there. Event is free; refreshments will be served and children are welcome. Arts and crafts projects and face-painting will be available for youngsters. More information at CaliforniaWildlifeCenter.org; to RSVP, e-mail [email protected] or call (818) 222-2658.

Friday-Sunday, March 26-28, the Pasadena Humane Society hosts "The Well-Adjusted Cat and Dog Workshops" at its shelter facility, 361 S. Raymond Ave. The workshops’ featured speaker is Dr. Nicolas Dodman, author and director of Tufts University’s Animal Behavior Clinic. Dodman will cover issues including phobias in dogs and cats, feline medical problems that may be mistaken for behavioral issues, strategies for dealing with litter-box and furniture-scratching issues in cats and dominance issues in dogs. The workshops’ three days will be divided into one daylong cat-behavior workshop and a two-day dog-behavior workshop. More information and registration at ThePetDocs.com.

Saturday-Sunday, March 27-28, country aficionados can remember music legend Buck Owens and help homeless pets at the same time at the fourth annual Buckfest. The event, held at the Cowboy Palace Saloon, 21635 Devonshire St., Chatsworth, begins at 6 p.m. and continues until closing time both Saturday and Sunday. Numerous local country bands will perform; all proceeds go to the needy animals at Owens’ favorite charity, the Bakersfield SPCA. Admission is free; event also features raffle prizes and giveaways (and a barbeque for carnivores so inclined). Directions at CowboyPalace.com.

Saturday, March 27, spcaLA hosts PAWS to Read at the Redondo Beach Public Library, 303 N. Pacific Coast Highway, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Through the PAWS to Read program, children practice their reading skills by reading to a decidedly nonjudgmental audience: certified therapy dogs. Participation is free; sign-up begins at 9 a.m. at the Children’s Information Desk. More information at spcaLA.com.

SpcaLA is taking reservations for its two weeklong "Friends for Life" spring day camps for children ages 9 to 12. Campers will learn about pet care and develop animal training skills by participating in obedience and agility classes with spcaLA’s adoptable dogs. Guest speakers, training demonstrations and animal-related games and crafts are also on the schedule. First session runs from March 29 through April 2 at the organization’s South Bay Pet Adoption Center, 12910 Yukon Ave., Hawthorne; second session runs from April 5 through April 9 at the South Bay Pet Adoption Center. Camp hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. Cost is $250 per child; for more information or to register, visit spcaLA.com.

Mark Your Calendar:

Saturday, April 3, the American Humane Assn. asks pet owners to remember the importance of tagging and microchipping companion animals. The organization is hosting "Every Day Is Tag Day" to increase awareness about this issue. Only 15%of dogs and 2% of cats that enter U.S. animal shelters and humane societies without an identification tag or microchip are reunited with their owners, according to American Humane. Not only is that statistic scary, it’s also completely preventable. Learn more about pet identification and what to do if your pet gets lost at AmericanHumane.org.

Friday-Sunday, April 16-18, America’s Family Pet Expo returns to the Orange County Fair and Event Center, 88 Fair Dr., Costa Mesa. The event features informational displays on dog breeds, adoptable animals, pet-themed vendors, a petting zoo, pony rides and demonstrations of activities such as dog grooming, K-9 police dog work and dock-diving dogs. Tickets are $12, $10 for people over age 60, $6 for children ages 6-12 and free for children 5 and younger. More information at PetExpoOC.com.

Sunday, April 18, local rescue group New Leash on Life presents its fifth annual Nuts for Mutts 5K walk-a-thon in conjunction with the Calabasas Rotary Club and the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center. The walk-a-thon is a fundraiser for New Leash on Life’s work on behalf of needy pets in the L.A. area and includes pet-themed exhibits, children’s activities, a canine fashion show, a dog training clinic and more animal-related activities. The walk begins at 8 a.m. at the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center, 27040 Malibu Hills Road, and continues through the hills of Calabasas. Well-behaved and leashed dogs are welcome to participate. For more information or to register, visit NewLeash.org.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will open its newly restored 1913 Building with a brand-new "Age of Mammals" exhibition beginning July 11. The exhibition traces the history of evolution "from the extinction of the dinosaurs to the rise of humans — within the context of epochal changes in the Earth’s geology and climate," John Harris, the Natural History Museum’s head of vertebrate studies and chief curator of the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, told our sister blog Culture Monster. Visitors will get to see specimens like the Simi Valley mastodon, a saber-toothed cat and a brontothere (a species with possibly the most rock ‘n’ roll-sounding scientific name: "thunder beast"). 

Ongoing:

Through Earth Day, April 22, 2010, secondhand-clothing store chain Buffalo Exchange and the Humane Society of the United States jointly host Coats for Cubs. Animal lovers are encouraged to clean out their closets (or parents’ and grandparents’ closets) and donate any real-fur items found there (including fur trim, accessories and shearling) back to the animals. Of course, it’s too late to give the fur back to its original owner, but it can still be used as bedding for orphaned and injured wildlife — and it doesn’t do your conscience any harm, either. Fur in any condition is accepted and can be taken to any Buffalo Exchange location. (If you’d like to claim your fur donation as a tax deduction, you’ll need to mail it directly to the Humane Society rather than dropping it off at Buffalo Exchange; mailing information is available at HSUS.org.) More information at BuffaloExchange.com.

— Lindsay Barnett

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Photo: Students at a Pennsylvania elementary school read to Buster, a golden retriever mix, in 2003. SpcaLA hosts several opportunities for kids to practice their reading skills by reading to certified therapy dogs this month. Credit: Douglas Bovitt / Associated Press

We are so crazy about YouTube user cleelun‘s video of her encounter with a ticklish koala that we don’t even know what to do with ourselves.

This young koala is a resident of the Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney, Australia. Like others of its species, it’s well adapted to a life in the treetops — koalas have two thumbs on their hands, and the skin on the bottom of their feet has ridges that, rather like the tread on the soles of humans’ shoes, provide traction.

(Of course, we’re in total agreement with naturalist and blogger David Mizejewsk that, despite how very tempting it would be to reach out and touch a koala, you shouldn’t try this at home — or in the wild. "Never approach any wild animal, because even cute ones will not hesitate to bite and claw you to protect themselves," Mizejewski wrote on his Discovery News blog. "In fact, in the wild koalas have a reputation for being rather nasty when they feel threatened.")

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— Lindsay Barnett

Video: cleelun via YouTube

MIAMI — Devotees of a Miami man who claims to practice a traditional African religion say they were sickened when they had to ingest the mucus of a giant African snail.

Federal authorities in January raided Charles L. Stewart’s home after receiving complaints. Stewart has not been criminally charged, but prosecutors and state and federal wildlife agencies are investigating. The giant African snail is prohibited in the U.S. without special approval.

Experts say it devastates new ecosystems. The snail grows up to 10 inches long, can reproduce on its own and even can even eat plaster.

Stewart tells The Miami Herald he means no harm, and his religion uses the snails in healing ceremonies.

Followers said they got violently ill, losing weight and developing strange lumps in their stomachs.

— Associated Press

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Wildlife advocates lauded Washington’s "holistic approach" to conservation in Hawaii after the Obama administration declared 48 species as endangered and announced plans to set aside more than 40 square miles on Kauai as critical habitat to allow the plants and animals to flourish.

Two Honeycreeper birds, a fly and 45 ferns, trees and shrubs found only on the island of Kauai were among the species named Wednesday, boosting the number of such classifications by the Obama administration  to 50 from two.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the government would also be declaring more than 40 square miles on Kauai as critical habitat, a move that would help the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopt a new approach to protecting imperiled species by restoring health to the broad ecosystems they inhabit.

"This is more of holistic approach," Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Ken Foote said.

Previously, the service tried to protect endangered species by adopting separate plans to revive their respective habitats. This led to disjointed and overlapping efforts, particularly in Hawaii, which has more endangered species than any other state.

Suzanne Case, Hawaii executive director for The Nature Conservancy, commended the ecosystem approach, saying it would enable officials to focus on battling large-scale threats like weeds and feral pigs.

The Interior Department announced preliminary plans in October 2008 to list the 48 species and establish critical habitat for them. In the interim, it collected public comment and prepared to make the rule final.

The Center for Biological Diversity called the classification long overdue, noting some of the species have been candidates for listing for more than 20 years. The Tucson, Ariz., environmentalist group filed a petition to list the 48 Kauai species in 2004 and then followed with a lawsuit two years later.

WildEarth Guardians, a Santa Fe, N.M., group, filed its own lawsuit in January because the federal government was taking longer than the law required to issue a decision.

Like many of Hawaii’s endangered species, birds, insects and plants on Kauai — a mostly rural island northwest of Honolulu — are under threat from invasive species infiltrating their habitats.

Feral pigs burrow holes in the forest while looking for food, creating places for still water where mosquitoes breed and spread diseases that kill native birds. Sheep devour native forest trees that rare birds rely on for food.

Lacking natural predators, populations of these mammals have exploded around the islands. Invasive weeds are also edging out native plants.

One of the newly listed birds is the akikiki or Kauai creeper, a small, dark gray and olive honeycreeper in the Alakai Wilderness Preserve that eats insects and spiders. Only about 1,300 of the birds are left, down 80% compared with the 1960s. Its listing partner, the green and yellow-feathered Kauai akepa, or akekee, numbers just 3,500, down from 8,000 in 2000.

Almost all — or 98% — of the land designated as critical habitat is already categorized as such for other endangered or threatened species. Most of the land is owned by the state.

The Interior Department isn’t designating a critical habitat for the loulu palm because the plant is popular among collectors and officials did not want to reveal the location of its habitat.

— Associated Press

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Photo: An akikiki, or Kauai creeper, is seen in Kauai. Credit: Dr. Eric VanderWerf / Associated Press