A Philippine wildlife officer is suspected of
stealing more than 1,500 pounds (700 kilograms) of smuggled elephant
tusks seized last year, an embarrassing setback for the country’s
anti-poaching efforts, an official said Wednesday.
The ivory
worth $65,000 was part of a 8,800-pound (4,000-kilogram) shipment of
tusks that was impounded at Manila airport in July and turned over for
disposal to the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, said Theresa
Mundita Lim, the agency’s director. Trade in ivory is banned under U.N.
rules.
She said the theft of nearly a fifth of the stored tusks
was discovered while inventory was being taken on a warehouse Friday.
Seals on some of the boxes were broken and some of the original tusks
were replaced by replicas made of PVC pipes covered with plaster, she
said.
Wildlife authorities filed administrative charges against a
park supervisor, who may also face a criminal case depending on the
probe by the National Bureau of Investigation, Lim said. The suspect,
who was not identified, has not returned to work since Friday, she said.
"This
is really embarrassing because we should be among the proactive
countries protecting internationally important species," Lim told The
Associated Press.
"It is already a shame that the tusks are
smuggled here and the Philippines is an end-market, where the tusks are
processed and finished products like carvings are exported from here."
Lim
said Interpol has informed her office that a team of inspectors from
Tanzania is due to arrive next week to carry out DNA tests on the tusks
to establish if they originated from the East African nation.
She
said she was not even sure if all the tusks seized at the airport were
handed over to her bureau. Customs officials last year said the
shipment was worth $2 million, but Lim said the street value of what
was turned over to her office was about $450,000.
"I don’t know where the other portion of the shipment went," she said, adding that the investigation has been ongoing.
The whereabouts of tusks confiscated in previous smuggling attempts in 2005 and 2008 also are unclear, she said.
Corruption
and smuggling, particularly in customs, has long been a concern.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo created an anti-smuggling group in
2007 to curb unlawful imports and other violations facilitated by
corrupt customs officials.
Trade in ivory was banned under the
1989 U.N. Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species that
has helped in the recovery of the elephant population in several
African countries.
— Associated Press
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Photo: A Philippine Parks and Wildlife worker looks at fake elephant tusks at
left which were used to replace stolen original tusks inside a storage
room at the Parks and Wildlife office at Manila’s Quezon city Wednesday
March 3, 2010, in the Philippines. The original tusks
can be seen at right. Credit: AP Photo/Bullit Marquez
In wake of the tragedy at SeaWorld in Orlando, our colleague Steve Lopez wondered if he had been a bad father by taking his daughter to the marine animal park in San Diego. "Did I really want her to think that wild animals exist for our amusement," Lopez pondered in his column Wednesday morning, "or that it’s OK to ride a killer whale as if it were a pony?"
So Lopez asked a few experts, namely, his marine biologist cousin, San Diego SeaWorld spokesman Dave Koontz and Ric O’Barry, a dolphin expert who is also one of the first animal trainers to work with killer whales in a show.
Although Koontz told Lopez that visitors to marine animal parks receive "a greater appreciation for these animals and the ocean environments they live in," O’Barry, who can be seen in the Oscar-nominated documentary "The Cove" disagrees, calling it a "bad education."
"There’s no connection between conservation and stupid dolphin tricks," O’Barry told Lopez.
Not only that, but O’Barry claims that because big mammals such as orcas and dolphins have no privacy in environments like SeaWorld, they can often do violent things, sometimes to others, as we have seen with Tilikum, or sometimes to themselves. O’Barry, who as a young man captured and trained dolphins for the classic TV show "Flipper," believes that one of the dolphins committed suicide by refusing to come up for air.
— Tony Pierce
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Photo: Ric O’Barry looks at dolphins in a tank at the Whales Museum during a 2009 trip to Taiji, Japan. Credit: Junji Kurokawa / Associated Press
A volunteer with an eastern
Kentucky animal rescue organization says 15 plastic grocery bags
containing the bodies and body parts of dead animals have been found in
a car wash.
Diana McGuire
with the Menifee County Humane Society says the bags contained six cats
that had been shot to death, two possums, a hog’s head, a chicken and
some unidentified animal bones.
The
Lexington Herald-Leader reports a customer at the car wash discovered
the bags Saturday while washing his car at the 460 Car Wash. He looked
up and saw bags in the rafters.
McGuire said there were bags with dead animals in all three bays of the car wash.
The Menifee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
— Associated Press
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A killer whale that dragged a trainer to her death eluded SeaWorld workers’ frenzied efforts to corral him with plastic nets while he swam from pool to pool, according to witness statements released Monday.
After the massive orca was trapped last week, he refused to unclench his teeth and let go of Dawn Brancheau, according to the investigative reports released by the Orange County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office. His jaws were eventually pried open.
The orca "would not let us have her," another trainer, Jodie Ann Tintle, told investigators.
Investigators have said the 40-year-old trainer died from multiple traumatic injuries and drowning.
In the new investigative reports, Brancheau’s co-workers describe the swiftness of the attack and the furious response that came after alarms sounded around the pool. Employees who were at other pools, behind computers or emptying coolers of fish rushed to the scene.
The reports released Monday include the first extensive accounts from employees who witnessed the attack at the park in Orlando.
Jan Topoleski, whose job is to monitor trainers’ safety during shows, told investigators he saw Brancheau lying on the deck face to face with the 22-foot-long, 12,000-pound orca and communicating with him right before the attack. He said the orca, named Tilikum, bit Brancheau’s hair and pulled her into the pool in about two seconds. Topoleski sounded an alarm and grabbed safety equipment.
Susanne De Wit, a 33-year-old tourist from the Netherlands, told investigators her group had just walked to a window for a photo when she saw the attack. The attack occurred in front of about 20 visitors who had stayed after a noontime show.
"Suddenly I saw [the orca] grabbing the trainer … and pulling her down in the water," she said. "It was scary. He was very wild, with the trainer still in the [orca’s] mouth, the [orca’s] tail was very wild in the water."
Tanner Grogan, who scrambled to help other employees unfurl nets to corral Tilikum, said the killer whale at one point let go for several seconds but snatched Brancheau again by the foot before anyone could react. The weighted plastic nets, similar to temporary fencing used at construction sites, were unrolled and dropped in the water to help direct the whale to a pool with a hydraulic lift.
It’s not clear how long it took workers to trap the orca in that pool and lift him from the water. One witness said it seemed like 10 minutes. Another said it could have been as long as 30 minutes.
Even after the orca was lifted out of the water, Brancheau still could not be freed until his jaws were pried open. The trainer was pronounced dead by paramedics on the deck by the pool.
"Tilly was not giving up Dawn," said Robin Ann Morland, another SeaWorld worker.
— Associated Press
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Photo: The sign at the entrance to SeaWorld Orlando in a Feb. 24 photo. Credit: Matt Stroshane / Getty Images
A decade after a canine distemper outbreak killed nearly its entire population, the endangered Catalina Island fox is making a comeback. About 1,200 of the 1,300 foxes on Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California, died as a result of the outbreak. Now, thanks to a program to save the species and several years’ worth of fortuitous weather patterns, their numbers have rebounded. Our colleague Louis Sahagun has the details in a story Tuesday; here’s an excerpt:
Standing beside a sign posted along a main road urging people to watch for foxes, Carlos de la Rosa, the Catalina Island Conservancy’s chief conservation and education officer, said, "Soon we’ll have more than 1,300 foxes. But reaching that number is not, in and of itself, as great an achievement as bringing them back from the brink of extinction to a population that is stable and able to sustain itself."
The population had crashed to about 100 in 1999, when the conservancy and the Institute for Wildlife Studies launched a $2-million recovery program that includes vaccinations, aerial monitoring and education programs.
A captive breeding program here ended in 2004, the same year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the cat-sized subspecies as endangered. About 950 Catalina Island foxes call the island home, up from 784 at this time last year, according to a recent islandwide trapping effort by conservancy wildlife biologists Julie King and Calvin Duncan.
The foxes are trapped once a year and inspected for illnesses, including an unusual, potentially fatal ear cancer that recently began showing up in older foxes.
The animal’s remarkable recovery was spurred, in part, by several years of fluctuations in the weather. An extreme drought in 2007 resulted in the deaths of significant numbers of mule deer, whose carcasses were scavenged by the omnivorous 5-pound foxes. By the time breeding season arrived in 2008, many foxes were literally obese, and females were in such good condition that they were having larger-than-normal litters.
Good rains the past two years triggered an abundance of fruit-bearing cactuses and a population explosion of mice, convenient prey for female foxes to feed to their pups.
Sea lions are returning to San Francisco’s Pier 39 after an abrupt disappearance that left tourists disappointed and experts baffled.
The number is fluctuating. But the population appears to be making a slow return after mysteriously ballooning to about 1,700 during Thanksgiving week, then dwindling to a handful in the following days.
Jim Oswald of the Marine Mammal Center says a couple dozen sea lions were lounging Tuesday on the floating docks.
Marine experts say the animals come and go regularly, leaving in the fall to breed and give birth to their young in the Channel Islands.
Oswald says the large numbers seen in November, and their sudden departure, were unusual but not worrisome. He says they were probably looking for food.
— Associated Press
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Photo: Sea Lions sunbathe on a dock at Pier 39 last week. Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
At New York’s Bronx Zoo a few months back, the resident squirrel monkeys received the strangest treat they’d ever seen: Jell-O.
The blue goo was stuffed with blueberries — a highly desirable treat for the monkeys — which stimulated their foraging instincts, according to the zoo. That means that, for squirrel monkeys, eating Jell-O isn’t just snacking — it’s considered an enrichment activity.
Squirrel monkeys spend much of their time leaping from tree to tree in the South and Central American tropical forests that are their native habitat. They’re well adapted for such a style of movement: Their legs are proportioned in such a way as to give them extra force when jumping.
In Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Slovenia, squirrel monkeys are called something very different (and a little bit creepy). In those countries, the name for these little guys references the skull-like markings on their faces and translates to "death’s head monkey."
— Lindsay Barnett
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ORLANDO, Fla. — Rocky, a 700-pound grizzly considered one of the gentlest animals among Hollywood’s performing beasts, bites down on the neck of a veteran trainer. Illusionist Roy Horn is severely mauled by a show tiger during a Las Vegas performance. An elephant at an Indonesian tourist resort tramples its longtime handler to death.
Descriptions of Tilikum, the 22-foot orca that has now killed two trainers, inevitably come around to his intimidating size.
At nearly six tons, the bull bought for breeding is a giant among killer whales, the largest in captivity.
"Humans trying to incarcerate orcas or elephants or any type of large-brain or large-society species, it’s proven it doesn’t work," said Mark Berman, associate director at the environmental group Earth Island Institute in Berkeley. "They’re just too big."
No animals were meant to entertain humans, he said.
In fact, an investigation by California’s workplace safety office into a 2006 attack by an orca on a trainer at SeaWorld’s San Diego park initially reported that it was only a matter of time before a trainer was killed. That trainer escaped with a broken foot.
However, after objections from SeaWorld that the office had no place offering opinions that a trainer’s death was inevitable, the workplace safety officials rescinded the report and apologized. They noted its investigation required expertise it didn’t have.
Former SeaWorld head trainer Thad Lacinak said captive killer whales serve as ambassadors of the species to educate the public and help protect them in the wild.
"These animals are invaluable in terms of what we can learn from them. And you cannot learn about killer whales through a pair of binoculars," Lacinak said.
Using killer whales to perform, or displaying animals at zoos, brings them to life for the public, he said, something that watching the Discovery Channel just can’t do.
"We know for a fact that people do not learn in static conditions. They learn from these animals when they are entertained by them," Lacinak said. "That’s just how people learn. They don’t learn when they’re bored…. They have a greater appreciation of the animals when they walk out." Lacinak also stated the obvious — that trainers know their jobs are inherently dangerous but take the risks because they believe they’re outweighed by the rewards.
Brancheau’s funeral was set for Monday at a church in Chicago, where a wake was held Sunday.
Killer whales are the largest of the dolphin species. They are extremely intelligent and the most efficient predators in the sea. Some say killer whales are just too smart to be penned in pools that can bore them and possibly lead to trouble.
"Orcas are simply too big, too complex, too intelligent to be adequately accommodated in captivity," said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Humane Society of the United States. "The tanks are always going to be too featureless, too small…. The number of incidents where trainers have been injured is much greater than most people know. They aren’t all reported."
Orcas in the wild can travel up to 100 miles in a day and thousands of miles in a lifetime in the ocean, where they are generally harmless to humans, said Howard Garrett, co-founder and director of the Washington-based nonprofit Orca Network.
"In their natural habitat, there is no record of any harm to a human anywhere," Garrett said. "You cannot say that about elephants or wolves or any other highly evolved social mammal, and that really is extraordinary."
Even in captivity, orcas rarely attack out of aggression, Lacinak said, adding that they are usually cases of a killer whale trying to play with a trainer.
"It was not a bloodthirsty attack," Lacinak said of the recent incident at SeaWorld.
He said the whale likely saw the trainer’s ponytail as a toy, then dragged the woman into the water and turned it into a game.
Gary Wilson, a professor at Moorpark College in California, the country’s only school where students can learn to train marine mammals, believes that interacting with animals in the wild would be better but that’s not possible for most people.
"If it was a perfect world, we wouldn’t need to have any animals in captivity, but the reality is in order to learn about these animals and to actually ensure their survival in the wild, we need to have them in captivity so we can study them and people can learn to appreciate them," Wilson said. "If SeaWorld didn’t have dolphins and whales in captivity, there would be many fewer people in the world that even cared about them at all."
— Associated Press
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Photos, from left: Trainer Alexia Gossing poses with a circus elephant in Madrid on Feb. 10. The same elephant slipped and fell in a Jan. 2009 performance, injuring Gossing. Credit: Victor Lerena / European Pressphoto Agency. An orca peers out from its tank in an underwater viewing area at SeaWorld Orlando. Credit: Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press
Mary Lynne Rave, a North Carolina woman who started National Pig Day with her sister Ellen Stanley of Texas, once explained that the idea behind the holiday was "to accord to the pig its rightful, though generally unrecognized,
place as one of man’s most intellectual and domesticated animals."
Despite the sisters’ apparently noble ambitions, some folks have been known to celebrate the day by eating
pork products — although that’s not a manner of celebration we’d
recommend. The pre-Pig Day party held last Friday by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is more our style: The group invited the public to help make a giant fruit salad for the three adoptable pigs at its shelter. Later, a group of kids got to watch the pigs chow down on their healthful snack.
Unfortunately for us, we don’t have any porcine friends for whom to make a fruit salad, so we’ll just have to settle for celebrating the day with some virtualterrific, radiant, humble pigs. A double-feature of "Charlotte’s Web" and "Babe" ought to fill that bill nicely, we think.
The remote Pamir Mountains are the only known breeding area of the large-billed reed warbler, a species so elusive that it had been documented only twice before in more than a century.
A researcher with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society stumbled upon the tiny, olive-brown bird during a wildlife survey in 2008 and taped its distinctive song. Later, a research team caught and released 20 of the birds — the largest number ever recorded.
On Sunday, Afghanistan’s National Environment Protection Agency added the large-billed reed warbler to its list of protected species, which was established only last year.
Mustafa Zahir, the agency’s director-general, acknowledged the difficulties of trying to protect wildlife in a country preoccupied with the Taliban insurgency. On Friday, suicide attackers killed at least 16 people in Kabul, the capital, and thousands of Afghan and NATO forces are fighting to root out the hard-line Islamists from their southern stronghold.
But Zahir, who is the grandson of Afghanistan’s former king, said the discovery of the large-billed reed warbler provided some welcome positive news.
"It is not true that our country is full of only bad stories," Zahir said. "This bird, after so many years, has been discovered here. Everyone thought it was extinct."
The bird’s discovery in Afghanistan kicked off a small flurry in conservation circles.
The large-billed reed warbler was first documented in India in 1867 but wasn’t found again until 2006 — with a single bird in Thailand. The Pamir Mountains, in the sparsely populated Badakhshan province near China, is now home to the world’s only known large population of the bird.
The Afghan environmental agency also added 14 other species to the protected list on Sunday. It now includes 48 species, including the rare snow leopard, the Asiatic cheetah and the markhor, a type of wild goat with large spiral horns.
While conservation efforts are in their infancy in Afghanistan, there have been some recent successes. Authorities in Badakhshan last week seized a snow leopard from villagers who had trapped it and planned to sell it. The snow leopard — one of an estimated 150 left in the wild — will be freed once its injuries from the trap are healed, Zahir said.
— Associated Press
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Photo: A large-billed reed warbler is shown in an undated file photo released by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Credit: Associated Press
When it comes to bears, the polar species seems to be the new kid on the block. A rare fossil jaw found in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago is helping researchers confirm that polar bears evolved from brown bears only about 150,000 years ago.
Polar bears live much of the year on the Arctic sea ice and have become something of a symbol of the threat of global warming, which is melting that ice.
"Our results confirm that the polar bear is an evolutionarily young species that split off from brown bears some 150,000 years ago and evolved extremely rapidly," Charlotte Lindqvist, an assistant professor in the University of Buffalo’s department of biological sciences, said in a statement.
Lindqvist and colleagues were able to analyze mitochondrial DNA from the fossil and report their findings in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DNA is the coding that directs the development of individual life forms and the mitochondrial version comes from the cells that generate energy.
While scientists had known polar bears were descended from brown bears, there was debate over when the division occurred. By comparing the DNA from the fossil — which was estimated at 110,000 to 130,000 years old — to DNA from modern polar bears and brown bears, they were able to calculate when the types separated.
Polar bear fossils are rare since their remains are usually scavenged by other animals or sink to the bottom of the ocean. The specimen tested was found in 2004 by an Icelandic geologist.
— Associated Press
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Photo: The Berlin Zoo’s most famous resident, Knut the polar bear, rests in the snow in his enclosure on Jan. 25. Credit: Mathias Schumacher / AFP/Getty Images
We were fascinated when we saw a video last year showing wild foxes jumping on a trampoline. And we were delighted when we saw YouTube user NiCkLeroche‘s video, above, in which his dog goes wild with enthusiasm for the backyard trampoline.
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 has some tips for reader Doris on helping her dog cope with appetite and arthritis issues.
Doris’ question: How can I increase my 13-year-old, 3.2-pound male Chihuahua’s appetite? He is on daily Metacam for painful arthritis. [Editor’s note: Metacam is a pain-relief medication for animals.] He sleeps on a heating pad on very low. He had all his teeth removed last year due to very bad gum disease. The only thing he seems to like is chicken and he will skip several, twice-daily regular meals.
[Doris notes that her dog’s problems seem to have increased since his mother, with whom he had a strong bond, died last year.] Would getting another girl puppy Chihuahua help to keep him company? I have tried to give him more TLC and attention, but still he is a very poor eater.
Heather Oxford, DVM: Although it is possible that your pup is mourning the loss of his mother, a serious medical condition may be causing the decreased appetite. I have seen this many times in practice, and sometimes the signs of illness were present but not recognized due to focused attention on the ailing older pet.
Your veterinarian should examine him and test blood, urine, thyroid and blood pressure. These tests make up a senior screening panel which should be performed annually after age 8. Since your little guy is taking Metacam, the blood and urine components should be tested every 2 to 4 months per your veterinarian.
If he is still in pain despite being on daily Metacam, more should be done. X-rays and/or a thorough orthopedic examination are essential for determining the extent of arthritis and which joints are affected. His lack of appetite may stem from his pain level, and may even be worsened by continuing the Metacam on a not-so-full tummy. Start him on glucosamine/chondroitin and high-quality fish oil supplements from your veterinarian for his arthritis. Ask your veterinarian about quality products containing milk thistle and SAM-E for maintaining a healthy liver also. Keep in mind that there are many other alternatives for pain management of arthritis such as acupuncture, homeopathic remedies, rehabilitation (just like physical therapy for us humans), and even changes in the diet.
When dogs are in pain or even just not feeling well, their first reaction to other animals is defensive aggression. That said, the problem may not improve and might even get worse by adding on to the family. So you’ll want to find out if there is a medical or physical condition that can be helped before jumping in with a new puppy. If all tests are normal and his arthritic pain is successfully addressed, take him along to meet any potential little sis, and let him decide.
To submit your question for Dr. Oxford, just leave a comment on this post 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: Cans of dog food sit on a grocery-store shelf. Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
A man has barricaded himself inside a Tarzana apartment complex after shooting a woman and firing on police officers, authorities said.
Los Angeles police officers responded to an apparent domestic violence incident about 4 a.m. Sunday in the 18500 block of Hatteras Street and found a female victim with a gunshot wound, Officer Karen Rayner said. The officers were fired upon, but no one was hit.
The man refused to come outside, and a SWAT team was called to the scene, Rayner said. “They’re negotiating with him and seeking a peaceful resolution at this time,” she said.
The woman was transported to a hospital in serious condition. No other information was given.
[Updated at 11:33 a.m.: The apartment complex and surrounding
area have been evacuated, and 15 displaced residents opted to go to
Birmingham Senior High School in Van Nuys, where a shelter has been set
up, Rayner said.
The gunman has continued to speak with a SWAT team
negotiator. No shots from officers have been fired. Rayner said the
initial call to police was made by a neighbor who reported a dispute
between a boyfriend and girlfriend.]
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Pamela Anderson sent a letter Saturday to Canada’s prime minister requesting an end to the country’s annual seal hunt.
The Canadian actress and spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals dropped the letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a mailbox in front of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans office.
Anderson called the hunt "an embarrassment to Canada" at a news conference, saying she made the appeal during the Winter Olympic Games here because "the whole world is watching Canada."
Canada’s annual East Coast seal hunt from mid-November to mid-May, mostly in Newfoundland and Labrador and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is the largest in the world, killing an average of 275,000 harp seals.
The hunt has long been controversial. Animal rights groups believe it is cruel, poorly monitored and provides little economic benefit. Seal hunters and Canadian authorities say it is sustainable, humane and provides income for isolated communities.
Anderson said in her letter that there is little ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for the seal birthing season.
"The absence of this birthing habitat will have dangerous consequences for the entire harp-seal population. Without ice, mother seals will be forced to abort their pups in the water," Anderson said in the letter, which included signatures from more than 50,000 people who want the annual hunt to end permanently.
Fisheries and Oceans officials confirmed there is very little ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the eastern coast of Newfoundland and southern Labrador.
"Similar circumstances in the past have resulted in higher than normal pup mortality," said department spokesman Alain Belle-Isle.
Belle-Isle said poor ice conditions in the traditional birthing locations could result in a movement of pregnant seals to nontraditional areas farther north.
"It is unknown if this would result in increased mortality of young," said Belle-Isle.
Canadian scientists use information on pup mortality resulting from poor ice conditions in their management of the harp seal population.
There are an estimated 6.8 million harp seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, the Fisheries and Oceans department said.
The European Union has banned imports of all products and processed goods derived from seals, including their skins — which are used to make fur coats, bags and adorn clothing — as well as meat, oil blubber, organs and seal oil, which is used in some omega-3 pills.
It exempts products derived from traditional hunts carried out by Inuit in Canada’s Arctic, as well as those from Greenland, Alaska and Russia.
Anderson’s plea may fall on deaf ears after Harper and his cabinet dined on seal last August in support of the industry.
— Associated Press
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Photo: Anderson holds a PETA petition against seal hunting at the Canadian embassy in Paris in 2008. Credit: Francois Mori / Associated Press
Animal advocates all over the country have been voicing their opposition to keeping orcas in captivity since a SeaWorld Orlando orca named Tilikum killed his trainer Wednesday.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, while expressing sympathy for the trainer, Dawn Brancheau, was quick to lash out against SeaWorld. "There are so many victims in this saga — the trainers, the captive marine mammals, the children who watched people die — but truth has been the longest-running victim of the lot," PETA president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk wrote on the group’s blog Friday. "If the only thing that SeaWorld understands is money — and it has made millions off the backs of orcas like Tilly — then one hopes that if public protestation doesn’t do the trick in shutting it down, the lawsuits that are sure to arise will."
Newkirk & Co. have long argued that marine life parks that keep large animals like orcas in captivity are cruel to the creatures, which swim long distances in the wild and often perform tricks PETA considers unnatural. Newkirk wrote Friday that the "marine amusement park environment is rife with deaths, close calls and injuries," in addition to the cruelty she says the animals face in captivity.
A frequent PETA ally, former "Price is Right" star Bob Barker, was also quick to argue that Tilikum’s confinement amounted to cruelty on SeaWorld’s part. Barker — who recently donated $5 million to the controversial anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd for the purchase of a ship — fired off a letter Thursday to Hamilton James, the president of SeaWorld’s parent company, the Blackstone Group.
Brancheau’s death "did not have to happen, and I must appeal to you to take strong action now so that it never happens again. I know that the Blackstone Group was asked to close the SeaWorld theme parks when you acquired them last year," Barker wrote, referring to PETA’s 2009 request that Blackstone send the marine park’s occupants to sanctuaries that more closely resembled their natural habitats. "I urge you to make that humane move now and to start moving the captive orcas and other marine mammals to transitional coastal and wildlife sanctuaries" and replace them with virtual-reality exhibits.
Another animal-protection group, the Humane Society of the United States, didn’t go as far as PETA in condemning SeaWorld but argued that conditions there were insufficient to keep an animal like Tilikum in a healthy mental state. Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist for the Humane Society, told the Orlando Sentinel that "[in] terms of his stress levels, his size is a factor," referencing the orca’s much-publicized 12,000-pound frame. "He is so big, I don’t care how big SeaWorld’s tanks are, they are too small for him."
Edward O. Keith, an associate professor at Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Center, echoed Rose’s sentiments in an interview with the Sentinel. "We’ve proved in the past few years that putting people in solitary confinement makes them crazy," Keith said. "How can we expect anything different from marine animals? When animals get under stress, they act out; they do crazy things."
Onetime "Flipper" trainer turned anti-marine-mammal-captivity advocate Ric O’Barry (who wrote memorably about the slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese village of Taiji for Unleashed last month) has also spoken out against SeaWorld this week. O’Barry and colleague David Phillips released a statement calling for "the immediate initiation of a federal investigation into SeaWorld’s possible negligence and violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act."
Along with sadness about Wednesday’s tragic event in Orlando, O’Barry and Phillips said, "we can’t help feeling anger toward those who insist upon exhibiting these wild creatures in habitats that can drive them to violence. Dependent on sonar/sound to navigate their vast ocean homes, dolphins and whales are in constant state of distress living in cramped pools, bombarded by noise, stressed by food deprivation and forced to perform."
O’Barry and Phillips also took issue with statements from SeaWorld implying that park officials haven’t ruled out featuring Tilikum in future orca-show performances. Wednesday’s incident "wasn’t just a terrible accident, it was a calculated risk on the part of a billion-dollar captive dolphin and whale industry," the anti-captivity advocates’ statement continues. "Facts suggest that SeaWorld was well aware" of Tilikum’s history, which included other incidents that led to human deaths.
Another colleague of O’Barry, director Louie Psihoyos (who helmed last year’s much-heralded film "The Cove," which has been nominated for an Academy Award for best feature-length documentary), also spoke out against keeping orcas in captivity in a statement released Thursday. In the statement, Psihoyos addressed the notion that keeping such animals in captivity promotes conservation. His recent documentary, which depicts the Taiji dolphin slaughter and prominently features O’Barry, "reinforces this notion that placing dolphins and whales in captivity is not an acceptable method of educating the public about these magnificent and normally peaceful animals," Psihoyos said.
Another famous captive orca, Keiko, who portrayed the title character in the movie "Free Willy," was eventually returned to the waters off Iceland where he was captured in 1979, when he was approximately 2 years old.
"Free Willy" told the fictional story of a troubled young boy who befriends a captive orca and eventually frees the animal. The film struck a chord with many who believed that the real-life Willy’s story should take a similar turn. Eventually, Keiko was moved from a marine park to an aquarium in Oregon, where he recovered from health problems and was taught behaviors necessary for him to make the transition from captive animal to wild animal. From the Oregon facility, he was moved to a pen in Iceland, after which he eventually migrated to Norwegian waters.
He lived out the remainder of his life in Norway with a large degree of freedom but continued to receive care from trained professionals until his death.
The movement to free Keiko was heartily supported by many animal lovers, but Malene Simon of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, who was involved in the effort to return him to the wild, told the New Scientist last year that the project may have gone too far in its efforts to help the orca return to his wild state.
"We believe the best option for [Keiko] was the open pen he had in Norway, with care from his trainers," Simon said, referring to his final living arrangement. "He could swim as much as he wanted to, had plenty of frozen herring — which he was very fond of — and the people that he was attached to kept him active."
Keiko never became fully integrated with wild orcas, despite the fact that he was born among them. He died in 2003. "The most likely cause of death is from acute pneumonia, though it must
be noted that at age 27, Keiko was one of only two male orca whales
ever to have survived past 25 years in captivity," his lead veterinarian, Dr. Larry Cornell, said shortly after his death. "We
have monitored Keiko’s health very closely, and until only [the day before his death]
his appetite, activity and blood tests were all excellent."
Jeff Ventre, a former SeaWorld trainer who worked with Tilikum for seven years, told CBS News that a program similar to the one used for Keiko wouldn’t work for Tilikum. "He’s not releasable for a couple reasons," Ventre told CBS. "Number one, he spends as lot of time surface-resting — a wild orca swims pretty much its entire life."
Another reason Tilikum couldn’t survive outside a captive environment, Ventre said, is that "he doesn’t have any viable teeth left. One of the [things you do when] putting orcas in a facility is that you have to separate them with gates, and what they tend to do is threat-displays at each other to establish dominance."
Orcas live in matriarchal, rather than male-dominated, groups, meaning that Tilikum "is a sub-dominant animal in that society. He has a little bit less room to maneuver because of his massive size. He might be the largest animal in captivity…. So, consequently, his teeth have broken off. And that’s why you’ll see the trainers every morning and evening using a water pick to flush out the impacted fish that gathers in the remnants of the teeth … so it doesn’t lead to something like an infection."
Of course, in addition to the difficulties inherent in releasing an animal like Tilikum, he’s incredibly valuable to SeaWorld and Blackstone. He’s fathered a number of calves during his stay at the Orlando facility and, according to SeaWorld’s chief of animal training, Chuck Tompkins, his companionship is important to the seven other orcas at SeaWorld Orlando.
Video: Tilikum performs a "waving goodbye" trick during a 2007 SeaWorld show. Credit: kamisch42 via YouTube
1st photo: Bob Barker interacts with the audience during a 2006 taping of "The Price is Right." Credit: Ric Francis / Associated Press
2nd photo: Ric O’Barry. Credit: Oceanic Preservation Society
3rd photo: Keiko the orca at an Oregon aquarium in 1998. Credit: Jack Smith / Associated Press
4th photo: Jim Atchison, president and CEO SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, speaks
during a news conference Feb. 26. Credit: Red Huber / McClatchy Tribune News Service
Pneumonia outbreaks that have killed hundreds of bighorn sheep this winter in several western states have wildlife officials grappling with how to minimize the effect.
Wildlife officials say the disease shows up sporadically in wild herds, but it’s unusual to have so many outbreaks in so many states.
More than 400 bighorn sheep in Nevada, Montana, Utah and Washington have died — or been killed by wildlife officials — this winter, and the death toll is expected to rise in coming weeks.
More than half were from four herds in western Montana alone, and 79 of the deaths were from two herds in northeastern Nevada.
Eighteen bighorns have died in south-central Washington, and 26 have been killed in eastern Utah to stop the spread of the disease.
— Associated Press
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Photo: Bighorn sheep graze near the Big Pines Recreation Area in the Yakima River Canyon, Wash., in 2008. Credit: Gordon King / Associated Press
— How is Lakers star Kobe Bryant like an animal? Let us count the ways. After missing five games due to injury, Bryant said Monday that he felt “like a gazelle” about his return to play. That got Lakers blogger Mark Medina wondering what other species Kobe, who’s often described as “the black mamba” after a type of snake, might resemble. Los Angeles Zoo staffers Jason Jacobs and Dana Brown were happy to oblige Medina with their picks for other zoo dwellers with traits in common with Bryant. Among the animals they noted: beavers. “When I think about his work ethic, I think about all of these roles
that he plays up to and including of masking his injuries and being
there for his teammates and all the preparation he puts in practice and
in games,” Brown said. Jacobs and Brown also compare Bryant to a pronghorn, among other species. (Lakers Blog)
— When Canada’s largest airline, Air Canada, changed its pet policy to allow small animals to ride in airplane cabins, many pet owners were thrilled. Allergy sufferers? Not so much. Back in July, the Canadian Lung Assn. took aim at the pet policies
of Air Canada and the country’s next-largest airline, WestJet, which has a similar pet policy, arguing that “inside the small,
confined space of an airplane passenger cabin, [dogs and cats]
can pose a serious threat to the health of vulnerable people.” Thursday, the Canadian Transportation Agency released a decision that seems to be in agreement with the Canadian Lung Assn.’s position. The decision stated that three people with cat allergies who complained about the airlines’ policies can be considered people with disabilities — seemingly a victory for the anti-animals-in-airplane-cabins camp. The decision doesn’t overturn Air Canada’s and WestJet’s policies, but it does mean that the transportation agency will review the issue of pets in the cabin. It’s also asked the two airlines to come up with alternate strategies for accommodating both allergy sufferers and jet-setting animals. (The Canadian Press)
— After Italy’s RAI TV suspended cooking-show host Beppe Bigazzi for his on-air comments in defense of a dish called “cat stew,” PETA made an announcement that may seem, at first blush, like a strange one: The group announced that it agreed with Bigazzi. During his controversial cat-stew TV segment, the chef compared eating cat to eating other animals like rabbits and chickens. “We couldn’t agree more,” PETA blogger Logan Scherer wrote recently. “If you think cat stew is cruel and disgusting … then you must also hate the cruelty behind factory-farmed meat. Pigs, cows, chickens, and other animals slaughtered for food are as intelligent and sensitive to pain as are our animal companions and could just as easily become our pals.” (The PETA Files)
— Tim Burton’s soon-to-be-released film version of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” will, of course, include the Cheshire Cat character. But the director recently told The Times’ Geoff Boucher that the Cheshire Cat “was a character I had a very specific image of and it’s because I just
have this thing about cats … The Cheshire Cat taps into
what you might call my hatred of cats.” British actor/writer Stephen Fry (who memorably portrayed P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves character alongside his onetime comedic partner Hugh Laurie in the BBC series “Jeeves and Wooster”) gives voice to the cat in question. Incidentally, Burton’s “Alice” also features another animal character that never appeared in Carroll’s books, a bloodhound portrayed by actor Timothy Spall (who plays villainous animagus Peter Pettigrew in the “Harry Potter” series). The bloodhound “may be a reaction against the Cheshire Cat” in the film, Burton said. (Hero Complex)
— Scientists who support the use of animals in experiments are furious over one shadowy group’s assertion that animal activists are planning to distribute leaflets at the school attended by a UCLA researcher’s child “in order to educate fellow students what their classmate’s father does for a living.” Janet D. Stemwedel, an associate professor of philosophy at San Jose State University, wrote passionately in opposition to the leafleting on Science Blogs. “Nobody’s kids should be targeted for harassment because you disagree with their parents. We need to call this behavior out, no matter who does it, no matter what cause they hope to further with it,” she wrote. (LAist)
— Lindsay Barnett
Stay up-to-date on animal news: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.
Photos, from left: A beaver swims at the Orange County Zoo. Credit: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times. Kobe Bryant drives against Philadelphia 76ers player Jrue Holiday during a Feb. 26 game. Credit: Noah Graham / Getty Images
ORLANDO, Fla. — Employees wept and audience members grew silent Saturday at SeaWorld as the theme park’s popular killer whale show resumed with a photo montage memorial for a trainer who was killed by one of the orcas in front of horrified spectators three days ago.
The show had been shut down since veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, died Wednesday after rubbing a 22-foot, 12,000-pound orca named Tilikum. The animal grabbed her ponytail and pulled her into the water in front of about 20 spectators. The medical examiner says she probably died of traumatic injuries and drowning.
More than 2,000 people packed the park’s stadium Saturday for the first show since Brancheau’s death.
The audience seemed thrilled, applauding and cheering as the whales zipped around their tank and splashed spectators during the show — with the theme of "believe," about a young boy who sees an orca and dreams of one day becoming a whale trainer. It was a fitting tribute to Brancheau, whose family said she always wanted work with the giant whales.
At one point during the show, a young girl was brought on stage and given a whale tail necklace.
"I just wanted to be here for this show. It’s so special," said Russell Thomphsen, 65, who said he is a season-ticket holder for SeaWorld. "This touches so many lives."
Spectators packed the enormous outdoor amphitheater despite chilly, rainy weather, with the orca pool registering at 52 degrees. The whale trainers received a standing ovation as they approached the platform before the show, part of the multimillion-dollar enterprise centered around "Shamu" — the stage name given to all the performing orcas.
Several SeaWorld employees wept as the photo montage set to music was shown.
"It was very moving," said Molly Geislinger, 33, who came from Minneapolis with her husband and 21-month-old child.
However, she noticed a difference in how the trainers acted.
"They looked like they were being very careful," she said. "They looked very cautious today."
Indeed, the trainers weren’t allowed in the water, meaning the whales’ handlers did not surf on top of the marine mammals or fly into the air. Instead, the trainers — wearing orca-like black-and-white wetsuits — directed the whales from outside the huge tank’s acrylic walls. They coached the creatures to splash the front-and-center rows a few times, much to the delight of onlookers.
SeaWorld officials have said trainers won’t swim with the orcas until they finish reviewing what happened to Brancheau.
Jeff Steward, who came to the show with his wife, called the memorial "a very emotional start."
He said they enjoyed the show, adding: "It’s a tragedy, but these things happen when you’re dealing with wild animals."
SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment President Jim Atchison said Friday that Tilikum will remain an "active, contributing member of the team," in part because the killer whale show is big business at SeaWorld. The company owns more killer whales than anyone else in the world and builds the orca image into its multimillion-dollar brand. Tilikum did not perform Saturday.
The timing of the killer whales’ return to performances reflects just what the sleek black-and-white mammals mean to SeaWorld, which the private equity firm Blackstone Group bought last fall for around $2.7 billion from Anheuser-Busch InBev in a deal that included two Busch Gardens theme parks and several other attractions.
There are two other SeaWorld parks — one in San Antonio, and one in San Diego.
No animal is more valuable to that operation than Tilikum, the largest orca in captivity. Captured nearly 30 years ago off Iceland, Tilikum has grown into the alpha male of captive killer whales, his value as a stud impossible to pin down. He now has been involved in the deaths of two trainers and requires a special set of handling rules, which Atchison wouldn’t specify.
John Galloway, of Palm Coast, Fla., said he didn’t want to see the killer whale shows end because of the tragedy.
"I think they know what they’re doing," he said of the trainers. "Me, myself, I wouldn’t be down there doing that."
— Associated Press
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1st photo: Two orcas flip through the air during Saturday’s show. Credit: Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press
2nd photo: A photo of Brancheau is shown as part of a slide show
tribute Saturday. Credit: Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press
3rd photo: Park guests take cover as they are splashed by orcas during Saturday’s show. Credit: Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press
4th photo: SeaWorld trainer Laura Surovik, right, a colleague and friend of Dawn Brancheau, cries as a slide show tribute is
shown during the orca show Saturday. Credit: Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press
5th photo: Balloons and flowers are left outside the entrance to SeaWorld Orlando
in memory of Brancheau on Friday. Credit: Phelan M.
Ebenhack / Associated Press
The weekend ahead is chock-full of animal-centric events, whether you want to attend a beauty pageant for dogs (and who wouldn’t?), listen to live music while supporting a good cause or simply eat some delicious snacks. We’ve got the details on those and a number of other events in the coming weeks and months. (Are we forgetting something? Let us know by leaving a comment.)
Saturday, Feb. 27, the L.A. Department of Animal Services hosts a free spay/neuter event for low-income pet owners (total annual household income not to exceed $31,700) at its North Central shelter, 3201 Lacy St. in Los Angeles (off the 5 Freeway in Lincoln Heights). Vaccinations are included with spay or neuter surgery; reservations are required and can be made by calling (888) FIX-PETT.
Saturday, Feb. 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.
Saturday, Feb. 27, local rescue group The Mutt Scouts holds a bake sale to benefit its work on behalf of homeless dogs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. ("or until we run out," event organizers note) at the Home Ec crafting supplies store, 3815 W. Sunset Blvd. in Silver Lake.
Saturday, Feb. 27, North Hollywood music venue Kulak’s Woodshed hosts a concert to raise funds for Operation Blankets of Love from 8 to 10 p.m. Singer-songwriter Julie Chadwick and other guests will perform. A $10 donation is requested; raffle prizes will be offered and handcrafted items will be available for purchase. Well-behaved dogs are welcome.
Sunday, Feb. 28, Haute Dogs hosts its annual Bulldog Beauty Contest from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Long Beach Marketplace, at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and 2nd Street in Long Beach. Bulldogs aren’t the only pets that can get in on the act, though; the pageant also features contests to choose the most beautiful senior dog (over 10 years of age), pug and French bulldog. For more information or to enter your pet, visit HauteDogs.org.
Sunday, Feb. 28, mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin performs a program of music by composers including Mozart, Gershwin, Sondheim, Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo and Israeli composer Noam Sivan, with proceeds from the event benefiting the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind. The center offers trained leader dogs at no cost to vision-impaired Israelis and operates largely through charitable donations. Rubin, who is blind and has her own leader dog, explained that "as someone who knows the incredible benefits of a guide dog, there is no worthier cause to be supporting." The concert begins at 7:30 at the Colburn School of Music’s Zipper Concert Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave. in downtown L.A. Tickets are $50, $20 for students, and can be purchased at BrownPaperTickets.com.
Upcoming:
Thursday, March 4, the Voice for the Animals Foundation hosts an evening of stand-up comedy, music, food and drinks featuring animal-friendly comedian-actress Lily Tomlin at The Comedy Store, 8433 W. Sunset Blvd. The event honors actor Dick Van Patten, who founded the Natural Balance pet food company; Paul Jolly, executive director of the PETCO Foundation; and the city of West Hollywood. A reception and silent auction begin at 6 p.m.; show begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $150, with discounts available for parties of 10 or more; VIP tables are also available (but one will set you back $6,000). For more information or to purchase tickets, visit VFTAFoundation.org.
Thursday, March 4, animal-loving Twitter devotees are invited to a "tweetup" at the Hotel Maya’s Fuego Restaurant, 700 Queensway Drive in Long Beach, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The event is a fundraiser for spcaLA’s work on behalf of needy Southern California pets, and guests are encouraged to bring a bag of dog food to donate to the organization’s shelters. (Two businesses have offered to match all dog food donations, meaning each bag of food brought by a guest translates to three bags of food for shelter pets that urgently need it. That’s a great deal for a worthy organization that recently came perilously close to running out of food.) A free sangria toast will kick off the event and happy-hour pricing will be offered on food and drinks. The event features a silent auction, prize drawings and complimentary gift bags for all attendees. Well-behaved and leashed dogs are welcome. More information at spcaLA.com.
Saturday, March 6, spcaLA invites potential "foster parents" to learn about its fostering
program from 10 a.m. to noon at its South Bay Pet Adoption Center,
12910 Yukon Ave., Hawthorne. "Foster parents" are needed to care for
puppies and kittens that are too young to be adopted, as well as older
dogs and cats with special needs. More information at spcaLA.com.
(The L.A. Department of Animal Services offers a similar program for
underage puppies and kittens; more information on that program is
available at the department’s website.)
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.
Friday-Sunday, March 26-28, the Pasadena Humane Society hosts "The Well-Adjusted Cat and Dog Workshops" at its shelter facility, 361 South Raymond Ave. The workshops’ featured speaker is Dr. Nicolas Dodman, author and director of Tufts University’s Animal Behavior Clinic. Dodman will cover issues ranging from 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.
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:
Friday-Sunday, April 16-18,America’s Family Pet Expo returns to the Orange County Fair and Event Center, 88 Fair Drive in Costa Mesa. The event features informational displays on dog breeds, adoptable animals, pet-themed vendors, a petting zoo, pony rides and demonstrations of activities ranging from dog grooming to K-9 police dog work to dock-diving dogs. Tickets are $12, $10 for people over age 60, $6 for children aged 6-12 and free for children 5 and under. 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.
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: Brownies … need we say more? Rescue group The Mutt Scouts hosts a bake sale Saturday to raise funds for homeless animals. Credit: Kirk McCoy / Los Angeles Times
