Poaching the Poachers

Posted on November 8, 2013 by wellsdc

By Muhammad Mahdi Karim Facebook The making of this document was supported by Wikimedia CH.(Submit your project!) For all the files concerned, please see the category Supported by Wikimedia CH. česky | Deutsch | English | français | magyar | italiano | македонски | Bahasa Melayu | Nederlands | rumantsch | +/− (Own work) [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Everything about this creature says “Don’t f*** with me.” Respect.

Tanzania is reportedly experiencing a major poaching problem, and some of its leaders are going positively Texan in dealing with it. Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Khamis Kagasheki noted recently that Tanzania may have lost half its elephant population within the past three years, and then essentially advocated a “shoot to kill” policy:

Soft measures, which we witness today, especially with sentencing for those caught poaching, will not deter poachers…Our own teams in Kenya can arrest a poacher one day and then the next week come up against the same poacher, who having paid a small fine was released by the courts – where’s the deterrent?…I am very aware that some alleged human rights activists will make an uproar, claiming that poachers have as much rights to be tried in courts as the next person, but let’s face it, poachers not only kill wildlife but also usually never hesitate to shoot dead any innocent person standing in their way.

That was Friday, October 4, 2013. After only two months, the Tanzanian parliament has reportedly suspended the program, ominously titled Operation Terminate. During that time, police arrested more than 950 poachers and seized around 230 pounds of ivory, also described as 706 elephant tusks. Allegations abound that police are engaging in widespread human rights abuses, including the torture and killing of suspected poachers. Also, they are allegedly conducting illegal seizures of property, which is bad but sort of pales next to the alleged torture & death part.

Continue reading →

Whatever You Do, Don’t Inconvenience the Cat

Posted on September 19, 2013 by wellsdc

While looking for consumer products that might assist us in keeping our wonderful, beautiful, loving, adorable, absurdly destructive dogs under some modicum of control, I came across a “pet gate with small pet door”:

Via wayfair.com

Similar products abound on the internet. I haven’t had a cat since I was a kid, when we found the one cat in the universe that did not prompt severe allergic reactions, so I may be a bit rusty. My question is this: How pampered must a cat be to have its own little door? Aside from the most geriatric of cats, I suspect most of them could hurdle that gate.

Monday Morning Cute: Monkeys Making Friends

Posted on September 16, 2013 by wellsdc

Also from Mother Nature Network, the story of a pigeon whose friendship saved an injured monkey’s life:

This macaque was rescued from Neilingding Island in China after his mother abandoned him and left him for dead, according to the Daily News. His recovery was dragging until he made friends with this pigeon, and now the two are rarely apart.

Here’s a picture of a monkey riding on the back of a dog:

House Cats, Obligate Carnivores

Posted on August 19, 2013 by wellsdc

Australian vegans allegedly nearly killed a kitten by feeding it a vegan diet, as shown in a picture of a newspaper clipping that has been going around on Facebook. Cats are essentially obligate carnivores, meaning that they have to have meat in their diets. Dogs can live, at least in theory, on a meat-free diet, but it’s still pretty damn cruel to the dog. If you are one to eschew all meat products in your home, you might seriously consider sticking to rabbits or llamas as pets, or just not having pets at all.

Anyway, I made a GIF set to express my thoughts on the matter:

Animal “Welfare,” Animal “Rights,” and Animal “Liberation”

Posted on August 16, 2013 by wellsdc

"Butter Cow" by anneh632 [CC BY-SA 2.0], on Flickr

I was not familiar with butter cows until just now. Impressive work. (Via Flickr.)

Iowans for Animal Liberation made the news for allegedly dumping red paint on the official butter cow of the Iowa State Fair. (To be clear, this is a sculpture of a cow made entirely of butter, not a cow used to produce butter.)

The main reason I find this noteworthy is that the Associated Press described the group as an “animal welfare group,” not, say, the sort of group that uses the word “liberation” in its name and thinks dumping paint on a butter sculpture is an effect form of activism.

The individuals involved also wrote “Freedom for All” on the glass display case, according to the Des Moines Register. The Register described them as an “animal rights group,” which seems more apt than “animal welfare.”

Maybe I’m quibbling, but animal welfare is a cause near and dear to my heart, and dumping paint on a giant dairy sculpture doesn’t seem to advance that cause even the tiniest bit. Just my $0.02.

Photo credit: “Butter Cow” by anneh632 [CC BY-SA 2.0], on Flickr (NOTE: The butter cow pictured above is from the Illinois State Fair, for the record.)

This Week in WTF, June 7, 2013

Posted on June 7, 2013 by wellsdc

3556826420_d006ae707e_o I return to my hallowed tradition of collecting oddities for the enjoyment of my reader(s). These are sort of some “greatest hits” collected over the past few months, but “This Past Six Months in WTF” doesn’t sound as good as “This Week…” Just go with it.

– The female southern bottletail squid was the topic of some discussion this week after io9 revealed that she, uh………swallows.

– A Chinese real estate company came up with a novel way to sell properties, by painting the floor plans on the backs of women in bikinis. Apparently, it’s working (h/t Sallie).

Via bitrebels.com

– A Ukrainian woman sought political asylum in the European Union because of persecution due to her participation in the adult film industry. To be clear, the woman, who performed under the name Wiska, claimed that the government was persecuting her because of her involvement, which she contends was based on economic need, not direct coercion. She faced criminal charges in Ukraine and possible loss of her children. The Czech Republic denied her asylum application, but she announced that she intended to appeal. The protest group Femen, which consists of topless Ukrainian women, is supporting her.

– A county employee in Dallas offered perhaps the best excuse in the history of the universe for being late to work: Continue reading →

Nitpick of the Day: Ferrets are Not Rodents

Posted on April 9, 2013 by wellsdc

Austin’s KVUE News reported yesterday on a man, possibly in Brazil, who made a shocking discovery about his two pet poodles. Specifically, he learned that they are not poodles at all, but rather ferrets jacked up on steroids.

The unsourced story is certainly good for a shocked guffaw, except that it set off my NCD (Nerd Compulsive Disorder, which I hope to lobby for inclusion in the DSM-VI) when it described the two beasts as “giant rodents pumped with steroids to look like dogs.” Bad KVUE, bad!

The domesticated ferret, known to zoologists and geeks as Mustela putorius furo, is a placental mammal in the order Carnivora. Other well-known members of Carnivora includes dogs, cats, raccoons, meerkats, wolverines, honey badgers, lions, tigers, and bears (shut up.) Continue reading →

My 15 Minutes of Animal Law Fame

Posted on April 2, 2013 by wellsdc

I was part of a panel at the State Bar of Texas 2013 Animal Law Institute at South Texas College of Law on March 22, 2013. It is very similar to the presentation I did in Austin in September 2011, if you have been following my CLE presentation career. Anyway, here it is:

Animal Law Institute 2013 presentation from David Wells

Monday Morning Cute: Make the Most of What You Have

Posted on December 31, 2012 by wellsdc

For the final cute post of 2012, here is Anakin, the two-legged cat:

He reminds me of this comic.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Monday Morning Cute: Bonobo Sanctuary

Posted on December 17, 2012 by wellsdc

This is perhaps better classified as “touching” or “heartwarming” rather than “cute,” but close enough. Lola ya Bonobo, “the world’s only sanctuary for orphaned bonobos” is located near Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This picture is described as “mwanda and lomela at Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary.” The caption on the sanctuary’s Wikipedia page says: “A new orphan called Lomela at Lola ya Bonobo is comforted by another bonobo.”

Photo credit: “Lr new best bonobo pics20” by Vanessawoods (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Category Archives: Animal Welfare