Category Archives: Animals

Spanish region urges ‘respect for bulls’ after seven deaths at fiestas

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More than 300 festival goers also injured during 2022’s Bous al Carrer festivities

Authorities in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia are calling on festival goers not to “lose respect for bulls” after seven people were killed by the animals during this year’s Bous al Carrer bull-running fiestas.

The summer festivities – which translate as “bulls on the street”, and which are held in towns and villages across Valencia – have also resulted in more than 300 injuries in the past two months.

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Mystery surrounds cluster of satin bowerbird deaths in the Gold Coast hinterland

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Landowner and bird experts cast doubt on Queensland government’s rat poison theory

In a town perched atop the rainforest hinterland of the Gold Coast, one of Australia’s most charismatic birds is suddenly and mysteriously dying.

Rumours and misinformation are swirling around Tamborine Mountain to explain the spate of satin bowerbirds deaths, with fingers pointed at everything from rat poison to 4G phone towers.

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Australian racing industry ‘failing miserably’ to rehome greyhounds as adoption flatlines

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Welfare group says breeding numbers are still too high and surpass the industry’s capacity to rehabilitate the dogs

The rehoming of Australian racing industry dogs has flatlined in the last three years, according to research by the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds.

Just over 2,000 dogs were rehomed annually by industry adoption bodies, a figure that has not increased since 2017-18, a CPG report found.

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More than 100 hen harriers fledge in England for first time in a century

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Conservationists welcome successful breeding season but say birds remain at risk of being illegally killed

Nearly 120 rare hen harrier chicks have fledged in England this year, the highest number for more than a century, England’s conservation agency has said.

Natural England and its partners recorded 119 hen harrier chicks successfully fledging from nests across uplands in County Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland and Yorkshire. A fledgling is a young bird that has grown enough to acquire its initial flight feathers and is preparing to leave the nest and care for itself.

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Swift parrot recovery plan changes downplay logging threat, experts say

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Exclusive: Revisions revealed through FOI are more focused on protecting forestry industry than preventing species going extinct, scientists argue

Tasmanian and federal bureaucrats pushed for a recovery plan for a critically endangered parrot species to be changed to remove and downplay scientific evidence that logging was the biggest threat to its survival.

Scientists said the proposed changes to the recovery plan for the swift parrot – revealed in draft versions made available under freedom of information laws – were more focused on protecting the forestry industry than preventing the species going extinct.

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Australia’s rabbit invasion traced back to single importation of 24 animals in 1859, study finds

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Population then exploded in what researches say was ‘the fastest colonisation rate for an introduced mammal ever recorded’

The Australia-wide rabbit invasion resulted from a single introduction of just 24 animals in 1859, new research has confirmed.

Using historical and genetic data, scientists have pinpointed the origins of what they call “the fastest colonisation rate for an introduced mammal ever recorded”.

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Game over – the Ritz takes grouse off the menu in victory for environment campaigners

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Some restaurants are listening, with Corrigan’s not sourcing from intensive shoots and the Ritz not serving a Glorious Twelfth dish

From 12 August to early December, it’s usually possible to walk into old-fashioned fine dining establishments across the country and order the rare British delicacy that is grouse, frequently served with bread sauce and game chips.

But those hoping to eat the tiny game bird in the gilded Ritz dining room in London will be out of luck this year, as the world-famous hotel has quietly removed it from the menu after an outcry from environmental campaigners.

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No puppy love: post-lockdown lifestyles and cost of living are driving Australians to surrender their pets

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Animal shelters nearing capacity are encouraging people to adopt by slashing fees and hosting events to make room for other animals in need

The end of Covid lockdowns and the spiralling cost of living have left animal shelters overflowing, with organisations now forced to host adoption drives and slash their fees in an effort to get more animals out of shelters and into their forever homes.

This was in stark contrast to the high adoption rates and shelter shortages across Australia during the early days of the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.

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Canada zoo finds escaped wolf pups in moment of joy tinged with tragedy

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Four days after a ‘suspicious’ break-in, one pup is found safe and another appears to have been hit by a car

Emotions are bittersweet at a Canadian zoo after a runaway wolf pup was safely located after four days on the loose, but another was found dead along a road.

Conservation officers and zoo staff in Canada have spent the last four days searching for a runaway wolf after mysterious break-in freed a pack of the predators from the popular zoo.

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Canada conservation officers seek runaway wolf days after zoo break-in

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The Greater Vancouver Zoo revealed a pack of grey wolves had escaped after ‘suspicious’ damage to the fence of their enclosure

Conservation officers in Canada are searching for a runaway wolf three days after a mysterious break-in freed a pack of the predators from a popular zoo.

The Greater Vancouver Zoo announced on Tuesday morning it would not open to crowds that day, and later acknowledged that a pack of grey wolves had escaped after “suspicious” damage to the fence of their enclosure. The zoo said the incident was probably the result of “malicious intent”.

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Missouri cave divers rescue dog stranded for nearly two months

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Divers discovered Abby about 500ft below while exploring the Berome Moore cave system

Cave divers in Missouri recently rescued a dog stranded hundreds of feet underground almost two months after the animal disappeared from its family’s home.

A small group of divers discovered Abby, a 13-year-old pet, while exploring the passages of the 18-mile Berome Moore cave system in Perry county on 6 August. They alerted the local fire department and members of the Cave Research Foundation at the surface of their discovery about 500ft below.

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Norway was right to put down Freya the walrus, prime minister says

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Jonas Gahr Støre speaks out after criticism from campaigners, while a zoologist says decision was inevitable

Norway’s prime minister has said it was “right” to put down Freya, a 600kg (1,300lb) female walrus euthanised on Sunday in Oslo fjord, as animal rights campaigners attacked the decision but a leading zoologist insisted it was inevitable.

“I support the decision to euthanise Freya,” Jonas Gahr Støre told the public broadcaster NRK on Monday. “It was the right decision. I am not surprised that this has led to many international reactions. Sometimes we have to make unpopular decisions.”

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Freya the walrus euthanised after troubling crowds in Oslo fjord

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Young 600kg female had been basking in waters of Norway’s capital and attracting crowds who disturbed her rest

A walrus nicknamed Freya that attracted crowds while basking in the sun in the Oslo fjord has been euthanised.

“The decision to euthanise was taken on the basis of a global evaluation of the persistent threat to human security,” the head of Norway’s fisheries directorate, Frank Bakke-Jensen, said in a statement.

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Brexit threatening endangered species as red tape hits zoo breeding programmes

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Transferring critically endangered species within Europe to broaden the gene pool is more difficult with Britain outside the EU

Breeding programmes designed to save critically endangered species are being jeopardised by Brexit, with zoos warning they are being prevented from transferring animals such as rhinos and giraffes by red tape created by the UK’s departure from the EU.

The animal health regulation was passed in 2016 before the EU referendum, but came into force in April 2021. There have been no reports that the UK dissented from the regulation.

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Freya the walrus: Norway officials warn of euthanasia risk if crowds don’t stay away

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Onlookers continue to get close to ‘stressed’ 600kg mammal in Oslo despite appeals to keep a distance

Norwegian authorities say they are considering putting down a walrus that won hearts basking in the sun of the Oslo fjord, because of the danger to the public and itself from sightseers.

Despite repeated appeals to the public to keep their distance from the walrus – a young female weighing 600kg (1,300 pounds) that has been nicknamed Freya – the mammal continues to attract big crowds, the fisheries directorate has said.

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Intruder who broke into monkey enclosure in Tasmania at risk of ‘potentially fatal’ herpes

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Launceston council urges person who entered enclosure to seek medical attention urgently as monkeys can carry herpes B virus

Authorities are urging an intruder who broke into a monkey enclosure in Tasmania to seek medical attention as they may have been exposed to a “potentially fatal” herpes virus.

The enclosure, which houses macaque monkeys, was broken into on Tuesday night with the intruder causing damage to the electric fence before stealing coins from a surrounding moat.

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Calls to ban gamebird release to avoid ‘catastrophic’ avian flu outbreak

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RSPB warns of risk to UK wild bird population this winter from 1 October release of captive-bred birds

Conservationists have called for ministers to ban the release of millions of gamebirds to prevent the UK’s wild birds being wiped out by a “catastrophic” avian flu epidemic this winter.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said there was a significant risk that pheasants, partridge and ducks released for shooting from 1 October could spread avian influenza into wild bird populations, wreaking havoc in farmland and garden birds.

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WHO stresses monkeypox surge not linked to monkeys amid attack reports

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World Health Organization issues statement after reports of animals being poisoned in Brazil

The World Health Organization has stressed that monkeypox outbreaks are not linked to monkeys, following a number of reported attacks on the primates in Brazil.

“What people need to know is that the transmission we are seeing is happening between humans,” a WHO spokesperson, Margaret Harris, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

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‘Like a scene out of Jaws’: British boy attacked by sharks in Bahamas

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Finley Downer, eight, bitten on both legs by nurse sharks at Compass Cay before being pulled to safety

An eight-year-old British boy has been attacked by sharks while on holiday in the Bahamas.

Finley Downer was surrounded by three nurse sharks while swimming in a lagoon last week, his family said, before he was pulled to safety after suffering bites on both legs.

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British farmers face paying for border checkpoints in EU after Brexit halts exports

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Pedigree livestock breeders in Britain could be forced to spend millions of pounds to build facilities in France for ‘red tape’ checks by vets so their animals are allowed to enter the single market

British farmers are trying to set up red tape and border checks in France costing millions of pounds – and may even pay for it themselves.

Breeders in Britain are unable to export their pedigree cattle, sheep and pigs to the EU because no one has built any border control posts where vets can check the animals before they enter the single market.

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