The definition of insanity, it’s often said, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. As it happens, this isn’t actually the definition of insanity. And it’s unlikely that the pithy quote actually originates with Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, or Mark Twain, though it’s often attributed to one of the [...]
Browsing the archives for the In the News category
15 May 13
7 May 13
Impact.
In the end, my decision to join Best Friends Animal Society (which became official last week) came down to that one factor: impact. As a member of their National Programs team, I’ll have the opportunity to improve the lives of stray, abandoned, and feral cats on a scale I could only dream of three years [...]
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Posted in In the News, Vox Felina
Tagged Best Friends Animal Society, Cat Initiatives Analyst
Tagged Best Friends Animal Society, Cat Initiatives Analyst
6 May 13
Have you seen the just-launched Common Sense for Cats website yet? It’s an Alley Cat Allies initiative that the organization describes as “an online resource to educate about outdoor cats and Trap-Neuter-Return, the only humane and effective program to stabilize—and reduce—outdoor cat populations.”
The site serves as a useful primer—courtesy of some very nice visuals—for those [...]
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Posted in In the News
Tagged Alley Cat Allies, Common Sense for Cats, community cats, feral cats, Trap-Neuter-Return
Tagged Alley Cat Allies, Common Sense for Cats, community cats, feral cats, Trap-Neuter-Return
1 May 13
It doesn’t happen often enough—but every now and then, common sense, reason, and compassion win the day. Today is such a day.
This morning Hillsborough County commissioners voted 6-to-1 in favor of Hillsborough County Animal Services’ recently announced TNR pilot program—part of director Ian Hallett’s proposal for reducing shelter killing (PDF).
This is a huge victory for [...]
29 Apr 13
Hillsborough County (Florida) Animal Services’ modest step in adopting TNR is met with fierce resistance by some in the veterinary community. Their alternative plan? Uninformed, unfunded, and unworkable.
Among the agenda items to be addressed when the Hillsborough County (FL) Board of Commissioners meets Wednesday morning: “approve the Animal Services Department’s Plan to Increase Live Outcomes [...]
4 Apr 13
Ada Pierson has been feeding stray cats for years outside of her Stryker, Ohio, home. But according to Toledo’s WTVG/13ABC, all of them—a dozen or so—disappeared in January. And Pierson’s blaming Stryker police officers.
“They were either shot or they were drowned,” she explained to 13ABC reporter Christine Long. “I think it’s horrible, they did not [...]
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Posted in In the News, animal cruelty
Tagged Ada Pierson, Dan Hughes, drowning, Ohio, shooting, stray cats, Stryker, Stryker Police
Tagged Ada Pierson, Dan Hughes, drowning, Ohio, shooting, stray cats, Stryker, Stryker Police
31 Mar 13
Less than two weeks after the “Community Cat Act” received unanimous approval from Florida’s House Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee, the bill (SB 1320) is scheduled to be heard and voted on by the Senate’s Agriculture Committee Monday afternoon.
As I reported in my previous post, the Florida Veterinary Medical Association came out in opposition to [...]
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Posted in In the News, Policy Issues
Tagged Community Cat Act, Florida SB 1320, PETA, TNR, Trap-Neuter-Return
Tagged Community Cat Act, Florida SB 1320, PETA, TNR, Trap-Neuter-Return
28 Mar 13
Among the “values and objectives that are still revered” by the 85-year-old Florida Veterinary Medical Association is “to further the education of its members.” So why is the organization going out of its way to misinform them about House Bill 1121, “The Community Cat Act”?
The bill, authored by Best Friends Animal Society and supported by [...]
27 Mar 13
Had David Yarnold waited just a few more days, the announcement might have been taken as an April Fools joke: Ted Williams is back.
“After doing the review we promised,” explained Yarnold, president and CEO of the National Audubon Society, in a blog post Tuesday, “which included extensive fact-checking and a look at Ted’s work for [...]
25 Mar 13
Feral cat advocates were more than ready for some good news when, last Wednesday afternoon, we got some. Florida House Bill 1121, supported by Best Friends Animal Society, Alley Cat Allies, and the Humane Society of the United States, made it through the 11-member House Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee with unanimous approval. Among the [...]
20 Mar 13
Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonata) in Cayucos, CA. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Marlin Harms.
Swallows evolve shorter wings to avoid cars, study suggests.
Over the past few years, I’ve grown increasingly skeptical of such headlines. Still, sometimes the research really does live up to the media hype. This would seem to be the case here, in [...]
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Posted in In the News
Tagged Charles R. Brown, cliff swallows, evolution, Mary Bomberger Brown, predation, Trap-Neuter-Return
Tagged Charles R. Brown, cliff swallows, evolution, Mary Bomberger Brown, predation, Trap-Neuter-Return
17 Mar 13
It’s been a turbulent few days for Ted Williams. First, the editors at the Orlando Sentinel—who, it seems clear, were previously asleep at the switch—revised his op-ed, pulling the comment about Tylenol and changing his affiliation from “editor-at-large for Audubon magazine” to “independent column[ist] for Audubon magazine.” They also added a disclaimer: “His views do [...]
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Posted in Cats and Birds, In the News
Tagged National Audubon Society, Orlando Sentinel, poisoning, Ted Williams, TNR, Trap-Neuter-Return
Tagged National Audubon Society, Orlando Sentinel, poisoning, Ted Williams, TNR, Trap-Neuter-Return
14 Mar 13
Armed with the recently published “killer cat study” from the Smithsonian Biological Conservation Institute and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, TNR opponents are calling for increasingly extreme measures.
Travis Longcore was among the first, telling KCET reporter Judy Muller that “managing and controlling unowned, free-roaming cats will require euthanasia. There are not enough shelter spaces, there [...]
7 Mar 13
It was easy to miss,* what with all the media attention devoted to the Smithsonian/USFWS’s “killer cat study,” published less than 24 hours later, but on January 28th, the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex (managed by USFWS) released the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex Integrated Pest Management Plan. Regular readers will recall that [...]
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Posted in In the News, Policy Issues, Threats to Wildlife
Tagged Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex, Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex Integrated Pest Management Plan, Key Largo Cotton Mouse, Key Largo Woodrat, Key Lime Kitties, Lower Keys marsh rabbit, Our Animal Family, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Tagged Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex, Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex Integrated Pest Management Plan, Key Largo Cotton Mouse, Key Largo Woodrat, Key Lime Kitties, Lower Keys marsh rabbit, Our Animal Family, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1 Mar 13
“The only sure way to protect wildlife, cats and people is for domestic cats to be permanently removed from the outdoor environment,” argues American Bird Conservancy president George Fenwick in a Baltimore Sun op-ed published earlier this week.
“Trap-neuter-release programs that perpetuate the slaughter of wildlife and encourage the dumping of unwanted cats is [sic] a [...]
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Posted in Cats and Birds, In the News, Policy Issues
Tagged American Bird Conservancy, George Fenwick, Trap-Neuter-Return
Tagged American Bird Conservancy, George Fenwick, Trap-Neuter-Return
25 Feb 13
What do you get when public policy is based on agenda-driven junk science? If various TNR opponents have their way, we’ll find out the hard way.
As I pointed out shortly after the Smithsonian/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “killer cat study” was published, the paper actually has very little to do with science or conservation. At [...]
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Posted in In the News, Policy Issues
Tagged Alisa Mullins, Charlie Potter, Judy Muller, KCET, Mike Lynes, PETA, Peter Marra, Scott Loss, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, SoCal Connected, Stanley Temple, Stray Cat Alliance, Tom Will, Travis Longcore, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Tagged Alisa Mullins, Charlie Potter, Judy Muller, KCET, Mike Lynes, PETA, Peter Marra, Scott Loss, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, SoCal Connected, Stanley Temple, Stray Cat Alliance, Tom Will, Travis Longcore, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
18 Feb 13
It came as some surprise, a couple weeks ago, to learn that Stanley Temple was a guest on WHYY’s Radio Times, discussing the Smithsonian’s “killer cat study.” (Full disclosure: I’ve yet to listen to the episode.) Temple was, as I’m sure most readers know, the man behind the infamous Wisconsin Study (from which, not surprisingly, [...]
11 Feb 13
If you missed this week’s Animal Wise Radio show, when I discussed the Smithsonian’s recently published “killer cat study” with hosts Mike Fry and Beth Nelson, you can check the complete show in podcast format. An MP3 file (10.8 MB) of our conversation (approximately 22 minutes) is available here.
9 Feb 13
Tune in tomorrow to Animal Wise Radio, when I’ll be on with hosts Mike Fry and Beth Nelson discussing the Smithsonian’s recently published “killer cat” study.
For schedule, a list of local stations, or to listen online, check out the Animal Wise Radio website.
7 Feb 13
How many of you are willing to get a tattoo of the Vox Felina logo? Well, two San Francisco SPCA employees are.
Maybe.
As part of SF SPCA’s upcoming Be Mine Adopt-a-thon, Laura Gretch and Daniel Quagliozzi (both of whom I’m proud to call friends) are going head to head in a very unusual fundraising auction, as [...]
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Posted in Charities, In the News
Tagged Daniel Quagliozzi, fundraiser, Laura Gretch, San Francisco SPCA
Tagged Daniel Quagliozzi, fundraiser, Laura Gretch, San Francisco SPCA
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