Information about animals
One dead and another missing in suspected grizzly bear attack in Canada
The incident took place in the same province where a grizzly attacked a group of schoolchildren last November
A mother is dead and her daughter is missing in western Canada after a suspected grizzly bear attack in the same community where a bear attacked a group of schoolchildren earlier in the year.
On Tuesday, the British Columbia conservation officer service said in a social media post that it had launched a search for the two missing people on the weekend, and that during the search on Sunday an officer found the mother’s body. The search for her 19-year-old daughter is ongoing.
Continue reading...A barking-mad fee to train your dog | Letters
Dr Susannah O’Hanlon responds to an article that claimed in-person dog training can cost £150 an hour
Your article (Bone of contention: why dog trainers are at war, 28 October) says “in-person training can cost £150 an hour”. I do wonder where you got that figure from. I am a postgraduate-qualified clinical animal behaviourist and an accredited dog trainer with the Professional Association of Canine Trainers, with more than 16 years’ experience, and I charge £60 an hour for in-person training in affluent Cambridge. Delighted to hear I can double my prices.
I don’t endorse the use of prong, shock or spray collars as I work under the assumption that most people, like me, love their dogs and don’t want to subject them to unpleasant startles, pain or fear. Treats are part of what we use, but relationships are built on so much more than food.
Dr Susannah O’Hanlon
Oakington, Cambridgeshire
North America’s most widely distributed game bird is under threat
For the first time since 1937, no open permits to hunt ruffed grouse in Ohio have been issued due to falling numbers
Every November, hundreds of hunters descend on four designated wilderness areas in southern Ohio in pursuit of the elusive ruffed grouse.
But not this year.
Continue reading...The pest I’ll never forget: the cats who filled our house with live mice
Our house was a mouse-free zone until our new kittens began venturing into the nearby woods in search of prey and playthings
This is a cat-and-mouse story in which the cats are the real pests. My old house, despite being next to rodent-filled woods, was blissfully mouse-free … until, during lockdown, we got two kittens, Mimi and Ruben. As soon as their fine motor skills were sufficiently sharpened, they started hunting. Thankfully, they weren’t into birds, but wood mice became their specialism. I suppose the dearth of mice indoors meant they had to catch them outside. The tabby twins would then bring their prey back to their lair (our house) and release them, still miraculously alive. Perhaps they thought mice would make fun pets.
You would know they had brought in a mouse when they sat guarding sections of ill-fitting skirting or gaps under cupboard doors, uttering odd “prittering” sounds. Cue us humans moving furniture and dashing about, getting down on our hands and knees, reduced to hunting the mice ourselves with upturned Tupperware boxes. If we caught them, we released them in the woods, locking our yowling cats inside so they couldn’t see exactly where. But some mice inevitably escaped into the fabric of the house.
Continue reading...Denmark pushes for EU ban on ‘turbo chickens’ as secret footage causes outrage
Minister says government will work towards banning fast-growing breed across country and throughout EU
The Danish government is pursuing a national ban on “turbo chickens” and is calling for the fast-growing breed to be prohibited across Europe.
The move comes amid widespread outrage over allegations of lawbreaking by one of Denmark’s big chicken producers.
Continue reading...UK ministers told not to engage formally with Indian mega-zoo after lobbying
Guardian and Mongabay reveal approaches to officials and MPs on behalf of Vantara zoo ahead of UK-chaired Cites meeting on endangered animal imports
British government ministers were told not to engage formally with Vantara, the controversial mega-zoo run by the Indian billionaire Anant Ambani, after lobbying efforts by the private animal sanctuary in the run-up to a UK-chaired meeting on the trade in endangered species, according to documents.
This week, the UK heads a 32-country committee meeting in Geneva of Cites, the United Nations body that regulates trade in endangered species. The meeting will examine how India has responded to compliance concerns about imports of endangered animals.
Continue reading...