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Bob Barker speaks out for bears in Cherokee, North Carolina, in this blog from Larry King Live. Some of these same facilities were part of our 2005 investigation showing bears kept in horrible conditions — North Carolina still has not taken steps to protect the welfare of these animals.

Cherokee’s Unbearable Bear Pits
Bob Barker
Larry King Live blog

... In a National Geographic article, Adam Roberts, vice president of the animal-advocacy nonprofit Born Free USA, notes that 34 states ban trade in bear gallbladders and bile - but there are five states that do not. ...

Proposed Bill Hopes to Protect North American Black Bears from Poaching for Asian Markets - Before It’s Too Late
Rhishja Larson
EcoWorldly

... The verdict in a groundbreaking civil trial against Ringling Bros. is due any day. Evidence obtained by the plaintiffs, Born Free USA and the Animal Protection Institute, shows that Ringling elephants are kept virtually immobilized in chains for most of their lives. ...

Poole: Show circus animals compassion
Lyndon Poole
Austin American-Statesman

If you’re on Twitter, get ready to help us spread the word about our amazing Primate Sanctuary. We are going to “Twitter4Critters” @Born Free USA, #Twitter4Critters.

We'd love to get lots of new followers and lots of re-tweets to help raise money for the 500+ primates we care for at the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary in Texas. Help spread the word about our Summer Banana-A-Peel! Should be lots of fun and we look forward to Tweeting with you!!

Thanks as always for your incredible support!

The folks (and critters!) at Born Free USA

Like many people in his generation, Louie Psihoyos grew up watching Flipper and Jacques Cousteau adventures on television. After National Geographic magazine hired him as a staff photographer, his admiration for the intelligence and beauty of dolphins, and for the oceans as an ecological system, grew as he learned how to dive and began to work underwater. But none of that quite prepared him for the experience of making The Cove, an award-winning documentary about the clandestine slaughter of dolphins in Japan.

In a Killing Cove, Siding With Dolphins
Larry Rohter
The New York Times

... Even if it takes years of saving $20 per paycheck, it is possible to create a ‘dream travel’ fund to get you where you want to go. I recently saved up enough to take my dream trip to see the incredible wildlife of Kenya. Being that I work for Born Free USA, it was also exciting to think of seeing the land and animals that inspired the movie Born Free! But really, I just wanted to see elephants.

Taking the trip of a lifetime
Zibby Wilder
Memohotel Blog

... According to the Animal Protection Institute, a 2007 study by San Francisco State University found that temperatures inside a car with the windows cracked can rise almost 20 degrees in 10 minutes, 35 degrees in 30 minutes and as much as 50 degrees in one hour. "Hundreds of beloved canine companions are unintentionally killed or injured each year by being left in hot cars, even with windows cracked and only for a short time," the institute's Web site states. ...

Dogs in Ashland found trapped in hot cars
Hannah Guzik
Ashland Daily Tidings

In zoo parlance, they’re known as charismatic megafauna. We’re talking lions, tigers, and other large creatures. They are the big-ticket beasts and the reason, historically anyway, why people have come to the zoo. Where there is megafauna, the thinking goes, there will be crowds.

That’s partly what made Ron Kagan’s decision so shocking. The executive director of the Detroit Zoo announced in 2004 that he was voluntarily sending his zoo’s two Asian elephants to a California sanctuary, where the land was plentiful, the weather temperate, and the elephants could roam. The reason, Kagan said, was simple. To paraphrase: The zoo, despite its best efforts, was essentially ruining the elephants’ lives.

Returning wildlife to the wild is part of Born Free USA's mission.

Goodbye, Jumbo: The identity crisis of the modern zoo
Keith O’Brien
The Boston Globe