Animal News
Bear Bile Industry Gets Bitten by Legal Action
Chinese wildlife activists have resorted to legal action for the first time to try to end the bear bile industry, which has aroused concern due to the alleged ill treatment of bears. Animal rights activists, led by Beijing Fengtai YTAHZ Environmental Institute, a Beijing-based NGO promoting environmental protection, brought a lawsuit against the wildlife authority of Fujian province on April 11, requesting that it revoke the certificate issued to a medicine manufacturer that legally allows it to extract bile from live bears.
Link: ChinaDaily.com
Demand for Lion Bones Offers South African Breeders a Lucrative Return
Koos Hermanus would rather not give names to the lions he breeds. So here, behind a 2.4-metre high electric fence, is 1R, a three-and-a-half-year-old male, who consumes 5 kilograms of meat a day and weighs almost 200 kilograms. It will only leave its enclosure once it has been "booked"' by a hunter, most of whom are from the United States.
Link: Guardian.co.uk
Pangolin Meat from China Found after Boat Crashes into Coral Reef
A Chinese vessel that ran into a protected coral reef in the southwestern Philippines held evidence of even more environmental destruction inside: more than 10,000 kilograms (22,000 pounds) of meat from a protected species, the pangolin or scaly anteater.
Link: Huffington Post
Furs Fly as Chinese Consumers Drive Boom in U.S. Mink Farming
Battered by the economic downturn and years of animal rights activism in their own backyard, American mink farmers are now in a different sort of quandary: scrambling to keep up with China's demand for all things fur.
Link: Reuters.com
Kaziranga Remains a Success Story, Despite Rising Poaching
One challenge facing any visitor to one of India’s tiger parks is actually seeing a tiger. Often, people leave without ever catching a glimpse. For many years, the same problem existed for visitors who came to see the rhinoceroses at the Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern state of Assam. At the low point a century ago, there were only a dozen rhinos in the entire park.
Link: NYTimes.com
Beaver Kills Man in Belarus
A man on a fishing trip to Lake Shestakov in Belarus spotted a beaver by the side of the road and wanted to take a picture of it. Beavers are so cute, he probably thought. Unfortunately, beaver cuteness is only skin-deep. It pounced on the man when he approached and bit him in the thigh. The bite severed a main artery and the man bled to death.
Link: MSN.com
Deadly Bat Fungus Detected in Alabama Cave Crucial to Rare Species
A fungus tied to a disease devastating hibernating bats in the United States has been found in an Alabama cave system critical to the survival of endangered gray bats, government scientists said on Monday (April 8). Detection of the fungus that causes the bat disease, white-nose syndrome, in the Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama "could be pretty catastrophic" for the up to 1.6 million protected gray bats that hibernate there, said Paul McKenzie, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species coordinator.
Link: Yahoo! News
Illinois Bill Aims to Outlaw Lion Meat
In 1916, poet Carl Sandburg memorialized Chicago as “hog butcher to the world.” Now, one Illinois lawmaker wants to stop the city from earning a new reputation as lion butcher to the country. State Rep. Luis Arroyo (D) is behind the proposed legislation — the first in the nation to outlaw lion meat. Under Arroyo’s plan, anyone caught selling or slaughtering African lion (Panthera leo leo) would serve a year in jail and/or pay a $25,000 fine.
Link: TheEpochTimes.com
