Animal News

I was concerned to read that the city of Vacaville opted to use body-crushing Conibear traps to address conflicts with beavers. These traps are notoriously indiscriminate and pose a serious hazard to nontarget species, including cats and dogs. In fact, research has shown that for every target animal captured at least two other nontarget animals are caught, maimed, or killed.

Great engineers can co-exist
Monica Engebretson
Senior Program Associate for Born Free USA united with API
Letter to the Editor
The Reporter (Vacaville, CA)

"I think I may have teared up at the end [of Born Free] when they release [the lioness] Elsa. I couldn't have been more than 4 or 5 ..."

Barack Obama: My Pop-Culture Favorites
Benjamin Svetkey
Entertainment Weekly

Three tigers attacked a worker at an exotic animal park in southwestern Missouri on Monday — the state's second tiger attack in as many days. Born Free USA united with API has long decried the dangers of keeping exotic animals in captivity.

Missouri sees second tiger attack in as many days
Betsy Taylor
Associated Press

Born Free USA provided behind-the-scenes expertise and footage for this incredible piece on ABC News 20/20 which focuses on captive and wild elephants and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Elephants Never Forget
20/20 In Touch
ABC News

"Hard to tell which will put on the bigger show -- the 138th edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, opening at Staples Center tonight, or animal rights groups, including PETA, taking aim at one of their prime targets. Last Chance for Animals is also getting into the act, as is Born Free [USA united with API]..."

The circus -- and the protesters -- come to town tonight
Veronique de Turenne
Los Angeles Times

In-depth investigative piece focuses on the Animal Protection Institute’s coalition lawsuit against Ringling Bros. for substandard care of endangered Asian elephants.

Ringling Brothers Responds to a Pending Lawsuit
KLAS-TV Las Vegas

The July 1, 2008, episode of ABC News Primetime focuses on people who have purchased monkeys as surrogate children. Born Free USA united with API has more than 500 primates at its sanctuary, many formerly kept as pets, and our staff worked closely with Primetime producers to develop this story, including allowing them the use of footage from our investigation into exotic animals kept as “pets.”

Families Adopt Monkeys as Surrogate Children
ABC News Primetime

"Great apes should have the right to life and freedom, according to a resolution passed in the Spanish parliament, in what could become landmark legislation to enshrine human rights for chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and bonobos." Born Free USA united with API's UK-based colleague, the Born Free Foundation, has a similar interest in great apes through its core involvement in The Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP), a United Nations partnership that aims to lift the threat of imminent extinction faced by gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans across their ranges in equatorial Africa and south-east Asia.

Spanish parliament approves 'human rights' for apes
Lee Glendinning
The Guardian