South Africa puts year-long ban on leopard hunting

Yahoo – AFP, January 25, 2016

A leopard sneaks out from the bush at the Born Free Foundation on May 12,
2010 in the Shamwari Game Reserve (AFP Photo/Gianluigi Guercia)

Johannesburg (AFP) - South Africa has imposed a year-long ban on leopard hunting in 2016 in a decision hailed Monday by conservation activists.

"Provincial conservation authorities were informed that leopard hunts should not be authorised in 2016," the Department of Environmental Affairs said, adding that the ban would be reviewed at the end of the year.

The department said it was acting on recommendations from South Africa's Scientific Authority, which had suggested an intervention to ensure the survival of the leopard population.

Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), South Africa can allocate 150 permits each year for the trophy-hunting of leopards destined for export.

The size of South Africa's leopard population remains a mystery.

"We just don't know how leopards are faring in South Africa," said Guy Balme of environmental group Panthera.

"They're secretive, mainly nocturnal, solitary and range over huge areas," he explained.

Conservation groups hailed the year-long ban, saying it was crucial to protecting the species given that the size of the population is unknown.

"Until we know population numbers and carrying capacity we should not hunt them," said Andrew Muir of the Wilderness Foundation.

Kelly Marnewick, carnivore conservation manager at the Environmental Wildlife Trust, added: "It's important to ensure that any wildlife trade we do is sustainable.

"If we can't do that, it's highly problematical. We need a trade ban until we can get to that."

The mismanagement of trophy hunting and the illegal trade in leopard fur are the main threats to South Africa's population of the big cat, according to the government.

Dignitaries from South Africa's Zulu community traditionally wear animal skins for ceremonies, particularly leopard fur.

South Africa earns substantial revenues from selling permits to wealthy foreigners willing to pay thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars to hunt one of the "big five" (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino or buffalo).

Hunting generates some 6.2 million rand ($375 million/347 million euros) for South Africa every year, according to the environment ministry.

Dolphin circus sparks animal cruelty debate in Central Asia

Yahoo – AFP, Tolkun Namatbayeva, January 21, 2016

Dolphins during a performance at the Moscow Travelling Dolphinarium
(AFP Photo/Vyacheslav Oseledko)

Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) (AFP) - Inside a travelling aquatic circus in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, whoops and cheers go up as a dolphin leaps out of a pool and slam-dunks a ball through a basketball net.

Hundreds of people packed inside the Moscow Travelling Dolphinarium to watch dolphins and beluga whales perform acrobatic stunts, against a painted backdrop of blue skies and palm trees.

A beluga whale performs at the Moscow 

ravelling Dolphinarium in Bishkek

(AFP Photo/Vyacheslav Oseledko)

A blonde female announcer dressed as a sailor spurs on the animals like champion athletes.

"A real sportsman doesn't give up so easily," she booms as a beluga named Dandy leaps out of the water but fails to whack a ball hanging on a string with his tail.

But he does not fluff up his second attempt.

"And he's got it this time!" the presenter shouts as the crowd roars in approval over a soundtrack of blaring rock and Russian pop ballads.

While the New Year's show wowed crowds in landlocked Kyrgyzstan, it also fuelled a long-running debate in former Soviet states about cruelty to animals.

Travelling dolphinariums are banned across much of the world but remain popular in the ex-Soviet bloc where forms of circus entertainment prohibited in the West, such as acts with wild animals like lions and bears, continue to thrive despite concerns about animal welfare.

Yet opposition to animal abuse has grown in recent times, with local activists using the Internet to gather data and mobilise opposition to practises they say involve animal cruelty or stress.

Before the Moscow dolphin circus rolled into town, 1,500 people signed an online petition imploring Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambayev to ban it.

On opening night, a group of protesters picketed the performance with posters featuring drawings of weeping dolphins, some of them by children.

"Why has this dolphin circus ended up in Kyrgyzstan? Because it has nowhere else to go and we are a poor country with lax legislation," Anna Kirilenko of BIOM, an environmentalist non-profit organisation based in Bishkek, told AFP.

Authorities in Bishkek however defended the show.

"Dolphins love to be touched. Training and performances are a form of play for dolphins...they were born in captivity and thus would not survive in the wild," the mayor's office said in a statement.

Before the Moscow dolphin circus rolled into town, 1,500 people signed an online

 petition imploring Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambayev to ban it (AFP Photo/

Vyacheslav Oseledko)

Video footage secretly recorded by citizen journalists showing a circus whale in the Russian city of Perm being kept in a small metal container for days on end has been used by activists to press their case.

A representative of the Moscow Travelling Dolphinarium denied any connection between the circus and the whale in Perm, saying the company never toured in Russia outside the capital.

Shooting stray dogs

Animal abuse is a recurring theme in Kyrgyzstan -- the second-poorest country to emerge from the breakup of the Soviet Union.

In 2011, authorities in Bishkek announced plans to shoot around 10,000 stray dogs, sparking an international outcry and a number of petitions demanding the creatures be spared.

The government defended the shootings, arguing that housing the dogs or organising a programme of mass sterilisation was too costly.

Neighbouring Tajikistan also has a sometimes unsavoury reputation on animal welfare.

For many years, a white-bearded man patrolled the streets of the capital Dushanbe with a sad-looking muzzled bear, offering rides to passers-by. Both he and his bear died in 2013.

The stress and discomfort suffered by aquatic mammals in travelling circuses has attracted particular attention.

In 2010, a beluga whale called Dale died from heart problems in Kazakhstan while touring with a Russian circus.

Animal-welfare organisations prostest against the Moscow Travelling Dolphinarium 

during their rally outside the dolphinarium in Bishkek (AFP Photo/Vyacheslav Oseledko)

Dale's circus partner lost interest in performing tricks after his death and disappeared from the show shortly afterwards, Kazakh media reported.

'Worst of the worst'

"These travelling dolphin circuses are the worst of the worst in terms of cruelty," said Richard O'Barry, founder of the US-based Dolphin Project that campaigns against dolphin captivity.

"They haul dolphins and whales around in a truck. They live in a coffin-sized box. Then they milk as much money out of them before they die from stress-related diseases."

O'Barry once trained dolphins for the US television show Flipper but turned his back on such displays after the dolphin that most often played the lead character died in what O'Barry believes was a suicide triggered by depression.

Dolphin circus sparks animal cruelty debate in Central Asia https://t.co/l9OAu2FW0Q pic.twitter.com/yIgrm8kdKR

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 21, 2016

Police dog finds couple's life savings, in the kitchen

Yahoo – AFP, January 19, 2016

A Belgian Shepherd named Evita came up trumps "within minutes" -- finding
 the Viennese couple's cash stashed away inside a box in a kitchen cupboard
(AFP Photo)

Vienna (AFP) - The old Viennese couple were desperate. Their life savings had disappeared -- stolen, they thought. But then came Evita de La Basse Autriche, a police dog specialised in sniffing out money.

After the couple had turned their apartment upside down looking for the several thousand euros, Belgian Shepherd Evita came up trumps "within minutes" -- finding the cash stashed away inside a box in a kitchen cupboard, Austrian police said Tuesday.

"All police dogs all have the same basic training to detect different things," police spokesman Paul Eidenberger told AFP.

"Then they can be specialised, for example for explosives, blood traces -- and also documents and money."

Dog bless you: pets head to church in Spain

Yahoo – AFP, January 18, 2016

A priest blesses a dog to mark San Anton Abad's Day in Churriana, near Malaga
on January 17, 2016 (AFP Photo/Jorge Guerrero)

Madrid (AFP) - Dogs, cats, rabbits and even iguanas, many decked out in colourful sweaters to keep warm, trooped into Spanish churches for a blessing on the Day of Saint Anthony, patron saint of animals.

Pet-owners lined up around the block of the Church of San Anton in central Madrid to wait for a priest who stood at the entrance of the building to sprinkle holy water on their animals.

"For those of us who are believers we believe it provides health and well-being to the animal as well as their owner," said 40-year-old waiter Francisco Javier Carvajal Aceves as he waited in line with his 13-month-old Chihuahua Lula cradled in his arms.

Spanish churches offered the traditional

 blessing on the Day of Saint Anthony, 

patron saint of animals (AFP Photo/

Jorge Guerrero)

"Animals also are beings created by God and deserve to be blessed," he added as other dogs waiting with their owners barked in the background.

Aceves said he has come to the church every year to have his pets blessed since he moved to Madrid from Mexico 16 years ago.

He dressed his dog in a red and white sweater, while other pet-owners brought their dogs in brightly-coloured coats or with bows in their fur.

One woman brought a grey rabbit inside a red gym bag to be blessed, an elderly man cradled a white dove in his hand and a young man took an iguana in a shoebox.

Blanca, a 54-year-old decorator, waited for half an hour for her turn to have her Labrador Retriever blessed by a priest.

"You always have to wait because a lot of people in Madrid have pets and everyone wants to come to have them blessed," she said.

"You have to come every year to be blessed so they will live for many more years. A dog, an animal provides great company, gives you much pleasure, they behave better than humans sometimes. If you don't have a dog you don't understand."

After having their pets blessed, the faithful lined up outside a church window to buy bread rolls that were baked according to a secret recipe that keeps them soft.

People wait with their dogs to be blessed by a priest on San Anton Abad's Day 

(Saint Anthony), in Churriana, near Malaga on January 17, 2016 (AFP Photo/

Jorge Guerrero)

Each parishioner received three buns, one of which is traditionally kept for a year alongside a coin to ensure work and health and to guarantee the blessing of the saint.

The church celebrated several masses throughout the day in honour of Saint Anthony which were attended by pets and their owners.

The festival has been celebrated in Madrid largely uninterrupted since the 19th century. It is also held in other parts of Spain, such as the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the northern city of Burgos.

Related Article:

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: I live in Spain. I am sorry if I will ask you a question you might have already answered, but the translations of your books are very slow and I might not have gathered all information you have already given. I am quite concerned about abandoned animals. It seems that many people buy animals for their children and as soon as they grow, they set them out somewhere. Recently I had the occasion to see a small kitten in the middle of the street. I did not immediately react, since I could have stopped and taken it, without getting out of the car. So, I went on and at the first occasion I could turn, I went back to see if I could take the kitten, but it was to late, somebody had already killed it. This happened some month ago, but I still feel very sorry for that kitten. I just would like to know, what kind of entity are these animals and how does this fit in our world. Are these entities which choose this kind of life, like we do choose our kind of Human life? I see so many abandoned animals and every time I see one, my heart aches... I would like to know more about them.

Answer: Dear one, indeed the answer has been given, but let us give it again so you all understand. Animals are here on earth for three (3) reasons.

(1) The balance of biological life. . . the circle of energy that is needed for you to exist in what you call "nature."

(2) To be harvested. Yes, it's true. Many exist for your sustenance, and this is appropriate. It is a harmony between Human and animal, and always has. Remember the buffalo that willingly came into the indigenous tribes to be sacrificed when called? These are stories that you should examine again. The inappropriateness of today's culture is how these precious creatures are treated. Did you know that if there was an honoring ceremony at their death, they would nourish you better? Did you know that there is ceremony that could benefit all of humanity in this way. Perhaps it's time you saw it.

(3) To be loved and to love. For many cultures, animals serve as surrogate children, loved and taken care of. It gives Humans a chance to show compassion when they need it, and to have unconditional love when they need it. This is extremely important to many, and provides balance and centering for many.

Do animals know all this? At a basic level, they do. Not in the way you "know," but in a cellular awareness they understand that they are here in service to planet earth. If you honor them in all three instances, then balance will be the result. Your feelings about their treatment is important. Temper your reactions with the spiritual logic of their appropriateness and their service to humanity. Honor them in all three cases.

New York deal to limit horse-drawn carriage rides

Yahoo – AFP, January 18, 2016

New York's horse carriage industry, which mainly takes tourists through Central Park,
has come under criticism from animal welfare agencies (AFP Photo/Spencer Platt)

New York (AFP) - New York reached a deal that will almost halve the number of horses licensed to perform carriage rides in Central Park after the mayor called them inhumane to animals.

The agreement, which will keep the industry alive, comes after Mayor Bill de Blasio promised two years ago to abolish the rides popular with tourists, loved-up couples and immortalized in movies.

The deal, which will start to come into effect from June 1 and take three years to be fully implemented, will reduce from 180 to 110 the number of licensed horses by December 1, the city council said.

The ultimate goal is to reduce the number to 95 and to give 75 horses a long-term home in Central Park stables, therefore banning public horse rides on the streets of Manhattan.

"We are pleased to have reached an agreement in concept on the future of New York's horse carriage industry," said the mayor's office said.

"We look forward to working together on the final details of this legislation and getting this passed," it added in a statement.

The agreement demands that by October 1 2018 stables will be established in Central Park to house 68 carriages and 75 horses, the city council said.

New York reached a deal late that will almost halve the number of horses licensed

 to perform carriage rides in Central Park after the mayor called them inhumane to

animals (AFP Photo/Jewel Samad)

Horses not at work must be on furlough outside the city, and no carriage can operate for longer than nine hours a day by December 1.

NYClass, one of the groups demanding a ban on carriage rides, has collected more than 35,800 signatures in an online petition.

The petition calls the carriage horse industry "cruel, inhumane and unsafe" and demands the horses to be retired to sanctuaries.

"Horses do not belong in a congested, urban setting where they constantly breathe exhaust while dodging dangerous traffic," it says.

The group was not immediately reachable for comment to the deal.

Mumbai's ornate horse-drawn carriages are nearing the end of the road after a

 court in the Indian city ruled them illegal, saying owners must wind up operations

within a year (AFP Photo/Punit Paranjpe)

Related Articles:

Indian court bans Mumbai's horse-drawn carriages

Culture or Cruelty?

Rampaging elephants force Myanmar villagers into tree-top refuges

Yahoo – AFP, January 16, 2016

Residents stand near a tree house in the Kyauk Ye village on the outskirts
of Yangon on January 14, 2016 (AFP Photo/Ye Aung Thu)

Taik Kyi (Myanmar) (AFP) - Pushed from their forest home by encroaching farm land, wild elephants are driving fearful villagers in a Myanmar township to seek refuge in tree houses while the animals storm their rice paddies looking for food.

The elephants have trampled crops, destroyed homes and even, villagers say, killed people in their path -- forcing families in Kyat Chuang to build new shelters made of wood and bamboo on higher ground.

"We have had to move our huts into the trees, so we are safe," explained San Lwin, who dashes several metres up a tree to his thatch-roofed shelter when the elephants are near.

Villagers in Kyat Chaung, a farming community 100 kilometres north of Yangon, told AFP they yearned for the days before the elephant rampages started three years ago.

A man climbs up to a tree house in Taik Kyi village on the outskirts of 

Yangon on January 14, 2016 (AFP Photo/Ye Aung Thu)

Now they scamper up home-made bamboo ladders to their elevated huts whenever they hear the thundering sound of elephant feet, which is usually several times a week.

"We want them to be taken away ... so we can live peacefully," said Than Shin, a 57-year-old farmer.

Spurred by the loss of their forest habitats, the elephants, and villagers they have been terrorising, are some of the casualties of Myanmar's alarming rate of deforestation, one of the fastest in the region.

The country lost almost 20 percent of its forest cover between 1990 and 2010, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Experts say the chief drivers of forest loss are logging and large-scale land concessions for commercial agriculture handed out under decades of opaque junta rule.

Myanmar's population of wild Asian elephants is thought to be one of the largest in the region, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Wild elephants are driving fearful villagers in a Myanmar township to seek

refuge in tree houses (AFP Photo/Ye Aung Thu)

But the endangered species is increasingly threatened by habitat loss, a thirst for ivory, and traffickers who smuggle the animals into Thailand for the tourist industry.

The newly-elected National League for Democracy (NLD) -- the pro-democracy party of Aung San Suu Kyi that swept to a thumping majority in landmark elections in November -- said Thursday it would address Myanmar's medley of environmental issues after assuming office later this year.

"We will try to restore the environment in Myanmar that has been ruined for many decades," Soe Nyunt, vice chairman of the NLD's Environmental Conservation Committee told AFP.

"It will not be easy," he added.

Florida retirement comes early for Ringling circus elephants

Yahoo – AFP, January 11, 2016

Elephants walk in the arena during a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey
Circus performance in Washington (AFP Photo/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds)

Miami (AFP) - Ringling Brothers, America's best-known circus, announced Monday it will relocate all of its elephants to a conservation center in Florida by May, advancing the retirement date for the giant pachyderms by more than a year.

"Feld Entertainment announced today that all of the Asian elephants from their traveling circus units will be moved to their permanent home at the Ringling Brothers Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida in May 2016," the parent company for the circus said in a statement.

"There they will join the rest of the Ringling Brothers' herd of Asian elephants, for a total of 42 at the conservation center."

The 145-year old "Greatest Show on Earth" -- bowing to criticism from animal rights groups -- announced in March that it would phase out use of their emblematic elephants, long a centerpiece of their annual traveling show.

Feld Entertainment originally had said the elephants would be gradually withdrawn from the big top and completely gone only by 2018, but it now has accelerated that retirement date.

However, some animal rights advocates, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said sending the animals to the Ringling's conservation center is a far from satisfactory outcome.

"It's not all sunshine and roses for the 'retired' elephants," PETA said in a statement.

"At Ringling's grandiosely named Center for Elephant Conservation elephants will no doubt still be chained on a daily basis, be forced to breed, be deprived of opportunities to interact and socialize normally, and continue to live in fear of being hit with bullhooks," the statement said.

It urged Ringling to send the elephants to a bona fide animal sanctuary with conditions similar to those they would find in their natural habitat.

"Pulling elephants from the road is a step in the right direction, but... the elephants should be taken to legitimate sanctuaries, and all the animal acts should come to an end."

Ringling Brothers in 2011 had to pay a $270,000 fine after receiving citations over how it treated its animals, among other infractions over the years.

An increasing number of US towns and cities have adopted anti-elephant ordinances forbidding circus acts with elephants to enter the municipal limits.

The circus said it would continue to feature other animals in its acts, including tigers, lions, horses, dogs and camels.

Related Articles:

Ringling Bros circus to phase out elephants by 2018

New animal protection laws in Taiwan may close older zoos

Circus bears offered sanctuary from trauma in Romania

After ban, Mexico's circus animals await new homes

SeaWorld park to redesign controversial whale tank

A day this elephant will never forget: Anne's retirement begins as campaign to build safe-haven for circus animals is launched

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: I live in Spain. I am sorry if I will ask you a question you might have already answered, but the translations of your books are very slow and I might not have gathered all information you have already given. I am quite concerned about abandoned animals. It seems that many people buy animals for their children and as soon as they grow, they set them out somewhere. Recently I had the occasion to see a small kitten in the middle of the street. I did not immediately react, since I could have stopped and taken it, without getting out of the car. So, I went on and at the first occasion I could turn, I went back to see if I could take the kitten, but it was to late, somebody had already killed it. This happened some month ago, but I still feel very sorry for that kitten. I just would like to know, what kind of entity are these animals and how does this fit in our world. Are these entities which choose this kind of life, like we do choose our kind of Human life? I see so many abandoned animals and every time I see one, my heart aches... I would like to know more about them.

Answer: Dear one, indeed the answer has been given, but let us give it again so you all understand. Animals are here on earth for three (3) reasons.

(1) The balance of biological life. . . the circle of energy that is needed for you to exist in what you call "nature."

(2) To be harvested. Yes, it's true. Many exist for your sustenance, and this is appropriate. It is a harmony between Human and animal, and always has. Remember the buffalo that willingly came into the indigenous tribes to be sacrificed when called? These are stories that you should examine again. The inappropriateness of today's culture is how these precious creatures are treated. Did you know that if there was an honoring ceremony at their death, they would nourish you better? Did you know that there is ceremony that could benefit all of humanity in this way. Perhaps it's time you saw it.

(3) To be loved and to love. For many cultures, animals serve as surrogate children, loved and taken care of. It gives Humans a chance to show compassion when they need it, and to have unconditional love when they need it. This is extremely important to many, and provides balance and centering for many.

Do animals know all this? At a basic level, they do. Not in the way you "know," but in a cellular awareness they understand that they are here in service to planet earth. If you honor them in all three instances, then balance will be the result. Your feelings about their treatment is important. Temper your reactions with the spiritual logic of their appropriateness and their service to humanity. Honor them in all three cases.

Rhino tries to escape at Dutch zoo, sends zoo keepers running

DutchNews, January 8, 2016

Photo: Screen shot Niehe Media
video via YouTube

A rhino about to be transported from Emmen zoo to a new location tried to break out of its transport box, forcing zoo keepers to flee. 

The rhino, one of the three being moved to the zoo’s new site on the outskirts of the town, was too strong for the wooden crate and repeatedly bashed against the metal bars, creating a large gap. 

It is not clear when the film was taken, but Emmen zoo has been closed to the public since the beginning of this year while the animals are moved. 

Once at the new zoo, the rhino is shown cautiously moving into its new enclosure. The new look zoo will open to the public in March.