Alerts

I am glad I fell asleep while trying to get yesterday’s weekly round-up out, because there is so much happening in animal news today (Monday February 17)! The New York Times has the price of eggs on the front page, while yesterday’s, Sunday NY Times, looked at an apparent weakening in the stigma around fur. Today’s London Times has a surprisingly strong editorial complimenting an article on Waitrose’s choice to stun prawns before cooking them. CBS Sunday Morning aired a tender tour of Black Beauty Ranch with Kitty Block, CEO of what was HSUS, but which has now been rebranded to Humane World for Animals. That and more below. First let me thank all of you who responded to last...

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Georgia: Today’s, Sunday February 16, Atlanta Journal Constitution has a beautiful lead story, page B1, titled, “Animal law prosecutor fights for more than dogs.” The article, by Alexis Stevens, opens with: “As Georgia’s animal crimes prosecutor, Jessica Rock fights for those unable to speak for themselves. “That includes dogs that have been abused or forced into fighting, or even roosters bred to fight and kill. It also includes children who Rock says are growing up in households where animal crimes are occurring, leading them to become desensitized to the violence, less emphatic and possible abusers themselves.” It is crying out appreciative letters, sent to Letters@ajc.com (always include your full name, address and telephone number for verification purposes). You can include any...

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Over the last week we have seen truly exciting animal news: a bipartisan congressional stand against animal testing. Both the Courthouse News and Center Square covered bipartisan animal testing bills, which I discussed on the Mark Thompson show last Monday. Then a groundbreaking Federal Government Oversight hearing, which took place on Thursday, was covered by the Washington Times and the UK’s Daily Mail. The Los Angeles Times put climate-driven rat infestations on Saturday’s front page, and a crisis in the crabbing industry, resulting from efforts to save whales, on today’s. That paper today again covers the California horseracing industry’s attempts to hang on through hard times. Canadian front pages announce the death of yet another Beluga at Marineland. And the New...

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Angelenos: I wanted to make sure you were aware that Avian Flu is still very much in the Los Angeles Times, crying out for letters on the way we treat other species. Today’s page A6 article  is titled, “Deadly form of H5N1 seen in dairy herds.” Here’s a Yahoo link in case you hit a paywall. And on Tuesday, the Times ran a story, page B3, on a bear holed up under a house in Altadena, who was treated, thank heavens, with kindness by the humans he met. That one also begs for letters on our relationships with other species, and here’s an AOL link. Why not take just minutes to dash off a couple of lines to the Los...

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Today’s, Sunday February 2, Los Angeles Times includes a heartwarming story about animal rescue after the Los Angeles fires, but it comes on the heels of a front-page story, on Thursday, of the ocean destruction those fires are wreaking. Today’s LA Times also has a story on the California horse racing industry, asking if it is too late to fix it. (Let’s hope so!) The New York Times has run an in-depth story on the death of volunteer dog-rescue pilot Seuk Kim. And the Guardian has a story on efforts to encourage plant-based eating in Denmark, which could serve as a course in effective activism. — Today’s lead Los Angeles Times story on post-fire pet rescue, on page B1, is titled,...

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Avian flu is back in the Los Angeles times today. Over the weekend, the New York Times covered a duck farm’s extermination of 100,000 animals to control the spread of that disease. The Los Angeles wildfires are still big animal news, with a Sunday LA Times op-ed covering the effect our building choices on wildlife, and an online piece looking at pet rescue in the fire aftermath. The Montreal Gazette has covered protests against the import of macaques for experimentation. A US Catholic Magazine’s rave review of Wicked, focusing on the animal rights message, got me to watch that movie. I look forward to sharing my thoughts on that with you, as well as the latest from Margaret Renkl, Glenn Greenwald’s...

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Canadians: Saturday’s Montreal Gazette included a prominent article, page A4, titled, “Canada urged to halt importation of monkeys from Cambodia.” It opens: “Animal rights advocates are hoping a recent recommendation by the secretariat of an international trade agreement will push the Canadian government to halt imports of endangered monkeys from Cambodia to Canada for use in medical and pharmaceutical research. Thousands of live long-tailed macaques have been imported into Canada from Cambodia since early 2023…. “Last week, the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) recommended that its standing committee call on all 185 countries that are signatories to the agreement to suspend trade in long-tailed macaques from Cambodia. Canada signed...

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Over the weekend, major media animal news was mostly about the Los Angeles Fires, including a lead story in the Los Angeles Times. Today’s Dallas Morning News has a front-page story on the airlift arrival of dogs from Los Angeles. The New York Times has an online story on the health benefits of plant-based meat despite its being processed food.   Before I cover those and other stories from the past week, let me share a wonderful response in Sunday’s St Louis Post Tribune to the op-ed I shared last week, Paul Shapiro’s commentary on the meat industry’s labeling fight against the plant-based industry. The lead letter ran under the heading, “Missouri Bill to Harass Meatless Industry Show GOP hypocrisy”...

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I open this weekly alert on a personal note. Those of you who have been on the DawnWatch list for some time know that I lived on the bluff in Pacific Palisades for two decades, from 1999-2020. I then moved to Santa Barbara, where my brother, Josh Garret, and the DawnWatch office remain, and then to Austin where I have been physically safe over the last week.   Last summer I spent a few days on that beautiful Palisades bluff at my best friend’s house, enjoying sunsets with beloved neighbors, as I had done for twenty years. And last Tuesday, my ex-partner, Jim, and I, sat on the phone together in front of our TVs watching a horror show, as...

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Happy New Year!   Those who have read the DawnWatch End-of-Year Roundup know I cited avian flu as the number one animal story of last year. We have it back on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, the first weekend of 2025. We see heartbreaking, prominently displayed news in the Washington Post about the orca Tahlequah’s newly diseased calf. On a happier note, the Washington Post has also just released a piece about the “surprisingly pro-animal” line-up of incoming President Trump’s cabinet! The New York Times Magazine this week shares a gruesome tale of a fatal mountain lion attack on a hunter. The San Diego Union Tribune ran a pair of op-eds debating the rodeo. And today’s Canadian papers...

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