COVID-19 has not only hit humanity hard; it has also devastated millions of mink trapped in fur farms across the globe.
In some European countries, mutated forms of the virus that incubated among these farmed mink populations have reportedly jumped back to humans. Closer to home, COVID-19 outbreaks have been confirmed on mink farms in Oregon, Michigan, Wisconsinand Utah, infecting and killing tens of thousands of mink.
And, just in the last several months, two mink that tested positive for COVID-19 escaped their Oregon farm, raising the alarm about disease transmission to wild animals.
Recently, State Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, with support from the Center for Biological Diversity, introduced a bill to phase out the state’s 11 permitted mink farms by the end of this year.
A public hearing before the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildlife Recovery is scheduled for April 5…
Thousands of animals are packed into ships stuck backed up at the Suez Canal, according to multiple reports, raising alarms about their welfare.
Bloomberg estimates 10 ships stuck in and around the canal are carrying livestock; The Guardian reported that tracking data show that at least 20 ships are transporting animals. Most of the animals are believed to be sheep, but some ships could also be carrying cattle.
Ships carrying livestock usually bring enough food and water for just a few extra days, sources told Bloomberg. Then ships either have to head to a port for extra feed, or arrange to have another vessel unload supplies. Ships could also try to sell the animals quickly in a nearby country.
“I wouldn’t expect just after a two-day delay for a problem to have built up,” Peter Stevenson, chief policy officer at animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming, told Bloomberg. “It’s as time goes by that the problems get worse. Occasionally, there are real scandals when things go wrong, but it’s a day-to-day horror.”
Georgios Hatzimanolis, a spokesperson for the tracking website Marine Traffic, told The Guardian that while some livestock ships were waiting to enter the canal, three “appear to be stuck at various points in the canal.”
Five of the ships identified had loaded animals in Spain, and nine had loaded in Romania earlier this month, according to Animals International.
“My greatest fear is that animals run out of food and water and they get stuck on the ships because they cannot be unloaded somewhere else for paperwork reasons,” Gerit Weidinger, European Union coordinator for Animals International, told The Guardian.
“Getting stuck on board means there is a risk [for the animals] of starvation, dehydration, injuries, waste buildup so they can’t lie down, and nor can the crew get rid of dead animal bodies in the [Suez] canal,” she said. “It’s basically a ticking biohazard time bomb for animals and the crew and any person involved.”
The U.S. has offered to aid efforts to move the Ever Given to open the canal. Several incoming vessels are now being diverted around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, and dredging vessels are working around the clock to dislodge the massive ship.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Bill Griffin waited more than a year for this moment: Newly vaccinated, he embraced his 3-year-old granddaughter for the first time since the pandemic began.
“She came running right over. I picked her up and gave her a hug. It was amazing,” the 70-year-old said after the reunion last weekend.
Spring has arrived with sunshine and warmer weather, and many older adults who have been vaccinated, like Griffin, are emerging from COVID-19-imposed hibernation.
From shopping in person or going to the gym to bigger milestones like visiting family, the people who were once most at risk from COVID-19 are beginning to move forward with getting their lives on track. More than 47% of Americans who are 65 and older are now fully vaccinated.
Visiting grandchildren is a top priority for many older adults. In Arizona, Gailen Krug has yet to hold her first grandchild, who was born a month into the pandemic in Minneapolis. Now fully vaccinated, Krug is making plans to travel for her granddaughter’s first birthday in April.
“I can’t wait,” said Krug, whose only interactions with the girl have been over Zoom and FaceTime. “It’s very strange to not have her in my life yet.”
The excitement she feels, however, is tempered with sadness. Her daughter-in-law’s mother, who she had been looking forward to sharing grandma duties with, died of COVID-19 just hours after the baby’s birth. She contracted it at a nursing home.
Isolated by the pandemic, older adults were hard hit by loneliness caused by restrictions intended to keep people safe. Many of them sat out summer reunions, canceled vacation plans and missed family holiday gatherings in November and December.
In states with older populations, like Maine, Arizona and Florida, health officials worried about the emotional and physical toll of loneliness, posing an additional health concern on top of the virus.
But that’s changing, and more older people are reappearing in public after they were among the first group to get vaccinated.
Those who are fully vaccinated are ready to get out of Dodge without worrying they were endangering themselves amid a pandemic that has claimed more than 540,000 lives in the United States.
“Now there’s an extra level of confidence. I am feeling good about moving forward,” said Ken Hughes, a 79-year-old Florida resident who is flying with his wife for a pandemic-delayed annual trip to Arizona in April.
Plenty of older adults are eager to hop on a jet to travel. Others are looking forward to the simpler things like eating at a restaurant, going to a movie theater or playing bingo.
Sally Adams, 74, was among several older people who showed up for “parking lot bingo” in Glendale, Arizona. She felt safe because she’d been vaccinated and because she was in her car at the first bingo event in more than year.
Once she fulfills the time to reach peak immunity, she plans to indulge in little things like eating out. Both her and her husband, who is also vaccinated, have only done takeout. Now, they feel like it will be OK to even eat indoors — as long as it’s not crowded.
“We’ll probably go in and take the farthest table from other people just to be on the safe side,” she said.
Indeed, many older adults are taking a cautious approach, especially when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declined to ease recommendations for travel.
Frequent traveler Cindy Charest was so excited about the prospect of jetting away for the first time in more than a year that she posted an airplane emoji with a photo of her being vaccinated on social media.
But she’s taking a wait-and-see attitude after the CDC recommended against nonessential air travel, for now.
“I think I got prematurely excited about it,” said Charest, 65, of Westbrook, Maine. But she’s ready to jump when the time comes. She’s watching for changing guidance.
Others are also cautious.
“We’re still in the thick of it,” said Claudette Greene, 68, of Portland, Maine. “We’ve made a lot of progress but we’re not done with this.”
Kathy Bubar said she and her husband are completely vaccinated but are in no hurry to push things. The 73-year-old Portland resident is planning to wait until fall before planning any major travel. She hopes to go on a safari in December.
“My goal in all of this is to not be the last person to die from COVID. I’m willing to be patient and take as long as it takes,” she said.
The Griffins were also cautious before they were reunited with their granddaughter.
Bill Griffin, of Waterboro, didn’t dare have close contact with family members until after being vaccinated because he has lung disease, heart disease, kidney disease and high blood pressure, all factors that pushed him into a high-risk category for COVID-19.
“Everybody wants to live for the moment, but the moment could have been very deadly. We listened to the scientists,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami and Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed to this report.Continue Reading
Joe Biden is doubling down on his reset of his predecessor’s environmental policies by inviting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping of China to the first big climate talks of his administration next month aimed at increasing cooperation to fight global heating.
The Leaders Summit on Climate talks, scheduled to be held virtually on 22 and 23 April, are an opportunity for the US to shape, hasten and deepen global efforts to cut climate-wrecking fossil fuel pollution, administration officials told the Associated Press.
A woman was left ‘speechless’ after trying to adopt a rescue dog, having been told her lifestyle was too ‘active’ for the pooch.
Twitter user Alice Gray (@AliceJaneGray) shared screenshots of her email exchange with an unnamed animal adoption facility, writing: “I applied for a dog today. This is the story in four parts. I’m actually speechless.”
Alice had reached out to register her interest in a medium-sized, mixed-breed dog called Angel, writing: “She’s gorgeous! Please let me know what the process is.”
She then proceeded to share a bit of information about herself, referring to herself as an ‘active 29-year-old professional, working from home full time’.
She then asked for any further information that might be needed in order to ‘start the conversation about potentially adopting’.
However, the response Alice received perhaps wasn’t quite what she was expecting, with a blunt reply simply reading: “If you read Angel’s description she is a calm puppy who loves cuddles.
“She is not at all suitable for active, running and hiking.”
Not wanting to be shut down, Alice tried to fight her corner – having assumed that the shelter must be concerned that Angel was too young for her.
Stock image of dog. Credit: PA
Saying she felt it was ‘a shame’ that she was not being considered, she wrote back: “As she is so young I obviously wouldn’t have started her off with lots of activity until she’s older.
“But I’m hoping for a companion that can do that, can grow with me and do those things in the future.”
But still there was no dice, with a final reply from the shelter’s office saying the dog would have simply ‘hated’ being with Alice.
The email said: “It is nothing [to] do with her age. She would have hated it.
“We have a duty of care to your dogs to ensure they go to the right home for them.”
Credit: Twitter/@AliceJaneGray
The bizarre conversation has since racked up more than 220,000 likes and 15,000 retweets on Twitter, with many users commenting to say how ‘absurd’ they found it.
One wrote: “I am belly laughing at the absurdity of this response. SHE WOULD HAVE HATED IT Genuinely one of the most joyless and tactless things I’ve ever read.”
Someone else said: “I am speechless with you. As a longtime volunteer with a breed rescue, and someone who has fostered over 20 dogs, this response is whacked out.”
‘She woud have hated it…’ Stock image of dog. Credit: PA
Others said they’d experienced similar problems with ‘picky’ animal shelters, while some said they sided with the shelter.
Another tweeted: “Rescues aren’t perfect, but their intention is to find the most appropriate homes for their dogs. You seemed to want something out your dog that they felt that this dog couldn’t offer. Had the potential for a bad fit and return of an older animal.”
However, in a follow-up tweet, Alice defended herself by saying she had read the information about Angel carefully.
She said: “So this went a bit mad – just because this seems to be a reoccurring theme:
“1) I read the description of the dog very well. No where did it say she doesn’t like exercise or needed limited walks.
“2) I wouldn’t apply for a dog that I wouldn’t be able to offer the right home to.”
Stacie Owen’s little Jackapoo dog Milo has recently learned to open drawers, and it turns out that he plans on using this newly acquired skill to get himself into mischief.
When he managed to get into a particular drawer that held Stacie’s mum’s dentures, he managed to get them into his mouth in such a way that they looked as if he was giving everyone a toothy grin.
It’s absolutely hilarious, to be fair.
You’ve got to feel for Stacie’s mum who probably has had to disinfect her false teeth very thoroughly, but it certainly gave Stacie – and the thousands she’s shared the video with online – a bit of a giggle.
Credit: Storyful/Stacie Owens
Stacie realised that something was going on when she couldn’t hear the wee dog doing anything. That – as every dog owner knows – usually means they’re asleep, or getting up to no good.
Anyway, when Stacie noticed that her Llandudno home had gone suspiciously quiet she went to try to find Milo and see what he was up to.
As she searched the house, she discovered that Milo had managed to get himself into her mothers’ bedroom, open up her bedside chest of drawers, and stumble upon her dentures inside.
Mercifully, she started filming the action. That’s a public service she’s done for all of us.
Milo even looks at one stage as if he’s posing for the pictures, enjoying the attention, and the fact that he looks like he’s wearing a goofy toothy smile.
Credit: Stroyful/Stacie Owens
In fact, he looks a bit like a strange Jim Henson creation, doesn’t he?
Stacie explained: “I wondered why he went quiet and found him in the bedroom with my mum’s old dentures,
“He likes to hold things in his mouth, he feels very proud when he has something. Whenever we go on a walk he will always bring something home.”
Since she uploaded the video to Facebook,it’s been shared more than 6,600 times, received 1,800 reactions, and at least 2,000 people have commented on it.
That’s a lot of people getting a decent laugh out of Milo’s antics.
Credit: Storyful/Stacie Owens
One person commented: “Funniest thing I’ve seen in years.. I’m actually crying.”
Another added: “The laughter is as hilarious as the doggie.”
Seriously, if you need something to cheer you up on a grim Monday afternoon, this is it.
BY PAUL HENNESSY/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES.
Back in January, RepresentativeLiz Cheneyearned the ire of many a fellow Republican when she had the audacity toclaimthatDonald Trumphad “lit the flame” of the attack on the Capitol, announced her support to impeach him, and then, days later, voted to do exactly that. Of course, nothing that Cheney said or did was wrong—Trump quite obviously incited the violent riot and heshouldhave been impeached—but to his band of loyalists in the party, the Wyoming lawmaker’s actions were tantamount to treason. (Which is an interesting point of view, given that the guy they were defending had literally tried to overthrow the results of a federal election.) Dozens of Republican representativestriedto strip Cheney of her role as conference…
Climate data from 1952 reveals prolonged summers and shorter winters, falls, and springs.
Greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause.
Certain environmental phenomena, like flowers and plants blooming early and migratory birds travelling prematurely, is more than nature working ahead of schedule.
New research posits that the seasons changing ahead of time could be a result of climate change and the warming of average global temperatures, resulting in a prolonged summer. These balance shifts could have dangerous implications for agriculture and natural environments, as well as human health.
Published in the journal of Geophysical Research and Letters,the studylooks at climate and seasonal data spanning 1952 to 2011 in the Northern Hemisphere. Collecting temperature data over these years helped scientists track when each…
Yurok Tribe will create a captive breeding facility in Redwood national park for birds that could be released as early as this fall
A California condor is perched atop a pine tree in the Los Padres national forest, east of Big Sur, California. Photograph: Marcio José Sánchez/AP
Sierra CistoneSat 27 Mar 2021 01.00 EDT
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After a century of absence, the endangered California condor is set to return to the skies of the Pacific north-west.
The condor once soared from British Columbia to Mexico, but habitat loss, overhunting and, most significantly, poisoning from hunting ammunition drove the birds to near extinction.
By the early 1980s, these threats had caused such a precipitous decline in the population that only 22 remained in the wild. In an effort to regrow their numbers, biologists captured the remaining birds and began a breeding program.
Since then, the condor has been reintroduced to south and central California. Its population has expanded into parts of Utah, Arizona and Baja California in Mexico, with experts estimating the number of free flying birds at more than 300.
Now, the bird will be reintroduced in northern California. The reintroduction efforts there have largely been led by the Yurok Tribe, whose ancestral land encompasses large swaths of forest and coastline in northern California and parts of Redwood national park that were once home to the condor.
The tribe has planned for the bird’s return for over a decade, and its proposal was accepted on 24 March by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Through close collaboration with Redwood national park, the tribe will begin the creation of a captive breeding facility within the boundaries of the park. The facility will house captive-bred condors that could be released into the park as early as this fall.
The California condor’s reintroduction has been led by the Yurok Tribe. Photograph: Marcio José Sánchez/AP
Although the condor population is on the uphill, its survival in the Golden state still faces challenges. California has banned lead shot and ammunition, but the laws are unlikely to completely eradicate the lead poisoning problem. Poaching of wildlife and illegal use of lead ammunition could still pose a risk to wildlife and any reintroduced condors, said Chris West, the Yurok Tribe’s condor program manager.
Yet West is hopeful about the bird’s future. Starting this new population of California condors in the far northern portion of the state could offer the bird a better chance at continued survival overall, he argued.
“There’s a big success in the number of birds out there, but you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket,” West said.
Increasing the population could also help buffer the species against the increasing effects of wildfires, climate change and loss of genetic diversity. Condors are an important part of a healthy and functioning ecosystem. As scavengers, the birds are an essential part of nature’s clean-up crew.
Strong, big beaks allow them to open fresh carcasses, a task too difficult for their close relatives, the turkey vulture. Their efforts allow other wildlife to access the carcasses, and accelerates the recycling of nutrients on the landscape.
Condors are scavengers; an essential part of nature’s clean-up crew. Photograph: Shadow_Hawk/Getty Images/iStockphoto
For the Yurok people, the return of the condor presents a milestone. The condor plays a critical role in the people’s tradition and culture, and the return of the bird to ancestral territory brings with it a sense of renewal for both people and the land, said Tiana Williams-Claussen, the director of Yurok Tribe’s wildlife department.
In 2003, the Yurok elder community identified the bird as the single-most important land animal to bring back to ancestral land. The reintroduction program was born only a few years after that decision, according to Williams-Claussen.
“When I actually see a condor in the sky again,” Williams-Claussen said, “it’s just mending that wound that was carried by my elders, is carried by me and that, at least in part, is not going to be carried by my children.”
