Nicholas Tan

February 28, 2025 at 7:42 PM

Many are concerned about Gene Hackman’s dogs and what happened to them. The 95-year-old Oscar-winning actor and his 64-year-old wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead on Wednesday, February 26, as reported by Newsweek. One of the couple’s dogs was also found dead in their Santa Fe home. Their two other dogs were found alive on the premises. Here’s what we know so far about Gene Hackman’s dogs and what kind of dogs they are.

What is the latest update on Gene Hackman’s dogs?

[Update, 2/28/2025] The two surviving dogs are healthy, and the Santa Fe County Animal Control Division is “working with family” to ensure that they are safe, according to a police statement.

[Original] Gene Hackman and his wife had three dogs at their home when they were found by police, with one dog found dead and two dogs still surviving.

According to ABC News, the dog that passed away was a German shepherd and was found 10 to 15 feet from Arakawa, who was found lying on her side on the bathroom floor. The dog was found dead in its crate or kennel, as noted by Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza, and this kennel was found in a closet of the bathroom, according to the search warrant.

Not much is known about Hackman’s two surviving dogs, including details about their ages and breeds. One of the dogs was also near Arakawa and is described as being “healthy,” while the other surviving dog was located outside. We will update this article if we learn more about their welfare.

It’s still unclear how Hackman, Arakawa, and their pet died. The search warrant affidavit said that their deaths were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.” The sheriff’s office said that no foul play is suspected.

Hackman has been known to be a dog lover. As revealed by Animal Rescue, Inc., while the ator was filming “The Replacements” in 1999, two stray German shepherds wandered onto the set and both were transported to Animal Rescue, Inc. The Hackmans eventually adopted one of them and named him Gene. The animal shelter recently posted a tribute to Hackman, calling him his “most famous adopter.”

The post What Happened to Gene Hackman’s Dogs? 1 Dead, 2 Surviving appeared first on DogTime.

Scott Fallon

NorthJersey.com

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• Two cats tested positive for bird flu in Hunterdon County, New Jersey
• One cat was feral, the other was indoor-outdoor
• The feral cat was euthanized after developing “severe disease”
• Humans who came into contact with the cats have not developed any symptoms

Two cats tested positive for avian influenza in New Jersey, but the likelihood of feline-to-human transmission remains low, health officials said Friday.

The two cats — one feral, the other an indoor-outdoor cat — were found on the same property in Hunterdon County with other cats who also appeared to be sick, state Health Department officials said. Tests on the other cats are pending.

The feral cat “developed severe disease” including neurologic impairments. It was euthanized. Health officials did not say how sick the indoor-outdoor cat became or whether it was euthanized.

It is not known how the cats became infected. They had not come into contact with infected poultry or livestock, but they roamed outdoors and could have come into contact with infected birds or other animals, health officials said.

Humans who came into contact with the cats have not developed any symptoms. No human cases have been reported in New Jersey.

It is not unusual for cats to become infected with bird flu and develop severe illness. While cats in other states have become infected during the national outbreak, there have been no reports of transmission to humans, health officials said. Most of the infected humans had close contact with infected chickens and cows.

The news comes a week after officials reported the first case of bird flu in poultry in New Jersey. The bird was found during testing at a live poultry market in Union County that was subsequently shut down temporarily to sanitize the facility.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza or H5N1 has already been confirmed in wild birds in Warren and Salem Counties and presumed in birds found in Bergen, Morris, Sussex, Atlantic, Burlington, Cumberland, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean Counties.

The outbreak has prompted millions of chickens to be killed, causing a nationwide egg shortage that has caused prices to skyrocket to more than $8 a dozen.

By Jennifer Harrah

Surfrider Chapters and Student Clubs do incredible work year after year keeping our beaches and coastlines beautiful and free of plastic pollution. Clean and healthy beaches are a universal benefit; people, wildlife, plants, and our coastal economies all prosper when our beaches are clean. The Surfrider Foundation tracks and shares detailed cleanup data to show the prevalence of plastic and trash on our beaches and uses this data to pass laws to ultimately reduce plastic pollution at the source. 

Each year, Surfrider releases an annual Beach Cleanup Report looking at the health of our beaches from a national perspective. But we also think it is important to bring attention to the local stories and highlight the coastal activists doing inspiring work to keep our beaches beautiful. This month, we caught up with Dr. Carl Berg with the Surfrider Kaua’i Chapter to talk about their work tracking fishing gear and helping to save rare Hawaiian monk seal pups. 

Q: Can you give us a quick overview of this project? 

CB: Surfrider Kauaʻi’s North Pacific Eel Trap Project is an international, collaborative effort to reduce the number of discarded eel traps and reduce their impact on marine and coastal environment, in particular, the endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

Q: So what exactly is an eel trap and how do they harm monk seals?

CB: There are both eel trap entrances (ETE) and eel trap tubes (ETT). ETE are cone shaped objects used to trap eels and hagfish, an eel-like creature. They get loose and travel on ocean currents, landing on Hawaiʻi’s beaches where they can get stuck on the snouts of curious monk seal pups, causing them to starve if they’re not caught and rescued. Both ETE and ETT do not degrade and contribute to plastic marine debris and microplastic pollution of seas.

Left: Monk seal with ETE stuck on its snout. Photo courtesy of NOAA Fisheries(Permit #16632-02). Right: ETE collected on Lanai. Photo courtesy of Cheryl King.

Q: That is terrible! I haven’t heard of this before, so I’m curious how prevalent eel traps are? 

CB: Our four-year total is 21,504 of ETE and ETT from the full range of the Hawaiian island chain. 2024 was a record-breaking year for the collection of ETE and ETT, with a record of 9,279 ETE and 347 ETT collected from the Hawaiian archipelago. Partners in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea also collected these traps.

Q: This problem sounds incredibly complex. Is there any solution on the horizon? 

CB: Collaborating scientists in California and Rhode Island have designed a new ETE and are testing it with a polymer specifically designed to more quickly biodegrade on the bottom of the ocean, and to break in half so that it cannot get caught on monk seal snouts.  I obtained a sample from a factory in Korea that creates biodegradable ETE and distributed it to US west coast fishermen for testing. As the biodegradable ETE do not float and disintegrate on the seafloor, their widespread use would greatly reduce the threat to marine life.

Q: Is there anything we can do to help?

CB: If you find an ETE or ETT on a beach near you, please take a photo, send it to hagfish@surfrider.org, and dispose of it properly by throwing it in the trash so it doesn’t return to the ocean.

Huge thank you to Dr. Carl Berg for leading these efforts on Kaua’i! If you want to read more about the success of the program in 2024, check out this blog post or visit their webpage to learn about the North Pacific Eel Trap Project.