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As more states move to ban restrictive livestock cages, the campaign to free egg-laying hens from cramped cages and shift them to pens animal rights advocates call more humane could be poised to unintentionally boost deaths among those birds.
Researchers say decades of breeding to make the white leghorn hens that lay most of the nation's eggs more productive have also boosted the birds' territorial instincts, making them prone to pecking attacks so fierce they're often called "cannibalism."
Scientists and egg producers warn that deadly skirmishes that start with feather-plucking and turn into bloody frenzies when a bird's pecking breaks a flockmate's skin will increase if those same aggressive hens are moved from small cages with five to 10 birds to open pens that can hold dozens.
Animal rights groups want those pens to replace the small "battery cages" they call cruel because hens are so confined they can't even spread their wings.
Seven states have passed laws that will eventually ban or limit different types of livestock cages. Two of those states — California and Michigan — have passed laws that will eventually ban battery cages for chickens, as has the European Union.
"Whoever wishes to be followed by a dog should throw him a cooked frog."
Production has started on a new documentary focused on Harry Markopolos, who warned about the Bernie Madoff fraud a decade before his Ponzi scheme came to light.
Entitled "Foxhounds," the film is based on Markopolos' bestselling memoir "No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller."
As an independent financial fraud analyst, Markopolos repeatedly warned the Securities and Exchange Commission about Madoff's practices only to have them turn a deaf ear.
Yes, the book just came out, and it's already being made into a movie. And no, Brad Pitt will not be playing me, but thanks for asking!
THE FUTURE of DFS’ sponsorship of Crufts may be in doubt following owner and chairman Lord Kirkham’s decision to sell the Yorkshire-based company.
Kennel Club member and Dalmatian owner Graham Kirkham is believed to have pocketed about £300m from the sale to private equity firm Advent International.
DFS sponsored this year’s Crufts and told DOG WORLD at the time that the arrangement between the company and the Kennel Club was based on an informal arrangement with no contractual commitment.
For many many years I have practiced listening to and following my intuition....if I have a "sense" or thought about a certain direction, I don't question it. This means that my creative path takes me places that I never would have followed if I had put thought into it. And often, as in this case, a lot of the detail gets hidden in newly inspired layers. The french journal pages and the Reiki blessing symbols are barely seen now, but I like the mystery that this adds to the piece. You are required to spend some time looking in order to see what is there.
It has been called the "Domesday book of British wildlife" - a new publication, compiled by 40 of Britain's leading scientists, provides a complete picture of the state of the country's wild animals and plants.
The book, called Silent Summer, makes for some grim reading. Farmland birds, brown hares, water voles and many butterflies and other insects are in decline because of changing farming practices and loss of habitat, it says.
There are, however, some success stories. The otter, which between 1957 and the Seventies disappeared from 94 per cent of its habitats, is now back at more than a third of those sites, thanks to a special conservation programme.
... [C]ontroversially, the book credits field sports with helping to conserve several species, saying activities like hunting and shooting are "almost universally good" for the hunted species and many other species living in the same habitats.
The 600-page book was written by a team of experts and edited by Professor Emeritus Norman Maclean, of Southampton University's School of Biological Sciences, and a leading UK authority on fish genetics and genomics.
The book records how some farmland birds, including the skylark, have seen their population fall by more than half in recent decades. Farmland birds are a key government barometer for measuring the countryside's health.
.... The book highlights the importance of field sports to the wellbeing of wildlife. Robin Sharp, Chair Emeritus of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, says that "field sports ... have been almost universally good for the hunted species and the non-hunted, non-predators that thrive in the same habitat".
Prof Sharp praises foxhunting and reveals that 86 per cent of woodland managed for hunting had vegetation cover – important for other species – compared with just 64 per cent in unmanaged woodland.
Managed areas also had an average of four more plant species, greater plant diversity and more butterfly species than unmanaged areas.
Prof Sharp also reports on a study of three areas in central England which found that all owners of land used for hunting and shooting had planted new woodland, compared with only 30 per cent of landowners who did not host hunts or shoots.
"This suggests that those who hunt and/or shoot provide significant conservation benefits," he said.
Prof Sharp calls on hunters and shooters to make more effort to explain the benefits of their activities to conservationists, policy-makers and the public.
"Overwhelmingly the target species for field sports have fared well over the last century ... More game-keeping, game crops and habitat management would undoubtedly achieve even more."
The inside of the gourd has been finished with tempered glass. The outside of the gourd has layers of my french journal pages, upon which I then wrote Reiki blessing symbols and covered them with a crackle glaze and antiqued it. I like mystery. :)
Researchers say decades of breeding to make the white leghorn hens that lay most of the nation's eggs more productive have also boosted the birds' territorial instincts, making them prone to pecking attacks so fierce they're often called "cannibalism."
"The earth trembled and a great rift appeared, separating the first man and woman from the rest of the animal kingdom. As the chasm grew deeper and wider, all the other creatures, afraid for their lives, returned to the forest -- except for the dog, who after much consideration, leapt the perilous rift to stay with the humans on the other side. His love for humanity was greater than his bond to other creatures, he explained, and he willingly forfeited his place in paradise to prove it."
4 Native American folktale from "The Lost History of the Canine Race" by Mary Elizabeth Thurston
A gourd....french journal pages...tempered glass....clay sculpted into a head....treasures collected, a pin, beads, antique trim....and a fan of black coral......Come back to see her unfold......
