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Poacher Turned Park Ranger

A former poacher now turned conservationist for the World Wildlife Fund. It seems an impossible irony, but it’s true. Lean Kha used to shoot dozens of endangered species, including bears, tigers, and elephants, in his native Cambodia but now it’s his mission to protect them. What happened? Yahoo News has the full details. To understand the transformation we need to examine Kha’s background. He started hunting at 13 years old, recruited by soldiers for Khmer Rouge. Kha hunted not for sport, not to collect hides with which to decorate his walls, but to support himself and his family. He’d sell … Continue reading →

Pet Pardons

Are you a sucker for animal rescue stories? You all know I am. I post them here all of the time. However, I can’t keep up with the constant flood of good news, and even if I could that would mean I’d never post anything else on the Pets blog. As tempting as that sounds, it’s important that I keep my articles diverse. So today I’m going to profile a new website, Pet Pardons, that provides animal rescue stories 24/7. Now, you’re not likely to find many tales of hero dogs alerting their owners to midnight fires on Pet Pardons. … Continue reading →

Rescuing Pets Trapped by Bangkok Flooding

Every natural disaster, despite all of the attention it gets, always has a silent set of victims: animals. That’s not to say that we should devalue the lives of humans or even place those of their pets at quite the same level, but many times the media, and thus monetary relief, focuses on the effort to rescue and support the human victims and the pets get ignored. Of course pets are not entirely on their own in these situations. Groups like the Humane Society and the ASPCA work alongside the government and local officials in this country to help evacuate … Continue reading →

Updated Pet Store Ban Initiated in San Francisco

A year ago this month I wrote about how some cities across the country were thinking of initiating a ban on dog and cat sales at pet stores. The purpose of the move was to strike a blow to puppy and kitten mills, which sometimes supply to pet stores. Animal rights advocates also hoped to encourage prospective pet owners to consider adopting a homeless pet from a shelter. According to the LA Times, in San Francisco at least the ban never took place, though it was never completely withdrawn. Proponents of the ban tried to expand it to include fish … Continue reading →

Animal Abuse Registry

Back when I was a teenager and hadn’t yet learned to stop watching pet cops shows for the sake of my stress levels, I remember learning an interesting, if obvious, fact. People who abuse (and this is direct physical abuse, not criminal neglect) their animals are much more likely to become violent against others, especially their family members. Now a county in New York State is taking that information to its next logical conclusion: Suffolk County, NY is launching a pet abuser registry. According to MSNBC, the purpose of the registry is to create a list of potential family abusers; … Continue reading →

Dog: Elephant’s Best Friend

I’ve wanted to post this video for a long time. However, I try to space out my articles about cute animal videos, or unlikely animal best friends, and this is one of both. It just might edge out the hand-holding otters for my favorite animal video on the internet. A few months ago CBS Evening News highlighted the extraordinary events at The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee. While the sanctuary is ostensibly for elephants and caters mostly to them, it does take in other needy animals, particularly stray dogs. Because there are 2,700 acres at the Sanctuary, there’s plenty of … Continue reading →