Articles: animals

A Polar bear, appropriately named Blizzard, insists on being outdoors in a blizzard.  Now 25 (elderly for a Polar bear) Blizzard was rescued as an orphaned cub in Churchill and now at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, Tacoma, WA. International Polar bear day is February 27. As much of the U.S. has recently experienced,…

Making Informed Decisions About Animal Assisted Interventions Re-Entry was a webinar hosted with myself, Gail Golab, PhD, DVM, MANZCVS, DACAW, Chief Veterinary Officer, Scientific Affairs and Public Policy at American Veterinary Medical Association and from Pet Partners, moderator Meghan Rothschild, and now available on YouTube. We discussed how to safely return animal assisted intervention (AAI)…

I agree with the airline industry and U.S. Department of Transportation, animals designated as emotional support or comfort animals should no longer be allowed on airplanes, only legitimate service dogs. Having said that, the airlines – who are partially responsible for this issue in the first place – must offer alternatives for pet travel beyond…

Perhaps watching animal love will help

From politicking chimpanzees to elephants earning power using brain power to honeybees fighting for their lives, various animals have their own ways to elect their leaders, or their leaders elect themselves. In elephant groups the decision is an easy one. Both African and Asian elephants and their subspecies live in matriarchal societies. A female is…

I know the focus these days is on outdoor dining due to the novel corona virus. But this really is wild – look who crashes the patio, albeit very stealthy. How would you like this African leopard company? Wonder if he had a reservation? I wonder if it matters.

If laughter adds to your lifespan as some studies suggest, some foxes you’d think would live to be 200.

One Heath is how animals interact with us and with our environment – and that topic has never been more relevant than today. It appears clear that the pandemic causing SARS CoV-2 (the novel corona virus) began at a so-called wet market or animal market in China with a bat and likely an intermediary species…

One of the greatest values zoos offer, and increasingly so, has been to study, to protect and even reintroduce animals into the wild. However, due to their doors being closed because of the novel corona virus, budget cuts may be targeted to these programs. And simultaneously in the United States, the Trump Administration removes lots…

What’s the latest on where the novel corona virus, SARS CoV-2 first originated? On my national Steve Dale’s Pet World radio show, I talk with Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States. She explains first what a wet market or animal market is. “These crowded markets with stressed, scared wild…