Virginia has become the third state to enact a ban on declawing

Virginia has become the third state to enact a ban on declawing, joining New York, which was the first in 2019, and Maryland in 2022. Concurrently, the Rhode Island Senate has passed a similar ban, which is now pending in the House.

Cats need claws to climb trees to be happy and to express their natural instincts and desires. Image: MikeB.

This development is seen as positive, considering that declawed cats face a significantly higher risk of back pain, avoidance of the litter box, aggression, and excessive grooming. Moreover, the risk of pain is exacerbated if bone fragments are left behind, a consequence of poor surgical techniques in over 60% of declawing cases.

Contrary to popular belief, prohibiting declawing does not increase the likelihood of cats being abandoned. Research indicates that there was no significant rise in the number of cats surrendered to shelters for destructive scratching post-ban, as most declawing was pre-emptive rather than reactive. The study concluded that cat owners are capable of managing their pets' scratching behaviour without resorting to declawing.

Auto repair shop in Tyler, Texas collects pet food donations for animal rescues

NEWS AND OPINION: This is a wonderful development. I hope that it trends and other commercial enterprises get involved. It's a wonderful act of altruism by Stewart's Donnybrook Automotive. And it is thanks, as I understand it, to the managing partner Gary Stewart who saw a problem with local animal rescues that needed help.

Thought: the scheme is a great way to promote the repair shop's business too 💕😊. It is a win-win.

Pet food piling up at  Stewart's Donnybrook Automotive. Image: KETK Tyler

Some of them are saying that there is an epidemic of unwanted cats in the area. I've heard this sort of thing before with animal rescue after the pandemic.

And so Gary Stewart decided to step in. He turned to the community for help in the form of cat food donations. Local residents are delivering cat food to his automotive repair shop and he takes them to one animal rescue in Henderson and another in Kilgore.

Stewart's Donnybrook Automotive. Image: Google search.

Of course, the animal rescues are delighted because with gifts of cat food it frees up their funding to pay for medical requirements.

Stuart said: "It just exploded, you know, and we have people bringing food, amazon shows up with food and people I don’t even know show up with food that just love animals, like we do."

Heather Payer-Smith the owner of Cat's Meow Rescue said: It’s really helpful, not just in the supplies, but it helps us be able to put our money towards the vet bills and other needs as well."

Stewart said that he will take donations for as long as he can and he wants to expand his assistance to help other animal rescues in the area.

Comment: it made me think if this idea could be expanded to other areas. There is no reason why commercial enterprises in any area can't act as agents (donation drop-off points) to help animal rescue organisations in the same area by receiving donations of cat and dog food. Just a thought. I think the idea is so good that it should be expanded.

Of course, it depends on the circumstances and the facilities available within the organisation as to whether they can take in donations but if it is possible I would love to see it expanded.

----------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Spanish court orders dog support payments by husband to wife on divorce

European country's laws (except UK) regard animals as sentient beings. In those countries where animals are treated as sentient beings under the law you have to make provision for the caretaking of a companion in a court order when you divorce if you can't agree. 

Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Portugal among other European countries recognise animals under their laws as sentient beings. In the UK, companion animals such as dogs and cats are regarded as inanimate objects under the law which is a throwback to many years ago when they were regarded as "chattels" to use an old-fashioned word. It means objects, dead objects, owned by the divorcing couple.

Yes, in the UK dogs and cats are divided up like the television and furniture and if they can't agree then the court makes an order.

But in this story, from Spain, a court in Pontevedra ruled that the father i.e. the husband or former husband must pay €75 a month per child and €40 for the dog per month which represented "half of the extraordinary expenses [and] veterinary bills."

So you can see that in Spain, on divorce, if there is a dog or cat - a member of the family - and if the parties can't agree, a court will make an order for the dog or cat's caregiving in exactly the same way that the court would make an order for the children. It's great and it's a very good example of the power of regarding animals as sentient beings. It dramatically improves animal rights.

In this instance, the dog went to live with the wife which is why the husband has to make this payment to the wife to look after the family dog. It appears that they couldn't decide who the dog should live with so the court also made an order that the dog lives with the wife.

The order was made under the reform of the Animal Welfare Act in 2021. This law facilitates shared custody which hopefully can be arrived at by agreement but if not, as mentioned, the court steps in, makes an order and the order is enforced through subsequent court proceedings if required.

-----------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Very friendly cat rescued from car in junkyard before she was crushed

Cat owners should check under their car's hood if it's about to be crushed! Well this is a story which illustrates the famous nine lives of the domestic cat. This cat probably used up all nine in one go. I wonder if it is a unique occurrence. It might have happened before.

Lilly is a vaccinated, microchipped and spayed, loving female domestic cat who almost lost her life in the most horrendous way: in a car crusher in Asheville, North Carolina.

Images believed to be in the public domain and believed taken by the rescue center.

Lilly's owner was searching for her when he allowed his car to be taken to a junkyard for crushing. Just before his car was crushed, a worker decided to remove the battery under the hood and Lilly hopped out into his arms.

For there she was taken to a local rescue center: Brother Wolf Animal Rescue and from there reunited with her caregiver. 

The owner was notified by the rescue center after the junkyard notified the rescue center that the car's owner was searching for his cat.

The story is told on the Storyful website.

------------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Female cat lover campaigns to be a lawmaker in Indonesia

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a story from the other side of the world for me but any story which reports that a person wants to be a lawmaker in their country's parliament who is a cat lover and probably an animal lover as well, will interest me deeply. 

That's because there is a need worldwide to improve animal welfare especially in the Far East (in my opinion) and as you probably know Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of Indonesia.

The person in question is Indonesian Francine Widjojo. She has just hit the campaign trail carrying cat treats and cats I'm told by Reuters. She wants to raise awareness of animal cruelty during her campaigning.

Francine on the campaign trail. Image: Reuters.

Indonesia will hold presidential and legislative elections on February 14 and campaigning is now in full swing.

During her campaigning, Francine is seen holding Yakult, a white cat who she rescued as a kitten and who is one of 27 living in her home! I hope that she has a big home and some help!

Francine is 44 years old. She told Reuters last month while her cat was being vaccinated that if she is successful in her campaigning and is elected she wants to improve the sterilisation and vaccination rate of cat companions in Jakarta. She added that, "One of the issues that I will be fighting for is for Jakarta to be a pet-friendly city."

Regrettably, I have to report that in some parts of Indonesia people consume cat and dog meat which is not untypical in south-east Asia as a whole. 

From a Westerner's point of view it is unacceptable. China kills and consumes the most cats and dogs of all the countries in the world. Vietnam follows but South Korea has recently introduced a law which will ban dog meat as I recall.

Interestingly, the Indonesian government's agricultural ministry classified dog meat as not for human consumption in 2018 but it didn't have any impact on the trade. Note: it is difficult to stop deep rooted commercial enterprises and habits which might go back hundreds or more years. It requires great enforcement. In this instance, no punishment was created for eating dog meat and therefore the recommendation was unenforceable.

Animal activists are campaigning for a national ban on dog and cat meat trades according to The Humane Society International.

Francine is running for election under the umbrella of the Indonesian Solidarity Party which is headed by the president's youngest son. She also plans to fight against corruption, religious and racial intolerance.

She mentioned that animal cruelty is not often addressed in Indonesia but she vows to fight the problem. I wish her the very best. I love to read about people campaigning for animal welfare many thousands of miles away and committing to the fight to eradicate animal abuse.

---------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

27-year-old woman adopted a rescue cat of the same age and becomes a record holder

The Guardian reports on an interesting story for me. I think that this story is actually unique in the world of cat adoption from a rescue centre. Vicki Green adopted Flossie from the well-known UK cat rescue charity Cats Protection in the summer of 2023. She adopted Flossie on the passing of her childhood cat, Honeybun, with whom she was very closely connected.

Vicki wanted to adopt another cat and had the opportunity when she finally purchased her own flat in London last summer. She wanted to adopt an older cat and a rescue cat. She achieved her objectives.

She was told by Cats Protection that Flossie was a 27-year-old tortoiseshell. She thought that the charity was mistaken and meant 17, but no, they meant 27 which is an extraordinary age for a domestic cat and particularly a rescue cat at a charity.

Flossie. Screenshot

At the time Vicki Green was 27 herself and so the cat world had that highly unusual situation where the adopter, a 27-year-old young woman, was the same age as the rescue cat that she was adopting.

Vicki thought that Flossie wouldn't live more than a few months but she wanted to give Flossie a good end-of-life experience which I think is very commendable. Some people like to do that and they play a valuable role in the cat rescue scene. It is altruistic. It is a very nice thing to do and there are in fact benefits for both the cat and the adopter although you have to deal with end-of-life issues which are tricky and distressing.

Flossie and Vicki. Screenshot.

Anyway, Flossie is still living and alert and very much alive. She likes to play and has her little routines like all domestic cats do. She's obviously a full-time indoor cat living in an apartment which probably suits her down to the ground at her age. She likes to go out onto the balcony which Vicki describes as Flossie's sanctuary.

She likes to jump onto Vicki's chest in the evening when she goes to bed and then she moves down to her lap and then finally settles down at her feet for the night. She wakes up at 6 o'clock looking for her breakfast with a loud and confident meow.

This is so typical of a domestic cat and one that is much younger than Flossie. Vicki bought her some stairs to get up onto the sofa but Flossie doesn't need them. And she says that "She doesn't look old at all."

"She never turns her nose up at the chance of a good meal," Vicki says.

 

She might make 30 and that would be very, very exceptional. It's nice to report on this unique story. Vicki believes that she owns the world's oldest living cat. She is absolutely correct because Flossie is recognised by Guinness World Records which has confirmed that she is the world's oldest living cat at the moment.

Details: The oldest cat living is Flossie (UK, b. 29 December 1995) who is 26 years and 316 days old, as verified in Orpington, UK, on 10 November 2022.

------------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

First cat to sail in the Sydney Hobart yacht race

In this week's event, Oli became the first cat to sail in the Sydney Hobart yacht race in its 78-year history. He is a 10-year-old moggy, a grey tabby-and-white. 

Image: MikeB. The smaller image is from Getty Images.

He acted as second mate on board Sylph VI. He competed in the two-handed division of the 630-mile race which was won in 1969 by Ted Heath the leader of the Conservative party at the time.

Sadly, the race as such didn't work out that well for Oli because he is still on the sea running a distant last and due to make land next Wednesday. I wonder if his human caregiver, Bob Williams, has enough stocks of cat milk and cat food to ensure that Oli remains contented. I am sure he has.

"One of the great things about the Rolex Sydney Hobart is all the wonderful characters in the race and the diversity of boats," Commodore Arthur Lane said.

Eighteen competitors had finished by yesterday as reported by The Time today, Saturday, December 30.

The newspaper tells us that pigeons have taken part in the race but only as working animals because they were used to get a message to shore.

-------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

3D device to end the need for drug and chemical safety testing on animals

The truth be told, it could be quite strongly argued that there has been little or no need for animal testing for some time because of effective alternatives but this latest development further hammers the nail in the coffin of animal testing and I hope those organisations who insist on animal testing read it. It truly is time that animal testing is stopped permanently worldwide.

Image of device: University of Edinburgh. Overall image: MikeB.

Putting aside the story about this 3D device, in the modern world, it is impossible to justify animal testing. I don't think humans have the right to be cruel to animals to benefit their health. It's the wrong approach to take. At its core, it is immoral. But, then again, I'm an animal advocate and a lot of people would disagree with me; those who are insensitive to animal rights and their sentience.

That's enough of my complaining. Scientists have developed a 3D-printed device. It replicates how drugs move through the body. It could end the need for animal testing when testing for drug and chemical safety.

Dr Adriana Tavares of the University’s Centre for Cardiovascular Science (CVS), said:

"This device shows really strong potential to reduce the large number of animals that are used worldwide for testing drugs and other compounds, particularly in the early stages, where only two per cent of compounds progress through the discovery pipeline."

The research took place at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. This is one of the world's leading universities and last year the top university in the UK.

It's described by The Times as a "pioneering body-on-chip device". It uses 3D replicas of the human heart, brain, liver, lungs and kidney.

These organs are connected by channels which mimic the human circulatory system. Through this system medicines can be pumped.

As I understand it, the device is made through printed chip compartments and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning. This transmits radioactive compounds into the chips to send a signal to an extremely sensitive camera. It sounds very technical.

It is believed that the device will offer scientists a better and more effective way to study how drugs react in the human body and thereby preclude the need to animal test.

The inventor of the device, Liam Carr, told The Guardian newspaper that the PET imagery let medical staff check on the flow of drugs to ensure that it was even.

"This device is the first to be designed specifically for measuring drug distribution, with an even flow paired with organ compartments that are large enough to sample drug uptake for mathematical modelling."

----------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Quirky, honest advert and good photos get this anti-social tortoiseshell cat adopted!

The story of Quinn, I think, helps us understand how best to ensure that a rescue cat at a shelter is adopted. Quinn is a female cat but to me the name is male but that is an important. She is a tortoiseshell-and-white cat with attitude. And her adoption advert from the Humane Society of Washington County in Hagerstown, Maryland, USA, has been reported on social media.

Quinn. Photo: Humane Society.

Fox News reports it which is highly unusual. They describe the adoption advert as funny and honest. It's quirky. It's different. And I suspect that the person who wrote the advert, a staffer at the Humane Society, had become exasperated because Quinn was the longest-term resident at a shelter run I believe in partnership with the Humane Society.

The advert went viral on Facebook and was picked up by news media. Here's a taster of what they wrote to attract attention:

"Do you want a cat who doesn't want you? Do you crave the feeling of being judged in your own home? Do you need someone who will slap you back into reality without notice? If you answered yes to any of these questions, we have the cat for you. Meet Quinn."

They made it clear that Quinn was not a cat for everyone but somebody might like her icy stare and sudden snacks! And they said that she has "an uncanny ability to make people feel unwelcome in her presence - which is perfect for those who are 'tired of visitors'." 

And further they said that Quinn is essentially a...

 "lively houseplant, because all she really needs a human for is food, water and changing her litter. If you adopt Quinn, you will not be her owner, because Quinn cannot be owned. She will own you, your house, your belongings and everything you hold dear." 

You get the drift. Added to these derogatory words about Quinn which were tongue in cheek, there are some really nice photographs. I think all shelter should produce what I call readable photographs meaning photographs in which you can see the cat clearly. They don't have to be beautiful, pretty pictures but should be clear and clean.

The stark change in advertising M.O. came about because originally their advert was very standard and conservative but nobody get the bait. They weren't interested.

The Humane Society shelter (the Humane Society works in partnership with shelters as I understand it and do not run their own shelters) decided that honesty was the best policy and it certainly is as shown by this new story.

And if you read between the lines you know that you're going to adopt a cat which is a typical domestic cat in many ways. This is a tortoiseshell-and-white. They are known to have a bit of attitude but beneath that personality there is a loving cat waiting to get out.

And on November 24, the Humane Society tells us that Quinn has been adopted.

The lesson from this story is to be honest, clear and forthright in telling the world about a rescue cat to which you add nice, clear and crisp photographs and then you let the cat do the talking because somebody will come along who appreciates the honest direct approach.

Here is a Facebook post from the Humane Society.

-----

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Hockney cat sculpture created at art school in 1955 and given to a kind couple fetched £111,875 at auction

Sixty-eight years ago, David Hockney and his Bradford College of Art friend, Norman Stevens, were hitchhiking to London to visit exhibitions. It was raining and they were sheltering under the eaves of a house owned by Peter Richards and his wife alongside the A1 in Bedfordshire.

Mr Richards with the Hockney ceramic cat sculpture given to him by the artist for his kindness is providing shelter in the rain in 1955. Image: NationalWorld

The Richards felt bad for the guys and they invited them in to dry off and have a cup of tea. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon and their kindness was not forgotten by David Hockney.

He gave them a sculpture of a ceramic domestic cat which was modelled on Mr and Mrs Richards' cat, it is believed. Hockney sculpted the cat in 1955 while still at art school. It is one of six created at college.

It measures 34.5 cm x 40 cm x 15.5 cm. The sculpture comes with drawings and plans for the artwork together with letters and cards sent to the Richards by the artist over the years. A friendship had been created.

Apparently, Hockney has always been interested in cats and they feature in some of his major works.

The cat sculpture was auctioned on October 24. It shattered the previous record of £100,000 set by similar David Hockney sculpture in June 2023.

Hockney cat sculpture and accompanying paperwork. Image: NationalWorld.

Mark Stacey of Stacey's Auctioneers & Valuers said that the artwork had exceeded all expectations.

He added that, "This was a fantastic result for the vendor who was present in the room and was auctioning the Hockney items to benefit his grandchildren. The cat exceeded all expectations and £111,875 is a record for a Hockney ceramic cat, superseding the previous price achieved at Christie's in June of this year. There was both online and telephone bidding from bidders in the UK and globally with it finally being sold to an anonymous UK buyer."

Hockney is one of Britain's most celebrated artists. He is 86 years of age as at the date of this post and he smokes. He dislikes the 'persecution' of smokers in the UK!

He says that when he is creating art, he feels like he is 30 years old. He is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. He's a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. He has used the iPad and Polaroid to create art.

Richards sold the sculpture to raise funds to give to their grandchildren. He is now in his 90s and lives in Thorpe Bay, Essex.

-----

P.S. please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Woman ran Chicago marathon (3:31) and rescued and rehomed a kitten at the same time!

This is a great little story on Facebook. A Boston resident, Sarah Bohan, was a participant in Chicago's marathon. She was running the charity for PAWS Chicago. This is one of the largest no-kill animal welfare organisations in America. There were 482 runners on the team running for PAWS. A wonderful effort.

Sarah Bohan rescues stray kitten during Chicago marathon. Image: FB.

That would have been great by itself but Sarah went a lot further. She was on a personal best time when she noticed a scared and dirty kitten under a bridge at the 21-mile mark. She was not that far from the finish line really.

This is what she said.

"I saw this white fluffy thing scurrying under a bridge and recognized it as a dirty, scared cat that was obviously a stray separated from its mother. At that point, my personal record was out the window and I knew what I had to do."

She rescued the kitten and then walked for about a mile asking spectators if they would take the kitten that she'd rescued and rehome her. She found a woman who is a cat caregiver who promised her that she would rehome the kitten. Or perhaps she's taken the kitten in. The picture above shows the moment of handover.

Then Sarah continued her race and finished in an impressive 3:31:35, which is a good time.

Sarah did an amazing job. The only question I have is that we have to hope that the woman who took the kitten is the right one meaning she is genuine and will do a good job in either looking after the kitten or rehoming her. She looks genuine to me. Well done, Sarah.

The kitten has a Turkish Van coat for anyone who's interested. A very Mediterranean appearance.

Here is the Facebook post:

Cat companion is the ears of their deaf caregiver and provides incredible support

NEWS AND VIEWS: For Ms Moss of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, her cat Zebby is her ears and general helper. She is deaf but can hear with a hearing aid. Zebby has been trained to pick up the day-to-day sounds to which a caregiver needs to respond such as the front door bell or the phone ringing.

Genevieve Moss said she is ‘so proud of Zebby for showing the world how intuitive and caring cats can be’ (Lucy Ray/PA)

He does more than that; he fetches her slippers! And he picks up the post at the front door in the morning and brings it to her. How about that?!

Zebby has been named Cats Protection's National Cat of the Year 2023 in recognition of his wonderful support for Genevieve Moss, 66.

She said:

“Without my hearing aid, I can’t hear anything, but now I have Zebby to help me. He’ll come and tap me when the phone is ringing, and then I can pop my hearing aid and speaker on and take the call."

And if there is an unusual noise in the night, he will bat her on the head to wake her up to alert her to it. And if someone is at the door, "he will pace about in front of me until I get the message."

She added that, "He is very helpful and likes to bring me things – he’ll get the post from the doormat and pick it up in his mouth before dropping it in the bedroom."

Zebby beat thousands of other pets to be named the overall winner in Cat Protection's award. Ms Moss couldn't envisage a world without her cat's help. She regards him as a hero.

Cats protection's National Cat Awards organiser, Ashley Fryer said: “From the moment we read his entry form, we knew Zebby was something special. Zebby is clearly devoted to Genevieve, and their story highlights the powerful bond that exists between people and their cats.”

Comment: I love these stories. Firstly, they tell us that domestic cats are not just about keeping their own a company or entertaining them. They can also be "utilitarian" in the same way that dogs are. Dogs are regarded as more utilitarian and therefore more useful on a practical level than cats but it is not always like that. Cats can be trained to help practically as is wonderfully illustrated in this warm story.

White Coat Waste Project stops American taxpayer funding of Putin's Cat Lab (and more)

This is a cross post. It's important. The brilliant White Coat Waste Project (WCW) are an incredibly important organisation. They work independently and they lobby the US government to change their incomprehensible ways. They call it 'madness' that Americans through their taxes fund cruel animal experiments abroad. They are correct. It is mad on several levels.

And isn't just any old foreign country. The American government has been funding through the Department of Defence (DOD) and via a disgraced Wuhan lab funder, EcoHealth Alliance, experiments on the coronavirus found in bats discovered in a mineshaft in the north of China.

RELATED: Stronger evidence that COVID-19 started at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

On my research, the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been involved in military biowarfare testing. They have connections to the military. This novel coronavirus was discovered in bats. It killed people early on and it seems that it was decided to develop it as a biowarfare agent. 

And it is now believed by many that the Covid-19 pandemic started at the Wuhan lab. And to think that via EcoHealth Alliance American taxpayers were funding this laboratory.

It is madness as WCW state. But through tireless campaigning and lobbying, WCW have achieved a very important milestone. They have convinced the US government to stop this funding.

White Coat Waste Project stops American taxpayer funding of cruel animal experiments in foreign countries. Image: WCW.

RELATED: White Coat Waste Project pressured Biden administration into defunding Russian animal experiments.

The American taxpayer was also funding cruel tests on cats in Russia for, as I understand it, military purposes. Clearly, this went under the radar from the perspective of the American public. Through WCW the ridiculousness of this funding was exposed and through tireless campaigning they have stopped it.

I received an email from WCW which states that the US House panel that funds the Department of Defence (DOD) has passed its 2024 spending bill which includes key language that WCW wanted to see in the bill and which cuts DOD funding to the Wuhan animal lab and other laboratories in China, Russia and other adversarial nations.

And the bill also cats funding for other animal experiments and virus hunting as they call it or other projects in China.

The WCW campaign documented at least 32 animal testing laboratories in Russia and China which were receiving funding from American taxpayers.

Also, following their efforts, the NIH (National Institutes of Health) has recently disqualified the Wuhan animal lab and all animal lives in Russia from taxpayer funding.

If and when the bill is passed by the full US House and becomes law later in 2023 the then statute will disqualify all labs across China and Russia from Pentagon funding as well.

WCW worked with House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Members Reps. Chris Stewart (R-UT) and Dave Joyce (R-OH) to include this important measure in the bill. They commented as follows:

Statement from Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President, White Coat Waste Project:

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to foot the bill for foreign enemies’ animal experimentation labs, and we’re proud of the progress we’re making to find, expose and defund this waste and abuse in Wuhan and beyond. If signed into law, this bill would prohibit the Pentagon from sending tax dollars to white coats in dozens of animal labs run by China, Russia and other adversarial nations. Our Worldwide Waste campaign first exposed how the DOD, NIH, USAID, and other federal agencies recklessly ship billions of tax dollars to unaccountable foreign animal labs, including how EcoHealth funneled funds to the Wuhan lab for dangerous gain-of-function animal experiments that likely caused COVID and how taxpayer unwittingly funded a Kremlin-linked lab crippling cats. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!”

Statement from Congressman Chris Stewart (R-UT)

“Our foreign adversaries, particularly China, have proven they should not and cannot be trusted with American taxpayer dollars to conduct laboratory research and experiments. Cutting American funding to research labs in adversarial nations that pose a threat to our national security should never be a partisan issue. I’d like to thank my colleagues who have recognized the importance of this effort.”

Texas protects and supports TNR volunteers (2023)

NEWS AND VIEWS - TEXAS, USA: Until now Texans had a rather peculiar way of interpreting TNR programs (trap-neuter-release). They interpreted the release part of TNR as cat abandonment, a minor crime. Can you believe it? A bit weird because the release part of TNR follows trapping. A TNR'ed cat is never abandoned as he/she was never owned or possessed in any meaningful sense.

Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas. Photo: his office.

Anyway, Texas's legislature has passed a bill, HR 3660, which has cleared up this grey area. The legislation has been signed off by the Governor Greg Abbott. As of the present, the 'R' bit of TNR is no longer considered to be cat abandonment.

Of course, there are opponents to TNR such as the bird lovers. They see TNR programs as promoting the killing of birds. They'd rather the feral and stray cats were trapped and euthanised; removed from the environment. That does not work. Although it works emotionally for the ornithologists who believe that cats kill billions of birds despite there being no hard evidence.

Small studies tell us that cats do kill birds but you can't extrapolate small local studies into nationwide statistics which is what the news media and bird lovers do. The latter has an axe to grind. The former like to exaggerate to sell more copies or attract more viewers.

The Senate passed the bill almost unanimously. The bird lobby were caught out. A prominent bird lover, Sizemore, tried to convince the Governor to veto the bill but he signed it off.

The law was authored by Rep. Cody, a Republican from Angleton. He wanted to clarify the above-mentioned grey area and complication. He correctly (in my view) said:

I don’t think Texans should go to prison because they do a TNR program. And I don’t think that that’s animal abandonment under the statute

It looks to me as if HR 3660 was an amendment to existing law. It is a good adjustment. You can't criminalise the good people who are sensitive to animal sentience who want to improve the lives of cats who've been put into the urban wild by careless humans. It is clearly wrong. TNR volunteers do good work, freely. They do it to improve animal welfare in Texas and America generally. They contribute to American society.

This is a positive. It is the opposite to criminal behavior and to have interpreted the previous law that way was absurd. The matter has been cleared up.

Source: various Texas newspapers including the My San Antonio.

Without incurring any injuries, a cat falls six stories and punches a hole in a car's rear window

NEWS AND COMMENT-BANGKOK, THAILAND: A tabby-and-white male domestic cat weighing 8.5 kg living in a flat on the sixth floor of a high-rise building fell off that building and bounced off a balcony on the third floor before smashing into the rear window of a car parked underneath the building which entirely shattered the window but the cat walked free without a scratch.

 The MG car. Image: Facebook (Apiwat Toyothaka).

Shifu after the fall. He's fine. Image: Facebook (Apiwat Toyothaka).

That sums up the story in one sentence but I'll add a bit of detail. His name is Shifu. The owner of the car, Apiwat Toyothaka, shared his experience on Facebook on May 27. He said that he was surprised to discover the rear window of his car smashed to pieces at 7 AM. 

He told a news media that the cat had fallen from the sixth floor as described. He found Shifu hiding under his car after he had jumped out through the massive hole in the rear window that he had created.

For some reason which hasn't been explained, Shifu was hanging by his nails to the balcony of his sixth-floor apartment. It looks as though he was taking a risk that he shouldn't have been taking. You know what cats are like sometimes. And he fell. Some people think that cats are so good at climbing and their balance is so good that they never fall. They do sometimes.

Shifu was x-rayed and the scans showed no broken bones. It's not actually completely true that he didn't suffer any injuries because he lost to claws although that minor injury was not due to the fall but I presume due to the fact that he was hanging on by those to claws until they broke.

He is behaving entirely normally and eating and toileting in the usual way. He belongs to another resident in the condominium that the car owner apparently knows as he lives there as well.

US Food and Drug Administration approve a drug for cats with anaemia due to kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease may decrease a cat's ability to produce red blood cells which can lead to anaemia. This impairs the cat's ability to transport oxygen around their body. Their gums may appear pale pink or whitish in colour and the disease make them lethargic. It can lead to euthanasia or death.

It's reported that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a drug to treat this form of anaemia which is caused by chronic kidney disease. The drug is called Varenzin-CA1.

It's been granted a one-year conditional approval. This means it can be used while the FDA finish collecting effectiveness data.

The sponsor of the drug will need to show that it is effective in order to achieve full approval. They will be given for annual renewals to continue with the drug but if the requirements are not met after five years the product will be removed from the market.

I'm told that this is the first drug to receive conditional approval for use in domestic cat. That comes from the FDA.

The disease is called non-regenerative anaemia. It is triggered when the cat's bone marrow does not produce enough red cells to replace older red cells which as mentioned creates an oxygen deficiency.

We know that chronic kidney disease is common in older cats. It is often a cause of death. I'll presume that non-regenerative anaemia is an associated cause of death.

The drug works to increase production of a hormone secreted by the kidneys, erythropoietin, which stimulates bone marrow to produce red blood cells.

It is given orally and was evaluated in a two-phase study on 24 cats aged between 4-17 of different breeds and random bred cats.

It is given once daily for 28 days and it can be given in a second session of 28 days with a minimum seven-day interval. It can be received through prescription by a licensed veterinarian.

Potential side-effects are blood clots, vomiting and increases in systolic blood pressure as reported by the FDA.

Case dropped against couple of elderly ladies prosecuted for feeding feral cats on public property

NEWS AND COMMENT-Wetumpka Alabama: this is a good news story. It is a story which tells us that there is a little bit of common sense in the American judicial system. You may remember the two elderly ladies, Beverley Roberts (84) and Mary Alston (60) who routinely fed and looked after feral cats on public property but were then suddenly arrested by the police for criminal trespass and then disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental operations.

Here is the video and below that a still image:

Elderly lady arrested for feeding feral cats in Alabama. Image: body camcorder on officer.

To outsiders, and to 100% of cat advocates, it looked farcical. Two old ladies doing something good for the community being jumped on and stamped on by the police and then suffering criminal charges which were successfully prosecuted. They were convicted and sentenced to 2 years' probation and 10 years in jail. The sentence was suspended.

Trapping, spaying and neutering, and rehoming or releasing (TNR) stray cats is an act of kindness and not a crime.

Latest news is great news

Now, the latest news is that Wetumpka is no longer pursuing these criminal charges. An application was made to the Elmore County Circuit Court to suspend the proceedings. The Latin term is "nolle pros". It means that the authorities don't wish to pursue the prosecution at this time but they can restart it in the future. In my opinion, there's no chance of it being restarted in the future.

The judge, Amanda Baxley, wisely granted the application (motion). That is the story. The judge made no comment on her order. She was just following common sense as I state. She was doing what the general public would have done.

I would be surprised if she didn't think that the whole thing was farcical in the first place. It should never have happened. It was heavy-handed. It was unnecessary.

Even if this couple of ladies were doing something technically wrong, they should have been spoken to by the police and cautioned. That would have been it. It wouldn't have made the news. The police wouldn't have been made to look stupid.

I would argue that this case did the police damage. It harmed their reputation I would argue. And all police forces need to enhance the reputation because they're often disliked.

Imaginative Humane Society fundraiser goes viral

The Animal Friends and Humane Society, in Hamilton, Ohio have come up with an imaginative fundraiser on their Facebook page. They are asking visitors to provide them with the name of an ex-partner who they believe behave badly towards them. That name will go onto the base of a litter box and the litter box will be used for the rescue cats in their care.

Humane Society fundraiser goes viral on news media. Image: MikeB

They are accepting donations between February 1-12 and on their Facebook page there are instructions on how to make the donation. It is via an American mobile payment service called Venmo which is owned by PayPal.

There is a QR code on their Facebook page which you can scan using your smartphone or "search the Charity @AFHStreasurer2011." Your chance to kill 'two birds with one stone' to use an appropriate saying. You can clear your conscience of that pesky relationship that you had which bugs you and you can do some good for animal welfare.

Adopt a rescue kitten and receive $1000 of vouchers for free air travel!

This is a hot-off-the-press news story with a short lifespan! Frontier Airlines must have a chief executive who likes animals and is concerned about animal welfare. I can't think of any other good reason. I am delighted. The airline has offered the public vouchers for free flights if they each adopt one of three rescue kittens found in North Las Vegas.

Frontier Airlines has offered flight vouchers for pet parents who adopt any of three kittens named Spirit, Frontier, and Delta (from left to right) at the Animal Foundation in Las Vegas.(The Animal Foundation via CNN)

They were found about two weeks ago and are currently at a foster home. They are nearly newborn and once they are ready to be adopted out, they will.

They named the kittens Spirit, Delta and Frontier. The airline picked up on this and are delighted that they've named the kittens after airlines one of them theirs.

As a reward and in the interests of promoting animal welfare, a representative of Frontier Airlines told CNN that adopters who take Spirit or Delta will receive two vouchers valued at $250 for a total of $500 in vouchers per pet parent.

And a special reward will befall the person who adopts the kitten named Frontier. They will receive four $250 vouchers with a total value of $1000. How about that? You're going to be handsomely paid to adopt a rescue kitten which you might have adopted anyway.

Two of the kittens are ginger tabbies, one with a bit of white and the other pure ginger tabby. Ginger tabby cats have a reputation for having good characters.

The third cat is the cat named Frontier. This is an interesting cat. They have calico markings which means that she is female. The other two are probably males.

They are currently at the Animal Foundation in Las Vegas according to Fox 5 Vegas. Anybody in the area who was thinking of adopting a cat should get on the phone immediately! You might have $1000 worth of free airline tickets for 2023 to enjoy.

This is so sweet! Thank you for the honor, @animalfndlv! We'd love to donate two flight vouchers each to the people who adopt @Delta and @Spirit; and four vouchers to the person who adopts Frontier. 💚🐱 @FOX5Vegas pic.twitter.com/kbmud6RcZt

— Frontier Airlines (@FlyFrontier) December 28, 2022

Two New Jersey towns support TNR with one trying and rejecting a trap/kill policy

NEWS AND COMMENT: This story concerns a couple of New Jersey, USA towns. One of them is Bayonne, a city in Hudson County and the other is actually described as a borough and it is Matawan. The latter tried to introduce, in a ham-fisted way, a feral cat trap/kill program which backfired badly.

Matawan

The borough administrators introduced an ordinance which said that they were going to trap stray cats and if nobody claimed them within seven days, they would kill them. And in a badly mismanaged way, they said that the Monmouth County SPCA would do the trapping and killing without consulting with them in the first place. And secondly, they employed the local police force to distribute notices about their new but flawed campaign.

From Facebook.

It all blew up in their face when the SPCA complained bitterly that they hadn't been consulted and the public rebuffed them. The police had to make a statement to say that they weren't involved in the killing of cats. Clearly, the campaign did the police no favours as it damaged their reputation.

Anyway, the mismanaged campaign, organised by Scott Carew (as I understand it), the borough's business administrator together with the animal control officer and councilwoman Melanie Wang, was abandoned without any stray or feral cats being trapped.

They made a U-turn on realising their error and have decided to introduce a new ordnance which focuses on TNR (trap-neuter-release). That's the way to go. But it took the public and the SPCA to teach them that lesson.

Humane and ethical approach

The public are concerned about feral and stray cats. Some people hate them while others are more sensitive towards their needs. But in general, the public want feral cats dealt with humanely. They realise that careless human cat ownership put them there in the first place and secondly, they are sentient beings. The ethical way to deal with feral cats is TNR. It is the only current way, but it requires a good investment and the involvement of the local authority.

This leads me nicely to another story from the same state, New Jersey, which reports that Bayonne's city council has decided to continue with a TNR program which is managed by the New Jersey Humane Society.

Bayonne

They have consistently put in sufficient funds (it seems to me) to run the program. This is a commitment from the local authority to fund TNR and they're using somebody who they respect, Geoffrey Santini, the city's animal control officer who works at the New Jersey Humane Society, to organise the TNR program.

Mr Santini is described by Bayonne's Municipal Services Director Suzanne Cavanaugh as a "lovely gentleman, and he is excellent at what he does. He is a true partner with the city of Bayonne."

That's how it should be done in my view. You have a city council or county council who are focused on TNR to control feral cat numbers. They fund it consistently and they work with the best people to arrange and manage the TNR programs.

According to the report, in the Hudson Reporter, the city has consistently funded TNR and recently agreed to an addendum to the ordnance to add a further $25,000 to the program. The program commenced, as I understand it, in April 2021 when it was funded with taxpayers money amounting to $54,123.

Comment: perhaps local administrators are realising that TNR is the only way forward. It has its flaws according to ornithologists and others because in essence you are putting feral cats back on the ground where they can continue to prey upon wildlife. But patience is required and consistency. Armed with these two qualities TNR works if funded properly.

It needs to be as widespread as possible to be as effective as possible. It is the only way to deal with feral cats currently until something better comes out such as contraception (drug placed in food) which doesn't work well enough.

There are other instances of councils trying to trap and kill feral cats, but they almost invariably end up with a backlash from the public who complain because, as stated, the majority of the public are against the cruelty of trap and kill policies.

Domestic cats caught in trap and kill programmes

And there is always the potential for killing a person's cat companion. There are still places where there are indoor/outdoor cats, and you cannot tell the difference between a feral cat and an outdoor domestic cat (pre-TNR which ear tips ferals). You don't want to kill someone's pet because that would be a catastrophe and it would open the doors to a criminal charge against the local authority for criminal damage.