American news media inaccurately report on animal shelter intake rates

Nathan Winograd, a major animal advocate in the United States of America, tells me in his newsletter that "We are seeing something we've never seen before".

Image: Nathan Winograd's newsletter.

He has accused the online news media of America of "spreading alarm" about the very high animal intakes into rescue centres and shelters in America. He blames them for inaccurate reporting. He should know best and he says that the facts on the ground do not mirror the news media stories about high intake rates.

He claims that "while intakes are higher than at the height of the pandemic when many of these facilities were closed, they remain below pre-pandemic levels."

He claims that there has been an "epic failure of journalism to accurately report on this topic".

And this is the problem as he sees it: these stories have allowed shelters to avoid their responsibilities. It's allowed them to continue with, in his words, "shoddy practices by pointing the finger of blame outward".

In other words, the shelters can blame a mythical super-high intake of animals to cover up their inadequacies.

But the truth, he says, about shelter overcrowding and killing shelter animals unnecessarily lies in the fact that the shelters are "making pandemic-related closures permanent". And there are no "offsite adoptions [and] appointment-only adoptions."

In addition, he blames the shelters for a "lack of public access hours (evenings and weekends, and [a] failure to implement robust volunteer, foster, and rescue partnerships."

As I say, Nathan Winograd, is America's best expert on animal shelters in America and he is the number one exponent of the no-kill shelter policy.

-------

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.

Menopause is a mystery and Ngogo chimpanzees make it more of a mystery!

Elderly Ngogo chimpanzee. Image: Sci News.

In terms of the evolution of animals as per Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which is very widely accepted nowadays, the menopause of a number of primate species and of humans is somewhat of a mystery.

Perhaps you are like other men (including me) in not really thinking much about the female menopause and its purpose - some people think that the male human can also have a menopause. What I mean is why does it happen? What's the purpose of the female menopause?

It cuts short a female's ability to procreate and procreation is important in terms of the survival of the human and some primate species and their evolution. The more people there are the more chances there are of creating better people in terms of their genetics and survival.

The answer may be that after the menopause, a female becomes a grandmother and the grandmother can help raise the offspring of their daughters and sons - the 'grandchildren'. In other words, the Ngogo chimpanzee grandmother becomes a grandmother like a human grandmother and helps to raise the kids as it is very demanding.

Without the menopause there would be no 'useful grandmother' to carry out this function. This is called the "grandmother hypothesis".

My research on this also tells me that Ngogo chimpanzees live long lives of about 33 years which is about twice as long as that of other chimpanzee communities and within the 27–37-year range of life expectancy at birth of human under-gatherers.

However, the research today as published in the Times states that grandmother Ngogo chimpanzees do not get involved in raising the 'grandchildren'. In a new study, the researchers looked at 66 females and they estimated that these females spent 20% of their life unable to reproduce as like humans they have the menopause but unlike humans "they do so without lifting a finger to help with their grandchildren."

If the grandmother does not help with raising the kids as is the case with the Ngogo chimpanzees, this undermines the theory 'grandmother hypothesis' thus making the menopause a mystery to this day.

The research is published in the journal Science. And in this research, they also state that the fact that the grandmother does nothing does not totally kill off the grandmother hypothesis. It allows the grandmother to be a "doting grandmother" which may serve some use.

Another theory is that female primates of certain species have the menopause in order to make them less alluring to prevent them competing with their daughters for reproductive opportunities. We don't know at the moment.

Note: as you can see this is nothing to do with cats! I just fancied doing it as it may help some people to better understand the human female menopause.

---------

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.

Jack Russell stuck in pipe cost owner €10,000

FRANCE: A Jack Russell terrier owner has been sent a bill for €10,000, the cost of rescuing his dog from a drainage pipe by firefighters. It took nine hours.

The Jack Russell, Gaia, stuck in a pipe which cost her owner €10,000 to rescue. Image: The Times.

Aliane Chichi, the dog's owner, was on a holiday in Switzerland when his Jack Russell, Gaia, chased a fox. He searched for her. There were two other dogs with him and they led him to a manhole where he heard her barking.

He couldn't pinpoint her location and called emergency services. They discovered that she was trapped underground in a 20 cm diameter pipe.

In all, a dozen firefighters were involved in rescuing his dog who whimpered throughout.

He said that "They used a camera to find her and then they had to call in a contractor to drill down through the road the next day."

The firefighters warned him that he would have to pay because they had to bring in an excavator and road-drilling machinery and he is not a Swiss resident.

They asked him whether he wanted to stop the rescue and he refused. He said that he "wasn't going to leave my dog to die in that pipe. It was unthinkable."

He is shocked by the bill which equates to £8,700 ($10,555). He thought the rescuers were doing their work as a gesture of goodwill but doesn't want to speak badly about them.

In an interview on French radio, he said that he feels that the rescuers were using his distress at the time "to fill their pockets".

He's been able to raise about £2,000 and a crowdfunding appeal was successful enough to cover the rest of the bill with a surplus of about £900. He is donating it to an animal welfare charity.

My thanks to The Times of 27th Oct 2023.

--------

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.

Director of the film 'Argylle' sacked the professional cat actor and used his daughter's cat instead

You know that you can get professional animal actors. I'm talking about cats and dogs usually who are regarded as professional actors. Their owners can make, I guess, a decent amount of money by allowing film producers to use their animals as actors in a film. 

I believe that this is Mr Vaughn with his daughter's Scottish Fold, the non-professional feline actor who became a film star! Image: Fandom Wire.

Clearly, animal actors have to be well behaved, well trained and able to take directions of some sort! You would expect, animal actors to be particularly well-rounded individuals, calm and able to absorb without fuss all the commotion that occurs on a film set with strange people in strange places.

There is an up-and-coming new film due to be aired in 2024 called Argylle and it is directed by Matthew Vaughn. In The Times today he is reported to have told Empire that he had originally hired a professional feline actor.

He said that, "It was very expensive but it wasn't very cute and it was useless."

And so, Mr Vaughan fired the professional cat actor which may have been against union rukes but then I don't think cats are members of any film unions. Vaughn added that, "They don’t have any rights, thank God." Now that's another long discussion because cats do have rights under the law but not of the kind that Vaughn is referring to.

He decided to go up to his daughter's bedroom and he asked whether he could borrow her cat, Chip, for three months.

Chip turned out to be a really good actor. He is the star of the film! Mr Vaughn says, "He was always looking at the right place. I don't want to be rude about some actors I've worked with, but Chip was easier."

So, little Chip, the new feline acting star is now going to be featured in a book and merchandise is going to follow featuring the little fella.

This is partly because he is a cute-looking Scottish Fold. These are the new hot cats because Taylor Swift adopted one. What she touches turns to gold.

It is said that when non-child actors get a break in films because they are the offspring of celebrities and become stars they are described as "Nepo babies".

So, the question is according to Patrick Kidd, the Times journalist, whether "this is the dawn of the nepo kitty".

----

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.

Marrying couple arrange for two rescue cats to be adopted during their WEDDING!

Cool comes to mind and clever and enlightened and great. You know what this does? It incorporates animals into the wedding day. Brilliant. And to find homes for two rescue cats is the icing on the cake. The wedding cat.

The business who worked with the couple to rehome the rescue cats are called Fairytale Pet Care. A couple of ladies decided on the idea and it is the first of its kind in the US. They wanted animals to have a chance to enjoy the big day. I agree. Looking back, it seems strange that companion animals have been cut of this most important day for humans.

Here are the lucky kittens who found their forever homes at this wedding:

2 kittens adopted and rehomed at a wedding. Screenshot from video above.

And here is a video about the business which made it happen:

--------

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.