Once upon a time a remarkable lady, Anna Merz, decided to jettison her business and instead dedicate her life to trying to save black rhinos. She tells her story in Rhino at the Brink of Extinction.[1] These were the dark days during the time of...
Underdogs: Pets, People and Poverty (2020) by Arnold Arluke and Andrew Rowan, published by University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia, 2020.This book covers the growing movement toward creating affordable veterinary care programs in high-poverty and low-access communities. Its emphasis on the human aspects of such...
Once upon a time, there was a family of raccoons who lived in a suburban neighborhood. Their home was a beautiful tree (perhaps a hickory tree) with a large hole about halfway up and a mysteriously built wind breaker next to the entrance. It made...
Are suburban yards/gardens good for wildlife? If you are one of the 57 million Americans who feed and watch birds at home that question may seem a little silly. And that number does not include the additional 15 million people who say they enjoy observing...
There are many organizations, municipalities and individuals around the world dedicating time, resources and much attention and love to the well-being of dogs and ending dog homelessness. Often, these projects do not have sufficient resources to reach the number of dogs to have measurable impact...
In our September 2020 Tales of WellBeing, we wrote about the increased funding for domestic abuse shelters to expand their programs to include the pets of individuals seeking to escape from domestic abuse. Each year Domestic Violence Awareness Month is recognized in October. This October,...
On November 12, 2014, Oliver, an Asian Brown Bear, died in the Animals Asia bear rescue center in Chengdu, China. Animals Asia, who rescued Oliver from a desperate situation in a bear bile “farm” in Shandong, China in 2010, was around 37 years old when...
Data on dog numbers and dog well-being will be an important part of evaluating impact of different approaches to dog and human well-being in particular communities. The world currently has somewhere between 800 million and one billion domestic dogs. As such, they are the most...
The stars of the new Netflix documentary, My Octopus Teacher, are Craig Foster, a film maker, and a small boneless creature, Octopus vulgaris or the Common Octopus. For most humans, the only view of an octopus will be in an aquarium. However, Craig Foster visited...
Pets provide constant companionship, emotional support and security for individuals who are homeless. It is estimated that approximately 10% of the homeless have one or more pets. Thirty or more years ago, it was commonly argued by animal advocates that, if a person cannot take...
