In 2015, the Australian government pledged to reduce the feral cat population in the country by one-third (about 2 million cats) by 2020. Reportedly, just over 200,000 feral cats were killed in the first year after the plan was announced, mostly poisoned with 1080 in...
The report on the recent international meeting on biodiversity in Montreal describes some political considerations and challenges as the world attempts to protect and sustain biodiversity. But what is biodiversity, and how is it changing around the globe?Biodiversity refers to the variety and variability of...
IntroductionInitially scheduled to be held in Kunming, China, in 2020, the 15th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP15) for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its additional protocols was postponed because of the COVID pandemic and rescheduled into two parts. The first part...
At the beginning of November, WellBeing International was in Gaborone, Botswana, to attend the Sixth African Animal Welfare Conference and, specifically, to participate in a special session on UNEP’s progress in addressing the UNEA Resolution on the Nexus between animal welfare, the environment, and sustainable...
The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is the most widely distributed wild carnivore on the planet, with a natural range that spans the entire Northern Hemisphere. Below the equator, foxes have been introduced to the Falkland Islands and Australia, where they cause widespread damage to domestic...
In the last few years, several major reports have all called for changes in the world’s food system – usually emphasizing the need to shift to diets that emphasize plant-based nutrition – to ensure a sustainable future for the planet. These reports include:-2015 WHO...
Periodically, WellBeing News (WBN) carries a story on using animals to test the safety of chemicals (see May 2021 and December 2021). Advocacy campaigns to switch from animal tests to non-animal alternatives started over a hundred years ago. Public policy initiatives and technological advances leading...
As the world's nations prepare to meet to discuss the Convention on Biodiversity in Montreal this December, the world is facing its sixth mass extinction event. Unlike the previous five events, which were triggered by significant earth climate disruptions, the sixth mass extinction is mainly...
IntroductionA sustainable global future requires the world to address the welfare of not only people but animals and the environment. This view is also the founding premise for WellBeing International (WBI). A one-minute video produced by WBI includes the following message. "A responsible caretaker of...
As the world learns to live with the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, another zoonosis caused by a monkeypox virus (a cousin of smallpox) is appearing in America, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Australia, having spread from its traditional "habitat" in Central and West Africa....
