Colorado bans animal killing contests

A Colorado state commission has prohibited animal killing contests. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted in April to ban contests for all species whose fur has commercial value as well as black-tailed, white-tailed and Gunnison prairie dogs.

The ban will stop competitive contests where participants compete for cash or other prizes for killing animals in a specified location during a specified time period. The state had already banned wildlife contests “big game.”

Colorado joins five states that have banned the contests: Arizona, New Mexico, California, Vermont and Massachusetts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Owl post

Firefighters in Trumbull, Connecticut came to the rescue of owlets that had fallen from a nest in a tree.

The Long Hill firefighters helped return the owlets to their nest by using a long ladder truck after the town’s animal control officer requested help with the save. The mom owl watched from across the street as the emergency workers gingerly placed the tiny owls back in their home.

Owlets don’t usually fall from trees when they are napping because they grip a branch with their back toes, known as the hallus, according to the Audubon Society. But the youngsters do like to explore their habits and that can lead to them ending up on the ground too soon for them to help themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whales get reprieve

The whaling season off Iceland’s coast in 2020 has come to an abrupt end. Advocacy group Sea Shepard reported that they’ll be no whales harpooned off the coast because new standards for imported whale meat established by Japan have led to the rejection of whale meat from the Hvalur Whaling Station in Iceland.

The lack of a market for whale meat in Japan, the sole nation that still imports fin whale products from Iceland, has also led to the curtailing of the industry.

In expanding its whale sanctuary in Faxafloi Bay, Iceland has made it tougher for minke whalers by forcing them further offshore, making it more difficult to hunt the whales. Gunnar Bergmann, the managing director of a major Icelandic whaling companies, told AFP media that his company was not going to hunt whales again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dog racing over in Alabama

Birmingham Race Course is ending its greyhound racing. It was the last track in Alabama.

Race course COO Lewis Benefield told AL.com that revenues were lagging and the live races were not bringing in enough income and receipts were “embarrassingly low.”

As concern for dogs takes precedence, the popularity of dog racing has dissipated. It remains legal in ten states but only five hold races. Florida, which had the most tracks, is shutting racing down forever by 2021. And there was good news there too when a federal judge dismissed an appeal on the state’s ban on racing brought by greyhound breeders, kennels and transport companies. Florida’s ban on greyhound racing – Amendment 13 – was supported by 69 percent of state voters.