India ditches $3 billion diamond deal to save tigers

BY: SAMANTHA TAPP The Indian government is being praised as they recently decided to ditch a diamond-mining project worth more than $3 billion USD. The land where the surface mining would take place is home to a large portion of…

TripAdvisor will no longer sell tickets to inhumane wildlife attractions

BY: SAMANTHA TAPP TripAdvisor, one of the most well-known travel review sites, and its ticket sales company, Viator, will no longer be selling tickets to hundreds of tourist attractions that are considered cruel to animals. With few exceptions, travellers will…

North America’s first dolphin sanctuary is changing the way we look at animal protection

By: Andrew Uyeno Animals live better when they are not stuck in cages, who knew? Wait, we all did. For some reason the people who “care” for animals are finally realising maybe sticking creatures into cages wasn’t the greatest idea.…

Greenpeace is fighting to dismantle the world’s largest tuna company

  BY: CAROLINE ROLF  Tuna is a favourite fish of the whole world and a staple in many homes. It provides essential protein for millions and is considered a top predator in the ocean’s food chain. However, the demand is…

Costa Rica’s Land of the Strays is A Free-Roaming Pup’s Paradise

BY: M. TOMOSKI In Costa Rica’s Heredia province, the Territorio de Zaguatas, or the Land of the Strays, is a dog lover’s dream and home to nearly 1,000 free-roaming mixed breeds. Founded by a local couple, Territorio de Zaguatas is…

Florida just made it legal to break into a hot car to rescue a child or animal

BY: JESSICA BEUKER Florida Governor Rick Scott has passed a bill legalizing breaking into locked vehicles to rescue pets and people that are believed to be in danger of suffocation or harm. The law, which also extends to the rescue…

This couple transformed 300 acres of desolate land in India into a thriving wildlife sanctuary

BY: JESSICA BEUKER In 1986 Anil and Pamela Malhotra ventured to India to attend the funeral of Anil’s father. They were horrified by the river pollution and deforestation in Haridwar, and couldn’t understand the general apathy towards the issue by…

Photos of Africa’s wildlife roaming free in the last protected areas of our world

BY: DANIKA MOIR Images by Laurent Baheux Laurent Baheux is a French photographer currently capturing images of animals in the last few protected areas on our planet. In 15 years, he travelled through the African Safari and East Africa and…

After the drug companies didn’t need them, these lucky chimps spend their days in Chimp Heaven

  By: JACK M. The discussion of the use of animals in biomedical research is as contentious and controversial as it is divisive and alienating. The subjects involved range from frogs, mice, cats and dogs, up to and including the…

Dirty little secret of one of the world’s largest oil companies has been exposed

  By. JACK M. ExxonMobil is one of the world’s largest oil companies – perhaps the largest – with annual sales in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The energy behemoth has been accused of misleading its shareholders and the…

Trophy hunting events are being cancelled across Canada

BY: JESSICA BEUKER Last weekend, an African trophy hunting show was expected to bring hundreds of hunters from all across the world to Vaughan, Ontario, a city just north of Toronto. The host of the show, Borgata Wedding and Event…

In an attempt to stop elephant poaching, Hong Kong will shut down legal ivory trade

BY: JESSICA BEUKER Great news for elephants – Hong Kong is taking steps to phase out their ivory trade. Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying announced the news Wednesday in his 2016 policy address. He added that the ban would happen as…

The FBI just made animal abuse a felony on par with homicide, arson, assault and drug trafficking

BY: SWIKAR OLI Starting Jan. 1, 2016, the FBI began tracking incidents of animal abuse as they’ve done for arson, assault and murder. The FBI also raised animal cruelty to a Group A felony in 2014, the same class as…

New test tube-grown leather might save the environment, animals and your fashion sense

BY: ALEX BROWN Cutting down on leather production is necessary on many levels, and if not for animal rights purposes, or to trim environmental degradation, perhaps the simple and immediate benefits of new “test tube” leather will persuade many against…

This Muslim council is doing more to prevent poaching than the government

BY: ALEXANDRIA LEE In the state of Terengganu, Malaysia, religion, rather than the government, is heading the fight to prevent poaching. A fatwa is an Islamic legal pronouncement issued by an Islamic scholar (mufti) to resolve a specific issue where…

Hawaii is going to become the first state to ban the use of exotic animals for entertainment

BY: DANIKA MOIR In mid November of this year, the Hawaii Department of Agriculture met to discuss the importation of exotic animals for the use of entertainment. The board unanimously voted that they would ban the import of exotic animals…

Chinese millionaire intentionally goes broke buying a slaughterhouse to save 2,000 dogs

BY: SWIKAR OLI Wang Yan was looking for his missing dog in 2012 when his friend suggested he search a dog slaughterhouse. He arrived at the slaughterhouse to the sight of dogs being horrifically treated. While Yan didn’t find his…

This violent sport breeds and raises camels to fight each other for human entertainment

BY: SYDNEY MCINNIS Visualize yourself as a peaceful, instinctual being. You’re being robed in strange colours and fabrics, which is likely making you feel muddled and dismayed. Something is happening today, you can feel it, but you fail to remember…

SeaWorld is now getting rid of its killer whale show entirely – but only in San Diego

BY: SYDNEY MCINNIS If you’ve ever seen Blackfish or have visited a SeaWorld yourself, then you’ve certainly witnessed the theatrical, and extremely controversial, Shamu show, which sees killer whales performing flipping and diving tricks through dancing fountains, led by a…

Grab your baseball bats and pitchforks: Tennessee is releasing an animal abusers registry

BY: ROB HOFFMAN If there’s anything more cowardly than an animal abuser, it’s an animal abuser forced to face an angry mob of baseball bat-wielding, pitchfork-flailing, gasoline-pouring activists thirsty for revenge. It’s a vision that will hopefully come to life…