The animal control officer at the Horn Lake Animal Shelter in Mississippi says no dog has been killed for space there in nearly three years. But due to overcrowding, there are plans for the facility to return to killing:
“We are going to have to start making decisions on, you know, this dog takes too long to warm up to new people, or this dog is more animal selective or doesn’t get along with certain animals,” [ACO Julia] Sparcello said. “I mean we believe all of them have a home out there, it’s just about finding the right place but with the number we have, there’s no time to wait.”
https://www.localmemphis.com/article/life/pets/horn-lake-animal-shelter-faces-euthanization-decisions-for-the-first-time-in-nearly-3-years-over-capacity/522-ed5076ab-da35-4a28-9264-5876a4c50812
My dogs take awhile to warm up to new people. Do they take “too long”? I find it difficult to reconcile the sentiment that “we believe all of them have a home out there” with the act of killing. There is a lie in there somewhere.
Former volunteers at the nonprofit Wayne County Animal Rescue shelter filed a lawsuit against the owners and testified that dogs were being shot, including 40 dogs in one night. A judge ruled in favor of the volunteers, ordered the shelter to transfer its remaining animals and close up shop. One of the owners was charged with animal abuse and neither owner is allowed to have any animals, excepting their current personal pets, for 15 years.
A new study finds health benefits related to feeding some breeds of dog one meal per day:
Dogs that are only fed once a day are less likely to develop age-related conditions such as dental, gastrointestinal, orthopaedic and liver disorders[.]
https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/pets/a38372116/feeding-dog-once-a-day-benefits/
Researchers however are not prepared to make a recommendation to feed dogs once a day based on this study.
The River Thames which flows through London was described as biologically dead in the 1950s. A recent study conducted by the Zoological Society of London finds a mix of good news and bad. Industrial runoff, sewage, plastics and global warming are all negatively impacting the river. Fish populations have been declining for decades. But the river is definitely not biologically dead:
Species living in the Thames include seahorses and even sharks, including tope, starry smooth-hound and spurdog.
The most recent count revealed there were about 900 harbour seals and 3,200 grey seals. Since the surveys began in 2003, there has been a clear and steady increase in both seal populations in the Thames estuary.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/10/seahorses-and-sharks-living-in-river-thames-analysis-shows-aoe
One of my cats never warmed up to me. He loved all the other cats in the house though and he was happy until he passed. Guess I should have killed him off years earlier…. :-(