To his great credit, DRUDGE Report alerts almost daily to stories of abuse of wild and companion animals.
Drudge is also clearly trying to raise consciousness about the destruction of animal habitat at the hands of humans, that is if thematically consistent headlines on the site are any indication.
And DRUDGE does not appear to be one of those ethically challenged individuals who’ll tell you, “I’m a dog person; fuck the lions who’re being culled in canned hunts.”
My impression from following this news aggregator’s headlines for years is that DRUDGE cares deeply about animals and their fate.
Today, the item on Drudge raised awareness about “the complex relationship between humans and animals.”
Yesterday, Drudge linked to a story of a starving elephant made to carry tourists until she dropped dead. Disgusting culture that would allow this.
I will keep you updated with a daily Drudge on animals.
UPDATE I (12/26/019):
Via DRUDGE: “Elephants in Thailand ‘broken’ for lucrative animal tourism…”
UPDATE II (1/14/020): Parrots are innately kind.
UPDATE II (2/14/020):
“Meet the Wildlife Police: An unsung group of conservation heroes often stands between human predators and species on the edge of extinction”:
One of these critter cops is Andy McWilliam, a veteran English police officer who joined the NWCU at its inception in 2006. Mr. McWilliam has tracked down taxidermists and collectors of rare birds and mammals; prosecuted real-estate developers who destroyed the habitats of protected water voles and brown long-eared bats; and helped lead a national campaign to arrest egg collectors, a fraternity of largely middle-aged men who raid nests in England, Scotland and Wales, threatening protected species from kingfishers to golden eagles.
Even within their own departments, wildlife police sometimes struggle for respect. Mr. McWilliam recalls being taunted by colleagues in Liverpool after he returned to the station house with an egg collector in custody. “Put him before the beak,” they joked, using a slang term for a magistrate. …
… In 2017, Mr. McWilliam gathered intelligence in England for his American counterparts that led to the arrest, conviction and jailing of a Connecticut taxidermist who had stuffed and smuggled dozens of rare, protected birds, in violation of both the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act.
The NWCU has inspired other wildlife-crime units. Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia and the Netherlands all established or strengthened environmental-crime divisions in recent years. Operation Blizzard, a 2019 investigation overseen by Interpol and Europol, mobilized wildlife agencies from 22 countries against the illegal global trade of reptiles. The operation, according to Interpol, “resulted in the seizure of 2,703 turtles and tortoises, 1,059 snakes, 512 lizards and geckos, and 20 crocodiles and alligators.”
More in Ideas
The case of Jeffrey Lendrum, a notorious bird thief and smuggler who trafficked live peregrine eggs to wealthy falconers in the Persian Gulf, brought the NWCU its greatest encomiums—and showcased the increased cooperation of wildlife cops across international borders. In 2010, Mr. McWilliam led the investigation against Mr. Lendrum in Birmingham, England, for peregrine smuggling that sent him to prison for a year. In October 2015, Mr. Lendrum flew to Patagonia on another egg-thieving mission. A hotel clerk who’d read about the Birmingham arrest six years earlier tipped off Chile’s wildlife police, but Mr. Lendrum had already departed for Brazil. The Chileans alerted their Brazilian counterparts, who nabbed him in São Paulo’s airport as he was about to board a flight to Dubai. Wildlife agents seized four rare, white-breasted peregrine eggs stolen from Patagonia’s cliffs. …
UPDATE III (4/11/020): Corona and Zoonotic transmission
As this blog post suggests, DRUDGE is attempting to lead the ethical way via his hyperlinks.
Via Drudge, a news aggregator, comes the news link concerning Jane Goodall warning that the manner in which animals, wild and domestic, are raised, harvested and treated creates conditions and opportunity for viruses to jump from animals across the species barrier to humans.
She is not without sympathy and solutions for the poor, but she knows of what she speaks regarding the zoonotic source of the coronavirus pandemic.
