SignonSanDiego.com – County animal service officers seized about 500 birds believed to be bred for cockfighting from a Pauma Valley property Thursday, and they served search warrants at a home in Fullerton and a restaurant in Anaheim as part of the investigation.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/may/20/500-birds-seized-in-cockfighting-probe/

ScienceDaily — New research has found that an experimental Ebola vaccine developed by researchers at the National Institutes of Health protects monkeys against not only the two most lethal Ebola virus species for which it was originally designed, both recognized in 1976, but also against a newer Ebola virus species that was identified in 2007. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100520212613.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

This summer, I plan to exercise, read, and socialize, so I intend to focus my Web surfing and not get so lost in cyberspace. Enter PETA’s new Internet Explorer add-ons.

By placing them in your Internet Explorer favorites bar, you can stay current on streaming PETA News and PETA Files updates—no Googling required. Instead, you’ll go straight to the streaming source: The PETA News widget will keep you in the know on PETA’s groundbreaking work for animals, and the PETA Files add-on can boost your chances of being the first person to “awww” us with your “Win It” Wednesday entries. The add-ons are free and easy to install, so what are you waiting for? Go get ‘em.

Posted by Karin Bennett

A Sports Illustrated swimsuit model’s image on a plane is OK, but an ad with metal undies is too much? Really, Southwest?

Recently, Southwest Airlines rejected this ad saying that it was “too provocative” for their in-flight magazine, “due to the lack of clothing the woman is wearing.” Can I get a ticket to Prudes-ville via Hypocrite City, please? The only thing revealing about this ad is the fact that going vegan is the best thing that you can do for your health, the environment, and animals.

Personally, on my next flight I’d much rather see metal panties with a pertinent message than another passenger wearing sweatpants with the words “Bootylicious” or “Juicy” stamped across the butt.

Posted by Amy Skylark Elizabeth

Targets for ensuring all new homes are zero-carbon by 2016 have not been included in the new Government Coalition deal, raising concerns that the government is rowing back on previously-supported commitments that will help deliver deep and immediate emissions cuts, boost the market for green technologies and establish the UK as a centre for progressive green construction.

Despite both Coalition parties having previously publicly supported the zero carbon targets, the new coalition document contains nothing more than loose commitments to “improve the energy efficiency of new homes over time.”

WWF-UK were one of the original architects of this talismanic piece of environmental legislation, and consider it key to the UK attaining its climate change targets. The conservation organisation is concerned that the omission of this target will discourage industry from seeking the highest levels of sustainability with new build.

Simon McWhirter, Senior Public Affairs Officer at WWF-UK, and a member of the government’s 2016 Zero Carbon Task Force on this issue, says:

“With one hand the Government is finally making progress on the existing housing front but we sincerely hope they aren’t taking away this world-leading zero carbon target with the other. The 2016 zero carbon deadline for new homes is a progressive and ambitious target and against all the odds it has been hugely catalytic in galvanising homebuilders towards reducing the emissions from new build. To lose this target now, gives out a very worrying message about the new Government’s commitment to cutting the UK’s CO2 emissions.”

“The new Government will be held to account for its delivery on the key aspects of this Coalition Deal. To include commitments to reduce the UK’s emissions by 30%, but to omit a key delivery mechanism for achieving this is nonsensical, and we hope this is a mere slip of the pen in the flurry to craft this agreement. Industry need certainty and the confidence to continue to invest in and innovate on zero carbon. That can only come about with a renewed commitment to the zero carbon targets, on both homes and non-domestic buildings.”

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Editor’s notes

Simon McWhirter, who sits on the 2016 Zero Carbon Task Force, is available for interview today.

For further information, please contact:
Debbie Chapman, Senior Press Officer, tel: 01483 412397, 07900 670282, email: dchapman@wwf.org.uk

WWF-UK today welcomed further detail on the environment priorities for the new Government. Included in the Coalition Deal are encouraging statements on reforming the Export Credit Guarantee Department to make it more environmentally robust, abolition of plans for a third runway, and a commitment to push for an EU emission reduction target of 30 per cent by 2020.

David Norman, Director of Campaigns at WWF-UK says:
“As a package there is much to warmly welcome from the coalition deal. WWF has long campaigned for the cancellation of a third runway at Heathrow and other airport expansion plans, and we have been calling for an emissions performance standard for power stations to ensure that the UK is not locked into new largely unabated coal plants. Measures to implement a Green Deal for household energy efficiency, potentially higher renewable targets and a Green Bank are all urgently needed and it is good to see them included. However the details of these policies will be crucial to ensure they are effective for the environment.”

“It’s great to finally see a commitment that the UK will pressure the EU to reduce its emissions by 30% by 2020. This will be essential if global negotiations towards a climate deal are to succeed. The UK should back up this leading position with a unilateral strengthening of its own target to 42%, and look to make new, additional and substantial financial support available to those countries least responsible for, but most affected by climate change.”

Whilst the deal reasserts plans originally proposed by Conservative and the Liberal Democrats to set up a green finance scheme to help homeowners carry out eco-refurbishments, we are concerned that zero-carbon targets for new homes seem to have been omitted from the coalition’s plan. WWF-UK was one of the original architects of a target to make all new homes zero-carbon by 2016 and it would be worrying if this commitment has weakened. It’s a key policy to allow the UK to meet its climate change targets.

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For further information, please contact:
Debbie Chapman, Senior Press Officer, tel: 01483 412397, email: dchapman@wwf.org.uk

Some people don’t eat animals because they don’t want to support factory farming. Others are worried about protecting their health or the environment. Nicolas Cage has a much more, shall we say, X-centric reason for why he leaves certain animals off his plate: They have undignified sex.

No, I am not making this up. Here’s what Cage told the U.K. tabloid The Sun: “I actually choose the way I eat according to the way animals have sex. I think fish are very dignified with sex. So are birds. But pigs, not so much. So I don’t eat pig meat or things like that. I eat fish and fowl.”

While this is great news for pigs and cows, I have to wonder where Nick got the idea that there is anything dignified about the way birds live on factory farms. Turkeys are bred to grow so top-heavy that they can no longer reproduce naturally, so female turkeys are artificially inseminated. “Breeder broiler” chickens are kept alive longer than most chickens who are raised for their flesh (most of whom are killed when they are just a few weeks old), so the males are deprived of food to prevent their bodies from getting too large for their organs to support. How do farmers do this? By shoving plastic rods through their beaks to prevent them from gaining access to females’ feed troughs. Yeah, real dignified.

As for me, I’m not particularly concerned about how birds, bees, or even educated fleas do it. I’m more worried about making sure that animals have a dignified life—and death.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

MedicalNewsToday.com – At the annual British Veterinary Association Animal Welfare Foundation (BVA AWF) Discussion Forum delegates voted for the most important animal welfare priorities, which the new Defra ministerial team should focus on.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/189358.php

MedicalNewsToday.com – It’s estimated that 4. 7 million people are bitten by dogs every year.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/189127.php

BaltimoreSun.com – Help mother, 11 little mallards through downtown morning rush to Inner Harbor. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-duck-crossing-baltimore-20100519,0,7708924.story