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Story Archives of 'Animals'
Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire
By Deborah Schachter on Saturday, September 12, 2009.Every year the Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire finds homes for about 1500 animals. Jacqueline Dubois' dog, Jellybean, had been a stray and ended up in the shelter in Bedford. She talks about how they met.
Pain-Free Meat
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, September 10, 2009.
Food has become a political issue as we Americans become more conscious of the origins of our food. Bestselling books like Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma look at the toll that factory farming takes on our health and environment.
While many feel that such practices are inhumane, they don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. But Adam Shriver has an idea – why not genetically engineer animals to not suffer? He’s a philosopher at Washington University in St. Louis, and as you can imagine, his provocative proposal published this month has already garnered some strong reactions. He joins us on the line with his defense of pain-free food.
Knocking Out Pain in Livestock: Can Technology Succeed
Where Morality has Stalled? (PDF)
New Scientist: Pain-free animals could take suffering out of farming
(Photo by law_keven via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Climate Change May Be Driving Evolution
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, August 26, 2009.
According to Charles Darwin, natural selection is a slow and gradual process. He believed that evolution doesn’t advance through sudden leaps, and that species require several decades and hundreds of generations to adapt.
Now some scientists believe that climate change may be speeding up evolution, causing plants and animals to adapt more quickly. As part of our next green thing series, we’re taking a look at how species like field mustard and red squirrels are responding to changing temperatures.
Carl Zimmer writes about science for The New York Times and Discover Magazine, and he joins us to talk about how these plants and animals may be adapting to climate change.
Yale Environment 360: First Comes Global Warming, Then An Evolutionary Explosion
(Photo by Keith Barlow via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Cancer in the Wild
By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, July 7, 2009.
Cancer is a leading cause of death for humans and also kills millions of dogs, cats and other pets. Now researchers are tracking cancers in wild animals. Dolphins, green sea turtles, and beluga whales are just a few of the animals that have been shown to develop cancers in the wild, and researchers believe polluted waters may be to blame.
Denise McAloose is Chief Pathologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society's Global Health Program and the author of a paper published in the current issue of Nature Reviews Cancer. She joined us to uncover why wild animals are developing tumors and what can be done to slow the spread.
Nature Reviews Cancer: Wildlife Cancer, A Conservation Perspective
Scientific American: Cancer joins threats to wildlife
(Photo by Michael Hanscom via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire
By Deborah Schachter on Saturday, June 20, 2009.Every year the Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire finds homes for about 1500 animals. Jacqueline Dubois' dog, Jellybean, had been a stray and ended up in the shelter in Bedford. She talks about how they met.
Are gorillas threatened in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
By EarthTalk on Sunday, June 14, 2009.
EarthTalkTM
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine
The Beauty of a Rabbit
By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, February 3, 2009.
The Westminster Dog Show is a big event. That’s where dogs of every imaginable breed – from the Tibetan Mastiff to the Bedlington Terrier – are judged on appearance, temperament and movement. Cows and pigs get country fairs, horses get horse shows. But there are many other species of animal, and animal lovers, out there – like rabbits and cavies, otherwise known as guinea pigs.
Beyond Seeing-Eye Dogs
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, January 7, 2009.
Today on Word of Mouth, we’re talking about the wild, wooly world of service animals. We’re not just talking about seeing-eye dogs, here. A whole cadre of species is now trained to help Americans with disabilities, from miniature horses to therapy ducks and kangaroos. Rebecca Skloot wrote about these animals and the controversy they’re stirring up. Her article appears in the New York Times Magazine. She joins us on the show to explain new proposals that would limit the use of these animals in public places.
(Photo courtesy of Rebecca Skloot)
