Vigilantes kill Africa Civet in Benin

A wild African Civet locally known as ‘Edi’ has been killed vigilante at Fanalou Street, Off Country Home Motel Road, Ugbor in Benin City.

Details of how the Civet was killed was sketchy as at press time but pictures of the Civet was posted on Facebook by one Hon Tony Osazuwa.

A Benin based lawyer, Jefferson Uwoghiren, who shared the story and pictures on his facebook page described it as a daredevil leopard but was corrected that the animal was a Civet.

A post by Jefferson reads, “My brother, Hon Tony Osazuwa few minutes ago posted Images of a dare devil leopard killed early this morning by the local vigilante in his area Nigeria. Leopards in Benin?”

However, the killing of the Civet caused outrage online as commentators condemned by some facebook users who preferred that it would have been sent to the Zoo.

Others said it was a mere bush meat that should be consumed.

Abdul Malik in his comment said, “Was it disturbing or attacking the community and if it was, after the capture why was it not taken to a zoo or somewhere safe. Hope say the bush meat belle full una.”

To Bright Edward, “Now that the hungry, lazy and criminal CDA chairmen and their hungry, lazy and criminal followers destroyed their natural habitat selling the land, the poor animals are now everywhere seeking shelter and food. The other day dem turn Bush Baby (Galagos) to witch for Benin city, killed and burn the poor animal for nothing, This is a Civet cat bro. If dem see Leopard the size alone and the looks in its eyes the whole area for don vamoose.”

Aguinede Oghogho said she was traumatised by the killing. “Where are the animals right activist? Am traumatized by a human killing an innocent animal.”

Darlington Ehondor said, “This beautiful cat shouldn’t have been killed, it should have been shot with tranquilizers and, when revived, housed in a zoo or some wildlife facility. So sad we blissfully destroy items of great potential tourist and economic value.”

Norfolk Wind once sought to erect turbines near Bird Island

EDP Renewables' proposal to build a wind farm near Bird Island is not the first time this area in Renville County has been considered for a renewable energy project.

One decade ago, a group of local investors known as Norfolk Wind Energy LLC was very interested in developing what would have been a 40-megawatt wind farm just south of the community. The proximity to a major transmission line and a substation that can serve as the on-ramp to it attracted the group's attention.

The group had to abandon its plans after spending about $750,000 toward the project, with about $500,000 of that amount coming from a large company interested in the renewable energy it would produce, according to David Scheibel of Bird Island, the group's former president.

"A matter of timing," said Scheibel, explaining that challenges that existed at that point in time worked against the investors.

When the group looked to develop its project, demand by prospective wind developers to transmit power basically overwhelmed the entity that oversees the regional transmission grid, according to Scheibel. Known as the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, it wanted project developers to contribute toward the costs for upgrades to the transmission system, including a line running from Rochester to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Scheibel said.

MISO initially proposed an interconnection fee for Norfolk Wind that exceeded any potential payout available through a power purchase agreement, he said.

Norfolk Wind was also looking to sell power at a time when major utilities were looking to buy electricity in larger blocks than the 40 megawatts it could offer, he added.

Norfolk also looked at a potential solar power project in the area, but without success. "We chased a lot of avenues trying to get a project together," he said.

Australian birds are way off track as the drought impacts food supply

Birds are on the move around South-East Australia, drought forcing them into areas where they've never been sighted before.

Very few people have ever seen an Australian bustard in Nyngan, NSW,  nor a rare swift parrot in southern Queensland.

The rare regent honeyeater was seen recently in Nowra on the NSW South Coast, far from its normal range in the Capertee Valley near Mudgee.

Also the Victorian mallee's yellow-plumed honeyeater was seen for the first time in Canberra.

The rare swift parrot, which nests in Tasmania, is going far afield to find food, and has been spotted in the high alpine country in NSW for the first time and even as far as southern Queensland.

And an avid twitcher spotted the inland dwellling crimson chat at Sydney airport.

The migration is astounding birdwatchers who are lapping up the rare sightings. Unfortunately, it's a sign things are not well.

The drought has dramatically reduced nestings and forced birds to look further afield for food, as many stands of eucalypts such as the white box have not flowered over winter. The loss of nectar is hurting beekeepers - and birds.

Sean Dooley, of Birdlife Australia, said similar migrations occurred in the millenium drought, but in this drought there had been many very unusual and unique sightings. "The haunting thing is that although many birdwatchers are enjoying seeing these rare sightings, there's this underlying reality that those birds may never return to their normal range," he said.

The city of Sydney for instance has become a refuge for many birds including chats and songlarks, normally only seen in inland open country.

There had also been an "eruption" of sightings of barn owls close to the Victorian and NSW coast as they searched for food, away from their normal inland range. Black and black-shouldered kites had joined them on the coast. Many of the sightings are documented on the website Birdline.

"There's been very little flowering inland because of the drought so birds are moving," Mr Dooley said.

"People think it would be waterbirds that are affected in the drought, but they can move pretty easily. It's with honeyeaters and birds of prey where the drought is really hurting."

"If there's no flowering, they really struggle. There's been a big shift in the distribution of birds. A lot of birds are straying as they struggle to find food." Nestings had also fallen dramatically.

He said the sighting of a rufous songlark in a Sydney suburb of Rockdale recently was a sure sign things were not normal.

The Victorian coasts had seen an influx of birds of prey, including kites and barn owls.

Seeing a critically endangered swift parrot in the high alpine areas was also very unusual. They'd also been seen in Hay and Nyngan.

"We've also seen the first ever record of a yellow-plumed honeyeater in Canberra."

"In many ways it also shows how adaptive some birds are."

The sighting of large Australian bustards far away from their range was a sign there was a natural crisis underway. "They wouldn't move for nothing," he said.

Here's  list of some bird movements:

Regent honeyeater: Normal range: Capertee Valley, Mudgee. Spotted:  NSW Coast, Nowra.

Swift Parrot: Normal range: Tasmania, Eastern Victoria, South Coast NSW. Spotted: southern Queensand, Kosciuzsko,  Nyngan, Hay.

Australian bustard: Normal range: inland Australia. Spotted: North-West victoria, Nyngan, NSW.

Black shouldered kite, black kite: Normal range: inland.  Spotted: Vic Coast

Yellow-plumed honeyeater: Normal range: Victorian mallee. Spotted: Southern NSW, Cootamundra, first ever sighting Canberra.

Barn owl: Normal range: inland. Spotted: Victorian, NSW coasts.

Rufous songlark:  Normal range: inland, open country.  Spotted:  Rockdale, Sydney, Sydney airport.

Crimson chat: Normal range: open country inland. Spotted: Centennial Park, Sydney.

South African lion cubs give hope

New hope

• Sir - It is a matter of great joy that a lioness in South Africa successfully gave birth to two cubs who were conceived with the help of in vitro fertilization. The newborns - a male and a female - are the first "test tube" lion cubs in the world, and spark new hope that the endangered big cat species can be saved from extinction. Recently, the world's last male northern white rhino died, rendering his species nearly extinct. Given the destruction wrought by human beings on the natural world, the same fate awaits species such as lions and tigers, unless steps are taken to make their numbers grow.

Gayatri Ganapathy,

Bangalore
Historic haul

• Sir - India's performance at the recently-concluded Asian Games in Jakarta is a matter of immense pride. The 572 Indian athletes - 312 men and 260 women - who participated in just 36 sports clocked the nation's highest-ever medal tally at the Asiad, with 69 medals. What is most encouraging and humbling, however, is that most of the medallists belong to poor families from far-flung areas of the country. Their performances show that there is immense talent in India just waiting to be tapped. These skills can be properly harnessed if the government introduces better infrastructure and training facilities for athletes.

M.F.U. Tandvi,

Mumbai

• Sir - The athletes who represented India at the Asian Games deserve to be lauded for the nation's best-ever medal haul in the history of the tournament. Track and field athletes did very well. However, Indian teams performed disappointingly in kabaddi and men's hockey - sports in which they were the favourites to win. We would have also been happier had our players done better in archery, shooting and wrestling. The Tokyo Olympics is just two years away. There is an urgent need to ensure that the Asiad medallists keep their winning momentum going so that they can make a mark at the most important international sporting tournament.

Khokan Das,

Calcutta

• Sir - India ended its Asian Games campaign this year with its highest-ever medal tally at the tournament. The 69 medals won include 15 gold, 24 silver and 30 bronze medals. Our sportspersons deserve to be feted for their admirable performances. They have shown that the condition of sports in India has improved, however marginally. But India should not rest on its laurels and be satisfied with its showing at the Asiad, as it still lags far behind other countries such as China, Japan and South Korea in the sporting arena. The minister of youth affairs and sports, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, must take steps to improve training and coaching facilities for our athletes.

Mohd. Usmani,

Mumbai

• Sir - The Asian Games in Jakarta that ended earlier this month turned out to be India's best outing at the quadrennial tournament. The medal haul also highlights the contribution of people from different religious faiths towards bringing glory to the nation. This sends out a very important message: a nation in which the people are united can progress and develop in leaps and bounds, whereas one in which people are divided by religion will get nowhere. Our athletes must be held up as role models.

Mohd. Tariq,

Mumbai
Time for change

• Sir - It was heartening to learn that the Union health ministry has decided to implement a 'charter of patients' rights' which, among other benefits, gives patients the freedom to purchase medicine and get tests done from wherever they choose, irrespective of the centres recommended by doctors or hospitals ("Charter to uphold patients' rights", Sept 1). The charter also outlines patients' right to get information about their illnesses, possible complications, tests required and additional expenses that may crop up. Clinics and hospitals have to provide emergency medical care to any patient irrespective of their ability to pay. Private hospitals and doctors often force patients to get unnecessary tests done from the places they recommend. Patients and their families do not even know what hospitals are going to charge at the time of discharge, as they include absurd costs in the bill to hike the final amount. It is hoped that the charter will help curb such unfair practices.

Kiran Agarwal,

Calcutta
Parting shot

• Sir - Last month, I had left my jacket in the air-conditioned chair car of the Shantiniketan Express. Given the reputation of the Indian Railways with regard to the retrieval of misplaced or stolen belongings, I had no hope of getting it back. Even so, just before boarding the Shantiniketan Express back to Howrah a few days later, I decided to enquire about my jacket. I was pleasantly surprised at the response. The station masters, the chief ticket inspector and their team at the Bolpur station rushed to help me. Phone calls were made to other stations to trace the item, and I was eventually told to go to the office of the deputy station master (commercial) at the Howrah station. The jacket was even kept in safe custody for a few more days so that I could collect it at my convenience. I was overwhelmed at the efficiency and helpfulness I was shown.

Satyajit Das Gupta,

Calcutta

From shrews to elephants, animal reflexes surprisingly slow

While speediness is a priority for any animal trying to escape a predator or avoid a fall, a new study by Simon Fraser University researchers suggests that even the fastest reflexes among all animals are remarkably slow.

"Animals as small as shrews and as large as elephants are built out of the same building blocks of nerve and muscle," says Max Donelan, a professor of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology (BPK) and director of SFU's Locomotion Lab. "We sought to understand how these building blocks are configured in different sized animals, and how this limits their performance."

The study is published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Since an animal's life can hinge on how quickly it can sense and respond to stimuli, the team set out to quantify the speed of the fastest reflex involved in the locomotion of terrestrial mammals, in animals ranging in size from minuscule shrews to massive elephants.

"Not surprisingly, we found that reflexes take a lot longer in large animals -- about 17 times longer than their smallest counterparts," says SFU postdoctoral researcher Heather More. "What was more interesting to us is that these delays are mostly offset by movement times that also increase with size -- relative delay is only twice as long in an elephant as in a shrew, putting large animals at only a slight disadvantage."

More says their findings have implications for all animals, no matter what their size. "When running quickly, all animals are challenged by their lengthy response times which comprise nearly all of their available movement time -- even the fastest reflex for the control of running is remarkably slow." She adds: "If a small animal puts its foot in a hole when sprinting, there is barely enough time for it to adjust its motion while the foot is on the ground, and a large animal has no time at all -- it has to wait until the next step."

More puts these delays in context: "One component of response time, nerve conduction delay, is particularly long in large animals. To compare to engineered systems, it takes less time for an orbiting satellite to send a signal to earth than for an elephant's spinal cord to send a signal to its lower leg."

A different component delay -- the time for a nerve impulse to cross a single synapse in the spinal cord -- is relatively long for small animals and relatively short for large animals. "This synaptic delay is one measure of the time to think -- so large animals have lots of time to think about how to respond to a disturbance, whereas as small animals don't."

The researchers say this means small and large animals likely compensate for their relatively slow reflexes in different ways. "We suspect that small animals rely on pre-flexive control, where their bodies are built in such a way that they can reject disturbances like stepping in a hole without intervention from their nervous system," says Donelan.

"Large animals, on the other hand, may rely more on prediction to think ahead about the consequences of their movements and adjust accordingly."

Donelan's lab has carried out previous locomotion studies involving elephants, giraffes and even kangaroos. A founder of Bionic Power and one of the original inventors of the bionic energy harvester, his research over the years has garnered international attention.

Why are animals tortured and eaten at Yulin dog festival

The Yulin “Lychee and Dog Meat” festival is held every year to mark the summer solstice.

The annual ten-day event can be traced back to 2009 and it is believed between 10,000 and 15,000 dogs are slaughtered for the festival.

Yulin as been slammed by animal rights activists who are looking for new ways to pressurise organisers to cancel the event.

Activists say the dog meat trade is inhumane and unhygienic, pointing to videos of dogs caught with wire lassos, transported in tiny cages and slaughtered with metal rods.

Why are animals tortured and eaten at the Yulin dog meat festival?

Dog meat is a traditional food in some areas of southern China, where it is believed to be good for the body in warm weather.

Yulin resident Wang Yue told Reuters: “Yulin’s so-called lychee and dog meat festival is just a popular custom of ours. Popular customs themselves cannot be right or wrong.

“Those scenes of bloody dog slaughter that you see online, I want to say that the killing of any animal will be bloody. I hope people can look at this objectively.”

People in the southern city of China defend eating the meat as it is a way to celebrate the summer solstice.

However animal protection group Humane Society International said in a statement the festival was “manufactured” by the dog meat trade and insists dog meat is not part of mainstream food culture in China.

Eating dogs is not illegal in China with around 10 to 20 million killed for human consumption every year and even thought the festival is new the custom can be traced back at least 400 years.

The Yulin Municipal Government has repeatedly said it is not able to stop the festival as it claims it does not exist as an official event.

Calls from animal lovers to boycott or cancel the festival provoked a defence of local tradition and accusations that activists were disturbing public order.

International animal rights groups say putting pressure on the dog meat trade has become harder after China stepped up scrutiny of foreign groups by requiring them to register with police.

Chinese activists are trying new tactics to convince authorities to end the dog meat trade.

Zhang Huahua, a university professor at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou province, complained to Yulin authorities that the festival infringed environmental protection regulations.

Zhang said: "The messy slaughter of numerous dogs transported to Yulin without inspection severely damages public order, popular custom and the environment."

Authorities told Zhang her letter would be processed in line with regulations.

WORLDWIDE swoops on animal abusers rescues 60,000 animals and 1,400 arrests

Up to 1.3 tonnes of ivory along with 43 tonnes of bushmeat from elephants, bears and whales have also been seized in the far-reaching operation – codenamed Thunderstorm.

The UK, United States, European nations along with African, Asian and South American countries have all been involved in the month-long operation which has resulted in the identification of 1,400 suspects.

“Operation Thunderstorm has seen significant seizures at global level, showing how coordinated global operations can maximise impact,” said INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock today.

“By revealing how wildlife trafficking groups use the same routes as criminals involved in other crime areas – often hand in hand with tax evasion, corruption, money laundering and violent crime – Operation Thunderstorm sends a clear message to wildlife criminals that the world’s law enforcement community is homing in on them.”

Police, customs, border officials along with environment, wildlife and forestry officials were involved in making seizures which are still being quantified but said to be worth millions of pounds.

The headline seizures include:

• 43 tonnes of wild meat, including samples from bear, elephant, crocodile, whale and zebra;

• 1.3 tonnes of raw and processed elephant ivory;

• 27,000 reptiles, including 869 alligators/crocodiles, 9,590 turtles and 10,000 snakes;

• Almost 4,000 birds, including pelicans, ostriches, parrots and owls;

• Several tonnes of wood and timber;

• 48 live primates;

• 14 big cats, including a tiger, lion, leopard and jaguar;

• The carcasses of seven bears, including two polar bears.

Welcoming the massive operation, leading conservation charity WWF said it reveals how the planet needs to stop exploiting its vanishing creatures.

WWF chief wildlife advisor Cath Lawson said: “This operation highlights the vast scale of the barbaric trade that is devastating some of the world’s most endangered wildlife. From plants and trees to eels and bears, we need to stop exploiting nature and start valuing it.

“This is a global problem that needs global solutions. The focus now needs to be on the illegal wildlife trade conference that’s taking place in London this October, where world leaders must go beyond words and commit to stamping it out before it's too late.”

During the month-long operation, the Vietnamese authorities seized almost four tonnes of scales from pangolins – the threatened mammal said to be the most trafficked of all animals – as they arrived by ship from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Another four tonnes of pangolin scales were also seized worldwide.

Among the arrests were two attendants in Los Angeles who were attempting to smuggle live spotted turtles to Asia in their personal baggage. Both suspects have been charged with smuggling CITES-protected species.

In Israel, a man was arrested and now awaits deportation to Thailand after a hunting photograph on social media led to the seizure of multiple wildlife items at his home, including fox, jackal and mongoose bodies.

Canadian authorities also intercepted a container holding 18 tonnes of eel meat arriving from Asia, which is thought to have been poached originally from Europe.

Interpol says before the operation went into overdrive intelligence was gathered to target specific hotspots, including land and airport border points and wildlife parks.

Cars, lorries, boats and cargo transporters suspected of moving illicit products were also targeted with searches carried out by officers using specialist sniffer dogs and X-ray scanners.

“By leveraging the global network of worldwide environmental law enforcement experts and customs community’s commitment to protecting wildlife, the World Customs Organisation and its partners have clearly illustrated the power and effectiveness of international cooperation in keeping our natural heritage safe, both now and for future generations,” said WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya.

“Operation Thunderstorm clearly demonstrates that by pooling our transnational law enforcement collaboration in the field, WCO and Interpol firmly contribute to making sure that borders everywhere divide criminals but connect customs and law enforcement as a whole to make the world a safer place.”

How Does the Summer Solstice Affect Animals?

The summer solstice, which marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, happens today (June 21) at 6:07 a.m. EDT (1007 GMT). This event happens when Earth's tilt toward the sun is at its maximum and the sun points directly over the Tropic of Cancer.

That extended daylight makes it difficult for people in northern latitudes to know when to go to sleep if they aren't looking at a clock, but the midnight sun is no problem for many other animals.

On this day, which provides a full 24 hours of daylight above the Arctic Circle, people in northern latitudes are celebrating with special events, like an overnight golf tournament in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, and a camping festival at England's Stonehenge. But without a watch, those partiers may ignore their bedtime, as humans are terrible at telling time during mostly light or mostly dark periods, according to a 1974 study in The Journal of Physiology. That's because light has a major effect on the human body's circadian rhythm, or sleep-wake cycle. [Photos: Stunning Summer Solstice Photos]

But many animals in northern latitudes can naturally control their sleep-wake cycles in extreme daylight conditions, said Cory Williams, a biologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

"There are animals that stop having a prolonged period of sleep," and they abandon their usual daily rhythm during this time of year, Williams told Live Science. For example, semipalmated sandpipers (Calidris pusilla) — small, brown-and-white shorebirds that breed above the Arctic Circle — are unfazed by the long periods of daylight. They alternate sleeping and waking hours with their nesting mate throughout the day. "When the male is active, the female is at the nest and vice versa," Williams said. "It's not on a 24-hour schedule."

Reindeer also ignore the absence of a light-dark cycle during the summer months. Instead, their sleep cycles are governed by ultradian rhythm, which means they sleep whenever they need to digest food. "They lose that long stretch of sleep they would normally have," Williams said. "They take lots of naps during the day instead of one concentrated bout of sleep.

This happens only in polar species, because their behavior is not entrained by light and dark cycles, Williams said. During this time of the year, the advantage for animals to be active at a particular time of day is lost. For instance, foraging at night doesn't save energy or provide protection from predators since it's daylight all the time.

But not all polar species abandon their circadian rhythm. For example, arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) stick to their sleep schedules all year long. They retreat to their burrows during the darkest part of the day in the summer (which still isn't that dark, more like twilight) to save energy, Williams said.

Scientists such as Williams are still working to figure out what is different about polar animals that maintain entrained sleeping rhythms. As average global temperatures increase, animals are relocating to higher latitudes, Williams said, "so it will be interesting to see how animals that haven't been exposed to polar conditions will respond as they move north."

Inside the Pet Prosthetics Company That's Changing Animals' Lives

When Chi Chi the dog was found on the side of the road in South Korea, animal rescuers weren’t sure if she would survive. She had been badly abused and suffered severe blood flow loss to her legs, rendering them immobile. The normal course of action in that situation would have been euthanization, but Chi Chi made it clear that she wasn’t ready to give up. “I always say that her smile saved her,” Derrick Campana, founder of Animal OrthoCare, tells Mental Floss. “She was just so friendly and lovable that she got noticed.” The decision was made to amputate all four of her legs, and it wasn't long before a viral video telling Chi Chi's story caught the attention of a couple in Arizona. Shortly after moving to her new home in the U.S., Chi Chi was outfitted with prosthetics designed by Campana that allowed her to move around freely for the first time since she was rescued.

Campana and the work he does for disabled animals like Chi Chi were the focus of the first episode of Dodo Heroes, a new Animal Planet series that highlights inspiring stories of animal strength and survival. The prosthetics designer fell into the veterinary field by chance: He was working as a doctor specializing in prosthetics for people when a canine patient was brought in to his practice. The doctor the dog was supposed to see wasn’t in, so Campana decided to build an artificial limb for the pooch himself. “I got so much satisfaction and fulfillment out of it that I knew it was something I wanted to do forever,” he says. He launched Animal OrthoCare, his animal bracing and prosthetics company, one month later.

There aren’t many options out there for pet owners looking to provide comfortable, effective prosthetics to their disabled animals. A dog amputee might be fitted with a canine cart, while larger wild animals with missing or dysfunctional limbs are often put down. And when prosthetics are available, the choices are usually limited, sticking pets with something that can exacerbate their pain and discomfort.

Animal OrthoCare is different: It’s the only company in the U.S. that offers custom animal braces, and it’s one of only a handful of custom animal orthotics companies on earth. Animals in need around the world can take advantage of its services. For most requests, Campana mails out a casting kit to the owner or veterinarian of the animal patient. After a cast is made of the patient’s limb, it’s mailed back to Animal OrthoCare’s shop in Virginia, where Campana and his team use it to build a custom prosthetic from medical-grade foam. It takes about a week on average before the final product is ready to ship to the customer's home, where they can attach it to their pet themselves using a hook-and-strap system that can be adjusted for maximum comfort.

In addition to being convenient, the treatment is also relatively affordable, with dog prosthetics starting at $750. Since founding Animal OrthoCare, Campana has helped roughly 20,000 animals walk again—and walk more comfortably.

Chi Chi the Golden Retriever and Jabu the elephant, the two patients featured in Campana's episode of Dodo Heroes, represent two of his biggest challenges to date. Chi Chi is a survivor of the South Korean dog meat trade, and she had been hung upside-down by her legs for so long that it cost her all four of her limbs. According to Campana, quadriplegic dogs are very rare, and dogs with four prosthetics are even rarer. By visiting Chi Chi in her home and adjusting the fit of her artificial limbs, he makes sure she can walk freely without doing any further damage to her body.

Jabu, a 31-year-old elephant living in Botswana, is another extreme example of the animals Campana gets to work with. After Jabu fell into a ditch and injured his leg, the caretakers at the wildlife preserve where he lives reached out to Animal OrthoCare for help. Campana says the leg brace he constructed for the 6-ton creature is likely the world’s first elephant brace. Without it, Jabu may not have survived even another minor injury. “A dog can have this type of injury and live a fine life, but for an animal like Jabu in the wild, it's life-threatening,” he says. “If you're lame out in the African bush, you're not going to live.”

Delta updates comfort-animal policy to one per passenger—and no pit bulls

Delta Air Lines has revised its animal policy again, this time limiting emotional-support animals to one per customer and banning "pit bull type dogs" as either comfort or service animals.

The changes go into effect July 10. The airline said the updates resulted from safety concerns, after several workers were bitten. Delta said it carries about 700 service or comfort animals daily, or nearly 250,000 per year.

The revisions are the latest examples of the major airlines grappling with how to serve passengers who want to bring animals with them in the cabin. Delta had previously updated its animal policy in March, after a 70-pound dog flying as a comfort animal bit a passenger in the next seat on a June 2017 flight from Atlanta to San Diego.

"The safety and security of Delta people and our customers is always our top priority," said Gil West, Delta's chief operating officer. "We will always review and enhance our policies and procedures to ensure that Delta remains a leader in safety."

Each of the major airlines has updated animal policies in recent months, after the Transportation Department was unable to reach a consensus on emotional-support animals between travelers, advocacy groups for the disabled and airlines.

The department is collecting comment about potential changes in animal regulations, after failing to reach a compromise between passengers, advocacy groups for the disabled and airlines. Nearly 3,000 comments have already poured in, with a deadline of July 15.

Airlines basically have at least four ways for passengers to bring animals on flights. But uncertainty about standards for the different categories has led to conflicts between passengers and airlines.

Most airlines allow passengers to ship animals in crates with luggage. But occasionally pets die under those circumstances, and high-profile incidents raised concerns. The department counted 506,994 animals transported in cargo last year, including 24 that died, 15 that were injured and one that was lost.

Airlines generally allow passengers to bring smaller pets in containers in the cabin, so long as they fit beneath the seat. But that option costs $75 to $125, depending on the airline.

The dispute over regulations and airline policies is about what animals can travel for free with passengers in the cabin without cages.

The Americans with Disabilities Act recognized dogs and miniature horses as trained service animals. The Air Carrier Access Act then said service animals could fly in the cabin with passengers, while also opening the door to broader range of emotional-support animals, which assist passengers with mental-health issues.

Airlines typically require travelers to have a note from a medical provider describing the need for an emotional-support animal and documentation of the animal's health. But some crew members and passengers suspect that travelers bring pets as comfort animals to avoid fees.

In recent years, the variety of emotional-support animals exploded to include monkeys, pigs and ducks as emotional-support animals, although airlines didn't have to accept reptiles, ferrets or rodents. These comfort animals, which didn't require specified training, sometimes upset other passengers.

As the variety of animals on flights multiplied, so did complaints. The department received 2,443 complaints from travelers with service animals on U.S. and foreign airlines in 2016 and another 2,499 last year.

Can lab animals be studied in the wild?

The environment a laboratory animal lives in can have a dramatic impact on whether it’s a good model for human disease. A mouse that lives in a shoebox-size cage, for example, gets less exercise than its wild relatives, and thus may not be the best model for studying obesity.

Enriched environments with bigger cages and more toys can help, says Garet Lahvis, but the best way to make animals good models is to take them out of the lab—and, in some cases, study them outside in the great wide world. This could be accomplished with cutting-edge electronics and remote sensors, says the behavioral neuroscientist at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. He’s presenting his proposal today at the Behavior Genetics Association’s annual conference in Boston.

Lahvis chatted with Science about what studying lab animals in the wild could look like, and why some researchers think it won’t happen. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Why did you become interested in this idea?

A: Our lab studies social behavior in mice. We’ve shown that mice have the capacity for empathy when they hear other mice getting an electrical shock, and that mice are gregarious—they like to hang out with each other. But we were studying them in these small, relatively sterile cages—not anything like they’d encounter in the wild. About 6 or 7 years ago, I started thinking, “How could it be normal for you to spend your entire life with only three other individuals in a small room? Are the mice we’re looking at really normal?” Once that door opened, I started to think about everything else that could go wrong with lab animal research.

Q: What’s wrong with current housing for lab animals?

A: Animals have to deal with a massive landscape in the wild. They need to hunt for food, avoid predators, seek mates, and deal with complex environmental variables, from rain to shifting light conditions. If you live in a cage, even a cage with lots of toys and companions, everything is the same. You’re not using your brain.

We haven’t had any big breakthroughs for psychiatric diseases; even with cancer drugs, the success rates have been very low. I think a contributing factor is that we’re keeping these animals in such unnatural conditions.

Q: What’s the solution?

A: We need to make the lives of these animals as close as possible to what their lives would be like in the wild. If you’re studying something on a macro level—like how an “autistic” animal responds to its companions—you have to put the animal in a situation where it’s dealing with a ton of social and environmental variables, and those variables need to constantly be changing. You can’t just put a couple of mice in a cage for 4 minutes and ask how long they spend sniffing each other’s butts.

Q: So take the animals out of the lab?

A: One option is to put the animals in an outdoor pen, so they’re dealing with things like foraging and weather that they don’t have to in the lab.

But we could also do some of this work in the wild. For example, [some] mice live in barns. So we could construct a real barn in the wild, one that would have all the challenges and opportunities of real barn living, except perhaps we’d try to make sure the barn never got too hot or too cold, and that the animals couldn’t escape. Then you could introduce, for example, a bunch of mice that were genetically predisposed to breast cancer.

Q: But how could you study such free-roaming animals?

A: You could tag them with a radio frequency tag to keep track of them, and implant them with devices that would allow you to measure physiological variables like heart rate. Then you could inject them with a drug and catch them with traps at regular intervals to see if their tumors were shrinking.

Pretty much everything we can do in the lab, we can do in the wild through remote telemetry and other electronics. You could even use camera traps, for example, to see how animals solve puzzle boxes in the wild. Or you could use probes implanted in an animal’s brain to remotely turn genetically modified neurons on and off.

We’ve done this ourselves with ground squirrels. We’ve used video cameras to compare how these animals behave in the wild to how they behave in the lab.

Q: What are the limitations?

A: I wouldn’t modify the genes of animals we’re studying in the wild, in case they escape. Some critics say it’s also a lot more expensive and labor intensive to study lab animals in the wild.

But we also spend a lot of money on infrastructure, cage cleaning, and other things in the lab—and we spend money on experiments year after year that have no relevance to human health. We should spend more money and do it right. Instead, we’re putting monkeys in mop closets.

Q: How have scientists responded to your proposal?

A: Most of them don’t question the science. They realize this is a better way to do things. But they do question the accounting. They think it will cost too much. So the pressure to change has to come from the outside—from an organization like the National Institutes of Health.

Q: What’s the next step?

A: I’ve convened neuroscientists and wildlife biologists in Oregon to explore how use of naturalistic environments can improve research. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University, and the National Science Foundation have all expressed interest in exploring this.

Q: Have you stopped doing animal research in the lab?

A: I ended my mouse colony and stopped writing grants to study animals in cages a couple of years ago. If this doesn’t work out, [laughs] my days are probably numbered.

Event raises funds for animals in need of forever homes

Every year thousands of homeless animals are in need of a forever home in mid-Michigan.

Sunday the "Paws in the park" event, hosted by the Capital Area Humane Society, didn't only raise money for a local shelter, but it hoped to raise awareness.

The event had little dogs, big dogs, dogs up for adoption and dogs in costumes who flooded the Cooley Law Stadium for a day of games, endless doggy treats, and a good cause.

Julia Willson, the President & CEO of the Capital Area Humane Society said these events are a fun way to attract dogs and their owners. She said, "This type of event funds our activities, including finding new homes for animals that don't have homes, spay and neuter services and providing a wide range of care for the animals in our community."

And in the community here in mid-Michigan, Willson said she cares for hundreds of animals on any given day at the shelter. She told News 10 this major issue is not just a local one but extends on a much larger scale. "It's really a national problem, I think many communities experience the fact that many animals don't have a home," Willson said.

With a lot of animals living in shelters, owners at the event said they suggest people look at shelters before purchasing their pet from anywhere else.

Marilyn Jackson, a rescued dog owner, got her dog Miles from a family that could no longer care for him. "There are so many loving dogs that are great with family and kids who need homes, and its best sometimes to adopt and not shop," Jackson said.

Sarah Dobbrastine is another dog owner who is also no stranger to having her own rescued dogs, "There are always going to be animals looking for homes."

Dobbrastine has welcomed 10 huskies into her home, all of which she rescued or were given to her from people who know she likes that breed.

She told News 10, "more than half of mine have been abused or abandoned so that's how they came to be, or just people who gave them to me because they knew I dog sledded." She said she loves huskies for their personalities and comforting quality.

Sunday was a walk for animals in need, a walk animals took one paw at a time.