A sick 4-foot-long alligator was caught in Brooklyn New York and officials are looking for the person responsible.

A member of the Prospect Park maintenance staff spotted the gator near Duck Island in Prospect Park Lake.

The Parks Department says the alligator was lethargic, perhaps because of the cold. It was also in poor condition.

"Parks are not suitable homes for animals not indigenous to those parks-domesticated or otherwise," an official with NYC Parks said. "In addition to the potential danger to park goers this could have caused, releasing non-indigenous animals or unwanted pets can lead to the elimination of native species and unhealthy water quality. In this case the animal was found very lethargic and possibly cold shocked since it is native to warm, tropical climates."

Officials said the rescue wasn't too difficult given the condition of the alligator and its proximity to the banks.

"And she was pretty close to the edge and it was also very lethargic and slow moving, so it wasn't really you know, a crazy, crazy crocodile wrestling incident where it was fighting her at all and we also lifted pretty easily as well because it wasn't moving very much," said NYC Parks Ranger Sgt. Judith Velosky.

Officials captured the gator and transported it to ACC. It was then transported to the Bronx Zoo for rehabilitation.

"It's just really sad to see it was very emaciated," Velosky said. "Luckily we got it to Animal Care Center pretty quickly and they warmed it up and it started moving. So that was a good sign."

Alligators can grow as large as 11 feet and weigh 1,000 pounds.

"I expected a much smaller animal so I was really surprised at how large it was," Velosky said. "We do get calls about reptiles that are released in to our parks. But never anything this big have I encountered." Police are trying to figure out who dumped the gator.

"The operating theory is that this was a domesticated pet and someone released it into the lake," said Prospect Park resident Christopher Brunson.

Releasing animals in New York City Parks is illegal. If you see an abandoned animal, the best thing to do is leave the animal where it is and call 311 or locate an Urban Park Ranger in the park. Urban Park Rangers respond to around 500 reports of animal conditions per year citywide.

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Drivers could be fined £1,000 if they accidentally hit a cat and fail to inform the police, under a proposed new law in the UK. Currently, drivers must stop and inform police if they hit dogs, horses, cattle, pigs, goats and sheep - but not cats.

Many cat owners are left wondering what’s happened to their beloved pets if they’ve been run over by a driver, as it’s not a legal requirement to go to the police or track down the owner.

Recently one pet owner who lost her cat to a hit-and-run incident reached 100,000 signatures on a petition to change the law and was debated in parliament, but there are no current plans to make it an offence.
A spokesman said cats deserved the same protection in law as dogs and other pets and called on the government to show compassion to their devoted owners.

Tim Alcock from LeaseCar.uk said: “We’re calling for changes to be made to the law to make it a legal requirement for motorists to report to police if they’ve run over a cat.

“Along with this change, we believe it’s right to introduce a fine of up to £1,000 for any motorists who don’t comply and simply leave a cat on the roadside without reporting the incident.

“It was shocking to discover that it’s not a legal requirement for motorists to report whether they’ve run over cats, but it was even more surprising that the law covers various animals but excludes one of the most popular pets in Britain.

“It’s not uncommon to see a poster for a missing cat on a lamp post or in a shop window and in many cases, the missing pet will have been the victim of a road accident but as the law stands there’s no requirement for the owner to even be informed.

“It’s heartbreaking to lose a cat, for many they’re a member of the family, which is why we want to support the change in the law to show their importance.

“It simply isn’t right that cat owners are left in this terrible vacuum of grief when their beloved pet disappears without warning.

“The fact that anyone would want to leave a defenseless animal on the side of the road is appalling and not having a law in place can make people assume it’s fine for this to continue.

“It’s not fair to our beloved pets to have the law unchanged, we want no cat to be left behind injured or dead at the side of the road.” What happens in the UK is soon to take prevalence in the U.S.

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An 85-year-old woman walking her dog was killed when an alligator pulled her into a nearby retention pond in southeast Florida, according to wildlife officials.

Gloria Serge was walking her small dog along the pond in her community in Ft. Pierce when the alligator attempted to take her dog, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

“Ms. Serge was knocked over and the alligator pulled her into the water by her foot,” according to a commission incident report.

“Serge was pulled into deeper water and died as a result of the incident,” it said. The alligator, which was approximately 11 feet long, was caught and euthanized.

The dog survived, commission spokesperson Arielle Callender told CNN. The woman was recovered and the alligator involved in the incident was captured by a contracted nuisance alligator trapper, the fish and wildlife commission said.

“Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of the victim,” the commission said in a statement.

According to the statement, serious injuries caused by alligators are rare in the state of Florida.

“The FWC places the highest priority on public safety and administers a Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program (SNAP) to address complaints concerning specific alligators believed to pose a threat to people, pets or property,” the statement said.

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One of the world’s largest outbreaks of bird flu, which led to the slaughter of millions of chickens to limit its spread, appears to be spilling over into mammals.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the avian influenza A virus has been detected in mammals such as skunks, bears, a raccoon and a red fox.

Though most cases were detected in Oregon, positive tests in mammals were confirmed in the following states, according to the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services:

• Alaska 
• Colorado 
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Montana
• Nebraska
• New York
• Washington

Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, the Animal and Plant Health Agency found positive cases in otters and foxes. The agency also said a cat tested positive in France, and the highly contagious pathogen caused a large outbreak in a Spanish mink farm.

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A private luxury yacht that ran aground on rocks and reef Monday morning at Honolua Bay – a popular surfing spot and protected marine sanctuary in west Maui – has leaked fuel into the ocean, according to the Department of Land and Natural Resources.  A sheen of fuel was visible on the water on Tuesday morning and during the afternoon, "you could still smell fuel in the air," according to DLNR. 

Maui County officials issued an emergency permit on Tuesday morning to intervene "in response to the increasing risk of damage to the reef and ecosystem" that the stuck yacht poses. "The longer the vessel remains in the sensitive area the higher the risk of damage," said Mayor Richard Bissen, Jr., in a statement. 

A team from DLNR Division of Aquatic Resources did an initial underwater assessment of any damage to coral reef and live rocks, which are protected by state law, around the boat and found about 30 to be damaged. Although further assessment is required, the boat owner could face "significant penalties."

DLNR officials said it will likely take a few more days before the yacht can be freed from the reef. The U.S. Coast Guard federalized the yacht, meaning all fuel, batteries and any other pollutants on board must be removed first. 

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Globalist George Soros shared his plan during the Munich Security Conference to “repair the climate system.”

• “The melting of the Greenland ice sheet would increase the level of the oceans by seven meters,” Soros claimed. “That poses a threat to the survival of our civilization. I wasn’t willing to accept that fate, so I tried to find out whether anything could be done to avoid it.”
• Soros described being “directed to Sir David King, a climate scientist who had been chief scientific advisor to previous British governments” and supports the creation of technology that would create clouds reflecting the sun away from areas at risk of climate change.
• King’s plan to repair the climate system “could help restabilize the Arctic climate system which governs the entire global climate system,” according to Soros.
• The plan is based on the idea that the Arctic Circle “used to be sealed off from the rest of the world by winds that blew in a predictable, circular, counter-clockwise direction, but man-made climate change broke this isolation.”
• “Unless we change the way, we deal with climate change, our civilization will be thoroughly disrupted by rising temperatures that will make large parts of the world practically unlivable,” Soros said.

CRITICISM OF GEOENGINEERING:

• Over a dozen scientists published an article stating the increased call for solar geoengineering technology is “cause for alarm.”
• “In short, the deployment of solar geoengineering at planetary scale would require entirely new international organizations with convincing means of democratic control and unprecedented enforcement powers,” the scientists wrote.
• The scientists then called for the development of an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering, which would be “timely, feasible, and effective” in preventing the “normalization and development of a risky and poorly understood set of technologies that seek to intentionally manage incoming sunlight at planetary scale, and it would do so without restricting legitimate climate research.”
• According to Down To Earth, geoengineering alters an ecosystem’s “self-regulation,” affecting rainfall patterns that could damage a community’s water supplies.
• The technology may also “disrupt the monsoons in Asia and increase droughts, particularly in Africa, endangering food and water sources for two billion people,” Down to Earth continued.
• Geoengineering also risks damaging wildlife populations if animals cannot adapt to changing conditions.

BACKGROUND: American Faith reported that startup company Make Sunsets launched weather balloons containing reflective sulfur particles into the stratosphere to block sunlight.

• “To go ahead with implementation at this stage is a very bad idea,” said executive director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative Janos Pasztor.
• Similar technology is being researched by the Biden administration in an effort to combat “global warming.”      
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Legislation proposed in Florida would make it illegal to let your dog stick its head out the car window.

The provision is part of a larger bill that “introduces a list of new rules that could be put into law regarding the transportation of animals and related subjects,” Parade reports.

The proposal, called Senate Bill 932, comes from Sen. Lauren Book (D-Broward). It specifically would prohibit letting a dog “extend its head or any other body part outside a motor vehicle window while the person is operating the motor vehicle on a public roadway.”

The legislation, however, is likely to be altered or removed due to a “swift backlash,” the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. A spokeswoman for Book told the newspaper: “The public has spoken. She’s heard from folks who feel really strongly about this. This is not something that Floridians want.”

If the proposal stays in the bill, it may be limited to only apply to highway driving, spokeswoman Claire VanSusteren said.

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The animal protection organization Animal Outlook sued a Maine agency that houses the state’s Animal Welfare Program over the agency’s failure to apply state animal cruelty laws to fish in Maine’s growing aquaculture industry. Under Maine law, the agency has a legal obligation to ensure the humane and proper treatment of “every living sentient creature” in the state. But the agency has failed to craft regulations—let alone to enforce Maine’s cruelty laws—to protect the millions of aquatic animals, even as Maine’s aquaculture industry has grown exponentially in recent years. Animal Outlook says this neglect is typical for fish and other aquatic animals, who are routinely overlooked by even the minimal laws applied to other animals.

 “The science is clear: fish feel pain,” said Jareb Gleckel, Staff Attorney at Animal Outlook. “Even so, they’re often left out of conversations about animal protection--even by agencies with a legal obligation to protect them. Here, the agency responsible for ensuring the humane treatment of all animals in Maine has refused to provide even minimal protection to aquatic animals in the state’s expanding aquaculture industry. That’s why we’ve teamed up with concerned Maine residents to demand the agency does its job.”

 In 2022, more than 150 registered Maine voters, supported by Animal Outlook and other organizations, submitted a petition to the Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry (DACF)-Animal Welfare Program (AWP), triggering the legal requirement that AWP initiate a rulemaking process to apply Maine’s anti-cruelty laws to the state’s aquaculture industry. DACF responded, stating – erroneously, says Animal Outlook – that it was “denying” the petition. However, having received the petition, Maine law requires DACF to begin the rule-making process. In rejecting it, says Animal Outlook, DACF has not only neglected the welfare of fish in the state, it has rejected the will of Maine voters and failed to obey the law.

 The petition followed the first-ever undercover exposé of a U.S. salmon aquaculture operation, conducted by Animal Outlook in Bingham, Maine. The investigation documented workers stomping on fish, slamming them into concrete, and exposing them to filthy tanks, with many fish suffering from fungal infections or deformities. It also brought to light that no state agency has crafted regulations for applying Maine’s anti-cruelty laws to millions of aquatic animals that those laws are intended to protect. The petition, and now Animal Outlook’s lawsuit, demands that DACF comply with Maine law and craft regulations for aquaculture in the state.

 Animal Outlook is a national nonprofit 501(c)(3) animal advocacy organization based in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, CA. It is strategically challenging animal agribusiness through undercover investigations, legal advocacy, corporate and food system reform, and disseminating information about the many harms of animal agriculture, empowering everyone to choose vegan. https://animaloutlook.org/

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Cruelty Free International, the leading organization working to end animal testing around the world, is calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reduce the suffering of animals in laboratories and increase its transparency to the public after a 6% increase in the number of animals used in experiments was revealed in its newly-reformatted statistics for 2021.

 According to our analysis, the statistics showed that a total of 712,683 animals were used in experiments – including 112,595 cats, 71,921 monkeys, and 44,847 dogs. However, USDA figures do not include mice, rats, fish or birds – the animals most commonly used in experiments. As a result, Cruelty Free International estimate the true number of animals used in experiments in the U.S. every year to be at least 14 million.

 These 2021 figures are the first to be provided to the public in a new format. Cruelty Free International has asked the USDA to explain its change to a more opaque system^[1] which makes comparisons with past years, or between different pain categories and across different states, very difficult. The USDA is yet to provide an explanation, despite repeated requests.

 In 2021, Category E experiments, in which no relief is provided for animals experiencing pain or distress, involved 70,161 animals – 10% of the total tested on in the U.S. The most frequent victims of these painful experiments are hamsters and guinea pigs, but in 2021, 2,583 rabbits, 1,621 monkeys and 360 dogs were also subjected to Category E tests.

 Monica Engebretson, Head of Public Affairs North America for Cruelty Free International, said, “We are appalled by the unacceptable number of animals suffering in U.S. laboratories and by the USDA’s lack of transparency in what appears to be a growing lack of accountability to the public and the animals.

 “We accept that some of this increase in experiments could be due to a return to previous levels of activity following the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, but we had still hoped to see an overall decrease in the number of animals used, when public demand for humane science, and the development of non-animal testing methods, are both increasing.

 “Far more needs to be done to end the cruel use of animals in research and testing. This further illustrates the urgent need for legislation like the HEARTS Act^[2] that will prioritize the use and development of non-animal testing methods and increase accountability for animals used in tax-payer funded research.”

Cruelty Free International is one of the world’s longest standing and most respected animal protection organizations. The organization is widely regarded as an authority on animal testing issues and is frequently called upon by governments, media, corporations and official bodies for its advice or expert opinion. www.crueltyfreeinternational.org.

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