Bullfighting -- a horrible spectacle of animal abuse that ends in the slow and tortuous death of an animal provoked and repeatedly gored with knives and swords -- is justly in decline. The torment and death of animals for amusement can never be acceptable.

With so much of the world...

Three years ago I came home from the 15th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar, and wrote an article entitled 'Is CITES still relevant to conservation?'

The two-week meeting had, from a conservation perspective, been very depressing. Several proposals to afford...

From today, following 20 years of delays to implementation, the European Union finally is enforcing its ban on the sale of newly animal-tested cosmetic products and ingredients. In doing so, the EU becomes the largest cruelty-free cosmetics market, making its shops a no-go area for cosmetics tested on animals anywhere...

Which large, grey mammal is wholly aquatic, herbivorous, weighs close to half a tonne, has a big flat tail rather like a beaver but no back legs or eyelids, is related to elephants and lives along the coast and waterways of West Africa?

Give up?

The answer is...

Polar bears are in crisis. Human-induced climate change means that their icy habitat is fast disappearing and estimates made by leading scientists in the Arctic suggest that numbers of polar bears could fall by as much as two-thirds by 2050 [i].

And yet, incredibly, Canada still allows the hides and...

It is difficult to imagine how anyone could cut off the fins of a living, breathing and sentient creature and throw the animal back into the sea to drown. Yet this is the fate that befalls untold millions of sharks across the globe for the sole purpose of...

The government's proposed slaughter of badgers has resulted in the biggest public outcry about a wildlife issue since the Hunting Act of 2004. While the announcement from the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs Owen Paterson on 23 October that the cull will be delayed is welcome,...

Even in the face of overwhelming scientific opposition, the British government is preparing to issue licenses to farmers and landowners to shoot badgers in Gloucestershire and Somerset this autumn, claiming its policy is science-led.

Badgers are one of the few iconic wild mammals remaining in Britain. Sadly, since the...

The tiger is one of the most iconic of wild animals. Sleek, magnificent and instantly recognisable, the tiger has become immortalised in the legends, values and lore of many human cultures. Works of William Blake, A.A. Milne and Walt Disney have established the tiger as an object of fascination and...

The world's rhinos are in crisis.

Demand for rhino horn in the Far East has escalated in recent years to the point that a kilo of powdered horn is now reported to be selling for as much as US$65,000 on the black markets in Vietnam and China.

While testing cosmetics such as lipstick and shampoo on animals was banned in the European Union in 2009, elsewhere around the world animal suffering for cosmetics continues. Rabbits still have chemicals dripped into their eyes or rubbed into their shaved skin, and rodents still have substances forced down their throats...

The Gulf of St. Lawrence on Canada's Eastern seaboard is a wild, unforgiving place, subject to extreme weather and partially covered with sea ice for much of the winter.

It's also a vitally important habitat for a huge variety of marine animals.

At this time of year, it's particularly...

Reports of "mad March hares", chasing each other and boxing, is always a welcome sign that spring is not far away. But don't let the sight of these animals cavorting in fields fool you, the hare population has decreased by 80% over the last century and it's about time that...

As we welcome in 2012, ironically the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Protection of Badgers Act, hard times loom for Britain's badgers.

With the government twisting the available science to justify a mass slaughter, Humane Society International/UK is looking to the Strasbourg-based Bern Convention to prevent the...

Christmas is traditionally a time of peace and goodwill to all 'men', but sadly other animals fair less well during the festive season.

Luckily, ethical options are becoming much more popular at Christmas time and that's good on all fronts, from animal welfare and healthy eating to climate change.

So...

Recent tragic events in Zanesville Ohio, where dozens of exotic animals including big cats, bears and wolves were released from a private facility and who the authorities were subsequently forced to shoot, have focused the spotlight on the issue of dangerous wild animals kept as pets.

Most right-minded people have...

A couple of weeks ago I received two emails.

The first referred to a report in the Guardian, containing the disturbing news that this year the Arctic summer sea ice reached its lowest extent since satellite recording began in the 1970s, and probably its lowest extent for at...

In 2010, South Africa reported losses of 333 of its rhinos to poachers. That's almost one rhino per day.

In 2011 that rate has increased, with 280 rhinos poached by late August, the majority from the Kruger National Park. By the end of the year the death...

Caroline Spelman's announcement of the Government's intention to sanction the slaughter of badgers last week was devastating, not only because of the obvious implications for the future of one of our most iconic wild mammals, but because once again she has ridden rough shod over the opinion of...