"Our Prime purpose in life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them." ` Dalai Lama

Chuck, the police dog involved in the arrest of Malcolm Naden.
NSW Police.

New South Wales's most wanted man, Malcolm Naden, has finally been captured after seven years on the run.

Police found Naden at a holiday house 30 kilometres west of Gloucester in the Upper Hunter region just after midnight (AEDT).

Officers from the tactical operations unit and the dog squad swooped on the property, surrounding and arresting the 38-year-old former abattoir worker.
Audio: Listen to the AM story (AM)

Now bald and with a bushy beard, Naden was dressed in a muddy shirt as he was led away by detectives.

A rifle was seized from the property, after police revealed last week that Naden was armed with a semi-automatic rifle.

They had said thefts in the areas had given them fresh information about his whereabouts. Brave Chuck the police dog assisted in the arrest. 

    Naden charged with 2005 murder

After reading how the feral camels have made a dreadful nuisance of themselves in many Aboriginal communities I am in favour of culling the excess camels in the ouback in guidance by the local people who live in those areas.  These decisions must always be made in consultation with the people it effects.  When I hear greens ay 'but it is cruel to the camels,' I just want to ask them if they would like 600 camels hanging around their house and stopping them from leaving, trampling their fences and endangering their children?

A national program to limit Australia's wild camel population is aiming to triple its cull count in the Northern Territory this year.

The Feral Camel Management Project is aiming to reduce camel numbers in critical hotspots to reduce the impact on crucial waterholes and native animals.

Project operators say more than 13,000 wild camels were killed in the Northern Territory last year.

Spokeswoman Jan Ferguson told the Country Hour far more camels should be culled in 2012.

"We are certainly hopeful it would accelerate," she said.

"We would hope to remove about 50,000 camels in the next 12 months, subject to weather and good intelligence.

"We don't just work at any cost.

"It is important these things are cost effective.

"This is public money."

Thousands of camels were introduced to Australia between 1840 and 1970 to help open up the nation's arid areas.

Most came from India but there were also breeds from China, Mongolia and Arabia.

Australia's estimated feral camel population of more than a million is a mix of these breeds.

They range throughout the dry centre of the continent, including areas of the Territory, South Australia and New South Wales, but more than half are believed to be in Western Australia.

In 2009, a federal program to cull more than 650,000 beats over four years was begun.

The economic cost of damage and grazing land loss caused by feral camels is estimated at about $10 million a year.

I know this will upset a lot of my friends. The numbers are staggering.
Poachers have killed more than 200 elephants in Cameroon in just six weeks, in a "massacre" fuelled by Asian demand for ivory.

A local government official said heavily armed poachers from Chad and Sudan had decimated the elephant population of Bouba Ndjida National Park in Cameroon's far north in a dry season killing spree.

"We are talking about a very serious case of trans-frontier poaching, involving well-armed poachers with modern weapons from Sudan and Chad who are decimating this wildlife species to make quick money from the international ivory trade," said Gambo Haman, governor of Cameroon's north region.

Here is the ABC link to the news re-gardening this poaching


Books » Science » Nature » Wildlife
Elephants on the Edge What Animals Teach Us About Humanity

By G. A. Bradshaw


Drawing on accounts from India to Africa and California to Tennessee, and on research in neuroscience, psychology, and animal behaviour, G. A. Bradshaw explores the minds, emotions, and lives of elephants. Wars, starvation, mass culls, poaching, and habitat loss have reduced elephant numbers from more than ten million to a few hundred thousand, leaving orphans bereft of the elders who would normally mentor them.
As a consequence, traumatized elephants have become aggressive against people, other animals, and even one another; their behaviour is comparable to that of humans who have experienced genocide, other types of violence, and social collapse.
By exploring the elephant mind and experience in the wild and in captivity, Bradshaw bears witness to the breakdown of ancient elephant cultures. All is not lost.
People are working to save elephants by rescuing orphaned infants and rehabilitating adult zoo and circus elephants, using the same principles psychologists apply in treating humans who have survived trauma. Bradshaw urges us to support these and other models of elephant recovery and to solve pressing social and environmental crises affecting all animals, human or not.

About the Author
G. A. Bradshaw is director of the Kerulos Center and president and co-founder of the International Association for Animal Trauma and Recovery. She frequently discusses the psychology of elephants, wildlife, and other animals in the national media, including 20/20 and National Geographic television and magazine. She was featured prominently in the October 2006 New York Times Magazine article "An Elephant Crackup?".

Should tiger farming be considered as a solution to the illegal trade in body parts?

Senior law enforcement officers from tiger range countries are meeting in Thailand to discuss ways to protect tigers from gangs who trade skins and body parts. David Higgins from Interpol says they'll be gathering information about the increasing number of environmental criminals in order to take do...Read more here-> Clamping down on illegal tiger trade across Asia www.radioaustralia.net.au

It is good to see some serous study is being undertaken to learn how we can protect the Hairy nose Wombat who has become something of an endangered species.   The fact that he likes to waddle along and across roads at a slow pace makes him very vulnerable to car accidents.  These animals are predominately nocturnal as indeed are most of Australia's marsupials.  Scientists and naturalists are combining to film the wombat's habits by night vision cameras and already some amazing footage has been taken of the wombat our grazing with its young. Something you are unlikely to see in daylight.

I know of three different species of Wombats. There is the common Wombat, then there is a Northern Hairy Nose Wombat, however he can live as far south as Victoria. then there is the Southern hairy Nose Wombat.  You can learn more about wombats on this government sponsored Wombat website.

They say you can buy anything on EBay other than live animals, though I have never seen for sale there, a pool fence las vegas style.


I have placed some Auctions on EBay under the EBay ID of 'doggieblog.c'

The first auction listing I placed was for FIVE Australian Cattle Dog Fridge Magnets from the Art of Kathy Shell

I plan to list 30 animal  or bird portrait auctions per month in EBay under this ID.

Did you know you can now list 30 Auctions for FREE in 30 days on EBay?   I am taking advantage of the current no listing fees for the casual seller.  This will allow me to do some great priced auction starts as where ever possible offer FREE Postage within Australia and a reasonable additional cost to ship internationally.  Feel welcome to contact me.

The annual Northern Territory lorikeets drinking binge is on. 

Red-collared lorikeets, a  species of parrot in the Top End of the Australia gather in their thousands in large trees in Darwin and Palmerston to get drunk on fermented fruit at this time of year.

"They eating fruit that ferment and become intoxicated.   I had a poodle who ate apricots that had fallen beneath a tree in my garden.  I found her there drunk, a nasty snarling drunk at that...I suspect she had a severe hangover.  Aftr that I was carful to collect all fallen fruit beneath my trees as drunkenness in birds and animals can kill them.  It also makes birds and wildlife susceptible to predators.  My drunken dog was given a quiet place where she was abserved, to sleap it off and a lot of TLC.  Mind you she had a taste for the alcohol after that, lol, and always eyed off our wine glasses when we had a drink with a meal.  I think know she could smell the alcohol. Yes a true alcoholic dog.