Last February [six years ago], when a 12,000-pound orca named Tilikum dragged his SeaWorld trainer into the pool and drowned her, it was the third time the big killer whale had been involved in a death... By Tim Zimmermann (July 30, 2010)

One SHARK "Angel" drone causes the California Highway Patrol and the Fresno County Sheriff's Department to totally lose their cool for two straight days.

Releasing shocking hidden camera videos, a small animal rights group based in Lyon, France has reignited the debate on animal cruelty, causing French authorities to close down several abattoirs and launch a parliamentary inquiry. The videos have come as a shock to many, including in the farming world. Philippe Notin is a third-generation organic farmer from the Loire region. He is a minority shareholder in the slaughterhouse where his animals are killed, which he says gives him a say about what goes on there.

Sir David Attenborough has joined forces with leading scientists and animal welfare experts to call for an end to the use primates in certain types of “cruel” testing by neuroscientists. The leading naturalist and broadcaster said recent breakthroughs in understanding primates’ capacity to feel suffering and pain meant it was time to stop funding some potentially painful or cruel types of experiments.

Fur seems to be making a high fashion comeback, the September issue of National Geographic reports. “The current revival is a story of the fur trade responding to its critics and often outmaneuvering them, combined with increased demand from the newly wealthy in China, South Korea, and Russia,” writes Richard Conniff. After the animal welfare movement hit a high-water mark in the 1990s, the movement has lost some ground. Nearly two-thirds of women’s 2016 fall fashion collections featured fur, according to the International Fur Federation.

There have been many examples of animal abuse for entertainment and commercial use all over the world. But animal cruelty in China tends to be getting more outrageous. Every year, approximately 10 million animals are killed for various reasons in the country. Of course, it’s not new that innocent animals are slowly tortured, beaten to death, or boiled alive. Some animals are used for their fur and often sold and shipped to other countries for use in clothing, while other creatures are slaughtered to be placed on restaurants’ menus.

Animal skins are being embraced by designers amid a push to make the lives and deaths of captive creatures more humane.

It's cruelty, plain and simple.

Animals by the hundreds are being set free as Buenos Aires closes its 140-year-old Palermo zoo. Among the first to leave will be birds of prey like owls and chimangos, destined for a reserve along the shores of the Rio de la Plata south of the capital. They will be placed there in larger confines that will give them room to stretch and strengthen their winds before they're ready for the wild. Others among the 1,500 animals at the zoo are destined for reserves in Argentina and abroad as their old home is transformed into a park.

Arturo the polar bear has died at the age of 30 after a life spent in captivity and displaying signs of stress, according to campaigners. Known as the "world’s saddest polar bear" and the last captive bear in Argentina, Arturo died at Mendoza Zoo, four years after his longtime companion Pelusa died of cancer. Visitors reported the bear pacing up and down inside his concrete enclosure, rocking from side to side, displaying his teeth and other signs of discomfort as temperatures would rise above 40C.

Are zoos really effective at education and conservation? Anthropologist Barbara J. King offers her top reasons why it's time to rethink the role of zoos.

Days before the Whale Festival in Ulsan, South Korea, last month, authorities raided a cold storage unit and found more than 27 tons—about 40 whales’ worth—of whale meat worth $3.4 million. The meat belonged to minke whales, which can grow to 35 feet long and swim as fast as 20 miles an hour. While Japan, Norway, and Iceland get most of the heat for whaling, conservationists say South Korea engages in controversial whaling practices too. South Korean fishermen are known to take advantage of a loophole that allows them to legally sell whale meat from animals that are accidentally caught in fishing nets.

Festival-goers are marking the start of summer solstice by gathering as communities to celebrate over barbecued meat. This could be a scene from anywhere in the world, but the one making headlines is from Yulin, China – because the animals on the barbecue will be dogs. The annual summer festival in Yulin has been widely criticized, mostly by Westerners who aren’t used to thinking of dogs as food. Images and footage of filthy dogs crowded into cages and being brutally slaughtered...

While bestiality is a criminal offence in Canada, the top court ruled the legal definition is much more limited than how it has been interpreted for decades. It all goes back to the 1800s Church of England trying to ban any sex acts that were seen as unnatural. The crime of bestiality in Canada stems from the old crime of “buggery.” The original definition of buggery meant anal sex with either another human or an animal. Both were forbidden in England, where Canada’s earliest laws came from.

Judge in Wake County, N.C., on Friday found a Florida woman guilty of animal cruelty for wrapping duct tape around her dog’s muzzle. A photo of the dog posted to Facebook by Katharine Lemanksy unleashed a viral reaction that ended with two Cary, N.C., police officers charging her with being cruel to the dog. The officers testified that the dog, named Brown, was otherwise well cared for so they did not remove it from the Cary home where the incident occurred.

Held every year, the Yulin Dog Meat Festival results in the slaughter of thousands of dogs, which are then served in some of the restaurants in this city in south China. An international campaign to halt the killing keeps growing each year. Millions in Canada, the U.K. and the United States have signed petitions calling for China to end the festival, which is scheduled to start this year on June 21. Yet it not just foreign activists who are working to stop China's dog meat trade. There are now millions of pet owners in the world's most populous country.

Hanoko, which means “flower child,” lived almost her entire life at Tokyo’s Inokashira Park Zoo. By Christopher Brennan. (May 26)

Contrary to what many assume, an estimated 88% of animals killed by halal methods in Britain are stunned before slaughter

Animal rights activists are seeking to shut down an annual summer dog meat festival in southern China blamed for blackening the country's international reputation as well as fueling extreme cruelty to canines and unhygienic food handling practices. Activists from a coalition of groups said Monday that they will continue press for the festival to be banned as well as legislation outlawing the slaughtering of dogs and cats and the consumption of their meat.

In an agreement with The Humane Society of the United States, the theme park will also phase out the use of the giant marine mammals in theatrical shows.