PHOENIX — The Arizona Humane Society is in hot water after euthanizing an area man’s 9-month-old kitten. According to ABC15.com, Daniel Dockery’s cat was not fatally wounded and would have lived, but the Arizona Humane Society euthanized it after Dockery relinquished his ownership in an attempt to save the kitten. Below are more details about this sad story of euthanizing.

What was Dockery’s relationship with Scruffy like?

Dockery found Scruffy as a stray kitten and decided to adopt him, says AZCentra.com. He hand fed the tiny animal and nursed it back to help. Dockery, 49, is a recovering heroin addict with a lengthy prison record who found a friend in Scruffy. He even raised money to get Scruffy spayed. Two weeks ago, Scruffy got caught in a barbed wire fence and so Dockery took the kitten to the nearest veterinarian: the Arizona Human Society. The bill was $400 and, because Dockery was unable to pay up front, he asked the AHS to wait for 24 hours until his mother wired the money to him from Michigan. The AHS told Dockery that once he surrendered the kitten, it would be treated. Dockery signed the kitten over to the AHS in an effort to relieve Scruffy’s pain.

Why did the Arizona Humane Society decide to euthanize the kitten?

According to ABC15.com, the humane society spokeswoman said that the agency took Scruffy with intentions to treat and put it in foster care for later adoption. However, Scruffy was taken to a second-chance clinic along with three other animals. The spokeswoman explained that the doctors were only willing and/or able to treat two of the three. Scruffy was the third.

How as the public responded?

Both Arizonan’s and others are outraged with the decision to euthanize Scruffy. The Arizona Humane Society’s Facebook page blew up with angry feedback.

” I say give AHS’ funding the blue juice, and euthanize their ability to mislead the public. Just voluntarily dissolve your company, voluntarily revoke your own non-profit status, and donate your properties, equipment, and personnel contracts to a true Humane Society,” says one angry commenter.

Another says, “I am sad to say I’ve ever donated to the Arizona Humane Society at this point – so disgusting that you would have the nerve to murder an innocent cat that could have been easily treated and lie to a pet owner who was only trying to do right by his beloved friend.”

How has the AHS responded to the outrage?

They realize they’re in hot water and have hired a publicist to help get things under control, reports the Washington Post. Additionally, they’ve censored angry comments on their Facebook page and have recruited 5 volunteers to respond to the incessant calls and emails received since the Arizona Republic released the story over the Christmas weekend.

Has the Human Society officially spoken out about the euthanizing?

Yes, it released a press statement that’s since been published by the Associated Press:

“Scruffy was brought to AHS after getting tangled in razor or barbed wire. Her injuries were significant. She was suffering, her muscles were exposed. Her owner could not pay for treatment himself, and allowing a day to pass without treatment was inhumane. AHS is not allowed by law to hold an animal until payment is made. Scruffy was in urgent need; therefore Mr. Dockery made the heart-wrenching decision to surrender his pet on Dec 8th.”

You can read the rest of the statement at ABC15.com.

Can I express my concern about this matter, too?

Yes, you can contact the Arizona Humane Society at webmaster@azhumane.org to voice any concerns or complaints.

Wendy Rose Gould is a freelance journalist who resides in Phoenix. Her work has appeared both online and in print for Hearst, Conde Nast, AOL, USA Today and other publications. Gould is an avid traveler who has lived abroad and traveled the world extensively. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and another in philosophy.

Presidential vacations are typically a working retreat and often draw a lot of attention from the press. The location, length and cost of traveling American presidents commonly garner even more headlines during an election year. This week, President Barack Obama spent the afternoon with his family on the beach in Hawaii released green sea turtles into the ocean with Sea Life Park staffers, according to ABC News. Before returning to Washington next week the president is expected to request Congress to increase the debt ceiling by $16 trillion, according to ABC News.

Obama

President Obama opted not to stay at his Winter White House in Hawaii during this visit. He and his family are renting a beachfront home on Kailua. President Obama’s staff and the White House Press Corps are staying nearby at the Westin Moana Surfrider hotel, according to the Huffington Post. The president’s vacation cost the taxpayers $4 million, approximately $2.5 million more than the first family’s trip to Hawaii last year, according to the Huffington Post.

Prior to the Christmas trip to Hawaii, President Obama had spent 61 days during his first 31 months in office. The cost of the president’s 11-day vacation to Martha’s Vineyard required rental homes for secret service agents, armored SUVs were flown to the area to transport the Obama’s, a motorcade of approximately 20 cars and security coverage by the U.S. Coast Guard, according to CBS News.

George W. Bush

President Bush spent 180 days on his Crawford Ranch and at Camp David during his first 31 months in office, according to CBS News. The cost of flying Air Force One to the Texas ranch cost approximately $56,800 per trip, according to Media Matters. President Bush spent each Christmas at the White House so his staff and secret service could spend the holiday with their family, according to Conservative Byte.

Bill Clinton

President Clinton spent 28 days on vacation during his first 31 months in office according to CBS News. Clinton typically vacationed at Martha’s Vineyard and the Hamptons, but also took two summer trips to Jackson Hole, Wyo., according to History News Network. President Clinton spent 233 abroad during 55 trips, according to Truth Quake. A Clinton excursion in 2000 is pegged as the most expense presidential trip ever, with a price tag of $50 million, according to the Free Republic.

Ronald Reagan

President Reagan spent 112 days on vacation during his first 31 months in office according to CBS News. He spent most of his vacation time on his California ranch near Santa Barbara, according to NBC Bay Area News. The White House communications team and national security staff accompanied President Reagan during trips home to his ranch. President Reagan issued the order to fire striking air force controllers during a vacation at his ranch in 1981, according to NBC Bay Area News. Taxpayers covered the cost of approximately $8 million for presidential travel during the Reagan’s first 6 years in office, according to the LA Times.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A record number of large scale ivory seizures will be recorded globally in 2011, pointing to a surge in elephant poaching in Africa to meet Asian demand for tusks for use in jewelry and ornaments, a monitoring group said Thursday.

TRAFFIC, a conservation group which tracks trends in wildlife trading, said there have been at least 13 large-scale seizures of over 800 kg (2,000 pounds) of ivory in 2011, more than double the 6 recorded in 2010.

“A conservative estimate of the weight of ivory seized in the 13 largest seizures in 2011 puts the figure at more than 23 totonesnnes, a figure that probably represents some 2,500 elephants, possibly more,” it said in a statement.

Zimbabwe-based Tom Milliken, who manages TRAFFIC’s Elephant Trade Information System, said it was the worst year for large seizures he had seen in the over two decades he has been running the database.

He said the poaching and illegal trade were consequences of China’s investment drive into Africa to secure the mineral and energy resources it needs to fuel its economic growth.

“We’ve reached a point in Africa’s history where there are more Asian nationals on the continent than ever before. They have contacts with the end use market and now they are at the source in Africa,” he told Reuters.

“This is all adding up to an unprecedented assault on elephants and other wildlife,” he said.

Milliken said some of the ivory that was making its way to illicit markets may be coming from African government stockpiles from previous seizures but the trade numbers and data from other wildlife monitors pointed to a rise in elephant killings.

“The trade data suggest that thousands of elephants are being killed a year … I think central Africa has been brutally affected, especially Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),” he said.

Milliken said elephant poaching was also taking place in Zimbabwe, Zambia, northern Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya.

A global ban that was placed on the ivory trade in 1989 was widely credited with stemming a relentless slaughter of African elephants in countries such as Kenya. Occasional auctions from African government stockpiles have since been sanctioned.

Most of the illegal African ivory winds up in China or Thailand, according to TRAFFIC. Ivory is used in the making of jewelry and art carvings.

Estimates of Africa’s elephant population vary widely from around 400,000 to 700,000.

In some southern African states such as Botswana there are large and growing populations and in South Africa there are concerns that elephant numbers have swelled to the point that they are damaging the environment in enclosed reserves.

But elsewhere the situation is far more bleak. In lawless regions of the DRC poaching is rampant.

(Editing by Giles Elgood)

SYDNEY – A conservationist group’s boat that was chasing a Japanese whaling vessel off Antarctica was seriously damaged by a giant wave Thursday — a major setback in the group’s ongoing and sometimes violent battle with Japan’s whaling fleet, the activists said.

The wave cracked the hull and severely damaged one of the pontoons on the Brigitte Bardot, a scout vessel for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which is chasing the whaling fleet in the hopes of interrupting Japan’s annual hunt. None of the boat’s 10 crew were hurt, and the vessel was in no danger of sinking in the icy waters, Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said.

“It’s not going to stop our attempt, but it is a setback because it takes out one of our boats,” Watson told The Associated Press by phone from his vessel, the Steve Irwin.

The Brigitte Bardot was chasing the Japanese ship Nisshin Maru in 20-foot (6-meter) swells when the rogue wave smashed into the port side of the vessel, cracking the hull, Watson said. The pontoon was in danger of breaking off, but the boat was not taking on any water, he said.

“The captain there assures me that everything will be fine by the time we reach them,” Watson said.

The Steve Irwin, named after the late Australian crocodile hunter, was making its way through rough seas toward the Brigitte Bardot and was about 12 hours away by Thursday afternoon, Watson said. Once there, the Steve Irwin will escort the stricken boat 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) to Fremantle, Western Australia, for repairs, and immediately return to the waters off Antarctica to continue chasing the whalers.

Meanwhile, the group’s third vessel, the Bob Barker, was left to hunt the whaling fleet by itself on Thursday.

Japan’s whaling fleet kills up to 1,000 whales a year, an allowed exception under a ruling by the International Whaling Commission. Japan is permitted to hunt the animals as long as they are caught for research and not commercial purposes. Whale meat not used for study is sold as food in Japan, which critics say is the real reason for the hunts. Each hunting season runs from about December through February.

Sea Shepherd has sent boats to the waters off Antarctica for the past several years in an attempt to thwart the hunt. The two sides have occasionally had violent clashes, including a skirmish in 2010 in which a Sea Shepherd boat was sunk after its bow was sheared off in a collision with a whaling ship.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Anti-whaling organization Sea Shepherd said one of its boats chasing the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean had issued a distress call after its hull was cracked by a rogue wave.

Sea Shepherd flagship the Steve Irwin was fighting heavy seas to help rescue the damaged Brigitte Bardot chase boat and is expected to take 17 hours to reach it, Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said Thursday.

“This is disappointing, but these are hostile seas and we have always been prepared for situations like this,” said Watson via satellite telephone from the Steve Irwin.

“Right now the safety of my crew on the Brigitte Bardot is our priority and we intend to reach the crew and then do what we can to save our ship.”

Watson said the damaged boat would be returned to Australia, while a third vessel continues to chase the Japanese fleet.

The “Brigitte Bardot,” with a crew of 10 (three British, three American, one Australian, one Canadian, one Belgian and one South African), is about 1,500 miles southwest of the west Australian port of Fremantle.

The boat was pursuing the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru in six meter (20-foot) swells when the wave slammed into its port side, cracking the hull and severely damaging one of its pontoons, said Watson.

The crack has been widening as the seas pound the vessel, but Watson said he was confident it would stay afloat.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a hardline anti-whaling organization. It attempts to disrupt or stop the Japanese annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean by using “direct action.”

Watson has said this year would be the most dangerous campaign yet against the Japanese in a protest he dubbed “Operation Kamikaze.”

Japan’s whaling fleet left Shimonoseki Port this month to begin the research whaling season near the Antarctic, accompanied by a Japanese Fisheries Agency guard boat.

Last season, Japan cut short its hunt with less than a fifth of its quota in response to harassment by Sea Shepherd, which saw an activist boat — The Ady Gil — sunk in a collision with a Japanese ship.

An international moratorium on whaling has been in place since 1986, but Japan exploits a loophole allowing whaling for scientific purposes to justify its annual hunt.

Australia filed a complaint against Japan at the world court in The Hague to stop Southern Ocean scientific whaling. A decision is expected in 2013 or later.

(Reporting by Michael Perry)

POTTSVILLE, Pa. – An eastern Pennsylvania man who used a crossbow to shoot a cat and was sentenced to community service won’t be volunteering at an animal welfare agency as originally ordered.

A Schuylkill (SKOO’-kul) County judge earlier this week sentenced New Philadelphia resident Patrick Canfield to six months of probation and 150 hours of community service in connection with the crossbow shooting last August in Lake Wynonah.

The judge originally sentenced Canfield to do his community service at local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelters, but shelter workers were outraged by the idea.

Now, the Republican-Herald of Pottsville reports (http://bit.ly/pkFNgE) a deputy district attorney said Thursday that Canfield will be performing his community service at other organizations instead.

Canfield says he didn’t shoot the cat until it became aggressive.

Oscar the cat survived.

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Information from: Pottsville Republican and Herald, http://www.republicanherald.com

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – A jumping mouse with a tail longer than its body has returned to the threatened species list in Wyoming after a court ruling.

A federal judge in Denver last month ruled against a two-state classification for the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the mouse as threatened in Colorado but not in Wyoming.

The ruling puts the mouse back on the threatened list in Wyoming effective Friday.

The Casper Star-Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/oK5XRk) environmentalists praised the change. Wyoming Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis blasted it, saying it’s based not on the best available science but the “best available lawyer.”

The mouse has been on and off the threatened list since 1998 amid concerns about loss of its streamside habitat.

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Information from: Casper Star-Tribune – Casper, http://www.trib.com

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) – A federal judge refused on Wednesday to overturn an unprecedented act of Congress that removed some 1,500 wolves in Montana and Idaho from the endangered species list.

District Judge Donald Molloy sided against environmentalists who argued Congress exceeded its authority when it passed legislation in April to lift federal wolf protections, giving the two states largely unfettered control over the animals.

The decision by Molloy allows Montana and Idaho to carry on with plans to open both states to extensive hunting of the iconic animals as a way of reducing their numbers to levels they see as better balanced with human interests.

Wyoming on Wednesday also moved a step closer to joining Montana and Idaho in seeing its 300-plus wolves removed from Endangered Species Act safeguards.

“It looks like there will be a lot of wolf killing now,” said Michael Garrity, director of WildEarth Guardians, a Montana-based conservation group. “If we do appeal the ruling, I hope we can get the case resolved in favor of wolves before the vast majority are killed in the Northern Rockies.”

Wolves have been at the center of a bitter debate since they were reintroduced to the region in the mid-1990s over the objections of ranchers and commercial outfitters, who said the animals prey on cattle and compete with hunters for elk.

Environmentalists insist the impact of wolves on big game and livestock have been overstated, and that efforts to roll back Endangered Species Act protections would push recovering wolf populations back to the brink.

After Molloy twice rejected a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan to delist wolves in Montana and Idaho but leave them protected in Wyoming, Congress intervened to reverse him.

Lawmakers ended up embracing the delisting plan in the “rider” to a budget bill that President Barack Obama signed into law in April. It marked the first time in the decades-long history of the Endangered Species Act that an animal was delisted by legislation rather than by scientific review.

JUDGE SAYS HANDS TIED

Challenging the measure, conservation groups said Congress lacked the power to simply delist an animal without amending the underlying law, or to bar judicial review of a de-listing, as the legislation sought to do.

But Molloy, based in Missoula, Montana, ruled that Congress “can involve itself in pending litigation under limited circumstances,” and he agreed with government lawyers who said Congress could amend a law like the Endangered Species Act through exemption.

In an 18-page opinion, Molloy said deciding the fate of imperiled animals through budget “riders” showed “a disrespect for the fundamental idea of the rule of law.”

However, the judge said his hands were tied by higher-court decisions giving Congress the authority to act in such a manner.

Jay Tutchton, attorney for several groups challenging the delisting, said they would review their legal options.

Molloy sided with environmentalists last August when he struck down a wolf delisting implemented in 2009 by the Fish and Wildlife Service. He ruled then that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act by treating Montana and Idaho wolves differently from those in Wyoming. Molloy held that they all had to be managed together as a single population.

Molloy rejected the delisting plan again in April when it was presented as a negotiated settlement between the federal government and 10 conservation groups. Several other environmental organizations continued to oppose it.

Days later, Congress voted to override Molloy’s decision to put the delisting into effect.

As a result, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission approved a plan last week that permits the state to eliminate as many as 850 of its estimated 1,000 wolves through a combination of hunting and trapping that would be allowed in most of the state for most of the year, starting this month.

In Montana, wildlife managers set a statewide quota of 220 wolves — out of an estimated population of 566 — for wolf hunts that will generally run from September to November.

And under a deal reached on Wednesday with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming’s wolves will also be removed from the endangered species list, and opened up to hunting.

That plan, still subject to approval by the state legislature, would allow Wyoming to cut its wolf population by more than half, to no fewer than 150 statewide.

(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Johnston)

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) – For the first time in decades, wolves in Wyoming would be stripped of Endangered Species Act protections and could be hunted under a deal struck on Wednesday between the state and the federal government.

The deal comes after years of legal battles among the state, the federal government and conservation groups over how many wolves Wyoming would be required to maintain to ensure the recovery of an animal once driven nearly to extinction by hunting, trapping and poisoning campaigns.

Fewer than 100 wolves were reintroduced in the region in the mid-1990s over opposition by ranchers and hunters worried they would decimate livestock and big-game animals like elk.

Under the agreement, Wyoming would maintain at least 100 wolves — from 343 statewide — in addition to packs in Yellowstone National Park.

The state would also expand an area near the park where wolves could not be killed except during established hunting seasons.

In exchange, the federal government would remove wolves in Wyoming from the threatened and endangered species list and give the state the authority to manage the animals as long as their numbers statewide — including the portion of Yellowstone in Wyoming — stayed at 150 or more.

It would still be legal to kill wolves in most of Wyoming.

The plan must still clear several hurdles, including approval by Wyoming’s legislature, before becoming law. State and federal officials said they look for wolves to be delisted and subject to hunting as early as next fall.

“This is far from the end of this process, but I think we have come up with something that fits with Wyoming’s values and economy,” Governor Matt Mead said in a statement.

Environmentalists claimed the agreement was born of politics instead of science.

“It’s a laughable proposal,” said Doug Honnold, managing attorney for the Northern Rockies office of Earthjustice. “This adds a few acres to an area where wolves are protected for part of the year and leaves them open to killing year-round in nearly 90 percent of the state.”

The deal comes just months after an estimated 1,000 wolves in Idaho and 566 in Montana were delisted in an unprecedented act of Congress. The provision banned legal intervention, a protection that Mead said he is seeking through the state’s congressional delegation.

The push to delist wolves in the Northern Rockies has gathered strength as wolf numbers have climbed from 66 to an estimated 1,900.

Wyoming, like Idaho, has blamed wolves for denting elk populations that commercial hunting businesses rely on, and for preying on livestock.

Wolves in Wyoming killed about 26 cows last year from 1.3 million head statewide, federal and state records show. Data showing wolf impacts on wildlife were not immediately available from the Wyoming state government.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)

JUNO BEACH, Fla. – A badly injured sea turtle that underwent a year of rehabilitation and innovative surgeries was released Wednesday by caretakers hoping he finds a mate and helps his endangered species prosper.

Andre, as the 177-pound green sea turtle is known, crawled into the water and swam out of sight before a crowd of hundreds of raucous supporters. He was near death when he was found split open and stranded last year.

“He has overcome obstacles, predators, food scarcities, cold winters — any number of things that may have ended his life — and he has survived,” said Dr. Nancy Mettee, a veterinarian at Loggerhead Marinelife Center who cared for Andre. “He’s really a miracle turtle.”

When Andre was found stranded on a sandbar on June 15, 2010, he had gaping holes in his shell, the result of two apparent boat strikes. More than three pounds of sand were inside him, along with at least a couple of crabs, a raging infection and a collapsed lung. His spinal cord was exposed, pneumonia was plaguing him and death seemed certain.

Any one of those injuries could have killed him, but his flippers were working and his neurological function appeared normal. So after beachgoers pulled him ashore on a boogie board, veterinarians began what became a yearlong effort to save him.

To help remove fluid and other materials and close his wounds, doctors used a vacuum therapy system. To help close gashes in the shell, Dr. Alberto Vargas, a local orthodontist, installed braces similar to those used on humans. And to fill in the gaping holes, doctors employed a procedure typically used to help regrow breast tissue in mastectomy patients and abdominal tissue in hernia patients.

All are believed to be animal firsts, and Andre’s supporters say the herculean effort was worth it.

Green sea turtles have persisted since prehistoric times, but are endangered today. Only a small fraction of hatchlings survive and even fewer go on to reach adulthood and reproduce.

Andre is believed to be about 25 years old. The hope is that he will swim off, mate often and help his species survive.

“Go out and live long and prosper and have lots of babies,” said Aaron Lichtig, a 40-year-old science teacher who was among those who first spotted the turtle and brought him to shore.

On Wednesday, Lichtig was among hundreds cheering the turtle on as he was loaded into an all-terrain vehicle, driven to the beach, set unto the sand and then turned loose to amble into the Atlantic. He hesitated at first, but was helped closer to the water by volunteers.

A moment later, he disappeared below the surface, only to pop his head up a few more times, delighting the crowd.

“It’s just an inspiration,” said one volunteer, 17-year-old Kelly Griffith, who wiped tears from her eyes. “Every turtle is special, but he captures hearts.”

Mettee could not bring herself to attend Andre’s release, calling it a bittersweet moment. She knows he could have been kept safe under her care and she fears what he could face in the wild, yet she knows he had to be set free. But after all these months of caring for him, she grew to know his every quirk, including the way he’d crane his neck to look when she was working on him.

“If it’s possible that an animal could know that we were trying to help I think that he did,” she said.

Andre’s survival has inspired fans across the world who heard his story or watched his round-the-clock webcam. More than 200 people from 25 different states and a handful of foreign countries sent in checks to be honorary adoptive parents. Children flooded him with mail, often addressed simply to “Andre the Turtle.”

The cards and notes were tacked by the dozens to a wall alongside an outdoor grouping of turtle pools at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, where some 225,000 visitors come each year.

One child’s simple words summed up the thoughts of many who came to wish the turtle well: “Good luck, have a safe trip.”