The Transport Workers Union representing those laborers have vowed court action. Legislative battles over the fate of the cultural tradition that’s nearly as old as Central Park itself have been ongoing for nearly two decades. Critics say the animals suffer, pointing to deadly collapses and dangerous escapes, while advocates point to the jobs they create and the heritage they uphold. The bill includes a provision for exploring potential compensation for license holders, Menin said. It mandates that owners of the nearly 200 horses would not be allowed to sell them for slaughter or for the purposes of other horse-carriage businesses.

The rides — enshrined in film and television including Robert Redford and Jane Fonda’s scene in “Barefoot in the Park,” or a dramatic ride in “Sex and the City” — currently run for $150 for 45 minutes up to several hundred dollars for a marriage proposal. But after years of wrangling over the issue, this past summer season proved decisive in sounding the death knell for the Manhattan carriages. This past June, an 18-year-old tourist from India was killed by a horse that got loose and bolted. That followed a series of other incidents with the carriages, including the deaths of several horses.

The Central Park Conservancy, which manages the US’s most frequented urban park with 42 million annual visits, even threw its weight behind the calls for a ban, saying it had become “a matter of public health and safety.”

© 2024 AFP

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William Chapman, 23, died from his injuries after being attacked by a tiger when he entered its enclosure on Saturday at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, near the northern English city of Doncaster. In an online tribute, his family late Tuesday described Chapman as a “bright, warm and engaging young man” who had been suffering from “significant mental illness over a number of years”. They questioned whether the strong medication he was prescribed may have played a role in the incident, while the park remained closed for a fifth day on Wednesday.

“The family are utterly devastated by their loss and are struggling to come to terms with what has happened,” they said. “The publication and circulation of deeply offensive media content is causing them severe distress at an exceptionally vulnerable time. We ask people to stop doing this.”

Trump posted footage to his 13 million followers on his Truth Social account on Tuesday of Chapman being fatally mauled by the male Amur tiger, sparking a backlash on social media. Trump, who regularly posts provocative material on social media, captioned his post “Don’t ever mess with nature!”. The 41-second clip was also later shared by the White House’s “Rapid Response 47” account on X. Trump followed it with a video clip of apparently AI-generated visuals of individuals being mauled by big cats.

Later Tuesday, Trump doubled down and posted an AI-generated video of himself wrestling and befriending a smiling tiger, to the tune of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”.

Users on X, where the “Rapid Response 47” account has 2.3 million followers, questioned the president’s judgment, with one calling the post “sick”. “I’m a big supporter but not a fan of this post. To each his own,” wrote another.

An inquest into Chapman’s death is due to open on Thursday in Doncaster. He was visiting the zoo alone and it remains unclear how he entered the enclosure. He was pronounced dead at the scene after emergency services were called. According to videos posted online, Chapman appeared to have filmed the inside of the enclosure with his mobile phone and the moment he approached the tiger.

Visitors to the park had also filmed the incident from a raised 300-metre (985-feet) long walkway which looks down onto the park’s “Land of the Tigers” feature. The walkway allows visitors to view the park’s Amur tigers, also known as Siberian tigers, in their enclosure featuring woodland, grassland, and a waterfall pool. There are estimated to be only around 500 of the endangered subspecies left in the wild. The park has said the tiger involved, called Atai, was safe and well, and would not be put down.

© 2024 AFP

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More than 2.3 million people voted in the week-long competition that sees bears unwittingly jostle in a series of head-to-head contests to decide which one of them has most impressively piled on the pounds ahead of hibernation. Viewers watch a livestream of the enormous animals as they scoop salmon from the Brooks River, while visitors to a dedicated website can browse biographies of some of the top contenders, including before-and-after pictures showing how much weight the bears have gained over a summer of feasting.

Backpack’s victory — by a razor-thin margin of just 5,000 votes out of 200,000 cast for the final alone — continues something of a family tradition: his mother Holly is a previous winner. The animal, known officially by the more prosaic name Bear 89, was nicknamed Backpack by rangers who noted his habit of climbing on his mother’s back when she swam across the river. He previously suffered a leg injury that left him with a limp and has apparently adapted his lifestyle, preferring to spend his time lazing on a rock, rather than fighting with fellow bears.

“Unlike many large adult male bears, Backpack hasn’t shown much aggression toward his competitors,” his contestant profile says. Sarah Bruce, a Katmai park ranger, told Alaska Public Media that Backpack now weighs around 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) and is a clear fan favorite. “He’s one of the bears that we’ve been able to watch on the live cams since the live cams were put in in 2012,” she said.

The bears of Katmai spend summer and early autumn gorging themselves on salmon as they look to bulk up ahead of a long winter of hibernation. For five months, the creatures will not eat or drink, slowing all bodily functions as they shelter away from the harsh Alaskan weather. While the increasingly popular annual competition is largely for fun, organisers say it is helpful in raising awareness of brown bears and their Alaskan habitats, as well as the risks they face from human activity.

© 2024 AFP

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Animal rights activists collected the signatures of five percent of registered voters in the District of Columbia to mandate the referendum on the quintessentially French culinary delicacy that is made from the enlarged duck livers. “They put a rod in a duck’s throat to make its liver get bigger. That’s not cool,” said campaign volunteer James Nance, referring to the force-feeding of fowl, as he stapled “Save the ducks” signs on lampposts on a busy uptown street. Advocates are confident the measure will pass, although, as with a lot of politics in the nation’s capital, the debate on “Initiative 86” is rancorous.

The proposal — echoing the restaurant shorthand “86” for an item that is off the menu — pits zealous reformers against vested interests, with an electorate knowing little about the issue. The most prominent opponent is Bart Hutchins, chef and owner of Butterworth’s, an upscale restaurant near Capitol Hill popular with Trump administration officials and supporters. Foie gras is his favorite ingredient and a fixture on his menu — used in his tartare presentation, to mount sauces, as a pate, and even for ice cream. Hutchins is pessimistic about staving off the ban and laments what it would mean for the city’s famed French restaurants.

“It’s this very modern thing where we just kind of keep throwing away the past,” Hutchins said. “Next year it’ll be banning something else relatively small…until we’re all just eating, you know, chicken nuggets, and we’ll have no culinary heritage whatsoever.” For the activists at Pro Animal DC, who are seeking to emulate places like California and Pittsburgh that have enacted laws against foie gras, it’s about fighting animal cruelty. “DC is actually the third top consumer of foie gras in the entire country. So getting this cruel product out of DC would have a really big impact on the foie gras industry,” group spokeswoman Natalie Fulton said.

They gathered nearly 32,000 verified signatures to get “Initiative 86” on the ballot, which is more signatures than for a proposal to legalize cannabis approved in 2014. They see voter ignorance as the main obstacle. “A lot of people don’t know what it is, and that’s I think why it’s been allowed for so long, despite how cruel it is,” said activist and tech worker Mike Accardi.

Jordan Grinor, director at one of only two US commercial foie gras producers, Hudson Valley Farms, strongly disputes the charge of cruelty. He said that in the wild, ducks gorge before migration and store fat in their livers and argues that “gavage” — the process of force-feeding — is a traditional means of animal husbandry. “Should governments have the power to say what we’re allowed to eat? That’s really the question here,” he said, adding that a DC ban could put at least a third of his 150 foie gras employees out of work in upstate New York.

The economic impact on Washington restaurants would probably be less marked, but Hutchins — who last year faced a social media barrage in the liberal city for hosting Trump luminaries at Butterworth’s — voiced disappointment that more of his gastronomic competitors are not speaking out against the proposed ban. “A lot of chefs are being very quiet about this, and I understand that because they’re sort of scared of the protesters,” he said.

The amiable campaigners AFP accompanied on a recent sign-posting spree on Washington’s uptown Georgia Avenue did not match the profile of angry activists. They included two vegans and unusually, a dedicated carnivore. Nance, a lawyer who regularly posts pictures of his favorite meat dishes on Instagram, is definitely in a minority in a heavily vegetarian movement, but says it’s worth campaigning for. “There are more pressing issues like defense of democracy, like standing up to the (Trump) administration’s encroachments on democracy,” but since the ban is on the ballot, “I figured I might as well help out.”

– Matthew PENNINGTON

© 2024 AFP

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a “statewide disaster declaration” later Friday, as authorities scrambled to keep the pest from spreading. Texas has established a 12-mile quarantine zone, meaning all warm-blooded animals, including pets, must be inspected before leaving the area. Canada temporarily banned any livestock that had been in Texas in the past 21 days from entering the country, its Food Inspection Agency said in a news release.

The NWS fly was thought to be eradicated in the United States in 1966. However, Florida experienced an outbreak in 2016 that primarily impacted deer and was eliminated the following year, according to the department. The fly has remained present in South America and has moved northward in recent years.

The first of these new cases, detected near the border with Mexico, has triggered alarm among ranchers, particularly those who raise cattle. The flies lay their eggs in open wounds or mucous membranes of warm-blooded animals, where they hatch into larvae and feed on flesh. Left untreated, the infestation can be deadly, and the parasites can quickly spread. The pest can also affect wild animals, pets, and even people.

The fly had been eradicated in the United States thanks in large part to dropping millions of sterile flies to mate with wild females. US officials said some four million sterile flies are now being released weekly from the sky, and that some four million more in the pupal stage were being deployed in ground release chambers. A USDA study last year estimated a screwworm resurgence in Texas could cost the state’s economy $1.8 billion.

© 2024 AFP

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Michael Schmoyer — the associate administrator for the country’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and head of the NWS Directorate — said the infested beef calf “is not a danger to the food supply.” “The screw worm can be detected easily, and it can be treated,” he told journalists. Officials added that the calf was undergoing treatment and improving, and emphasized that the worms do not infest food sources like meat, fruit or vegetables. The flies lay their eggs in open wounds or mucous membranes of warm-blooded animals, where they hatch into larvae and feed on flesh. Left untreated, the infestation can be deadly, and the parasites can quickly spread. Texas has established a 12-mile (20-kilometer) quarantine zone, meaning all warm-blooded animals including pets must be inspected before leaving the zone.

– Sterilization by ground and sky – The fly had been eradicated in the US thanks in large part by dropping millions of sterile flies to mate with wild females. US officials said some four million sterile flies were already being released weekly from the sky, and that some four million more in the pupae stage were being deployed in ground release chambers. Infections in humans are not common, the USDA said, but added that individuals who detect signs like suspicious lesions should immediately seek medical attention.

Jennifer Bloodgood, an assistant professor of practice and wildlife veterinarian at Cornell University, said to AFP in a statement that the detection in Texas “underscores the need for continued vigilance and collaboration among livestock, wildlife, and public health communities.” “The good news is that we have successfully eradicated New World screwworm from the United States before,” Bloodgood said. “This detection should not cause panic, but it should reinforce the importance of awareness.” Feeder cattle futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange rose Thursday as the market feared an eventual decline in available supply. A USDA study last year estimated a screwworm resurgence in Texas could cost the state’s economy $1.8 billion.

© 2024 AFP

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Vince, 64, says that every technological innovation initially causes a stir and sparks curiosity among audiences. But wizardry can only wow for so long before audiences see through it and start looking to the fundamentals again. “I remember when visual effects really (appeared), everybody was like: ‘Oh, those are so cool. We’re gonna do a million superhero movies.’ After a while, it’s like: ‘Oh, I’ve seen that before,'” he said. “It’s really about your emotional connection to the characters. There’s an authenticity to this type of filmmaking that does not go away.”

“Air Bud Returns,” slated for release in US theaters in 2027, is the latest chapter in a franchise that began in 1997 featuring a runaway circus dog who has an extraordinary ability to play basketball. Subsequent installments took in other popular sports, including American football (“Air Bud: Golden Receiver”), soccer (“Air Bud: World Pup”), and baseball (“Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch”). For Vince, who spoke with AFP at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas, the audience reception to news of the latest production, which sees the canine hero back on the basketball court, has been “overwhelming.”

“But I can’t say I’m surprised,” he added. “We know from social media…that this movie was basically being begged to be made.” He says that’s because “Air Bud” is a quintessential family film, one that a whole generation remembers from childhood. “People that grew up with (‘Air Bud’)…are millennials that were 10 years old when they saw the original one. They are now parents, and they have kids of their own.” And, of course, a cute-as-a-button golden retriever who can shoot hoops as well as he can act is always going to hit the mark, he said. “It’s all dog, all the time,” he said of Roscoe’s balling talents.

“We have an audience that grew up with the original ‘Air Bud’ movie where there was no CGI,” Vince said. “And so we kept that promise in this movie as well.” At a time when Hollywood is grappling with the job-killing effects of AI — and as the organizers of the Oscars and the Golden Globes have said avatars can’t win prizes — Vince says he’s confident the new technology will never displace the warmth of a real-life performer, human or animal. “Despite what everybody wants you to believe, I don’t really believe it’s happening,” he said. “You don’t get any emotion out of that.”

© 2024 AFP

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Fur “was stigmatized for so long,” Jacobs told AFP, posing before a full-length mirror and assessing a potential crop. But the return of real fur “fits with everything that’s going on with recycling and bringing back vintage,” she said. “I never would have bought a fur coat,” Jacobs said, adding that the thought of “killing animals like that” gave her pause. But “this felt like I was recycling it,” she said.

New York is thawing out after a particularly cruel winter that’s included debates over fur’s revival as influencers push the look and retail sites report a jump in searches for vintage pieces. Business owners like Larry Cowit — who inherited and runs his family’s Madison Avenue Furs — are celebrating a sales spike. “I have girls as young as 20 years old walking in, coming in from college, and putting on a fox jacket,” Cowit told AFP. “We haven’t seen that in quite a while.”

Noelle Sciacca — head of fashion at the high-end resale site The RealReal — said “interest in fur has accelerated dramatically,” with searches for vintage fur on their website nearly tripling in 2025 from 2024. The trend is “booming across the board,” she told AFP, “but real fur is clearly leading the surge.” Sciacca owes part of the interest to “sustainable, accessible resale options,” which she said “has made consumers feel comfortable embracing fur as both stylish and thoughtful.”

– Muddled public opinion –

The global fashion industry’s use of fur has been on the outs for decades. Synthetic, cheaper alternatives have gained traction, and animal rights activists continue to push dropping the real thing. Demonstrators recently urged Milan Fashion Week to go fully fur-free. New York’s Fashion Week fur ban goes into effect in September 2026. Many major designers have vowed to stop using it, including Prada, Michael Kors, and Saint Laurent. The European Commission, meanwhile, is reviewing a citizen’s initiative that drew millions of signatures urging an EU-wide ban on fur farming. A spokesperson told AFP the commission would communicate in the coming weeks whether it would propose such a prohibition.

Yet the culture’s court of public opinion has grown muddled, notably as concerns about fast fashion and petroleum-based materials grow. “I always imagine all of the faux-fur coats being produced right now melting into a puddle of plastic. The idea of reuse and recycling can include vintage fur,” Vogue archivist Laird Borrelli-Persson said in comments recently published by the fashion magazine. “The question for me is whether wearing vintage fur increases the appetite for lookalikes — either faux or new fur.”

Real fur coats demand consistent upkeep. The skins contain natural oils, and garments not kept in a temperature-controlled environment — ideally off-season in cold vaults — can dry out and disintegrate. “It’s biodegradable,” said Cowit. But Ashley Byrne of animal rights group PETA said buying vintage under the banner of sustainability is “well-meaning but misguided.” She told AFP that shoppers who didn’t grow up exposed to footage from inside fur farms should “understand that wearing any fur that came from the back of an animal who was tortured and killed is endorsing things that we’re sure they do not want to support.”

– Online influence –

Cowit said their ratio of vintage to new fur sales is now approximately 70 to 30. Pre-owned coats can go anywhere from $500 to $10,000, and the average mink is $1,500 to $1,800, he said. He credits the internet with boosting business: “The influencers on social media have really changed the whole world.” Part of the online drive stems from the “mob wife” aesthetic that’s trended on TikTok in recent years, looks featuring flashy jewelry, animal prints, and — you guessed it — fur. Madison Avenue Furs’ Instagram features Cowit’s niece posing on the shop’s balcony in a variety of plush coats recalling “Sopranos”-esque fashion.

Stylist Renee May, who stopped by with shoppers looking to modernize their grandmother’s coats and check out new jackets, told AFP “a lot of my clients are wearing their furs again.” Nicole Bellmier, 36, called the look “very nostalgic.” “It’s something to pass down to our children,” her cousin Dominique Defonte added.

© 2024 AFP

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The monks shot to international fame during a longer 108-day walk of 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) from Texas to Washington, DC, travelling through freezing temperatures and along ice-covered roads. In sharp contrast, they are now walking barefoot on Sri Lanka’s roads at the hottest time of the year, when temperatures can reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Devotees poured water on the streets, while some laid green banana leaves and flowers for the monks to walk on to escape the scorching heat. Others were seen sprinkling water to cool them. The group, promoting “peace for all beings, including animals,” was expected to reach the capital on April 28, where they will be received by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, organisers told AFP.

Guarded by elite army commandos, their mascot Aloka — a stray dog rescued in India — walked on a leash, drawing bows and clasped hands from devotees lining the route. Aloka had accompanied the monks in their peace walk in the United States. The dog followed the monks in India and remained with them even after being hit by a car.

Aloka later accompanied the monks on their US journey, drawing global attention and donations that helped fund its travels. “The cost of flying Aloka to Colombo from Texas was ten times that of an ordinary passenger taking the same route,” a Sri Lankan monk handling local arrangements said.

Two army commandos were seen walking on either side of Aloka at the head of the quick-paced procession. Sri Lanka’s police kennels department was mobilised to ensure that local street dogs did not attack Aloka, who was led on a leash held by an army commando.

The peace walk’s Facebook page has more than three million followers. A live stream of their Sri Lanka walk drew over 51,000 views in the first five hours.

© 2024 AFP

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Once veterinarians give the 11-pound male fox a clean bill of health, zookeepers said they would be looking for a long-term home for the animal, which is said to be doing well. “The Bronx Zoo regularly works with officials to help rescue wildlife that is illegally trafficked through nearby ports and airports,” the zoo said.

Red foxes are one of the most prevalent carnivorous mammals globally and are found in Europe, Asia, and North America as well as in parts of Africa. There are tens of thousands of urban foxes in Britain, according to academic research, and Britain has some of the highest-density fox populations in the world. They have been a part of the city landscape since the 1930s, when urban sprawl began to encroach on their rural territory.

© 2024 AFP

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