Tagged: Animals

In the first segment:

Guests - Kathy Davis, director of Animal Care Services, and Gavin Nichols, San Antonio Area Foundation

In 2006 San Antonio had the highest pet-euthanasia rate in the country, killing 13,560 animals.  Last year it was 383.  While we aren't yet considered a no-kill city, we have made a lot of progress.  

More than 100,000  cats and dogs are euthanized every year in Texas shelters. Euthanasia by carbon monoxide – essentially a gas chamber –  is still common practice in nearly 30 shelters.  

Within the last five years, almost 30 Texas cities banned gas chambers, switching from carbon monoxide to lethal injection. Pennsylvania and Louisiana banned gas chambers statewide last year.

For Huyen Hoang and his identical twin brother -- who also has the same name -- the plight of the Asian rhinoceros was all but unknown, until one day a news report featured images of a Javan rhino poached for it’s horn.

Like many of us, the Portland State University undergraduate was unaware of the increasing black market for rhinoceros horn, and the keratin inside it. The price has jumped so high it at times rivals gold; by some estimates reaching $65,000 a kilogram.