This year, in what it calls a “study,” Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources is killing off mountain lions in an effort to increase mule deer herds. It has hired trappers from the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, authorizing them to dispatch lions with any method, including banned traps and neck snares.
The study, covering roughly 8.6 million acres in six management units, will run for at least three years with the goal of indiscriminately exterminating “as many (lions) as possible.”
Buying into this ancient predator-prey superstition are the nonprofits Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and Utah Wild Sheep Foundation. Each has contributed $150,000 to the cull.
Wildlife managers have no idea how many mountain lions roam the state because estimating populations is essentially impossible. Lions are solitary, elusive and range over vast territories they defend. Unlike ungulates that compensate for mortality with fecundity, predators don’t “overpopulate,” and they’re much slower to recover from culling or hunting.
I asked veteran mountain lion researcher Dr. Rick Hopkins, board president of the Cougar Fund, what science supports a claim that killing mountain lions generates more deer. “None,” he replied. “For years, agencies have made such claims, but when pushed to provide evidence, they can’t. Predator control has never worked anywhere.”
Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources estimates the state’s mule deer population at 295,200–73 percent of the “long-term goal.” That goal is based more on desired hunting-license sales than science. Still, considering the natural ebb and flow of deer populations, 73 percent isn’t bad.
Mountain lions have little or nothing to do with the decline of Utah’s mule deer. Predator populations are limited by available prey. What we learned in Biology 101–that predators control prey—is incorrect: Prey controls predators. Utah has experienced prolonged drought, which peaked in 2022. Reduced forage starved female deer so that fewer fawns were born, and those fawns were sickly and therefore less likely to survive winters. When record-breaking snowfall occurred during the winter of 2022-2023, there were massive mule deer die-offs.
Utah’s mountain lion cull follows hard upon a 2023 state law that opened up year-round, mountain lion killing without requiring permits. Both this law and the current cull outrage environmental and animal wellness communities. The Western Wildlife Conservancy and Mountain Lion Foundation have filed a lawsuit (ongoing), asserting that the law violates the state’s Right to Hunt and Fish Act, which requires a “reasonable regulation of hunting.”
The Mountain Lion Foundation dismisses the mountain lion cull study as a “lethal program without rigorous science,” and reports: “Decades of peer-reviewed research across the West show that intensive predator removal rarely delivers sustained or landscape-scale recovery of prey populations. Instead, it often destabilizes predator populations, leading to younger, transient animals, increased conflict and little long-term benefit for deer.”
And this from Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action: “The science shows that healthy lion populations create robust and healthier deer herds, with lions selectively removing deer afflicted with the 100-percent fatal and highly contagious brain-wasting scourge known as Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) caused by malformed, self-replicating proteins called ‘prions.’”
All threats to mule deer pale in comparison with CWD. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a hunter-support group, calls it “the number one threat to deer hunting.”
In Utah, CWD has been detected in 356 of the few mule deer checked. Symptoms include fearlessness and loss of coordination, behaviors inviting lion predation, and thereby removal of disease vectors.
What’s more, mountain lions are resistant to CWD. They deactivate prions through digestion, removing them from the environment. That further protects mule deer as well as possibly protecting people. In 2022, two hunters who ate venison from a CWD-ravaged deer herd in Texas died from prion disease. Given the rarity of human prion infections, this seems an unlikely coincidence.
The Idaho Capital Sun quoted Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease at the University of Minnesota, as follows: “We are quite unprepared. If we saw a (CWD) spillover right now, we would be in free fall. There are no contingency plans.”
Dr. Mark Elbroch of Panthera, a nonprofit dedicated to conserving wild felines, told me this: “Heaps of science show the beneficial contributions of mountain lions. Humans are healthier when we live with mountain lions.”
So are mule deer.
Ted Williams, a longtime environmental writer, is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West.
In a park just east of Sacramento, Jake Molieri guided us through his service Snakeout where he trains dogs and dog owners how to avoid rattlesnakes on hiking trails and parks. “They are obviously an animal that are dangerous if you get into an altercation and provoking them,” Molieri said. “They are never going to chase you or go after you.”Molieri currently uses his albino rattlesnake called Mr. Cheese for training. However, that snake is not the most ideal one to use for his business. “The only reason we are able to continue operating and continue doing the service is because we use these albino, which is not ideal because they are really hard to acquire,” he said. The State Department of Fish and Wildlife told Molieri he is not allowed to operate if he uses regular rattlesnakes that are found in Northern California. The state claims he violated regulations that protect those animals from being used for profit. “They told me the classes you’re doing are like illegal, you’re illegally commercializing these animals,” Molieri said. However, Molieri claims there is a gray area that needs to be changed. “The regulations they are citing were written back in the day with the idea of like, hey you can’t go out into the woods and catch a bunch of snakes and sell them into the pet trade and the skin industry,” he said. “They’re taking that idea and applying it to this dog class and saying that we’re basically selling the snakes. The snakes are not changing hands. The snakes are my snakes.”He filed a lawsuit to try to get the regulations changed. CDFW said in a statement: “Current regulations prohibit the take or possession of any native species unless specifically permitted by regulation for commercial purposes, as it presents a financial gain to motivate take. That commercial motivation can have negative impacts on native populations.”The lawsuit is still going through the court system. He hopes they can reach an agreement to change regulations that benefit his business and keep snakes safe. “We want to see more snakes being alive, less dogs getting bit and everyone having an understanding that nobody wants to get into an altercation with each other, but the state’s making it really hard,” he said. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
In a park just east of Sacramento, Jake Molieri guided us through his service Snakeout where he trains dogs and dog owners how to avoid rattlesnakes on hiking trails and parks.
“They are obviously an animal that are dangerous if you get into an altercation and provoking them,” Molieri said. “They are never going to chase you or go after you.”
Molieri currently uses his albino rattlesnake called Mr. Cheese for training. However, that snake is not the most ideal one to use for his business.
“The only reason we are able to continue operating and continue doing the service is because we use these albino, which is not ideal because they are really hard to acquire,” he said.
The State Department of Fish and Wildlife told Molieri he is not allowed to operate if he uses regular rattlesnakes that are found in Northern California. The state claims he violated regulations that protect those animals from being used for profit.
“They told me the classes you’re doing are like illegal, you’re illegally commercializing these animals,” Molieri said.
However, Molieri claims there is a gray area that needs to be changed.
“The regulations they are citing were written back in the day with the idea of like, hey you can’t go out into the woods and catch a bunch of snakes and sell them into the pet trade and the skin industry,” he said. “They’re taking that idea and applying it to this dog class and saying that we’re basically selling the snakes. The snakes are not changing hands. The snakes are my snakes.”
He filed a lawsuit to try to get the regulations changed.
CDFW said in a statement: “Current regulations prohibit the take or possession of any native species unless specifically permitted by regulation for commercial purposes, as it presents a financial gain to motivate take. That commercial motivation can have negative impacts on native populations.”
The lawsuit is still going through the court system. He hopes they can reach an agreement to change regulations that benefit his business and keep snakes safe.
“We want to see more snakes being alive, less dogs getting bit and everyone having an understanding that nobody wants to get into an altercation with each other, but the state’s making it really hard,” he said.
A woman in Osceola County says he dog was euthanized an hour after it got loose and was picked up by animal control. What are the rules for holding an animal before it goes up for adoption or is euthanized?Each county is different. Here’s what they say: Osceola County Animal ServicesHolds stray pets for the legal hold period of three working days, after which time they are evaluated for potential adoptionThere could be medical conditions that are serious enough to make adoption inappropriate or impractical and in these cases, animals may be euthanizedMore from the county’s websitePet Alliance of Orlando Does not euthanize for time or space, only for severe medical or behavior issues.More from Pet AllianceSeminole CountyHolds stray pets not microchipped or wearing identification for five business days before they become property of Seminole County. MoreOrange CountyLake County Brevard County
A woman in Osceola County says he dog was euthanized an hour after it got loose and was picked up by animal control.
What are the rules for holding an animal before it goes up for adoption or is euthanized?
Each county is different. Here’s what they say:
Osceola County Animal Services
Holds stray pets for the legal hold period of three working days, after which time they are evaluated for potential adoption
There could be medical conditions that are serious enough to make adoption inappropriate or impractical and in these cases, animals may be euthanized
Canada’s last captive whales have received a reprieve from death after the government conditionally approved a plan Monday to export them to the United States.Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson met Monday with officials from Marineland, the shuttered theme park and zoo in Niagara Falls, Ontario, to talk about its proposed plan to move the animals south. The park is in discussions with four U.S. institutions to take its 30 beluga whales and four dolphins.Video above: Animal Stories with Dan Green: a baby beluga whale“It was a constructive meeting, and I provided conditional approval for export permits,” Thompson said in a statement posted on social media Monday. “I will issue the final permits once final required information is received from Marineland.”Marineland pleaded with the minister, telling her repeatedly the park was running out of money. The park had told Thompson the animals would be euthanized if the export permits were not authorized by Jan. 30, according to a letter she wrote to Marineland on Monday, which was obtained by The Canadian Press news agency.Marineland said in a statement that it has Thompson’s support for the relocation of the animals. “We extend our gratitude to the minister and the Canadian government for prioritizing the lives of these remarkable marine mammals,” it said.The move comes after Marineland presented what it called an urgent rescue solution to the federal government last week.The park is reportedly in discussions with the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut and SeaWorld, which has several U.S. locations.Ontario Premier Doug Ford supported Thompson’s decision.“They’re going to have a better home than where they are because it’s a terrible home they’re in right now,” Ford said of the animals. “It wasn’t large enough.”Twenty whales — one killer whale and 19 belugas — have died at Marineland since 2019, according to an ongoing tally created by The Canadian Press based on internal records and official statements.In October, Marineland applied for export permits to move its complement of belugas to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, an aquarium in China. Thompson denied those permits, saying she would not subject the whales to a future performing in captivity.That is consistent with a 2019 law that banned whale and dolphin captivity, though Marineland’s animals were grandfathered in.
, —
Canada’s last captive whales have received a reprieve from death after the government conditionally approved a plan Monday to export them to the United States.
Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson met Monday with officials from Marineland, the shuttered theme park and zoo in Niagara Falls, Ontario, to talk about its proposed plan to move the animals south. The park is in discussions with four U.S. institutions to take its 30 beluga whales and four dolphins.
Video above: Animal Stories with Dan Green: a baby beluga whale
“It was a constructive meeting, and I provided conditional approval for export permits,” Thompson said in a statement posted on social media Monday. “I will issue the final permits once final required information is received from Marineland.”
Marineland pleaded with the minister, telling her repeatedly the park was running out of money. The park had told Thompson the animals would be euthanized if the export permits were not authorized by Jan. 30, according to a letter she wrote to Marineland on Monday, which was obtained by The Canadian Press news agency.
Marineland said in a statement that it has Thompson’s support for the relocation of the animals. “We extend our gratitude to the minister and the Canadian government for prioritizing the lives of these remarkable marine mammals,” it said.
The move comes after Marineland presented what it called an urgent rescue solution to the federal government last week.
The park is reportedly in discussions with the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut and SeaWorld, which has several U.S. locations.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford supported Thompson’s decision.
“They’re going to have a better home than where they are because it’s a terrible home they’re in right now,” Ford said of the animals. “It wasn’t large enough.”
Twenty whales — one killer whale and 19 belugas — have died at Marineland since 2019, according to an ongoing tally created by The Canadian Press based on internal records and official statements.
In October, Marineland applied for export permits to move its complement of belugas to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, an aquarium in China. Thompson denied those permits, saying she would not subject the whales to a future performing in captivity.
That is consistent with a 2019 law that banned whale and dolphin captivity, though Marineland’s animals were grandfathered in.
AND FIRST RESPONDERS. OUR JENNIFER FRANCIOTTI WAS THERE TO SEE THE REACTION. THEIR ANIMALS YOU’D EXPECT TO SEE ON A FARM. BUT ON THIS DAY. HAVE YOU BEEN HERE WHEN WE’VE HAD THE HORSES HERE BEFORE? MANY HORSES. AWESOME AND AMAZING, ALONG WITH MANY AND BELLE ARE MAKING A HOME VISIT TO RESIDENTS OF BRIGHTVIEW AVONDALE IN BEL AIR. WE BRING THEM IN BECAUSE WE WANT PEOPLE TO CONNECT WITH THEM. THERE’S SO MUCH INVOLVED. IT’S A FEEL GOOD, BUT IT’S ALSO A WONDERFUL WAY TO WORK ON TACTILE AND MOBILITY. THE MENAGERIE IS FROM WELLSPRING OF LIFE FARM IN MONKTON. THEIR MASH UNIT, WHICH STANDS FOR MOBILE ANIMAL SERVICES FOR HEROES, IS PROVIDED TO ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY VETERANS AND FIRST RESPONDERS THROUGH ITS HEROES, HORSES, HOUNDS AND HARRY GOATS PROGRAM. FOR SOME, IT’S THEIR FIRST TIME EVER BEING ABLE TO TOUCH A HORSE. FOR OTHERS, IT’S THEIR FIRST TIME INTERACTING WITH A CRAZY GOAT. AND SO IT’S A FUN TIME. BUT THERE’S ALSO A LOT OF MEANING BEHIND IT. WITH EVERY BRUSH AND SMILE FROM BOTH HUMAN AND CANINE, IT’S A WELCOME VISIT FOR RESIDENTS. I THINK IT’S REALLY COOL. THEY DIDN’T GET UPSET. THEY DIDN’T DO ANYTHING, AND I GOT TO PET IT AND I LOVE IT. IT’S LIKE BEING AT HOME. SO YEAH, SHE’S A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GIRL. BUT ONE RESIDENT IN PARTICULAR IS TO THANK FOR THIS VISIT FOR HIS SERVICE TO THE COUNTRY. ARMY VETERAN RAY COLUMBO. AND RAY SAYS THE PROGRAM IS PARTICULARLY HELPFUL TO VETERANS SUFFERING FROM PTSD. MOST ANYTHING THAT WILL HELP GIVE THEM A SENSE OF CALM, PEACE, CONNECTION. OFTENTIMES, HUMANS CAN’T PROVIDE THAT, AND ANIMALS WHO DON’T TALK BACK DO PROVIDE THAT SENSE OF CALMNESS AND PEACE. IT’S A PEACE THAT YOU TOO CAN HELP PROVIDE. WELLSPRING OF LIFE IS LOOKING FOR MORE VOLUNTEERS. IT’S JUST A LOT OF FUN, BUT IT’S ALSO A WONDERFUL WAY TO GET HEALING BECAUSE YOU’RE YOU’RE GIVING BACK TO OTHERS. THESE GUYS CAN GO ANYWHERE. THEY CAN EVEN GO INSIDE HOSPITALS. SO IF YOU WOULD LIKE THE MASH UNIT TO COME TO YOU, JUST LOG ON TO O
News We Love: Farm matches furry friends with older adults, veterans, first responders
Residents at an older adult living facility in met some special visitors Thursday.Residents at Brightview Avondell in Bel Air, Maryland, got up close and personal to see farm animals, like mini horses named Minnie and Belle.The menagerie of animals came from Wellspring of Life Farm. The farm’s Mobile Animal Services for Heroes unit provides animal visits to active-duty military, veterans and first responders through its Heroes, Horses, Hounds and Hairy Goats program.”We bring them in because we want people to connect with them. It’s a good feeling, but it’s also a wonderful way to work on tactile mobility,” said Dawn Leung, the farm’s executive director and program coordinator. “For some, it’s their first time ever touching a horse. For others, it’s their first time interacting with the crazy goat. So, it’s a fun time, but there’s also a lot of meaning behind it.”With every brush and smile from everyone involved, it’s a welcome visit for residents.”I think it’s really cool. They didn’t get upset, they didn’t do anything. I got to pet them,” said Kathy Deane, a resident.Video below: Fluffy bunnies draw a crowd at farm show”I love it,” said Doris Lockwood, a resident. “It’s like being at home. She’s a beautiful little girl.”The residents have one neighbor in particular to thank for the animals’ visit: Army veteran Ray Columbo, who said the program is particularly helpful to veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.”(The animals) help give them a sense of calm, peace, connection. Oftentimes, humans can’t provide that. Animals don’t talk back and they do provide that sense of calm and peace,” Columbo said.It’s a peace that anyone can help provide as Wellspring of Life seeks more volunteers.”It’s a lot of fun, but it’s a wonderful way to get healing and get back to others,” Leung said.The animals can go anywhere, even inside hospitals. So anyone who would like the MASH unit to visit can get more information at the following website.
Residents at an older adult living facility in met some special visitors Thursday.
Residents at Brightview Avondell in Bel Air, Maryland, got up close and personal to see farm animals, like mini horses named Minnie and Belle.
The menagerie of animals came from Wellspring of Life Farm. The farm’s Mobile Animal Services for Heroes unit provides animal visits to active-duty military, veterans and first responders through its Heroes, Horses, Hounds and Hairy Goats program.
“We bring them in because we want people to connect with them. It’s a good feeling, but it’s also a wonderful way to work on tactile mobility,” said Dawn Leung, the farm’s executive director and program coordinator. “For some, it’s their first time ever touching a horse. For others, it’s their first time interacting with the crazy goat. So, it’s a fun time, but there’s also a lot of meaning behind it.”
With every brush and smile from everyone involved, it’s a welcome visit for residents.
“I think it’s really cool. They didn’t get upset, they didn’t do anything. I got to pet them,” said Kathy Deane, a resident.
Video below: Fluffy bunnies draw a crowd at farm show
“I love it,” said Doris Lockwood, a resident. “It’s like being at home. She’s a beautiful little girl.”
The residents have one neighbor in particular to thank for the animals’ visit: Army veteran Ray Columbo, who said the program is particularly helpful to veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“(The animals) help give them a sense of calm, peace, connection. Oftentimes, humans can’t provide that. Animals don’t talk back and they do provide that sense of calm and peace,” Columbo said.
It’s a peace that anyone can help provide as Wellspring of Life seeks more volunteers.
“It’s a lot of fun, but it’s a wonderful way to get healing and get back to others,” Leung said.
The animals can go anywhere, even inside hospitals. So anyone who would like the MASH unit to visit can get more information at the following website.
Ever since Grace Kennedy met Quinn in May, the teenager’s goal has been to fatten the Hereford calf up — but not too much, not if she wants to auction it off at this month’s National Western Stock Show in Denver.
Quinn, who is about a year-and-a-half old, weighed 460 pounds when Grace won the animal from the Stock Show’s Catch-A-Calf program. The calf weighed about 1,250 pounds as of early December.
“They just want a good-looking carcass,” Grace, who lives just outside of Morrison, said of the judges who will determine how well she did in raising Quinn for beef.
The 17-year-old is just one of Colorado’s 4-H youth members who will attend the Stock Show in hopes of making a sale. Teenagers from across the state will come to Denver to auction off cattle, goats and other livestock, with the goal of earning money for college, first cars or to reinvest in their farming endeavors.
4-H student Grace Kennedy, 17, tries to convince her one-year-old steer, Quinn, to continue his walk around the property on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Morrison, Colo. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
The Stock Show began Saturday and will run through Jan. 25.
“Being from Colorado, I feel like it would be really cool making a sale in a national show in your state,” 15-year-old Ty Weathers said.
Ty, who lives on a cattle ranch outside of Yuma in northeastern Colorado, has been showing cows since he was about 7 years old. He will show a steer named Theodore at the Stock Show this year, and he hopes to sell the animal to earn money for a car.
Unlike Grace, who received Quinn through the Catch-A-Calf program, which requires participants to sell their calves during the Stock Show, there’s no guarantee Ty will make a sale.
“I like winning,” Ty said, referring to his hope he’ll be able to auction Theodore off for the highest price. “I’ve grown up in it, so it’s just a part of life.”
Zemery Weber, who lives in Gill in Weld County, started showing goats when she was 8 years old to earn money, but this is her first time doing so at the Stock Show.
“I got a goat this year that seems to be pretty good,” the 14-year-old said. “I’m excited, but I’m also nervous because it’s my first time.”
Zemery will show a goat named Nemo. She plans to save part of the money she earns from selling the goat for meat for her first car and college.
Zemery Weber, 14, leads her goat, Nemo, outside of a barn at her mother’s home near Gill, Colo., on Dec. 15, 2025. Weber plans to show the goats at the National Western Stock Show. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
“It has helped me become the person that I am,” Zemery said of showing goats. “It is a very good experience for students to have and kids to have to learn responsibility and reliability.”
Showing animals is just one way students can participate in the Stock Show.
In the Front Range, county 4-H programs — which have youth participate in agricultural, STEM and other projects — also put on a field trip for elementary school students to visit the show so they can learn about animals and where their food comes from, said Josey Pukrop, a 4-H youth development specialist with the Colorado State University Extension in Jefferson County.
Last year, about 12,000 children participated in the field trip, she said.
4-H has been operating nationally for more than 120 years, through it, children participate in programs that include showing livestock, gardening and building robots. The youth program is largely funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, according to the agency’s website.
More than 100,000 Colorado students participate in 4-H via community clubs and other programming, said Michael Compton, the state 4-H program director at the CSU Extension.
Like Ty, Grace’s family is in the cattle business, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that she began to take an interest and dream of owning her own ranch someday.
Grace’s foray into cows began when the dance studio she attended closed because of COVID-19 in 2020. Grace, in search of a new hobby, got into horses and trail riding with her father.
4-H student Grace Kennedy, 17, leads her one-year-old steer, Quinn, around the property as training for being shown at the National Western Stock Show next month, on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Morrison, Colo. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
Soon after, she took an interest in cows and worked on her grandfather’s cattle ranch in South Dakota during the summer. Grace’s parents have their own herd near Morrison, and the teenager has started breeding and raising her own cattle.
“Animals are the coolest things,” Grace said. “They are here to teach us something, to teach us life qualities. They’re peaceful.”
Grace has been a member of 4-H for six years, showing cattle for four.
She is participating in the Stock Show’s Catch-A-Calf program, which loaned her a calf so she can learn cattle management.
The Catch-A-Calf program started in 1935 and is open to teens ages 14 to 18 who live in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming, according to the Stock Show’s website.
“Sometimes it’s kids that haven’t raised these animals before,” Pukrop said.
Zemery Weber, 14, cleans the pens for her goats, Theo, left, and Nemo, in a barn at her mother’s home near Gill, Colo., on Dec. 15, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Teens participating in the program have to rope a calf, feed it and return the cow to the next Stock Show to be judged on showmanship and carcass quality. The program’s Grand and Reserve Grand Champions get to sell their steers at an auction held on the final Friday of the Stock Show, according to the website.
The program is about “taking accountability and staying on track with your animal and really learning what goes behind their feed and all the math,” said Miranda Leatherman, a 15-year-old participant from Arvada.
By participating in the Catch-A-Calf program, Grace and Miranda had to send monthly reports to sponsors on their steers’ progress and track their weight and how much they are fed.
Grace doesn’t know how much Quinn will sell for, but if she doesn’t win and make it to auction, the calf will still be sold — just for a lower price.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice,” she said.
Grace plans to use any earnings from Quinn’s sale to cover expenses of his upkeep, such as grain and veterinary bills. Anything left over is profit, she said.
“It was a cool opportunity,” she said. “It was a way to get more involved. It was a great way to strengthen this project I have been doing.”
When Ashlee Chaidez’s black Lab mix, Duck, charged toward her and rubbed his face — a little more gray than the last time she had seen him — against her cheek, she knew her struggles over the past several months had been worth it.
Six months ago, Chaidez, 27, and 6-year-old Duck were living out of her car around the Front Range. Chaidez dropped Duck off at doggy daycare to get him out of the summer heat while she delivered orders for Instacart, narrowly earning the money to board her beloved dog.
Chaidez barely broke even financially, was off her mental health medication and needed help, she said. But the thought of giving up Duck — her best friend and reason for getting up in the morning — while she sought inpatient psychiatric care was a blow that felt insurmountable.
After reaching out to animal shelters, Chaidez learned about a program through the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that finds foster caregivers for people’s pets while they recover from addiction, abuse or mental health problems.
Through that program, Duck lived with a foster family while Chaidez got back on her feet.
“One of the main things preventing me from getting help was that I didn’t want to give him up because he’s my family,” Chaidez said. “This gave me the peace of mind to get the help I needed, and I don’t think I would be where I am now without this program.”
The program, Pawsitive Recovery, launched in Denver in 2021 and is so popular that the organization is looking to expand it across the country.
“This program gave me a lot of hope when I didn’t really see any,” Chaidez said.
Serena Saunders got sober from alcohol about five years ago through an inpatient program. The former veterinary technician told her therapist at the time that she wished she could work with dogs while going through recovery. That was the impetus for Pawsitive Recovery, a nonprofit Saunders started out of her Denver home, where she cared for the cats and dogs of people in recovery.
Two years ago, Saunders met an employee with SPCA International who became interested in her work. The longstanding animal advocacy organization hired Saunders and folded her nonprofit into their mission.
“It was probably the best decision of my life,” Saunders said.
Pawsitive Recovery partners with mental health treatment and sober living facilities across Colorado. People who need inpatient care but have pets they don’t want to leave behind get referred to the SPCA and connected with a foster caregiver.
The organization and its host of volunteers care for around 30 to 40 animals at a time — mostly cats and dogs, although Saunders has looked after 10 tarantulas in her office and found temporary homes for guinea pigs, too.
The fosters are typically volunteers from the recovery space — therapists, people in long-term recovery, parents of family members impacted by addiction, Saunders said. (Anyone interested in volunteering or getting connected with the program can find information at spcai.org/our-work/pawsitive-recovery.)
Sometimes, due to challenges like homelessness, the pets have trauma that can lead to behavioral issues, Saunders said. The program partners with a training facility in Brighton that takes on behaviorally challenged animals, she said.
Ashlee Chaidez, right, hugs SPCA volunteer Sara Broene after being reunited with her dog, Duck, after six months apart while Chaidez sought psychiatric care, on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, at Hounds Town dog daycare and boarding in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
They also have a standing arrangement with local boarding facility Hounds Town, which can take in pets quickly, Saunders said. A fast placement can be critical if a client is escaping a domestic violence situation and needs to leave right away, she said.
“We are not limited to dogs that are in perfect shape,” Saunders said. “We can take broken ones, too, which is amazing because the dog and the person get to heal simultaneously.”
Pawsitive Recovery commits to fostering pets for six months, giving the person in recovery time to figure out their next move, Saunders said. The SPCA charges $100 per month for a boarding fee, which Saunders described as an accountability tool for the person in recovery.
“It’s part of their responsibility, having a little skin in the game when it comes to the care of their animal,” Saunders said. “If they’re in treatment, a lot of these people are not working, so what we do is set up a fundraiser for them, and as they start rebuilding their life, they can go in and make payments. It’s all situational.”
For Chaidez, the program was life-changing.
She got the medical care she needed, secured a job at a Starbucks in Vail and got her own apartment.
When times in recovery got hard, the thought of reuniting with her furry friend kept her motivated, she said.
Ashlee Chaidez give a kiss to her dog, Duck, after being reunited after six months apart while Chaidez sought psychiatric care, on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, at Hounds Town dog daycare and boarding in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
“I didn’t really notice how much he helped me out until I didn’t have him anymore,” Chaidez said. “He’s my best friend. He’s the whole point.”
On the day of reunification — a Saturday in mid-December — Chaidez grew nervous that Duck might not remember her or might be angry with her for leaving him.
But Duck was elated to see his favorite human again.
“I took a big sigh of relief because I made it,” Chaidez said.
That night, when Chaidez crawled into bed with Duck sleeping at her feet, she realized what a big milestone she had achieved.
“I did it,” Chaidez said. “I was in my own place, I have my own bed, my dog is back, and it really clicked. Even though it was so hard to give him up, I made the right decision.”
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is collecting real Christmas trees for its lions and tigers. “This time of year is really fun because Christmas trees are great enrichment for the big cats,” Laurie Vanderwal, a zoologist and co-curator at Turpentine Creek said. “They do like the smell of cedar and fir trees. It’s also something different and novel that they don’t get all the time.”Vanderwal said the refuge receives trees from locals and tree farms. They take trees with the decorations removed.Turpentine Creek has 123 animals, from big cats to grizzly bears, and even a hyena. Some of their animals are from the park in the popular show “Tiger King.””It was just such a relief because we knew those animals had not been getting proper care for many years,” Vanderwal said. The animals at the sanctuary were neglected by their past owners. She said caring for the animals goes beyond providing food and water. These animals cannot return to the wild because they were born and bred in captivity.”They don’t know how to hunt. They wouldn’t know how to survive,” Vanderwal said. “Because they’re coming from captive situations and abusive situations and neglect, they tend to come with veterinary issues.” Vanderwal said she’s in a profession she hopes doesn’t have to exist in the future. “Hopefully, that, you know, eventually people will not own these cats as pets anymore,” Vanderwal said. “People will not try to keep them in horrific conditions anymore. And the rescue part will not have to exist.”Vanderwal said they provide scent enrichment year-round. In spring and summer, they grow a garden of various spices like catnip, basil and oregano for the animals. Eureka Springs is located in the Ozark Mountains in Northwest Arkansas.
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is collecting real Christmas trees for its lions and tigers.
“This time of year is really fun because Christmas trees are great enrichment for the big cats,” Laurie Vanderwal, a zoologist and co-curator at Turpentine Creek said. “They do like the smell of cedar and fir trees. It’s also something different and novel that they don’t get all the time.”
Vanderwal said the refuge receives trees from locals and tree farms. They take trees with the decorations removed.
Turpentine Creek has 123 animals, from big cats to grizzly bears, and even a hyena. Some of their animals are from the park in the popular show “Tiger King.”
“It was just such a relief because we knew those animals had not been getting proper care for many years,” Vanderwal said.
The animals at the sanctuary were neglected by their past owners. She said caring for the animals goes beyond providing food and water. These animals cannot return to the wild because they were born and bred in captivity.
“They don’t know how to hunt. They wouldn’t know how to survive,” Vanderwal said. “Because they’re coming from captive situations and abusive situations and neglect, they tend to come with veterinary issues.”
Vanderwal said she’s in a profession she hopes doesn’t have to exist in the future.
“Hopefully, that, you know, eventually people will not own these cats as pets anymore,” Vanderwal said. “People will not try to keep them in horrific conditions anymore. And the rescue part will not have to exist.”
Vanderwal said they provide scent enrichment year-round. In spring and summer, they grow a garden of various spices like catnip, basil and oregano for the animals.
Eureka Springs is located in the Ozark Mountains in Northwest Arkansas.
Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later an animal rights activist, has died. She was 91.Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died Sunday at her home in southern France, and would not provide a cause of death. He said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.At the height of a cinema career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars.Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her features were chosen to be the model for “Marianne,” the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps and even on coins.‘’We are mourning a legend,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Sunday on X.Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she opposed sending monkeys into space.”Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday, in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”Her activism earned her compatriots’ respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation’s highest honor. Later, however, she fell from public grace as her far-right political views sounded racist, as she frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.She was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. Notably, she criticized the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays like Eid al-Adha.Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a onetime adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described the outspoken nationalist as a “lovely, intelligent man.”In 2012, she caused controversy again when she wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party — now renamed National Rally — in her failed bid for the French presidency. In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many played “the teases” with producers to land parts.She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it “charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass.” Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.Bardot once described her childhood as “difficult” and said her father was a strict disciplinarian.But it was French movie producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote “And God Created Woman” to showcase provocative sensuality.The film, which portrayed Bardot as a bored newlywed who beds her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.The film was a box-office hit, and it made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and shape were often more appreciated than her talent.”It’s an embarrassment to have acted so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone less than nothing.”Bardot’s unabashed, off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It eradicated the boundaries between her public and private life and turned her into a hot prize for paparazzi.Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant press attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house only two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a handsome French actor whom she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave up her son to his father, and later said she had been chronically depressed and unready for the duties of being a mother.”I was looking for roots then,” she said in an interview. “I had none to offer.”In her 1996 autobiography “Initiales B.B.,” she likened her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me,” and described Charrier as “temperamental and abusive.”Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship ended in divorce three years later.Among her films were “A Parisian” (1957); “In Case of Misfortune,” in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; “The Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “A Ravishing Idiot” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rum Boulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).With the exception of 1963’s critically acclaimed “Contempt,” directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely complicated by plots. Often they were vehicles to display Bardot’s curves and legs in scanty dresses or frolicking nude in the sun.”It was never a great passion of mine,” she said of filmmaking. “And it can be deadly sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it.”Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez at the age of 39 in 1973 after “The Woman Grabber.” She emerged a decade later with a new persona: An animal rights lobbyist. She abandoned her jet-set life and sold off movie memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation devoted to the prevention of animal cruelty.Her activism knew no borders. She urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote to U.S. President Bill Clinton asking why the U.S. Navy recaptured two dolphins it had released into the wild.She attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions including the Palio, a free-for-all horse race, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.By the late 1990s, Bardot was making headlines that would lose her many fans. She was convicted and fined five times between 1997 and 2008 for inciting racial hatred in incidents inspired by her anger at Muslim animal slaughtering rituals.”It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things move forward … and despite all the promises that have been made to me by all different governments put together — my distress takes over,” Bardot told the AP.In 1997, several towns removed Bardot-inspired statues of Marianne — the bare-breasted statue representing the French Republic — after the actress voiced anti-immigrant sentiment. Also that year, she received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.Environmental campaigner Paul Watson, who was beaten on a seal hunt protest in Canada alongside Bardot in 1977 and campaigned with her for five decades, acknowledged that “many disagreed with Brigitte’s politics or some of her views.”“Her allegiance was not to the world of humans,” he said. “The animals of this world lost a wonderful friend today.”Bardot once said that she identified with the animals that she was trying to save.”I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” Bardot said. “What happened to me was inhuman. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.” Ganley contributed to this story before her retirement. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
PARIS —
Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later an animal rights activist, has died. She was 91.
Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died Sunday at her home in southern France, and would not provide a cause of death. He said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.
Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.
At the height of a cinema career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars.
Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her features were chosen to be the model for “Marianne,” the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps and even on coins.
‘’We are mourning a legend,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Sunday on X.
Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she opposed sending monkeys into space.
“Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday, in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”
Her activism earned her compatriots’ respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation’s highest honor.
Later, however, she fell from public grace as her far-right political views sounded racist, as she frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.
She was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. Notably, she criticized the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays like Eid al-Adha.
Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a onetime adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described the outspoken nationalist as a “lovely, intelligent man.”
In 2012, she caused controversy again when she wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party — now renamed National Rally — in her failed bid for the French presidency.
In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many played “the teases” with producers to land parts.
She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it “charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass.”
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.
Bardot once described her childhood as “difficult” and said her father was a strict disciplinarian.
But it was French movie producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote “And God Created Woman” to showcase provocative sensuality.
The film, which portrayed Bardot as a bored newlywed who beds her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.
The film was a box-office hit, and it made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and shape were often more appreciated than her talent.
“It’s an embarrassment to have acted so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone less than nothing.”
Bardot’s unabashed, off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It eradicated the boundaries between her public and private life and turned her into a hot prize for paparazzi.
Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant press attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house only two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.
Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a handsome French actor whom she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave up her son to his father, and later said she had been chronically depressed and unready for the duties of being a mother.
“I was looking for roots then,” she said in an interview. “I had none to offer.”
In her 1996 autobiography “Initiales B.B.,” she likened her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me,” and described Charrier as “temperamental and abusive.”
Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship ended in divorce three years later.
Among her films were “A Parisian” (1957); “In Case of Misfortune,” in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; “The Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “A Ravishing Idiot” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rum Boulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).
With the exception of 1963’s critically acclaimed “Contempt,” directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely complicated by plots. Often they were vehicles to display Bardot’s curves and legs in scanty dresses or frolicking nude in the sun.
“It was never a great passion of mine,” she said of filmmaking. “And it can be deadly sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it.”
Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez at the age of 39 in 1973 after “The Woman Grabber.”
She emerged a decade later with a new persona: An animal rights lobbyist. She abandoned her jet-set life and sold off movie memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation devoted to the prevention of animal cruelty.
Her activism knew no borders. She urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote to U.S. President Bill Clinton asking why the U.S. Navy recaptured two dolphins it had released into the wild.
She attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions including the Palio, a free-for-all horse race, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.
By the late 1990s, Bardot was making headlines that would lose her many fans. She was convicted and fined five times between 1997 and 2008 for inciting racial hatred in incidents inspired by her anger at Muslim animal slaughtering rituals.
“It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things move forward … and despite all the promises that have been made to me by all different governments put together — my distress takes over,” Bardot told the AP.
In 1997, several towns removed Bardot-inspired statues of Marianne — the bare-breasted statue representing the French Republic — after the actress voiced anti-immigrant sentiment. Also that year, she received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.
Environmental campaigner Paul Watson, who was beaten on a seal hunt protest in Canada alongside Bardot in 1977 and campaigned with her for five decades, acknowledged that “many disagreed with Brigitte’s politics or some of her views.”
“Her allegiance was not to the world of humans,” he said. “The animals of this world lost a wonderful friend today.”
Bardot once said that she identified with the animals that she was trying to save.
“I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” Bardot said. “What happened to me was inhuman. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.”
Ganley contributed to this story before her retirement. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later an animal rights activist, has died. She was 91.Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died Sunday at her home in southern France, and would not provide a cause of death. He said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.At the height of a cinema career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars.Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her features were chosen to be the model for “Marianne,” the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps and even on coins.‘’We are mourning a legend,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Sunday on X.Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she opposed sending monkeys into space.”Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday, in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”Her activism earned her compatriots’ respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation’s highest honor. Later, however, she fell from public grace as her far-right political views sounded racist, as she frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.She was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. Notably, she criticized the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays like Eid al-Adha.Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a onetime adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described the outspoken nationalist as a “lovely, intelligent man.”In 2012, she caused controversy again when she wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party — now renamed National Rally — in her failed bid for the French presidency. In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many played “the teases” with producers to land parts.She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it “charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass.” Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.Bardot once described her childhood as “difficult” and said her father was a strict disciplinarian.But it was French movie producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote “And God Created Woman” to showcase provocative sensuality.The film, which portrayed Bardot as a bored newlywed who beds her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.The film was a box-office hit, and it made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and shape were often more appreciated than her talent.”It’s an embarrassment to have acted so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone less than nothing.”Bardot’s unabashed, off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It eradicated the boundaries between her public and private life and turned her into a hot prize for paparazzi.Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant press attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house only two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a handsome French actor whom she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave up her son to his father, and later said she had been chronically depressed and unready for the duties of being a mother.”I was looking for roots then,” she said in an interview. “I had none to offer.”In her 1996 autobiography “Initiales B.B.,” she likened her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me,” and described Charrier as “temperamental and abusive.”Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship ended in divorce three years later.Among her films were “A Parisian” (1957); “In Case of Misfortune,” in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; “The Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “A Ravishing Idiot” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rum Boulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).With the exception of 1963’s critically acclaimed “Contempt,” directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely complicated by plots. Often they were vehicles to display Bardot’s curves and legs in scanty dresses or frolicking nude in the sun.”It was never a great passion of mine,” she said of filmmaking. “And it can be deadly sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it.”Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez at the age of 39 in 1973 after “The Woman Grabber.” She emerged a decade later with a new persona: An animal rights lobbyist. She abandoned her jet-set life and sold off movie memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation devoted to the prevention of animal cruelty.Her activism knew no borders. She urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote to U.S. President Bill Clinton asking why the U.S. Navy recaptured two dolphins it had released into the wild.She attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions including the Palio, a free-for-all horse race, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.By the late 1990s, Bardot was making headlines that would lose her many fans. She was convicted and fined five times between 1997 and 2008 for inciting racial hatred in incidents inspired by her anger at Muslim animal slaughtering rituals.”It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things move forward … and despite all the promises that have been made to me by all different governments put together — my distress takes over,” Bardot told the AP.In 1997, several towns removed Bardot-inspired statues of Marianne — the bare-breasted statue representing the French Republic — after the actress voiced anti-immigrant sentiment. Also that year, she received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.Environmental campaigner Paul Watson, who was beaten on a seal hunt protest in Canada alongside Bardot in 1977 and campaigned with her for five decades, acknowledged that “many disagreed with Brigitte’s politics or some of her views.”“Her allegiance was not to the world of humans,” he said. “The animals of this world lost a wonderful friend today.”Bardot once said that she identified with the animals that she was trying to save.”I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” Bardot said. “What happened to me was inhuman. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.” Ganley contributed to this story before her retirement. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
PARIS —
Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later an animal rights activist, has died. She was 91.
Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died Sunday at her home in southern France, and would not provide a cause of death. He said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.
Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.
At the height of a cinema career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars.
Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her features were chosen to be the model for “Marianne,” the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps and even on coins.
‘’We are mourning a legend,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Sunday on X.
Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she opposed sending monkeys into space.
“Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday, in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”
Her activism earned her compatriots’ respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation’s highest honor.
Later, however, she fell from public grace as her far-right political views sounded racist, as she frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.
She was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. Notably, she criticized the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays like Eid al-Adha.
Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a onetime adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described the outspoken nationalist as a “lovely, intelligent man.”
In 2012, she caused controversy again when she wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party — now renamed National Rally — in her failed bid for the French presidency.
In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many played “the teases” with producers to land parts.
She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it “charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass.”
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.
Bardot once described her childhood as “difficult” and said her father was a strict disciplinarian.
But it was French movie producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote “And God Created Woman” to showcase provocative sensuality.
The film, which portrayed Bardot as a bored newlywed who beds her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.
The film was a box-office hit, and it made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and shape were often more appreciated than her talent.
“It’s an embarrassment to have acted so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone less than nothing.”
Bardot’s unabashed, off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It eradicated the boundaries between her public and private life and turned her into a hot prize for paparazzi.
Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant press attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house only two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.
Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a handsome French actor whom she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave up her son to his father, and later said she had been chronically depressed and unready for the duties of being a mother.
“I was looking for roots then,” she said in an interview. “I had none to offer.”
In her 1996 autobiography “Initiales B.B.,” she likened her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me,” and described Charrier as “temperamental and abusive.”
Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship ended in divorce three years later.
Among her films were “A Parisian” (1957); “In Case of Misfortune,” in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; “The Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “A Ravishing Idiot” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rum Boulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).
With the exception of 1963’s critically acclaimed “Contempt,” directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely complicated by plots. Often they were vehicles to display Bardot’s curves and legs in scanty dresses or frolicking nude in the sun.
“It was never a great passion of mine,” she said of filmmaking. “And it can be deadly sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it.”
Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez at the age of 39 in 1973 after “The Woman Grabber.”
She emerged a decade later with a new persona: An animal rights lobbyist. She abandoned her jet-set life and sold off movie memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation devoted to the prevention of animal cruelty.
Her activism knew no borders. She urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote to U.S. President Bill Clinton asking why the U.S. Navy recaptured two dolphins it had released into the wild.
She attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions including the Palio, a free-for-all horse race, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.
By the late 1990s, Bardot was making headlines that would lose her many fans. She was convicted and fined five times between 1997 and 2008 for inciting racial hatred in incidents inspired by her anger at Muslim animal slaughtering rituals.
“It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things move forward … and despite all the promises that have been made to me by all different governments put together — my distress takes over,” Bardot told the AP.
In 1997, several towns removed Bardot-inspired statues of Marianne — the bare-breasted statue representing the French Republic — after the actress voiced anti-immigrant sentiment. Also that year, she received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.
Environmental campaigner Paul Watson, who was beaten on a seal hunt protest in Canada alongside Bardot in 1977 and campaigned with her for five decades, acknowledged that “many disagreed with Brigitte’s politics or some of her views.”
“Her allegiance was not to the world of humans,” he said. “The animals of this world lost a wonderful friend today.”
Bardot once said that she identified with the animals that she was trying to save.
“I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” Bardot said. “What happened to me was inhuman. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.”
Ganley contributed to this story before her retirement. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
We continue to learn things about Bo Nix that surprise us.
Last year, we found out he does not curse. On Christmas Day, he revealed his fear of dogs to Kirk Herbstreit after an awkward meeting with the broadcaster’s famous golden retriever Peter went viral last month.
Herbstreit travels the country with Peter, who took over the role of unofficial ambassador after his brother Ben passed away last November following a battle with leukemia and lymphoma.
Players often happily greet the pup at college and NFL stadiums, but Nix had a chilly reaction when Peter jumped toward him as he held plyo balls in his hand before the Broncos played the Raiders on Nov. 6. It led Herbstreit to hatch a plan to bring the two together this week.
That is when Nix shared that he had a fear of dogs from a childhood incident.
“I just think when I was little I got attacked by one, and I didn’t know any better. My family didn’t grow up with them,” Nix told Herbstreit. “My whole family’s not really a dog family. We had one when I was a kid, and then it passed away and we didn’t get a new one.”
Nix became associated with dogs a few weeks ago. After the Broncos upset the Green Bay Packers, Nix coined the term “overdog” to describe his team. He launched an “Overdogs” line of merchandise on his apparel website that benefits the Denver Rescue Mission, which aims to end homelessness in the metro area.
Mahali, the Denver Zoo’s beloved Nile hippopotamus, will stay in the Mile High City a little longer than expected.
Zoo officials in July announced that the hippo would be transferred to a natural wildlife preserve in Texas following an inspection by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums that noted significant upgrade needs for the animal’s habitat.
But this week, the zoo said Mahali, “made it known to his care team that he was not quite ready for this move,” officials said on its website. The team is now planning to continue the hippo’s crate training until his departure in the spring.
“Hippos, specifically, require ample time to prepare for change, and a move as significant as Mahali’s has had to progress at his pace,” zoo officials said. “From an animal well-being perspective, care teams have known that they would advance only as Mahali was ready.”
Old Pachyderms, the building that has housed Mahali and dozens of other hippos, rhinos and elephants since 1959, needs “significant updates” and is “no longer considered suitable for the species,” the zoo association’s inspection found.
The zoo is aware that the building “would not pass future inspections without substantial upgrades,” officials said in a blog post.
The Denver zoo also cited the hippo’s high water usage as a factor in its decision to move Mahali to Texas. Current operations consume nearly 21 million gallons of water annually, accounting for more than one-quarter of the zoo’s total water usage last year. It costs nearly $200,000 to maintain the habitat each year, officials said.
An Orange County park was temporarily shut down Tuesday after two people reported mountain lion sightings the day before.
In one of the incidents, a pair of cyclists filmed a mountain lion following them along a cliffside trail, behavior that wildlife officials described as unusual.
Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park will be closed until further notice “out of an abundance of caution,” OC Parks said in a statement.
Parks staff are working with researchers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and biologists at UC Davis’ Wildlife Health Center to better understand the mountain lion’s behavior, Danielle Kennedy, public information officer with OC Parks, said in an email. They plan to place cameras around the park to track the animal’s activity and look for evidence such as fresh tracks and scat, she said.
UC Davis biologists are also reviewing the video provided by one of the bikers, who reported the encounter to authorities, Kennedy said.
The video posted to Facebook on Monday shows the mountain lion emerging from the brush to follow the cyclists along the trail, which was flanked by a steep hill on one side and a steep drop-off on the other. The cougar continues advancing as the cyclists shout for it to get back. At one point, it pauses and watches them back away, then seemingly charges, jumping to the side of the trail just before it reaches them. ABC7 first reported on the video.
“This is super out-of-the-ordinary behavior,” said Cort Klopping, a Fish and Wildlife spokesperson. Pumas typically avoid people — to the point where a person is a thousand times more likely to be struck by lighting than attacked by a mountain lion, he said.
It’s unclear why the animal was so interested in the cyclists, Kennedy said. Some online commenters of the video speculated it was a mother attempting to escort the bicyclists away from her cubs. In February, researchers collared a female mountain lion in Orange County that had offspring at the time, Kennedy said. UC Davis biologists have confirmed this collared female was in Whiting Ranch on Monday, but it wasn’t clear whether she still had cubs with her, and the mountain lion captured on the video was not collared and was unknown to the biologists, Kennedy said.
Based on the video, UC Davis biologists believe the mountain lion — a juvenile of an undetermined gender — was displaying behavior related to curiosity, rather than acting defensively, Kennedy said. It is unclear whether the same mountain lion was involved in both sightings, she said.
Lindsay Velez, who lives in nearby Rancho Santa Margarita, said she ran into the two mountain bikers Monday as they exited the trail, which she was preparing to hike up with her 12-year-old daughter. They showed her the video and warned her away, she said.
Velez said she’s aware that mountain lions frequent the area: “I carry bear spray with me everywhere, and not for bears.” But it seems like there’s been an uptick of activity in the last week, she said, adding that a friend of hers reported seeing a mountain lion in the backyard of her home not far from Whiting Ranch the same night.
With its steep hillside and dense brush, the park in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains has a history of mountain lion activity. There have been three mountain lion attacks there since 2004, Kennedy said, including one that resulted in the death of Mark Reynolds, 35, who was mauled when he crouched down on a trail to fix his bicycle chain.
Still, Reynolds’ death was just the sixth on record in California, according to a Times report in its aftermath. Since then, one more death has been recorded — that of Taylen Robert Claude Brooks, 21, who was killed by a mountain lion while he was searching for deer antlers in northern El Dorado County last March.
Those who encounter a mountain lion should take care not to turn their back on it and should make themselves seem as large as possible by extending their arms and making a lot of noise, Klopping said. They should back away slowly, rather than run, and take care not to crouch or bend over, he said.
Pets should be kept on-leash so they don’t approach the animal, and small children should be held close, ideally up on an adult’s shoulders, he said. People should also make sure the animal has a clear escape route, he said.
People can reduce the risks of such encounters in areas prone to sightings by refraining from biking or jogging at dawn, dusk or nighttime, and it’s best to partake in those activities in groups, Klopping said.
One of the monkeys that escaped last week after a truck overturned on a Mississippi highway was shot and killed early Sunday by a woman who says she feared for the safety of her children.Jessica Bond Ferguson said she was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son who said he thought he had seen a monkey running in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Mississippi. She got out of bed, grabbed her firearm and her cellphone and stepped outside where she saw the monkey about 60 feet away.Bond Ferguson said she and other residents had been warned that the escaped monkeys carried diseases so she fired her gun.“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson, who has five children ranging in age from 4 to 16, told The Associated Press. “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a social media post that a homeowner had found one of the monkeys on their property Sunday morning but said the office didn’t have any details. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks took possession of the monkey, the sheriff’s office said.Before Bond Ferguson had gone out the door, she had called the police and was told to keep an eye on the monkey. But she said she worried that if the monkey got away it would threaten children at another house.“If it attacked somebody’s kid, and I could have stopped it, that would be a lot on me,” said Bond Ferguson, a 35-year-old professional chef. “It’s kind of scary and dangerous that they are running around, and people have kids playing in their yards.”The Rhesus monkeys had been housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. In a statement last week, Tulane said the monkeys do not belong to the university, and they were not being transported by the university.A truck carrying the monkeys overturned Tuesday on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Of the 21 monkeys in the truck, 13 were found at the scene of the accident and arrived at their original destination last week, according to Tulane. Another five were killed in the hunt for them and three remained on the loose before Sunday.The Mississippi Highway Patrol has said it was investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred about 100 miles from the state capital, Jackson.Rhesus monkeys typically weigh about 16 pounds and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. Video recorded after the crash showed monkeys crawling through tall grass beside the interstate, where wooden crates labeled “live animals” were crumpled and strewn about.Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson had said Tulane officials reported the monkeys were not infectious, despite initial reports by the truck’s occupants warning that the monkeys were dangerous and harboring various diseases. Nonetheless, Johnson said the monkeys still needed to be “neutralized” because of their aggressive nature.The monkeys had recently received checkups confirming they were pathogen-free, Tulane said in a statement Wednesday.Rhesus macaques “are known to be aggressive,” according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. It said the agency’s conservation workers were working with sheriff’s officials in the search for the animals.The search comes about one year after 43 Rhesus macaques escaped from a South Carolina compound that breeds them for medical research because an employee didn’t fully lock an enclosure. Employees from the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, had set up traps to capture them.
JASPER COUNTY, Miss. —
One of the monkeys that escaped last week after a truck overturned on a Mississippi highway was shot and killed early Sunday by a woman who says she feared for the safety of her children.
Jessica Bond Ferguson said she was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son who said he thought he had seen a monkey running in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Mississippi. She got out of bed, grabbed her firearm and her cellphone and stepped outside where she saw the monkey about 60 feet away.
Bond Ferguson said she and other residents had been warned that the escaped monkeys carried diseases so she fired her gun.
“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson, who has five children ranging in age from 4 to 16, told The Associated Press. “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a social media post that a homeowner had found one of the monkeys on their property Sunday morning but said the office didn’t have any details. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks took possession of the monkey, the sheriff’s office said.
Before Bond Ferguson had gone out the door, she had called the police and was told to keep an eye on the monkey. But she said she worried that if the monkey got away it would threaten children at another house.
“If it attacked somebody’s kid, and I could have stopped it, that would be a lot on me,” said Bond Ferguson, a 35-year-old professional chef. “It’s kind of scary and dangerous that they are running around, and people have kids playing in their yards.”
The Rhesus monkeys had been housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. In a statement last week, Tulane said the monkeys do not belong to the university, and they were not being transported by the university.
A truck carrying the monkeys overturned Tuesday on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Of the 21 monkeys in the truck, 13 were found at the scene of the accident and arrived at their original destination last week, according to Tulane. Another five were killed in the hunt for them and three remained on the loose before Sunday.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol has said it was investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred about 100 miles from the state capital, Jackson.
Rhesus monkeys typically weigh about 16 pounds and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. Video recorded after the crash showed monkeys crawling through tall grass beside the interstate, where wooden crates labeled “live animals” were crumpled and strewn about.
Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson had said Tulane officials reported the monkeys were not infectious, despite initial reports by the truck’s occupants warning that the monkeys were dangerous and harboring various diseases. Nonetheless, Johnson said the monkeys still needed to be “neutralized” because of their aggressive nature.
The monkeys had recently received checkups confirming they were pathogen-free, Tulane said in a statement Wednesday.
Rhesus macaques “are known to be aggressive,” according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. It said the agency’s conservation workers were working with sheriff’s officials in the search for the animals.
The search comes about one year after 43 Rhesus macaques escaped from a South Carolina compound that breeds them for medical research because an employee didn’t fully lock an enclosure. Employees from the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, had set up traps to capture them.
LITTLETON – For deer, the fall time change Sunday morning means trouble: a 16% spike in collisions with vehicles over the following week, despite years of safety campaigns and the construction of 75 special crossings along highways.
Drivers in Colorado collided with at least 54,189 wild animals over the past 15 years, according to newly compiled Colorado Department of Transportation records. That’s far fewer than in many other states, such as Michigan, where vehicle-life collisions often number more than 50,000 in one year.
The carnage — especially this time of year — increasingly occurs where animals face the most people along the heavily populated Front Range, beyond the mountainous western half of the state that holds much of the remaining prime habitat, state records show.
State leaders and wildlife advocates gathered on Thursday near one of the crossings along the high-speed C-470 beltway in southwest metro Denver to launch a safety campaign.
“We’ve made wildlife crossings a priority in our rural areas, and also increasingly in urban areas,” CDOT Director Shoshana Lew said. “We cannot put underpasses and overpasses everywhere. Particularly at this time of year, we urge everyone to be careful of wildlife.”
Lew credited the crossings with containing collision numbers that could be much higher in Colorado, given the traffic and the prevalence of deer and other wild animals. Most of the state’s highway construction projects, such as the work on Interstate 25 north of Colorado Springs that includes a large wildlife bridge, will factor in wildlife safety needs, Lew said.
The risk of collisions spikes this time of year due to deer and elk migrating to lower elevations, bringing more animals across highways. The end of daylight saving time also plays a role as more drivers navigate roads during the relatively low-visibility hours before and after sunset, when deer often move about.
In Colorado, the 54,189 vehicle-animal collisions that CDOT recorded from 2010 through 2024 caused the deaths of 48 vehicle occupants and more than 5,000 injuries. The animals breakdown: 82% deer, 11% elk, 2% bears.
Ten counties where vehicles hit the most animals during that period included five along the Front Range — Douglas, Jefferson, El Paso, Larimer, and Pueblo — with a combined total of 12,791 collisions, state records show. That compares with 11,068 in the other five counties in western Colorado — La Plata, Montezuma, Garfield, Moffat, and Chaffee.
Colorado lawmakers over the past two decades have directed funds for the installation of more and more wildlife crossings, typically overpasses and underpasses combined with fencing along highways. “These can be up to 90% effective in reducing collisions,” Environment America researcher Rachel Jaeger said.
Most recently, in 2022, lawmakers set up a wildlife safe passage fund with a $5.5 million investment for crossing construction. That money’s been spent. State transportation planners have identified locations where crossings are needed, such as the stretch of U.S. 40 between the intersection with I-70 and the town of Empire, where bighorn sheep live.
Wildlife-vehicle collisions have proved persistent enough that safety advocates have launched a social media campaign and are mulling new strategies, such as promoting ridership on CDOT’s intercity Bustang buses as an animal-friendly way to move.
Bobby Deol is experiencing a remarkable career renaissance, celebrating three decades in the film industry with a string of acclaimed performances that have reshaped his standing in Bollywood.
The son of legendary actor Dharmendra and brother of star Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol made his debut as a leading man in 1995 with “Barsaat” and enjoyed early success before experiencing a career slump. However, the advent of streaming platforms has given the actor a second act, allowing him to explore complex, unconventional roles far removed from his earlier larger-than-life characters.
Speaking to Variety, Deol says the fan response remains extraordinary. “It’s kind of overwhelming when you get so much love and keep getting more and more love from the audiences. Thirty years, what better way to celebrate with especially with your fans, and to have such a big, successful web series: ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood.’”
The actor credits streaming platforms with fundamentally altering his career trajectory. “It all changed with OTT platforms for me, because that gave me my first chance to do something different,” he says. His Netflix film “Class of 83” (2020), a gritty police drama set in 1980s Mumbai, marked the beginning — but it was the Amazon MX Player series “Aashram,” in which he played a sinister godman, that truly changed perceptions. “It released one week later, and it just overshadowed ‘Class of 83’ completely. I still, till date, whenever I meet Prakash Ji [director Prakash Jha], I can’t come to terms with it, but it took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that what did he see in me to cast me as Baba Nirala.”
That role signaled to the industry that he was capable of far more than his initial career suggested. “That was the beginning of everything, because people started having belief and faith in me as an actor that, OK, Bobby doesn’t just have to be how I was in my beginning of my career. He can play different characters,” he says.
Deol’s performance as a mute antagonist in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s violent crime saga “Animal” (2023) proved pivotal to his resurgence and led directly to his collaboration with Anurag Kashyap on “Bandar” (Monkey in a Cage), a raw prison drama that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September. After “Animal’s” release, Kashyap called Deol and spoke to him for 45 minutes, expressing admiration for his evolution as an actor. The validation from a filmmaker he’d long admired left Deol both thrilled and anxious.
“I’d been wanting to work with Anurag since years,” Deol says, recalling their various encounters over the decades, from when Kashyap was still a writer visiting his home, to running into each other at their children’s martial arts events and at the gym. “As a director, I’ve always loved his work, and he always gets something different out of every actor he works with.”
The night before his first day of shooting on “Bandar,” sleep eluded him. “I’m like wondering to myself, ‘What have I done that has made Anurag want to work with me?’” At 3 a.m., he put on Netflix and watched “Animal” again, trying to understand what others saw in his performance. “I still couldn’t figure it out, because obviously, as actors, you can’t figure out certain times when things change in your life and what you’ve been waiting for — that moment — happens. It’s like, surreal. It’s like a dream.”
After only an hour of sleep, Deol headed to set, where the experience proved transformative. “Working with Anurag was like being in a workshop. I always give myself completely to my director, and working with Anurag was like going to this acting coach, being with him and giving yourself up — no inhibitions, nothing. Just give yourself completely.”
Kashyap’s communication style made that vulnerability possible. “I think that’s because of the way he communicates with his actors. And I guess that’s the reason why people enjoyed my work in the film, because for me, it was totally out of my image, my everything.”
The process allowed him to learn more about himself. “Every time you’re working on a project, you kind of start understanding different aspects of your emotions,” he says. The film was completed in just 23 days.
“Bandar” marked Deol’s first festival premiere at Toronto’s 50th anniversary, where he also represented his father for the festival’s golden jubilee celebration of “Sholay,” one of the greatest Indian films of all time. “I never imagined going to a film festival. I mean, never thought that a movie of mine will be premiered at a festival,” he says. “And what better way to celebrate — it was the 50th year of TIFF, and I also got the opportunity to represent my father for ‘Sholay’s 50 years. It was like being in India.”
Deol’s decision to join Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan’s directorial debut — the Netflix series “The Ba***ds of Bollywood,” a behind-the-scenes drama exploring the underbelly of the Hindi-language film industry — stemmed from industry solidarity and parental empathy. “I’m a parent myself, and I’m from this industry, and I’d want anyone to be there to stand by me when my sons are getting into this industry,” he says. “I know that Shah Rukh is that kind of a person who would stand by me, or so many people I know in my industry, and I just felt that positive feeling and that emotion and when I got the call, I just said that I’m doing it.”
“The Ba***ds of Bollywood”
Netflix
What began as support became something more substantial after a long meeting with Aryan Khan. “I sat with him for seven hours and heard the whole story because it’s seven episodes, and I just was taken in by his conviction, by his writing, by his thoughts, by his maturity,” he says. “Every time you talk to a director, I always believe you get scripts to read. But when you sit with them and you hear it from them narrating to you, you get a better idea of what they’re visualizing. So I think I just got lucky.”
Deol praises Khan’s approach to the material. “The show, whatever it is, it’s all because of Aryan. I think that child has done a great job. So mature, his conviction, his instincts, his fearlessness, and to give something which is so different yet so connecting. It’s about things you’ve seen, but at the same time it is so differently approached.”
The series’ success, he argues, stems from its comprehensive storytelling. “I think every character in the show is something you’ll remember, not just one person. That happens very rarely. It only when the writing is good and when the direction is good that every actor tries to work hard. But it can only be seen if the captain of the ship can bring it out.”
The series explores Bollywood myths and realities in a very insider way. “I think it’s just making fun of yourself in a way, it’s just being absolutely open,” he says. “It’s a fiction, end of the day. So how do you entertain people? You bring out elements, you show elements, so people discuss them and get excited about it. As it is, ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’ is a show based on all the myths of the Bollywood industry. Because stories can’t be written if there’s no truth behind it. But most of the stories which are created for cinema or for OTT platforms, they have to be fictionalized, because you got to make it more juicier and more interesting.”
Asked whether being born into the industry but experiencing career setbacks gives him unique insight into how Bollywood treats talent, Deol offers a measured perspective. “I think it works for any kind of industry, for any profession. Being an insider was my luck, because I was born in this family. I never asked to be born in this house.” His father, he notes, was an outsider who struggled for years before his first break.
“Definitely being an insider, I have experienced ups and downs, and I’ve learned from that. So yes, I’m lucky to be Dharmendra’s son, and I’m just so proud about that,” he says. “But at the same time, it’s not easy for anybody. You can be an insider, an outsider. You have to work hard. The only thing that any parent would do for the child is spend their own money to launch you. They have worked so hard that they want the kids to live a very happy life, so they would spend every penny to make things for them. But after that, you have to make every penny worth it with your hard work.”
His journey from a strong start through difficult years to his current resurgence carries particular meaning because his aging parents have witnessed it. “I’m happy that I went through a great start and a bad middle, and now again, I have succeeded to a certain level. And I’m so proud that my parents have seen that, because my parents are growing old, and I wanted that to happen for them,” he says.
“I’ve always felt that I could never live up to my dad’s expectations. I was always this little Bob, the youngest in the house, his golden child, because you end up being the youngest and you end up getting all that affection,” he adds.
The turning point came with his father’s validation. “The biggest compliment I ever got was from my father, like four, five years back, saying that ‘now you’ve understood yourself as an actor’ and ‘I’m very proud of you.’ I think that made me feel very happy, because that’s what I wanted to hear, and I’m really proud of that.”
Having lived through single-screen theaters, the multiplex wave, and now streaming, Deol remains format-agnostic. “I never think about which medium I’m going to be part of in that sense. For me, things have evolved because times are changing. You have to move with the times. So you have to do things according to how the times are moving. Because to exist, you have to be in sync with what’s happening.”
Still, he waxes nostalgic about the communal experience of single-screen cinemas. “The magic of single screen is something else. I’ve grown up watching movies in single screens, and I’ve seen people going crazy. The atmosphere in a single screen is completely something you really, really become a part of when you’re sitting there in the theater.”
Nevertheless, he embraces evolution. “But then multiplex, it had to come, the time had to evolve, and then OTT platforms. I really am happy that OTT platforms exist, because it changed my life. And I think all of them can coexist. It’s just how the creators, they have to be honest with their work and try to do their best.”
Deol also expresses nostalgia for earlier eras of filmmaking. “I always say that I wish I was born in the 30s so I could have been an actor in the 50s and enjoy the golden period and be a part of everything that was done for the first time, because there was so much honesty and sincerity and passion.” Though he hasn’t experienced it himself, he’s heard stories from his father about the kind of filmmakers and the honesty that pervaded that era.
Today’s landscape is different. “But now people have changed. They’ve evolved. Everyone’s living a tough life because it is becoming tougher out there. So there’s no time to get entertained besides seeing things on your mobile phone or your laptop or sitting somewhere, waiting in a lounge. But I’m just glad that these 30 years I’ve actually had a great time and I’m just happy, and I’m so lucky that I’m doing what I love the most still.”
Looking ahead, Deol has “Alpha” releasing Dec. 25, the latest installment in producer Aditya Chopra’s YRF Spy Universe, directed by Shiv Rawail, son of Rahul Rawail who directed his brother Sunny Deol’s first film “Betaab” (1983). “Rahul directed my brother’s first film. And now Shiv, his son is directing his first film, and I’m a part of it, so it makes it special.”
While he occasionally contemplates directing, Deol admits it’s not his calling. “I think I wish I could direct. Sometimes, every actor thinks they want to direct, because as an actor, you start imagining and thinking how the story moves and how that character would react, and how that person would do things. But I’m not someone who can control people. I can’t multitask. So I wish I was a director, but I can’t be one.”
His focus now is on continuing to push boundaries. “I am just glad that my audiences have helped me. The love they’ve given me is giving me the opportunities now to do work which is out of my comfort zone, and just keep surprising myself and surprising the audiences with what I can do. That’s what I’m hoping for.”
WASHINGTON, October 6, 2025 (Newswire.com)
– The annual Dog Lovers’ Day on September 26 is founded by the World Dog Alliance. This year marks its 10th anniversary, and over the past decade, remarkable milestones have been achieved by the World Dog Alliance. Countries and regions including the United States, South Korea, and China have enacted explicit legislation prohibiting the eating of dogs and cats-a historic milestone for humanity.
The International Agreement to Prohibit the Eating of Dogs and Cats, led by the United States, has gained support from many nations. The goal is to have at least 150 countries sign the agreement by 2027.
Here are some of the World Dog Alliance’s recent key achievements:
United States
In July 2025, the World Dog Alliance mobilized 13 bipartisan members of Congress to send a joint letter to President Donald Trump, urging him to promote the International Agreement to Prohibit the Eating of Dogs and Cats and calling on Japan to follow global trends by enacting a ban on dog meat.
In August 2025, the Alliance submitted the same appeal to First Lady Melania Trump.
In September 2025, under the Alliance’s advocacy, 30 members of Congress plan to submit a resolution urging Japan to follow the U.S. in legislating against dog and cat meat consumption. The resolution is expected to be passed by the end of 2025. Members of Japan’s cross-party Animal Welfare Parliamentary Alliance noted that U.S.-Japan relations are currently sensitive and dynamic. If the U.S. Congress passes this resolution, it could cause Japan to enact similar legislation to maintain stable bilateral relations.
South Korea
In July 2025, the World Dog Alliance sent a letter to President Lee Jae-myung, encouraging him to highlight Korea’s legislative example-modeled after Shenzhen and Zhuhai in China-during meetings with Chinese leaders. Despite domestic resistance, Korea’s National Assembly has passed the Special Act to Prohibit Dog Meat Consumption, set to take effect by the end of 2026. The Alliance also proposed that Korea and China collaborate not only in economics and culture but also in animal protection, and jointly launch the International Agreement to Prohibit the Eating of Dogs and Cats.
According to preliminary estimates from Korean animal welfare groups, once the law takes effect, there will be 100,000 to 150,000 dogs left in meat farms. Their fate poses a major social challenge, as the government cannot adopt them all. Some suggest euthanasia as a last resort.
The World Dog Alliance understands the Korean government’s dilemma but upholds the principle of valuing life. Every life saved matters. A global rescue initiative will be launched with two main strategies:
Appeal to kind-hearted individuals worldwide to adopt. Financial and physical support are welcome. Most adoptions involve small dogs under three years old, while meat farm dogs are typically large (around 30 kg), making adoption difficult. These dogs have lived in cages since birth and need psychological and physical rehabilitation. The Alliance will collaborate with service dog training centers in Taiwan to prepare these dogs for integration into human society.
Partner with Korean animal welfare organizations to fund and build a model rescue center for meat farm dogs, supplying chips, medicine, and other resources.
China
On September 1, 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs officially implemented the Guidelines for Managing Designated Animal Transport Checkpoints. This system will expose illegal dog and cat transport, delivering a fatal blow to the black market meat trade and significantly reducing theft, poisoning, and abuse of companion animals. The World Dog Alliance has been urging the Chinese government to increase the punishment on dog theft, the Alliance also submitted the “White Paper on Severe Punishment for Dog Theft,” which played a key role in shaping this policy.
Mr. Zhao Wanping, a National People’s Congress deputy and staunch supporter of the Alliance, led 30 deputies in submitting a proposal on dog and cat protection in March.
Japan On February 12, 2025, under the strategic planning of the World Dog Alliance, the Dog and Cat Peace Party was officially established-the world’s first political party dedicated to dog and cat welfare. Its goal is to win seats in future parliamentary elections and pioneer animal welfare legislation in Japan, setting an example for Asia. However, due to recent political turbulence, the party is reconsidering its election plans.
Norway
The World Dog Alliance is actively promoting the Norwegian government’s adoption of an Animal Welfare White Paper and the launch of the International Agreement to Prohibit the Eating of Dogs and Cats. In February 2025, the Alliance’s Norwegian representative delivered a speech in Parliament, emphasizing Norway’s role as a global model for animal protection. The White Paper is expected to be reviewed and passed in 2026.
Norway is a key country in the Alliance’s European strategy. As the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, if an animal activist receives this honor, it could spark a global wave of dog and cat protection-just as the environmental movement surged after a conservationist won the prize in 1976, leading to numerous UN environmental conventions.
The above highlights represent only part of the World Dog Alliance’s recent work. Though the journey is filled with challenges, we remain fearless, driven by unwavering belief in our mission, and press forward with determination.
Rashmika Mandanna is known for her versatile acting skills and her charming screen presence. With immense talent, the actress has managed to become a household name. Here are 5 movies you need to check out by the actress before you watch Thamma.
Animal (2023)
This action-epic film was helmed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga and created a lot of buzz when it was first released. In the film, Rashmika plays the character of Geetanjali Singh. The movie explored the strained relationship between a father and a son while managing anger, ego, betrayal, and more. The film can be seen on Netflix.
Mission Majnu (2023)
This spy-thriller drama film stars Sidharth Malhotra along with Rashmika Mandanna. Based on a historical setting, this movie follows the life of an undercover Indian spy in the 1970s, who is on a mission to expose Pakistan’s covert nuclear weapons program. Directed by Shantanu Bagchi, the film is available to stream on Netflix.
Pushpa: The Rise (2021)
This film is one of the most important projects of Rashmika’s life, which established her as a pan-Indian star. Starring Allu Arjun along with Rashmika Mandanna, it follows the story of Pushpa Raj, who runs his illegal business of smuggling red sandalwood. A film about challenges and betrayals, it is available to see on Amazon Prime Video.
Dear Comrade (2019)
Directed by Bharat Kamma, Dear Comrade has Vijay Deverakonda in the lead role with Rashmika. The story follows the life of Bobby, a student union leader with anger issues, who falls in love with a state-level cricketer named Lilly. Rashmika is praised for portraying the emotional depth of Lilly beautifully in the film, which can be seen on Amazon Prime Video.
Sikandar (2025)
Despite having mixed reviews, Rashmika plays a significant and amazing role in the film. Starring Salman Khan, Rashmika Mandanna, and Sathyaraj, this film stars Sanjay Rajkot, a man who goes on a journey to help the less fortunate after a major incident in his life. The film is available to stream on Netflix.
More about Rashmika Mandanna’s upcoming project
Rashmika Mandanna can be next seen in a horror comedy movie with Ayushmann Khurrana. The film is all set to hit the big screen during Diwali 2025. The movie is directed by Aditya Sarpotdar and already has a lot of buzz about it.
Rashmika Mandanna’s engagement
Rashmika isn’t doing bad on the personal front either. The actress is reportedly engaged to the actor Vijay Deverakonda. It is expected that the couple will tie the knot in early 2026, though there is no official announcement about the same.
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Mexico activated emergency controls Monday after detecting a new case of New World screwworm in cattle in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon state, the closest case to the U.S. border since the outbreak began last year.The animal, found in the town of Sabinas Hidalgo, came from the Gulf state of Veracruz, Mexico’s National Health for Food Safety and Food Quality Service said. The last case was reported July 9 in Veracruz, prompting Washington to suspend imports of live Mexican cattle.The parasite, a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly, attacks warm-blooded animals, including humans. Mexico has reported more than 500 active cases in cattle across southern states.The block on cattle imports has spelled trouble for Mexico’s government, which has already been busy trying to offset the brunt of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats this year.The government and ranchers have sought to get the ban lifted. If it stays in place through the year, Mexico’s ranching federation estimates losses up to $400 million.Mexico’s Agriculture Secretary Julio Berdegué said in a post on X that Mexico is “controlling the isolated case of screwworm in Nuevo Leon,” under measures to fight the pest agreed with the U.S. in August.U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Washington will take “decisive measures to protect our borders, even in the absence of cooperation” and said imports on Mexican cattle, bison and horses will remain suspended.“We will not rely on Mexico to defend our industry, our food supply or our way of life,” she said.
Mexico activated emergency controls Monday after detecting a new case of New World screwworm in cattle in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon state, the closest case to the U.S. border since the outbreak began last year.
The animal, found in the town of Sabinas Hidalgo, came from the Gulf state of Veracruz, Mexico’s National Health for Food Safety and Food Quality Service said. The last case was reported July 9 in Veracruz, prompting Washington to suspend imports of live Mexican cattle.
The parasite, a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly, attacks warm-blooded animals, including humans. Mexico has reported more than 500 active cases in cattle across southern states.
The block on cattle imports has spelled trouble for Mexico’s government, which has already been busy trying to offset the brunt of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats this year.
The government and ranchers have sought to get the ban lifted. If it stays in place through the year, Mexico’s ranching federation estimates losses up to $400 million.
Mexico’s Agriculture Secretary Julio Berdegué said in a post on X that Mexico is “controlling the isolated case of screwworm in Nuevo Leon,” under measures to fight the pest agreed with the U.S. in August.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Washington will take “decisive measures to protect our borders, even in the absence of cooperation” and said imports on Mexican cattle, bison and horses will remain suspended.
“We will not rely on Mexico to defend our industry, our food supply or our way of life,” she said.
Dozens of cats and one dog died when a fire erupted Sunday morning in an apartment complex in Long Beach.
The Long Beach Fire Department responded to calls of a fire at a three-story apartment building in the 3500 block of Linden Avenue about 7:30 a.m. Firefighters extinguished the flames seven minutes later, Long Beach Fire Capt. Jack Crabtree said. It was not immediately clear how long the fire burned before firefighters were able to tackle it.
In all, 32 cats and one dog succumbed to the fire. The resident of the apartment was not home at the time. She told authorities that the animals did not belong to her and were planned for adoption, Crabtree said.
Residents said that smoke spilled into the apartment building’s hallway. The fire was contained to the single apartment unit, which was significantly damaged. No other occupants were affected.
The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, Crabtree said.
Long Beach Animal Services, which Crabtree said assisted and handled the animals after the fire was put out, was not available for comment on whether there were other animals inside the unit that were saved.
It was not clear how old the animals were. The city of Long Beach allows no more than four weaned pets at one site, with some exceptions.
