Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

Breath samples collected by drone hold clues to health of #NorthAtlanticRightWhales

A newly published study shows the bacteria in the spray from the whales' blowholes can indicate how healthy the individual is.

#Whales #Cetaceans #EndangeredSpecies #Marinelife #Drones

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

According to a new study, the microbes in the blowhole spray of North Atlantic right whales contain health information, including patterns linked to body condition. (NEAq/WHOI, NMFS/NOAA)

Researchers say collecting breath samples by drone is safer and non-invasive, and the whales 'don't seem to notice the drone at all.' (NEAq/WHOI, NMFS/NOAA)

December 1, 2025 at 7:16 PM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

"IF" by Rudyard Kipling

December 1, 2025 at 5:38 PM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

It’s heartbreaking’: how 30 captive beluga whales have become pawns in row over animal cruelty

#Marineland #NiagaraFalls #Ontario #Canada 🇨🇦 #BelugaWhales #Whales #ONpoli #Cdnpoli #AnimalCruelty #Cetaceans #AnimalWelfare #Animals #AnimalRights #AnimalLaw

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

A beluga surfaces to be fed at Marineland on 9 June 2023.
Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock

Beluga whales in Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on 20 July 2012.
Photograph: Tara Walton/Toronto Star/Getty Images

People protest outside Marineland on 20 May 2023.
Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock

November 27, 2025 at 6:34 PM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

#OttawaStrayCatRescue

Get your kitty manicured for the holidays at #FisherGlennAnimalHospital on Dec 4th for FREE & help to save more stray cats...make your reservations by scanning the QR on the poster or by sending an email to: [email protected]
FREE nail trim/by donation

#ONpoli #Cats

Cat Nail Trim Fundraiser
Ottawa, Ontario
Dec 4, 2025
Scan bar code to register.

November 25, 2025 at 11:20 PM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

Why BBC’s Viral “Ethical Dairy” Story Betrays the Animals It Claims to Care About

How feel-good coverage masks the harms of dairy — and distracts from real progress

#UK 🇬🇧 #BBC #EthicalDairy
#Dairy #Milk #Veal #CIWF #Farming #AnimalWelfare #AnimalRights

veganhorizon.substack.com/p/no-bbc-eth...

BBC videographer filming a calf

Image credits: Or Hakim & Andrew Skowron

November 25, 2025 at 9:54 PM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

#PetCHEK: Senior dog Jack, a one-eyed Jack Russell, is a total sweetheart

#BC #Canada 🇨🇦 #BCpoli #Cdnpoli #Dogs #Cats #AdoptDontShop #AnimalRescue #VictoriaHumaneSociety

cheknews.ca/pet-chek-sen...

Pet CHEK host Tess van Straaten with Jack from the Victoria Humane Society.

November 24, 2025 at 5:20 AM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

Cinema Nova, Melbourne
5–6 December
Full program and tickets: alff.org.au

#AnimalRights #AusPolitics #Auspol #FilmFestival #AnimalLiberation #MovieNights #Films #Documentary #PeterSinger #Animations #ShortFilms

3/3 🧵

Animal Liberation Film Festival
5-6 December 2025
Cinema Nova
Ticket Sales at alff.org.au

November 24, 2025 at 1:44 AM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

#ALFF will feature nearly 20 unique films, including documentaries, short films, animations and experimental works.
The festival will be launched by Peter Singer, internationally recognised philosopher and author of Animal Liberation (1975),on Friday night, 5 December.

#AnimalRights #Auspol

2/3 🧵

November 24, 2025 at 1:44 AM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

The Animal Liberation Film Festival (ALFF) is Melbourne’s newest event dedicated to showcasing creative and thought-provoking screen experiences that champion animal rights and inspire #vegan action.

Across two days (5–6 December) at Cinema Nova in Carlton,

#Melbourne #Australia #Auspol

1/3 🧵

November 24, 2025 at 1:44 AM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

Why my business collapsed - and the myth about plant-based food

#Christchurch #NewZealand
#Opinion #FlipGrater #GraterGoods #GGBistro #Plantbased #Food #Vegan #SmallBusinessOwner #NZpol 🇳🇿

www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3608...

Flip Grater, second from left, and her team at GG Bistro shortly before its closure - Gemma Lange (left), Isabelle Ansberry and Karl Yee.
Peter Meecham / The Press

Flip Grater pictured in 2021 at her Vegan Deli, Grater Goods.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON

November 23, 2025 at 11:34 PM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

Never seen a raft this large’: Conservationist thrilled to see large otter raft during Tofino trip

#Tofino #BC #Canada 🇨🇦 #SeaOtters #Wildlife #Marinelife #Conservation #Animals #AnimalRights #Environment #Oceans

cheknews.ca/never-seen-a...

Macaila Wagner says she had "never seen a raft this large" when out on a whale watching trip in Tofino. (Photo courtesy Macaila Wagner)

November 22, 2025 at 8:21 PM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

Stranded whale euthanized after failed rescue attempt off Oregon coast

Young humpback whale was found washed ashore and individuals had rallied together to try to help

#Oregon #USA 🇺🇸 #USpoli #HumpbackWhales #Whales #Cetaceans #Marinelife #AnimalRights #Wildlife

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The stranded humpback whale.
Photograph: Carrie Newell

The stranded humpback whale. Photograph: Jacob Colvin

November 22, 2025 at 3:44 AM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

Urge Your Representatives to End #NIH-Funded Animal Abuse Abroad

Please reach out to your members of #Congress and urge them to cosponsor the #CARGOAct of 2025 (Cease #AnimalResearch Grants Overseas Act of 2025). ⬇️

#AnimalTesting #USpoli 🇺🇸 #AnimalRights

secure.speciesunite.com/page/177080/...

November 22, 2025 at 2:56 AM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

Your doctor could be receiving payments from a drug company. Why won’t anyone tell you?

#Canada 🇨🇦 #Cdnpoli #ONpoli #Physicians #Surgeons #Doctors #MedicalDevices #Health #PharmaceuticalCompanies #PublicAccountability #HealthCare

ijb.utoronto.ca/news/your-do...

Doctors’ professional associations, concerned about the potential for conflict of interest, caution their members about their financial ties to pharmaceutical manufacturers. Photo by Armend NIMANI / AFP

November 21, 2025 at 11:39 PM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

Seal mothers care for deceased pups, exhibiting unique mammalian behavior in Antarctic predator species

#Antarctic #LeopardSeals
#Wildlife #MarineMammals #Marinelife #Science #UniversityOfRhodeIsland

phys.org/news/2025-11...

A new paper by URI two post-doctoral researchers discusses a unique phenomenon observed in a reclusive Antarctic animal: postmortem attentive behavior in the solitary leopard seal; it’s one of the first records of the same individual displaying PAB across multiple years in any mammalian species. Credit: Emily Sperou

November 21, 2025 at 10:31 PM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

Survey Reveals 96% of Consumers Understand “Vegan Sausage” Amid EU Labeling Debate

#EU 🇪🇺 #FoodLabeling #Vegan #Plantbased #Food
#EUParliament #Consumers #Health #Nutrition #Europe

vegconomist.com/studies-numb...

The Vegetarian Butcher product line
© The Vegetarian Butcher

November 21, 2025 at 3:05 AM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

2026 US Government Budget to Streamline Regulatory Pathways for Non-Dairy Infant Formulas

#USA 🇺🇸 #Babies #Infants #Moms #Vegan #Plantbased #Food #InfantFormulas #Health #Family #USpoli #DairyFree #DitchDairy

vegconomist.com/politics-law...

Baby bottle laying on its side
© Else Nutrition

November 21, 2025 at 2:45 AM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

E.U. Scientific Body Finds Fur Farming Incompatible With Animal Welfare

#EU 🇪🇺 #FurFarming #AnimalWelfare #Wildlife #AnimalCruelty #Science #AmericanMinks #RedFoxes #ArcticFoxes #RaccoonDogs #Chinchillas #AnimalRights #Animals

faunalytics.org/e-u-scientif...

Chinchilla in a cage.

Photo by Andrew Skowron/ We Animals

November 21, 2025 at 12:14 AM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

These 4 old-school recipes are disappearing, but they’re the best thing you’ll ever taste

#Food #Vegan #Plantbased #Baking #Cooking #Recipes #HomeCooking #Health #CrueltyFree

vegoutmag.com/recipes/a-th...

Women letting her partner taste test what she is cooking

November 20, 2025 at 11:09 PM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

These rare whales had never been seen alive. Then a team in Mexico sighted two

The search for a ginkgo-toothed beaked whale had taken five years, when a thieving albatross nearly ruined it all

#GinkgoToothedBeakWhales
#Whales #Cetaceans #Oceans #Marinelife

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Until the sightings last year, the only evidence of the existence of the ginkgo-toothed beaked whale had come from a few dead specimens that had washed ashore.
Photograph: Craig Hayslip

Scientists think the ginkgo-toothed beaked whales live off the shores of California and northern Baja California in Mexico.
Photograph: Sergio Martinez

A rare beaked whale found dead on Waitpinga beach in South Australia. Scientists have heard many beaked whales’ calls without a known source.
Photograph: South Australian Museum

A dense-beaked whale, also known as Blainville’s beaked whale. Researchers are trying to build maps of the deep-diving whales’ distribution from acoustic data.
Photograph: Minden /Alamy

November 19, 2025 at 4:17 AM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

‘They don’t belong in Canada,’ Video of African Lion Safari’s elephants playing in snow sparks welfare concerns

#Cambridge #Ontario #Canada 🇨🇦 #ONpoli #Cdnpoli #Elephants #Zoos
#AfricanLionSafari #Wildlife #AnimalWelfare #AnimalCruelty #AnimalRights #BoycottZoos

nowtoronto.com/news/video-o...

A video posted by the Hamilton-based park African Lion Safari shows multiple elephants trudging back and forth in the snow. (Courtesy: africanlionsafari1969/TikTok)

November 18, 2025 at 10:00 PM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

B.C. wolves use line to pull up crab traps in first possible tool use by species 🎥

#BellaBella #BC #Canada 🇨🇦 #Wolves #SeaWolves #BCpoli #Cdnpoli #Wildlife #Science #Animals #Nature #Oceans #Marinelife

cheknews.ca/b-c-wolves-u...

A sea wolf is captured on video, in this handout still image, near Bella Bella, B.C., extracting a submerged crab trap using a buoy and an attached line, in what researchers are calling the first evidence of possible tool-use by the wild animal species. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Kyle Artelle (Mandatory Credit)

November 18, 2025 at 8:20 AM

R. Brassard Ⓥ

@veganrick.bsky.social

#Winnipeg couple plead guilty to #AnimalCruelty after killing cats, birds, axolotl for videos they sold
Animals killed include more than 60 cats, as well as rabbits, hamsters, rats, frog: prosecutor 🎥

#Manitoba #Canada #MBpoli #Cdnpoli #Crime #AnimalWelfare #AnimalRights

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...