Veronika Wild

  -Image by Copilot Thank you to Domenic Dyer and A Humane World for Animals  who alerted me to most of these.   Wins for Cats and Dogs As of June 2025, the European Union has passed strong laws to ensure better treatment of domestic animals -particularly cats and dogs, and to harmonise laws right across the European Union, particularly targeting unregulated breeding, puppy mills , online sales, non -essential surgeries on animals and other regulations such as breeding for looks. By way of example, dogs such as pugs and bulldogs shouldn’t be bred to enhance their brachycephalic features -their pushed in faces and shortened skulls, since these often result in breathing difficulties. Leaving dogs on chains for long periods or using choke or pronged collars are also being heavily restricted. Clear and uniform standards have been set with respect to how and how often female animals may be bred and every cat or dog sold, adopted or moved across borders must be microchipped an...

Moon Jellyfish - an  Aurelia species.   Although I had never seen these before, they are apparently common in other parts of the world too. Those in the picture were photographed at the Red Sea, my cousin said she had encountered them in Italy  -Alexander Vasenin , CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons There must be a Jellyfish Convention going on in Tasmania. On the news a few nights ago there were warnings about "Blue Bottles" – Portuguese Man - O’ -War jellyfish, along the coast, especially in the north of the state. The next day was rather hot so I went to my favourite swimming spot, looked around and seeing no Blue Bottles, I jumped straight in. The weather was perfect, the sea was calm, but suddenly I found myself surrounded by jellyfish, though thankfully not Blue Bottles. These were what the locals call Moon Jellyfish an Aurelia species which are not supposed to be harmful, though some people may be allergic and they do have some cousins which aren’t so...