. . . some of them, anyway. The Rainbow Grocery Co-op is the first San Francisco-based store to announce that it will exclusively carry cage-free eggs. The news was spread by animal advocacy group East Bay Animal Advocates, whose mission is more or less to create humane conditions for animals within the agriculture industry. more ›

An elderly Novato animal lover was sent to jail after getting in a fight with a trapper over a skunk. (Skunk pictured above, from CBS 5). The 82-year-old man and his wife were trying to release a skunk that the property owner had trapped. Unfortunately, a county trapper was also there. The trapper, there with his son, shouted, "Do not release the skunk, sir!", at which point he claims the man charged him. The trapper's son admits to tackling the activist in a bearhug, but says he only did it after the activist tried to take his father's gun. The trapper says after they let the activist up, he then tried to run them over with his car. The activist says he was attacked and are looking to press charges against the trapper. Does this seem vaguely like a Pepe LePew plot to anyone else? ABC 7, meanwhile, is proudly touting its coverage of cruelty to chickens through the use of "battery cages," in which up to 10 hens are squeezed into a single cage. After they aired footage taped by the East Bay Animal Advocates, Trader Joe's has agreed to stop selling battery-cage eggs under its own name (though it'll continue to sell battery-cage eggs from other producers), and the Humane Society has filed a lawsuit against the State of California, claiming that public funds were illegally used to promote battery-caging in general. ....and someone in Pleasanton saw two great horned owls going at it. Birds do it, bees do it: owlets should emerge in about a month. more ›

Options for vegetarians and vegans this Thanksgiving, plus a little wake-up call about so-called free-range turkeys. more ›