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PHOTOGRAPH BY JO-ANNE MCARTHUR, WE ANIMALS MEDIA
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The pork industry’s reckoning: In 2018 Californians voted to ban the sale of meat from pigs born to sows born who spent their pregnancy in tiny crates, a move that has ripple effects for pork producers nationwide, Natasha Daly reports. The law is set to go into effect in January, which means the industry—much of which is opposed to it—is running out of time to comply. About 125 million pigs are slaughtered for meat in the U.S. annually. (Pictured above, pigs arrive at a slaughterhouse in Los Angeles in 2019.)
Not just any turtle egg: Tens of millions of years ago, the turtle that laid this egg had a shell that was as long as a person is tall. At first researchers thought the billiard ball-size egg belonged to a dinosaur, but Maya Wei-Haas writes how they discovered, entombed in the egg’s rocky confines, the remains of a long-extinct turtle.
Ew! You don’t see ice worms often. About a half-inch long and thin as dental floss, they live inside glaciers, until they emerge en masse, slithering atop the snow and ice. As glaciers melt, scientists seek to understand how these worms thrive in freezing conditions, Douglas Main writes. See the worms!
Calls for help: With the CDC’s eviction moratorium ending October 3, animal welfare advocates fear that families will be displaced, sending many pets into limbo, too. Animal shelters already are full, the Washington Post reports.
Incredible shrinking animals: Animals across the world are shrinking in size, and research suggests climate change is to blame. These changes might make animals more susceptible to predation, producing fewer offspring, and drying out in droughts, Vox reports. These changes could eventually push some species closer to extinction.
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