South Dakota Sets its 2014 Lion Hunting Quotas

Despite arguments by conservationists that South Dakota’s local mountain population was struggling from years of over hunting, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission set the 2014 lion hunting quota Thursday at 50 females or 75 total lions for the Black Hills hunting region.  More here:

http://www.mountainlion.org/newsstory.asp?news_id=1464

Tomorrow is National Feral Cat Day

Tomorrow’s the big day! How are you going to celebrate National Feral Cat Day^®?

With more than 400 events registered nationwide—and with our focus on partnering with shelters to save more cats’ lives—this will be the best National Feral Cat Day^® in history. Don’t miss out on your chance to be part of it!

Here are a few ideas of how you can help build safe communities for cats tomorrow:

• Attend an event near you to show your support for humane cat care.
• Attend our Helping Cats in Your Community Webinar tomorrow at 7 p.m. EDT to learn the basics of Trap-Neuter-Return. If your question is answered during this special National Feral Cat Day^® session, you’ll receive an Alley Cat Allies t-shirt of your choice!
• Share our Facebook posts and retweet our National Feral Cat Day^® tweets!
• Donate to support National Feral Cat Day^® and help protect the lives of cats all year long.
• Find more ideas for how to celebrate the big day on our National Feral Cat Day^®website.

However you decide to improve the lives of cats tomorrow, be sure to let us and the entire National Feral Cat Day^® community know about it. Post about it on Twitter using the hashtag #NFCD2013 and tag us in your Facebook posts. We’ll share some of our favorites!

Sincerely,

Alley Cat Allies

Tramadol Found Naturally in Plant

A team of researchers led by Michel De Waard, INSERM Research Director at the Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences (INSERM, Univ. Joseph Fourier, CNRS), has discovered that an African medicinal plant produces large quantities of molecules with analgesic properties.

Even more surprising, analysis show that the molecule is identical to Tramadol, a wholly synthetic medication that is used world-wide as a painkiller. According to the research team, this is the first time ever that a synthetic medication produced by the pharmaceutical industry has been discovered in strong concentrations in a natural source. This unexpected discovery had just been published in the chemical journal Angewandte Chemie.  Read more:

http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/09/synthetic-drug-found-naturally-plant