Don Lichterman

Bears, Rescue Network, SAN News / /

Good Morning from the Bears: Life at FOUR PAWS’ Sanctuaries in Bulgaria and Germany Read More »

Bears, Rescue Network, SAN News

Good Morning from the Bears: Life at FOUR PAWS’ Sanctuaries in Bulgaria and Germany

There is something clarifying about the early morning at BEAR SANCTUARY Belitsa. The Rila Mountains in southwest Bulgaria are still cool at that hour, the light coming soft through the dense forest that covers the 120,000 square meters of sanctuary terrain, and somewhere in the landscape, the bears are beginning to stir. By the time

Animals & Wildlife Welfare, Rescue Network, SAN News, Tigers / /

One Mission, Lasting Impact: How FOUR PAWS Is Changing What Captive Big Cat Welfare Looks Like in Malta Read More »

Animals & Wildlife Welfare, Rescue Network, SAN News, Tigers

One Mission, Lasting Impact: How FOUR PAWS Is Changing What Captive Big Cat Welfare Looks Like in Malta

A small island nation in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea is not the most obvious place to look for a turning point in the global fight for big cat welfare. Malta is one of the smallest countries in the European Union, a densely populated archipelago covering less than 122 square miles, better known for

Death Penalty, SAN News / /

Florida Executed a 74-Year-Old Veteran Who Fed Squirrels and Watched for Eagles. We Should Not Have Let This Happen. Read More »

Death Penalty, SAN News

Florida Executed a 74-Year-Old Veteran Who Fed Squirrels and Watched for Eagles. We Should Not Have Let This Happen.

On the night of July 14, 2026, the State of Florida executed Dennis Sochor. He was 74 years old. He was a United States Army veteran. He had spent forty years on death row, which means he had spent the substantial majority of his adult life inside Florida State Prison, waiting to find out whether

Animals & Wildlife Welfare, SAN News / /

Animals Lose Everything in a Laboratory. The Science Agrees It’s Time to End This. Read More »

Animals & Wildlife Welfare, SAN News

Animals Lose Everything in a Laboratory. The Science Agrees It’s Time to End This.

When an animal enters a research laboratory, everything that defined its existence before that moment is taken away. The family it was part of — or the family it would have had, if it had not been bred into captivity specifically for this purpose. The freedom to move, to choose, to follow its instincts, to

Rescue Network, Animals & Wildlife Welfare, SAN News / /

The Tiny House Sanctuary Saving the Deep South’s Most Forgotten Animals Read More »

Rescue Network, Animals & Wildlife Welfare, SAN News

The Tiny House Sanctuary Saving the Deep South’s Most Forgotten Animals

Most people who think about animal rescue in the United States picture a shelter — rows of kennels, concrete floors, chain-link gates, the particular institutional smell that no amount of cleaning fully eliminates. They picture animals in individual enclosures, waiting in isolation for a visitor who may or may not come, in a setting that

SAN News, Rescue Network / /

From Under a Shed to the Edge of the Wild: The Fox Cubs Are Ready to Go Home Read More »

SAN News, Rescue Network

From Under a Shed to the Edge of the Wild: The Fox Cubs Are Ready to Go Home

The last time most people following the Wildlife Aid Foundation’s work heard about these fox cubs, they were tiny. Newborn-fragile, eyes barely open, discovered huddled beneath a garden shed after their mother had died — a litter of orphaned cubs who had no way of surviving without immediate human intervention and no way of knowing

Lions, Rescue Network, SAN News / /

Happy 7th Birthday, Romanian Five: The Story of Five Lions Who Made It All the Way from a Romanian Backyard to South Africa Read More »

Lions, Rescue Network, SAN News

Happy 7th Birthday, Romanian Five: The Story of Five Lions Who Made It All the Way from a Romanian Backyard to South Africa

Today is a birthday worth celebrating — and not simply because birthdays are worth celebrating in general, but because the fact that Roman, Vincent, Dolf, Ellie, and Geena are alive, together, healthy, and marking their seventh year under the South African sun at LIONSROCK Big Cat Sanctuary is the outcome of a rescue effort that,

Lions, Rescue Network, SAN News / /

Billy and Tina Were Shipped to Oklahoma in the Dead of Night. The Fight to Free Them Is Louder Than Ever. Read More »

Lions, Rescue Network, SAN News

Billy and Tina Were Shipped to Oklahoma in the Dead of Night. The Fight to Free Them Is Louder Than Ever.

In the early morning hours of May 20, 2025, while Los Angeles was still dark, zoo staff loaded two Asian elephants into transport containers and drove them out of the city before anyone could stop it. Billy, a 40-year-old male who had lived at the Los Angeles Zoo since arriving from Malaysia as a four-year-old

SafariLIVE Sunset, SAN News / /

This Week on SafariLIVE: A Leopard Guards Her Kill, Love in the Air, and Why Africa Is Always Worth Watching Live Read More »

SafariLIVE Sunset, SAN News

This Week on SafariLIVE: A Leopard Guards Her Kill, Love in the Air, and Why Africa Is Always Worth Watching Live

There is a particular quality to late June in the African bush that makes the final days of the month some of the most compelling viewing of the year on SafariLIVE. The winter dry season is well underway across the Sabi Sand Game Reserve in South Africa, and what that means for wildlife is something

Recipes, SAN News / /

The Vegan Chocolate Bark That Will Ruin Every Other Chocolate Dessert for You Read More »

Recipes, SAN News

The Vegan Chocolate Bark That Will Ruin Every Other Chocolate Dessert for You

There is a category of recipe that sounds simple enough to be skeptical of and turns out to be the thing you make every time you need to bring something to a gathering, every time you want a dessert that requires almost no effort and produces results that feel genuinely impressive, and every time you