This article titled “Customs officers in Thailand find tiger cub hidden in bag of cuddly toys” was written by Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent, for The Guardian on Thursday 26th August 2010 22.31 UTC

Customs officers at Bangkok airport in Thailand have discovered a drugged tiger cub in a check-in bag filled with stuffed animal toys.

An X-ray revealed the animal’s beating heart and other functioning organs inside the oversized luggage of a 31-year-old Thai woman who was due to board a plane to Iran.

Experts were called to inspect what was at first believed to be a sedated cat, but was later identified as an endangered tiger cub. In a botched attempt to conceal the animal, all the other cuddly toys in the bag were artificial stuffed tigers.

DNA checks are under way to determine if the cub was caught in the wild or captive-bred, and its origin. Traffic, the anti-smuggling organisation that has been working with the Thai authorities to stop the wildlife trade, applauded the work of the customs officials, but warned that the case showed the need for constant monitoring and tougher sentencing.

“If people are trying to smuggle live tigers in their check-in luggage, they obviously think wildlife smuggling is something easy to get away with and do not fear reprimand,” said Chris R Shepherd, Traffic south-east Asia’s deputy regional director. “Only sustained pressure on wildlife traffickers and serious penalties can change that.”

The cub is being cared for at the rescue centre of the department of national parks, wildlife and plant conservation.

The woman, whose name has not been released, is being interrogated by police about the cub’s final destination.

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This article titled “Owners of chain-store rabbit hutches could be breaking the law, charity warns” was written by Rebecca Smithers, consumer affairs correspondent, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 11th August 2010 14.14 UTC

Rabbit hutches sold by Britain’s largest retail chains are so small that they are tantamount to animal cruelty and could cause owners to inadvertently break the law, an animal welfare charity warned today.

With greater numbers of rabbits being sold as children’s pets during the school holidays, the Rabbit Welfare Association & Fund (RWAF) urged retailers to improve their hutches.

Britain’s largest specialist rabbit welfare charity, the RWAF said Argos and Homebase, for example, both sold a £70 hutch that is only 77cm long but is marketed as big enough to allow rabbits to “stretch on their hind legs and run freely”.

The charity said the hutch was barely half the size recommended for laboratory rabbits kept for experiments, while four separate hutches in the Argos range were smaller than the minimum for lab rabbits.

The RWAF said this was hypocritical because Argos had earned “cruelty-free” status from the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.

Laboratory rabbits spend a relatively small amount of time in hutches, but domestic rabbits may live in theirs for up to 12 years. Any hutch smaller than 122cm x 45cm (4ft x 1ft approximately) gives a floor area below the minimum requirement for laboratory rabbits.

Rae Todd, of the RWAF, said: “Pet rabbits can live in hutches provided they’re big enough for rabbits to hop around, stretch and jump up, and as long as they’re attached to a permanent exercise area.

“But keeping rabbits cooped up alone in hutches of the type sold by these big retail chains is just tantamount to cruelty.”

There is no legal minimum size for a hutch, but the Animal Welfare Act makes it a legal obligation for owners to provide for the needs of their pets, including somewhere suitable to live, the ability to express normal behaviour and being housed with (or apart from) other animals.

The RWAF said rabbit owners cannot meet these legal obligations if they keep their rabbit alone in a hutch. It added that a hutch should only ever be a shelter as part of a larger living area, and never the sole accommodation.

“A traditional hutch and run isn’t the only way to keep pet rabbits humanely,” Todd said. “Many people find it easier to adapt a garden shed as rabbit accommodation, build an attractive garden feature from a converted aviary or child’s wendy house or keep them indoors, house trained.”

She said the organisation had sent Argos an 11-page review of its product range in April, but had received “only a standard reply – which was very disappointing”.

The Home Retail Group, of which Argos and Homebase are members, said it was committed to being a responsible retailer. A statement said: “The RSCPA has advised that it has no current recommendation for the size of a hutch for a single rabbit. In our autumn/winter catalogue we do make it clear that hutches should be used in conjunction with a run, we will be amending the website to that effect. We also offer a discount on a run if purchased in conjunction with selected rabbit hutches.”

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This article titled “Hunting the Humpbacks” was written by Matthew Weaver, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 19th November 2007 12.13 UTC

Japan’s decision to go after humpback whales prompts the British press to go after the Japanese.

Despite an international moratorium, a whaling fleet is heading for the Antarctic to catch a quota of 50 humpbacks under the guise of “scientific research”.

The Independent describes this excuse as a “risible fiction believed by no one outside of Japan, as the meat from the kills is sold on the open market”. The paper reminds us that the humpback was saved from extinction in 1963.

The Indy predicts new clashes at sea between conservationists and Japanese whalers of the kind not seen since the 1970s and 80s. The environment editor Michael McCarthy makes it clear which side he is on: “The fact that Japanese whalers now want to fire explosive harpoons into one of the world’s most wonderful animals strikes me as barbaric in the extreme.”

Under the headline “Save the Whale, Again”, the front of the paper carries a picture of a humpback leaping out of the water. McCarthy describes witnessing such a leap on a holiday in Cape Cod. “It was an unforgettable spectacle from an unforgettable creature,” he says.

The Times covers the same story in a more traditional, balanced way, which seems po faced compared to the Independent’s tone. “The whaling debate consistently places Japan on the receiving end of emotional condemnation,” it says.

Putting the other side of the argument, it says: “Japan, which defends whaling as a cultural tradition, argues that stocks can survive the size of cull it is planning”. It reckons Japanese support for whaling stems from “a horror of being dictated to by the outside world”.

The irony, for the Independent, is that “as Japan’s dwindling band of whalemeat eaters will tell you, humpback doesn’t even taste very good”.

This is an edited extract from the Wrap, our digest of the daily papers.

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