ANIMAL DEFENDERS

A sloth is saved from a likely ugly death on the road by a kind-hearted man. He waves a goodbye to his saviour.

TONY DUNNELL—For about three years, a black mongrel named Malchik lived in the Mendeleyevskaya Station of the Moscow Metro. After a 22-year-old woman stabbed him to death, Moscow was outraged, and later erected a monument to the poor pooch.

LAURA GOLDMAN—It’s also a very good sign that the Cantor’s giant softshell turtle is making a comeback. These freshwater turtles, native to southeast Asia, are also known as frog-face turtles because of their appearance. The turtles were popular targets of local hunters, who believed that eating their meat could cure various illnesses.In 2003, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified the species as endangered. Because of no sightings, they believed that these turtles had perhaps gone extinct. But four years later, a team from the nonprofit Conservation International discovered a mother Cantor’s giant softshell turtle, according to Mekong Commons.

ROBERT HUNZIKER—Bavarians will implement a sweeping set of conservation measures, including: (1) Setting aside 13% of state land in special ecological zones, inclusive of ecosystem infrastructure of hedgerows, meadows, and wetlands (2) Organic agriculture must be practiced in 1/3rd of Bavarian farmland as well as cutting out fertilizers on all state-owned farms to reduce nitrogen pollution (3) Protection of wetlands, waterways, and threatened insect populations by eliminating insecticides as much as possible.