The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "breed" ...
-
For-Profit-College Business Model Breeds Exploitative Marketing Tactics
In the first radio piece: Interviews with former recruiters, faculty, administrators and students of a small group of for-profit colleges in Minnesota paint a picture of schools that are exploiting unsophisticated students for their financial-aid money. Analysis points to a high-enrollment, high-dropout business model that earns the company millions but provides questionable return on taxpayer investment. In the second radio piece: Political differences at the federal level make it unclear how much the government will regulate for-profit colleges. At the Minnesota state level, the leading official for higher-ed says his agency doesn’t have the resources to go after problem colleges – and isn’t sure whether beefing up enforcement would be the best use of higher-education funding.
Tags: Non-profit colleges; financial aid; business models; for-profit colleges
-
Glamour Beasts: The dark side of elephant captivity
The zoo industry claims that elephants are thriving inside U.S. zoos. But that’s not true. It never has been. The Times found that elephants are dying out inside zoos. For every elephant born, on average two others die. Just 288 elephants are left inside 78 accredited U.S. zoos. Captive elephants may be demographically extinct within 50 years – there won’t be enough females left to breed. The Times conducted a first-of-its-kind analysis of 390 elephant fatalities for the past 50 years. In a desperate race to make more baby elephants, Seattle’s Woodland Park has tried to artificially inseminate their Asian elephant, Chai, at least 112 times, sometimes adopting crude and reckless procedures. As nearly two dozen zoos have shutdown or plan to close elephant exhibits, nonprofit sanctuaries with thousands of acres represent one option for retired or unwanted elephants. But a zoo industry trade group is fighting a bitter battle to thwart sanctuaries and punish zoos that give up their elephants.
Tags: zoo; elephants; zoo industry
-
"Hounded:Debtors and the new breed of collectors"
In this series, reporters Chris Serres and Glenn Howatt reveal how debt collection has become a "profitable industry." In additional to missteps taken by collection agencies, this series also reveals how people are being arrested for failing to pay bills. Their bail has often been set at the exact amount of the debt that they owe.
-
Puppy Pipeline
The Post tracked a puppy mill pipeline stretching from the Ozarks to South Florida, one that brought thousands of sometimes-sick puppies from mass-operations to local pet stores. At least 2,500 puppies were delivered to Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties from out-of-states breeders in an 11-month period. Roughly one in three of those came from breeders or distributors cited for problems by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees wholesale dog breeding. Citations varied from keeping animals in too-small and rusting cages with exposed nails or wires, to caked feces, to infestations of roaches and other insects that covered the walls and ceilings of kennels. In dozens of cases, kennel owners averted USDA inspection entirely.
Tags: puppy mill; puppies; USDA; dog breeder; breeding; Department of Agriculture; animal mistreatment
-
Pet Breeding in Central Minnesota
"The stories found that kennels often had repeated violations, their operators frequently failed to notify buyers of their rights, as required by law, and that local counties only recently began to require permits to operate a breeding operation. The stories found that some breeders don't have the permits required to operate their breeding facilities."
Tags: dog; breeding; permits; regulations; breeding operations; operators
-
Faith in Arlan Galbraith, Onario's Pigeon King
The reporters investigated a pigeon breeding business that some people think is a Ponzi scheme. The business, Pigeon King International, is not transparent about its investors or the debt it owes to them.
Tags: business; pyramid scheme; birds; pigeon; investment
-
In Iowa Meat Plant, Kosher 'Jungle' Breeds Fear; Injury, Short Pay
Nathaniel Popper, reporting for the Forward (NY) investigated a Kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, where he uncovered dangerous working conditions, low pay, and anti-unionization pressures that raised questions about the ethics of the Jewish owners of the plant towards their largely immigrant workers.
Tags: Agriprocessors; Occupational Safety and Health Administration; slaughterhouse workers; Latin American immigrants; accidental amputations; Postville, Iowa; union "devils"; animal rights group; health and safety violations; Conservative Jewish synagogue movement; Kosher certification; Orthodox Judaism; immigration authorities; ethics; United Food and Commercial Workers; Father Floyd Paul Ouderkirk; Sholom Rubashkin; Caitlin Didier; Lubavitch Hasidim; Stephen Bloom; "Postville"; PETA; undocumented immigrants; Human Rights Watch; Rabbi Morris Allen; Rabbinical Council of America; Orthodox Union
-
Puppy Heartbreak
The website for South-Flordia's Wizard of Claws was known for selling dogs to celebrities along with many other customers, claiming its dogs to be of the best quality. But the dogs people received were very sick and unhealthy, some even dying. Some of the dogs were traced back to the "puppy mills" of the Midwest, where animals are poorly bred under even worse conditions
Tags: Wizard of Claws; puppy mill; pet store; dog; puppy; animal cruelty; breed
-
Parrots in Peril
This package of stories exposed cruel and unsanitary conditions and practices in the parrot-breeding industry. A parrot breeding facility in Pierce County, Washington, had many birds that were dying of malnutrition, and the local humane society did not act despite having proof of cruelty. The story showed that substandard, giant factory farms are common in the pet bird industry, and that such conditions could lead to outbreaks of diseases such as avian flu.
Tags: animals; pets; parrots; birds; avian flu; humane society; animal cruelty; factory farms; breeding
-
Indian Givers
Without permission, an ASU research project used blood obtained from a local Indian tribe years earlier for a new project which detailed their genetic origins and showed links to schizophrenia. This investigation shows how that project was misleading to the tribe and also how it was insulting and against tribe religious belief.
Tags: Indian; Native American; scam; incest; breeding; medical; research; Arizona State University; Havasupai; blood; anthropology