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Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Giant Anaconda Terrifies Woman In Boat
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Why Did the Cat Sit in the Circle? No Idea, Say Dumbfounded Vets, But This is One Trick That Even the Stupidest Pet Can Pull Off
Cat Circles, where cats are drawn to a makeshift circle, sit down in the middle of it and then refuse to move, are being recreated all over the world by plain old moggies who seemingly can't pass by a circle without being irresistibly drawn to it.
Hundreds of web users, mainly on Reddit and Imgur, are posting pictures of their successful feats, while vets and pet psychologists remain stumped.
To read more on this story, click here: Why Did the Cat Sit in the Circle?
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Shelter Pets More Popular Than Ever
The PetSmart Charities 2014 U.S. Shelter Pet Report finds that 66 percent of people considering bringing home a new pet say they would adopt their new furry friend instead of going to a breeder or other source. That's up from 58 percent in 2011.
Spaying and neutering is also on the rise. Eighty-six percent of pets are now spayed or neutered, up from 80 percent in 2009.
Put those figures together with increased pet ownership -- the report finds 81 percent of households now have a cat or dog (or both), up from 60 percent in 2009 -- and they amount to a real boon for homeless pets.
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Virginia Rescue Organization Taking in Dogs from Thailand
According to A Forever Home Rescue Foundation (AFH), volunteers will bring four of the dogs to the U.S. Another dog will follow with a flight volunteer on Nov. 23.
To read more on this story, click here: Virginia Rescue Organization Taking in Dogs from Thailand
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Pit Bull Saves Owner's Life, Proves Dogs Are Part Of The Family
In late October, Tiger's adopted dad of 10 years, Todd Kibbey, passed out on the front porch of their Toledo, Ohio home.
Tiger then walked to a nearby house, where he cried until catching neighbor Tami Michalak's attention, according to Toledo News Now.
To read more on this story, click here: Pit Bull Saves Owner's Life, Proves Dogs Are Part Of The Family
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Tuesday, November 4, 2014
This Robotic Penguin Chick is Doing Undercover Work in Antarctica
Researchers report in Nature Methods that they've created a new tool for penguin research: A furry fake penguin perched atop a remote-controlled rover.
To read more on this story, click here: This Robotic Penguin Chick is Doing Undercover Work in Antarctica
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Three Critical Problems With The Kennel Cough Vaccine (And What You Need to do About Them)
When your dog’s daycare, training facility or kennel asks for a kennel cough vaccine, you vaccinate your dog … am I right?
And why wouldn’t you? You want to protect your dog (and other dogs) from illness and you trust your vet or daycare provider to have your dog’s best interests at heart, like any caring dog lover would.
But I’m here to tell you some things that will make you question whether the kennel cough vaccines your dog has been getting are actually in his best interests …
To read more on this story, click here: Three Critical Problems With The Kennel Cough Vaccine (And What You Need to do About Them)
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Monday, November 3, 2014
Meet Roomba, An Orphaned Kitten Thinks She's a Dog After Being Brought Up by an Irish Wolfhound
Roomba, a tiny 13 week-old stray, was found abandoned in a ditch when she was just three days old after her mother was run over and killed by a car.
She was taken in by Annie Georgeson, of Dibden, near Southampton, Hampshire, and the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Aoife the wolfhound.
Roomba, named after a brand of automatic vacuum cleaner which changes direction when it hits a wall, now follows Aoife everywhere and loves snuggling up to her surrogate mother.
Retired, Ms. Georgeson says little Roomba, who has sight problems, quickly became firm friends with her two wolfhounds, six-year-old Aiofe, and male Ohno, three.
She said: "She does all sorts of funny things like crawl in between the wolfhounds and you will just see a bit of cat poking out.
Roomba also rolls over with the dogs when they do and loves being with them."
Sarah Mills, manager at All Animal Rescue, which first took Roomba in when she was found, said: "It's a very, very unusual situation. Annie fosters animals for us and Aiofe usually wants to eat cats, but she's taken an extraordinary liking to Roomba.
Even Ohno will put up with anything from Roomba.
It seems like her vulnerability has brought out an amazing maternal instinct in the dogs and they treat her like own of their own.
Aiofe grooms Roomba and cleans her and Roomba does the same back to Aiofe.
Now Roomba is becoming more and more dog like. She runs to the door to greet people with the dogs, she eats the same food at the same time out of the same bowl and she follows the same routine.
The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was this Irish wolfhound so I guess she thinks she's a dog. She loves being around them."
Ms. Milles, 31, added: "By rights she should have died but she's a fighter and obviously thought "I will beat this.
She's a little trooper and has fought tooth and nail to survive.
She's a superstar and just loves the dogs."
Roomba is looking for a permanent home and, although she loves dogs, is scared of children, probably due to her vision problems. She would need a quiet and calm home to live in.
The other two cats from the same litter as her have already been homed.
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Dog Helps Police Catch Car Thief
The incident happened around 11:30 a.m. along the 2400 block of Tilden Park. Police say that someone called police to report that a man had just stolen a brand-new Mercedes Benz right off of a cargo truck.
Officer soon arrived at the scene and spotted the car. Police say that the suspected thief – identified as 19-year-old Peter Arquiaga – then ditched the car and ran.
Arquiaga is said to have jumped a few fences to try and get away from police. But, Arquiaga eventually landed into the backyard with Monster. The dog apparently didn’t like Arquiaga’s intrusion and immediately started biting him, police say.
Monster’s owner soon came out and got the dog off of Arquiaga so that officers could take him into custody.
Arquiaga is first being taken to a hospital before he’ll be booked. He is facing stolen auto, possession of stolen property, resisting arrest and numerous other traffic charges, police say.
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Sunday, November 2, 2014
The Lie at the Heart of the Killing - The Myth Pet Overpopulation
But is pet overpopulation real? And are shelters doing all they can to save lives? If you believe the Humane Society of the United States, the American Humane Association, the ASPCA and PETA the answer to both those questions is “yes,” even though that answer flies in the face of the data and experience. It is simply “received” rather than substantiated wisdom. To adherents of the “we have no choice but to kill because of pet overpopulation” school, pet overpopulation is real because animals are being killed, a logical fallacy based on backwards reasoning and circular illogic. In other words, data, analysis and experience—in short, evidence—have no place. Neither do ethics.
To read more on this story, click here: The Lie at the Heart of the Killing - The Myth Pet Overpopulation
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Watch: Colbert Skewers NRA For Killing Bill That Would Have Banned Eating Dogs And Cats
Last night, Stephen Colbert explained why the NRA killed a Pennsylvania bill that would have banned the eating of dogs and cats.
“The kitten-coddlers out there don’t want you to eat your pets,” Colbert told his audience. “‘That’s illegal,’ they say. But not everywhere because you can have a dog for dinner in Pennsylvania thanks to the NRA.”
To read more on this story, click here: Watch: Colbert Skewers NRA For Killing Bill That Would Have Banned Eating Dogs And Cats
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Meet The Man Who Sleeps With Moose
“His kisses are very wet. They’re intense,” is one of the
first things Leffe Lindh says to me as he shows me a photograph of himself
smooching his favorite moose on the lips.
He was introduced to me as “the man who sleeps with moose.”
I just didn’t know what to make of that, or where to even begin asking him
questions.
It turned out I didn’t have to. The moment we began
chatting, he was perfectly forthcoming with the entire story.
Lindh began caring for and raising moose in the small town
of Gardsjo in Sweden, 185 miles from Stockholm, more than two decades ago.
Today he owns and operates the Gardsjo Moose Park,
a sanctuary where visitors can get up close and personal with the wild
creatures.
Last year he began allowing overnight guests to actually
sleep within the moose park. For a rate of 500 euros a night, visitors can stay
right in the midst of the moose. There is a tall fence surrounding the cottage
to protect guests, but the moose mosey right up to it. Moose can jump up to 6
feet and run more than 35 miles an hour, so it is best if the average guest has
a barrier. The small cabin can sleep five people very snugly, two comfortably.
There is no television, no Wi-Fi and no mobile connection. Guests can leave
only when Lindh comes to fetch them.
Moose are elusive. Though the moose population in Sweden is
approximately 300,000, it is rare for a visitor to actually see the creatures,
much less have any kind of interaction with them.
Lindh has tried to change that.
Bats Are the World's Worst Ebola Outbreak: Prime Suspects for Spreading the Deadly Virus to Humans
Bats are living up to their frightening reputation in the
world's worst Ebola outbreak as prime suspects for spreading the deadly virus
to humans, but scientists believe they may also shed valuable light on fighting
infection.
Bats can carry more than 100 different viruses, including
Ebola, rabies and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), without becoming
sick themselves.
While that makes them a fearsome reservoir of disease,
especially in the forests of Africa where they migrate vast distances, it also
opens the intriguing possibility that scientists might learn their trick in
keeping killers like Ebola at bay.
"If we can understand how they do it then that could
lead to better ways to treat infections that are highly lethal in people and
other mammals," said Olivier Restif, a researcher at the University of
Cambridge in Britain.
Clues are starting to emerge following gene analysis, which
suggest bats' capacity to evade Ebola could be linked with their other
stand-out ability -- the power of flight.
Flying requires the bat metabolism to run at a very high
rate, causing stress and potential cell damage, and experts think bats may have
developed a mechanism to limit this damage by having parts of their immune
system permanently switched on.
The threat to humans from bats comes en route to the dinner
plate. Bushmeat -- from bats to antelopes, squirrels, porcupines and monkeys --
has long held pride of place on menus in West and Central Africa. The danger of
contracting Ebola lies in exposure to infected blood in the killing and
preparation of animals.
NATURAL HOSTS
Scientists studying Ebola since its discovery in 1976 in
Democratic Republic of Congo, then Zaire, have long suspected fruit bats as
being the natural hosts, though the link to humans is sometimes indirect as
fruit dropped by infected bats can easily be picked up by other species,
spreading the virus to animals such as monkeys.
This nexus of infection in wildlife leads to sporadic Ebola
outbreaks following human contact with blood or other infected animal fluids.
This no doubt happened in the current outbreak, although the
scale of the crisis now gripping Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, which has
killed around 5,000 people, reflects subsequent public health failures.
"What is happening now is a public health disaster
rather than a problem of wildlife management," said Marcus Rowcliffe at
the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which runs London Zoo.
Bats' role in spreading Ebola is probably a function both of
their huge numbers, where they rank second only to rodents among mammals in the
world, as well as their unusual immune system, according to Michelle Baker of
the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia's
national science agency.
Baker, who is intrigued by bats' ability to live in
"equilibrium" with viruses, published a paper with colleagues in the
journal Nature last year looking at bat genomes. They found an unexpected
concentration of genes for repairing DNA damage, hinting at a link between
flying and immunity.
"(This) raises the interesting possibility that
flight-induced adaptations have had inadvertent effects on bat immune function
and possibly also life expectancy," they wrote.
UNDERSTANDING BATS
As well as tolerating viruses, bats are also amazingly
long-lived. The tiny Brandt's bat, a resident of Europe and Asia, has been
recorded living for more than 40 years, even though it is barely the size of a
mouse. Bats also rarely get cancer.
"We are just at the beginning," Baker said in a
telephone interview. "But if we can understand how bats are dealing with
these viruses and if we can redirect the immune system of other species to
react in the same way, then that could be a potential therapeutic
approach."
It won't be easy. Turning on components of the immune system
can bring its own health problems, but the idea -- which has yet to get beyond
the basic research stage -- is to turn up certain elements to achieve a better
balance.
One reason why Ebola is so deadly to people is that the
virus attacks the immune system and when the system finally comes back it goes
into over-drive, causing extra damage.
Ebola works in part by blocking interferon, an anti-virus
molecule, which Baker has found to be "up-regulated", meaning it is
found in higher levels, in bats.
VENISON, WITH WINGS
The bat immune system may or may not lead to new drugs one
day. Still, experts argue there are plenty of other reasons to cherish bats,
which also play a vital role in pollination and controlling insect pests.
They are also a traditional source of protein in West
Africa, often served in a spicy stew, and restrictions on bushmeat consumption
are now contributing to food shortages in parts of West Africa, according to the
International Food Policy Research Institute.
Hunting and butchering bats may be risky but cooking is
thought to make them safe. The World Health Organization advises animals should
be handled with "gloves and other appropriate protective clothing" and
meat should be "thoroughly cooked".
"In the long run it would be sensible to see people
moving away from hunting bats but in the short term they provide an important
source of food," said Rowcliffe of ZSL.
"Essentially, wild meat is a good, healthy product.
People in Britain eat venison and rabbit, and in many ways it's no different to
that."
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These Pilots Fly At-Risk Dogs To Safe Havens Every Weekend
This past weekend, four planes and five volunteer pilots moved 15 dogs from a West Virginian facility where the pups' time was up to a Pennsylvania nonprofit shelter that doesn't euthanize for space. A 16th dog was flown to a rescue group in Pittsburgh.
To read more on this story, click here: These Pilots Fly At-Risk Dogs To Safe Havens Every Weekend
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