A California sea lion pup was
rescued after it was seen roving around San Francisco on Thursday, giving new
meaning to the term 'trash collection.'
'Rubbish' the pup was saved in
the Marina neighborhood by police and officials from the Marine Mammal Center,
the center said in a news release.
The retrieval took place around
7:00 a.m., after Rubbish was earlier spied hiding under a car, center officials
said.
The Marine Mammal Center's Dr.
Shawn Johnson told KGO 'Luckily the San Francisco Police Department had stopped
traffic around him and was protecting him until we got there.'
According to KRON, the rescue
attempt took around four minutes.
Rubbish was delivered to the
Marine Mammal Center, where Johnson figured out the pup had spent time there
before, center officials said.
Johnson told KGO: 'He was
rescued in Santa Barbara County in February and brought up here for
rehabilitation. He was here at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito for nearly
two months.'
The person who first reported
Rubbish gave him his name, center officials explained.
The center said of the pup's
February rescue: 'Rubbish was eight months old and weighed just 30 pounds when
he was rescued.
Veterinary staff and volunteers
at the Center treated him for pneumonia and malnutrition, and helped return him
to a healthy weight.
After gaining 27 pounds, Rubbish
was released at Point Reyes National Seashore on March 23, 2015.
This powerful short film about adoption and abandonment is
so hard-hitting that it really deserves a warning about what irresponsibility
and cruelty can do to living beings. It
is set to music, and is able to tell a story without any dialogue, that will
stay with you forever.
It tells the story of a very normal looking family who adopt
an adorable little red-haired girl. Over time she does “little girl” things
like fighting with her older (not adopted) sister, spilling a drink, making
messes, interrupting when parents are busy.
We watch the parents get angry and less inclusive of this little girl.
She grows more remote and sad, and acts out more. She has a stuffed doll whose insides she
keeps pulling out. The symbolism is
evident.
What happens next is the father takes her for a ride, and
just when you think he is about to give her the attention she so sorely needs,
the “Gift” (as the film is named) takes a very dark turn. It needs to be watched to the bitter
end. I must say that I was shocked and
really moved by this beautiful little film that manages, without words, to say
everything there needs to be said about the responsibility of adopting both
children and animals. We live in a society that has a throw-away
mentality. We have short attention
spans, and often don’t have the patience nor the commitment to deal with life
when it becomes difficult.
This short film is truly a Gift that should be watched and
watched again.
A plague-infected dog spread the dangerous disease to four
Colorado residents, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Health officials told ABC News that this is the first report
of a dog infecting a human with the plague in the U.S.
The dog, a 2-year-old American pit bull terrier, became sick
last summer with a fever and jaw rigidity, among other symptoms. The dog's
health declined so quickly that it was euthanized the following day at a local
vet's office, health officials said.
Four days later, the dog's owner entered the hospital with a
fever and a bloody cough that became worse over the next few hours, but an
initial blood culture was misidentified, according to the CDC report.
As the patient's symptoms grew worse, the test was redone
and he was found to have been infected with pneumonic plague, according to the
CDC report. The remains of the dog were also tested and were found to be
positive for the plague bacteria.
"Frankly one of the biggest surprises of this outbreak
is the source," said John Douglas of Tri-County Health Department in
Colorado, one of the study authors. "Primarily...dogs don’t get sick at
all or they get a minor illness" after being infected with the plague.
Janine Runfola of the Tri-County Health Department in
Colorado, lead author of the report, explained that cats are more likely to
infect humans with the disease than dogs because they exhibit more symptoms.
"For pneumonic plague a more likely scenario would be
you have a cat [play] with prairie dogs and infected fleas get on the
cat," Runfola said. "The cat gets sick and sneezes and coughs on its
owner."
The dog's owner remained hospitalized for 23 days as he
recovered from the potentially deadly disease, the report said. In addition to
the owner, a close contact of the owner and two veterinary employees who
treated the dog or handled its body also became infected with the plague. All
three were successfully treated with medication after exhibiting symptoms.
The plague is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, and
can infect the body in different ways. For example, a flea bite can lead to
infection of the glands, which is called bubonic plague -- notorious for the
epidemics it spawned during the Middle Ages in Europe. Because this plague was
spread from dog to owner through coughing, it developed into pneumonic plague,
according to Douglas.
The plague is known to be endemic to prairie dogs in the
American Southwest, which can then lead to isolated outbreaks of the disease in
domestic animals or humans.
"Pneumonic plague is the worst form," said
Douglas. "It’s the one that you least want to get. You get sick fast and
the chances of getting a rocky or even fatal course" are increased.
The plague is incredibly rare in the U.S., with an estimated
eight infections in the country reported every year. Douglas said pneumonic
plague is even rarer and accounts for just 3 to 5 percent of plague cases.
Douglas said the case shows the importance of considering
all the options when diagnosing a patient, even extremely rare options like the
plague.
While you would think a place named an “animal sanctuary”
operates as a safe haven for animals, this is not always the case. There are
many amazing animal sanctuaries for formerly abused farm, exotic and domestic
animals, but sadly there are too facilities that operate under the “sanctuary”
guise that exist with the sole purpose of exploiting animals. These false
sanctuaries display wild animals and often charge visitors to interact with them.
On the surface, they may seem like “fun” but more often than not the animals
are starved, abused or drugged in order to render them docile enough to
interact with paying customers.
Unlike these abusive establishments, Big Cat Rescue and the
Center for Great Apes are real sanctuaries for animals. All of the big cats and
chimps who live at these sanctuaries have been rescued from deplorable former
lives and are now allowed to live free from any type of exploitation.
They say a mother’s distress upon seeing her child in danger
can give her the momentary strength to lift a car. And perhaps it was this same
rush of adrenaline that drove Carl Moore as he leapt in to action to save his
dog.
“I raised both hands in the air and I cussed at him” he
said. “He looked at me like go f*** yourself.”
According to Moore, he then charged the bear and delivered a
running right hand to the side of the bear’s head.
“Carl just smacks him. I couldn’t believe it” said his
friend and employee, John Sargent who witnessed the event.
Tyler Silva was also there to see the action unfold and was
shocked by his friend’s actions.
“I know I’ll never see that one again. He definitely
connected. The bear took a breath out like it had been struck in the stomach
and then it took off down the road,” he told the Auburn Journal.
Moore says he boxed competitively in his youth and also saw
his fair share of fights while working as a bouncer but on this occasion, he
says all he was trying to do was protect his dogs.
“The man or beast that I run from ain’t been born ... And
you’re not gonna sacrifice my babies for some damn bear,” he told CBS
Sacramento as he cuddled his pooch.
According to Moore, he heard his dog Lacy whimpering outside
and went to investigate before seeing the black bear approaching the house.
The two witnesses were happy to corroborate the story, and
described the animal as being about 160cm tall and 135 kilograms.
Unsurprisingly, state wildlife officials are not condoning
Moore’s actions and are advising against instigating contact with black bears
in the state. Instead, the official advice is to back slowly away from the
animal and only yell aggressively towards the bear if it continues to approach.
“But if you’re attacked, we recommend fighting back
aggressively,” said Capt. Patrick Foy from the California Department of Fish
and Wildlife.
It may be no laughing matter but when CBS news anchor, Sam
Shane introduced the story this week, he struggled to contain his giggles.
Conservationists and scientists have long predicted that
climate change would push species around the world into extinction. Now comes
word that the problem may be even worse than was previously realized. According
to a paper published Thursday in the journal Science, the rate of extinction
will dramatically speed up for every degree temperatures rise.
“If we follow through the business as usual in terms of
greenhouse gas emissions, then we get to the point where one in six species are
threatened with extinction from climate change,” said the paper’s author, Mark
Urban, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut.
Urban’s research analyzed more than 130 previously published
papers covering how climate change and other factors, such as habitat loss,
will affect species extinctions. The previous papers covered certain groups of
species or specific geographic ranges but didn’t look at the planet as a whole.
By conducting a meta-analysis of that earlier research, Urban said he was able
to come up with an “an overall picture of extinction risk.”
Urban said he expected to find that climate change would be
one of the major factors affecting species extinctions in the coming decades,
but he was surprised to find out how quickly that risk would accelerate.
According to his calculations, 2.8 percent of the world’s
species are currently predicted to go extinct under current conditions. If
global temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius, that risk will increase to 5.2
percent. If temperatures rise one more degree, the risk balloons to 8.5
percent.
And if we continue on our current trajectory, in which
global temperatures are anticipated to rise 4.3 degrees Celsius, Urban
calculated that the risk increases even more, to the point where 16 percent of
the world’s species will go extinct.
Urban said his analysis illustrates that climate change will
pose many dangers beyond the ones we talk about the most, such as sea-level
rise and drought. “There’s another impact, and that’s on our biodiversity,” he
said.
The risk that species face will vary around the world
according to their habitats. Species in North America and Europe, Urban found,
will face a 5 percent and 6 percent risk of extinction, respectively.
That risk leaps upward in areas with greater levels of native
biodiversity. Australia and New Zealand will each lose 14 percent of their
species, Urban calculated.
South America will be hit hardest—23 percent of the
continent’s unique species will go extinct if the rate of climate change does
not slow.
Outside of specific regions, species with limited ranges or
a limited ability to move to new habitats will also face a higher extinction
risk. These include amphibians and lizards, as well as many plants, insects,
and mammals.
“One example is the American pika,” Urban said. The species
lives on mountains in very specific temperature ranges. Moving upward as ground
temperatures rise shrinks their available habitat and food. They can’t move
down the mountain or cross the plains to another mountain because they die if
they get too warm.
Urban found that for many species with limited ability to
adapt to new habitats, the risk of extinction ranges from 80 to 100 percent.
Even with this meta-analysis, Urban found that more data
will provide an even better picture of the future. Particularly needed is more
information about species in Asia and how climate change will affect that
region, he said.
More information is also required about species that have
not been fully studied, as well as how climate change will affect specific
regions. He said that will help us “to pinpoint those species like the American
pika that are most at risk and then try to implement conservation strategies to
protect the most at-risk species.”
Urban said this study should be a wake-up call for the
international community to take climate change’s effect on wildlife seriously.
“Biodiversity is the foundation of our economy, our future,
our health, and our food security,” he said.
No one likes having a smelly cat. It isn’t their fault, and
they shouldn’t be blamed for it. The real culprit? It’s probably you.
No, we’re not saying you’re a bad parent! The majority of
maldigestion issues are the result of poor nutrition. Sadly, most of the food
out there is made primarily of carbs and plant based proteins, both of which
lack the nutrition cats need to stay healthy. Cats have specific nutritional
needs, namely protein, vitamins, and minerals. Do you know what they don’t
need?
Carbohydrates. Yes, the much maligned nutrient is something that cats are
not naturally inclined to eat. Yet most commercial cat foods contain as much as
70% carbohydrates!
So, if cats don’t NEED carbs in their food, why is it
impossible to avoid them, and what kind of complications do they lead to? While
not inherently life threatening, carbs may hold the key to your smelly and
gassy feline.
Carbs serve a fairly important job in cat food, stretching
out the amount of food to help keep prices down, and providing an easily
digestible energy source. That’s right, even though cats typically only get
about 5% of their nutrition in the wild from carbs, they can digest carbs and
use them for energy. Dry food uses carbohydrates to give the food form,
texture, and to keep it together in a way that’s easy to handle. Without them
we wouldn’t have dry food at all! This leads to the important question. If
these carbs aren’t BAD for you cat, how can they lead to digestion issues?
The issue come from the amount of carbs you find in your
cats food.
The most obvious reason an excess of carbs is dangerous for
your kitty is the same reason carbs are so maligned in the human nutrition
world. While a quick and easy form of energy, carbs are easily converted to
glucose, meaning that it is very easy for a cat to take in far more fuel than
they can burn off. The result is obesity and other serious digestion problems,
from mild to severe, that can include excessive gas, bloating, and diarrhea.
While small amounts are easily digestible, the larger the quantity, the more
difficult it is for cats to digest, leaving portions that aren’t broken down.
The undigested carbohydrates will then ferment and create bacterial overgrowth
resulting in the production of gas, and leading to other symptoms of
maldigestion, including that unpleasant odor.
If you need to de-stink your cat, the most effective way is
to scrutinize the nutritional content in his food. Protein is the most
important ingredient. Look for “complete
and balanced” on the label as a great indication that the food uses high
quality proteins. The term “complete and balanced” officially indicates
compliance with The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO)
requirements.
Protein sources with “named” protein in the listed
ingredients are vital to search for as well. Chicken, turkey, lamb, beef, etc
are key. A huge number of brand name foods contain by-products, meat or bone
meal, and other wiggle words that apply to things your cat should NOT be
eating. Corn or rice meal are another sign to tell you to put the bag down and
move on.
The final piece of the puzzle is water. Cats are not huge
water drinkers, and in the wild they get the majority of their fluid intake
from their food. Adding wet food to their diet is a fantastic way to help keep
them hydrated, a more natural way for them to consume their nutrients, and will
also help them better digest their dry food. Treat them to a few cans a week
and you will notice a marked difference in their litter boxes.
And as a helpful reminder to not ostracize smelly cats,
we’ll wrap up with this classic hit.
Remember while you laugh: diet can make a cat more socially acceptable –
and healthier.
Baker County, Florida - A family of farmers are shocked
after their cow gave birth to a two-headed calf.
The calf's name is Annabel and she was born Monday in the
middle of a field on the Crews family farm.
Carolyn Crews says she comes out to feed the two-headed calf
at least four times a day.
"It was just like a surprise because no one has even
seen anything like this around here," said Crews.
Or really anywhere, for that matter. A birth like this
happens every one in 400 million times.
Annabel has four eyes, two mouths, two noses and two ears
and two heads.
"I don't think it was meant to be for something like
this to live. You know, I don't think she's going to make it," said Crews.
She says they've reached out to a veterinarian, but the
doctor said there is nothing he can do.
"She might have pneumonia...I mean there is no
telling," said Crews.
Her heavy breaths are worrisome and her head is too heavy
for her body. She cannot walk, which means she cannot feed from mother.
However, she is unique, something the Crews family and many in Baker county say
they won't forget.
"I never dreamed of such a thing happening. It'll be
something that we probably never seen in our lifetime," said Crews.
