To read more on this story, click here: Man Adopts 45 Dogs And Sets Them Free On His Four Acres Of Land
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Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Man Adopts 45 Dogs And Sets Them Free On His Four Acres Of Land
To read more on this story, click here: Man Adopts 45 Dogs And Sets Them Free On His Four Acres Of Land
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Divers Spot 4 Giants Trapped in Fishing Net—When They Get Right Up Close, it’s Stunning!
It begins with a scene depicting a team of divers rushing to the site where the four whale sharks have found themselves trapped in a fishermen’s nets.
Whale sharks are gentle giants which are famous for being the largest extant fish species. The whale shark is one of three known filter feeders. As they swim, plankton, krill, among other nutrients, are caught in their gaping mouths.
To read more on this story, click here: Divers Spot 4 Giants Trapped in Fishing Net—When They Get Right Up Close, it’s Stunning!
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It's Working! SeaWorld Is Sinking as Attendance Drops by Half a Million Visitors
This refreshing news is a hopeful sign that the public is becoming increasingly aware of the dangers and cruelty involved in keeping cetaceans in captivity. Captive orcas like those exploited by SeaWorld are violently ripped away from their close-knit family pods in the wild and tossed in bathtub-like enclosures to pose as spectacles for noisy crowds in exchange for food. Life in captivity for these highly-intelligent animals leads to extreme mental and emotional trauma, commonly known as zoochosis, a serious psychological disorder exhibited by compulsive and destructive behavior like incessant swaying, head bobbing, chewing, self-mutilation, and even suicide attempts. Calves born in captivity are immediately taken away from their mothers, leading to tremendous anguish and ear-piercing cries from the mothers for weeks. Life in captivity also equates to broken and missing teeth and collapsed dorsal fins, and the inadequate conditions at parks can lead to abnormal and aggressive behavior, which is dangerous for the animals and people alike.
To read more on this story, click here: It's Working! SeaWorld Is Sinking as Attendance Drops by Half a Million Visitors
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Saturday, March 24, 2018
This Case Shows Why Dog Breeders Need to Be Regulated
The charging documents I obtained lay out the disturbing details: sores on the legs, lesions covering the body, ear infections and conjunctivitis in their eyes. Some dogs had even gone blind. Many were forced to either lay down in or walk through feces and dangerously high ammonia levels. There was little light or ventilation, the documents say, and food and water was scarce.
To read more on this story, click here: This Case Shows Why Dog Breeders Need to Be Regulated
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Little Old Lady Arrested for Making Fur Coats with Neighbor’s Cats
The recent disappearance of domestic animals in the neighborhood started to arise suspicion from local residents when some people started to notice the old lady’s particular fur coats, some even recognizing their cats in the coat’s furs, a fact the lady vehemently denied before being caught on videotape by a private detective hired by local residents to follow the suspicious lady.
To read more on this story, click here: Little Old Lady Arrested for Making Fur Coats with Neighbor’s Cats
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Elephant Gives Birth In Middle Of Safari, But Watch Incredible Moment Herd Suddenly Charges In
Usually it’s mom, dad, and random hospital staff that first greet the baby as he or she comes bursting forth into the world. But for wild elephants, it’s an entirely different story. The whole herd is there to say hello to their newest little tribe member!
In this video clip, a group of lucky tourists on safari actually got to witness the intimate meet-and-greet as it unfolded. People go on safari so they can get the chance to observe mother nature up close and personal, so of course there was tons of excitement in their voices when they realize they’re getting exactly what they came to see!
To read more on this story, click here: Elephant Gives Birth In Middle Of Safari, But Watch Incredible Moment Herd Suddenly Charges In
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Meet Chesty XV, the New Marine Corps Mascot
English bulldog recruit Chesty XV starts training next week to replace the retiring Chesty XIV, according to Marine officials.
But don’t expect drill instructors in this pup’s face: He’ll shadow Chesty XIV as part of his training before he is ready to participate in official Marine ceremonies.
“He will remain as ‘recruit’ until he gets promoted before he officially takes over as the Marine Corps mascot next year,” Marine spokeswoman Capt. Colleen McFadden told Marine Corps Times.
To read more on this story, click here: Meet Chesty XV, the New Marine Corps Mascot
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South Korea: High Tech and Highly Controversial, Industry of Dog Cloning
A new puppy she named Double Trouble is an exact genetic replica of the original, developed in a petri dish by South Korean scientists in what has become a growing, high-tech and highly-controversial, industry of dog cloning.
Cloning first entered public debate in 1996, when researchers at the Roslin Institute in Scotland successfully produced Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal. Dolly opened the door for researchers across the globe to attempt to clone other animals, and there have since been successful horse, deer, cattle, dog and cat clones.
However, the laboratory environment in which these clones are developed, the surrogate mother animals who are charged with carrying the embryo clones to term, and the resulting multiple clones that sometimes have deformities are just some of the animal welfare red flags bioethicists raise with animal cloning.
Tarantola's journey to get Double Trouble started when she was 18 and she got a lovable mutt she named Trouble. She was so enamored with her new puppy, she painted Trouble's face on a wall in her house, printed his face on her pillows and on her bedspread, and dressed him up in an elaborate costumes.
"When I got married ... I had him in a tuxedo," Tarantola said. "I loved him to death. I couldn't, no, I probably did love him more than some people who were involved in my life."
Trouble died when he was nearly 18 years old, and Tarantola was crushed.
"He was like my baby," she said. "I didn't have children, so he was basically like my son. It was terrible. It was heartbreaking."
It was then that she reached out to an animal cloning company in South Korea and the only place in the world where people can have their dogs cloned.
The cost: $100,000.
At the time, Tarantola had recently lost her job on Wall Street and convinced the company to let her pay $50,000 instead because her journey was being chronicled by TLC for an upcoming hour-long special, "I Cloned My Pet," which airs on Jan. 11 at 9 p.m. ET.
"I was willing to do it for $100,000," Tarantola said. "I got a deal."
A few months ago, Tarantola got a phone call from the company's scientists, who informed her that the surrogate mother dog carrying the embryos developed from Trouble's DNA was successfully impregnated. Weeks later, the surrogate went into labor in the middle of the night, and Tarantola watched the birth over Skype.
But not all clients are so lucky. Quite often, the clones do not survive because of abnormalities or multiple clones are successfully birthed and the client only wants one dog -- but those are just part of the reason the dog cloning business is so fiercely controversial.
John Woestendiek, the author of "Dog, Inc.," a book about the dog cloning industry, said the practice is based in South Korea because it's a country with much lower ethical standards for the treatment of dogs than is the United States.
"You can rent [dogs] from farmers for the laboratory and, hopefully, everything goes OK, return them to the farmer, but everything's not going to go OK," Woestendiek said.
Woestendiek said some of the dogs used in the cloning process as egg donors or surrogate mothers are later sent back to the farms where they are killed and eaten. In South Korea, dogs are raised on farms for their meat.
Tarantola said she inquired about the treatment of the surrogate mom dog that carried Double Trouble to term when she paid the firm.
"I wouldn't sacrifice one dog for another," she said. "In no way, not even to get what I wanted, would I do that."
The firm told Tarantola and ABC News that the surrogate used, as well as all of their surrogates, are sent to a "nice farm" to live, but Woestendiek was skeptical.
"It sort of sounds like, you know, what you tell your kids when the dog dies: 'He's gone off to this lovely little farm,'" he said.
Woestendiek is also concerned not just with the industry but that cloning dogs puts mankind on a slippery slope towards human cloning.
"That's one of the things that initially intrigued me, the first time we were cloning a loved one -- that it's the closest to man we're come to cloning man, by most accounts and that once we've cloned man's best friend, how far behind might man be?" he said.
Tarantola's focus remained on the little clone puppy that arrived at her New York City home just a few weeks ago.
"I looked in the little case [Double Trouble] was in, and I was looking at his face, and I said, I couldn't believe it," she said. "It's amazing. Everything is the same. Even the personality is the same. What Trouble used to do, [Double Trouble] does."
Although she admitted having her "old" dog back as a clone was "weird," Tarantola was thrilled to have this new puppy.
"I do know Trouble is gone, the original Trouble," she said. "But I do feel like [Double Trouble is] so much, he looks like him and the personality, everything is exactly the same, that it's like having the same dog over again."
While Tarantola is convinced that this new Trouble is similar to the old beloved friend, the truth is, Woestendiek said, there is no guarantee that will be the case with these cloned dogs.
"You're not really getting your dog come back to life," he said. "You're getting a genetic duplicate or twin, and we know how different twins can be. I mean, what's special about your dog, that's the part that can't be cloned. In effect, the person who is getting a dog clone is paying $100,000 to get a blank canvas."
Despite the criticism, Tarantola is undeterred. In the process of making Double Trouble, another clone also survived and will arrive at her house in a few weeks. She said she is thinking about naming him Triple Trouble.
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