Salon.com > Animals

Must-see morning clip

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 14:18:00 +0000

This video probably won't help you follow-through on your New Year's resolutions, but it will at least make your Wednesday morning a little brighter:

Weird news: 60-foot beached whale dies on shores of New York City

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 20:50:00 +0000

The "sickly" and "emaciated" 60-foot finback whale beached on the shoreline at Breezy Point in Queens, New York, yesterday, is now dead. The whale was originally given a grim prognosis, as biologists noticed that at 60 tons, the whale was extremely underweight. Mendy Garron, a marine-mammal rescue coordinator with the National Marine Fisheries Service, told the New York Times, "When large whales strand, it’s very difficult,” adding, "The minute they get on the beach they’re being compromised because their internal organs are being crushed by their weight.”

Now biologists are working on a necropsy plan and will determine how to dispose of the whale's large body; the finback whale is the second-longest animal on Earth, behind the blue whale.

Video of the beached whale via the New York Post, below:

Growing animal rescue group is work of teen actor

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:11:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The person behind one of the country's fastest-growing animal rescues can't even vote yet. And neither can most of the people leading its 10 chapters across the nation.

Lou Wegner, a 16-year-old actor and singer from Columbus, Ohio, started Kids Against Animal Cruelty when he was 14. The organization, which uses social networking to encourage adoptions at high-kill animal shelters, has helped 20,000 pets escape euthanasia in two years.

Lou said he became aware of euthanasia at shelters when he went to Los Angeles to make the short film "Be Good to Eddie Lee." The director suggested that he volunteer at an animal shelter.

Until then, Lou thought shelters were safe havens for strays and lost pets. "It was heartbreaking. All these dogs crying in their cages. Knowing they would be put down broke my heart," he said.

The group started with Lou and his friends, carrying signs on street corners, and a Facebook page with 47 friends. Now it has more than 12,000 U.S. members and 50,000 members, supporters and partner coalitions across the globe, he said.

Weird news: Spanish pol under fire for posing with deer testicles

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:52:00 +0000

Bizarre pictures of Carlos Delgado, Minister of Tourism for Spain's Balearic Islands, posing with deer testicles and a deer corpse, have gone viral after being published in a Mallorca newspaper.

The photos were taken on a hunt last year, when Delgado served as the mayor of the Calvià municipality.

Chesús Yuste, of the Parliamentary Association in Defense of Animals, has deemed the picture an example of "animal abuse," saying, “This kind of action should disappear for the good of society and for the mental health of all. This is harming Spain's image and dragging the country back to the 11th Century."

“He is a minister for tourism, but what kind of tourism is he promoting here?” Yuste asked.

h/t Daily News

Activists claim 27 animals died during making of “The Hobbit”

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:17:00 +0000

Animal wranglers on the New Zealand set of "The Hobbit" trilogy have spoken out about the deaths of 27 animals, who died "largely because they were kept at a farm filled with bluffs, sinkholes and other 'death traps,'" the AP reports.

Although no animals were harmed during actual filming, the wranglers and the American Humane Association argue that the conditions at the Wellington farm they were housed in were dangerous:

The Associated Press spoke to four wranglers who said the farm near Wellington was unsuitable for horses because it was peppered with bluffs, sinkholes and broken-down fencing. They said they repeatedly raised concerns about the farm with their superiors and the production company, owned by Warner Bros., but it continued to be used. They say they want their story aired publicly now to prevent similar deaths in the future.

One wrangler said that over time he buried three horses, as well as about six goats, six sheep and a dozen chickens. The wranglers say two more horses suffered severe injuries but survived.

Although Matt Dravitzky, a spokesman for the movie, said that some of the deaths were of natural causes, he conceded that the deaths of two horses could have been avoided. "We do know those deaths were avoidable and we took steps to make sure it didn't happen again," he said.

“The $60,000 Dog”: Animal attraction

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 22:00:00 +0000

To judge by recent publishing trends, the great proliferation of authors these days can be attributed to the animals — sometimes cats, occasionally the odd duck, but mostly dogs, and badly behaved ones at that — who go around saving their lives. These rescues, alas, consist of nothing so exciting as pulling the writer from a burning building or arriving in the midst of a blizzard carrying a little wooden barrel of brandy. Instead, the wayward pooches and mischievous felines stick to figurative life-saving — in the form of teaching the author to open his heart to love again or to embrace familial responsibility or to appreciate the beauties of the imperfect.

A desire to avoid this tedious (but by no means flagging) genre might keep some readers from Lauren Slater's new book, a linked collection of autobiographical essays about the relationship between people and animals. Two signals that this one is something different: the title, "The $60,000 Dog: My Life With Animals," which (rightly) suggests that Slater will be getting at some of the more difficult and ambiguous aspects of America's pet fixation, and Slater's track record. She has published six books, all but one of them nonfiction, and in each one she excavates the prickliest roots of subjects such as anti-depressants, pregnancy, psychological experiments, mental illness and the unreliability of the memoir form itself. "Okay, girls," says a drill-sergeant-like riding instructor at a camp she attended as a girl, "Slater has one of her typical profound and provocative questions." Yes she does; she always does.

Hurricane heroism at the New York Aquarium

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 18:24:00 +0000

Among the casualities of Monday's Hurricane Sandy was the New York Aquarium. The Wildlife Conservation Society confirmed Thursday that the beloved seaside venue sustained "serious flood damage" and will be closed "indefinitely." The WCS went on to add that "Staff have established temporary life support for the aquatic systems, are pumping flood waters out of basements and mechanical areas, and are working to restore filtration and other life support essentials for the exhibit and holding tanks. We have a short window of time to get these systems re-established. If this cannot be accomplished in this critical period, we will temporarily relocate the collection to other AZA aquariums in the region."

The aquarium's severe damage is yet another painful setback for the city, and the decimated boardwalk region of Coney Island, which was pummeled by massive waves. But it's also yet another one of the stories only now emerging, days after Sandy, about the generosity and bravery displayed during the storm. The WCS announced Thursday that 18 aquarium staff workers stayed on duty all throughout the hurricane to protect the animals. You're free to start crying now.

Weird news: Snake on a plane in Glasgow

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:17:00 +0000

LONDON — Scottish airport staff got a slithery surprise when they stumbled on a Mexican serpent stowaway under a seat.

The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says quick-thinking workers at Glasgow Airport remained "remarkably calm" when they discovered the 18-inch (45-centimeter) snake Tuesday under seats in the passenger cabin of a flight from Cancun, Mexico.

It says the young snake was taken to its Glasgow animal center, and has been named Furtivo, Spanish for "sneak."

It said Friday that Furtivo, a member of the Dryadophis family of snakes, was non-venomous but "feisty." The snake may have snuck onto the plane before take-off, or hitched a ride in a passenger's hand luggage.

The society says Furtivo will remain in its care until an expert home can be found.

Baby elephant rescue

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:28:00 +0000

The Kenya-based Amboseli Trust for Elephants has released a video of workers rescuing a young calf. If that's not enough for you, the climactic shot (spoiler alert!) nearly quotes the running scene in "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," except with an adorable baby elephant instead of an ugly desperado.

Watch:

h/t Associated Press

Scientist: Humans ate pandas

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 14:45:00 +0000

BEIJING --Early humans used to eat pandas, a Chinese scientist has claimed.

Wei Guangbiao said prehistoric man ate the bears in what is now part of the city of Chongqing in south-west China.

Wei, head of the Institute of Three Gorges Paleoanthropology at a Chongqing museum, said excavated panda fossils "showed that pandas were once slashed to death by man".

The Chongqing Morning Post quoted him as saying: "In primitive times, people wouldn't kill animals that were useless to them," and therefore the pandas must have been used as food. But he said pandas were much smaller in prehistoric times.

Wei said wild pandas lived in Chongqing's high mountains 10,000 to 1m years ago.

I hope my dogs die soon

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The emergency room veterinarian recommended a pancreatitis test for my 9-year-old pug. I frowned at the $800 estimate, but this is the cost of doing business at 4 a.m. It wasn’t the first time I had spent the night in an animal hospital with a dog in distress. In the four years since I adopted Clarence from a pet rescue group, his list of ailments included epilepsy, arthritis and skin growths in places you’d rather not look. None of his maladies are fatal, but they require X-rays, medications and special diets.

Meanwhile, I have another dog enduring the indignities of what his veterinarian calls “the slow fade.” Both suffer grand mal seizures. Both have fragile stomachs that cause indoor accidents and sleepless nights. And both teeter on the edge of death one moment only to act like spry pups the next.

For more than half of my adult life, I have scheduled my world around my pets. But I don’t know how much longer this can go on. As much as it pains me to admit it, part of me is anxious for their anguish — and mine — to end. I can’t wait for them to die.

Baby panda born at National Zoo dies

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 16:26:00 +0000

WASHINGTON- The giant panda cub born a week ago at the National Zoo in Washington has died, and it was not immediately known why the animal died, zoo officials said Sunday.

Zoo officials said in a press release that the cub was found dead Sunday morning after panda keepers heard sounds of distress from its mother, Mei Xiang.

Staffers were able to retrieve the cub about an hour later. The cub appeared to be in good condition, and there were no outward signs of trauma or infection.

The cub had been a surprise at the zoo. Fourteen-year-old Mei Xiang had five failed pregnancies before giving birth, and only one panda cub has survived at the zoo in the past.

Panda cubs are born about the size of a stick of butter and are delicate infants. Panda mothers are about 1,000 times heavier than their cubs, which are born with their eyes closed. The delicate cubs have died in the past when accidentally crushed by mom. That happened in two different zoos in China in 2009 and 2010 when mothers killed their young while attempting to nurse.

Weird news: World’s tallest dog

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:38:00 +0000

OTSEGO, Mich. (AP) — A Great Dane from Michigan is doggone tall.

The Guinness World Records 2013 book published Thursday recognizes Zeus of Otsego, Mich., as the world's Tallest Dog.

The 3-year-old measures 44 inches from foot to shoulder.

Standing on his hind legs, Zeus stretches to 7-foot-4 and towers over his owner, Denise Doorlag. Zeus is just an inch taller than the previous record-holder, Giant George.

Zeus weighs 155 pounds and eats around 12 cups of food a day. That's equivalent to one 30-pound bag of food.

Doorlag says she had to get a van to be able to transport Zeus.

Another tallest story:

Weird news: Hippo gets stuck

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:23:00 +0000

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A hefty hippo chased away from his herd at a South African game reserve has found a refreshing place to relax: the lodge's swimming pool. Now it's stuck there.

The young hippopotamus plopped into the pool on Tuesday at the Monate Conservation Lodge north of Johannesburg. Isabel Wentzel of South Africa's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says the pool has no steps. Wentzel says a game capture team will sedate the hippo and lift it out of the pool with a crane. Much of the water has been drained to make the extraction easier.

Because the hippo was chased away by his herd, it will be moved to a new location.

Weird news of the day

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:39:00 +0000

BERLIN — A kangaroo is on the lam in Germany after breaking out of a wildlife park, with a fox and a wild boar his suspected accomplices.

Michael Hoffmann, assistant head of the Hochwildschutzpark Hunsrueck, located west of Frankfurt, said on Monday that the male kangaroo was one of three that escaped overnight Saturday with the inadvertent help of the menagerie that lives in the area woods.

Hoffmann says the kangaroos got out of their enclosure after a young fox snuck into the park and dug a hole next to the cage’s fencing. Two of the three were then able to get out of the park entirely through another hole dug by a wild boar under the exterior fence.

Hoffmann says "we’ve got two of them back; now we’re just looking for the third."

Weird News: Amorous bull damages car

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 22:50:00 +0000

SHERWOOD, Ark. (AP) — A bull in the mood for love damaged an Arkansas sheriff's patrol car when it tried to mount a man who was leading the animal across a yard.

Authorities said Wednesday that a Faulkner County sheriff's deputy was responding to a call about a bull running loose when he saw the man slapping and trying to guide the bull.

The Log Cabin Democrat reports that as the patrol car drew near, the animal reared up and pinned the man against the vehicle. According to the deputy's report, the bull then "tried to mate with him."

The bull then lost interest and followed a truck down the road.

The patrol car sustained minor damage, though no injuries were reported. The bull's owner says it was the animal's first escape.

___

Information from: Log Cabin Democrat, http://www.thecabin.net

Capitalism’s great heist

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Editor's Note: When harmful beliefs plague a population, you can bet that the 1% is benefiting. This article is the first in a new AlterNet series, "Capitalism Unmasked," edited by Lynn Parramore and produced in partnership with author Douglas Smith and Econ4 to expose the myths and lies of unbridled capitalism and show the way to a better future.

Summer 2009. Unemployment is soaring. Across America, millions of terrified people are facing foreclosure and getting kicked to the curb. Meanwhile in sunny California, the hotel-heiress Paris Hilton is investing $350,000 of her $100 million fortune in a two-story house for her dogs. A Pepto Bismol-colored replica of Paris’ own Beverly Hills home, the backyard doghouse provides her precious pooches with two floors of luxury living, complete with abundant closet space and central air.

Baby eagle survives wildfire

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:46:00 +0000

A baby Golden Eagle whose feathers, face and feet were burned when flames engulfed his nest in the Dump Fire that swept through 5,500 acres south of Salt Lake City and west of Utah Lake at the end of June has amazed rescuers with his will to survive, CNN reported.

It’s "nothing short of a miracle,” DaLyn Erickson, executive director of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah in Ogden, told CNN.

Kent Keller, a volunteer with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources who’d banded the eaglet earlier this year, returned to the area where his nest used to be to survey the damage and found the bird sheltering behind a tree, the Salt Lake City Tribune reported.

The eaglet had apparently jumped out of the nest and fallen 25 feet, then probably rolled another 100 feet, Keller told CNN.

After receiving permission from federal and state wildlife agencies to remove the bird from the wild – Golden Eagles are a protected species – Keller delivered him to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah on July 4, the Salt Lake City Tribune reported.

5-inch live worm removed from man’s eye in India

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 15:30:00 +0000

It sounds like something out of a horror flick, but doctors in India say they found and removed a 5-inch live worm from a man's eye.

PK Krishnamurthy, 75, came to Fortis Hospital in Mumbai complaining of "itching and irritation" in his right eye for the past two weeks, BBC News reported.

Eye expert Dr V. Seetharaman told Agence France-Press he was shocked by what he found -- a writing, threadlike parasite swimming around in the man's eye.

"It was wriggling there under the conjunctiva," he told AFP. "It was the first time in my career of 30 years that I had seen such a case."

Doctors rushed Krishnamurthy to surgery, fearing serious damage, but were able to safely removed the creature as his horrified wife, Saraswati, watched, the Mumbai Mirror reported.

Baby chimpanzee killed by adult at L. A. Zoo

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:33:00 +0000

A baby chimpanzee was killed at the Los Angeles Zoo by an adult male chimpanzee as visitors watched on Tuesday.

The baby chimp — born March 6 — had been gradually introduced to the shared habitat and there had been no sign of problems, the LA Times cited the zoo as saying.

Chimpanzees are the human species' closest living relative, and the LA Zoo troop is one of the largest in a North American zoo.

"Chimpanzee behavior can sometimes be aggressive and violent, and the zoo is sorry that visitors had to be exposed to this," the statement said.

"This is a heartbreaking and tragic loss for the zoo and especially the Great Ape Team who have worked diligently to care for the infant and its mother since its birth."

The baby's mother, named Gracie, "had proved to be a caring mother," the zoo said in a statement.