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Camera trap image of a badger burying a calf carcass in Utah's Grassy Mountains, January 2016. Credit: Evan Buechley. ===================================================================================================================================== While studying scavenger behavior in Utah's Great Basin Desert, University of Utah biologists observed an American badger do something that no other scientists had documented before: bury an entire calf carcass by itself. While badgers and their relatives are known to cache food stores, this is the first known instance of a badger burying an animal larger than itself. The finding suggests that badgers may have no limit to the size of animal they can cache, and that they may...

Congress has written some laudable policies into the Pet and Women Safety Act of 2017 (H.R.909) that are designed to protect domestic violence victims from “trauma caused by acts of violence or threats of violence against their pets.”There is one provision of the bill, however, that takes a familiar step too far: It would create a federal crime to harass or intimidate any person’s pet in a way that causes “substantial emotional distress.”Given the threats from cyberattacks, interstate and international crime cartels, terrorist groups, drug trafficking, and the criminal aspects of immigration issues, the resource-constrained federal law enforcement community does...

Biology student Luis Sibira stumbled across the first set of gory remains last November: eight pink flamingos, their breasts and torsos sliced out, leaving their heads, spindly legs and vivid feathers scattered across the marshy ground at Las Peonias Lagoon in western Venezuela. [Snip] There are other signs that food shortages have led to the slaughtering of animals not generally considered meat: giant anteaters, for one. The university investigators - biologists and biology students - say they have kept records to show that dozens of the slow-moving creatures, classified as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, also...

There’s no easy way to rate dog intelligence. As psychologist Stanley Coren wrote back in the 90s, there’s adaptive intelligence (i.e., figuring stuff out), working intelligence (i.e., following orders), and instinctive intelligence (i.e., innate talent) — not to mention spatial intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and more. Indeed, as animal behaviorist Frans de Waal has argued, humans tend to judge animal intelligence in limited and unfair terms and often bungle the experiment. While labs at Yale, Duke, and around the world are studying this question, for now we do at least have data on one metric: working intelligence. Coren, in...

(WJBK) - A sickening case of animal cruelty on Detroit's west side as a dog is mutilated and abandoned. The pictures are so shocking, one might wonder how a human could be so inhumane. We want to warn you - the video and pictures may be hard to view - but it's nothing compared to what this poor dog endured...........

CHICAGO -- It is the video that has sparked outrage in Chicago and across the nation. The kidnapping and torture of an 18-year-old Crystal Lake man with special needs was streamed on Facebook Live. Thursday, shortly after the suspects were charged, the victim’s family spoke out for the first time. "We are so grateful for the prayers and efforts that led to the safe return of our brother,” said David Boyd, the victim’s brother-in-law. “We are fully aware of the charges being brought against the offenders at this time we ask for continued prayers for all those involved." The family...

WASHINGTON — All hogs in Massachusetts will be able to stretch their legs and turn around in their crates and all hens will be able to spread their wings under a law passed in November by voters in the state. Laws like this one, which strictly regulate how farm animals are confined, are becoming more common across the U.S., as large-scale farming replaces family farms and consumers learn more about what happens behind barn doors. Massachusetts is the 12th state to ban the use of some livestock- and poultry-raising cages or crates, such as gestation crates for sows, veal crates...

Heartless family leaves escaped dog at shelter, adopts new pup By Chris Perez November 29, 2016 | 6:09pm A California family is being hounded on Facebook after they were caught on camera doing their dog dirty — getting her all happy and excited to leave an animal control shelter and then adopting a new four-legged best friend, instead. Heart-wrenching video posted on Monday by a worker at the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control center in Downey shows the German Shepherd, Zuzu, frantically wagging her tail and barking for joy after spotting her despicable owners. The pooch...

A whole new way to fight antibiotic resistance.Scientists have discovered that Tasmanian devil milk contains an arsenal of antimicrobial compounds that can kill some of the most deadly bacterial and fungal infections known to science - including golden staph. Tasmanian devils were found to produce six different types of these antimicrobial compounds - humans produce just one - and scientists were able to successfully synthesise them in the lab to test their effectiveness against a number of drug-resistant bacterial and fungal pathogens. When tested against 25 different bacterial and six fungal strains, the six varieties of antimicrobial compounds were found...

This is a video of a lion laughing, I have always thought of Trump as being a lion...it makes you laugh...

Consider the words of Hosea 4:1-3, God's judgment on the land that is tainted by widespread, unrestrained sin: Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land:“There is no faithfulness, no love,no acknowledgment of God in the land.There is only cursing, lying and murder,stealing and adultery;they break all bounds,and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away;the beasts of the field, the birds in the skyand the fish in the sea are swept away. Now ponder...

Pedals, a beloved American black bear who walked upright and strolled around the suburbs of New Jersey like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon come to life, was believed to have been killed by a hunter last week, animal welfare activists said. His age was not known. Since 2014 residents of Rockaway Township have posted videos online of the bear strolling through their neighborhoods and backyards with admirable posture, his forepaws pulled close to his chest. Many commented that on first glance, Pedals resembled a man wearing a bear suit. But it appears that local celebrity was not enough to save Pedals during...

Instrumental, with the hymns; Jesus Loves Me, Till We Meet Again, with sing along lyrics. This video was arranged with our pets, my wife & scenic animation.

An October 5 Humane Society ad warns that a Donald Trump presidency would be bad for animals because Trump’s sons hunt and his agricultural advisers allegedly support confining pigs to close quarters when raised for slaughter. The ad opens with a photo of Trump’s sons holding a big cat while a narrator says, “Trump’s sons, they’re trophy hunters of elephants and rare species. Don Jr. is floated to be Interior Secretary.”

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed into law a measure allowing Californians to break into vehicles to rescue animals if they appear to be in danger from excessive heat. **SNIP** Under AB 797, a citizen must first call law enforcement to report a situation in which he or she believes an animal to be in peril. But if the animal is in imminent danger, the car is locked, and law enforcement is not arriving quickly enough to save the animal’s life, the bill provides immunity from civil and criminal liability to a person causing vehicle damage for the purpose of...

Remember “weaselpecker,” that hard-to-believe photo of a weasel riding a bird, Rescuers-style? Those types of animal interactions go viral because they seem rare to us. Yet the phenomena of species riding other species isn’t actually that unusual. In 2004 and 2006, researchers documented two instances of a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) giving a lift to a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) near Hawaii... Here are some other instances of animal-on-animal action...

You never know when you’ll make a new friend. This young man met his coyote buddy, and they started bonding the best way Coyotes know how: They started howling together! That little pup seems to be in good hands with this guy, they both look pretty happy. I wonder where that pup is, now? Set back into a wildlife habitat, or sticking close with his new two-legged buddy? See the video here.

ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) – A dozen neighborhood cats have recently died or disappeared in downtown Arlington, and many business owners are turning to police for help because they suspect foul play. “These cats of Main Street had a home,” said Sarah Hughes, who works nearby. A long row of white crosses covers two streets along Main Street in Arlington. Each cross represents a feral cat that has either gone missing or has been found dead in recent weeks. Hughes stopped next to a cross with the word “missing” crossed out. It has been replaced with “R.I.P.” “This was one of our...

There was a distinct look of fear on Hillary Clinton’s face as animal rights protesters held up a large banner and yelled near her rally stage in Las Vegas today while the candidate spoke. Secret Service agents sprang into action, with one putting his arm around Clinton. “You’re okay,” he could be heard saying on the hot mic. “Keep talking,” he said as she stood in silence. “We’ll handle it. We’re not going anywhere,” he said. “Keep talking.” “Okay, we’ll keep talking,” Clinton told the audience. She then said the protesters were actually there to focus on Donald Trump. “Apparently...

Hillary Clinton’s icy demeanor with Secret Service agents and police officers is well documented. But with members of the military protecting her overseas? Former military K9 handler Eric Bonner says an encounter with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led him to never support her for president. “It has nothing to do with her views,” Bonner posted on Facebook. “It really doesn’t even matter about all the laws she broke. “It’s because She actually talked to me once. Almost a sentence,” he wrote.