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Pets/Animals (General/Chat)

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  • Woman kicked off flight after emotional support PIG became rowdy

    11/15/2017 8:32:30 AM PST · by mairdie · 91 replies
    The Sun ^ | 15th November 2017 | Danny Collins
    A PLANE passenger was booted off a flight because her rowdy emotional support PIG caused mayhem on board. The woman was given her marching orders after the havoc-wreaking hog began walking up and down the aisles. Even attempts to strap the farmyard animal to an arm rest failed. One shocked onlooker said the brown swine looked around five stone as it was tossed over the unidentified woman's shoulder and marched off.
  • City needs good dogs to handle rat epidemic The Chicago Way

    11/15/2017 8:01:59 AM PST · by simpson96 · 26 replies
    Chicago Tribune ^ | 11/10/2017 | John Kass
    Chicago is said to be the rat capital of America. The city is expected to break last year’s record for the number of rat complaints. “Walking to the subway after work, I looked down and there was a rat walking alongside me,” said a trained journalist not given to exaggeration. “It was gigantic, like a small dog or a fat squirrel. It just walked along without fear.” But don’t worry, Chicago. I’ve got a guy. And I hope Mayor Rahm Emanuel is listening. Jordan Reed, the legendary American rat catcher, is known far and wide in the rat-hunting community for...
  • Horrifying moment a giant female spider casually cleans her massive fangs on a windowsill [tr]

    11/14/2017 6:11:21 AM PST · by C19fan · 23 replies
    UK Daily Mail ^ | November 13, 2017 | Ben Hill
    A woman washing the dishes was shocked to see a huge huntsman cleaning its fangs on her windowsill. Kate Black spotted the incredible sight at her home in Nowra, New South Wales, late on Friday night. Ms Black told Daily Mail Australia she was doing the dishes and about to head off to bed when she saw the fearsome spider.
  • Move over, Grumpy Cat! Online gallery shows judgmental moggies looking VERY annoyed at their owners

    11/14/2017 6:05:00 AM PST · by C19fan · 8 replies
    UK Daily Mail ^ | November 14, 2017 | Emily Chan
    Cats can often be playful, craving attention from their owners. But sometimes, they would just prefer to be left alone - as a series of hilarious photographs show. The pictures shared online feature moggies looking very judgmental when their owners try to dress them up in an array of outfits, including a rabbit hat and a polka dot tie.
  • Clearwater Beach man facing eviction over emotional support squirrel

    11/13/2017 7:48:58 PM PST · by mairdie · 73 replies
    WFLA Channel 8 ^ | November 13, 2017 | Jamel Lanee
    A Clearwater Beach resident is fighting to keep his emotional support squirrel that lives with him at Island Walk Condominiums. Ryan Boylan and Brutis are inseparable. He rescued her last year after Hurricane Matthew. "Ever since then I mean, oh my God, I can't imagine not being around her," said Boylan. But he could lose her. Property management discovered Brutis back in April when she was chased up a tree by a dog. According to a complaint filed by the condo association to Boylan and the condo owner, exotic animals are not allowed. He never told the board about the...
  • 'Forever in my nightmares!' Viewers are left terrified as Blue Planet 2 showcases Bobbit worm [tr]

    11/13/2017 5:39:52 AM PST · by C19fan · 18 replies
    UK Daily Mail ^ | November 12, 2017 | Abe Hawken
    Viewers tuning in to Blue Planet 2 were terrified last night after the nature documentary showcased a Bobbit worm eating a fish with its dagger-like jaws. One stunned fan said the tiny creature will be 'forever in my nightmares' after footage showed it emerging from the sand in order to ambush its unsuspecting prey. Others said they 'could not sleep' after watching the drama unfold while some posted hilarious memes during the programme.
  • Loveland store helps rescue dogs from Nepal (Colorado)

    11/12/2017 10:35:47 PM PST · by beaversmom · 20 replies
    Reporter Herald ^ | November 12, 2017 | Pamela Johnson
    Paralyzed back legs didn't slow down Fozzie, a young dog from Nepal, as she scooted around Hank's Pet Food Market in Loveland recently, lapping up attention and love, sharing her excitement. "When you look in her eyes you see she's full of life," said Zoe Katsulos with the Louisville-based inside/out Humanitourism Adventure. "This girl needs a life." That is why Kasulos and her nonprofit, with help from the owners of Hank's, brought Fozzie, who was hit by a car while living on the streets of Nepal, to Loveland, where she is currently being fostered by Kathy Brodersen. Though she has...
  • The horror elephants face in India — in one heartbreaking photo

    The back legs of the baby elephant are consumed by fire as it chases after its startled mother, screaming. In the chilling photo, a flaming ball of tar...the source of the fire, along with a few hurled firecrackers — is frozen in the air as a crowd sprints away from the petrified pachyderms. Many things in the photo are unclear: the fate of the calf and its mother, the reason the men are attacking them on a road cut through a forest, whether the practice has a formal name or is just a random bit of sadism. But in an...
  • The Secret Life of Live Mascots: Uga, Bevo and Rameses are all household names [tr]

    11/12/2017 4:46:14 AM PST · by C19fan · 7 replies
    ESPN ^ | November 8 ,2017 | Ryan McGee
    Since 1892, when a Yale student showed up at a sporting event with his pet bulldog, Handsome Dan, collegiate sidelines have been like Disney's Animal Kingdom, crawling with critters big and small, chosen to represent their school's very literal spirit animal. In the days before such acts became (thankfully) more regulated, football teams shared the field with actual bears and cougars, led around loosely with little more than leashes of rope. "When I played at Houston, ol' Shasta the cougar, he'd be right there on the sideline with a rope around his neck, looking very unhappy about it," James Mayfield,...
  • Sheep Can Recognize Obama's Face, New Study Shows

    11/11/2017 7:23:07 PM PST · by Extremely Extreme Extremist · 41 replies
    KSTP.COM ^ | 11 NOVEMBER 2017 | ABC 5 MINNEAPOLIS
    A new study shows that sheep have the ability to recognize human faces from photographs on computer screens. The Cambridge University study published Wednesday also shows that sheep can recognize the faces of their human handlers without any prior training. It had been known that sheep can recognize familiar faces of other sheep and of humans. The researchers say this study of the ability of sheep to recognize faces may be useful in research into Huntington's disease and other human brain disorders that affect mental processing.
  • Man accused of pouring boiling water on caged dog

    11/10/2017 8:53:25 PM PST · by Extremely Extreme Extremist · 18 replies
    ABC 11 ^ | 10 NOVEMBER 2017 | ABC 11
    CHINO HILLS, California -- A 22-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly poured boiling water on his girlfriend's dog at an apartment building, authorities said. Enping Qu was taken into custody on Tuesday. Investigators said two teenagers noticed the yelping dog in a cage on a third-floor apartment balcony, the Southern California News Group reported.
  • Police Capture Mountain Lion Roaming San Francisco

    11/10/2017 2:42:28 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 21 replies
    KRON ^ | November 10, 2017 | Julianne Herrera
    A mountain lion that was spotted within San Francisco city limits Friday morning has been caught, according to San Francisco Police Department. The wild cat was reported around 9:49 a.m. in a wooded area on the 5100 block of Diamond Heights Blvd. Police and Animal Care and Control responded, but were not able to catch the mountain lion. A crew from California Fish and Game has since taken over the situation. Police shut down Diamond Heights Boulevard as they searched for the big cat. Just before 2 p.m., they found the mountain lion and tranquilized it. No further details are...
  • Mountain Lion Spotted, Cornered in San Francisco Neighborhood

    11/10/2017 2:03:38 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 25 replies
    San Fracisco Chronicle ^ | 11/10 | Kurtis Alexander and Peter Fimrite
    A mountain lion slinking around the Diamond Heights area of San Francisco on Friday has been cornered behind a housing complex by authorities who rushed to the scene with a tranquilizer gun. City police, animal control officers and California Department of Fish and Wildlife wardens have surrounded a cluster of buildings known as Diamond Heights Village, where the cougar was seen this morning crouching amid the trees, brush and ivy behind the homes. Police are stationed on each side of the building keeping residents and onlookers away from the animal, described as a full grown female mountain lion. A mountain...
  • Stray cat a suspect in Japan attempted murder

    11/10/2017 5:56:22 AM PST · by C19fan · 14 replies
    AFP ^ | November 10, 2017 | Staff
    A Japanese police probe into the attempted murder of an elderly bedridden woman has reportedly led to an unlikely suspect: a stray cat. Mayuko Matsumoto's daughter found her bleeding profusely from about 20 cuts to her face on Monday at her home in a mountainous region of southern Japan. Police launched an attempted murder investigation after seeing the wounds, some of them relatively severe, according to local broadcaster RKK.
  • The Question That Won Me the Ig Nobel Prize: Are Cats Liquid?

    11/10/2017 5:33:20 AM PST · by C19fan · 23 replies
    Real Clear Science ^ | November 10, 2017 | Marc-Antoine Fardin
    A liquid is traditionally defined as a material that adapts its shape to fit a container. Yet under certain conditions, cats seem to fit this definition. This somewhat paradoxical observation emerged on the web a few years ago and joined the long list of internet memes involving our feline friends. When I first saw this question it made me laugh, and then think. I decided to reformulate it to illustrate some problems at the heart of rheology, the study of the deformations and flows of matter. My study on the rheology of cats won the 2017 Ig Nobel Prize in...
  • Program that pairs service dogs with veterans booted from Fort Belvoir and Walter Reed

    11/09/2017 9:02:41 AM PST · by mairdie · 16 replies
    WTOP Washington ^ | November 8, 2017 | Kate Ryan
    A program that prepares service dogs for permanent placement with wounded veterans and their families has been booted from Fort Belvoir and Walter Reed without explanation, the program's executive director says. GERMANTOWN, Md. — The Warrior Canine Connection, a program that uses an army of volunteer puppy raisers, dog trainers and veterans to prepare service dogs for wounded veterans and their families, has been partnering with military facilities in the D.C. region since 2009. But suddenly — and without explanation — that came to a stop, says Warrior Canine Connection Executive Director Rick Yount. He said his trainers and puppy...
  • Raw Video: Orca pod swims past Pebble Beach

    11/08/2017 10:31:48 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 6 replies
    KSBW ^ | Nov 8, 2017
    Raw Video: Orca pod swims past Pebble Beach Video at the site.
  • Scientists are implanting tiny HUMAN brains into rats

    11/08/2017 8:00:33 AM PST · by Red Badger · 58 replies
    www.thesun.co.uk ^ | Updated: 8th November 2017, 3:26 pm | By Margi Murphy
    Stanford University bioethicist says as the lab rats become more human-like they may one day be 'entitled to some kind of respect' TINY human brains injected into rats have sparked a major ethical debate among scientists worried it may give the rodents some type of human consciousness. Esteemed science ethicists claim the experiments might reach a point where the test lab rats will be "entitled to some kind of respect". Advances in science have allowed experts to connect tiny human brains with that of a rat. To do this, they created clumps of cells that behave similarly to human brains...
  • Rescued Sea Otter Found Shot, Killed in Morro Bay

    11/07/2017 9:44:12 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 29 replies
    San Luis Obispo Tribune ^ | NOVEMBER 07, 2017 | GABBY FERREIRA
    California authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a protected southern sea otter that had been rescued and returned to the ocean last year. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife said Tuesday that the dead otter was found floating in Morro Bay in September and a necropsy determined it was killed with a pellet gun. A numbered tag identified the animal as an otter that had previously been found tangled in a fishing line. It was rehabilitated and returned to the wild in July 2016. Southern sea otters, which are also known as California sea otters, are listed as...
  • Bear Sighting Reported in Monterey at Jacks Peak Park

    11/07/2017 9:20:01 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 23 replies
    KSBW ^ | Nov 7, 2017 | Amy Larson
    Hikers reported seeing a black bear at Jacks Peak Park in Monterey on Monday. Monterey County's parks department issued a public warning about the bear. Park rangers tried to find the bear, but were unable to locate it Monday afternoon. County spokeswoman Maia Carroll said the warning was issued to park visitors out of an abundance of caution. "Jacks Peak is quite wild. You have to know you're among nature," Carroll said. The park's peak is the highest point on the Monterey Peninsula.