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The Grackles recognize the car now, LOL, I think I've started them on the welfare wagon!

  The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a ridiculously misnamed animal rights group, filed a complaint with the USDA yesterday against a Massachusetts hospital that uses pigs in its trauma treatment training. PCRM claims the hospital’s use of pigs violates the federal Animal Welfare Act. But the USDA was having none of it. As a government spokesman made clear, “The use of live animals in the type of training we’re talking about here is not a violation of the Animal Welfare Act.” And a medical center chief pointed out that the pigs are fully anesthetized in compliance with the...

Youngsters in Churchill are warned not to dress in furry white costumes, to steer clear of baited traps stuffed with seal meat and to listen for the tell-tale sound of fireworks. That's because these candy-seekers have more to worry about than ghosts and goblins. They need to avoid a different kind of predator on Halloween - the polar bear. School children get a visit from the polar bear patrol team to go over safety tips. On the day of Halloween, several conservation officers take to the sky in a helicopter to see if there are any bears nearby. As dusk...

The family of Chris Privett wept in court Monday. So did the family of his killer, Gerald Davison. But the 17-year-old simply smirked in court and offered a halfhearted apology for shooting the Palo Verde High School student in February 2008. "I dont know how to apologize for for taking your son's life away," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Sorry ain't going to cut it but that's all i can tell y'all. Sorry."

OSLO (Reuters) – A man was caught by Norwegian customs carrying a tarantula in his bag, and a further 14 royal pythons and 10 albino leopard geckos taped to his body, media reported Monday. The 22-year-old Norwegian was stopped in a routine check by Kristiansand customs after arriving on a ferry from Denmark, newspaper Faedrelandsvennen reported. Customs found the tarantula, before deciding to give him a full body search that revealed 14 stockings -- one for each snake -- taped around his torso, top selling tabloid VG said. Reptile smuggling is not uncommon in Norway, which prohibits people holding many...

Yikes! Man sticks ferret down his pants "If you want to put a wild animal in your britches, that's your personal business," Klock said. "Who would want to steal a ferret, bottom line. I've heard of people stealing snakes, but stuffing a ferret down your britches? Hello, " reports News4Jax.com. Pet store owner Stephen Brezil says that ferrets are bouncy and kind of bitey. But that didn't stop Rodney Bolton. Bolton went into the Pet Supermarket store in Jacksonville Beach and stuck a ferret down the front of his pants before walking out.

Coyotes Kill Canada Woman Singer Taylor Mitchell was found bleeding heavily from multiple bite wounds Two coyotes have attacked and killed a 19-year-old folk singer in a national park in eastern Canada, officials say. Taylor Mitchell, 19, a promising musician from Toronto, died in hospital after the animals pounced as she hiked alone in Cape Breton park, Nova Scotia. Walkers alerted park rangers after hearing her screams. The rangers shot one coyote, but were still searching for the second. Attacks by coyotes on humans are rare; they usually prey on deer and hares. Bleeding heavily from multiple bite wounds, the...

9:23 PM CDT, October 28, 2009 PRESCOTT, Ark. (AP) — A 2-year-old boy who wandered away from his babysitter's house and into range of a chained pit bull has died after the dog attacked him. Matthew Clayton Hurt was pronounced dead Wednesday at a hospital in Texarkana after he was taken there following the attack that morning.

SKIES around the far west Queensland town of Boulia are teeming with budgerigars. This year's floods along river systems such as the Diamantina and Georgina sparked prolific breeding by the budgies which have been feasting on an abundance of grass seeds, the Courier-Mail reported. "I have been here since 1983 and never seen anything like it," Boulia grazier Ann Britton said. "The skies are thick with budgies - how they do not collide with each other is a miracle in itself. "My father, who has travelled extensively in the Outback, was with me when we saw a massive flock and...

A PROMISING young Canadian musician has been attacked and killed by coyotes while on a tour promoting her new album. Taylor Mitchell, 19, was considered a rising star of the folk music scene, having just earned a Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination. She was hiking alone on the Syline Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park when a pair of coyotes attacked her. Tourists rushed to her aid when they heard her screams and found Mitchell bleeding heavily from mulitple wounds "all over her body", according to The Canadian Press. "She was losing a considerable amount of blood from her...

Reader Wayne sent us this photograph and explains, "I was walking along and texting. Not really paying that much attention. Then something caught my eye. I thought I was about to step in dog shit, but quickly realized it was a rat stuck in the sidewalk. A big rat. It had tried to squeeze through a crack in the sidewalk and failed." Update: Another reader created the second photograph in the gallery, adding, "hopefully this makes it a little better!" We are still awaiting a reply from Wayne to ask if he tried to help the little guy (or gal)...

Meet the world's toughest coyote. Daniel East and his sister, Tevyn, were driving at night along Interstate 80 near the Nevada-Utah earlier this month, when their car slammed into a coyote that scurried in their path, reported Rex Features. Believing there was no way the wild animal could survive the 75 mph collision, the pair kept driving for eight more hours to their destination, where they finally inspected the damage to their car. But it did manage to survive being dragged for 600 miles. "Immediately I saw a ton of fur and said, 'Sis, don't look, this is bad,'" David...

Chimp dies, others mourn. Interesting picture and story.

A butterfly species equipped with tiny ears on its wings can distinguish between high and low pitch sounds, possibly as a way to listen in on nearby birds, new research suggests. Scientists thought butterflies were deaf until 1912 when the first butterfly ears were identified. Only in the past decade or so have researchers examined the anatomy and physiology of butterfly ears, which they are finding to be quite diverse and present in several butterfly species. The latest discovery was made with the blue morpho butterfly (Morpho peleides), which dazzles with its bright-blue wing coloration when it flits about in...

NEW SPECIES PICTURES: 850 Underground Creatures Found The newfound blind cave fish Milyeringa veritas, seen above, inhabits the same Cape Range aquifers as a blind cave eel found during the same survey of Australia's underground habitats. The only blind cave fish known in Australia, the 2-inch-long (5.1-centimeter-long) species is "remarkably versatile," living in freshwater or seawater in underground coastal regions during various stages of its life, researchers say."

Two San Luis Obispo men were arrested after they allegedly tried to steal their dog back from the pound. A person found a pit bull running loose in the 600 block of Lincoln Avenue in San Luis Obispo on Saturday, according to the Sheriff's Department. The person checked with people in the neighborhood, but took the dog to Animal Services after the owner could not be found. The owner, later identified as Matthew Taylor Saldivar, 21, asked his friend John Scott Ransom, 20, to help him take his dog from the shelter, according to officials. Sometime after 9 p.m. Sunday,...

Wild dromedary camels, brought to Australia in the mid-19th century to help explore and develop the outback, were left to breed and survive on their own. Now they number a million in the wild and have become pests, officials say. Camels are not usually associated with Australia, but Australia is home to the largest herd of feral camels in the world. About 12,000 dromedary camels were brought to Australia in the mid-19th century to carry people and supplies during the exploration and development of the Interior but after the advent of the automobile, they were abandoned and left to fend...

Otto Jones, a Dachshund terrier cross from Shropshire, may be the oldest dog in the world at 20 years and eight month - but he still knows how to play. He has been recognised as the oldest living dog by Guinness World Records and, despite his age, still enjoys playing ball with neighbours' children. His owners Lynn and Peter Jones, from Shrewsbury, said he was a "loveable, affectionate rogue".

I had to put-down Schmeckel Kitty today. He was a remarkably sweet friend to me for 13 years. He had tough luck. We found him nearly starved to death in 1997 at a roadside stand. He looked like a kitten, all bones. We brought him home, cleaned him up, and he became the sweetest, most loving kitty. He had a lot of bumps along the way. His bowel was removed in 2000. We saved him. He was hit by a car in 2006 and lost a rear leg plus got a herniated diaphragm. We saved him. Early this year he...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG-TV) - The City of Memphis Animal Shelter was the scene of a early morning raid by Shelby County deputies Tuesday morning. Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons and Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell say deputies with the Sheriff's Office executed a search warrant at the shelter located at 3456 Tchulahoma Road and temporarily secured the facility as part of an investigation into alleged animal abuse and cruelty.

When you see their faces, it's hard to imagine who could have treated two puppies like trash, throwing theminto a dumpster. It happened in Monterey County over the weekend just a short drive from a local shelter. The puppies were found Sunday afternoon in a Dumpster next to a Wells Fargo Bank at the Stone Creek Village Shopping Center in Del Rey Oaks. A man heard whimpering coming from inside the trash receptacle, found the puppies inside and brought them to the SPCA on state Highway 68 at about 3 p.m., SPCA Lt. Danielle Scheid said. The puppies, 7-week-old mixed...

The fossilised skull of a colossal "sea monster" has been unearthed along the UK's Jurassic Coast. The ferocious predator, which is called a pliosaur, terrorised the oceans 150 million years ago. The skull is 2.4m long, and experts say it could belong to one of the largest pliosaurs ever found: measuring up 16m in length. The fossil, which was found by a local collector, has been purchased by Dorset County Council. It was bought with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and it will now be scientifically analysed, prepared and then put on public display at Dorset County Museum. Palaeontologist...

Is This Haunting Picture Proof That Chimps Really DO Grieve? MICHAEL HANLON 27th October 2009 [Pic in URL] United in what appears to be deep and profound grief, a phalanx of more than a dozen chimpanzees stood in silence watching from behind the wire of their enclosure as the body of one of their own was wheeled past. This extraordinary scene took place recently at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center in Cameroon, West Africa. When a chimp called Dorothy, who was in her late 40s, died of heart failure, her fellow apes seemed to be stricken by sorrow. Enlarge Chimpanzees...

Daniel East and his sister, Tevyn, were driving at night along Interstate 80 near the Nevada-Utah earlier this month, when their car slammed into a coyote that scurried in their path, reported Rex Features. Believing there was no way the wild animal could survive the 75 mph collision, the pair kept driving for eight more hours to their destination, where they finally inspected the damage to their car.

Overall Winner "The Storybook Wolf" This nighttime shot of a wolf leaping into a farm in northern Spain has been named overall winner of the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 competition. The picture, by Spanish photographer Josi Luis Rodrmguez, was selected from more than 43,000 entries. Iberian wolves--a subspecies of the gray wolf--are extremely wary of humans after centuries of persecution. Rodrmguez captured the photograph using motion sensors and an infrared barrier to operate the camera. "This wolf jumping over the farmer's enclosure with the supposed intent of killing his livestock speaks for itself--thousands of years of...

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. – What's bigger than a picnic basket and even better than one in the eyes of black bears that live in Yosemite National Park? A study published this month in the Journal of Mammalogy says it's minivans driven by families with children who leave behind a trail of spilled juice boxes, Cheerios and coolers carrying other snacks. Park scientists have found that the bears tore up minivans more frequently than other types of vehicles....

Snakes Smuggled On A Plane: Customs Officials Catch Man With 24 Illegal Pythons And Geckos Taped To His Body [Pics in URL] By Daily Mail Reporter 26th October 2009 Norwegian authorities have arrested a 22-year-old man for smuggling pythons by taping them to his body. The Norwegian man, who was arrested in Oslo yesterday, smuggled the reptiles in underneath his clothes. Customs officials became suspicious when the man, who arrived on a passenger ferry from Denmark, was stopped for a spot check. Real-life 'trousersnake': The man was arrested for smuggling pythons and lizards strapped to his body When they found...

Meet the newest odd couple of the animal kingdom: the giant female and tiny male of the largest web-spinning spider known to science: Nephila komaci. The female of the species has a leg span of up to 5 inches (12 centimeters), while the male—which spends much of its time clambering on its partner's back—barely reaches an inch (2.5 centimeters), a new study says.Part of a well-known group of golden orb-weaver spiders—which can spin webs up to three feet (one meter) wide—N. komaci was first identified in a South African museum collection in 2000. But it wasn't until a 2007 field...

CUSTOMS officials in Norway say they had arrested a man who tried to illegally import 14 snakes and 10 lizards into the country by taping the reptiles to his body. The snakes, king pythons that are large in size but not venomous, were rolled up in socks and taped to the man's torso, while the geckos were found in small boxes taped to his legs. The unusual load was discovered during a body search after customs officials found a tarantula in the man's luggage.

If you are dumb enough to mess with these bulls, you deserve to get hurt. This has got to be the largest collection of "dumb a*#*#" ever! 2 videos of people with a hurt wish. And the BULLS are willing to hurt'em!!

With an estimated 1,645 gray wolves now on the landscape in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, their recovery is heralded by many government officials as an amazing success story. Yet it hasn't come cheap. Americans have spent more than $35 million to protect, reintroduce and manage gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains since they were first put on the list of animals protected by the Endangered Species Act in 1974. And since gray wolves are no longer a federally protected species in Montana and Idaho, those states are now in charge of managing them - and footing the bill for...

LANSING, Mich. - A Michigan pet store employee got himself a mouthful of cockroaches -- on purpose. The Lansing State Journal reported Sean Murphy on Friday stuffed 16 Madagascar hissing cockroaches into his mouth. He was trying to set a new Guinness World Records mark and said the old record was 11. Murphy initially got 12 squirming cockroaches into his mouth, but then kept adding them until he got to 16. He says it was a "big surprise" since he's never fit that many in his mouth before "in one try."

October 25, 2009, 12:00PM FLINT, Michigan — Little Brooklyn’s head was in the pitbull’s mouth when Keith Sampson, 13, grabbed the dog by the neck, forcing it to gasp for air and let the 3-year-old go. Then, after Keith lost his hold on the dog it went on to attack next-door neighbor Kristine Keaton, 37, who came to help, biting her arm to the bone. “It was a nightmare, and we feel like we’re just waking up from it,” said Keith’s mom, Jennifer Burcar, 33, of Flint about last Sunday’s events. The day was supposed to be spent celebrating Brooklyn’s...

The tiniest dinosaur in North America weighed less than a teacup Chihuahua, a new study says. Seen above as an artist's reconstruction in front of a Tyrannosaurus rex skull at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in California, the agile Fruitadens haagarorum was just 28 inches (70 centimeters) long and weighed less than two pounds (one kilogram). The diminutive dinosaur likely darted among the legs of larger plant-eaters such as Brachiosaurus and predators such as Allosaurus about 150 million years ago, during the late Jurassic period. Parts of the skulls, vertebrae, arms, and legs from four F. haagarorum...

BUENOS AIRES N.W.R., Arizona | Michael M. Hawkes, manager of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, reaches across his desk and pulls out a homemade blue-and-red bumper sticker that reads, "Littering is always a crime." It turns out that here on the U.S.-Mexico border, even that is a controversial statement — because it's aimed at the humanitarian groups that drop gallon jugs of water on public lands to help illegal immigrants crossing the rugged borderlands.

When Dylan Lynch captures a winning shot, it usually involves a hockey game, not a yawning cat. But it was the photo of his tired, three-year-old tabby, Ben, that won him top spot in our Kitty City photo contest. Lynch, a photographer and editor for the Edmonton Oilers and Oil Kings, likes to try out his new equipment on his three feline roommates. “I don’t always have a hockey game going on at my house, so I’ve got to test them on something,” he jokes.

Move over, Liberace. Give your keyboard fingers a rest, Billy Joel. The latest cool cat to wow millions for piano-playing prowess happens to be a gray shelter rescued feline named Nora. Nora’s piano-playing talents propelled her to become a YouTube phenomenon. Her keyboard concertos have been viewed 15,645,582 times – and counting – on YouTube and ranked among the Top 10 most memorable YouTube videos in 2007. Heck, a Lithuanian composer has been so fascinated by this feline pianist that he is busy arrange a symphony in her honor. The 5-year-old hops on the piano bench and begins to play...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.- A Missouri woman whose monkey was denied status as a service animal said having to leave the pet at home will restrict her activities. Debby Rose of Springfield said a federal judge rejected her lawsuit against the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, CoxHealth and Wal-Mart East for failing to recognize her Bonnet Macaque monkey, Richard, as a service animal, The (Springfield, Mo.) News-Leader reported Friday. "It's devastating; it's devastating," said Rose, who purchased the monkey in 2004. "I feel like I'm discriminated against in Greene County. What can I say?" Rose said in her suit that she suffers from...

A debate continues to rage between Wisconsin hunters and the Department of Natural Resources over the true number of deer in the state. Hunters have repeatedly argued the deer population is dropping. The DNR counters saying there are too many deer in Wisconsin and the agency is studying a plan to extend the deer hunting season. Now, hunters say they have the proof they need, a study that reportedly shows car-deer crashes in Wisconsin has dropped and has been dropping for years. Joe Terrien of MJ Collision Center in Bellevue has seen the numbers drop first hand. "Six years ago,...

It is the greatest animal battle on the planet, and it has finally been caught on camera. A BBC natural history crew has filmed the "humpback whale heat run", where 15m long, 40 tonne male whales fight it out to mate with even larger females. During the first complete sequence of this behaviour ever captured, the male humpbacks swim at high speed behind the female, violently jostling for access. The collisions between the males can be violent enough to kill.

<p>WEST VALLEY CITY — A 5-year-old boy suffered severe facial injuries Friday afternoon after he was attacked by a pit bull.</p> <p>"He yelled, 'The dog bit my face off and I think I'm going to die,'" said Greg Johansen, who was one of the first to help the boy.</p>

This has nothing to do with medicine – well maybe tangentially. I will now illustrate the different thought processes between men, women, and dogs.Dog pukes on kitchen floor. Dog: Damn! Man: Damn! Woman: Damn!Dog sniffs around area and begins to lick up vomit from floor. Dog: Hey! A warm meal! Man: Good boy! Woman: Don’t do THAT! BAD dog! Somebody put him outside! NO! DON’T use a wash cloth to clean it up! Paper towels. PAPER towels! Don’t throw the wash cloth in the washing machine now. Just throw it in the garbage. Eeeewwww. It didn’t touch any of the...

Authorities: Calif. Toddler Mauled to Death by Pit Bull Friday, October 23, 2009 MADERA, Calif. —  Authorities say a 17-month old boy has died after being mauled by a pit bull. Merced County authorities say the attack occurred Friday, and the boy died after being airlifted to a hospital.

In this Oct. 15, 2009 photo, Scott O'Konek, a Minnesota bowhunter displays a 32-point buck he took during a hunt at Camp Ripley, Minn. The buck might have the largest non-typical or asymmetrical rack taken by archery in Minnesota. The buck scored a preliminary antler score of 228. The current record is 225 set in 1989, according to the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. The deer was an estimated 5 years old and field-dressed at 192 pounds. (AP Photo/Minn. Dept. of Nat. Resources, Beau Liddell)

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia,- An Internet campaign has been started to help a 75-year-old Canadian man burned out of his home to get his dog back from a foster home. Earl Shadbolt lost his house in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia, to a fire in April, and the apartment he took while repairs were made wouldn't allow him to keep his terrier-mix dog Willie, The (Halifax) Chronicle-Herald reported Friday. Shadbolt made arrangements with fellow church member Laura Naugler to board the dog until he could move back in, but things turned nasty in August when he moved back home and asked for...

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A bear on ice skates attacked two people during rehearsals at a circus in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, killing one of them, Kyrgyz officials said Friday.

A picture of a hunting wolf has won the prestigious Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 award. Jose Luis Rodriguez captured the imaginations of the judges with a picture that he had planned for years, and even sketched out on a piece of paper. "I wanted to capture a photo in which you would see a wolf in an act of hunting - or predation - but without blood," he told BBC News. "I didn't want a cruel image." With a great deal of patience and careful observation of the wolves' movements, he succeeded in taking the award-winning...

Carole Bigwood sewed the white wedding dress, baked the wedding cake, and beamed as her little baby girl walked down the aisle to meet her tuxedoed groom as "Here Comes the Bride" strained through the speakers. So what made this wedding different from your average nuptials? It was her two dogs getting hitched — all in the name of fun! Dog nuptials – as silly as they might seem — are growing in popularity, as owners look for ways to create lasting memories with the animals they consider part of the family. "People do these events because they’re joyful," pet...

There's no doubt about the love we have for our dogs and cats. But, when push comes to shove, just how far would you go if your best friend was in a health crisis? Let's get to the point. Your pet is injured and needs lifesaving air.Question is, could you bring yourself to put your mouth to his snout? 58-percent of people surveyed by the Associated Press and Petside.com would be at least SOMEWHAT likely to perform CPR on their animal in a medical emergency. The survey showed women were more likely to deliver those rescue breaths than the men....

The deceptively named “Cancer Project” animal-rights group is at it again. This time its target isn’t hot dog makers, but grilled-chicken servers. The group, a branch of the PETA-linked Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), filed a lawsuit in Connecticut yesterday against three restaurant chains demanding warnings about a supposed link between grilled chicken and cancer. As we told the media, PCRM is nothing more than an animal rights front for pushing vegan activism, which is funded primarily by a single rich donor. Since 2003, PCRM and the Cancer Project have derived 60 percent of their budgets from a...