Free Republic

In what might be the world’s oldest recorded awkward situation, the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero spent much of his term as Cilicia’s governor trying to ignore a very specific request from his former legal client Marcus Caelius Rufus. In several letters sent over the better part of a year, Caelius repeatedly begged Cicero to capture and send him a group of local leopards. He needed the animals, he explained, because he was trying to launch his political career—and nothing won over voters’ hearts better than live exotic animal hunts in the arena. Caelius’s opponent Curio had no trouble collecting...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken senior Olympics officials on a tour of a Persian leopard sanctuary ahead of the Winter Games in Sochi. He tried to calm one leopard cub, which had become agitated and attacked two journalists, Russian media said. The visit to Sochi National Park comes amid efforts to show the games are positive for the environment. President Putin is well known for his encounters with wild animals which have helped burnish his outdoors image. In the past, he has been shown on state TV tagging whales, saving a TV crew from a tiger and taking to...

Just what it says in the title. Video at source. WARNING: So sweet it will give you Teh Diabeetus.

The bear that recently killed a caretaker in a Cleveland suburb was the latest example of animal violence in a state that has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them. The death in Ohio and attacks elsewhere - including the maiming of a Connecticut woman by her friend's pet chimpanzee and a 2-year-old Florida girl squeezed to death by her family's python - highlight that the patchwork of federal, state and local laws on keeping dangerous wild animals at home has holes. After a friend's 200-pound...

The astonishing spectacle of a leopard savaging a crocodile has been captured for the first time on camera.

A 4ft leopard for your living room (if you've got £12,000 in the kitty)By BETH HALE - More by this author » Last updated at 21:02pm on 29th October 2007  It is a sight to strike terror into the bravest of mice ... not to mention most breeds of dog. The Ashera is billed as the world's "largest, rarest and most exotic" domestic cat. The large pointed ears and eye-catching coat come from two wild bloodlines, the African serval and Asian leopard cat, crossed with an undisclosed domestic breed.  Scroll down for more... 4ft feline: The Ashera stands 4ft...

SANTA FE— Naked "leopard ladies" are coming to Santa Fe on Monday. Advocates from the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals— wearing leopard-spotted body paint, leopard ears and tails but otherwise in the buff— will be urging holiday shoppers on the Plaza not to buy fur, leather or wool as presents. Brandi Balladolid, a spokeswoman for the group, said nudity has proved to be a sure way to draw attention to PETA's causes. Balladolid said she had been arrested in the past for participating in nude "leopard ladies" protests. But, she said, "an hour in jail, or...

The authorities in India's business capital Bombay (Mumbai) have captured three leopards after a recent upsurge in attacks on humans. The big cats have killed 12 people this month alone - and three times that number since the start of 2003. Residents have been gripped by fear following the attacks, which have taken place in and around a wildlife park. Officials blame illegal settlements in the sanctuary and a lack of food for the leopards. Most of the attacks have occurred in the city's Powai area, where the Sanjay Gandhi National Park is situated. The sprawling urban lung covers 100...

Leopards are Prowling Britain, Survey Suggests James Owen in England for National Geographic News June 3, 2004 If it is true that big cats haven't lived wild in the U.K. for 2,000 years, then, judging from the results of a new survey, a lot of large house cats now roam the British countryside. Organized by British Big Cats Society (BBCS), the nationwide survey recorded 2,052 unconfirmed sightings of big cats in just 15 months, between January 2003 and March of this year. The sighting counts averaged four each day. Two-thirds of the sightings involved large black animals resembling melanistic leopards,...