This week, I was milking sympathy after being stung twice by bees on two successive days walking our dog, Molly, through our nearby forest. The sympathy then came to an end when I saw this story about an elderly man in Redondo Beach, California.
Category: Animals
A group of Buddhists announced recently that they were going to purchase 534 lobsters to return them to the sea. A group of lobstermen from Gloucester reportedly read about the designated site of the ceremony and followed the Buddhists — laying traps and capturing the lobsters and bringing them to market. This was viewed as really funny by the captain of the fishing vessel Degelyse — according to published reports. However, in an update below, Joe Ciaramitaro insists it is satire and not meant to be disrespectful.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Their shrinking ice floe habitat under constant assault by climate change, polar bears are taking to the water to preserve their species. One female swam the equivalent distance between Boston and Washington D.C. in an effort to find more suitable habitat. The migration has caused a sad side-effect, as according to study author, George Durner, a USGS research zoologist, “Bears that engaged in long-distance swimming were more likely to experience cub loss.” Five of eleven polar bears that made these swims lost their cubs in the process.
Continue reading “Coming To A Beach Near You: Polar Bear Swims 426 Miles”
Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
In Atlanta, Georgia, Tiffany Denise Allen is charged with simple battery, simple assault and disorderly conduct. While these charges may not be unusual in themselves, the circumstances surrounding them are. Allen was a manger of a local McDonald’s restaurant. She was off duty but on the premises when Jennifer Schwenker entered the McDonald’s in suburban Marietta with her autistic twins and service dog on July 12. Apparently upset that Mrs. Schwenker brought her service dog into the restaurant, surveillance tapes show Allen proceeded to follow her around the store and out into the parking lot where Allen punched the woman in the face. The recordings show other McDonald’s employees trying to restrain Allen. The operators of the local franchise, J.M. and Jan Owens, are cooperating with police. They told the Associated Press that “At our McDonald’s restaurant, we respect and value our customers. Their safety and well-being is always a top priority [. . .] We strive to comply with all applicable laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is our policy to make our restaurants accessible to all customers, including those with disabilities and special needs, whether or not they need the assistance of service animals.” McDonald’s says Allen is no longer in their employ. Clearly McDonald’s and the Owens’ have done the right thing in response so far, but the scenario does raise some questions.
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Seeing-eye dogs are a feature of most urban areas and a godsend to folks disabled by challenges to their vision. What isn’t so common is a seeing-eye dog for a dog. Ellie, a King Charles spaniel, is the victim of abuse by humans and almost totally blind. Kept in the dark most of her life before her rescue by the local SPCA, her eye muscles haven’t developed and she suffers from bilateral cataracts. While the SPCA raises money to pay for an operation that could mitigate the problem, Ellie’s protection  has fallen to an unlikley hero.
Drivers in Island Creek, Idaho this week encountered a “black cloud” of 14 million bees that spilled out of a truck on the highway. Now highway officials are warning residents — many of whom were stung by multiple bees — that they should now prepare for a swarm of bears.
Continue reading “California Citizens First Face Swarm of 14 Million Spilled Bees and Then Warned Bears Are Coming”
Andrew David Thompson, 24, is studying to be a doctor at Michigan State University. His career, however, in osteopathic medicine has been delayed a bit by an anger issue and his tendency to kill dogs. Police say that Thompson has admitted to killing more than a dozen dogs — all Italian Greyhounds — out of anger by beating them on the floor or against the walls.
Continue reading “Michigan Medical Student Admits To Killing More Than A Dozen Dogs Out Of Anger”
This is Mackie, a Boston Terrier who reacts rather oddly to tickling. That is all.
Continue reading “Don’t Tickle The Terrier”
This is one of the saddest stories I have read this year. An Illinois family is grieving after Taylor Mae Stinchcomb, 15, tried to save the family dog from being put down and stole their minivan. The resulting accident killed both Taylor and the dog, Romulus.
Continue reading “Illinois Girl Dies Trying To Save Family Dog”
Over the weekend, the Israeli Maariv newspaper ran a story that spread like wildfire on news sites and blogosphere: a Rabbinical court sentencing a dog to be stoned to death as the reincarnated spirit of a disgruntled lawyer. As they say in the business, it was a fact too good to check. It turns out to be false and Maariv has issued an apology, but not until the story ran on sites from BBC to Drudge. For some who thought the story did not smell right, they were right.
Continue reading “The Curious Incident of the Dog That Was Not Stoned . . .”
If you read the story below, you will see a picture a deer that appears to have taken flight and landed on a power line — causing a major outage. Montana officials believe that an eagle was able to snatch the small deer but dropped it when it proved too much of a load.
Continue reading ““I Once Saw a Deer Fly”: Officials Perplexed Over Outage Caused By “Deer With Wings””
This is conclusive proof that eating disorders are not limited to humans in the animal kingdom.
Continue reading “Nuts? What Nuts?”
San Francisco’s Commission of Animal Control last year was lambasted over a move to ban puppies, hamsters, and kittens from being sold in the city. Now, the Commission is moving on to a new proposed ban: goldfish.
Continue reading “The Scales of Justice? San Francisco Moves Toward Banning Sale of Gold Fish”
In New Hampshire, Wendy Bordeleau and her neighbors are up in arms over the repeated tasering of a 500-pound 1-year-old heifer that had escaped from her herd in Dracut, Massachusetts. People were trying to herd the cow back into the fenced area when police were called and began to taser the animal over the objections of onlookers.
Continue reading “New Hampshire Police Criticized For Tasering Wandering Cow”