Be Kind To Animals (And Report People Who Aren’t!!)

Ya know…There is a lot of animal abuse going on these days. And it just makes me sick, every time I hear  about those poor, defenseless animals, being abused.

What makes people do things like that? They must be out of their minds, to hurt all these furry little creatures, that are so sweet & loveable. What did these animals ever do, to deserve such treatment?  Let’s put a stop to this, now!! ! If you see or hear, of any abuse on these animals, please notify the authorities, immediately.

I have 5 dogs & 3 Cats, and some baby kittens. My dogs are…3 Chihuahua’s & 2 Beagles. My one Chihuahua, Molly, I rescued from an animal abuser, back in 2001.

She wouldn’t come near anyone for at least 2 month’s, she was that scared. After 2 month’s, she started coming to me, only. It took her, a whole year & a half, before she would go to anyone else, besides me. She was so scrawny looking, when I first got her, in 2001. She was a year old then. And now she’s so beautiful and loveable. There are still times, when she won’t go near someone, but she’ll always be that way, because animal’s are a lot like children. And, they all, never forget, how they’ve been treated. But, animal’s can sense, when not to go to someone, where children can’t sense that, but they as well, never forget what happened to them, which also makes them afraid of other people. And it’s really disgusting, that someone has to be abusive, like that!  Let’s put a stop to it now!!! Help fight, all this abuse!!!

Carol – AARP Dog Group

Carol is certainly right… and in order to change things we must all stand up and be heard, be their voices (or more sometimes) as the ASPCA says. Ask Marion/JOMP

Posted: Just One More Pet

Related Posts:

• Speak Out For Those Who Cannot Speak For Themselves… Always Stand-Up for Them and Join the ASPCA

Cow gives birth to calf with two heads

Jean-Baptiste Collard, a Belgian farmer, got the shock of a lifetime when one of his cows gave birth to a calf with two heads.

Published: 12:15PM BST 12 Aug 2009

The mutant moo-er has two separate heads but only one brain, meaning both heads react simultaneously and in unison Photo: BARCROFT

Mr Collard oversaw what he expected to be a normal birth with the help of a local vet at his farm in Flamisoul, Belgium, last week.

But he got more than he bargained for. The mutant has two separate heads but only one brain, meaning both heads react simultaneously.

It also has four eyes and two mouths but only one pair of ears.

Surprised Mr Collard said: “I called the vet because when my cow was in labor, I noticed the birth might get complicated. The calf seemed too big.

“The legs came out first, so we put a rope around them and pulled the calf out, as usual.

“But then the vet cried out: ‘It has two heads!’”

“I immediately thought: ‘what an exit present for me, I’m thinking about retiring and now this happens’.”

“After an hour, I could slowly give it a bottle of milk. That’s when I noticed both tongues react at the same time. The vet later explained this is due to the fact that the calf only has one brain.

“I hope it goes well with my new calf, I’m already attached to it, it’s like a baby to me. And I see the mother is also crazy about her.”

The mother and calf are presently both well but the future of the calf is uncertain.  But for now… the calf is loved.

Source:  Telegraph.co.uk

Posted:  Just One More Pet

Jesse Compares Michael Vick to Jackie Robinson

Since this article was written, Vick has been signed… ” Michael Vick Signs Two-Year Deal With NFL’s Eagles” read the headline.  $1.6 million the first year and $5.2 million the second.  Nice reward for brutal treatment of animals and being a despicable example for America’s Youth!  And being compared to Jackie Robinson is absolutely an insult to Robinson’s memory!

Steve Helber/Associated Press

The Rev. Jesse Jackson says signing Michael Vick will require someone to make a courageous move and asks why lesser players have jobs in the N.F.L.

Published: August 7, 2009

The Rev. Jesse Jackson became the latest public figure to offer an opinion on the future of Michael Vick. Jackson said he wondered whether there had been collusion among N.F.L. owners to keep Vick out of the league.

“I want to make it an issue,” Jackson said Thursday in a telephone interview. “I want teams to explain why they have a quarterback who has less skills but is playing or at least is on the taxi squad, and a guy with more skills can’t get into training camp.”

Two years ago this month, Vick pleaded guilty to felony charges related to his participation in an unlawful dogfighting ring and was indefinitely suspended from the N.F.L. Vick was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison in December 2007.  (Definitely not long enough based on the level of cruelty of his offenses  including the drowning, electricution and hanging of dogs and even throwing his family dogs into the ring to watch them torn up as he laughed.  That is a level of evil that I certainly would not want to reward or have out on the field and by any standard would require years of counseling to counteract.  Vick can’t even make the sorry case that he needed the money!)

He was conditionally reinstated to the league last month by Commissioner Roger Goodell. Under terms of the reinstatement, Vick can take part in preseason practices, workouts and meetings and may play in the final two preseason games — if a team signs him.

When the season begins, Vick may participate in all team activities except games. Goodell said he would consider Vick for full reinstatement by Week 6.

“Democracy does not guarantee success,” Jackson said. “Democracy guarantees an opportunity. It’s not fair to de facto try to lock him out of his right to compete. If he can’t make the team, don’t let him play. If he can, let him work.”

Jesse Jackson Compares Michael Vick to Jackie Robinson

Jackson, born in 1941, has been a civil rights activist for most of his adult life. He said that in some ways, Vick’s attempt to re-enter the N.F.L. was similar to Jackie Robinson’s entering Major League Baseball.

Although their situations were drastically different, Jackson said, the challenge was the same: Which owner would have the courage to make a controversial signing?

Viewed from a 2009 prism, that comparison seems blasphemous. Robinson became an American icon because of his courage and perseverance. The only thing he did wrong — in some eyes — was to be born African-American.

But in the era in which Robinson came of age, his admirable qualities mattered to Major League Baseball owners. A significant segment of the American population knew little to nothing about Robinson, and saw him as someone who threatened a way of life. Owners were not going to allow Robinson or any other African-American to play major league baseball, regardless of how much character and fortitude he possessed.

If we are going to make a comparison of unfair scenarios…  How about comparing Vick’s rehiring by the NFL after only 23-months in prison for torturing and killing numerous dogs with the presentation of the Medal of Freedom to Ted Kennedy after his involvement in Chappaquiddick; running away and leaving a young girl to die in a car he had driven into the water accidentally at best and perhaps not so accidentally in the opinion of others, and never spending a moment in prison. The comparison is indeed closer.  The comparison of Vick to Robinson is blasphemous and insulting to Robinson’s memory!!  What do they have in common other than the color of their skin?!?  Isn’t this exactly the kind of thing that Jesse Jackson would rip a white person into pieces for…  for making that kind of comparison because of race?

Many fair-minded baseball owners had the same concerns about Robinson that fair-minded N.F.L. owners today have about Vick: What will critics say? How will the public respond?

Finally one organization, the Dodgers, and one man, Branch Rickey, were bold and pragmatic enough to weigh the risks and take the leap of signing Robinson.

Vick, unlike Robinson in 1947, has a proven track record. Vick has performed at a star level in the N.F.L. Robinson performed briefly in the Negro Leagues before joining the Dodgers.

The question is: How severely have Vick’s skills eroded? You would think that one owner, one team would at least be curious; training camps have been open for only a week.

“If the guy has paid his dues to the criminal justice system, paid his debt to the N.F.L. and shows remorse, what else does he need to do?” Jackson asked.  23-months in prison for torturing and murdering dogs is hardly enough of a punishment for his crimes. He should have received at least a year or two for every dog her mistreated, tortured, abused and killed and should have been from playing football for life.  If you are really going to compare unfairness, what should be compared is Ted Kennedy receiving the

For many, the nonnegotiable issue in the Vick case is cruelty to animals. But let’s climb off our high horses. We know many fans hunt. They track down innocent animals, blast them with shotguns, shoot them out of the sky with rifles — for sport. Some take off animals’ heads and mount them as trophies.

Perfectly legal.

But the issue here is that Vick served his time in prison for breaking the law. The issue is degrees of cruelty. Who is worse: someone who tortures in the name of sport and then apologizes, or the one who kills in the name of sport and continues to hunt?

Vick was cruel and was punished. Now he has promised to be compassionate.

Jackson pointed out that Vick had satisfied the demands of the legal system. Now, like thousands of young men who are released from prison each year, Vick is eager to become a productive citizen. So far, he has been unable to find a job and his options are limited.

The Canadian Football League will not consider Vick or any player under full or partial suspension by the N.F.L.

“One of the big issues of re-entry is that when people come out, can they get gainful employment?” Jackson said.  Sure… How about a job somewhere between minimum wage and $35,000 a year, spending the rest of his time giving free talks to young people about compassion and kindness and volunteering at animal rescue events, while wearing an electronic ankle bracelet like child abusers?!?

Vick is fortunate. As a quarterback, he has skills that are highly valued.

“He has a right to compete,” Jackson said. “If he doesn’t make the team, then he can’t play. If he can, let him work.”

So far, everyone has said no. Someone should have the guts to say yes.

By WILLIAM C. RHODEN – E-mail: wcr@nytimes.com

Notes by Ask Marion – Marion’s Place/JOMP

Related Posts:

• Michael Vick Sign Two-Year Deal NFL’s Eagles
• Times Topics: Michael Vick
• Vick Released from Federal Custody—ASPCA President Speaks Out
• ASPCA Assists in Largest Dog Fighting Crackdown in U.S. History
• Great Update About Dogs Removed From Michael Vick’s Compound
• Seems Micheal Vick Snuck Out of Prison When Release to Avoid Media
• Humane Society of the U.S. finally changes its policy on fighting dogs
• Dogtown
• TIME TO WRITE A LETTER OR TWO
• Vicktory For Puppies
• NFL Stars Are Standing Behind Vick
• Not Everyone Wants Michael Vick to Come Back

Speak Out For Those Who Cannot Speak For Themselves… Always Stand-Up for Them and Join the ASPCA

Do you have the courage to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves?

This is Shelby. Shelby is just one of the countless animals abused, neglected or abandoned in this country each year. But Shelby is one of the lucky ones.

Rescued kitten gets TLC from ASPCA Adoption Center Team.

ASPCA Adoption Center Team members comfort this weary stray.

The Blue Dye in M&Ms Cures Spinal Injuries

I will choose to believe that they are working with mice who already are injured?!?  And let us hope that pet stores realize that cats and rats are not stuffed animals or toys!

Thanks to miracle compound BBG, mice turn blue, regain ability to walk

Awwwww:  University of Rochester

The next time someone tries to argue that all M&Ms are the same, no matter the color, you can tell them about the blue M&M. The candy (like Gatorade and other products) gets its color from a food dye similar to Brilliant Blue G (BBG) — a compound that, as it turns out, is medically useful. Building on earlier research, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found that injections of BBG can relieve mice of secondary spinal cord injuries. In September, they will start conducting human clinical trials.

BBG works by inhibiting the function of P2X7, a molecule that pervades the spinal cord and assists another molecule, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), in killing off healthy motor neurons. Because quantities of ATP flow to the spinal cord post-injury, significant secondary injuries occur, which is why thwarting ATP’s activity is absolutely vital.

The U of R researchers were able to do just that, via injections of BBG. While rodents that hadn’t received the dose were never able to scurry around again following their injury, the mice that received the BBG regained their ability to walk (albeit with a limp).

The mice also turned temporarily blue, as a side-effect (the only one). The verdict here at Popsci.com is that it’s only a matter of time before pet stores start selling a rainbow of rats.

(And let us hope that pet stores realize that cats and rats are not stuffed animals or toys!)

By Anna Maria Jakubek - Posted 07.28.2009 at 3:01 pm – [Via CNN.com]

Source:  True Health Is True Wealth

Posted:  Just One More Pet

Government Money Used To Build Monkeyless Exhibit Instead of Saving Rescued Abandoned and Homeless Animals and Stopping the Euthanization of Healthy Animals

Would you believe a story about the Los Angeles Zoo spending millions (about $7 million) in taxpayer money on a Chinese Golden Monkey exhibit — only to have the Chinese decide they don’t want to send the monkeys? Wait, what happened to the firefighters and the teachers? California’s government tells us they have no money for them, yet they are spending money on Chinese Golden Monkeys? (STORY) No wonder 90% of Americans, according to the L.A. Times, are concerned with government spending.

LA Zoo Searches for New Simians After Monkey Snub

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Zoo may have the nation’s only monkey lair approved by a feng shui expert. There’s only one problem: No monkeys.

The city spent $7.4 million building the China-themed primate enclosure — complete with Canary Island palm trees, artificial trees with extra springy limbs, and a viewing structure with Chinese-style tilework — after China promised to lend the zoo a trio of rare golden snub-nosed monkeys.

But now the Chinese government has taken the monkeys off the table, leaving zoo officials searching for suitable stand-in simians to take the place of the golden monkeys, known for their blue-faces and blond-hair.

“Within 60 days, some lucky monkey will have a home there,” City Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes the zoo, said Thursday.

Zoo spokesman Jason Jacobs said negotiations with Chinese officials broke down several weeks ago, but he did not know why.

The Chinese official that had signed the agreement granting Los Angeles the monkeys has since left his position, he said.

The Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles did not answer a call seeking comment and an e-mail was returned as undeliverable. The Chinese Wildlife Conservation Association, which was to oversee the animal loan, did not answer a call before business hours in Beijing.

Chinese officials had offered a 10-year-lease for the monkeys to former Mayor James Hahn during a visit to China in 2002.

Hahn had originally sought to lease pandas for the zoo, but Chinese officials refused, saying four zoos in the U.S. already have pandas, said David Towne, president of the Giant Panda Conservation Foundation, which helped broker the failed monkey loan.

“They use the pandas as somewhat of a diplomatic and political tool as a reward for supporting Chinese policies,” he said.

The city agreed to pay the Chinese government $100,000 a year for the monkeys that were offered instead of pandas. Officials voted in 2006 to build the enclosure designed to look like a rural Chinese village. The enclosure was finished in 2008.

A feng shui expert hired for $4,500 tweaked the final design with a water fountain and other features meant to promote the monkeys’ health and happiness.

Zoo officials are now consulting with their colleagues at other zoos to obtain native Chinese monkey species that will fit in with the surroundings.

“Of course we’re disappointed we didn’t get the golden monkeys, but the end result is we have a gorgeous new habitat, which is fully capable of housing any other variety of Asian primate,” Jacobs said.

By JACOB ADELMAN – L.A. Times -  Jun 11, 2009 – The Associated Press

Source:  GlennBeck.com

And what makes this story even more unbelievable and crazy is that not only is California virtually bankrupt and both firefighters and school teacher’s jobs are in peril, but how about instead of spending $7 million on Chinese Monkeys visiting L.A. on loan, that we look after thousands upon thousands of animals, healthy American pets, that are being abandoned and taken to California shelters statewide in record numbers because of the foreclosure situation and after ‘we over-bred’ them, both manmade situations, causing these animals to be euthanized in record numbers.

Just last week the ASPCA sent out an alert to stop Governor Schwartzennegger from cutting Shelter Funding: California: Protest Governor’s Plan to Cut Shelter Funding! .  His plan would allow shelters to euthanize healthy pets that are not picked up after 3-days or less rather than allow 60-days to find them homes; which in today’s environment, isn’t enough.

Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal would suspend the state mandate and cut the minimum holding period to three days or less.

Due to the dramatic increase in home foreclosures, more and more animals are ending up in shelters—and if this proposal passes, shelters will be forced to euthanize scores of healthy, adoptable pets who might have otherwise found happy endings in new homes. These animals have already had their lives turned upside down. They deserve the opportunity to get a second chance and to live out their natural life span(s).

What You Can Do

Please take a few minutes today to call your California state senator and assemblymember to ask them to oppose the governor’s proposal to suspend the animal adoption mandate.

Visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center to find your legislators’ phone numbers and let us know you called.

If we insist on going along with this insanity of bailouts, then why can’t some of this TARP money that is just ’sitting somewhere’ or is being used to study swine odor or why men don’t like wearing condoms be used to rescue living animals, stop the euthanization of all healthy animals, and cut adoption fees at shelters to help families adopt an animal or an additional pet.  Temporarily housing homeless and abandoned animals and then coordinating the various facets of matching homeless animals with potential families is a ’shovel ready project’ that would save and create jobs in California and most other states while saving lives.

Perhaps the LA Zoo would like to offer up the the empty Chinese Golden Monkey Exhibit Facility  and funds for that program for the over-flowing LA, OC and Inland Empire shelters until some TARP money could be provided for a new facility, a central coordination program, food and supplies for existing shelters and rescue programs and and/or to update and enlarge existing facilities??   They could even set up an adoption center at the Zoo!?!

Thank you, California, for speaking up for your state’s neediest animals.  First priorities should always be for programs that affect live creatures directly… people and animals instead of many of the crazy things on the approved “bailout” project list.

-Ask Marion/Just One More Pet

Related Posts:

• California: Protest Governor’s Plan to Cut Shelter Funding!
• Stop California SB 250 – Save Our Dogs and Our Rights
• Doomed Dogs Get On The Rescue Wagon to Other Shelters
• Where there is a will…
• Help Pass California AB 233 – Pet Adoption Tax Credit
• Economic Forecast: One Million Pets May Lose Homes in the U.S.
• Just How Bad Is The Economy??
• GETTING TO ZERO
• 285 Dogs Are Out and Never Looking Back
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• Adopting A Senior Pet Has Many Advantage For Families and Seniors
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Posted:  Just One More Pet

Airports Offer Relief for You and Your Pet…

Areas offer on-the-go travelers options to let their four-legged friends ‘go’

Workers clean up the pet-relief area outside El Paso International Airport.

No bones about it, we’re a pet crazy country.

Need proof? According to the American Pet Products Association’s most recent survey, 62 percent of American households own a pet. And, if the rise in pet-friendly hotels, restaurants, theme-parks and tourist attractions is any measure, many of those pets get to tag along when their owners head out on the road.

When those trips involve airports, though, things can get rough long before the flight leaves the ground. That’s because while every airport has plenty of well-marked restrooms for people, not every airport offers areas for pets to find relief.

Those that do can really make a difference, says Kathy McCabe, publisher of an online travel newsletter. “I have an 11-year old wire fox terrier and know that travel can make many dogs nervous and anxious,” she said. “When they feel this way, they sometimes need to ‘go’ more often than usual. So it’s nice to be able to give a dog a break before getting on board the plane.”

To that end, airports in Phoenix, Austin, Salt Lake City and a number of other cities have had easy-to-find pet relief areas for years. However, in many other airports, travelers have had difficulty sniffing out appropriate or accessible places for their pooches to go.

But now, thanks to a new Department of Transportation regulation designed with service animals in mind, all travelers are finding it easier than ever to take their pets along for the ride.

The letter of the law
In May 2008, the Transportation Department gave airlines a year to comply with new rules requiring accessible relief areas, and escorts to those relief areas, for passengers traveling with service animals at each airport a carrier serves. DOT didn’t say how to make this happen, but James Briggs, vice-president for legal affairs at the airport membership organization ACI-NA, says airlines were instructed to buddy up with airports in each city to work things out.

In general, it seems they have. New — and newly improved — pet-relief areas have been popping up at airports all over the country.  In part, these pet-relief parks are part of a trend to improve customer service. But the amenity also helps airlines and airports comply with the new rules.

Last June, for example, Philadelphia International Airport unveiled seven relief stations on the departures road and outside baggage claim. Described as a new service for all passengers with pets in tow, press releases also noted that the “pet ports” were recommended by the airport’s American’s with Disabilities Act Review Committee.

Additionally, Boston Logan International, Oakland International and Tucson International have recently opened brand new pet-relief areas.

Traveler Jenny Wedge says that while the new pet-relief area at John Wayne Airport in Orange County is small, “it does the trick and is ironically the same area where we used to have some planters where animals would relieve themselves anyway. Now we have an area clearly meant for animals that has a nice white picket fence, a fire hydrant and Astroturf.”

McCarran International in Las Vegas, which already had three relief areas, recently spent about $5,000 improving those spaces, adding chain-link fences, pea gravel and dog waste bag dispensers.

Miami International spent about $40,000 to build two pet parks, each with a bench for people and a fire hydrant for pets. (When the north terminal is complete, a third relief area will built.)

El Paso International recently opened its pet-relief area, which was built with recyclable materials salvaged from prior terminal projects.

Relief areas at Minneapolis-St. Paul International have not changed. However, the airport has “formalized arrangements with the airlines and with the Travelers Assistance program managers to ensure that disabled travelers who need access to those areas receive an escort to and from the pet-relief facility,” said Patrick Hogan, director of public affairs and marketing.

Relief landside and airside
Nearly every airport pet-relief area is located curbside, outside the secure areas. In response to the new law, though, some airports created, or are working on creating, relief areas on the secure side of the airport, eliminating the need to escort travelers with service animals back through security and providing convenient relief areas for travelers with short connection times.

Seattle-Tacoma International, Salt Lake City International and Fresno Yosemite International have already created post-security pet relief areas, although only people with service animals can access those areas in Salt Lake City.

And Detroit Metropolitan Airport is working with Delta to create a post-security relief area in the McNamara Terminal. “Our thinking,” says the Scott Wintner, a public affairs specialist, “is that since that terminal is Delta’s second-largest hub facility, and since a majority of customers using that terminal are connecting, it makes sense to have the relief area airside.”

While Delta and the Detroit Metro work that out, other airlines are working with airports nationwide to make sure pet-relief areas are open for pets do to their business.

An American Airlines spokesperson said that company is confident it is in compliance at all U.S. airports.

A Southwest Airlines spokesperson says their local “station leaders” are working airport-by-airport to ensure there are pet-relief areas where they serve.

And at Alaska Airlines, customer advocacy director Ray Prentice conducted a survey of every airport the airline serves and put together a detailed chart noting the location of each pet-relief area.

What a relief!

By Harriet Baskas

Travel Writing Contributor – MSNBC

Posted:  Just One More Pet

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THE GAY PENGUIN STORY – BILL O’REILLY AND DENNIS MILLER DIDN’T MAKE UP

Sometimes  you  just  have  to  laugh…

Never mind they get the story wrong (the gay penguins hatched a chick — it was in 2005 that the same zoo imported female penguins to see if its gay male pairs would go straight), what’s more important to O’Reilly and Miller is that the story gives them a chance to hoot at one another over lame “tight T-shirt” and “pre-colored egg” jokes. And don’t forget the pre-op transsexuals. Always good for a laugh.  And we all need to laugh…

Gay Penguin Dads in German Zoo Hatch Their First Chick

Z and Vielpunkt, two male Humboldt penguins at Germany’s Bremerhaven Zoo, are the proud new parents of a healthy penguin chick.

“Another couple threw the egg out of their batch. We picked it up and put it in the nest of the gay penguins,” veterinarian Joachim Schöne told the German newspaper Bild of the pair’s entry into parenthood. Z and Vielpunkt faithfully cared for their adopted egg for more than a month; in late April it hatched.  Since then, they’ve been taking care of their chick around the clock; it’s still too young to feed itself, so the dads feed him fish mash, Schöne explained.

“Since the chick arrived, they have been behaving just as you would expect a heterosexual couple to do,” the zoo said in a statement.

The Bremerhaven Zoo’s same-sex penguin couples (there are three such pairs in residence there, all males) first made news back in 2005, according to the BBC.  At the time, the zoo announced plans to “test” the sexual orientations of the six penguins, who’d been seen engaging in mating rituals and trying to incubate rocks as if they were eggs.  Gay rights advocates were outraged when the zoo brought four new female penguins into the colony in a bid to encourage the penguins to reproduce, and the zoo later nixed the idea.  (In the zoo’s defense, Humboldt penguins are classified as vulnerable to extinction, so it does make a certain amount of sense to be concerned about them reproducing.  And since Z and Vielpunkt have done just that, everyone wins!)

Z and Vielpunkt aren’t the first same-sex penguin pair to successfully care for a chick.  Another such couple were male chinstrap penguin residents of New York’s Central Park Zoo named Roy and Silo.  Roy and Silo, much like the Bremerhaven penguins, were so anxious to hatch an egg that they tried incubating a rock. They were eventually given an “orphaned” fertile egg and successfully raised a female chick named Tango.

Another male penguin couple were removed from their colony in a Chinese zoo last year when they repeatedly tried to steal eggs from male-and-female pairs.  (In a rather ingenious move, they actually replaced the eggs they were stealing with rocks.)  But visitors complained when the penguins were removed, and eventually they were given two eggs of their own.  Since then, a keeper told the Daily Mail, “they’ve turned out to be the best parents in the whole zoo.”

–Lindsay Barnett

Top photo: Z and Vielpunkt in their enclosure

Credit: Carmen Jaspersen / European Pressphoto Agency

Bottom photo: The couple’s chick, who has not been named and whose sex is still unknown

Credit: Carmen Jaspersen / European Pressphoto Agency

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Posted:  Just One More Pet

Animals just want to have fun, survey finds…

From tickling to playing catch, animals do some things simply for enjoyment

Connie Pugh / Farm Sanctuary

A cow takes time to smell the flowers at the Farm Sanctuary, an organization that rescues abused/neglected farmed animals. A new survey suggests that animals experience happiness for happiness’ sake. 

From tickling to playing catch, animals engage in certain behaviors just for fun, even enjoying sensations that are unknown to humans, concludes an extensive new survey on pleasure in the animal kingdom.  

The findings, published in the latest Applied Animal Behavior Science, hold moral significance, argues author Jonathan Balcombe. He believes scientists, conservationists and other animal rights activists should not overlook animal joy. 

“The capacity for pleasure means that an animal’s life has intrinsic value, that is, value to the individual independent of his or her value to anyone else, including humans,” Balcombe, a senior research scientist for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, explained to Discovery News. 

He determined animals experience happiness for happiness’ sake related to play, food, touch and sex. Observations of herring gulls in Virginia, for example, found these birds play “drop-catch,” tossing clams and other small, hard objects as though they were baseballs, just for pure enjoyment. 

In terms of food, green iguanas go to great lengths to find fresh, leafy lettuce, even when supplied with ample amounts of more nutritious reptile chow. Studies on other animals indicate some foods, independent of their nutrition levels, cause animals to release pleasure-producing opioids in their bodies. Language-trained apes and parrots have even told their owners they loved or hated certain edibles. 

Pleasure itself can be the end-all reward, as “regardless of the evolutionary benefits of a behavior,” he said, “animals often do things because they are rewarding.”  

“I doubt that a monkey thinks, ‘If I eat this fig it will sustain me,’ but rather, ‘Ooh, yummy, a delicious fig!’” added Balcombe, whose book “Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasures” is scheduled for release next year.  

Regarding touch, a human might go to a spa for a mud bath and massage, but nature creates its own “spas” for hippopotamuses (hippopotami… for the record) at freshwater springs in Kenya. There, wallowing hippos gather, moving in and out of “cleaning stations” where multiple fish species congregate to nibble hippo parasites, loose skin, fungal growths and more.  

The hippos “deliberately splay their toes, spread their legs and hold their mouths open,” often becoming “so relaxed during these spa treatments that they would sometimes fall asleep,” Balcombe recounted.  

Sex isn’t just for procreation, the paper further suggests.  

“Oral sex that appears purely for pleasure has been documented in goats, hyenas, various primates, manatees, bats and sheep,” said Balcombe, who added that homosexuality is practiced within at least 300 species. Masturbation, even among certain birds, has also been noted.  

Animals also may experience pleasures that go beyond human senses. Electric fish seem to enjoy giving each other stimulating charges, for example, while dolphins use “low-pitched buzzing clicks” near their genital areas, which “appears to be a way of giving pleasure to another.”  

Martin Stephens, vice president of Animal Research Issues at The Humane Society of the United States, told Discovery News that discussions of animal pleasure are often left out of science, with the emphasis instead going to negative experiences, like pain and stress. The two extremes of the feeling spectrum shouldn’t be mutually exclusive, however.

By Jennifer Viegas – Discovery/MSNBC – Pets

Posted:  Just One More Pet

Animal Protection Repression-Files Prove Political Motivation in Austria

10 chained animal activists in orange Guatanamo-suits staged a protest outside the Austrian Home Office this week to highlight police repression against animal protection Vienna, 16th May 2009 The special commission set up by the Austrian Home Office in 2006 has carried out the most extensive investigation operation since the founding of Austria’s 2nd Republic against the animal advocacy movement. In this political move to wipe out legitimate work on behalf of animals, VGT has been particularly severely hit. The political background to this case can be shown clearly by the following points: Although legally obliged to present all evidence showing an accused person’s innocence, police have omitted all such findings from their final reports. This includes results of DNA tests, tracking devices, surveillance, bugging operations and under cover agents, as well as the existence of concrete alibis. These things are simply not mentioned. It is as if they never took place. On 24 February 2009 a judge ruled that police were no longer allowed to restrict those accused having access to their complete files. Following this ruling the special commission completed the final reports even though the investigations have not been formally closed. Why? The law states that once final reports have been submitted it is permissible to restrict access to files and this is exactly what the police have now done! The police are fully prepared to undermine and ignore a court ruling. In minutes from one of the special commission’s meetings from 19 June 2008 it is detailed how those present discuss how best to destroy VGT: taking away the organisation’s charity status is what they come up with. Without having charitable status VGT would have to pay tax on all donations over the last years, effectively financially destroying the organisation. And just this has happened: On 30 April this year police started actions to have VGT’s charitable status taken away. In an internal report form the special commission dated 23. 1. 2008 it is documented that, from now on all information stands and events to do with animal protection “regardless of the topic“ are to be visibly heavily policed through out the whole country with the aim to “give the public the impression that animal campaigners are extremely dangerous”. As a medium-term solution the commission orderd that all targets of information stands, for example, fur shops “are to be protected by a 100 m distance between information stand and shop”. This effectively prohibits any information stands within a 100 m radius, although there have never been any problems or aggression which could justify such a move. The head of the commission proudly announced these measures which totally contravene the right of assembly law: “The militant animal campaigners throughout the whole of Austria will experience resistance from the National Security Agency for the first time”. The special commission has collected an extensive DNA database on campaigners. In a file dated 2 July 2007 it states that plain clothed officers stole bottles of drink from campaigners at information stands in order to have them DNA tested. Similarly, cutlery and plates were taken during the raid on the VGT office for DNA analysis. No legal authorisation was given for these procedures. Green MP Peter Pilz was given access to confidential police documents in connection with this case. Peter Pilz exposed these documents on his website www.peterpilz.at. The documents show not only that police advised the animal protection movement’s political opponents how to represent themselves to the media, and recommended measures they could take against legal animal protection actions, but also that the head of Vienna’s Police Force was instructed to “utilize all administrative possibilities to stop information stands and protests taking place“. VGT’s DDr Martin Balluch commented: “With these documents we can prove that the police allowed themselves to be used as a political instrument, carrying out politically influenced measures, which were in part unlawful, in order to attack the animal advocacy movement. This is an alarm signal for democracy. With today’s action here in front of the Home Office we call on all citizens and especially all those in positions of responsibility to ensure that the police be held to account for their actions and that we bring Austria back to being a constitutional state”. If you live outside of Austria please write to the Austrian Minister of the Interior asking her to bring an end to the repression of Austrian NGO work on behalf of animals. You can see a sample letter/e-mail and find her address here: http://www.vgt.at/presse/news/2009/news20090421m_en.php Related Articles:

Jetzt spenden: Unterstützen Sie den VGT And this should be an alarming issue to Americans and aninal advocates everywhere!!  Animal Advocacy Groups are listed on U.S. Homeland Security’s rightwing extremists list… Napolitano is Lying to Americans About Her Department’s Rightwing Extremism Report; TMLC Files Suit   Vienna, 14th May 2009 Misuse of Law Crushes NGOs Austrian animal advocates gathered this week on the steps of the Ministry of Justice to symbolize the misuse of Austrian Mafia law 278a crushing free speech and legitimate NGO work. The final police reports in this case leave absolutely no doubt that classic NGO-work is being criminalised. Be it school talks on animal rights, founding new groups, negotiating with companies and running legal campaigns, as well as animal rights conferences, investigations into animal abuse, actions of civil disobedience and computer encryption. 25 activists were being squashed by giant “§ 278a”-symbols directly in front of the ministry of justice, where in the coming weeks it will be decided whether charges will be brought against the animal activists for forming a criminal organisation or not.