Pot Bellied-Pigs, Mini-houses and Monkeys May Soon Be Allowed on Planes.. Oh My

Pot-bellied pigs WILL fly (along with miniature horses and monkeys): Passengers to be allowed to take exotic pets on flights for ’emotional support’

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) – The U.S. Department of Transportation is considering proposals to update accommodations for airline passengers with a service animal.

The new rules would allow monkeys, pot-bellied pigs and miniature horses to ride in the cabin of an airplane with their owner, according to a report titled Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel: Draft Technical Assistance Manual.

Rodents, spiders, snakes and other reptiles are exempt from air travel.

A passenger must provide proof of their service animal before boarding a flight.

Each airline will evaluate the animals on a case by case basis. The animal must not be too large or pose a threat to other passengers.

In addition, airlines and airports must provide an “animal relief area” on the ground for pets to relive themselves.

Many passengers at Salt Lake International Airport said they understand the importance of service animals, but feel these rules would take things a hair too far. They believe a seeing-eye dog is the most acceptable pet to allow on a plane.

The DOT is asking for the public’s input about the proposed rules before a final report is released.

WHAT SUPPORT CAN THESE ANIMALS GIVE?

Service animals help perform some of the tasks that people with a disability have difficulty with or cannot perform for themselves.

Pot-bellied pigs, which can weigh up to 300 lbs, are favored service animals for people allergic to dogs. They are intelligent companions and attuned to dangerous situations.

Miniature horses work as guide animals for the blind and visually-impaired. They are more cost-effective than guide dogs as their life spans are longer, around 30-40 years. They are also chosen for their calm natures, excellent eyesight and stamina, according to the Guide Horse Foundation.

Might be time for some of us who have resolved to do things when pigs fly for maybe pigs can fly after all.

Pot-bellied pigs, as well as miniature horses and monkeys, could be permitted to travel on planes under new Department of Transportation rules.

The guidelines are part of a draft manual on equality for disabled people travelling on commercial passenger planes.

Hogging the seats: A Department of Transportation draft manual says pigs should be allowed on flights if they gives owners ’emotional support’

Animals should be allowed on flights if they are used for ’emotional support’ by their owners, the manual states.

Transportation officers would have to determine whether the animal is permitted on the plane by running through a list of guidelines.

‘A passenger arrives at the gate accompanied by a pot-bellied pig,’ the manual states. ‘She claims that the pot-bellied pig is her service animal. What should you do?’

According to CNSNews, it continues: ‘Generally, you must permit a passenger with a disability to be accompanied by a service animal.

‘However, if you have a reasonable basis for questioning whether the animal is a service animal, you may ask for some verification.’

Riding high: The manual gives guidelines to determine if they are service animals. Miniature horses, pictured, can help visually-impaired passengers

Airline employees should enquire about how the animal aids the passenger and what training it has had.

If the employee has doubts that the animal is a service animal, they can ask for further verification or call a Complaints Resolution Official.

‘Finally, if you determine that the pot-bellied pig is a service animal, you must permit the service animal to accompany the passenger to her seat provided the animal does not obstruct the aisle or present any safety issues and the animal is behaving appropriately in a public setting,’ the manual adds.

Pot-bellied pigs can grow as large as 300 pounds. They can be trained to open and close doors and use a litter box.

‘They seem to have a sense if the owner is not feeling well to stay by them,’ said Wendy Ponzo, from the North American Potbellied Pig Association.

Ponzo, who has multiple sclerosis, added: ‘They help me a great deal when I feel at my worst.’

Not all animals that could help humans are allowed in the cabin, including ferrets, rodents, spiders and snakes.

But miniature horses and monkeys are also ‘commonly used service animals’ and are allowed inside, the manual states.

It adds that cases will be dealt with individually and animals can be turned away if they are too large or heavy, or will cause disruption.

Flying monkey (where is Dorothy?): A service monkey is checked at the airport

Guidelines: The Department of Transportation rules have been suggested in a draft manual on equality for the disabled in air travel

The owner must also provide a ‘relief area’ for his or her animal.

The rules come despite the TSA banning less potentially troubling items, such as sporting goods and snow globes.

They are outlined in the DoT’s Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel: Draft Technical Assistance Manual in the Federal Register.

The manual, which is open for public comments until October, is designed to ‘help carriers … provide services or facilities to passengers with disabilities’.

This does open the door for people who travel with their dogs and cats to question why they must be put below if they do not meet the very strict airline restrictions for bringing your pet onboard that have been followed, at least up until now.

h/t to the DailyMail

Related: Department of Islamic Justice Bows Down to Muslims Irrational Hatred of Dogs……. SHEER INSANITY !!!!  -  Some feel allowing the pigs onboard could be a counter to this latest Islamic accommodation and might keep radical Muslims off flights.

Technorati Tags: pot bellied-pigs,miniature horses,monkeys,service animals,emotional support animals,when pigs fly,animals on planes,North American Potbellied Pig Association,Muslims,hatred of dogs,Department of Transportation,JOMP,Guide Horse Foundation,DOT,dogs

The Japanese Macaque

This is a video of the Japanese macaque taken from the BBC’s new "Life" documentary series.

Video:  The Japanese Macaque

Video: Monkeys swimming in Japanese Hot Springs

Related:

Gotta Love Those Monkeys

Gotta Love Those Monkeys!!

 

Video:  Baby Monkey Francois Langur

Tiny baby Elke of Taronga Zoo

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Baby gorilla arrives at Pittsburgh zoo – Updated… It’s a Boy

PITTSBURGH —

The Pittsburgh Zoo has a new baby gorilla in its midst.

Zoo officials say 15-year-old Moka gave birth last week after a year-and-a-half courtship with the zoo’s lead gorilla, 20-year-old Mrithi.

Zookeepers don’t yet know the baby’s gender, but say it appears to weigh between three and five pounds.

The new baby was born sometime after workers left the evening of Feb. 8. By the next morning the band of gorillas had grown from six to seven.

The baby is the first gorilla born at the zoo since 2001. Its father was the first born at the Pittsburgh Zoo, while Moka arrived from Miami in 2007.

Zoo officials say the other gorillas are keeping a respectful distance.

Visitors can see the new arrival at the zoo’s Tropical Forest exhibit.

The Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium celebrates the birth of its first baby gorilla since 2001. The baby boy’s father, Mrithi, was the first gorilla born at the zoo.

–> Video:  Pittsburgh Zoo Welcomes Baby Gorilla  <–

56 exotic animals escaped from farm near Zanesville; 49 killed by authorities; owner found dead

Animal farm owner released the animals, then killed himself… All he had to do was call the authorities and they would have come to get these animals and taken them to the Columbus Zoo

ZANESVILLE, Ohio —Authorities say that in all, 56 exotic animals escaped from a farm in Muskingum County last night, and one could still be missing this afternoon.

Of those animals, 49 were killed. Six animals — a grizzly bear, three leopards and two monkeys — were captured alive and taken to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, and a monkey and a grey wolf were at large. The animals that were killed included 18 tigers, nine male lions, eight female lions, six black bears, three mountain lions, two grizzly bears, one baboon and two wolves, Sheriff Matt Lutz said. The escaped monkey poses a danger because it is infected with herpes, the sheriff said.

The sheriff said it is possible that the missing monkey was eaten by a large cat.

The owner of the farm, Terry Thompson, was found dead last night on his property. Authorities say Thompson opened the cage doors and cut the wires on the cages, then killed himself. He died from a gunshot wound. Lutz said Thompson’s body was "bothered" by the animals.

Lutz had previously said a grizzly bear, a wolf and a mountain lion were missing. Today, authorities confirmed they killed the bear on the property last night. The wolf was later found dead; it had been shot last night. An officer wounded the mountain lion, which staggered into a neighbor’s property and died.

Thompson’s wife has returned to the farm and is talking to authorities. Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, said the wife begged authorities not to take her "babies," but he convinced her to let the animals go and work it out later.

"I held her, I felt her shock. Her animals are gone. Her family is gone. Everything in her life is gone," Hanna said.

The animals that were killed by authorities likely will be buried on Thompson’s property.

Lutz defended the shooting of the escaped animals. He said when deputies arrived at the house, there were large animals trying to escape. The deputies had to shoot them with their sidearms.

"Public safety was my No. 1 concern," Lutz said. "I gave the order that if the animals looked like they were going to get out, they were going down."
Hanna called this morning for the state to enact regulations to crack down on the possession, breeding and selling of exotic animals.
"I went to school at Muskingum (College)," he said. "It’s like Noah’s ark wrecked."

Hanna said he has talked to the governor’s office about enacting stricter exotic animal laws.

"We need to set an example in the state of Ohio," he said. "There was a loss of life here, and we thank God it was not human life. It was animal life, and that’s my life."

Hanna also defended the deputies shooting the animals.

The deputies were assisted by the State Highway Patrol, authorities from the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and the Wilds, the state Division of Wildlife, the county Emergency Management Agency and township fire departments.

A plan to bring in a patrol helicopter with a thermal-imaging camera to find animals last night was scuttled last night by stormy weather.

Zanesville, West Muskingum and Maysville school districts, as well as Muskingum County Starlight School, all canceled classes for Wednesday to keep children inside. Lutz also recommends that residents remain inside today and call 911 if any wild animal is seen.Lutz said the incident began about 5:30 p.m., when the sheriff’s office began receiving calls that wild animals were running loose in the area of Kopchak Road, which is in Falls Township and just west of Zanesville.

Lutz said that four deputies with assault rifles in a pickup truck immediately went to 270 Kopchak Rd., where a 46-acre “wild-animal-rescue farm” owned by Thompson borders I-70.

There, Lutz said, they found Thompson dead outside his house and “every single animal-cage door open.”Lutz said the deputies saw a number of animals standing outside their cages, still on the property, while others had escaped a fence that surrounds Thompson’s property. Deputies immediately began shooting animals, he said.

Lutz said the fence on Thompson’s property isn’t designed to keep in wild animals.

Lutz said a man who is a caretaker on the animal preserve told deputies that 48 animals lived in cages outside the house on the property. More animals — mostly monkeys, baboons and apes — lived inside Thompson’s house, the man said.

Those inside the house were still in the cages, Lutz said.

Late last night, there was a report of a wolf and a bear still roaming at least 4 miles from the farm property. One animal was struck by a car and later killed.

The Licking County Sheriff’s Office also received at least four phone calls from residents reporting exotic-animal sightings. SWAT officers with night-vision equipment were searching for animals in Licking County early this morning.

Lutz said Muskingum County deputies had fatally shot and killed at least 25 animals when they first drove to the property. A wolf and bear also reportedly were killed along I-70.

Video:  Muskingum Alumni Jack Hanna Hunt Exotic Animals on the Loose in Zanesville, Ohio 10.19.11

He said that officials from the Columbus Zoo and The Wilds came in shortly after the discovery with tranquilizer guns, hoping to capture some animals alive.

Thompson, 62, was released from federal prison just three weeks ago, after serving a one-year term.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had raided Thompson’s Kopchak Road property in June 2008, seizing more than 100 guns. In April 2010, Thompson pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbus to two federal charges: possession of a machine gun and possession of short firearms without serial numbers.

Under terms of his release, Thompson was confined to his home for a year.

Thompson also was convicted in Muskingum County Municipal Court in 2005 of cruelty to animals, having an animal at large and two counts of rendering animal waste without a license. The charges stemmed from allegations that three cows and a bison had died on another property he owned, on Boggs Road in Perry Township, east of Zanesville.

Neighbors there had lodged numerous complaints about him letting his animals wander. Thompson was put on house arrest for six months and paid a $2,870 fine in that case. He also was ordered to move his animals to his Kopchak Road land.

Ohio has no rules regulating the sale and ownership of exotic animals.

Former Gov. Ted Strickland had attempted to enforce such a law, but Gov. John Kasich allowed an executive order to expire.

“There really needs to be some legislation changed on how these things are going on in the state of Ohio,” Lutz said.

Kate Riley, 20, who lives in western Muskingum County, said that Thompson has had lions, tigers and a bear get loose in the past.

Riley’s family owns a feed cattle farm nearby and said that Thompson would come and take their dead cows to feed his lions.

“He’d have claw marks all over him,” she said.

Riley said she understands that Thompson’s wife, Marian, recently left her husband and moved out.

Patti Peters, a spokeswoman for the Columbus Zoo, said staff members were at a dinner last night for the International Rhino Foundation when they heard about the incident. Five staff members from the zoo and the Wilds immediately went to help, she said.

Larry Hostetler, executive director of the Animal Shelter Society of Muskingum County, said the sheriff’s office and state officials had visited the Kopchak Road property in 2008 on a complaint that animals weren’t being taken care of there. The inspection, however, found acceptable treatment, Hostetler said.

Adelbert G. Kempf Jr, a retired veterinarian in Heath, said he inspected Thompson’s horses that day. He said that Thompson told him that he was running a rescue operation for horses.

“ He was far from that,” Hostetler said. “He was more of an animal collector.”

At one point, Thompson took three lion cubs to New York City for a photo shoot with model Heidi Klum. On another occasion, he brought animals to a 2007 community pet fair in Muskingum County. Thompson and his wife brought bear cubs, lions cubs and a baby ape, Hostetler said.

He said the wild animals disrupted the fair because they weren’t friendly.

“We had to change the advertisement in following years to say bring your domestic pets,” Hostetler said. “He was a piece of work.”

By  Josh Jarman ,  Quan Truong ,  Jim Woods and  Brenda Jackson Dispatch staff reporter Kathy Lynn Gray also contributed to this story.  jjarman@dispatch.com, jwoods@dispatch.com, jackson@dispatch.com

h/t to the Columbus Dispatch

On the Pirates Set…

« Back to On The Set

Did you know?

• Johnny Depp works well with pigs.
• Geoffrey Rush has a real way with monkeys.
• You can’t take a poisonous snake to Honolulu.

Beth Langhorst knows all this, because she has served as Senior Certified Animal Safety Representative on the set of all four Pirates of the Caribbean movies — including the latest, “On Stranger Tides.” Since the Pirates film series began in 2003, Langhorst has monitored hundreds of animals on its sets. The 14-year Animal Safety Rep veteran can say, with certainty, that “No Animals Were Harmed”^® on the sets of these Walt Disney films.

“Everything that looks dangerous in the film was done as safely as possible,” Langhorst said.

Weather matters
The filming of “On Stranger Tides” lasted about six months and took the crew to London, Hawaii and Puerto Rico to capture Captain Jack Sparrow’s (Johnny Depp) adventures. The on-set weather involved everything from cold, boggy gloom to tropical jungle swelter. To help ensure the comfort of the horses used on set — about 70 in total — the producers used three different groups of horses, each native to the climate of the filming locale.

Aloha CGI
Hawaii prohibits venomous reptiles on its islands, and those in its zoos are not allowed to leave — plus, Johnny Depp would probably rather not hold a poisonous snake. So, the producers used computer-generated imagery for all the frog and snake scenes in the movie.

Some Pig
One of Langhorst’s favorite animals to work with on the set was the pig, who started out a little wild but soon got used to working for food rewards and belly scratches.

“He was a great little pig,” she said. “By week four, we had turned him into a star.”

Fifth movie?
Sorry, we can’t tell you — but if there is another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Langhorst will be there on the set protecting animals.

Source: American Humane Film and TV

Man arrested at Mexico City airport with 18 tiny endangered monkeys stuffed inside girdle

Published July 19, 2010 | Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A man with a mysterious bulge under his T-shirt was stopped, searched and detained at Mexico City’s international airport after authorities found 18 tiny endangered monkeys in a girdle he was wearing.

The Public Safety Department said in a statement Monday that 38-year-old Roberto Cabrera arrived on a commercial flight Friday from Lima, Peru, when authorities noticed the bulge and conducted a body search.

The department says Cabrera was carrying the 6-inch (15-centimeter) titi monkeys in pouches attached to the girdle. Two of the monkeys were dead.

Cabrera was arrested on charges of trafficking an endangered species.

Cabrera told authorities he was carrying the monkeys in a suitcase but decided to put them in his girdle “so the X-rays wouldn’t hurt them.”

Sadly this kind of smuggling has gone on for ever.  People have smuggled in endangered reptiles and birds for years… often killing half of them in the process.

Posted:  Just One More Pet

Pet Air Launches Commercial Pet Service

Pet Air, an all pet in cabin airline,  launched service from Los Angeles today.  They will ship pets and animal types from A to Z, to and from 150 airports, at this point.

They scheduled New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles as the first cities, and have a “treat” for your pet when it comes to prices, for the introductory cost of  $149 to all destinations.

At Pet Airways, it costs $149+ to fly your pet in the main cabin with a trained and loving Pet Attendant to care for your loved one. No cargo ! Only First Class for your pet! Do you have cat scratch fever and want to travel this summer? Visit the website: www.petairways.com/content/reservations

This is a great alternative to flying your pet in cargo!!!!

http://petairways.com/content/why-fly-pet-airways

33 Years Experience Shipping By Air Service From Over 150 Airports Computerized Airline Planning Fast Friendly Service Competitive Rates Year Round Shipping Red Eye Flights Available To Many Cities Pickup And Delivery Service Available Corporate Relocation Services Toll Free Reservation Line Online Reservations Preferred Customer Discounts Pet Air has been shipping animals for over twenty-eight years. We provide services to breeders, hobbyist, zoos, rescue organizations, individuals relocating or vacationing, and many other groups. We offer several types of services; our most popular are listed below. 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
• November Is Adopt-A-Senior-Pet Month
• Shelters Full of Chihuahuas
• Adopting A Senior Pet Has Many Advantage For Families and Seniors
• Angels For Animals Event November 13th

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

Cloner’s Ark: Ten Notable Cloned Animals

 

Researchers in Dubai made news this week by announcing the arrival of the world’s first cloned camel, a singular achievement in a region where top racing camels are prized.

Iran followed two days later with the birth of the country’s first cloned goat, though many other cloned goats have been born elsewhere.

Most cloned mammals now lead regular lives, but as recently as 10 years ago they often died young of lung malformations, a problem that appears to have been largely overcome. Healthy cloned dogs and cats are the most recent significant achievements.

Many researchers are getting closer and closer to human cloning by trying to clone monkeys.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, all attempts at cloning monkeys from adult donor cells have failed, with one researcher deeming the resulting embryos “a gallery of horrors.” (Splitting newly formed regular monkey embryos does work, but that can be seen as just inducing natural twins.)

The following is a list of significant animal species cloned from adult cells, in chronological order — plus one that’s even more remarkable.

Frog: The first amphibians cloned from adult cells were made in 1962 by John Gurdon, a British biologist at Cambridge University. His experiments showed that cloning adults was theoretically possible (clones made from embryonic cells had been created a decade earlier).

But his tadpoles didn’t survive to full adulthood, and it wasn’t until years later that he was able to get cloned frogs that lived full lives.

Carp: Way back in 1963, a Chinese researcher named Tong Dizhou apparently created the world’s first cloned fish when he transferred the genetic material from an adult male Asian carp into a carp egg, which developed and was born normally, and even sired children.

But since his work took place behind the “Bamboo Curtain” at the height of the Cold War, Tong’s achievements went unheralded in the West. He died in 1979.

Sheep: The famous Dolly was born on July 5, 1996, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the first known mammal of any species to be cloned from an adult donor. She was the only one of 277 cloned embryos to survive.

She quickly became a media sensation, yet went on to live a short but quiet life, bearing six lambs naturally. Cloned cattle, genetically similar to sheep, followed within the next year.

In February 2003, suffering from a virus-borne form of lung cancer common among sheep, Dolly was put to sleep. Some experts wondered whether she was already “old” at birth, due to her genes coming from an adult animal, but her creators disputed that.

Goat: The world’s first cloned goat was born on June 16, 2000, the result of work by scientists at Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology in Xi’an, China. Unfortunately, the kid, nicknamed “Yuanyuan,” died after a day and a half from lung defects.

On June 22, 2000, another cloned goat was born in the same facility. Named “Yangyang,” she lived at least six years and had kids, grandkids and great-grandkids.

Housecat: CC, or Copy Cat, the world’s first cloned domestic cat, was born Dec. 22, 2001 on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Though she was the clone of a calico, her surrogate mother was a tabby, and CC’s coloring was a mixture of the two.

She currently lives in the household of one the scientists who worked to create her and has had naturally conceived kittens of her own.

White-tailed deer: The same Texas A&M team responsible for CC the cloned cat also created the world’s first cloned deer, which was born on May 23, 2003. Dubbed “Dewey,” he was cloned from a dead buck. Three years later, he became the father of female triplets, who were conceived the old-fashioned way.

Horse: Five days after Dewey, the world’s first cloned horse was born in Italy. A female named “Prometea” — presumably after Prometheus, the god who gave man fire in Greek mythology — news reports from the time indicate she was healthy.

Dog: Snuppy, an Afghan hound born April 24, 2005, was the world’s first cloned dog. He was created by a team led by Korean genetics researcher Hwang Woo-suk, who also claimed to have cloned human stem cells, later found to be untrue; Snuppy was the sole part of Hwang’s work that was untainted.

Snuppy has since fathered 10 puppies through artificial insemination of two cloned female dogs.

Pyrenean ibex: The world’s first extinct mammal to be “resurrected” was a subspecies of the more widespread Spanish ibex, or mountain goat. The last known Pyrenean ibex was found dead in early 2000, but tissue samples that had been taken when it was alive led to a joint Spanish-French cloning program.

After hundreds of failed attempts, a live Pyrenean ibex was born in January 2009, for the first time in more than a decade. The surrogate mother was a domestic goat. But the achievement was short-lived; the kid died 9 minutes after birth due to malformed lungs.

Camel: Injaz, the world’s first cloned camel, was born April 8, 2009 in Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates. Her name means “achievement” in Arabic, and she likely won’t be the last cloned camel, as camel racing is very popular in the Gulf states and certain animals are prized.

However, Injaz won’t ever get to know her older “twin” — the donor animal was slaughtered for its meat in 2005.

And last but far from least:

Fatherless mouse: Japanese researchers went beyond cloning in 2004 to create the world’s first fatherless mammal.

The mouse, nicknamed Kaguya, was born in 2004 and was a “parthenote” — she literally had two mommies. Genetic material from two mouse eggs was modified and combined so that one “fertilized” the other.

Kaguya has almost certainly died of old age since, but bore at least one litter of naturally conceived pups.

Source:  Fox News

Posted:  Just One More Pet