Good News About Animals: May 2009 Archive
Dog saved from certain death pays it forward
(Rick Steigmeyer, Wenatchee World) Blewett, a dog rescued in March at Blewett Pass, has become a rescue dog. Dozens of people tried to rescue the black Lab this winter after he was seen huddling in the snow at the top of Blewett Pass for a week. Wary of strangers, the dog accepted food and was finally captured and adopted into a home. Jay and Janie Smith of Plain adopted Blewett from the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society animal shelter in March. Monday, Blewett returned the favor and helped rescue another imperiled black Lab.
The Consolation of Animals
(Richard Conniff, New York Times) When I’m heading off on assignment as a wildlife writer, to study spider webs in Costa Rica, or chase lemurs in Madagascar, people often say, "You’re going where? You’re going to do what?" Doubtfully, they add, "And somebody’s actually paying you for this?" Then they ask if they can come along. Secretly, my neighbors suspect that I am a hit man. Lately, though, I’ve been traveling less, because of a book deadline and also because the magazines that employ me are feeling the economic pain like everybody else. (Heck, even the murder-for-hire business has gone all wait-and-see.) So I’ve been thinking more about what used to be my stock reply: You don’t have to go anywhere to see animals do interesting stuff. Or rather, you just have to go outside.
Fallen soldier’s pooch gets a ticket out of Iraq
(MSNBC) Somewhere in Iraq today, a little yellow dog named Laia is starting the treacherous journey of a lifetime to the United States. She’s being saved thanks to Maj. Steven Hutchison, who adopted her, and SPCA International's Operation Baghdad Pups. But Hutchison himself won’t be part of the homecoming: He was killed by a roadside bomb May 10 outside Basra, just three months before he was supposed to return home to Scottsdale, Ariz. When she reaches the U.S., Laia will live with a friend's family instead.
A flash of orange - it's Britain's biggest butterfly invasion
(Patrick Barkham, The Guardian) We are being invaded. Millions of exotic migrants are breezing into Britain, but the tabloid press can rest easy: these new arrivals are painted lady butterflies and the only resources they will devour are nectar and thistles. In what could be the biggest influx of butterflies into this country in decades, millions have flown into Britain from the deserts of north Africa. Up to 18,000 were spotted sailing on the breeze across Scolt Head Island on the north Norfolk coast: 50 arriving every minute according to Natural England nature reserve staff.
'Crazy Turtle Woman' transforms graveyard into maternity ward
(CNN) With its white sand and clear, blue water, Trinidad's Matura Beach looks like a postcard. It's a far cry from its recent past, when leatherback sea turtle carcasses littered the ground and kept tourists away. "Twenty years ago, this was a graveyard," Suzan Lakhan Baptiste said of the six-mile stretch of beach near her home. "The stench was horrendous. You could smell it for miles," she said. Saddened and frustrated, Baptiste launched a crusade to help end the slaughter of the gentle giants. Today, she and her group are succeeding: What was once a turtle graveyard is now a maternity ward -- one of the largest leatherback nesting colonies in the world.
Five peregrine falcon chicks hatch atop three city bridges
(Larry McShane, New York Daily News) They're cute, and fuzzy, and don't pay rent. Or tolls. Five peregrine falcon chicks hatched atop three city bridges this month, including a trio of newborns enjoying a spectacular view of New York Harbor from atop the Verrazano-Narrows.
Resilient turtle 'has a chance'
(Mary Adamski, Honolulu Star-Bulletin) There's a human cheering squad on two islands waiting for a Disney moment -- the sighting of a large green sea turtle with UAI painted on its shell returning from beyond the reef to its west Kauai shoreline habitat. The 300-pound female turtle survived a severe slashing from a boat propeller and was brought to Oahu for surgery. It was released into Kaneohe Bay May 16 with what marine life experts believe is a good chance for survival. It's common for the turtles to range as far as 500 miles and to return to the same nesting area.
The fastest tortoise on THREE legs: How injured Tonka races around on her toy truck
(Daily Mail) Meet the tortoise on wheels who could give any hare a run for its money despite having her leg bitten off by a dog. When vets found the female wild red-footed tortoise her left front leg was in tatters and they feared she would never be able to move properly again. But after patching her up one rescuer had an ingenious idea to help the little reptile - using wheels from a child's toy truck.
Dying bulldog saves owner from blaze
(Kym Reinstadler, The Grand Rapids Press) Scott Seymour's decision not to euthanize his cancer-filled dog loomed large Saturday when the 9-year-old American bulldog awakened him to escape his burning house. "Brittney might whine a little when she has to go out, but she never, ever barks when I'm sleeping," said Seymour, 39, who has had the dog since she was 6 weeks old. "She was demanding that I get up. And it saved my life."
Michael Vick's pit bulls: Love the cure for outlaw dogs
(Mark Havnes, Salt Lake Tribune) Pit bulls raised to be vicious fighters by former pro football quarterback Michael Vick are slowly getting used to life outside the ring and moving toward adoption with help of a southern Utah animal sanctuary. One of the dogs has even been adopted as a "paw" pal by a group of special-needs students in Louisville, Ky. Best Friends Animal Society's Barbara Williams said this week that the animals are making steady progress since 22 of the 47 seized from Vick's property arrived scared and confused in Kanab on Jan. 2, 2008.
Meerkats Don’t Spoil Their Mind-Numbingly Cute Babies
(Lizzie Buchen, Wired) Meerkat babies may be the most adorable creatures in southern Africa, but their colony mates manage to stop spoiling them after only a few months. As the wobbly little critters age, their begging loses its clout. For a meerkat pup’s first 100 days, it has the rest of the colony wrapped around its fuzzy little tail. It follows adults around throughout the day, belting out squeaky begging calls for the entire colony to hear. The adults bend to the pup’s will, sacrificing their own meals to give it meaty sustenance.
Australian shepherd adopts four little kitties in Snohomish
(Debra Smith, Daily Herald) Four kittens tumble and fumble for a place at their mother's belly. It's a common springtime sight -- except one thing. These kittens are probably the only ones in Snohomish County with an Australian shepherd for a mama. Colleen and Robert Nesseth's dog, Lakota, took charge of an orphaned litter of kittens two weeks ago. A car hit and killed the mother cat in early May. When the family found her kittens in their barn and brought them inside, mewing in a box, something unexpected happened.
16-year-old saves dog swimming down Intracoastal Waterway in Delray Beach
(Jason Schultz, Palm Beach Post) Hannah Metzger, 16, has made plenty of saves as the goalie for the St. Andrew's School Scots water polo team. But she made an entirely different one tonight in the waters behind her house. Metzger jumped into the dark Intracoastal Waterway shortly after 8 p.m. after her father, Chris Metzger, spotted a dog swimming south near Linton Boulevard and A1A.
Ship Alarm Could Prevent Collisions with Creatures
(LiveScience.com) Big ships can make quite a racket underwater, but marine mammals still collide with boats from time to time. Scientists now understand why and have come up with an alarm-like device that may help avoid these strikes. Certain acoustic interactions can create situations that mask the sounds of an oncoming ship, and allow it to sneak up and strike down whales and manatees, according to researchers at Florida Atlantic University.
A passion for possums: Austin woman devotes her life to caring for maligned marsupials
(Andrea Ball, Austin American-Statesman) KiKi crawls around Kathleen Shives' shoulders, curling her long tail and chewing on a fresh grape with 50 sharp teeth. Her face is relaxed, her movements gentle. KiKi is one happy marsupial. This isn't how most people see opossums (or possums, as most people call them). Most people don't want to see possums. But Shives, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, has nursed more than 1,000 possums over the past six years and shares her Northeast Austin ranch with 65 of the much-maligned animals.
Rare white seal caught on camera
(Matt Walker, BBC News) A white southern elephant seal has been spotted on a sub-Antarctic beach. It is the first confirmed sighting of such an animal. Eared seals, which include sea lions and fur seals are more usually seen sporting unusual colours, but not true seals, a group which includes elephant seals. Details of the seal, which has creamy white fur but normal brown eyes and nose, have been published in the journal Polar Biology.
Blue whales returning to former Alaska habitat
(Mary Pemberton, AP) Blue whales are returning to Alaska waters in search of food and could be re-establishing an old migration route decades after they were nearly wiped out by commercial whalers, scientists say. The endangered whales, believed to be the largest animals ever to live on Earth, have yet to recover from the worldwide slaughter that eliminated 99 percent of their number, according to the American Cetacean Society. The hunting peaked in 1931 with more than 29,000 animals killed in one season.
Spider-cat: Daredevil Charlie ignores cat-flap and climbs two-storey wall to get home
(Sophie Borland, Daily Mail) Any old cat can shin up a tree. But this brave moggy regularly takes his nine lives in his paws and climbs 13ft up the wall of a block of flats to his owner's home on the first floor. Seven-year-old Charlie hit on the idea after growing tired of having to wait outside the shared front door to the block for someone to let him back in after he has been allowed out for some air. Instead, he heads for the rear of the building where only a roughcast wall stands between him and the balcony of his owner's flat.
Cat rescued after three day ordeal
(Anna Marie Hartman, WMC-TV) An Arkansas couple nearly had a catastrophe on their hands when the family feline went missing - inside their home. When there's a stranger in her house, Bubba the cat hides high atop a kitchen cabinet. Monday, when an air conditioner repairman came calling, Cheryl Albers said Bubba disappeared. All night long, Albers and her husband Phillip could hear Bubba, but could not find her. They cut holes in the walls of their dining room, their hallway, and their closet. Then, they cut through the floor boards in their attic, and ripped out insulation. Finally, on day three, frantic and out of ideas, the Albers called Roto Rooter.
Lovelorn mother's little miracle
(New Zealand Herald) A love-starved white rhinoceros Hamilton Zoo staff once thought would never conceive has given birth to a "miracle" calf. The delivery was particularly special for staff who had long thought 15-year-old Moesha would never have a family. "It is a bit of a miracle, actually," said the zoo's team leader of mammals, Samantha Kudeweh.
Australian jogger rescues kangaroo from shark-infested waters
(Sophie Tedmanson, Times Online) A man who went out for a morning jog ended up rescuing a kangaroo from shark-infested waters. Neil McCallum was with his son at Kirra Beach, Queensland, when a small kangaroo jumped into the ocean. "We were totally dumbfounded," he said. Soon the kangaroo was caught in a riptide. "I realised if we didn't do something, that little roo would either drown or become lunch for some big hungry fish," he said. So he decided to act fast. He ran back to the family home, situated further up Kirra Beach, grabbed his surfboard and headed back to rescue the roo — but not before waking his wife and asking her to grab the video camera.
Sleeping kitten is pecked awake by cheeky budgie who wants to play
(Daily Mail) In the cartoon world, Sylvester was forever cweeping up on his would-be supper, Tweety Pie. But in the real world, it seems, there has been something of a role reversal. The pictures here show a living room shared by a kitten and a budgie. In what could have been a fatal display of daring, the bird decided to leave his cage and taunt his feline playfellow by reversing the normal pecking order.
The odd couple: How an orang-utan and stray dog became best friends
(Daily Mail) Odd couples come in all shapes and sizes but the story of the primate and the canine who are best friends has proved to be a match made in showbiz heaven. Suryia the orang-utan and Roscoe a Blue Tick hound became friends when they crossed paths at a South Carolina sanctuary for endangered animals. Now they swim together, play together and Suryia even takes the dog for his walks.
Program pairs prisoners with dogs awaiting adoption
(Janice Gaston, Winston-Salem Journal) Buddy, Rex and Storm are all fine-looking dogs, worthy of good homes with loving families. All they need is some polishing of their rough edges, drilling on how to behave well in polite company. And that is what they are getting at the Forsyth Correctional Center in Winston-Salem. Four inmates -- Dorsey Lemon Jr., 21; DeWarren Carter, 32; Bobby Driver, 38; and Ricky Hall, 50 -- are the first local participants in "A New Leash on Life," a dog-training program for inmates in minimal- and medium-security custody at state prisons. Prisons partner with animal shelters and animal-welfare agencies to train dogs in order to prepare them to be adopted. Statewide, 735 dogs had completed the program by March 1, and 683 of those had been adopted.
Cow Splash! Daisy Takes An Unexpected Dip
(Sky News) Ruth Scott, who runs a travel agency, was working from home when the family noticed a small herd of cows roaming around the flowerbeds. But surprise quickly turned to shock when one of the beasts fell into the pool.
Disabled children learn to eat, walk and talk from a doggy friend named Ovelle
(Tim Woodward, Idaho Statesman) "Ovelle, get your lunch." Ovelle walks to a refrigerator, pulls it open and gets her lunch bag. She gives it to Julia Gambassi, who puts it on a table. "Plates, Ovelle." Ovelle sets the table with paper plates and sits down to wait for her lunch of beans, apples and carrots. Nothing special - except that Ovelle is a dog. She's helping Julia and her 7-year-old twin sister, Claire, learn to eat, walk and talk. And it's working.
Zoo's baby elephant has a name: Beco
(Mary Beth Lane, Columbus Dispatch) Beco is the name chosen for the baby elephant born March 27 at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, but it is fair to say that "adorable" will be uttered as often as his name. "Adorable," along with "cute" or simply "awwww," comes first to the lips of the cooing visitors who go all googly-eyed at the sight of the baby elephant, and snap pictures of him and his mother. So it was yesterday, on Mother's Day, when mothers got into the zoo for free. More than 15,000 people visited the zoo, many lining up to see the baby. Seeing the baby elephant was what some of the moms wanted for Mother's Day.
Germany's Whistling Orangutan Releases CD
(ABC News) An orangutan in Heidelberg Zoo has attracted attention after teaching himself to whistle. Now the 14-year-old ape has recorded his first CD. Although somewhat underrated as a musical technique, a spot of whistling can often add a certain something to a song. Who can forget Otis Redding's poignant whistling on the soul classic "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" or the haunting whistle refrain on the fall-of-the-Wall rock anthem "Wind of Change" by Germany's Scorpions? Now a whistling orangutan at Heidelberg Zoo in Germany is set to release his first CD. Entitled "Ich Bin Ujian" ("I Am Ujian"), the CD single by Ujian, a 14-year-old orangutan, will go on sale at the zoo in June. Proceeds will go toward the extension and renovation of the zoo's ape house.
Orangutan makes great escape
(Brisbane Times) An "ingenious" 62kg orangutan short circuited electrical wires and climbed a fence using a makeshift ladder in an aborted escape attempt from Adelaide Zoo today. The elaborate plot by 27-year-old Karta got her to within metres of the public, and resulted in the closure of the zoo on one of its busiest days of the year. The alarm was raised by a member of the public about 11am. Zoo curator Peter Whitehead said Karta had twisted a stick into hot wires that encircled her enclosure, short circuiting the wires and allowing her to enter a vegetated area near the concrete and glass fence that separated her from the public.
Dog rides horse
(The Telegraph) Freddie the seven-year-old dog has taught fellow Jack Russell Percy, who is one, to ride on the back of a horse around fields on the back of Shetland Pony Daisy. Owner Patricia Swinley, 73, who runs a farm in Flaxley, Glos, said: "Freddie was riding Daisy one day when my friend Sally's Jack Russell Percy jumped up there too. It seems Percy was really keen to imitate his older friend. They tend to squabble when they're riding together, so now we let them take it in turns."
Baby hawks weather storm with help of medical pros
(Mike Leggett, Austin American-Statesman) Born on Earth Day and blown down a week later, the baby hawks were in trouble. The three tiny, red-shouldered birds of prey were dumped by a vicious storm that moved through Austin last week. The high winds blew the entire nest — typically a jumble of sticks and twigs, strips of bark, leaves, moss and lichens — out of the tree their parents had chosen for a perch, dropping the baby hawks into shrubbery below. If there could be a silver lining to the storm cloud that so dramatically changed the small hawks' lives, it would be this: They fell just outside a medical office building on 38th Street. "Fortunately, it was not on the weekend, not at night, and we were all done with patients by then," said Dr. David Tasch, who has his dental practice there. Tasch, along with other medical staffers including a psychiatrist, an oral surgeon and a nurse, rushed to rescue the birds.
Near-accident a lucky break for injured Fremont bunny
(Matthew Artz, Fremont Argus) It's hard not to feel for Captain Thumper Qui. Her body fur is rough and stained, her cheek fur is shaved and there are stitches where her left eye used to be. But Thumper might just be the luckiest rabbit on the face of the Earth. The end of the road for her likely would have been on a dead-end street behind the NUMMI auto plant in Fremont. That's where a vehicle carrying Ohlone College students Khushboo Chabria and Tseten Dolkar nearly ran over the rabbit after driver Chabria made a wrong turn one night late last month.
Moo-vin' on up! Molly the Queens renegade cow lives to see Long Island
(Lisa L. Colangelo, New York Daily News) Molly the cow, once destined for a Queens slaughterhouse, is living the good life on a farm in bucolic Suffolk County. "She bolted out of the trailer when they got here," said Rex Farr, who runs The Farrm, a 60-acre organic farm in Calverton, with his wife, Connie. He said Molly is probably traumatized from her escape. "She's going to be fine," Farr said. "Within a few days, she'll be eating out of our hands." The heifer grabbed headlines this week when she hoofed it away from a slaughterhouse in Jamaica. She was rounded up after a romp through the streets - police and animal control officers right behind.
Aye-aye at Denver Zoo makes history
(Howard Pankratz, Denver Post) The little guy won't win any beauty contests - unless beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But the little aye-aye, one of an endangered primate species found only in the wild on Madagascar, made history at the Denver Zoo. When he was born April 18, he was only the second aye-aye to be born at a North American zoo and only the first to be conceived at a North American zoo. According to the National Geographic Society, which has studied and written about the rare animals of Madagascar, the aye-ayes may not look like primates, but they are related to chimpanzees, apes and humans.
A Cow’s Great Escape (to Freedom?)
(Al Baker, New York Times) The news came over the radio in the clipped jargon of police officers: Queens. Loose cow. 103 Precinct. 109 Avenue. E.S.U. reporting a loose cow at the location. And, by getting loose for an hour or so in Jamaica, Queens, on Wednesday afternoon, this cow may have earned herself a reprieve from the slaughterhouse from which she escaped, officials said. So it went on Wednesday, when routine patrol officers in the 103rd Precinct were faced with the dilemma of a cow that had escaped from a slaughterhouse and needed officers from the Emergency Service Unit to help capture her.
Meet Chanel: Almost 21, the world’s oldest dog
(Mike Celizec, TODAYshow.com) They say every dog has its day, but this one has had more than most: Chanel, a dachshund mix, is going to be celebrating her 21st birthday (that’s 120 in human years, according to Chanel’s veterinarian). And though she wears “doggles” for cataracts and gets cold easily, there’s life in the old dog yet. The birthday girl, looking sporty in a pink sweater and the trademark red goggles she wears because of her cataracts, visited the TODAY show set in New York Wednesday with her owner, Denice Shaughnessy.
Hope for first red kite chicks in 200 years
(Kitty Holland, Irish Times) The first red kite chicks to be hatched here in over 200 years will be born this week in Wicklow, it is hoped. This follows the release of a number of red kites into the county in 2007, as part of the Red Kite project to reintroduce the birds of prey to Ireland after a two-century absence. A male and female from the release have built a nest and the female, "Purple e", is currently incubating a clutch of three eggs at an unidentified location. Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, said he was delighted at the news which meant the project was now a step closer to its goal of establishing a self-sustaining kite population.
Northern Ohio Hero Dog Awards honor police forces' bravest canines
(Kaye Spector, Cleveland Plain Dealer) Dar the police dog is a tenacious fighter. In July, he endured repeated punches and an accidental Tasering to chase down and help detain a suspect who had assaulted his human police partner. But on Saturday, Dar was the picture of calm and restraint as he and Shaker Heights police Sgt. Richard Mastnardo accepted top honors in the Northern Ohio Hero Dog Awards.
Surrogate mother bonds with abandoned baby gorilla
(Rachel Gordon, San Francisco Chronicle) Apparently, even in the gorilla world, practice makes perfect. And that's good news for Hasani, the nearly 5-month-old gorilla born in captivity at the San Francisco Zoo who was abandoned by his mother hours after his birth. Last week, the zookeepers who tended to him 24/7 with feedings, cleanings, play time and cuddles, turned over his care to a surrogate gorilla mom, Bawang. She already raised three offspring of her own and her tried-and-true maternal instinct kicked in flawlessly. "They're a perfect match," Corinne MacDonald, the zoo's curator of primates said Monday.
Former Owner of Racehorses Now Works to Save Them
(Jillian Dunham, New York Times) As a longtime owner of thoroughbreds, Madeleine Pickens has made the famous walk to the Churchill Downs paddock with some great racehorses. But she said she did not plan to attend the Kentucky Derby this year and had no plans to any time soon. After hearing that Ferdinand, the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, had been slaughtered in Japan in 2002, Pickens inquired about Fraise, her first champion at the Breeders’ Cup.
Tulsa cubs get taste of spotlight
(Michael Overall, The Oklahoman) Sitting on the veterinary clinic floor, zookeeper Amy Pierce bottle-fed one of the 6-week-old lion cubs Thursday, while other staff members oohed and awed from the doorway. "They’re so cute," Pierce agreed. Then she asked for a bandage. A cub’s claw had left a minor cut in her thumb. Cute, yes. But still wild.