Here’s some weekly animal related news foraged from around the ‘net. Some are interesting, some cute, some happy, and some disturbing and sad but needing to be brought to the world’s attention.
AP reports that a painting by a woman’s chicken is on ebay to help raise money for a kid’s park. Not sure how much she will raise, but you can betcha that if the bids go over $1,000, there will be a masterpiece painted by our very own Clementine available very, very soon. I haven’t seen what the painting looks like, but I’m sure I can dip Ol’ Clemmy’s feathered feet in some biodegradable paint and let her creative juices flow to help raise funds for this site’s hosting fees. [update: I did see the painting finally and it’s currently over $450.00 — excuse me as I go track down Clementine… where’s my paints?????]
A Shetland Pony has been on my bucket list from the time I became aware of the many breeds of equines out there (which, in my case, would be at an extremely young age. Not sure, but I might have been able to spell all the horse breeds before my own name.) But at the time, a Shetland Pony lived in the pages of stories and was just a photo in books until I was probably about 8 years of age when I met and got to interact face-to-nose with my first, real-life Shetland. Her name was “Candyapple” and she was bedecked in bows and ribbons for the Rose Parade. Seeing a newsclip about Samson the Kissing Pony brings all the “squee!” back to me. I’m still dreaming of my Shetland and horsey-kisses are awesome but I do enjoy pygmy goat kisses just as much.
Meet a jail-bird parrot: Authorities say “Lorenzo” was trying to tip-off a drug cartel to run when officers conducted an undercover raid The parrot’s cage is kind of not-cool, but the story is still a bit funny. Hope Lorenzo gets a great second life from now on.
Chicken that flew the coop causes man to pay $375 fine. It is currently not known why the chicken tried to cross the road.
For a man who used to hate cats, this is seriously an awesome place for a homeless cat to live! 660 formally abandoned felines have found sanctuary in a beautiful cat village built by Craig Grant in Florida. It all started with Pepper, who was left with Craig when his son moved out. Read the lovely story of this non-profit sanctuary at http://www.caboodleranch.com and support his efforts via FACEBOOK.
Now some disturbing news… grab a bar of chocolate or whatever comfort food helps you handle sucky and frustrating news and read: Cloned pigs will be hitting China’s markets very soon. With a population projected to grow to 1.44 billion by 2030 from 1.33 billion in 2009, according to World Bank figures, Beijing is hunting for cutting-edge technology to provide better quality food. International experts believe China can take a leading role in promoting the eventual acceptance of cloned animals and even transgenic — or genetically modified (GM) — produce. After reading the story, if you’re feeling like crawling in bed and pulling the covers over your head… I’m with you on that.
I love animals and would enjoy being surrounded by lots of chickens, goats, ducks, horses, sheep, etc but animal hoarding is just so wrong. Anyone who really, truly loves animals needs to know when taking in too many animals can cause more harm than good. I don’t know the full details on this one, but it’s still rather upsetting. More than 100 chickens were removed from a Sacramento home and are now looking for homes. If you live in the area and would like to apply to adopt a chicken, please fill out this form. Most of them appear to be Silkie Bantams and are in surprisingly good health.
And finally, India’s working animals have no better advocate than Animal Rahat, which is relieving their pain, giving them rest, and working to provide them with basic necessities. Add this FACEBOOK causes app to your Facebook profile to makes this lifesaving work for horses, bullocks, donkeys, and other working animals possible.
