Clipmarks | Animals Clips

Making Slaughter "More Humane"

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:46:21 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

The European Commission wants new rules aimed at reducing animal suffering in Europe's butcheries, the agency announced on Thursday.

"These proposals are a step in the right direction and will benefit millions of animals," said Sonja Van Tichelen of Eurogroup for Animals, a pressure group.

Groups representing meat traders and slaughterhouses said they still needed to study the proposals to find out whether such measures would result in higher production costs.

Nearly 360 million pigs, sheep, goats and cattle, as well as several billion poultry, are killed in EU slaughterhouses each year.

A further 25 million animals are slaughtered by the fur industry, according to commission figures.

Under the proposals, slaughterhouses should appoint a trained staffer responsible for ensuring that animals are being treated humanely.

Such a person would, among other things, have to ensure that animals which are stunned do not regain consciousness before they are slaughtered.

Tags: animals, animal rights, europe

Haemorrhagic virus carried by common African mouse

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:48:32 GMT

clipped by: valann 47

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Three people have died and another is seriously ill with a previously unknown strain of a virus carried by a common African rodent. The virus requires close contact to spread, but experts warn that more like it could be circulating.

On Sunday South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases announced that the victims were infected by an arenavirus, one of a family of viruses carried by rodents.

It is not known whether animals caught in Africa are being sold as pets.

The Zambian virus is being sequenced at the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, to see how it is related to other arenaviruses.

This strain may be a new mutant, meaning the Zambian case may herald the start of a new disease. "Or it may always have been out there and we're only recognising it now," says Swanepoel. "It's shocking how little we know about the viruses that are circulating in Africa."

Tags: virus, africa, mouse

The snake that eats toads to steal their poison

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:26:59 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Many animals use poisonous secretions to protect themselves from predators. But poisons are complex chemicals and can take a lot of energy to make. Why invest in them, when you can steal someone else's?

Poison thieves are well-known in the animal kingdom. Many species of brightly coloured poison arrow frogs acquire their poisons from beetles, while some sea slugs make a living by hunting for jellyfish, transporting their stinging cells into their own limbs. Now, another species joins this guild of thieves - the tiger keelback snake, Rhabdophis tigrinis

the snakes eat poisonous toads (from which bufadienolides get their name), and defend themselves with the weapons of their prey

snakes from islands with thriving toad populations had secreted nuchal fluid rich in bufadienolides, while those on toad-free islands completely lacked these defensive chemicals

newly hatched snakes

lack defensive poisons

poisons make the snakes bold

those that lack them are more likely to flee in the face of danger

giraffe kick sparks breakout

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:09:20 GMT

clipped by: mona

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Police suspect giraffe in circus breakout

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Fifteen camels, two zebras and several llamas and pot-bellied pigs escaped from a circus visiting Amsterdam early Monday, police said.

"We suspect that a giraffe kicked open a pen," Dutch police said in a statement, adding that the animals did not get far before they were rounded up and returned to the circus.

Extinction is in the future

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:45:35 GMT

clipped by: comy1234
clipper's remarks: Poor wildlife.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Wildlife, already struggling, faces fresh threat in disease

BARCELONA (AFP) - From tiny tree frogs to gorillas, wild animals already facing extinction due to habitat loss, pollution and hunting must now cope with the added threat of virulent disease, conservation scientists said Tuesday.

Many pathogens are being spread among wildlife by global warming, and some could have dire consequences for humans as well, the researchers told participants at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.

The survey found that one in four mammals are threatened with extinction, and half are in decline.

"Disease has always had a role to play in affecting populations, but now we are seeing diseases that are highly pathogenic," he told AFP.

"Any disturbance in the environment shows up in wildlife because they don't adapt very quickly or easily," he said.

Tags: dead, animals

Better Report of Tucson Dog With Sunburn

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:24:32 GMT

clipped by: zippunkygirl

Clip Source: www.tucsoncitizen.com

Animal cruelty

Severely sunburned dog found with skin falling off

Chunks of bloody skin hanging boxer mix's head, back

Construction superintendent Wade Gardner went to work Wednesday only to be greeted by a horror show.

He and another superintendent arrived at the midtown site, at the corner of North Dodge Boulevard and East Hardy Drive, to find a bleeding dog cowering in a dirt trench.

Gardner and his co-worker filled a hard hat with water for the dog and then called the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.

Tie outs have been illegal in Pima County since the mid-1990s, Meyers said. They can be especially deadly in the summer.

"A lot of animals are found after it's too late," Meyers said. "Field officers tell me it's a grotesque find. The molecules that hold the tissues together starts to disintegrate in the sun. Literally, the skin starts sloughing off right in their hands."

Gardner, an avid animal lover

is toying with the possibility of adopting Bobcat.

Pumpkin Time Again

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:34:40 GMT

clipped by: vandamonium
clipper's remarks: Yep, time to pull out the chainsaw, knives, hatchets and what ever else you use on your pumkins.

Clip Source: thefuntimesguide.com

The Coolest Halloween Pumpkins I've Ever Seen!

A gory skeleton skull inside a freshly carved pumpkin

Pumpkin Man - made from lots of pumpkins of various sizes

Jack-o-lantern hell - tiny pumpkins burning inside

A pumpkin-eating pumpkin

A smiley cheshire cat carved out of 2 pumpkins

A spooky haunted Halloween pumpkin.

A fun computer pumpkin

Red apple with core carved pumpkin

A skinned pumpkin that's also been carved into a face

Pumpkin pigs and other animals made from several pumpkins

A puking pumpkin that's had too much to eat

Mickey Mouse pumpkin head

Pumpkin with a toothy grin

Baseball cap-wearing pumpkin head blowing bubbles

The Cheeseburger Pumpkin

Tags: halloween, pumpkin, carving

Swimming Tigers

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:35:48 GMT

clipped by: Kelika

Clip Source: www.darkroastedblend.com

White Bengal Tiger named Odin is six years old and 10 feet long from tail to nose. Odin lives at a Zoo in Vallejo, California, near San Francisco - and he likes to swim.

Lee Munro is his trainer; he says tigers are the most powerful swimmers out of all land-dwelling animals. The ferocious face he makes while diving is actually meant to close his nostrils to stop the water from going into his nose. For South-East Asia tigers it's just a good way to cool down.

Tags: nature, photos, tigers

Fertile women raise their voice pitch

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:44:58 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: Though as humans progress in so many fields has been achieved; some basic roots tie us; unless we learn to know them, forever we will be biased.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Fertile women raise their voice pitch

Women's voices rise and fall in tune with their fertility, according to research by psychologists.

Recordings of women taken at different times in their monthly cycle show that the female voice rises perceptibly a day or two before ovulation, when women are most likely to become pregnant.

The findings are the first to point to a link between voice and fertility and build on recent studies which support the idea that humans may be similar to other animals in displaying outward signs of fertility.

Two years ago, Haselton published another study into female fertility and the monthly cycle, which suggested that women "dressed to impress" when at their most fertile, favouring skirts over trousers and showing more skin.

The work goes against the long-held belief that humans, unlike many other animals, hide any evidence of ovulation.

Last year, scientists

claimed that women sway their hips more when they are at their most fertile.

Tags: biology, gender, fertility

Depth and life, of oceans

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:31:59 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

'Deepest ever' living fish filmed

A UK-Japan team found the 17-strong shoal at depths of 7.7km (4.8 miles) in the Japan Trench in the Pacific - and captured the deep sea animals on film.

The scientists have been using remote-operated landers designed to withstand immense pressures to comb the world's deepest depths for marine life.

No-one has ever seen fish alive at these depths before

"There are three problems: the first is food supply, which is very remote and has to come from 8km (5 miles) above.

"There is very high pressure - they have to have all sorts of physiological modifications, mainly at the molecular level.

And the third problem is that these deep trenches are in effect small islands in the wide abyss and there is a question of whether these trenches are big enough to support thriving endemic populations

Because the fish live in complete darkness, they use vibration receptors on their snouts to navigate the ocean depths and to locate food.

Tags: ocean, marine biology

Goat 'condoms' save Kenyan herds

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:52:58 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: "Those who do not use it could face a hefty fine if their bucks are found guilty of impregnating another herder's doe. "

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Goat 'condoms' save Kenyan herds

Maasai herdsmen in Kenya have turned to an age-old contraceptive device, the "olor", to protect their precious goat herds from an ongoing drought.

The olor is made from cowhide or a square piece of plastic, and is tied around the belly of the male goat.

It prevents the bucks from mating with the female goats.

The herdsmen are using the device to limit the goat population and ensure there are not too many animals grazing on sparse vegetation.

"We don't want them to breed in this drought," says Mr Ole Ngoshoi Kipameto, a goat owner in Kajiado district.

The area, which is 80km (50 miles) from the capital, Nairobi, has received insufficient rainfall, making the landscape barren and forcing residents to move from place to place in search of pasture and water.

"We tie this hide under the belly of the buck for three months. After that we remove it and then they can breed by November when the short rains come," Mr Kipameto says.

"It looks like an apron,"

Tags: climate, drought

Hong Kong alert for reptiles on the run

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:15:34 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: What't Chinese for, "Never smile at a crocodile, no you can't get friendly with a crocodile."

Clip Source: www.theage.com.au

Hong Kong is on the watch out for a group of escaped crocodiles and alligators that broke out of a theme park in southern China during a typhoon, a news report said today.

Up to 200 reptiles ranging from 2m Chinese alligators to saltwater crocodiles that can grow up to 6m reportedly escaped when Typhoon Hagiput lashed the theme park a fortnight ago.

Crocodile Island administrators in Zhuhai, southern China, later denied initial reports that so many escaped and claimed they had captured all escaped animals but Hong Kong officials remain on alert, the Sunday Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong is 48km across the mouth of the Pearl River Delta from Zhuhai and a spokesman for the Hong Kong government told the newspaper it was "still trying to find out the latest" news on the reptiles.

A small saltwater crocodile believed to have escaped across the border from China made headlines in Hong Kong in 2003 when it evaded attempts to capture it for months.

Tags: c-grade film, coming up

Deer last seen in 1930 found in Sumatran rainforest

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:57:17 GMT

clipped by: valann 47

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

A small deer that fell into a hunter's snare in 2002 has been identified as a Sumatran muntjac - more than 80 years since the animal was last seen.

The deer, about the size of a large dog, was photographed six years ago, but the pictures have only now been properly identified.

It had fallen into the trap at an altitude of 6,400ft high in the Kerinci-Seblat National Park mountains.

The Sumatran muntjac was first classified in 1914 and it has not been seen anywhere since 1930.

At first, it was thought to be one of the less endangered red muntjac herd. But after years of poring over the evidence, experts said it was definitely the rarer animal because it was significantly smaller and darker.

This is an important discovery and it adds to our knowledge of the specialness of Sumatran fauna," said professor Colin Groves, the taxonomist who confirmed the identity of the animals.

A Sumatran muntjac deer in a hunter's trap in the Kerinci-Seblat National Park, 2002

Tags: deer, sumatran muntjac, rare

Almost Gone

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:37:48 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: The International Union for Conservation of Nature has released its Red List of the world's most threatened plants and animals. Here's a look at some of the animals on the verge of extinction

Clip Source: www.time.com

Greater Bamboo Lemur

Clip Source: www.time.com

Celebes Crested Macaque

Clip Source: www.time.com

Lowland Gorilla

Clip Source: www.time.com

Madagascar Fish Eagle

Clip Source: www.time.com

Vancouver Island Marmot

Clip Source: www.time.com

Black Rhino

Clip Source: www.time.com

Iberian Lynx

Clip Source: www.time.com

Mindoro Dwarf Water Buffalo

Clip Source: www.time.com

Baiji Dolphin

Clip Source: www.time.com

Siberian Crane

Tags: nature, animals, pictures

Headless Horseman Dog Costume

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:19:35 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: mfrost.typepad.com

Tags: cute overload, animals, dogs