Thanksgiving Pet Safety Tips

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and it’s a great occasion to have your family join you in the kitchen for a fun day of food prep. When the enticing aromas of food start wafting through your house, it’s likely that your pets will want to get in on the action. However, the hectic environment in the kitchen on this food-filled holiday poses some potential health risks for your pets. Remember these safety tips as you whip up the perfect batch of mashed potatoes and gravy:

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Meet Ippo the Baby Zonkey

A baby Zonkey — a cross between a Zebra and a donkey — named Ippo has been born at an animal reserve in Florence, Italy. Ippo is the foal of a male zebra who was adopted from a failing zoo and an endangered donkey breed from Amiata. “Ippo is the only one of his kind in Italy,” reserve employee Serena Aglietti told ANSA.

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Dog Eats Homework

An eighth-grade student's dog required emergency surgery to remove 50 sharp pins from his stomach after he ate the young girl's science homework, according to ABC News.  Payton Moody, 13, of Englewood, Colo., was constructing what sounds like a creative and fun volcano science project out of candy, including a chocolate mountain with red licorice for lava and blue M&M's for water. But on the advice of her mother, Payton used pins to keep all the candy elements attached.  

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Tornado Survivor Finds Missing Dog Buried Alive

Jon Byler Dann, above, survived the devastating tornado that struck Washington, Ill., by hunkering down in the basement clutching his four children – ages 8, 5, 2½ and 1½. But an important member of the family was still in harm's way. Before the storm, as debris started to hit his house, Byler Dann had tried to coax the family dog, Maggie, into the safe room. The skittish animal refused to leave her kennel. After the storm passed, Byler Dann emerged from the basement to find that his home of five years had been destroyed above him. Maggie was missing and Byler Dann assumed his beloved pet was dead. 

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Cat Summoned for Jury Duty in Boston

Boston resident Sal Esposito has been called to jury duty, but there's one thing standing in the way of his ability to serve: He's a cat.  Massachusetts couple Anna and Guy Esposito received a jury duty summons for their feline friend this month, who they had listed as a household resident on the 2010 Census.  "Sal is a member of the family so I listed him on the last Census form under pets but there has clearly been a mix-up," Anna told local TV station WHDH. "I read the whole thing and I said, 'Oh my God, how could he go, he's a cat?'"

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Blind Dog Hugs Brother, Melts Our Hearts

Can't you just feel the love?   There's no denying that, as this picture illustrates, canine brothers Jeffrey and Jermaine are inseparable – and not just because they adore each other.   Jeffrey is blind and his brother, Jermaine, is his loyal guide dog. The 8-month-old pups were found on the streets of Philadelphia in October, according to Operation Ava, the animal rescue that is trying to find them a permanent home together.  "The unconditional love and devotion these two dogs show is positively inspirational," reads a post from the Chester County SPCA, which shared the photo on Facebook Nov. 15. (The photo subsequently received more than 34,000 likes – and counting!) 

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Movie 'The Ghosts in Our Machine' Champions Animal Rights

Many documentaries steeped in social or political issues get very insistent and often very noisy in expressing a point of view. Michael Moore is of course the model for effective, engaging and defiantly in-your-face activism in this arena.  In contrast, "The Ghosts in Our Machine," a heartfelt meditation on animal rights, comes at you as a whisper. It depends on the persuasive powers of creatures great and small — in their natural habitat or in cages — to argue that we stop using them for food, clothing, research and entertainment. That the cages be tossed away.

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Tangled Whale Freed Off NJ Coast

When rescuers sailed to a spot off the New Jersey shore, they found a young humpback whale, bobbing near the surface but unable to move much.  Although it was able to break the water’s surface and breathe, “the whale was likely anchored to that spot, much like a dog tied to a leash,” said Scott Landry, head of an agency that rescues entangled marine animals.

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Images: Gorilla Celebrates Second Chance at Motherhood

Gorilla Chelewa, devastated after accidentally crushing her baby daughter to death last year, now celebrates motherhood.

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Video: Baby Elephant Plays In Ocean For First Time

We hope the little guy doesn't get swimmer's ear. According to YouTube user Nancy Belal, who uploaded the video above, this baby elephant is enjoying its first time in the sea.  The splash session took place in the ocean off a Thai island, Power 94.9 FM reported.  It makes for one adorable aquatic encounter.

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Rescue Dog Makes History In Mt. Everest Climb

Rupee, who was rescued from a dump in Ladakh, Northern India, has made history as the first mutt to climb Mount Everest.

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For Modern Society, Are Animals 'The Ghosts in Our Machine'?

Marc Bekoff, emeritus professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is one of the world's pioneering cognitive ethologists, a Guggenheim Fellow, and co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. This essay is adapted from one that appeared in Bekoff's column Animal Emotions in Psychology Today. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

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November is Adopt a Senior Pet Month

"He is what people think of when they think of Old Friends (an area of Dogtown where older and wiser pups reside)," says caregiver Lauren Casterline. She is talking about Brewster, a handsome, brindle-colored dog with a frosted muzzle. Brewster was in a foster program at the shelter he was in, but he kept getting overlooked. His caregivers think it might be because of his age (he is 10), though they describe him as "a mellow gentleman," who is "totally happy," gets along with everyone he meets, and would love nothing more than to sit and be petted for hours.

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Corgis Could Become Endangered

God save the corgi.  The Queen of England’s favorite breed of dog was placed on Britain’s Kennel Club’s “at watch” list — and could soon become endangered, the organization warns.  Only 241 Pembroke Welsh corgis are registered with the club this year and, unless that number spikes to 300 by January, the pups will be placed on a “vulnerable native breeds” list, the club claims.

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Video: Cats Demanding Attention

These persistent felines need some petting, and they don’t care what you’re doing.

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Video: History of No Kill Animal Revolution

The No Kill Advocacy Center, in partnership with No Kill Nation and Sagacity Productions, is proud to announce the upcoming release of a feature-length documentary on the No Kill revolution in America.  When the early founders of the animal protection movement died and their organizations took over the job of killing those they had been formed to protect, a fiery zeal was replaced with a smoldering ember that gave little light or warmth and the humane movement went to sleep. After over 100 years of this antiquated and deadly paradigm, the grassroots of the animal protection movement is finally waking up.

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Video: Lion Forms Amazing Bond with Conservationists

Valentin Gruener and Mikkel Legarth play with Sirga as if she were a family pet. But while she is not a pet, Sirga is considered part of the family, as much as a lion can be part of a human family.  It is a touching bond that stretches back to when the two men rescued Sirga as a cub deep in the African bush and became the animal’s surrogate parents.

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Teen Saves Lives by Speaking to Elephants

Here's a language you never got the option to learn in school! A 14-year-old girl from India knows how to speak to elephants, a skill that comes in handy more often than you'd think.  Last June, a herd of 11 elephants from nearby forests entered a residential area in the city of Rourkela. Before the wild animals could wreak havoc on the town and its residents, authorities got hold of teenage girl Nirmala Toppo, because unbelievably, she seems to have the ability to communicate with elephants.

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Five Animals With Unique Noses

After falling in love with the newly rediscovered Pinocchio lizard, we thought we’d look up the noses of some other animals with ornate schnozzes.  You know all about the elephant, the star-nosed mole, and the proboscis monkey, whose nose is right there in its name. But we sniffed out a few Cyranos that might not leap to mind quite as quickly.

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