Today is Animal Advocacy Day

Animal advocates joining forces on Tuesday, April 30 to celebrate National Animal Advocacy Day—and the public is invited!  Advocates across the nation are going to spend the day on the phone, calling members of Congress and urging them to ban horse slaughter once and for all.

http://tinyurl.com/brc756r

When Best Friends Can Visit

A year and a half ago, Ruth London lay in intensive care in a hospital in Boca Raton, Fla., with severe pneumonia, delirious and hallucinating that she was in jail.

http://tinyurl.com/bdv9f8o

Lil Bub Hits the Tribeca Film Festival

If you are the type of person who is inclined to watch YouTube videos of cute animals doing even cuter things, you’ve probably encountered Lil Bub: the adorable, wall-eyed kitten with a perpetually protruding strawberry pink tongue.

http://tinyurl.com/bynyzn2

Subway Dogs

Stray dogs are commuting to and from a city center on underground trains in search of food scraps.  The clever canines board the Tube each morning.  After a hard day scavenging and begging on the streets, they hop back on the train and return to the suburbs where they spend the night.

http://tinyurl.com/qp63mq

Dogs Provide Comfort to the Suffering in Boston

Lutheran Church Charities' K-9 Comfort Dogs traveled to Boston following the marathon bombings to help residents and victims cope.

http://tinyurl.com/cvopbmz

Britain Bans Wild Animals from Traveling Circuses

Traveling circus shows in Britain have gone to the dogs — literally. A new law banning wild animals from traveling with the circus around the country takes effect in 2015, and then only dogs, cats and rabbits will be allowed on board.

http://tinyurl.com/co35x9q

National Pet ID Week

It’s National Pet Identification Week. Do you know where your pet's tags are?

http://tinyurl.com/d234zof

Cat Lived Off McDonald's for a Year

A cat addicted to fast food has been rescued by the SPCA and put on a health plan to help him kick his McDonald's addiction, according to New Zealand news website Stuff.co.nz.

http://tinyurl.com/bpmwbax

Humans that Harm Animals Should be Held Accountable

Unfortunately, we are all too used to news of drive-by shootings in America. But last week, one incident drew particular attention because the victim was an elephant.  Elvis Presley's hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi, was the scene of another performer's injury when an elephant traveling with the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus was shot. PETA has offered a reward for the perpetrators' apprehension, and the police are investigating.

http://tinyurl.com/c38xnje

The Fur Flies on Broadway

It was Broadway’s big news last week: Vito Vincent,“actor/comedian/model,” according to his Web site, and star of Broadway show “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” fired amid rumors of diva demands that make J.Lo look low-key.

http://tinyurl.com/cma668f

ABQ Gets Top National Rank for Pets

The city of Albuquerque tops the list for being America’s best city for four-legged travelers!  Priceline.com ranked the Duke City as the friendliest for travelers with pets.

http://tinyurl.com/coxcmtc

Pets And Carbs Don’t Mix

A recent front-page article in The Washington Post, “Wolf-to-dog evolution went with the grain,” states, “In particular, dogs show changes in genes governing three key steps in the digestion of starch . . . it makes us convinced that being able to digest starch efficiently was crucial to dogs.”

http://tinyurl.com/c6tx2ge

Pets for Patriots

Active, retired and disabled military service members and their families will be connected with adoptable dogs and cats, and the pets will receive a second chance at life thanks to a new partnership between Pets for Patriots and the Humane Society of Harford County (HSHC). Through the partnership, service men and women will receive a discount on the normal adoption fee.

http://tinyurl.com/c3sr93t

Today is National Pet Day

National Pet Day is Thursday, April 11, and what better time to care for your critter? Or perhaps this is the right time to adopt a new pet.  According to petdayusa.com, the day was started by celebrity pet lifestyle expert and animal welfare advocate Colleen Paige in order "to celebrate the joy pets bring to our lives and to create public awareness about the plight of many different kinds of animals awaiting a forever home in shelters all across the nation."

http://tinyurl.com/dxzdyfj

Tarantula The Size Of A Human Face Discovered

The giant tarantula is as big as a human face.  Its legs, which have unique daffodil-yellow markings, span a massive 20cm (eight inches). The arachnid also has a distinctive pink band around its body.  The new species was found in the war-torn north of the South Asian country by scientists from Sri Lanka's Biodiversity Education and Research (BER) organization.

http://tinyurl.com/brx439y

Images: Elephants Fight Off Hyenas

This is the incredible moment an elephants came to the rescue of one of its babies being attached by hyenas.  The elephant is seen charging at the hyenas to ward them off its offspring.

http://tinyurl.com/c2spvyk

"Zombie" Finds Long Island Cat in Times Square

It took a zombie to find Disaster at the Crossroads of the World.  Two years after he disappeared from his Long Island home, Disaster the cat was found this week in the heart of Manhattan -- by a Times Square haunted house promoter dressed up as a zombie.  Jeremy Zelkowitz, who sells tickets for the Times Scare haunted house, spotted Disaster early Saturday morning crossing 42nd Street. He snatched up Disaster, a black and white cat who appeared to be well-kept and neat, and brought him to a nearby animal hospital.

http://tinyurl.com/cruh3cz

Ryan Gosling Challenges Cruel Cattle Dehorning

Hollywood heartthrob and longtime PETA supporter Ryan Gosling was appalled to learn that dairy farmers routinely mutilate calves in a cruel process called dehorning. When he heard that workers burn away calves' horn tissue with hot irons or caustic chemicals, gouge their horns out with sharp metal scoops, or chop off developed horns with guillotines and handsaws, he took his concerns straight to the top.

http://tinyurl.com/cywx86s

Looking for a Fitness Buddy? Adopt a Dog

Zeus the pit bull helps his owner slog through interval training and military crawls, Goldie and her master enjoy Tai Chi together and Izzie the three-legged shih tzu can't hike up the mountain but she acts as a hand weight for her owner's bicep curl. Experts say a dog may be man's best fitness friend, and dog-and-master workouts don't have to be limited to a run on the beach or a Frisbee toss.

http://tinyurl.com/co7l72e

Homes Sales for the Love of Rescued Animals

Three years ago Weston real estate agent Leslie Mann read a story on the Internet that horrified her.  What she read was the story of Turtle, a female pit bull-type dog who had been abandoned in a wooded area of Hyde Park in the middle of winter. She was badly injured and barely clinging to life -- showing all the signs of a bait dog, one used to test the fighting instinct of a potential fight dog.

http://tinyurl.com/cvxq549

Great Apps for Kids Who Love Animals

For kids who love animals, here are three new apps that are exciting and different. One amazes kids with unpredictable animations whenever they pet an animal. In another, kids paint animals by turning the camera into their crayon. A third dazzles kids with vibrant illustrations constructed out of polymer clay.

http://tinyurl.com/ctwmaug

How Do We Mourn Animals Used in Scientific Research?

There is an incredible passage in Scarlett Thomas' fantasy novel The End of Mr. Y, where our protagonist discovers she can go backward in time by traveling through the minds of lab mice. She jumps from present-day mice to their ancestors, moving from one caged creature to the next, absorbing all their fears, discomfort and pain over the decades. The surreal scene manages to capture the real feelings of many people who work with lab animals, as they try to reconcile their scientific goals with using living creatures in their work.

http://tinyurl.com/c2tcyjc

NJ Law Cracks Down on Animal Abusers

Legislation in New Jersey that would ban animal abusers from ever owning pets or working with animals again is a step closer to becoming a law.  Moose’s Law is named in honor of Moose, a deceased three-year-old chocolate lab who is at the center of a heartbreaking story that began last May when he escaped from his yard. His family, the Workmans, spent more than a month trying to find him to no avail.

http://tinyurl.com/cqesdqw