California Vets Save Animals Lost and Bewildered by Wildfires

On Saturday 12 September a small fire started in a utility shed in the bone-dry, shimmering heat of Lake County, California. The flames crept across the landscape slowly at first before exploding into a conflagration that burned 50,000 acres in just 24 hours. By the time Cal Fire had the blaze under control, it had consumed 76,000 acres.  It spread so quickly that many communities barely had time to evacuate, with citizens fleeing as their homes burned down in their rear-view mirrors and trees exploded by the side of the road.  Many were forced to leave their animals behind, unable to locate them in the rush to escape. Pets and livestock were forced to fend for themselves in the swirling flames, some surviving in miraculously unburnt homes and barns, while others managed to outrun or shelter from the fire.

http://tinyurl.com/q9d99fo

Summer Is Dog Days For Shelter Animals

Every summer, ACCT Philly has to fight tooth and nail to save animals in its care, and this one is no different.  The summer of 2015 has brought an average of 26 dogs into the shelter each day, more than during the other seasons, Ed Fritz, ACCT Philly's director of operations, said Monday. With an average daily adoption rate of just eight dogs, the kennel is constantly approaching its capacity of 160.  More people surrender or abandon their pets in the summer than in cooler months, said Ame Dorminy of ACCT Philly's adoption team. There is no one clear reason this is so, she said, but she speculated that spring birthrates may overwhelm pet owners.

http://tinyurl.com/oee7pol

Ugly Animals Rule, Cute Is Creepy

Why do we find some animals cute and not others? And why do the cute ones get all the attention when it comes to conservation? Thanks to the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, that may be about to change

http://tinyurl.com/l3qswph

Modern-Day Ark for World’s Rarest Farm Animals

In 2011, Paul Davis took his 4-year-old son to a children’s farm outside London. While cooing over stripey Belted Galloway cows, Davis’ mind turned to something far more sinister: foot-and-mouth disease, and how it could wipe out all of those animals in an instant. 

http://tinyurl.com/l7ypa53

What Happens to Animals During a Forest Fire?

By now you have likely heard about the massive and out-of-control forest fire currently raging around Yosemite National Park in California. I not only heard about it last week, I encountered the beast right after it exploded like an angry fire-breathing dragon bent on mass destruction.

http://tinyurl.com/k8wh6ot