Source: CBS
Video of a gorilla walking on two feet at a wild animal park in Kent, England is making the rounds online.

NFL football star and animal abuser Michael Vick says he would really like to get another dog. He says it will help with his “rehabilitation.”

I don’t know whether he should be allowed to own another dog or not. But when it comes to the kind of animal cruelty Vick went to prison for I don’t believe in rehab. Meaning I don’t believe empathy towards animals can be taught. You’re either born with it or you’re not.

No one had to teach me that raising dogs so I could watch them tear each other apart is wrong. My parents never told me that electrocuting a dog to death was wrong. My dad never sat me down and as a child and warned me never to hang dogs in the future.

I wasn’t taught those lessons because I already knew them. It’s obvious that treating dogs like that is repugnant and immoral. It goes without saying.

Michael Vick’s inability to feel empathy towards animals is an indicator of an antisocial or sociopathic personality. Think of it like a birth defect.

This is truly outrageous. Army Sgt. Terry Young brought home the dog who saved his life in Afghanistan. The dog alerted he and his men to the presence of a bomb. Young named the dog “Target” and brought him back home to Arizona. He said the dog was amazingly resilient. The Afghan villagers the soldiers were living with at the time repeatedly tried to kill Target, but he would not die. Even surviving a gunshot wound.

Target disappeared from Young’s home on Friday. A request went out on Facebook for help in finding the dog. Animal control picked up the dog on Friday after receiving a call about a stray dog. The dog was kept over the weekend at the shelter and on Monday morning it was euthanized.

Shelter officials say the dog was not scheduled to be euthanized and the employee responsible did not follow proper procedure.

“I am heartsick over this.  I had to personally deliver the news to the dog’s owner, and he and his family are understandably distraught,” said Animal Care and Control Director Ruth Stalter.  “We work hard get to strays reunited with their owners.  When it comes to euthanizing an animal, there are some clear-cut procedures to follow.  Based on my preliminary investigation, our employee did not follow those procedures.”

That is truly horrifying. Of all the dogs they could mistakenly kill it had to be that one. Unbelievable.

Here’s a clip of Target when he first arrived in the US:

This might be the ugliest and most terrifyingly awesome cat in the world. His name is Ugly Bat Boy — Uggs for short. According to his owner who also happens to be a Veterinarian, Uggs is a genetic mystery born with the stunning good looks you see today. Uggs actually had a sister that looked just like him, but died when she was a kitten.

This is without a doubt the strangest cat I’ve ever seen, but also the coolest. His name is Yoda and he was born with four ears.

When Valerie and Ted Rock came across a kitten with four-ears, they couldn’t believe their eyes.

But the endearing feline was so adorable they decided he was destined to be a part of their family.

The couple were in a Chicago bar two years ago when they noticed a little grey bundle of fur being passed around to the amazement of fellow drinkers – and their parental instincts kicked in.

The couple immediately fell for the freaky feline and asked the owner if they could adopt him. He agreed and the couple named the cat Yoda, after the pointy-eared Jedi knight in Star Wars.

Valerie, 65, said: ‘We were at a pub on the south side of Chicago with a group of friends when we noticed a small cage sitting on the bar and people passing around a kitten.

Unless you’re just a terrible person, you have to admit the cute factor of this fuzzy little creature is off the charts.

Investigators are trying to determine how a tiger escaped its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo – killing one visitor and mauling two others on Christmas.

The 300 pound Siberian tiger, named Tatiana, was the same giant cat that attacked a zookeeper just about a year ago during a public feeding.

the tiger’s enclosure is surrounded by a 15-foot-wide moat and 20-foot-high walls. Zoo officials suspect the animal somehow scaled the wall or leaped over the fence, but the investigation is still under way.

The first attack happened right outside the Siberian’s enclosure – the victim died at the scene. A group of four officers came across his body when they made their way into the dark zoo grounds.

The second victim was about 300 yards away, in front of the Terrace Cafe. The man was sitting on the ground, blood running from gashes in his head and Tatiana sitting next to him.

When officers approached, the tiger attacked the man a second time causing the officer’s to shoot the animal dead. It was only after killing the beast that the third victim was discovered.

The two injured victims are being treated for severe injuries at San Francisco General Hospital. Their injuries include deep bites and severe lacerations to the head, neck, arms, and hands.

Madonna has horrified animal activists after dyeing her sheep blue, pink, yellow and green for a Vogue spread at their English country estate, in Wiltshire.

The singer argues that she made certain the temporary dye was safe for animals. Animal rights groups say that even if that’s true it sets a bad example.

-Samantha Giles

On August 27, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick plead guilty to a dogfighting charge, and the following day held a press conference in Richmond, Virg., apologizing for his involvement in the Bad Newz Kennels dogfighting ring.

After Vick’s four-minute speech, a rep with the Humane Society of the United States went up to the podium to retrieve his microphone, and found the note left by Vick containing his talking points.

Vick’s big idea: apologize, apologize, apologize. The six-point speech calls for him to “apologize for what I’ve done;” apologize to his coach and team; tell young kids that “I acted immature;” ask for “forgiveness and understanding;” “take full responsibility for my actions;” and remind people that “we all make mistakes.”

At the very bottom of the note was a reminder that “dogs have suffered.”

“Watching video of the event, I recall Vick reading through his talking points. I don’t recall him getting to those words at the end. No, for some reason, he didn’t get to the dogs on whom he inflicted such tortures,” wrote Humane Society blogger Wayne Pacelle on A Humane Nation. “The biggest apology of all was left unspoken-to the dogs who suffered and who died so horribly at his hand.”

The Humane Society has put the note up for auction. Proceeds will benefit the Humane Society’s Animal Cruelty Response and Reward Fund.

[TMZ]

Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She’s been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra.

“It is one ugly creature,” Canion said, holding the head of the mammal, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin.

Canion and some of her neighbors discovered the 40-pound bodies of three of the animals over four days in July outside her ranch in Cuero, 80 miles southeast of San Antonio. Canion said she saved the head of the one she found so she can get to get to the bottom of its ancestry through DNA testing and then mount it for posterity.

She suspects, as have many rural denizens over the years, that a chupacabra may have killed as many as 26 of her chickens in the past couple of years.

“I’ve seen a lot of nasty stuff. I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said.

What tipped Canion to the possibility that this was no ugly coyote, but perhaps the vampire-like beast, is that the chickens weren’t eaten or carried off — all the blood was drained from them, she said.

Chupacabra means “goat sucker” in Spanish, and it is said to have originated in Latin America, specifically Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Canion thinks recent heavy rains ran them right out of their dens.

“I think it could have wolf in it,” Canion said. “It has to be a cross between two or three different things.”

She said the finding has captured the imagination of locals, just like purported sightings of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster have elsewhere.

But what folks are calling a chupacabra is probably just a strange breed of dog, said veterinarian Travis Schaar of the Main Street Animal Hospital in nearby Victoria.

“I’m not going to tell you that’s not a chupacabra. I just think in my opinion a chupacabra is a dog,” said Schaar, who has seen Canion’s find.

The “chupacabras” could have all been part of a mutated litter of dogs, or they may be a new kind of mutt, he said.

As for the bloodsucking, Schaar said that this particular canine may simply have a preference for blood, letting its prey bleed out and licking it up.

Chupacabra or not, the discovery has spawned a local and international craze. Canion has started selling T-shirts that read: “2007, The Summer of the Chupacabra, Cuero, Texas,” accompanied by a caricature of the creature. The $5 shirts have gone all over the world, including Japan, Australia and Brunei. Schaar also said he has one.

“If everyone has a fun time with it, we’ll keep doing it,” she said. “It’s good for Cuero.”

[AP]