Best Friends Roundtable
with Michael Mountain, Francis Battista, Faith Maloney, and Dr. Virg,
Pigeons Navigate by Roundabouts - The Telegraph - UK - By Caroline Davies
Researchers have cracked the
puzzle of how pigeons find their way home: they just follow the
main roads. Zoologists now believe the phrase "as the crow
flies" no longer means the shortest most direct route between
two points. They say it is likely that crows and other diurnal
birds also choose AA-suggested routes, even though it makes their
journeys longer.
Some pigeons stick so rigidly to the roads that they even fly
round roundabouts before choosing the exit to lead them back
to their lofts.
Animal behaviouralists at Oxford University are stunned by their
findings, which follow 10 years of research into homing pigeons.
For the last 18 months they have used the latest global-positioning
technology, allowing them to track the ground the birds covered
to within one to four metres.
His team carried out dozens of tests with pigeons in Oxfordshire,
releasing them between 10 and 20 miles from their lofts, each
with a tiny GPS tracking device attached to their backs. Matching
their routes, they found most flew straight down the A34 Oxford
bypass.
"It was almost comical watching one group of birds that
we released near a major A road. They followed the road to the
first junction where they all turned right, and a couple of junctions
on, they all turned left".
Not all of the pigeons did it all of the time, but there were
enough occasions when they did for the researchers to build up
a pattern.
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
Animal Rights Group Urges Town to Change
Name - Associated Press
SLAUGHTERVILLE, Okla. - Residents
of this central Oklahoma community aren't laughing at a group's
"amusing" way of raising awareness of animal abuse.
Slaughterville administrator Marsha Blair received a letter from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, urging the town to change its name from Slaughterville to Veggieville.
"I am writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, our 800,000 members and supporters, and other compassionate Americans to ask Slaughterville to change its name _ which conjures up images of the violent and bloody deaths of terrified chickens, pigs and cows _ to Veggieville, a friendly name honoring a heart-healthy and compassionate alternative to animal corpses," the letter began.
PETA, based in Norfolk, Va., promises to donate $20,000 in veggie burgers to a school district nearest to the town, said Bruce Friedrich, director of PETA's vegan campaigns. A vegan is someone who abstains from consuming animal products.
Residents point out that the town was named after a grocery store run by James Slaughter in the early part of the 20th century.
Friedrich said Thursday he knows the origins of the name, Slaughterville, a town of 3,600 located about 20 miles south of Norman, where Friedrich once lived.
"People find our requests amusing, and they chuckle," he said. "But when they're laughing, they have the opportunity to consider the animal abuse it brings up."
But residents believe it's wrong to connect the town's name to the slaughter of animals. For Blair and other residents, the Slaughter family's lingering reputation makes the town's name a sacred cow.
"Mr. Slaughter was a kind and compassionate man," she said. "He was well known as a considerate person."
Slaughterville mayor Ron Bledsoe, who operates a cattle ranch, said he hasn't seen Friedrich's letter, but figures town wouldn't change its name to Veggieville.
Laurel and Hardy
Whistling Cockatiels Rescued - Ananova
Eight stolen cockatiels have been rescued by police after a member of the public heard them whistling the Laurel and Hardy theme tune.
The birds, which were stolen from an aviary in Salisbury last month, have been reunited with their owner at a police station after detectives received an anonymous tip-off. The cockatiels, which were among 12 stolen, first developed a habit of whistling after a new addition to the aviary arrived whistling the Laurel and Hardy tune and soon had half the flock singing along.
At first the affectation seemed little more than a quirky trait but when birds later went missing police realised it could prove to be an important clue. Wiltshire Police issued an appeal through the media last month urging members of the public to listen out for birds whistling the tune.
Police received an anonymous call yesterday from a member of the public with an ear for music who heard the distinctive call in the Bishopdown Farm area of Salisbury and remembered the unusual appeal. Police later recovered eight birds and a stolen cage from the address and a 33-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman have been arrested on suspicion of theft. They are currently being interviewed at Salisbury police station.
The cockatiels' owner, who asked not to be named, said: "I bought a bird from a man up in Swindon when I was working up there one day. That bird had previously been kept in an indoor cage and its owner then had taught it to whistle Laurel and Hardy. When I brought it down here and put it in the aviary, soon some of the other birds started to whistle as well." He added that the birds had gone missing over two nights last month. The first time he discovered some of his birds missing he thought that he must have left the door open but when it happened a second time other items had been also been taken.
The four other birds are still
missing.
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My dog watches tv
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"Benji" The Movie
Joe Camp with Benji
www.benjimovies.com
Jackson, MS The World Premiere of Benji's new movie Benji Returns: Rags to Riches has been set for March 25, 2004 in Jackson, MS, a dual benefit for the Mississippi Animal Rescue League (www.msarl.org) and the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children (www.foch.org).
According to Benji's creator, Joe Camp, who is also writer and director of the film, the selection of Jackson was, for many reasons, a gift to the people of Mississippi. "The new Benji was adopted from a shelter in Gulfport, Mississippi," Camp said. "The film is set in Mississippi, and all of the production budget for the film was raised in Mississippi or from Mississippi-related folks."
The star of the new film which will be released this summer, was adopted from the Humane Society of Southern Mississippi after a nationwide search through shelters across the country. The search began because The American Humane Association had reported that the original Benji having been rescued from an animal shelter caused more than one million dogs to be adopted across the United States. Joe Camp wanted this to happen again. "Mission accomplished," says Camp. "Now every time someone looks into the Benji's big brown eyes they will see the kind of loving, caring companion they too can find at their local animal shelter. And this time around," Camp adds, "we're going for way more than a million adoptions."
Joe Camp and other members of "team Benji" were visiting an adoption event at a Gulfport PetSmart to take a look at what they considered to be the only local contender for the role, a pup named "Jodi," when suddenly and unbeknownst to the group, Eric Aschaffenburg, interim director of the south Mississippi shelter, "sprung" a new find on Joe. Camp immediately fell in love and the floppy-eared mutt was then fostered by the manager of PetSmart Grooming, Melissa Schroeder, while Camp flew to Los Angeles to meet yet another candidate. The next week, "Gulfport's" foster mom took her to the vet for a complete checkup and discovered that a persistent cough turned out to be heartworms.
Two other dogs were also adopted, one from a shelter in Chicago and one from a shelter in Los Angeles. All three were put through what Camp's wife calls Benji Boot Camp and the little lady from Mississippi staked her claim. Now she has completed her first major motion picture, a true rags to riches story. The Chicago adoptee, a mutt named Shaggy, has such a crazy personality, he actually wrote himself into the movie as an unwanted sidekick to the star. The third pooch lives with producer Margaret Loesch in Los Angeles.
The Premier benefit in Jackson is not the only effort of Camp and Benji to help homeless animals. The two are in the process of forming the Benji's Buddies Foundation, which is on a mission to substantially raise the levels of pet adoption nationwide. "During the search for Benji, which was heavily covered by national and local media, adoptions went up wherever we went," says Camp. "After Benji's adoption in Gulfport, that facility had the biggest month in its history, completely emptying the shelter. But the sad truth is that a month or two later, after the exposure dwindled, it was always back to business as usual. Full shelters and fewer adoptions. The Benji's Buddies program will change all that. With the help of corporate sponsorships, Benji's Buddies Foundation will develop a combination of paid advertising, public service announcements, and live media appearances in waves and flights to continuously brand homeless shelter pets as 'Benji's Buddies.'"
This summer's new film is appropriate
to the effort because, as Camp puts it, "the movie is the
might've been, could've been story of the new Benji, lost and
alone, on the streets of a small Mississippi town attempting
to save his mom from a back yard puppy mill." Benji Returns:
Rags to Riches will begin national release in Texas and the
southeast on June 11, with the entire nation open by July 30.
For more information regarding the World Premiere and gala black-tie
party afterward, call 601-366-5018. Benji will be in attendance.
Roto-Rooter Uses High-Tech
Tools to Rescue Kitten
Trapped in Pipe 4 Days
"Zap"
A 2-month old kitten has Roto-Rooter to thank for rescuing him
from the confines of a 4-inch electrical conduit pipe behind
an Orange Park, Florida strip mall. The stray kitten was apparently
playing around a bank of electrical panels when he slipped backwards
into an uncapped pipe. The pipe dropped vertically several feet
underground and fed into a network of conduit that supplied electricity
to the mall. Employees at the Florida Hair beauty shop heard
the kitten's cries and dropped food and water into the pipe in
an effort to sustain him. They even made a rope ladder out of
towels in hopes that the kitten would be able to climb safely
out of the vertical shaft but it didn't do the trick. Following
calls to Clay County Animal Control, the Jacksonville Electric
Authority and others, the women were told nobody could help.
When Tonya Mathis visited the shop on February 11th, she asked why so many people were hanging around the shop's back door looking so sad. She learned of the kitten's plight and offered to phone her husband, Bart, a Roto-Rooter plumber in nearby Jacksonville. Tonya knew that Roto-Rooter's high-tech fiber optic video cameras and equipment have been called upon before to locate and rescue trapped animals. Bart Mathis arrived on the scene with two other Roto-Rooter plumbers and snaked a lighted cable camera into the pipe. Minutes later, the image of a wet and hungry 2-month old brown tabby kitten appeared on the camera's video monitor. The kitten instinctively followed the lighted camera and after about an hour, Mathis finally coaxed the kitten to the other end of the pipe. Using a power saw the Roto-Rooter technicians cut away a section of the pipe and out popped the tiny tiger-striped feline. "It really tugged at my heartstrings to look at the monitor and see that little guy looking so helpless down there," said Mathis.
Mathis said if the kitten had followed the wrong junction in the conduit he would've walked into the electrical box and would've almost certainly been electrocuted.
The kitten was immediately adopted by one of the beauticians at the beauty shop and named "Zap," since he came so close to getting electrocuted. After a professional shampoo at the beauty shop and lots of tender loving care, Zap is now enjoying the high life at the home of his new owner.
Over the years, Roto-Rooter has
rescued puppies, birds, ferrets and other animals from pipes.
Once the company was even called upon to rescue a tiger cub from
a drainpipe at the Memphis Zoo.
A Grey Angel Goes Home - Barbara Williamson
Kitty Boy
Last week Kitty-Boy was "tucked in" for the long night's sleep at Best Friends pet cemetery, Angels Rest. His courageous battle against a legion of ailments was over.
Kitty-Boy was a grey long-haired stray cat, a shadow who came out of the Ohio woods and gave the people who befriended him the gift of becoming a force for good. He was at Best Friends for only a few months but everyone who met Kitty-Boy found him to be compelling, the essence of love.
"There was just something spiritual about him, he got to everybody," said Willis Payne, who along with his wife, Debbie, rescued Kitty-Boy when he showed up at their home in Bellefontaine, Ohio, in June 2003. "You were in his presence and he made you feel good. He made you want to reach inside yourself and try to make a difference," Debbie said.
Debbie and Willis took him to the vet and found out the many health problems Kitty-Boy faced: He had both FIV and Felv. He was diabetic, and had liver, urinary tract and respiratory problems. They already had two rescue cats and could not keep him at their house. Their vet recommended euthanasia. But Debbie and Willis knew this loveable cat was not ready to cross the Rainbow Bridge.
Years ago, Debbie had seen a Best Friends newsletter and now, in her and Kitty-Boy's time of need, she reached out for help. Best Friends' Gloria Hill talked with Debbie to help determine the best course of action.
"Gloria was very supportive and gave me many resources. She told me cats with FIV or FeLV can live good lives with proper care. She suggested finding a home with people who had a cat with similar health challenges or at least people who were knowledgeable about the disease," Debbie said.
Debbie, who had never used a computer now learned about e-mail. A friend helped her develop a web site to help spread the word about this special cat.
After several months, when Debbie and Willis were not able to find a home for Kitty-Boy, he was accepted at Best Friends. His caregivers were deeply impressed with how loving he was, regardless of his illnesses.
Now, the legacy of Kitty-Boy's life is how he is helping other special-needs cats.
The web site developed originally with the hope of finding Kitty-Boy a home gets more than 1,200 hits per day. Several special-needs animals have found homes through his web site. Many people have found the strength and the wisdom they needed in order to keep their ailing animals rather than euthanizing them or turning them into shelters.
"I believe there are animal
angels sent to help us and Kitty-Boy was one," Debbie said.
"He stayed alive because he had a mission. He had to get
to Best Friends, he had to get the message out about special-needs
kitties."
Elizabeth's World
Horse Haven
