Today in History
1789, John Adams was sworn in as the first vice president of the United States.
1910, author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died in Redding, Conn., at age 74.
1918, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace known as the "Red Baron," was killed in action during World War I.
1986, a rediscovered vault in Chicago's Lexington Hotel that was linked to Al Capone was opened during a live TV special hosted by Geraldo Rivera; aside from a few bottles and a sign, the vault turned out to be empty.
Celeb B-Days
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is 86 (Queen)
Actor Tony Danza is 61. (Whos The Boss)
Actress Andie MacDowell is 54. (Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Groundhog Day, Four Weddings and a Funeral)
Crew
Jon Patch - Host
Dr. Linda Register - Vet / Co Host
Bob Page - Executive Producer
Special Guests:
5:00 PM EST – Author Allie Phillips – Defending the Defenseless
6:30 PM EST – Louise Kempe – CEO & co-founder Hoodiepet LLC
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Earth Day is April 22 but the next day starts a week everyone should give a crap about, doggone it, and that is "National Scoop the Poop Week." Doggie doo-doo is a BIG business -- in the tens of millions of dollars in poop services and products -- and more people are stepping in it every day.
American canines pump out 10 million tons of dog poop each year -- enough to fill 3,800 trucks stretching from Seattle to Boston.
Dog poop. It’s a serious health problem. Why? The bacteria, parasites and viruses in dog poop can make people sick – especially children playing outside. Additionally, dog poop contains nutrients that increase the growth of nuisance algae in our waterways, robbing the water of oxygen. Many species of fish cannot survive in streams that have reduced oxygen levels.
Across the country, National Scoop the Poop Week will be celebrated April 24th-30th in an effort to further awareness of global warming, watershed contamination, and the importance of clean communities. Picking up after your pet is important for all these reasons, as well as keeping your shoes clean!
Celebrate pet ownership responsibility during Scoop the Poop week by doing your part for a cleaner community
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Dogs and cats no longer hate each other, at least at Abandoned Pet Rescue in Broward County, Florida.
Marcy, a lactating mix-breed Chihuahua, who was brought in by Broward Animal Control was united with two kittens, Romulus and Remus, who were left on the pet rescue's doorstep.
She is feeding the little cats her milk as if they were her own offspring.
"It's as if they were meant to be together. There's no doubt about that," said Kristine Sawyers of the pet rescue. "We've shattered that whole myth about dogs and cats not being able to get along."
The dog and cats are doing well and the kittens are very healthy, in fact, a little chunky.
It appears that the mothering instinct has just taken over and she's got babies and her heart's full and her life is full...
These guys will eventually be put up for adoption.
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Facebook Post on Drunken Penguin Theft Gets 3 Arrested...
Two British men have been charged with the theft of a penguin from a theme park on Australia's Gold Coast.
A third man - an Australian - has also been charged with trespassing, stealing and unlawfully keeping a protected animal. But the trio, aged 18, 20 and 21, released a video of their drunken antics to try to prove they did not mean any harm to the animal.
The men have explained that they woke up with hangovers and were shocked to find a penguin in the living room of their rented flat last weekend. The night before they allegedly broke into Sea World, bypassing the theme park's security and took the small fairy penguin, called Dirk, from its enclosure.
They filmed their drunken misadventures, which also involved them stripping down to their underpants and swimming with the centre's dolphins. The men are believed to have panicked and released Dirk into a nearby canal but only after posting photos of their prank on Facebook.
A friend saw the pictures, thought something fishy was going on, and reported them to authorities in Australia.
Meanwhile, Dirk was spotted in the canal by a couple walking.
Sea World says it was the first incident of its kind in around 40 years of operation and they are now reviewing all security.
The three men will appear in court next month.
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Taxpayers may feel kind of blue when they discover their dollars went to fund a study to determine rats like to bop to the music of Miles Davis while hopped up on cocaine.
The study, which was performed at Albany Medical College, drew jeers from the animal rights group In Defense of Animals and landed it on its top ten list of Real Ridiculous Research.
The research found that sober rats don’t really like music that much. But when the rats were given doses of cocaine, their tasted shifted and they gravitated toward the jazz.
The studies, which were funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, were aimed at analyzing the links between pharmacology and neurology in drug abuse.
“These experiments... show that your tax dollars and animals’ lives are frivolously wasted on research that adds nothing to medical progress and tells us nothing we care to know — or didn't know already,” In Defense of Animals wrote in its introduction to the list.
The group, which only focused its ire on National Institutes of Health experiments that involved research on animals, had issues with a few other studies, including one about the sex habits of hamsters.
Lehigh and University of Minnesota researchers found that putting hamsters on a diet didn’t increase their appetite for the opposite sex.
The animal rights group dubbed the study another example of wasteful tax dollars spending and “white-coated welfare.”
Other studies that made the group’s list included the effect of lemon scent on monkey erections, contagious yawning in chimpanzees and the role of single mothers in the prairie vole community.
Your tax dollars hard at work...
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In the latest tit-for-tat in Mitt Romney’s lingering dog problem, aides to the Republican candidate are gleefully pointing out that President Barack Obama ate dog meat as a child.
The tale of Romney’s Irish setter Seamus — who traveled in a crate atop the family’s station wagon on a 1983 trip from Boston to Canada — has dogged the former Massachusetts governor for years.
Biting back a conservative news site made note of a passage in Obama’s book “Dreams from My Father,” in which the president recounted some of his adventurous eats while living in Indonesia with his stepfather Lolo Soetoro
Blogger Jim Treacher commented, "Say what you want about Romney, but at least he only put a dog on the roof of his car, not the roof of his mouth."
Asked about the back and forth during an interview Romney said, "This campaign is going to ultimately become about jobs not dogs."
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Who says looks don’t matter? Certainly not prospective adopters of dogs, according to new research conducted by the ASPCA
The ASPCA’s study of nearly 1,500 adopters from five animal shelters across the country has uncovered the reasons behind why adopters chose the particular pet they took home. The results may surprise you.
Why someone chose a particular pet varied by species, with appearance driving the choice for dog adopters, while behavior with people drove cat adopters.
Digging deeper, we learned that the greatest number of puppy and kitten adopters reported that appearance was the most important factor in their decision.
This study indicates there is such a thing as love at first sight but a lasting commitment is based on more than a pretty face. Research has shown that unrealistic expectations can put the bond between an adopter and his or her pet at risk.
The data also revealed that for both adopters of cats and dogs, seeing the pet's behavior when interacting with them was more important than seeing the pet behind the cage door, or seeing the pet's behavior toward other animals.
One of the most fascinating data nuggets from the research was from a question that asked, “What else was important in your decision to choose this particular pet?” Adopters were asked to choose all that applied. Factors such as the age, health and playfulness were more likely to be checked than the choice, “I wanted to help an animal.”
While saving an animal is what happens when you choose to adopt from a shelter, you do not need to come to save an animal; you just need to come to find your next best friend.
