In the video, she can be heard telling police to beat up Gavin McInnes.
Megan Fox writes: There are more lifestyles than you can shake a stick at in modern America. Whether you want to live as an animal, or a six-year-old, or a lizard, there’s just no end to the choices one can make regarding how you live your life these days in the free world. (This may be our penance for the invention of robot vacuum cleaners.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how disturbing this is”
With no physical labor left to do, human beings turn insane, apparently.) How exactly do you tell your parents you’ve decided to go into “lobster porn” like social media sensation Rebecca Goyette, whose expletive-filled hissy fit outside NYU went viral (NSFW). I imagine the conversation went something like this via email.
Dear Mom and Dad,I know you had high hopes that I would take my art degree and perhaps teach children to paint or create beautiful landscapes to sell to tourists in some tropical location, but none of that is going to happen. I wanted you to know your money was well spent because I have found a niche in the performance art community: Lobster porn. Read the rest of this entry »
Police Wednesday investigated an active shooting incident on the UCLA campus in Westwood.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, two people have been fatally shot on campus. Their identities are being withheld pending family notification.
At this time, it remains unclear how many shooters are being sought by police.
Shortly after 10:00 a.m., campus police sent out an alert notifying students and faculty of a possible “active shooter” in Boelter Hall located near the School of Engineering building.
Students have been told to shelter in a secure place.
The entire campus has been placed on lockdown…(read more)
Animal rights activists are seeking to shut down an annual summer dog meat festival in southern China blamed for harming the country’s international reputation as well as fueling extreme cruelty to canines and unhygienic food handling practices.
Christopher Bodeen reports: Activists from a coalition of groups said Monday that they will continue press for the festival to be banned as well as legislation outlawing the slaughtering of dogs and cats and the consumption of their meat.
While an estimated 10 million-20 million dogs are killed for their meat each year in China, the June 20 event in the city of Yulin has come to symbolize the cruelty and lack of hygiene associated with the largely unregulated industry.
Yu Hongmei, director of the VShine Animal Protection Association, said China needs to follow the example of the vast majority of developed nations that have banned eating dog and cat.
Restaurant owners say eating dog meat is traditional during the summer, while opponents say the festival that began in 2010 has no cultural value and was merely invented to drum up business. Since 2014, the local government has sought to disassociate itself from the event, forbidding its employees from attending and limiting its size by shutting down some dog markets and slaughter houses.
A man lights a cigarette as dogs roast at a restaurant in Yulin in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Animal rights activists are seeking to shut down an annual summer dog meat festival in southern China, which they call extreme cruelty to canines. AP
“China needs to progress with the times,” Yu said. “Preventing cruelty to animals is the sign of a mature, civilized society.”
Still, as many as 10,000 dogs, many of them stolen pets still wearing their collars, are slaughtered for the festival held deep inside the poor, largely rural Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Some are trucked in hundreds of miles stuffed six or seven to a crate or small metal cage without food or water. Slaughtering takes place in front of the animals, usually with a club to induce the pain and fear that restaurant owners claim makes their adrenaline-rich meat tastier.
A Thai faces prison after being charged with lese majeste for insulting the king’s dog, his lawyer said today, in an escalation of the already draconian royal defamation law.
“Thanakorn also faces lese majeste, sedition and computer crimes charges for clicking ‘like’ on a doctored photo of the king and sharing it, plus an infographic on a growing corruption scandal engulfing the junta.”
Thanakorn Siripaiboon, 27, has been charged by police with lese majeste for a “satirical” Facebook post about the king and his dog, lawyer Pawinee Chumsri told AFP.
“There was a post including three photos on his Facebook page on December 6 with a message that satirised the king’s dog,” she said.
Thanakorn also faces lese majeste, sedition and computer crimes charges for clicking “like” on a doctored photo of the king and sharing it, plus an infographic on a growing corruption scandal engulfing the junta.
“Thanakorn, an auto-parts worker, could face up to 37 years in prison. There has been a recent trend towards record-breaking sentences on transgressors, many of whom are also regime critics.”
Thailand has one of the world’s harshest royal defamation laws. Anyone convicted of insulting the revered but ailing 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, or the queen, heir or regent can face up to 15 years in jail on each count.
Prosecutions have soared since the army, which styles itself as the champion of the monarchy, grabbed power in a coup last year. Read the rest of this entry »
After a man kicked a stray dog from a parking lot in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, it didn’t bark or bite but struck back with what seems like a coordinated plan.
The dog instead returned with a pack of other dogs and started biting the man’s car.
After the photos, which were shared on People’s Daily Weibo account, began circulating, people were quick to react.
“Animals also have self-esteem,” said @Tianwaitanbao.
“The car owner should have fed dog before shooing it away,” suggested @Xiaocaoqingting.
“Although animals are unable to speak, they have their own character,” said @20suidenizhunbeihaolema.
James Gorman writes: Gray wolves are their ancestors. Scientists are pretty consistent about that. And researchers have suggested that dogs’ origins can be traced to Europe, the Near East, Siberia and South China.
“It’s really great to see not just the sheer number of street dogs, but also the geographic breadth and the number of remote locations where the dogs were sampled.”
— Greger Larson of Oxford University, who is leading an international effort to analyze ancient DNA from fossilized bones
Central Asia is the newest and best candidate, according to a large study of dogs from around the world.
Laura M. Shannon and Adam R. Boyko at Cornell University, and an international group of other scientists, studied not only purebred dogs, but also street or village dogs — the free-ranging scavengers that make up about 75 percent of the planet’s one billion dogs.
Dr. Shannon analyzed three different kinds of DNA, Dr. Boyko said, the first time this has been done for such a large and diverse group of dogs, more than 4,500 dogs of 161 breeds and 549 village dogs from 38 countries. That allowed the researchers to determine which geographic groups of modern dogs were closest to ancestral populations genetically. And that led them to Central Asia as the place of origin for dogs in much the same way that genetic studies have located the origin of modern humans in East Africa.
The analysis, Dr. Boyko said, pointed to Central Asia, including Mongolia and Nepal, as the place where “all the dogs alive today” come from. The data did not allow precise dating of the origin, he said, but showed it occurred at least 15,000 years ago. They reported their findings Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read the rest of this entry »
Craig Andrew Ledbetter is seen in a booking photo released by the Irvine Police Department
A man who was naked when he allegedly assaulted a 75-year-old woman and forcibly took her dog has been arrested, the Irvine Police Department announced on Wednesday.
“Officers responded to a report of a man acting strangely on Rockwood Street at around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday and found the suspect, 51-year-old Craig Andrew Ledbetter, naked and aggressively swinging a stick.”
Officers responded to a report of a man acting strangely on Rockwood Street at around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday and found the suspect, 51-year-old Craig Andrew Ledbetter, naked and aggressively swinging a stick, Irvine police officials said in a news release.
“Officers used a Taser to take the suspect into custody after he allegedly ignored their commands. He was arrested and booked on suspicion of aggravated assault, elder abuse, animal cruelty and resisting a police officer.”
They later discovered that he had allegedly assaulted a woman who had been out walking her dog, the release stated. Read the rest of this entry »
Alyssa Abkowitz writes: The dog days of summer have arrived.
As locals prepare for the annual Yulin Dog Eating Festival in China’s Guangxi region, animal rights organizations are unleashing high-profile figures and waging global social media campaigns in an effort to bring the event to heel.
“An estimated 10,000 dogs are slaughtered for the annual festival, which marks the traditional start of summer and will occur on June 22 this year. Festival participants typically pair dog meat with lychees and a bevy of grain alcohol.”
As of June 18, Animals Asia, a Hong Kong based advocacy group, said that within the past two weeks, around 70,000 people had signed a letterasking China’s dog meat traders to stay away from the festival. It’s the first year Animals Asia has run a petition, the group said.
British comedian Ricky Gervais has partnered with Humane Society International to campaign against the festival. Mr. Gervais recently tweeted out, “Please help our best friend. #StopYuLin2015.” He included a photo of a canine with lipstick rings on its face, along with the caption: “The only marks you should leave on a dog.”
Humane Society International also launched a letter-writing campaign and has bestowed the name “Ricky” (in Mr. Gervais’ honor) to a black-and-white pooch rescued from a Yulin slaughterhouse last month. According to the Humane Society, 400,000 people have used the organization’s websiteto send messages directly to Guangxi’s Communist Party secretary, Peng Qinghua. Mr. Peng could not be reached for comment, and Humane Society officials did not immediately respond to a request for further details on how the messages were delivered and whether they had successfully reached his office.
Raise UR Paw, a non-profit in Canada, said that as of June 15 its letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping on the petition website change.org had received more than 340,000 signatures. Read the rest of this entry »
SHERIDAN, Wyo., Dec. 19 (UPI) — Authorities in Wyoming said a man was shot in the arm when his dog stepped on a loaded gun in the back seat of his pickup truck.
Johnson County Sheriff Steve Kozisek said Richard Fipps, 46, of Sheridan, was standing next to his pickup truck Monday when his dog climbed from the front seat to the back seat and stepped on the loaded .300 Winchester Magnum, which did not have its safety activated.
“Both the roommate and Walters’ ex-boyfriend said they noticed that the water they were drinking was strangely colored and that the food they were eating tasted different.”
Albuquerue Journal News‘ Patrick Lohmann reports: A 53-year-old woman has been arrested after police said she tried to poison her roommate and boyfriend, upset that the boyfriend had broken up with her because she’d been having sex with her roommate’s two German shepherds.
“A veterinarian examined both animals and found minor injuries, as well as “unusual symptoms” in one of the dogs that could indicate sexual abuse.”
Sheriff’s deputies said Shari Walters’ roommate walked into a shed in Albuquerque in late July at their shared home and found Walters having sex with one of the animals, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in Metropolitan Court. The roommate, who police said was “shocked,” walked back into the home and waited for Walters to return. Read the rest of this entry »
Researchers see honesty and deceit, perhaps something like morality
For The Washington Post, David Grimm writes: A shaggy brown terrier approaches a large chocolate Labrador in a city park. When the terrier gets close, he adopts a yogalike pose, crouching on his forepaws and hiking his butt into the air. The Lab gives an excited bark, and soon the two dogs are somersaulting and tugging on each other’s ears. Then the terrier takes off and the Lab gives chase, his tail wagging wildly. When the two meet once more, the whole thing begins again.
Watch a couple of dogs play, and you’ll probably see seemingly random gestures, lots of frenetic activity and a whole lot of energy being expended. But decades of research suggest that beneath this apparently frivolous fun lies a hidden language of honesty and deceit, empathy and perhaps even a humanlike morality.
“Bekoff wasn’t interested just in behavior; he was interested also in emotions and, fundamentally, what was going on inside these animals’ heads.”
Take those two dogs. That yogalike pose is known as a “play bow,” and in the language of play it’s one of the most commonly used words. It’s an instigation and a clarification, a warning and an apology. Dogs often adopt this stance as an invitation to play right before they lunge at another dog; they also bow before they nip (“I’m going to bite you, but I’m just fooling around”) or after some particularly aggressive roughhousing (“Sorry I knocked you over; I didn’t mean it.”).
All of this suggests that dogs have a kind of moral code — one long hidden to humans until a cognitive ethologist named Marc Bekoff began to crack it. Read the rest of this entry »
The human couldn’t figure out how his cat and dog escaped the kitchen, so set up a cam and found out that the cat had been helping the dog out the whole time.
The release of a specialty wine just for cats this week in Japan got plenty of Internet buzz, but cats themselves have been far less enthusiastic.
A cat eyes a glass of Nyan Nyan Nouveau, recently released in Japan especially for cats.
Yumi Otagaki reports: Nyan Nyan Nouveau is a non-alcoholic wine for cats whose owners want to share some quality time with them, and who will spend some money to do so. In Japanese, “nyan nyan” is the sound cats supposedly make, like “meow” in English.
A 180-milliter bottle of Nyan Nyan Nouveau sells for ¥399 ($4.10) over the Internet, and will be available in pet stores and supermarkets in time for the release of Beaujolais Nouveau in mid-November, according to Masahito Tsurumi, chief executive of B&H Lifes, the company that makes it. Based in Aichi prefecture, central Japan, and originally an offshoot of a sake brewer, B&H Lifes already sells supplement drinks, non-alcoholic beer, wine and sake for dogs.
Nyan Nyan Nouveau was created in response to requests from cat owners, Mr. Tsurumi said.
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and unhygienic food handling practices.
with her because she’d been having sex with her roommate’s two German shepherds.
Lab gives chase, his tail wagging wildly. When the two meet once more, the whole thing begins again.
