MK’s Views - Down under on the right side

MSNBC - AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A zookeeper’s house cat has adopted a baby red panda abandoned by its mother and is nursing the cub along with her own kittens, the Artis zoo said Wednesday. The panda’s mother rejected her two cubs after they were born on June 30. “She left them there, lying in the cold,” said zoo spokesman Bart Kret. The zoo initially kept the cubs in an incubator. But a keeper’s tabby cat had just given birth to four kittens, and let the two panda cubs join the crowd. One of the cubs was too weak and died Thursday.

The surviving cub is still smaller than the kittens, who were born three days before her. However, if she survives to be an adult, she will be slightly larger than a cat. Kret said the cub will drink milk for about three months, after which she can start eating bamboo and fruit. The cub doesn’t have a name yet, but the zoo says that, through its adoption program, anyone willing to sponsor her will be allowed to name her. The red panda is an endangered species that lives in China, Bhutan, Nepal, India, and Burma. It has a striped tail like a raccoon and is only distantly related to the much larger giant panda.

Westport Now - It was supposed to be part senior prank, part serious reminder to conserve energy. But Westport school officials were having none of it and ordered a father and his 17-year-old daughter arrested today for bringing her pony to Staples High School on the last day of classes. Ronald Friedson, 50, and daughter Sarah were charged with breach of peace after they showed up on school grounds with the 20-year-old chocolate-colored pony named Coco, who had banners on his side saying “Save Gas $” and “Ride On: S(taples) ‘08!” Sarah also got a 10-day suspension.

“When the horse was brought on campus, a large crowd of students began to gather near the horse, causing the school staff to become concerned for the safety of their students,” said Lt. Thomas P. Casimiro II, public information officer. He said Staples authorities had “previously” warned the Friedsons not to bring the animal on to the property. [snip] “It was a sweet, harmless practical statement,” Friedson said. He said Cocoa was no threat to anyone. “He looks like something out of a cartoon. The only danger is if you’re a carrot,” he said.

Come on folks, it’s just a damn horse, not some wild man-eating beast out of hell or something, give Sarah and Coco a break will ya and maybe an apple while you’re at it.

LiveNews {Audio available at the link} - The owner of a dog, deliberately run over in Sydney’s west, has described how the men responsible laughed as she screamed for help. Jennifer Patten’s pet Chihuahua, Vinnie, is dead after the brutal attack on Grex Avenue at Minchinbury last night. She’s told 2GB’s Ray Hadley three men in a red hatchback kept on coming back for more.

“They ran over my shitzu first – he flattened himself out on the ground because he was so petrified – and the car just passed over the top of him,” she recounted. “And then my little Chihuahua-cross, who’s like 1.5 kilos and wouldn’t hurt a fly… I was screaming for my dogs to come to me and he started to run towards me and they lined him up and ran him over.” Continue reading Life under Gun Control…

Thanks to News.com.au - HE’S lost, he’s exhausted and he needs help to get home. This cuddly golden retriever was found near the border town of Goondiwindi, about 320km southwest of Brisbane, on Easter Monday. The pooch was exhausted and his pads were worn through and full of prickles. “We were driving along and I said, like, ‘what’s that on the road?’,” Ms Martin said. “We just had to pick him up. Semi-trailers were flying by and just missing him. “My partner got him to the side of the road and he just dropped down, he was so exhausted. “He was wagging his tail.” “He’s estimated to be between eight and 11 years old and has been well looked after,” Mr Beatty said. “He looks like he never knocks back a feed.”

Spread the word folks, if you know someone who knows someone who has lost this fellow, they have a link at the source page.

ABC News - A Norwegian pro-whaling lobby says a new study shows that harpooning the giant mammals is less damaging to the climate than farming livestock. The survey, focused on whale boats’ fuel use, showed that a kilo of whale meat represented just 1.9 kilo of greenhouse gases against 15.8 for beef, 6.4 for pork and 4.6 for chicken. “Basically it turns out that the best thing you can do for the planet is to eat whale meat compared to other types of meat,” said Rune Froevik of the High North Alliance, which represents the interests of coastal communities in the Arctic. “Greenhouse gas emissions caused by one meal of beef are the equivalent of eight meals of whale meat,” the study said.

There you go folks, you can do your bit for the planet too, eat whale. Needless to say, the Green groups are hearing none of it, as usual really, and we thought they were all about the planet. Green house gases and all that, global warming, we’re all going to burn, time is running out, but as we always suspected, their priority is hindering humanity, the planet comes after that.

Environmental group Greenpeace dismissed the survey, saying almost every kind of food was more climate-friendly than meat. “The survival of a species is more important than lower greenhouse gas emissions from eating it,” said Truls Gulowsen of Greenpeace. “Almost every food is more climate friendly than meat. Most fish and seafood has similarly low emissions.”

Rocky Mountain News - Just because golden eagles never wear heels doesn’t mean they don’t have foot problems. At the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program in Fort Collins, the situation became so serious for one very large, very important eagle that the next step was going to be killing the bird. “Their feet are their life,” said Gail Kratz, the program’s medical director. That’s especially true for birds that no longer can fly. The female golden eagle - they don’t name birds because they don’t want them regarded as pets - came into the center in 1991 after being hit by a truck, an injury that permanently crippled one wing.

For the female golden, being grounded for so long created unnatural foot stress and strain, leading to a series of bacterial infections known as “bumble foot.” Despite surgery, the problem had become chronic and painful. The female golden, a feisty beauty with a 7-foot wingspan who loves to climb up ramps to the highest roost in her cage, stopped vocalizing and seemed to lose her appetite. “Birds in general hide whatever is wrong with them. Show weakness in the wild, and you’re going to be somebody’s lunch,” Kratz said. “A bird has to really not be feeling well a lot for them to show anything.” Continue reading Orthotics for Eagles…

FoxNews - The United States issued a stern warning to Iran Monday following an incident near the Strait of Hormuz in which Iranian speedboats veered dangerously close to three U.S. Navy ships and intercepted radio signals said U.S. “ships would explode.” U.S. ships blew whistles, issued radio warnings and took evasive maneuvers to avoid striking the Iranian boats, which motored as close as 200 yards from the American ships by one account. The naval ships armed their weapons, and the five unmarked Iranian boats — believed to belong to the Iran Revolutionary Guard — sped away. Continue reading Iran spoiling for a fight?…

MNF-Iraq - With their strong sense of smell and their immeasurable loyalty, the highly trained military working dogs (MWD) in the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, are proving to be essential in the fight against terrorism. Military working dogs first entered the United States armed services in March 1942. Today, the dogs are still providing support to the troops on the battlefield. A single dog can search more area in less time than an entire company could do, said Staff Sgt. Charles Graves, a dog handler with 241st Military Police Detachment, Fort Meade, Md. “By using the dogs, you are leaving your shooters to other aspects of the mission, rather than having them go out to start a search capacity,” Graves said. Continue reading There’s a good doggie…..

LiveNews - A leading environmentalist says Japan’s plan to cull one-thousand whales won’t kill off the species. 2007 Australian of the Year, Tim Flannery says the cull of 935 Minke whales for scientific purposes won’t threaten the species, and we should be concentrating on other more pressing issues.

Have a tissue enviro-nazis, and start focusing on more pressing issues, like the threat from those Islamic savages, how about other issues like ending the slaughter of our own unborn, how about westerners growing a bit of backbone and executing traitors. How about our citizens being allowed guns to defend ourselves against criminal scum. Those are what I call pressing issues.

SMH - Anti-whaling protesters have vandalised the Japanese Consulate in Melbourne with fake blood. A consulate spokesman, who declined to be named, said about six protesters spread red ink on carpet inside the consulate office on the 45th floor of the Melbourne Central building in Elizabeth Street this afternoon.

MK - Meanwhile around 80,000 abortions are performed in Australia every year, any one of these scumbags got any fake blood for the unborn, those who have no voice? When you think about it they are worse off than the damn whales, at least they are killed for “research” and eaten, the unborn are just killed and discarded. The Better Health [well, not for the baby] Channel says that the current “studies have shown that the majority of Australians support the idea of safe [again, not for the baby] and legal abortions.” I just wish the majority of Australians would get as hysterical and emotional about our own species before we start wailing about whales!!

SMH - Researchers in a remote jungle in Indonesia have discovered a giant rat - five times the size of a typical city rat - and a tiny possum that are apparently new to science. Unearthing new species of mammals in the 21st century is very rare. The discoveries by a team of American and Indonesian scientists are being studied further to confirm their status. The animals were found in the Foja mountains rainforest in eastern Papua province in a June expedition, said US-based Conservation International, which organised the trip along with the Indonesian Institute of Science. “The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat,” said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. “With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip.” The possum was described as “one of the world’s smallest marsupials”.

Yahoo!7 News - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has reiterated Labor’s commitment to consider using the military to gather evidence about Japanese whaling. Environment groups are preparing to sail to the Southern Ocean to harass Japanese whaling ships over the summer. Mr Rudd says the Government is considering what action it can take to strengthen any future case brought against Japan under international law. “We’ll have further to say on that next week and I reiterate our previous policy: we would not rule out the use of Australian assets to collect appropriate data, including photographic evidence concerning whaling activities, if we were to then advance a case to the appropriate international legal tribunals,” he said.

In all honesty, I don’t think he will do a damn thing, I think this is just some wiffle-waffle to draw the attention of the mad-left away from his worthless ramblings on Kyoto. He knows they are angry that he’s not going screw Australia over like he promised, so he’s tossing them some scraps to keep them occupied. If he is serious, may I humbly ask the PM what exactly he has in mind if our military observes the mad leftists harassing and possibly attacking the Japanese whaling ships. Are we going to stand back or are we going to stop them, what if one of the Japanese ships is damaged or someone injured, will we fire on the eco-terrorists, if not, why not.

LiveNews - Usually its a cuddly teddy bear or a favourite action figure that kids need before they can get to bed. But not for Cambodian six-year-old Sambath Uon; he needs “Lukcy”, his trusty six-metre long python, before he can sleep. ‘I love the python like my sister,’ said Sambath. ‘All my friends are jealous of her.’ Sambath first encountered the snake when he was three-months-old, and Lucky was only 50cm.

His parents didn’t like to see Lucky with Sambath, and tried to take him back into the forest three times - to which Lucky would keep returning to his child owner. Sambath’s mother, Kim Kanara, said: ‘We would find it asleep next to Sambath. They have slept together every night for the past six years. ‘She is a member of the family now. We shelter, feed, bathe and even pray to her.’ The python is even considered to have magical healing powers. ‘Some recovered from sickness after being blessed by her.’ Mrs Kanara added. Off the wall says: This boy will never, ever have problems with bullies.

FOXNews - Missouri police made a peculiar drug bust this week when they caught a man with a toad he allegedly used to get high, KMBC-TV in Kansas City reported Tuesday. David Theiss, 21, of Kansas City, was accused of having a Colorado River Toad for the purpose of using it as a hallucinogenic, KMBC-TV reported. “People used to do it all the time, but it got faded out awhile, but came back as a fad. Not a smart one,” animal expert Danny Snyder told KMBC-TV. “The toxins in it can kill a lot of stuff.” Both Theiss and the toad were taken into custody. While Theiss was released on bond, the toad remains detained at a police crime lab.

LiveNews - A giant wild pig previously unknown to science has been discovered in a remote part of Brazil. The creature, named the “giant peccary” (Pecari maximus) grows to a length of more than four feet and is almost twice as heavy as its cousin species living in the central Amazon rain forest. Yet it remained completely hidden from the modern world until skins and bones of animals killed by local hunters came to the attention of Dutch biologist Marc van Roosmalen. Mr van Roosmalen, from the National Institute for Amazon Research in Manaus, eventually filmed a group of four giant peccaries in March 2003.

Continue reading Wonder what it tastes like…..

FOXNews - Kenyan officials are not sure how to handle a troop of rude monkeys that’s been making lewd gestures at women, London’s Daily Telegraph reports. “These creatures have clearly shown that they have no respect for women.” Gichuki Kabukuru of the Kenya Wildlife Service told the Telegraph that monkeys and baboons commonly harass women, gesturing at them and touching their own private parts. Residents of the Kabete region south of the capital, Nairobi, say women harvesting crops have taken to dressing as men to avoid being bothered by the perverted primates.

FOXNews - Wild turkeys are running amok in the Boston area, startling, amusing and even chasing residents who have had close encounters with them on the street. Previously alien to these parts, after having been wiped out long ago, the gobbling fowl are suddenly back and bigger than ever, descending with gusto upon suburbia, according to The Boston Globe.

The brazen little creatures have been so rampant that local police now get up to a dozen calls about them a day. One woman jumped — and gasped — when she came face-to-face with a turkey right after she parked her car at a meter in Brookline, the Globe reported. But the showdown didn’t stop there. The turkey ran after the woman after they locked eyes, gobbling and pecking at her bottom during the chase.

Yahoo! News - The monkey menace in Delhi is assuming disastrous proportions. While the nation celebrated Vijaydashami, the capital’s Deputy Mayor succumbed to injuries sustained after he was attacked by monkeys. Deputy Mayor S S Bajwa was attacked by monkeys on Saturday, while he was standing in the balcony of his residence. While grappling with the simian attackers, Bajwa toppled over and fell off the balcony. He died of his injuries on Sunday.

Continue reading New Delhi - Beware the monkeys…

A New York woman said she discovered a python in her toilet as she was washing her hands before dawn on Monday. Peeking out from the toilet were the eyes of a python, its two-metre-long body hidden in the pipes in her third-floor bathroom, Nadege Brunacci told the Daily News. “I turned on the light and screamed,” she told the paper. “It still makes my heart race.” She slammed down the lid, put a heavy box on top of the toilet and began calling for help, which came from her landlord and firefighters. SMH.

It was the fifth time the home, which is also used as a locksmith shop, was burgled this month. So when Baker woke to the sounds of Salvador, his Mexican Red-headed parrot, saying “hello, hello” he knew something was wrong. Baker grabbed his gun and shot the burglar in his garage. The man died at hospital, police said. “I have tools in my garage, my house and my van,” Baker said. “They were coming here like they owned the place. I hate what happened, but somebody has to do what’s necessary.”

Continue reading Right on Texas!!…

Good on those folks for taping it for all of us, via Fortress Australia Outpost.

A stray kitten has found a new mother in a golden retriever, who began producing milk for the gray tabby after hearing its cries. The hungry kitten, found in an old tire at a concrete plant, refused to drink from a bottle and her rescuers feared she would die. That’s when Honey, the family dog who hadn’t given birth in 18 months, stepped in with her motherly instincts. “She started licking her and loving her. Within a couple of days, Honey started naturally lactating,” said Kathy Martin, whose husband, Jimmy, brought the kitten home six weeks ago.

Continue reading Of Cats & Dogs…

Two-month-old Persian leopard cubs snarl for the camera during their debut at the Budapest Zoo on Tuesday. The rare babies are among triplets—a male and two females—born to captive leopards in June as part of a Persian leopard breeding program. About 70 live in zoos worldwide. The big cats are native to Middle Eastern countries including Iran and Afghanistan, where, experts say fewer than 2,000 animals remain in the wild. Source.

Pictures sourced, with thanks, from Source1, Source2,, Source3, Source4.