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Some random
Aug. 7th, 2008 06:39 amI haven't been keeping up with the weird wonderful world out there but I came across a couple interesting stories yesterday.
For example, I love a bioluminescent anything, so learning that there's a species of bioluminescent springtail is pretty great. Too bad they faked most of the pictures. Of course, this creature lives in New Zealand.
There were two tiger attacks this week in Missouri, a region of the world I hadn't associated with tiger attacks before. One involved a 16 year old "employee" (I can't fathom how someone that young would be allowed to work with such dangerous animals, EVER) and the other involved a volunteer. Most animal facilities rely on volunteers a lot, but none should rely on them to do anything that results in getting attacked by a tiger. The last news story I read said that the 16 year old is still in critical condition. The other victim lost part of his leg to the attack. The most shocking part of that second story was the attempted cover-up. The facility told authorities that it wasn't a tiger that injured their worker...are you ready? No, they said it was a pit bull that nearly tore a grown man's leg off. Yes, the pit bull myth has become so pervasive that these people thought that it was a plausible story--Charles Stuart, anyone?
Well, if you can't have an imaginary killer pit bull, perhaps you'd like a cloned hero pit bull? This story causes mixed feelings for pit bull lovers everywhere. On the one hand, it's a rare bit of positive press for this type of dog. On the other hand, it gives the impression that a good pit bull is so rare that you need to take advantage of cutting edge science in Korea and spend 50,000 dollars to get one. Interestingly, the act of heroism that Booger (groan) was known for was attacking another dog; the fear of this act causes many shelters to kill any and all pit bulls they receive, whether or not the dog ever attacked anyone. There are however, at any moment, eight or nine thousand of these dogs available for adoption from shelters in this country.
For example, I love a bioluminescent anything, so learning that there's a species of bioluminescent springtail is pretty great. Too bad they faked most of the pictures. Of course, this creature lives in New Zealand.
There were two tiger attacks this week in Missouri, a region of the world I hadn't associated with tiger attacks before. One involved a 16 year old "employee" (I can't fathom how someone that young would be allowed to work with such dangerous animals, EVER) and the other involved a volunteer. Most animal facilities rely on volunteers a lot, but none should rely on them to do anything that results in getting attacked by a tiger. The last news story I read said that the 16 year old is still in critical condition. The other victim lost part of his leg to the attack. The most shocking part of that second story was the attempted cover-up. The facility told authorities that it wasn't a tiger that injured their worker...are you ready? No, they said it was a pit bull that nearly tore a grown man's leg off. Yes, the pit bull myth has become so pervasive that these people thought that it was a plausible story--Charles Stuart, anyone?
Well, if you can't have an imaginary killer pit bull, perhaps you'd like a cloned hero pit bull? This story causes mixed feelings for pit bull lovers everywhere. On the one hand, it's a rare bit of positive press for this type of dog. On the other hand, it gives the impression that a good pit bull is so rare that you need to take advantage of cutting edge science in Korea and spend 50,000 dollars to get one. Interestingly, the act of heroism that Booger (groan) was known for was attacking another dog; the fear of this act causes many shelters to kill any and all pit bulls they receive, whether or not the dog ever attacked anyone. There are however, at any moment, eight or nine thousand of these dogs available for adoption from shelters in this country.
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