Free Republic

The Vice President announced his run for another term as Vice President in 2016. Slow Joe Biden stated that he wanted to get the jump on any other possible candidates and get a lock on the position by the end of 2014. Slow Joe stated that he was going to make the announcement last week but unexpected events prevented it. With the Secret Service falling apart, Slow Joe was put on standby to caddy and wash balls for Barack if the assigned Secret Service agent again failed to report to duty. There have been several instances recently where the designated...

PHOENIX - Ethan is lucky to be alive after a scary run-in with a rattlesnake while on a hike last month. ... Since the bite, Ethan has been in and out of the hospital receiving treatments for an infection and to have dead skin removed from the wounds. It hasn't been an easy ride, but both Ethan and his father agree it's a lifelong lesson and that you don't truly know how good you've got it until you experience adversity.

ZURICH, Switzerland, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- A Swiss animal protection group is proposing a one-cat limit for the country's households to protect local wildlife preyed on by the felines.The Zurcher Tierschutz group in Zurich suggested the country's cat population needs to be controlled due to the threats felines pose to wildlife including birds, lizards, amphibians and small mammals.The group said there are an estimated 1.4 million cats in the country of 8.1 million people and measures are needed to control the cat population to protect local wildlife. The group suggested a limit be put on cat ownership to allow only...

When a baby elephant fell over while trying to climb out of a small ditch at Switzerland's Zoo Zürich, two adults rushed over within a few seconds to help. Footage of the event, which took place at the zoo's new Kaeng Krachan elephant house, was uploaded to YouTube on Aug. 6. Though it's not clear from the video whether the baby's mother is one of the adults that comes to its aid, elephants are known to have tight bonds with herd members outside their immediate family. Mother and calf share a special connection, but adults have been known to watch...

LANCASTER, Calif. (AP) - A pit bull owner convicted of second-degree murder after his dogs fatally mauled a woman was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison. Alex Donald Jackson, 31, was convicted last month in the death of Pamela Devitt. The 63-year-old retiree was taking a morning stroll in the high desert town of Littlerock when four of Jackson's dogs leaped over a fence and attacked her in the street. She was alone, didn't have a phone and no one was nearby. By the time help arrived, she had been bitten 150 to 200 times from head...

A shocking new TV documentary will reveal how hundreds pet dogs are being stolen every day in Vietnam for the lucrative dog meat trade. Unreported World shows disturbing evidence of how dogs are stolen, force-fed, kept in cramped cages and slaughtered for meals. Here, reporter Nelufar Hedayat exclusively reveals the horrors she witnessed.

Cats possess many odd quirks and habits, but one of their most endearing qualities is their love of windows. It seems like once they find a good window perch, they won't leave for hours! Why is that?   The feline affinity for windows can be attributed to many factors. Cats are curious observers, and let's face it, the strange outside world is probably a lot more interesting than the interior of a house. After all, why would a cat want to observe his or her human sitting around doing absolutely nothing (e.g. melting into a couch and gluing their eyes...

I roolz... poople droolz

A prominent animal-rights charity is not a friend of the furry kingdom. Americans love animals, even cats. Eight million stray dogs and cats find their way into animal shelters every year, and the lucky ones are adopted into a warm home with a loving family. Shelters are operated by small charities usually called “humane societies,” whose good deeds are funded by private generosity. The Humane Society of the United States trades on the good of others to finance a radical agenda. In May, the Humane Society and a handful of other radical animal-rights groups had to write a $15.8 million...

Corinna Caron says she wasn’t home Friday night when security cameras captured five pit bulls mauling her basset hound, Elvis. “When we got here, they had Elvis in the garage. His ears were bleeding, his neck was bleeding,” Caron said Monday. Neighbors across the street and next door came running when they heard the commotion. One of the pit bulls was shot and killed. “If they hadn’t been here, we wouldn’t have Elvis. There’s no doubt in my mind that Elvis wouldn’t have survived that attack,” she said. It’s not Elvis’ first encounter with the dogs. We’re told they’ve gone...

Bats may be lured to their deaths at wind farms because they think turbines are trees in which they can find shelter, food and sex, according to new research. The creatures fly towards slow-moving turbines, only to be killed when gusts of wind spin the blades, scientists investigating “unprecedented” numbers of bat deaths at wind farms suggested. Flashing red lights may need to be installed at wind farms to help prevent the animals making the potentially-fatal mistake, they said. […] About 600,000 bats are estimated to have been killed by wind farms in the US in 2012. …

President Obama clarified his accusation that DNI James Clapper was the cause of the intelligence failure about ISIL. Obama claimed that, in the short term, Clapper was at fault for general incompetence but that Congress was ultimately responsible because they confirmed him for the position. Clapper could not have performed his job with criminal negligence had he not been confirmed for the job by Congress. Obama stated that Congress has a history of confirming total incompetents after which he has had to work with them in his administration. Who can forget "Turbo Tax Timmy", or Hillary "Benghazi" Clinton, or "Stuck...

Family members said a hunter is undergoing a second surgery after a bear attack in Pine County. Brandon Johnson is from North Branch and was attacked by a wounded bear early Saturday morning. The 9-1-1 call came in after 3:30 a.m. in a remote part of the county called Duxbury. Pine County deputies said Johnson was alone at the time of the attack, but was with a group scattered in the woods. Johnson told deputies he was tracking the wounded bear after bowhunting. Johnson told deputies the animal knocked him to the ground clawing and biting him. Officials with the...

When Charlene Warner walks her dog each morning in her neighborhood in upscale Seal Beach, California, she’s terrified she’ll be attacked—not by muggers or gangs, but by coyotes. “They are killing our animals. They are scaring us. I go out every morning with rocks in my pockets, tennis shoes on, mace on my neck, a whistle on my neckand a foghorn on my leash, and I still don’t feel safe,” Ms. Warner said last week in comments before the Seal Beach City Council. She has reason to be nervous. Stories abound in nearby Orange County of dogs and cats snatched...

Police received a call for an “unknown trouble” at a Toronto Community Housing Corp. home at Winchester Street and Rose Avenue in Cabbagetown, where they saw bystanders “screaming and yelling” while trying to pry the pit bull away from the shih tzu. “The policeman was hitting the dog so hard with his baton that it flung out of his hands but the pit bull would not let go,” said Samantha Thornton, a resident in the area. She said the owner of the shih tzu was in “hysterics.” According to Ms. Thornton, police shot the dog twice in the leg and...

Swedish Radio Science News asked about a dozen researchers, and many say the 200-550 kg animals are simply too large to get drunk on the amount of fermented apples they are reported to eat. Professor Petter Kjellander, expert on wild animals at the agricultural university SLU, says that neither he nor the colleagues he asked has ever come across a test confirming high blood alcohol in an elk. Despite thousands of people all over the world reading about the aggressive "drunk" Swedish elks Petter Kjellander speculates the animals might simply be protecting their stashes of tasty fallen fruit. One elk...

<p>Never has a family pet been more unimpressed than this cat.</p> <p>In one of the many, many cat photos uploaded to Reddit on a daily basis, this grey moggy can be seen looking pretty darn miffed at his/her owner’s decision to invest in such a damning sign.</p>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgsTgkxGTQo

MICHIGAN, N.D. -- A Fort Totten man is dead and three children are hurt after the car they were in hit a moose late Monday night in northeast North Dakota. North Dakota State Patrol Sgt. Joe Knowski said the 2003 Chevy Cavalier was headed east on U.S. 2 about a mile east of Michigan about 10:05 p.m. when it hit the moose, which was in the middle of the highway. The Cavalier rolled numerous times before coming to rest on the south edge of the roadway, ejecting the driver and all three children, who are 10, 5, and 2, from...