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Fresh off a victory over SeaWorld and its controversial orca program, animal rights groups are zeroing in on zoos, aquariums and circuses -- and one prominent expert warns your dog and cat could be next. A well-funded coalition of nonprofits finally broke SeaWorld, when the theme park chain announced in March it would phase out its popular killer whale program. Now the groups smell blood in the water – and on land. “The tide is turning against SeaWorld and other aquariums and zoos,” Ashley Bryne, a campaign specialist at PETA, told FoxNews.com. “I think this is a sign of what’s...

The first time marine biologist William Haddad and his team saw a seal rape a penguin, they were shocked.By the fourth time, they were convinced this bizarre behavior was becoming a trend.For 50 years, researchers from the marine mammal program at the University of Pretoria in South Africa have been taking weekly censuses of the elephant seal population on sub-Antarctic Marion Island, more than a thousand miles south of Cape Town in the Indian Ocean. In 2006, they saw something they'd never seen before. A fur seal (not the species they were studying) mounted and appeared to mate with a...

Thursday, July 02, 2009 By LORI STABILE lstabile@repub.com BELCHERTOWN - Ellen M. Majka was inside her home on Prescott Hill when she saw a bald eagle swoop down into her neighbor's yard. It was the first time she saw a bald eagle in the neighborhood. But even more surprising was what she saw in its talons when it flew back up - a black cat. "I've never seen anything like that in my life. I was shocked. I said, 'Oh my God,'" Majka said. The incident happened early, just after 6 am. on June 23. According to eagle experts, a...

N.D. Woman Catches Piranha in Reservoir JAMESTOWN, N.D. State wildlife officials have a fish story with some teeth to it. Game warden supervisor Dick Knapp and district game warden Jason Scott responded to a call over the weekend of a woman catching what she thought was a piranha at the Casselton Reservoir. The small fish with big, sharp teeth is native to the Amazon River in South America. Knapp said the catch was confirmed by biologists. The state Game and Fish Department believes the four-inch-long red-bellied piranha probably came from someone's aquarium. "It had to have been somebody's pet," said...

Please sign the online petition to stop the killing of pets in New Orleans. Conflicting reports abound, regarding whether orders have been given to shoot abandoned pets. But just in case it is or becomes true, please sign the online petitions below to STOP the killing: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/366281507?ltl=1126417990 And the following petition adds the words "and their pets" to the order to evacuate people from New Orleans. Please sign it also: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/840979272?ltl=1126071044

SAN ANTONIO - The human finger retrieved from a bowl of Wendy's chili in California may have come from a Nevada woman who had a digit bitten off by a pet leopard there in February, an animal rescuer asserted Wednesday. Wild Animal Orphanage Director Carol Asvestas said she witnessed the biting while on a rescue mission in Pahrump, Nev., and provided Wendy's with photographs she took before and after the Feb. 23 incident. Police in San Jose, Calif., where a lawsuit was filed against a Wendy's franchise and later withdrawn, are following up on the information Asvestas provided, according to...

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