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Starting July 1, ferrets, goats and hedgehogs can no longer fly American Airlines, even if they’re support animals. They’re just three of a somewhat lengthy list of barred animals the airline has put out in response to an increase in customers transporting a service or support animal onboard their aircraft — more than 40 percent from 2016 to 2017. “We support the rights of customers, from veterans to people with disabilities, with legitimate needs for a trained service or support animal,” AA said in a statement. “Unfortunately, untrained animals can lead to safety issues for our team, our customers and...

Archaeologists have unearthed the final resting place of an ancient racehorse among the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii in Italy. The horse was discovered in Pompeii’s northern outskirts, beyond the walls of the Roman city. The stable where the horse belonged to a villa in Pompeii’s suburb of Civita Giuliana. Experts discovered the horse’s remains when they were investigating tunnels used by tomb raiders, according to a Facebook post.

Save HEREFORD — It was January 2010 when Horse’n Around Rescue Ranch and Foundation opened its doors on Single Star Ranch in Hereford. The nonprofit’s co-founders, Theresa Warrell and Steve Boice, opened the rescue after seeing a dire need to help neglected, abused and abandoned equines in southern Arizona. “At the time we started the rescue, we knew there was a need, but had no idea how great that need really was,” Warrell said. “To date, we have rescued 131 equines and adopted out 67.” On Sunday, Horse’n Around will be hosting an open house from 1 to 3 p.m....

Adviser to Khamenei says aid collectors for Palestinians sought to deploy reptiles whose skin 'attracted atomic waves' ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The former chief-of-staff of Iran’s armed forces said Tuesday that Western spies had used lizards to “attract atomic waves” and spy on his country’s nuclear program. It was the latest in a long line of incidents of Western countries, including Israel, being accused of deploying secret agents from the animal kingdom. Hassan Firuzabadi, senior military adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was responding to questions from local media on the recent arrest of environmentalists. He said he did not know the...

2018 Iditarod - Willow Restart Drone Overhead Watch a musher leave the Willow Start Line on the trail to Nome

Competitors took to the snowy trail as the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race kicked off Sunday in Alaska following a trying year for the annual event. Musher Cody Strathe of Fairbanks and his 16-dog team were the first to take off across frozen Willow Lake, about 75 miles north of Anchorage. Before taking off on the trail, Strathe said he was excited to be the first to leave. He said he had a harmonica in his pocket and he plans to teach himself to play during the race.

After the German shepherd Rumor won the top prize at last year's Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York, she had her first litter of puppies and retired from competition, like many female show dogs. By contrast, most top male show dogs can keep competing for years, and it is no coincidence that they also win "Best in Show" in the prestigious annual competition far more often than females, breeders and handlers said as they prepared for this year's show, which opens Monday, Feb. 12 in New York.

You see a dog enter a restaurant with a vest that says "service dog." How do you, or the restaurant, know if the dog is actually a trained service dog? It's a problem that has prompted more than a dozen states to crack down on people trying to pass off their pet as a service animal. "They make me angry, they really do," said Colleen Belanger. Belanger has a service dog and she is upset people are using fake service dogs. She said it is a growing concern as more and more people are taking advantage of the system. Some...

Seventy-year-old Robert L. Brady has until Jan. 11 to give up Bane, the mixed-breed sidekick that his psychologist deemed as an emotional support dog. His Conway-area condominium association won an arbitration order Dec. 12 requiring the Vietnam veteran to surrender the 4-year-old dog because it exceeds the community’s 35-pound weight limit for pets. Bane weighs about 41 pounds. The canine now faces an uncertain future even as assistance dogs have gained greater access to communities, restaurants and shops. “The reason I don't want to lose him is that he keeps my mind off the war and everything. He's just a...

The NYPD is doubling down on a new breed of security to defend the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade: an elite team of Labrador retrievers specially trained to detect explosives on roving targets in large crowds. The dogs have completed the 18-month patent-pending "Vapor Wake" training program, which was developed at Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Unlike normal bomb-sniffing dogs, which are adept at identifying explosives in stationary objects such as trash cans, Vapor Wake dogs keep their noises up and look for mobile threats. The Labradors are dialed into the "thermal plumes left behind in a person's wake," Paul...

FULL TITLE: 'I have done absolutely nothing wrong': Four-time Iditarod winner speaks out after being accused of DOPING his dogs in preparation for the annual long-distance sled race Four-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey denied Monday that he administered banned drugs to his dogs in this year's race and said he has withdrawn from the 2018 race in protest over the allegations. 'I have never given any banned substance to my dogs,' Seavey said in a video posted to his Facebook page. He didn't immediately return calls to The Associated Press after the Iditarod Trail Committee identified him as the musher...

Sorry, Lulu. Maybe you have another calling. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had to fire one of its cutest employees, who simply didn’t demonstrate the initiative needed for the very important job. Lulu’s departure from the prestigious job was announced in a “Pupdate” by the agency Wednesday, who regretfully acknowledged that she just wasn’t meant for sniffing bombs. They tried offering the black Labrador some work benefits such as treats and extra playtime, but said: “Even when they could motivate her with food and play to search, she was clearly not enjoying herself any longer.”

An argument broke out at a Delaware restaurant this week after a woman complained to a veteran that service dogs inside eateries are “nasty.” The video shows Ciara Miller standing inside of Kathy’s Crab House arguing with a small group of people, including a man holding a leash of a Great Dane wearing a vest that read: “PTSD service dog.” At one point a woman off camera is heard telling Miller the dog’s owner is a military veteran, the News Journal in Wilmington reported. Miller is heard responding the point is irrelevant and having an animal in a restaurant is...

<p>Great Video at link: Warning: This video contains explicit language.</p> <p>Shocking footage shows an angry woman screaming at a U.S. military veteran and a restaurant’s staff members after the veteran brought his PTSD service dog into the establishment.</p> <p>The video begins with the woman already in hysterics, claiming she won’t keep her hands to herself and threatening to push the dog, who was wearing an official service dog jacket and was calmly standing off to the side with its owner. When an off-camera waitress tries to explain that the veteran is allowed to bring his dog inside because “he fought for our country,” the woman responds erratically by ranting about how her husband was a serviceman who died and asking what the waitress’s point is.</p>

In an area beset by crime and abandoned animals, one company is hoping its latest high-tech gadget could help alleviate both problems.

Good Samaritans helped move horses to safety after a fire broke out at a historic race track in Orange County. The fire began after 6 p.m. Wednesday at a barn at the Goshen Historic Track, a registered historic landmark, and quickly spread. Kaufman said there were just seconds to react to get one horse, named Caviar Hall, out. “Caviar Hall was in a burning stall after the fire erupted and it was thanks to one of the horse trainers that he was able to make it out safely,” he said. “The whole stall was full of flames and the horse...

Sixty illegal immigrants who were comingled within a tractor holding produce were rescued by Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol Agents on Saturday. Agents referred a tractor trailer driver to secondary inspection after a dog alerted officials to the people who were laying on and within pallets of broccoli. The trailer's doors were secured with a padlock and the subjects had no means of escape. The trailer's temperature was 49 degrees Fahrenheit.

[snip] Victoria, a 2-year-old rat, sniffs for TNT, sticking her nose high in the air to indicate she's found some. She works her way down a 10-meter line with a handler on either end, and is able to detect the presence of TNT at a distance of approximately half a yard. [Yes, the article is from 2015]

Are goats taking jobs from union workers? Noe Hernandez , Battle Creek Enquirer Published 1:42 p.m. ET July 6, 2017 | Updated 14 hours ago 636349422166184578-goatherd-large-ngooch.jpg (Photo: Nick Gooch/courtesy of Western Michigan A battle is brewing at Western Michigan University this summer between a group of hungry goats and a labor union. The 400-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has filed a grievance contending that the work the goats are doing in a wooded lot is taking away jobs from laid-off union workers. "AFSCME takes protecting the jobs of its members very seriously and we have an...

USMC Vet: Employer Won't Let Me Come to Work With PTSD Service Dog A United States Marine Corps veteran who suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder said his employer won't let him come to work with his service dog. Yauncey Long said Cincinnati Bell, a Midwest telecomm company, refused to let him work in the company of his service dog, C4. Long said he's gotten pushback from the company, including "unsatisfactory" responses from management, after he applied for reasonable accommodations. He said he was sent home every day for a week without pay after he came to work with C4. Long...