Orphaned bat epidemic in Australia

Torrential rain has brought chaos to Australia, and not just to the humans who live there.

Australian Bat Clinic and Wildlife Trauma Centre director Trish Wimberley and her carers have helped save 130 orphaned bats on the Gold Coast in past weeks.

They saved 350 young bats during the 2008 storm season but this year think there's more going on than just wild weather.

Carers have visited several bat 'camps' on the coast in recent weeks to find four-week-old babies on the ground covered in maggots and fly eggs.

Trish said: 'They're coming down to feed on the ground. That makes them vulnerable. It's not a natural occurrence and shows there is trouble in the environment.

'Bats are a barometer to what is going on in the environment. They're our canaries down the coal mine'.

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Stuck!

An 8-month-old German shepherd named Rebel somehow squeezed his head through a hole in an 18-inch block wall at his Desert Hot Springs home Monday.

Then he got stuck.

Rebel may have been chasing another animal or was just curious about the hole, said Sgt. James Huffman of Riverside County Animal Services. The dog cried and whimpered until a friend of the owner heard him and called authorities. The dog’s owner wasn’t home at the time.

County Animal Services officers arrived about 12:30 p.m. and determined that the dog was not in serious danger. Huffman said they concluded that if the dog was able to get his head into the hole, they would be able to pull him out without damaging the wall, but their main concern was not to hurt Rebel while getting him out.

An officer got on either side of the wall, tucked in the dog’s ears and nudged him back and forth for about 30 minutes before getting him out safely.

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Rachael Ray Donates $775,000 to Pets in Need

Wouldn't it be great if more wealthy celebrities would do this?
...
This holiday season, Ray is donating 100 percent of proceeds from her Nutrish and Just 6 pet food and treat lines to animal shelters nationwide, giving away a total of $775,000 before Dec. 31.

Currently on the road to promote her newest cookbook, Look + Cook, Ray is also sponsoring pop-up adoption events for the shelters she's supporting in the hopes of raising awareness for her cause. "We only give to no-kill shelters," she says. "But we give to small and large; no one's excluded. We want to keep as many animals alive as possible."

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Penguin Gets Prosthetic Beak

Five month-old Tungo was found on a beach in Rio de Janeiro with a shattered bill that had been damaged by a boat propeller.

Discovering that he was unable to eat, vets at Rio de Janeiro zoo built him a brand-new acrylic beak, shaped from a broken piece of the original.

This is the first operation of its type on a penguin in Latin America.

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via Neatorama

Show Your Local Animal Shelter Some Love

National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week is Nov. 7-13, 2010

The Humane Society of the United States' National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week is a way to honor animal shelters and their dedicated staff across the country.

There are approximately 4,000 animal shelters across the U.S., available to serve the estimated 6-8 million homeless animals who seek refuge each year. While 63 percent of American households include pets, only 10 percent of owned dogs and 18 percent of owned cats are adopted from animal shelters.

Spread the word about animals waiting to be adopted, and celebrate the many services provided by your local animal shelter.

If you'd like to SEND A DONATION to your local animal shelter, please remember that i-pets.com offers FREE SHIPPING on all orders benefiting an animal welfare agency or pet rescue group. That's our way of helping with their very worthy efforts. (e-mail me for the coupon code)

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Howlin' Good Music

What happens when a bunch of musicians who really listen to what their dogs are saying get together and produce music?

Some dog loving Chicago-area musicians, under the direction of mastermind Bob Dorman, have created Dog Tracks -- Songs by Dogs.

Songs include "Mama Was a Mutt," "I Gotta Go O-U-T," and "Please Come Home."

My favorite is "Take Me Home" because Dog Tracks -- Songs by Dogs is a novel, entertaining idea, but it is also a great way to help animal rescue and adoption organizations - $1.00 from each CD sold is automatically donated to help pet shelters.

The Dog Tracks -- Songs by Dogs website is a fun place to visit. You can listen to clips of all the songs, meet the musicians, and find rescue organizations in your area to volunteer at or donate to.

According to an article by Sharon Peters in USA Today, only 141 CD's have been sold so far. But Bob Dorman is looking at this in a very positive way

"I know it sounds crazy, but our goal is to sell 1 million copies. That would be 5,000 dogs saved. Well, we've only got 999,859 sales to go."

Maybe we can help - let's all go to www.dogtrackscd.com and BUY A CD.

Jasmine

I received the following story in today's email ... (Thanks, Lois)

In 2003, police in Warwickshire, England, opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog. It had been locked in the shed and abandoned. It was dirty and malnourished and had clearly been abused.

In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a Greyhound female, to the nearby Nuneaton Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, run by a man named Geoff Grewcock and known as a willing haven for animals abandoned, orphaned or otherwise in need.

Geoff and the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims..to restore the dog to full health and to win her trust. It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved.

They named her Jasmine and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home.

But Jasmine had other ideas.. No-one remembers now how it began, but she started welcoming all animal arrivals at the sanctuary. It wouldn't matter if it was a puppy, a fox cub, a rabbit or any other lost or hurting animal, Jasmine would peer into the box or cage and, where possible, deliver a welcoming lick.

Geoff relates one of the early incidents. "We had two puppies that had been abandoned by a nearby railway line. One was a Lakeland Terrier Cross and another was a Jack Russell Doberman Cross. They were tiny when they arrived at the centre and Jasmine approached them and grabbed one by the scruff of the neck in her mouth and put him on the settee. Then she fetched the other one and sat down with them, cuddling them."

"But she is like that with all of our animals, even the rabbits. She takes all the stress out of them and it helps them to not only feel close to her, but to settle into their new surroundings.

"She has done the same with the fox and badger cubs. She licks the rabbits and guinea pigs and even lets the birds perch on the bridge of her nose."

Jasmine - the timid, abused, deserted waif, became the animal sanctuary's resident surrogate mother, a role for which she might have been born. The list of orphaned and abandoned youngsters she has cared for comprises five fox cubs, four badger cubs, 15 chicks, eight guinea pigs, two stray puppies and 15 rabbits.

And one roe deer fawn. Tiny Bramble, 11 weeks old, was found semi-conscious in a field. Upon arrival at the sanctuary, Jasmine cuddled up to her to keep her warm and then went into the full 'foster mom' role. Jasmine, the greyhound, showers Bramble, the Roe deer, with affection and makes sure nothing is matted.

"They are inseparable," says Geoff. "Bramble walks between her legs and they keep kissing each other. They walk together round the sanctuary.
It's a real treat to see them."

Jasmine will continue to care for Bramble until she is old enough to be returned to woodland life. When that happens, Jasmine will not be lonely. She will be too busy showering love and affection on the next orphan or victim of abuse.

From left - Toby, a stray Lakeland dog; Bramble, orphaned Roe deer; Buster, a stray Jack Russell; a dumped rabbit; Sky, an injured barn owl; and Jasmine, with a Mothers heart, doing best what a caring Mother would do.

Another hapless hairless animal

Vets at St Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in Aylesbury are trying to establish how and why the male squirrel, who was found in Amersham, lost all his fur.

Bald squirrels are not that uncommon but the hair loss is usually because the animal is suffering from mange, an illness caused by mites.

But vets at St Tiggywinkles, who have nicknamed their new patient Smoothie, have no idea why he is bald, apart from few tufts of fur on his tail. He is undergoing tests and is being kept warm and dry while feasting on his favourite treat of pecan nuts.

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Yikes! Is this ugly!

Poor Spud, the hedgehog, lost his spines!

Spud was found wandering in a garden and taken to Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in Aylesbury, Bucks, last August. Experts are baffled by his condition, which has caused his skin to dry and his spines to fall out. The hospital is asking practitioners of alternative medicine to suggest possible remedies.

The bald animal was christened Spud by hospital staff because, when curled up into a ball, he resembles a potato.

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Photo: JEFF MOORE

Oprah's gets a new baby

Great news—Oprah has a new baby in her family! Meet Sadie, a blond cocker spaniel. "She's a beautiful little girl," Oprah says.

It's been a year since Oprah lost her cocker spaniel Sophie, and Oprah decided to do an O magazine photo shoot at PAWS Chicago, a no-kill shelter. During the shoot, sweet Sadie and her brothers captured Oprah's heart. "The dog chose me," Oprah says. "There were like six or seven dogs, and she was on my shoulder, nuzzling."

Sometimes even St. Bernards need rescuing

There was a rescue involving a St. Bernard in Billings, Mont., but this time it was the humans who saved the day.

A 16-month-old St. Bernard named Duke apparently fell through the ice on a golf-course pond after escaping from his yard. He was able to pull himself out but ended up getting frozen to the ice.

A maintenance worker saw the dog and got help. Two firefighters in dry suits pushed an ice rescue sled over about 10 feet of hip-deep water and 10 feet of ice to reach the shivering, 118-pound dog.

The firefighters broke the ice around Duke's tail with a mallet before hauling the dog and a chunk of ice back to shore.

Duke was feeling better after being de-iced and warmed up under a blow dryer at a veterinary clinic.

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AP Photo/Casey Riffe

Oh, Oogie

When he was just a puppy, Oogy was living in a hell on earth. He was tied to a stake and used as bait for pit bulls in a dogfighting ring. He'd been thrown in a cage and left to die, and the police raided the facility. He was brought to Ardmore Animal Hospital, and they saved him.

Dr. Bianco, a veterinarian, says Oogy was still a puppy when he first treated the dog's severe damage. He basically had the side of his face ripped off, his jaw was crushed, his skull was damaged. He's lucky to be alive.

Larry Levin and his twin boys were at the vet to drop off their cat when Oogy walked down the hall…and right into their hearts. "He looked like part of him had melted," Larry says. "But he just covered us with kisses. It's like he didn't know that anything bad had happened to him—he was just full of love. He jumped in our arms."

When Larry found out the dog didn't belong to anyone, he asked Dr. Bianco if he could adopt him. "I couldn't believe my good luck," Larry says. "That's how I felt about this dog right from the start."

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It IS a mana"tee", you know

A manatee stuck in a pond at a private golf club in North Palm Beach was rescued today, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported.

The 500-pound, six-foot long male accessed the pond by traveling through a culvert system and was in the pond for a day before it was rescued. The mammal showed signs of cold-stress and appeared thin, said FWC spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro, in a press release.

The manatee has been taken to Miami Seaquarium's manatee rehabilitation facility for a check-up.

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Leave it to China - the ultimate in animal abuse

A recent report in The New York Times describes that a dozen Asiatic black bears, malnourished and diseased from years spent on abusive bile-harvesting farms in southwest China had been rescued.

Bile-harvesting, you ask. What is bile-harvesting?

State-approved farms in Sichuan province warehouse bears where holes are cut into their abdomens so that their bile could drip out to be harvested and used in Chinese traditional medicine to cure ailments ranging from headaches to hemorrhoids.

China started allowing bear bile farming in the 1980s, saying it would protect wild Asiatic black bears by satisfying the market for bile with farmed products.

The approved means of bile collection in China is through a permanent hole put in a bear's abdomen -- a process known as the ''free drip'' method. Animals Asia says this still causes pain and the slow death of bears. But more painful methods ranging from inserting metal catheters and rubber tubes into the bears' abdomens, which have been banned by the government, are still believed to be used in China.

An estimated 7,000 bears are kept in China's 247 bile-harvesting farms, according to government estimates, but Animals Asia believes the number could be as high as 10,000.

Ironically, wild bears are still poached because wild bile is believed to be better than farmed bile.

Read more about bear bile farming at Animals Asia.

Photo: BearDen.org

Jackson the macaw shows off

"Jackson the macaw shows off" by Critter Camp Mom

Critter Camp is the ONLY sanctuary in the U.S. actually which cares for such a large variety of different animals: Over 200 animals of 30 different species!

Adoptable!

This is Princess. She is up for adoption at the Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge, IL.

Isn't she lovely?

This is Rosemary. She's available for adoption at Save a Bunny.