Category:
Animals
I've heard about people sucking on pennies or mints to hide the alcohol fumes on their breath. But keeping a goat in the back of the car is new to me. Though I guess it could be an effective strategy.
The Bakersfield Californian - Sep 14, 1937
CHICAGO, Sept. 14. — Policeman Theodore Lambert testified that Larry Radkewicz of Berwyn was intoxicated while driving an automobile, but said he could not smell the man's breath.
"Why not?" asked Judge J.M. Braude.
"He had a goat in the back of the car," said Lambert, "and I couldn't smell anything but the goat."
Radkewicz was placed on probation.
Hey, wait, most beaches don't allow pets!
Original ad here.
Nationwide Insurance has created the
"Hambone Award" which, for the past five years, it's been giving to the most unusual pet insurance claim of the year. It seems to be like a Darwin Awards for animals, except they only give awards to animals that recover from their mishaps, not the ones that die. (Are Darwin Awards given to animals? I'm not sure.)
The Hambone Award was named after a "dog that got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire Thanksgiving ham while waiting for someone to find him."
The
most recent winner is Curtis, a 5-year-old Boxer, who ate an entire BBQ skewer during a birthday party. He was rushed to the hospital, but doctors couldn't find the skewer. It was only a year later, when he was taken back to the doctor because he still wasn't feeling well, that surgeons found the skewer, which had become a "baseball-sized mass" encapsulated by the body, located between the dog's stomach and pancreas.
Why is it always a parrot, rather than some other kind of pet bird, at the center of these disputes? A recent case in Rhode Island involved a lawsuit against a parrot taught to swear at neighbors.
Original article here.
Made by Japanese artist
Pico. They're entirely artificial. That is, not actual cat heads. But they're realistic enough that people might, for a moment, think that you're using the severed head of a cat as a handbag.
One of these will set you back about $700, but are sold only in Japan. via
OhGizmo!
In 1985, a Soviet production of a live-action film about Bambi (
Bambi's Childhood) had to be halted when three of the deer who were playing Bambi and his friends disappeared. Turned out they had been stolen, then butchered and served as the main course at a birthday celebration. The culprits were sent to a labor camp as punishment for their crime.
The news was reported in a lot of papers, but the
Weekly World News (below) had the best coverage of it.
Spartanburg Herald-Journal - Feb 7, 1985
Weekly World News - Mar 12, 1985
A soon-to-be-opened San Francisco store called Terrific Street is displaying cans of "canned parrot" in its front window. Two kinds of canned parrot are on display — "free range cherry conures in their own syrup" and "colorful sky rat boiled parrot."
The store isn't actually selling canned parrot. The owner of the store has explained that the display is an "art installment" inspired by Andy Warhol's paintings of canned food, while also referring to the local wild parrot population.
Says the owner: "The thinking behind the display was to make something unusual and fun for folks to walk by between now and the time we are open for business."
More info:
SFGate.com
March 1975: Dr. Richard Cimbalo of Rosary Hill College (now
Daemen College) held an exhibition of "rat art" in order to raise money for the school's psychology department. "The rats painted by grabbing with their front paws a brush extended into their cages, and Cimbalo said each of the artists had its own style."
I wonder what became of this rat art. Probably stored away in a box in someone's attic. Or tossed out.
Someone should open a Museum of Animal Art — to collect together in one place all the paintings by rats, chimpanzees, elephants, etc. that have been produced over the years.
The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA) - May 12, 1975
The Daily Courier (Connellsville, PA) - Mar 15, 1975
There are dog and cat blood banks around the
US and in the
UK as well. Pet owners volunteer their pets for donation and the pets are given treats and cuddles during the process. Its a positive experience for the animals, so much so that many of them donate regularly.