Recently in Animals Category

Our Daily Breeze colleague Kristin Agostoni has written a front-page story today about an effort by the Catlina Island Conservancy to control the bison population on the island off our coast.

She reports that the original 14 bison were brought to the island in 1924 by a film crew working on a silent movie. The footage with the animals wound up on the cutting room floor, but decades later the bison's offspring still roam on Catalina. They once reached about 600 in number.

The conservancy is trying to reduce the annual growth of the herd from nearly 10 percent to 4 percent -- about equal to the mortality rate -- and has embarked on a birth control program that uses a vaccine for the females. That could avert having to ship excess animals off the island by stabilizing the numbers.

Read more about it in today's story headlined "Reining in the herd".

(And be sure to check out the accompanying online photo gallery.)

Photo above: The Catalina Island Conservancy is introducing a contraception plan for its female bison with a vaccine that will control the buffalo population. A male bison waits in a holding pen before the vets and scientists put it through a series of pens to draw DNA. (Scott Varley/Staff Photographer)

On Aug. 2009 Rachael Ray launched the first ever Mutt Madness program to find the most deserving animal rescue organization in America.

 

Dharma Rescue  was one of 64 organizations that was chosen to compete.

Considering that rescues across the country applied we feel honored and fortunate to be chosen to be a part of this event.

 

Now that the games have begun we are working hard to spread the word for everyone to vote for our group. There are about only 3 groups in Calif that have been picked and the South Bay has Dharma Rescue.

 

And by furry friends, I don't mean people from Lawndale.

I kid. I kid.

Actually, the Hawthorne Library is inviting animal fanciers to meet representatives from the South Bay Kennel Club and some of their furry friends.

Children will learn about the different breeds and be able to pet them. 12700 S. Grevillea Ave., Hawthorne. 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15.

The event is free! For more info, call 310-679-8193.

This just moved from City News Service. Reporter Rick Orlov will have a story later...

Animal Services General Manager Ed Boks has resigned, effective
June 30, according to the mayor's office.
  Boks was heavily criticized by members of the city council earlier this
year for temporarily suspending the issuance of spay/neuter vouchers.

I admit to knot even being sure as to exactly what a muskrat is.

According to that font of all knowledge, Wikipedia

The muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus), the only species in the genus, is a medium-sized semi-aquatic rodent native to North America, 

The muskrat is found in wetlands and is a very successful animal over a wide range of climates and habitats.

We have wetlands here in the South Bay, so maybe we have muskrats! The dog and I shall head to the Ballona Wetlands this weekend to investigate.

And, of course, muskrats are very romatnic. The animal in this video looks suspiciously like a gerbil, but maybe they're cousins. But I kinda envy the little fellow.

This great Web site called Graph Jam has all sorts of loopy mathematical and statistical computations on it. Go check it out for a few laughs, but some of the items might be for mature audiences.

Here are a couple they did on cats and dogs.

It turns out there are also guide monkeys, goats and ferrets....first it was guide dogs

 for the blind; now it's monkeys for quadriplegia and agoraphobia, guide miniature horses, a goat for muscular dystrophy, a parrot for psychosis and any number of animals for anxiety, including cats, ferrets, pigs, at least one iguana and a duck. They're all showing up in stores and in restaurants, which is perfectly legal because the Americans With Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) requires that service animals be allowed wherever their owners want to go.

This is racing across the Internet, so there's a decent chance you've seen it. But if not, it's pretty amizing. As the subject line above says, a dog and an elephant are best buds.

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