ohmidog!

In a cost-cutting move, Yahoo has done away with ”Yahoo Pets,” a resource for pet owners and animals lovers since 1999.

“Yahoo Pets may be no more, but don’t fret; you can still find great info about Pets on Yahoo, even by some of the very writers you’ve enjoyed on Pets,” Yahoo announced. Visitors to the old site are redirected to a new animal lovers area on Yahoo’s women-oriented property, ”Shine.”

The closing is the latest of several at Yahoo over the past couple of years and part of an effort to avoid duplication and focus its main business amid slowing growth and layoffs, according to The Tech Chronicles, a San Francisco Chronicle blog.

Our comment of the week comes from TSG, in response to our post about PETA’s banned Super Bowl ad, which showed attractive female models enjoying their vegetables a little too much for NBC’s taste.

“I’m a little confused ….” TSG wrote “does PETA stand for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals…OR…People for the Erotic Treatment of Agriculture????”

TSG will receive an attractive and functional ohmidog! sports bottle for the remark.

A lawsuit by a coalition of animal rights’ groups against the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

The complaint — filed by American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Animal Welfare Institute and the Fund for Animals — claims the Asian elephants in the circus sleep and travel in cramped, filthy quarters and are routinely prodded with special clubs or “bull hooks.”

The organizations are seeking a federal injunction barring the circus from engaging in a number of practices they call cruel, including chaining the elephants for long stretches, according to the New York Times. The case will be heard in Washington.

The idea that the animals are happy “and allowed to roam free and to socialize” is an illusion, the plaintiffs say. They plan to introduce videotape documenting mistreatment and will call several experts on elephants, as well as some current or former Ringling Brothers trainers.

The circus say the elephants are “healthy and well cared for” and that they are attended to by veterinarians around the clock. The elephants’ quarters are roomy and well ventilated, heated when necessary, and that  the club or “guide” used by a trainer is no more cruel than a leash on a dog or a bridle on a horse.

“In effect,” the defense says, the plaintiffs “are hoping to put an end to circus elephants.”