Archive for December 21st, 2011
This won’t be a halftime show (we hope)
It’s far cuter than the dog-riding monkey, but we’re not suggesting they become a halftime show.
A dog in remote north-eastern Bangladesh has become a minor celebrity by breastfeeding a baby monkey back to health.
The monkey, just a few days old, was rescued from angry villagers, who had seized it after a group of monkeys damaged a rice field, the dog’s owner told AFP today.
The news agency reports that scores of people have flocked to Shipar Reza’s house in Bishwanathpur village to witness the addition to the litter of his dog Mintu, who is also mother to seven puppies.
The day after the baby monkey was rescued by from an angry mob, it joined the other puppies as they fed off Mintu. Since then, it has also started sleeping with Mintu and other puppies.
(Photo: AFP)
Posted by jwoestendiek December 21st, 2011 under Muttsblog.
Tags: animals, bangladesh, breast feeding, dog, dogs, litter, mintu, monkey, monkeys, mother, pets, puppies, suckling
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Talking dog video is 2nd most viewed of 2011
A talking dog being taunted by his owner about treats is the second most viewed video of 2011, according to YouTube’s newly released list.
“Ultimate Dog Tease,” with close to 75 million views, came in second to Rebecca Black singing her Internet hit, “Friday,” which has 180 million views.
The Dog Tease video was made by Andrew Grantham, of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Grantham adds voiceovers to home videos of family pets, a hobby that has since turned into a full-time job for him.
Posted by jwoestendiek December 21st, 2011 under Muttsblog, videos.
Tags: 2011, andrew grantham, animals, dog, dogs, friday, halifax, list, most popular, most viewed, most watched, nova scotia, pets, rebecca black, talking animals, talking dogs, taunted, teased, treats, ultimate dog tease, videos, views, voiceover, youtube
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Resting in peace, with one’s pets, OK again
Back in April, New York’s Division of Cemeteries issued an edict to pet cemeteries, prohibiting the burying of pet owner’s ashes alongside the remains of their beloved pets.
The order from the state office came after an Associated Press story about the growing number of Americans who have decided to share a final resting place with their pets, and who, because pet remains aren’t often welcome in human cemeteries, have opted to spend eternity in a doggie graveyard.
Apparently, this was news to the cemetery division — even though it has been going on, most everywhere, for a long time. A good 700 humans — in cremated form — had been interred at New York’s 115-year-old Hartsdale Pet Cemetery before the state told it to stop.
That order came in February, and in April it was extended statewide.
Last week, the state Division of Cemeteries issued new regulations, once again permitting animal lovers, in cremated form, to rest in peace with their pets in pet cemeteries.
The new regulations, CBS News reported, do impose some conditions: Pet cemeteries may not advertise that they accept human ashes; nor may they charge a fee for doing so.
A spokesman for the department that oversees the cemetery division said the prohibition was put in place because cremated remains in pet cemeteries don’t have the same protections as those in human cemeteries — namely the assurance that the cemetery will be maintained.
Like anyone’s ashes — dog or human — are going to care about that.
The ruling had kept the ashes of at least one human from being buried. Taylor York, a law professor at Keuka College said the state order meant the ashes of her uncle, Thomas Ryan, who died in April, couldn’t be buried alongside his deceased dogs.
York sent the cemeteries division a legal memo detailing why the state was wrong in banning burials of cremated human remains in pet cemeteries.
As the cemetery division saw it, law mandates that any cemetery providing burial space for humans be operated as a not-for-profit corporation. By promoting the human-interment service and charging a fee to open a grave and add ashes, Hartsdale was violating laws governing not-for-profit corporations.
But Hartsdale isn’t a non-profit corporation.
“The law is clear,” York said. “There’s no authority for this board to just arbitrarily impose nonprofit corporation law on a privately incorporated for-profit business.”
All the boring legal stuff aside, there really was, and is, no good reason to get bent out of shape about ashes, of whatever species. We throw them in the ocean, we cast them in the wind, we can even use them to make trees grow.
And there’s no good reason for a state government to bury us, or our simple last wishes, in red tape.
“My uncle wants to be buried beside … what he considered to be his children and I’m not letting anyone stand in the way,” York said before the new ruling was issued. “His love for those dogs was just as real and just as strong as any parent’s for any child.”
Posted by jwoestendiek December 21st, 2011 under Muttsblog.
Tags: animals, ashes, ban, beside, burial, buried with dog, buried with pet, cemetery, cremains, cremated, cremation, division of cemeteries, dogs, edict, grave, hartsdale, interment, legal, maintenance, new york, next to, order, pet cemetery, pets, protections, regulations, repeal, rest in peace, resting place, taylor york, thomas ryan, with
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