Fairmount CA

This holiday season, the multiplex smells like a manger. Just as
puppies and kittens are arriving under Christmas trees, movies with
critter characters are arriving in theaters.

Pulling the wagon is War Horse, Steven Spielbergs battlefield
epic abut a stalwart stallion that is conscripted into World War I.
The movie opens nationwide on Christmas Day.

The menagerie in the heart-tugging true story We Bought a Zoo,
which opens Friday, features more than 70 trained animals,
including lions, tigers, and Crystal, the capuchin monkey from The
Hangover: Part II.

Virtual varmints hog the spotlight in the toons Alvin and the
Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and Puss in Boots.

True-life traumatized animals are featured in the family drama
Dolphin Tale (newly released on DVD) and the recent documentaries
Buck (shortlisted for an Academy Award) and One Lucky Elephant
(about the pachyderm namesake of St. Louis Circus Flora).

But as is often the case, most of this years cinematic
scene-stealers are dogs.

In the critics favorite The Artist, opening here on Friday,
the life-saving companion of a down-and-out silent-movie star is a
Jack Russell terrier. Another Jack Russell is prominent in the
art-house hit Beginners.

In the new toon The Adventures of Tintin, opening today, a
fox terrier called Snowy plays the Dr. Watson to a journalistic
Sherlock.

In Martin Scorseses Hugo, a menacing Doberman hunts for
orphans in a Paris train station.

And in the comedy Young Adult, now in theaters, the only
warm-blooded creature who can tolerate tipsy novelist Charlize
Theron is the Pomeranian she keeps in her handbag.

The dog that plays that role was discovered by director Jason
Reitman while it was walking with its owner down a New York street.
As Reitman told the New York Times, the dog was perfect for the
part because Pomeranians have a permanent smile, implying positive
regard for the Theron character.

Of course, dogs have long been movie mainstays because they have
expressive faces and are more easily trainable than, say, cats.
Terry, the Cairn terrier who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz, was
paid more than the Munchkins and appeared in a dozen other movies.
Uggie, the 9-year-old Jack Russell terrier in The Artist, was
also featured in the recent movie Water for Elephants (and is the
subject of a tongue-in-cheek Facebook campaign to name him best
supporting actor). Cosmo, the Jack Russell in Beginners, was
trained by Mathilde de Cagney, who also trained the dog Eddie in
the TV series Frasier.

Trainers are the unsung heroes of such productions. More than 30
of them worked on We Bought a Zoo. On the set of the 3-D Hugo,
de Cagney was dressed as a character in the train station so she
could monitor the Dobermans movements.

Buck documents how trainer Buck Brannaman was a real-life
horse whisperer for the movie of the same name — and how creatures
of both species respond better to reward than punishment.

For War Horse, there were two horses, named Finder and
Abraham, who divided the role of Joey and were trained to charge
through a World War I-era hellscape of explosions, trenches and
barbed wire (which was actually rubberized Styrofoam that the
horses found pleasantly ticklish).

That war produced a real-life animal hero who became one of the
biggest stars in cinema. In 1918, an American colonel named Lee
Duncan entered a bombed out kennel in France and discovered a
German shepherd and her five starving puppies. While the other dogs
were divvied among the soldiers, Duncan named one of the puppies
Rin Tin Tin and eventually took it back to America with him. On the
set of a silent movie, the gallant dog did a stunt for a Warner
Bros. producer and was signed to a contract.

Rin Tin Tin made 18 movies and even starred in a radio serial.
As noted in a new biography by Susan Orlean, the wonder dog was
so popular in 1928 that he earned the most votes for the inaugural
Academy Award for best actor. The academy then changed its rules to
preclude nonhumans. But that rule would change if the new breed of
animal actors learned to speak. (And maybe with the translator
technology that was featured in the recent toon Up, they
can.)

Animals seized in cruelty case turned over to Humane Society

Posted at: 12/21/2011 3:05 PM

A year after being rescued by the Humane Society of Greater Rochester from filthy conditions, more than 100 animals will now have the chance for loving homes.

Today, the Humane Society was granted full custody of all animals seized during a cruelty investigation at a residence on Malloch Road in Riga in December 2010. A year of legal motions and hearings delayed the courts ruling on custody of the animals.

In December 2010, Andrea Acomb of Riga was arrested for animal cruelty. The animals — 66 chickens, 60 water fowl, 16 cats, three dogs, four horses, and one goat — were all being kept in unsanitary conditions that were affecting their health and welfare.

Once in the care of Lollypop Farm, the animals were all provided any needed medical treatment, proper housing and nutritious food, loving care and attention from staff and volunteers. Even visitors have come to know and love many of the animals, like the cats who have been staying in one of the catteries visible in our lobby. explains Alice Calabrese, CAWA, president and CEO of Lollypop Farm. But caring for so many animals for such a long time in addition to our ongoing operations has put a huge strain on our system and budget. While nearly $90,000 has gone into veterinary and daily care, we are overjoyed to finally begin the process of matching these pets with adoptable families.

Over the course of the year, some of the animals seized succumbed to illness. Approximately 130 animals will eventually be put up for adoption.

For more Rochester, NY news go to our website www.whec.com.

The final autopsy was released on Thursday for a man who released more than 50 exotic animals before killing himself in October.

Most of the animals were shot and killed by law enforcement. The six surviving animals are quarantined at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, 10TV News reported.

Thompson was found dead on the property. His body was mauled by a large feline at the time of his death and after his death, according to the autopsy.

According to the Licking County Corner, Thompsons body was covered with lacerations.

The coroner determined that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, 10TV News reported. The report said that Thompson shot himself in the mouth.

A toxicology screen did not show any drugs or alcohol present other than an antihistamine.

Watch 10TV News and refresh 10TV.com for more information.

Christmas is almost here and there are still a few events on tap to help the animals and some online places to stop by and pitch in to help some of Chicagos animal rescue organizations.

Thursday, December 22

Stop by Ruff House Pets at 4652 N. Rockwell St, Chicago during Lincoln Squares Sip and Shop. Get recommendations for great dog and cat gifts from Stella, Cisco and Spot and enjoy hot cider, holiday music and 15 percent off purchases excluding dog and cat food.

Friday, December 23

Get your presents wrapped and help the animals at Anti-Cruelty Society at the same time. Stop by the Barnes and Noble at Webster and Clybourn from 9 am 9 pm Make a donation and volunteers will wrap your gifts.

The unusually complex appearance of a group of 570-million-year-old fossils from Doushantuo, China, has sparked debate among palaeontologists. Researchers havent been able to decide whether the remains come from animals, bacteria or close relatives of animals that thrived at the dawn of animal evolution. But a team has now used three-dimensional scanning techniques to take a closer look at the fossils — and has decided that in fact, they are none of these.

LAKE CORMORANT, Miss. Lying on his stretcher of blue nylon on a frame of PVC pipe, the injured juvenile bald eagle not yet crowned by his distinctive white hood was eyeing the human activity intently at the All Animal Hospital in Olive Branch.

The legs are totally flaccid, theres no function, Dr. Lynn Cox told Valery Smith, executive director of the all-volunteer Mississippi Wildlife Rehabilitation Inc.

He had just done X-rays on the bird, at no charge, for the nonprofit group, and now, suspecting spinal injury, he recommended an MRI or CT scan.

Theyre a couple grand but maybe someone can donate one. Without a functional spinal cord, hes not going to be able to hunt and so he cant go back to the wild, Cox said of the worst-case, euthanasia scenario. An eagle in a wheelchair wont work.

Smith, like Cox, wasnt about to give up: Well look for an MRI donor, and meanwhile contact our volunteer network to bring him down to LSU.

She was referring to the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicines Raptor and Wildlife Rehabilitation Unit.

The eagle, found a week earlier in Walnut in Tippah County, was likely hit by a car. Wings useless, he was in bad shape. But he was in the best of care now.

Through Smiths Mississippi Wildlife Rehabilitation, and volunteers like Cox, hundreds of abandoned critters are helped each year, with the goal of returning to the wild.

Its been fast and furious in 2011: Smith and her core of trained MWR assistants have sheltered more than 600 injured or abandoned animals and they keep coming in.

Theyve logged some 12,000 miles taking the groups conservation and preservation message to libraries, schools festivals, fairs and festivals such as the annual Hummingbird Migration Celebration in Marshall County.

With winter, the needs dont slow. Animals have to try harder to find food, and that leads to collisions with humans: We get more animals hit by cars, owls and hawks caught in barbed wire, Smith said.

Though she and her fellow volunteers do the lions share of care, she gives the credit to donors and supportive agencies such as the DeSoto Economic Development Council and the county Board of Supervisors.

Our supporters have helped us take in a record amount of injured wildlife this year, Smith said. Without them, we wouldnt have been able to fund the mammal, songbirds and raptor patients we admitted.

Officials return the kudos: Theyre just an amazing bunch of people, doing a lot without a whole lot of money, Supervisor Bill Russell said. Its a hard job they do.

Indeed, looking after wild animals isnt easy. Each type requires species-specific housing and care.

Food eats up much of the rehabs modest $15,000 budget. Hawks and eagles devour fish and mice (Smith estimates she buys a thousand rodents a month); smaller snakes might prefer insects, while mammals during the spring baby season require formula.

Weve been able to ask for help on Facebook, and people have gone fishing to get food for us, Smith said. Social media has been a blessing.

Meanwhile, human foster parents have to be mindful not to bond with their charges because the goal is reintroduction to the wild and its survival challenges.

Animals like an injured broad-winged hawk that Smith is rehabbing on her acreage in west DeSoto are an exception; Smith is awaiting the special federal license that will add the hawk to the groups troupe of animals kept for education.

We havent given him a name yet. Maybe well have contest, she said.

Theyre a couple grand but maybe someone can donate one. Without a functional spinal cord, hes not going to be able to hunt and so he cant go back to the wild, Cox said of the worst-case, euthanasia scenario. An eagle in a wheelchair wont work.

MWR signed up a record number of volunteers donating time to transport and feed animals, clean and build cages and owl and squirrel boxes, process paperwork and most vital, rehabilitate our patients, she said.

Reptile rehabber Andi Lehman of southeast Hernando took in a speckled king snake injured in a canine encounter; she wants the world to know that vermin-devouring snakes are beneficial animals to humankind.

Four orphaned river otters, raised for a year even taught to swim by mammal rehabber Petra May near Eudora, were successfully released in March.

All four boys were fat and healthy and boisterous, May said.

Shes currently caring for a brain-damaged bobcat.

And Bens Eagle Fund has reached than $5,000.

The son of volunteer Missy Flanagan died at 16 of heart ills.

Ben was a wonderful kid and Christian who loved things that flew, from airplanes to eagles, Smith said.

The funds will be used to build an eagle enclosure at the ARK, the site 10 miles west of Hernando where the rehab plans a nature center in partnership with DeSoto Greenways and the Corps of Engineers.

Congress freeze on earmarks has stalled funds for the $6 million project that envisions a 27,000-square-foot structure on the 154-acre tract off Miss. 304, but Smith says, well just proceed one day at a time, one step and one project at a time.

She points to the completion of almost three miles of nature trails at the ARK, bridges over low-lying areas and signs along the trails identifying local wildlife.

Our amphitheater is finished, and next are a pavilion and an ADA trail with several wildlife stations for an outdoor experience thats compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

As winter and Christmas approach, theres plenty people can do to help fill Mississippi Wildlife Rehabilitations stocking.

Purchase or renew an annual membership for yourself or as a gift, said Smith. Or better yet, sponsor a raptor or mammal as a holiday gift.

People can take advantage of the Honors/ Memorial program and honor a wildlife lover by donating in his or her name, or make a donation to Bens Eagle Fund to help build an eagle enclosure.

Check out the rehabs Need List. Simple things such as donating a few rolls of paper towels or boxes of tissue will really help during spring baby season.

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Online:

MWR, wildliferehab.org>http://mswildliferehab.org

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Information from: The Commercial Appeal, http://www.commercialappeal.com

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) -

Animalsat the Cincinnati Zoo got an early Christmas present from Santa and his elves on Thursday.

They were giventreats that were not only nutritious, but a great enrichment activity.

Like humans, animals enjoy searching for and finding new treats. Searching is a lot like hunting, which is a behavior these animals would display in the wild while foraging for food.

Spectacled bears received holiday wreaths stuffed with treats, polar bears received colorful frozen fish-cicles, elephants received gift boxes full of fresh fruit and the aardvark and wallaby received gift wrapped treats.

Copyright 2011 FOX19. All Rights Reserved.

Carroll County Animals in Need of a Good Home

Here is a short list of some of the pets available for adoption at the Carroll County Humane Society.

On my desk, theres a cartoon of a swamp with the caption Those who throw objects at the crocodile will be obliged to retrieve them, so Im no Buddhist. But at this time of year, amid the hurly-burly of last-minute present-buying and travel, I do tend to calm down and think like one. I tend to remember that things occur because there is a cause for them: A footprint needs a foot, and so on. And I tend to dwell on what Im thankful for. This year, like most, it is for every minute and every cent and every word that people uttered in behalf of the foxes killed for their fur, the dogs left out in the first winter storm or abandoned during the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, the elephants caught on videotape being beaten at the circus, and the smallest rats and mice who are harmed needlessly in cosmetics tests. Animals needed help, and people responded.

Because of that help, PETA made 2011 a banner year for animals. Ringling was slapped with the largest fine in circus history for violations of the Animal Welfare Act that included letting a lion die in the heat of the Mohave Desert rather than stopping to give him water or using a cooling system. The Environmental Protection Agency adopted modern replacements for animal tests, saving more than 3 million animals. And four laboratory workers were charged with felony cruelty to animals as a result of one of our investigations.

We persuaded many businesses to get rid of glue traps, stop selling foie gras, quit using great apes in advertising, and drop their sponsorship of the Iditarod.

This year, we saw bullhooks banned, pound seizure halted, fur banned, and roadside zoos shut down. And we brought numerous animal abusers to justice.

And thats just a small glimpse into the good things that happened this year. There are far too many victories, large and small, to list them all, but let me share some of them in this video recap. As my colleague Chris says, Break out your giant foam finger and get ready to celebrate:

Thank you for all and anything that you did for animals in 2011. I welcome your participation next year and your last-minute shopping and membership at PETA.org. Happy holidays to one and all. Or, to quote a Buddhist May all beings be happy; May they all be free from ill will; may they be free from enmity; may they be well and happy all the time, and may we all reach Nirvana!

Arguably the biggest surprise of the year, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (PG-13, 3 1/2 stars) is the best Apes movie since the original, putting the Tim Burton/Marky Mark remake to shame by showing a little ingenuity to tell a familiar story.

Instead of the now-cliche reboot or reimagining, the folks at Fox decided to turn this lucrative property into a prequel, which gives them plenty of wiggle room to fill in details of a story we all know and throw in winks to the older films as well. And it works like gangbusters. Rise is the kind of taut, action-packed thriller you dont expect at this stage from a franchise thats pushing 50 years old.

James Franco stars as Will, a doctor working on a cure for Alzheimers disease through experimentation on chimpanzees. When a test subject goes haywire and the project is shut down, Will takes a baby chimp home and treats it as his child.

This super-smart chimp is named Caesar (in a remarkable motion-capture performance by Andy Serkis), and before long, Caesar is whipping across the house, learning sign language and becoming more and more human. But when Caesars primal instincts come out in protecting Wills sick father (John Lithgow), he is taken by the city and placed in an ape compound.

Now, why San Francisco has this large primate jail is a little strange, but there, Caesar uses his intelligence to lead the other animals in a revolt against the cruel ringleader (Brian Cox) and his assistant (Tom Felton). On paper, it may seem like an odd decision to focus large stretches of the film on Caesar, but hes probably the most compelling character in the movie, and his machinations at the compound are engrossing.

Pretty soon, all hell is breaking loose, as Caesar and crew head for San Fran, destroying anything in their path. Its up to Will and his pretty zookeeper girlfriend (Frieda Pinto) to try and reason with Caesar before its too late.

There are a lot of reasons why this shouldnt work, but the biggest reason it does is Serkis. Theres been a movement to get him nominated for an Oscar, and I can understand it after seeing his nuanced efforts as Caesar. Im not totally sure how it all came together, but you cant deny the guy is doing some heavy lifting.

More importantly, this is the first Apes film since the original that actually makes me want to see a sequel.

***

Its hard to be a critic sometime, especially when dealing with true-life material geared toward families. But sometimes you have to speak the truth, and in this case, its that DOLPHIN TALE (PG, 2 1/2 stars) is an extremely cheesy movie, but one that your kids likely will enjoy.

I often wonder how they rope respectable actors into fluff like this, but hey, everyone has a kid or grandkid or niece for which they want to make a movie, so here you go. And while the film tries to posit the story as true, there has been quite a bit of creative license taken, so tell your kids they arent likely to stumble upon a dolphin anytime soon.

Sawyer is a lonely kid who actually does stumble upon a dolphin caught in a crab trap, forming an instant bond with the hurt animal, whose tail must be removed in order to survive. Dr. Haskett (Harry Connick Jr.) notices the bond between the dolphin, named Winter, and Sawyer and allows the boy to stay around with the support of his mother (Ashley Judd).

The stress of not having a tail is damaging Winters spine and the dolphin will have to be euthanized if a solution isnt found. Sawyer then meets Dr. McCarthy (Morgan Freeman!), a prosthetic specialist who works at the VA hospital. The good doctor donates his time and convinces his supplier to provide parts for free to help fix the dolphin.

As if this wasnt enough, the film throws in a hurricane and evil land developers to create tension on top of Winters troubles with her new tail. Kris Kristofferson shows up as Dr. Hasketts grizzled father and offers him some well-timed advice to set the finale in motion.

You cant fault the filmmakers here theyve got their hearts in the right place. The actors do a fine job of selling the material. Its been said that people would pay to see Freeman read the phone book, and his gravitas certainly elevates a thankless part. Its just that theres so much cheese one guy can take.

***

Jim Carrey has entered the stage of his career where he must straddle the line between edgy comedy and family fare to be viable. People are pushing the envelope much further than Carrey did during his heyday, so now he seems comfortable going down the Eddie Murphy Career Path of Family-Friendly Comedy.

But jeez, there has to be something better out there than MR. POPPERS PENGUINS (PG, 2 stars), a bland, ridiculous adaptation of a 1930s childrens book?

Carrey stars as Tom Popper, one of those driven movie characters who cares more about his job than his family and you see where this is going, right? Tom gets a mysterious package from his late, globetrotting father which contains a penguin named Captain. Soon after, five more penguins arrive, creating a mini-zoo in Toms apartment.

Of course, his children love the penguins and so Tom decides to keep them around. They also help him reconnect with his wife (the lovely Carla Gugino, whom I will watch in anything). But when Tom becomes obsessed with hatching one of the penguins eggs, he loses focus on his job, selling the old Tavern on the Green restaurant.

He comes to the (completely sane) conclusion that he should donate the penguins to the zoo and move on with his life, but since this is a movie, that is the wrong choice, and so he and his family rescue the penguins, renovate the Tavern on the Green and get the poor guy who serves as the zoos penguin expert (Clark Gregg) publicly humiliated. Ha, ha.

Look, I like Carrey, but his mugging and manic energy doesnt play well in this movie. Not to mention the implausibility of the entire premise makes the film an exercise in frustration that I cant recommend.