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Jeanne Sager



cute rabbit pictureaussiegall,Flickr

Yes, baby bunnies are the cutest thing ever. Pet stores, feed stores and even some garden-supply shops are filled with rabbits just waiting to land in an Easter basket. But things don't always work out so well once the rabbits come home. According to some estimates, 90 percent of rabbits brought into American homes for the spring holiday will end up euthanized.

Want to keep your new pet from becoming a statistic? Paw Nation checked in with the experts at 3 Bunnies Rabbit Rescue in East Hartford, Conn. to find out what you should consider before you bring home that Easter bunny. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you have the room?
"People need to realize a rabbit does need room, does need exercise, does need socialization," says Mona Reopel, co-founder of 3 Bunnies. If you can, opt for an X-pen rather than a cage to allow the rabbit substantial space.

2. Are you able and willing to rabbit-proof your home?
Rabbits can be litter trained and allowed to roam around the house like a cat or dog, but it's their natural instinct to chew. Reopel warns that computer cords, TV cables and even table legs are easy pickings for your rabbit.

3. Do you have any allergies?
Rabbits need hay 24 hours a day, and that means its constant presence in your home. While most pet owners think of dander as the number one-allergen -- and dander allergies can be triggered by a rabbit -- Reopel reports the larger concern for most families is asthma and seasonal-type allergies that might be spiked by the hay.

puppy cam picturePelto Bulldogges Puppy Cam

You're not the only ones who fell head over paws for those delectable Shiba Inus bouncing around in front of a Web cam 24 hours a day, seven days a week back in 2008.

The award-winning cam has been joined by hundreds of other pups vying for your hearts at live broadcast site UStream. Largely in the homes of breeders, some of the cams are being used to market puppies to potential owners, some to allow would-be owners to track their new friends from birth until the day they can come home, and still more to open up the breeding process to ensure transparency in all that happens during a puppy's life.

As Ed Pelto -- owner of Olde English Bulldogges in Woodbury, Minn. and the person behind the Pelto Bulldogges Puppy Cam -- explains to Paw Nation, avoiding a puppy mill is a lot easier when you can watch every moment of a dog's life live on your computer.

"There's no hiding anything here," Pelto says. "With all the controversy, all the news and with these cams, how people still end up buying from puppy mills, I just don't understand."

But there's a lot more to puppy cams than just folks looking to weed out the bad breeders. As Pelto says with a laugh, "Everybody loves puppies, don't they?"

They love them enough to have pushed the Shiba Inus to the People's Voice Award winner in the Viral category for the 13th Annual Webby Awards. And they love them enough that animal owners have been putting their pups on camera far before those balls of fur made for a frenzy.

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Laura Totis pet tracker pictureLaura Totis

What animal lover hasn't daydreamed about ditching their desk job and applying for a job at the zoo? Or at a doggy daycare? Or tracking gorillas in Africa? We sure have, but since most of us may never actually get to work with the animals we love, we thought we'd introduce you to a few people who do.

Name: Laura Totis

Age: 47

Title: Pet tracker and owner of LJT Pet Tracking and LJT Training

How long have you been tracking pets?
I started officially doing it back in 2002.

Describe what a pet tracker does.
For the most part we can help people find their pets just with a phone consultation or some Internet advice. Making posters, figuring out the logistics, what exactly happened with the animal missing, some personality factors that would affect what may help or hinder recovering the pet. We sometimes end up bringing in a search dog but that's just one little tool in the whole process. If we do that, then we need an article that smells like the animal so we can tell the dog what we're looking for.

Do you generally track in a suburban, city or rural setting?
Sadly, animals are lost in all kinds of settings. I've had searches in New York City, and I've had searches out in wilderness parks.

Ralph the giant rabbit pictureMike Walker, M&Y News Agency

Weighing in at over forty pounds, this English rabbit might just be the biggest bunny the world has ever seen.

Ralph, a Continental Giant rabbit, eats about $15 worth of food a day, says his owner Pauline Grant. The bunny consumes Weetabix cereal, crackers, apples, carrots, cabbages, toast, sweetcorn and huge bowls of rabbit food. Grant told the U.K's Sky News that she's still awaiting official confirmation of his stats, but she's hoping he will make it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

If his size is confirmed at 42 pounds and 4 feet in length, he'll knock his own mother out of the record books. According to the folks at Guinness, Ralph's dam, Amy, was listed in 2008 as the world's longest rabbit" at 2 feet, 8 inches.

Known for being a larger breed than most, Continental Giants typically weigh between 12 and 16 pounds. The minimum length of a show rabbit is 25.5 inches.

As long as Ralph continues with his voracious appetite, Grant says she'll keep feeding him. How long do you think this record will last?

Tilikum the Orca killer whale pictureGerard Julien, AFP / Getty Images

A tragedy that claimed the life of one of SeaWorld Orlando's animal trainers Wednesday has shut down the popular "Believe" shows and "Dine with Shamu" experiences at all SeaWorld locations indefinitely.

According to details released by SeaWorld to CNN, Dawn Brancheau, 40, had just completed a session with killer whale Tilikum in front of a crowd at the Orlando theme park. Although she was standing outside the pool, Brancheau's long blonde ponytail was in reach of the whale, who grabbed it in his mouth and pulled her underwater.

Cited as one of the park's "most experienced animal trainers" in a letter posted by SeaWorld CEO Jim Atchison on the company Web site, Brancheau had always dreamed of working at SeaWorld, In an interview with Brancheau's mother, the New York Daily News reports that the trainer had fallen in love with killer whales 29 years before on a family vacation at SeaWorld and said "I wanna be a Shamu trainer." She'd worked at SeaWorld since 1994, with the orcas since 1996, putting on frequent shows for the public.

Tragedies like these make it clear that although theme parks are an amazing way for us to interact with and better appreciate these fascinating animals, there are serious dangers and concerns about keeping wild animals in captivity.

Brancheau's death is still under investigation, although park officials have confirmed she was held under water for an "extended period of time," and witnesses told CNN affiliates they saw Tilikum violently shaking the trainer's body, forcing her shoe to fly off.


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