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King Newt lives up to his nickname with a zoo wedding. Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth, AP Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London, has announced that his wedding to longtime partner Emma Beal will take place at the London Zoo next month. The ex-mayor is well known as an environmentalist and an animal lover -- particularly of newts, which he breeds as a hobby. In fact, Livingstone is such a celebrated newt-lover, a political rival nicknamed him King Newt. According to the Daily Telegraph, King Newt's wedding ceremony is to take place at the London Zoo's Mappin Pavilion, which is located next to -- wait for it -- the reptile house. Natch.King Newt's love of animals isn't just skin deep; ...
Photo: AP The ever-expanding Pitt-Jolie clan must have missed the memo that Guinea pigs are all the rage. While shopping at a pet and garden shop near their chateau in the south of France this weekend, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie let sons Maddox, 8, and Pax, 5, pick out gerbils and goldfish, Us magazine reports. According to Us magazine, Jolie, decked out in a black maxi dress, reached into the cage to pet the gerbils while Pitt strolled the aisles for rodent gear. With Brangelina throwing their celebrity weight behind gerbils, will a new pet craze sweep the nation? ...
Photo: Moelfre, RNLI Our canine friends in Europe need to promise to start being more careful around cliffs! According to BBC News, a 3-year-old pooch named Scrappy from Blackpool, Lancashire was having a stroll with his owners, who were vacationing at Moelfre on Anglesey in Wales, when he got too close to the edge of a cliff and tumbled over. He fell 40 feet where -- amazingly -- he landed on a ledge instead of in the sea 20 feet further below. Scrappy's owners quickly called in the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which dispatched a lifeboat to the cliff face where Scrappy was stranded. According to the RNLI's news release, volunteer Martin Jones scaled the 20 feet up the ...
Photo: SWNS.com Here's one dog you probably won't find begging grill-side any time soon. Smokey, a 12-week-old chihuahua puppy, ended up with a large barbecue fork in his brain after the utensil snapped in half on the grill, flew through the air, and impaled the poor puppy's head, reports the Telegraph. The terrified pup then ran off into the woods, where he hid for two days. When his owner Hughie Wagers finally found him, Smokey was taken straight to the Cumberland Valley Animal Hospital, in London, Kentucky, where Michelle Duncum was on duty. Duncum said, "[W]hen he brought him in we couldn't believe our eyes." X-rays showed that the fork was actually in the dog's brain, so the vet, ...
Potential arsonist? Photo: dougwoods, Flickr Your cat might mistakenly whizz on the carpet, or have herself an accident on a couch cushion (the one on which you always lay your head, of course). And when these things happen, it's understandable that you might become a little purr-turbed. But bear in mind that while there may be a smelly stain left behind for you to clean up, at least your house isn't on fire. The owners of a gated-community home in Gold Coast, Queensland were not so lucky last week. According to the Sindh Today, the blaze broke out on the second floor of the lavish house at around 9 a.m. on July 5th, gutting a decent portion of the house before firefighters managed to ...
Could a new law help end puppy mills? Photo: superfem/Flickr After passing Prop. 2, which offers greater protection for farm animals, the state of California is working to give better protection to dogs and cats. California Assembly member Pedro Nava introduced three pet-focused bills that have already passed in the Assembly and are being put to a vote in the Senate today. We break down what they mean for the state's millions of cats and dogs and thousands of breeders. AB 241 Assembly Bill 241, the Responsible Breeder Act, seeks to limit each seller to 50 adult intact dogs or cats. This will help law enforcement crack down on overpopulated puppy mills (currently, only 70 inspectors ...