Posts tagged "china"

You know those times when you just have to pick up one or two things from the drug store, but it's Saturday, and you just can't be bothered to put on pants? Or maybe you just did a big grocery shopping only to return home to discover that you forgot one item, and it's not like you're going to go all the way back to the store for that one thing.

That's when having a dog like this around would come in real handy. Trained to shop on behalf of his owners, the dog can only carry a bag containing a few small items at a time, but it's enough to eliminate some of those annoying errands that you're too lazy to do yourself.

Our dogs have so much more potential that we usually give them credit for. Start being creative about how you train yours, and you may never have to leave your home again.

A rare donkra--the product of a donkey sire and a zebra dam--was born at the Haicang Zoo in China, according to the BBC News. The donkra almost died during birth after nearly drowning on its mothers amniotic fluids, but it pulled through when zoo officials were able to clear its airways. The newborn appears to have the head of a donkey, with a zebra's stripes on its legs and some of its body

Zebroids-- hybrid offspring between zebras and other equines--are nothing new. The product of a zebra father and a horse mother, for example, is called a zorse. Zonkeys are much less common than zorses. Last year a zedonk was born in Georgia, the offspring of a male zebra and a female donkey. Though zedonks are rare, donkras are rarer.

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As municipalities in the United States explore new ways to keep their ballooning pet populations in check, leaders in Shanghai, China's largest metropolis, have chosen to simply ban its 23 million citizens from owning more than one dog per household, reports Bloomberg. And, of course, the one-dog policy is drawing comparisons to China's infamous one-child policy, enacted in 1979.

The number of Chinese citizens enjoying the benefits of dog ownership has reportedly skyrocketed. Unfortunately, many of the problems associated with dog ownership have also risen.

The Daily Shanghai estimates that there are 600,000 unlicensed dogs walking the sidewalks of Shanghai, while the number of dog bites reported by city police has increased 40 percent since 2006. In addition to all that, many complain that housing millions of dogs in an urban area can get a little messy.

At the Chengdu breeding center in China, there are 300 baby pandas that will be part of a "large-scale reintroduction program," aka sending the bears back into the wild. In the meantime, consider yourself lucky to witness this video footage of the baby pandas fooling around like a Lisa Frank poster come to life (with less Day-Glo, of course).

Warning: You may want to turn down the volume if a duet version of Randy Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me" will potentially spoil the experience.

Look carefully -- only one of the pandas pictured above is actually a panda. Wildlife researchers in China's Sichuan province have been suiting up in their best panda costumes, but not because they're part of a nature-themed children's show. Instead, these researchers are using their clever disguises to prevent captive-born pandas from identifying with humans.

Chinese panda experts believe that the goofy-looking costumes may actually increase a panda cub's chances of survival when it's introduced into the wild. In 2006, according to The Washington Post, the research team introduced a captive-born male cub into the wild only to have it tragically rejected and killed by its free-roaming brethren.

This time around, researchers are doing everything in their power to ensure a successful introduction of the 4-month-old cub pictured above. That includes, of course, dressing up in panda costumes whenever they come in contact with the cute little guy. If the baby panda is taught to associate with only pandas, perhaps it will develop the social skills it needs to adapt to the wild.

The costume approach seems reasonable enough, and we are for anything that helps these creatures survive in the wild. Though we hope the researchers are also doused in their best panda-scented perfume.


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In Zibo, China, a dude found an adorable stray puppy on the street. Out of the kindness of his heart, he took the dog in, domesticating the rescued pup as only a good person who rescues an animal would. So that's awesome.

The same dude also brought in a duckling as a pet for his daughter. (It remains to be seen whether this happened before or after the pup joined the family.)

Needless to say, the pup and duckling are inseparable, and we've just witnessed on of the year's cutest cases of inter-species love yet.

A snake with two heads? Pedestrian. We see it all the time.

Recently, though, a woman in China found herself with a truly new reptilian phenomenon. Dean Qiongxiu of Suining described her (and our) waking nightmare to the Telegraph thusly: "I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw." The monster in this case was a snake, and no, you're not reading that wrong; she did say "claw." The snake had a claw. A claw attached to a foot, attached to a leg, attached to a snake. Climbing a wall. In someone's bedroom.

Naturally, Ms. Qiongxiu did what any sane person would do: she freaked out and beat the demon-spawn snake to death with a shoe. Then she immediately preserved the body in a jar of alcohol so she could keep it forever and show absolutely everybody she's ever met or will ever meet.

Scientists are baffled. "It is truly shocking but we won't know the cause until we've conducted an autopsy," snake expert Long Shuai of China's West Normal University told the Telegraph.

Here's a theory: It's the Apocalypse. One thing we're pretty sure of is that snakes aren't supposed to have legs and feet. It's one of those certainties one holds deep down inside oneself. It keeps one grounded. When everything else in your life is up in the air, you can tell yourself, "I've grown confused about a lot of things I thought I knew to be true, but there is still one thing I'm sure of: snakes ain't got legs." Well, when that goes out the window, your whole being quakes with a kind of fear so pure and true that it can come only from staring directly into the Abyss.

We at Paw Nation will continue to keep our eyes peeled for other signs that the End Times are upon us. Keep checking back for more evidence of the lifting of the veil.

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Pet owners in China have embraced a colorful new grooming trend: dying their dogs' fur in an array of garish hues. "In the town of Wuhan in central China's Hubei province," the Daily Mail reports, "pet owners are taking their beloved dogs to grooming parlors where the poor creatures are not just given a shampoo and cut -- but a full-on, multi-colored fur job."

Technicolor dreamcoats, you say? Nightmare, is more like it.

White standard poodles emerge with their floppy ears dyed hot pink or electric blue. One might have an additional bright purple stripe painted down the top of its head, another an slash of red on one of its sides. Less fortunate dogs have their entire bodies painted in all different colors, looking like an escaped circus clown or -- in the case of one poor pooch whose face was dyed yellow while the rest of his body was dyed green -- like a jaundiced leprechaun.

As pets become more popular in China (resulting in nearly a 500% increase in pet spending from 1999 to 2008), the country recently drafted proposed legislation on animal cruelty -- China's first such law. Penalties under the proposed law include a monetary fine of up to 6,000 yuan ($877) and two weeks imprisonment.

No word yet on whether turning your pup into an Easter egg basket is considered cute or cruel in China, but Boulder, Colorado has put its foot down. Last year, a woman was fined $1,000 for dying her poodle pink -- in honor of breast cancer awareness, the woman claimed. (The matter was later settled out of court.) All we can say is, at least it's better than tattooing your cat.

More photos of dogs dyed in the most undignified manner can be seen here.

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