Police Dog Back On Beat Thanks To Pacemaker July 27, 2007
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(CBS) NEW YORK
A dynamic dog now has a new lease on life. You’ll never imagine what’s keeping this canine cop alive.
Energetic, adorable, accomplished — all these things describe 4-year-old Blaze the police dog. Just ask his partner, Capt. Efrain Madera.
“He’s my partner. My friend. He’s like a son,” Madera said.
Together the pair work the sometimes violent and dangerous Rikers Island prison yards for the Department Of Corrections.
Blaze is always by Capt. Madera’s side, always there to protect.
“If anyone tried to attack me, hurt me in any way, shape or form, he’ll be on top of them. He’ll let no one get near me,” Madera said.
But five months ago, that bond was nearly shattered.
Out of nowhere, Blaze suddenly keeled over and went into shock. Doctors said his heart stopped for up to 10 seconds. Madera feared Blaze was dead.
“I’ve never seen that happen to any dog,” he said. “I’ve never seen one keel over like that.”
That Blaze is up and around and on duty is more medical than miracle. Doctors inserted a pacemaker for humans into the German shepherd.
It was a life-saving treatment to correct a rare heart condition.
The result? The two cops are now back on the beat together. A shared bond that’s straight from the heart.
Madera said “it’s a very comforting feeling to have Blaze by his side every time he enters a prison yard — filled with 150 inmates.”
Cat predicts death July 27, 2007
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)—
Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.
“He doesn’t make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die,” said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one,” said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.
The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and other illnesses.
After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He’d sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.
Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. “This is not a cat that’s friendly to people,” he said.
Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill
She was convinced of Oscar’s talent when he made his 13th correct call. While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn’t eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near.
Oscar wouldn’t stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor’s prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient’s final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.
Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don’t know he’s there, so patients aren’t aware he’s a harbinger of death. Most families are grateful for the advanced warning, although one wanted Oscar out of the room while a family member died. When Oscar is put outside, he paces and meows his displeasure.
No one’s certain if Oscar’s behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.
Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa’s article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying.
If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it’s also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.
Nursing home staffers aren’t concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance at saying goodbye to the dying.
Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his “compassionate hospice care.”
HIV vaccine ready for clinical trials July 22, 2007
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A vaccine that is capable of delivering a double whammy against AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus by both providing immunity against the infection while at the same time destroying cells infected by the virus is ready for clinical trials, a group of Russian researchers announced today.
The team from Vector State Scientific Center of Virology and Biotechnology, Kol’tsovo, Novosibirsk first reported their research on the CombiHIVvac in the journal Doklady Biochemistry and Biophysics in May 2007.
The vaccine is an artificial virus-like particle whose outer casing consists of the TBI (T- and B cell epitopes containing immunogen) protein constructed by the researchers combined with the polyglucin protein.
This protein contains nine components stimulating different cells of the immune system: both the ones that produce antibodies and the ones that devour the newcomer.
The DNA coding the TCI (T-cell immunogen) protein is contained inside the protein casing.
The protein contains more than 80 HIV proteins fragments selected in the optimal way, which should activate the immune system.
The researchers have selected only conservative fragments — the ones that remain constant in the course of all major changes of HIV-1 and will certainly be noticed by the immunized organism there by enabling the immune system to catch the virus even if it changes its form to “hide” from the immune system.
The coating and the filling of the particle represent independent vaccines, which cause specific cellular and humoral immune responses.
In the assembled form, the combiHiVvac vaccine is a particle 40 to 100 nanometers in diameter, approaching in size to the HIV-1 virus.
The antibodies which are formed inside immunized mice under the action of vaccine recognize the real HIV-1 proteins and neutralize the virus.
This was shown by the experiments on the cell culture infected by the virus and processed by mice’s antibodies.
Preclinical trial findings allow to hope that the combiHIVvac vaccine will effectively fight even against modified HIV-1 variants.
The new vaccine is nontoxic as even a fivefold dose does not cause organs damage.
Repeated injections reinforce inflammatory processes in the livers afflicted by other conditions.
The combiHIVvac vaccine does not cause autoimmune diseases or anaphylactic reactions, and it does not weaken the organism tolerance to infections either.
The scientists emphasize that as the combiHIVvac vaccine not only stimulates antibody production but also destroys the cells infected by the virus, this vaccine can be considered not only a prophylactic one but also as a therapeutic one.
The vaccine they developed is ready for clinical trials, the researchers declared.
(Taken from pressesc.com news)
Bionic Paw for Dog July 20, 2007
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A Belgian Shepherd dog called Storm has become the world’s first pet to be fitted with a prosthetic paw.
It is believed to be the first time that such an operation has been carried out and could provide hope for many humans.
What makes the false limb special is that the dog’s skin can grow into the metal.
Storm, who lives in Oxshott, Surrey, had a leg removed when it became infected with an aggressive tumour earlier this year.
The operation was carried out by Noel Fitzpatrick, a veterinary surgeon based in Farnham, Surrey, who specialises in repairing the damaged limbs of pets.
“The technology is not just the first time that the implant type has been used outside the human finger,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.
“Because it has been implanted into the radius of the forearm of the dog, it will act as a model for human amputees in the future and provides hope for people without feet or hands.”
He now hopes that the pioneering operation will go on to benefit victims of July 7 bombings and soldiers returning from Iraq.
Storm’s owners, Francesca and Derek Taylor, had the foot amputated rather than having him put down.
By Sophie Borland
Last Updated: 1:18am BST 16/07/2007
(www.telegraph.co.uk)
Baby mammoth found in Siberia July 12, 2007
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The remains of the six-month-old female mammoth were discovered in a remarkable state of preservation on the Yamal peninsula of Russia in May, a Reuters report said. The specimen is believed to be the best of its kind to date.
A reindeer herder found the frozen animal in May near the Yuribei River, in Russia’s Yamal-Nenets autonomous district.
The animal is thought to have died 10,000 years ago and experts say the approximately four foot tall, 50kg Siberian specimen dates to the end of the last Ice Age, when the great beasts were vanishing off the face of the planet.
Scientists hope the animal might yield DNA samples that could be used to clone and effectively resurrect the extinct members of the elephant family.
A delegation of international experts were in Salekhard last week, near where the mammoth was found, to conduct a preliminary examination of the carcass, which will be transferred to Jikei University in Tokyo, Japan, a Reuters report said. Experts are expected to carry out an extensive study of the specimen, including CT scans of its internal organs.
The animal is remarkably well-preserved with it’s trunk and eyes still intact. Some of the infant mammoth’s fur is also still on the body. While the mammoth has not yielded the kind of DNA that could be used in cloning, scientists remain optimistic.
Some believe the right find is bound to emerge from Siberia that will make cloning or resurrecting the animal — by injecting sperm into the egg of a relative such as the Asian elephant — a reality.
Mammoths first appeared in the Pliocene Epoch, 4.8 million years ago. They possessed long, curved tusks along with a coat of long hair.
The cause of their widespread disappearance at the end of the last Ice Age remains unclear; but climate change, overkill by human hunters, or a combination of both could have been to blame.
One population of mammoths lived on in isolation on Russia’s remote Wrangel Island until about 5,000 years ago.
Siberian mammoth specimens were lost to a lucrative trade in ivory, skin, hair and other body parts. Local people are now scouring the Siberian permafrost for remains to sell.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Tough animal rights laws enacted in Austria July 9, 2007
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VIENNA, Austria – Hens will be free to run around barnyards, lions and tigers will vanish from circus acts, and Dobermans will sport what nature intended — floppy ears and longer tails — under a tough animal rights law adopted Thursday in Austria.
The anticruelty law, one of Europe’s harshest, will ban pet owners from cropping their dogs’ ears or tails, force farmers to uncage their chickens, and ensure that puppies and kittens no longer swelter in pet shop windows.
Violators face steep fines
Violators will be subject to fines of $2,420, and in cases of extreme cruelty could be fined up to $18,160 and have their animals seized by the authorities.
Lawmakers, some holding stuffed toy animals, voted unanimously to enact the law, which takes effect in January and will be phased in over several years. Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said Austria was sending a stern message to the rest of Europe and the world about respecting animals.
“Austria is taking the role of pioneer,” Schuessel told parliament, vowing to press for similar legislation across the European Union. “This new law will give both producers and consumers a good feeling, and it lifts animal protection to the highest level internationally.”
It’s the latest example of how the animals rights issue is gaining attention across Europe:
The European Commission has proposed a sweeping overhaul of EU regulations on transporting livestock across the continent to give more protection to the hundreds of thousands of animals that are shipped daily and to prevent deaths and abuse.
In March, Hungary’s parliament banned cockfighting and the breeding or sale of animals for fighting, and it made animal torture — previously a misdemeanor — a felony punishable by up to two years in prison.
Last summer, the region of Catalonia, which passed Spain’s first animal cruelty law in 1988, banned the killing of abandoned cats and dogs in animal shelters and raised fines for cruelty to as much as $24,200.
Italy is considering a law that forbids sending horses to the slaughterhouse after their competitive careers are over, and Germany plans to phase out mass farming of caged chickens by the end of 2006.
Austrians’ love for animals dates to imperial times, with the famed Lipizzaner stallions pampered as a source of national pride.
Circus animals, chickens, puppies to benefit
Aimed primarily at poultry and other livestock, Austria’s new law also outlaws the use of lions and other wild animals in circuses and makes it illegal to restrain dogs with chains, choke collars or “invisible fences” that administer mild electric shocks to confine animals.
The measure enjoyed the support of all four main parties in the National Assembly, where Minister of Social Affairs Herbert Haupt drew laughter by holding up a stuffed toy dog while addressing lawmakers Thursday.
Haupt, a veterinarian, had pushed for the law since the 1980s. It still needs the president’s signature, a formality given its unanimous passage.
“Animals and consumers are the clear winners with this law,” said Ulrike Sima, a lawmaker specializing in animal protection issues for the opposition Socialist Party.
A key provision bans the widespread practice of confining chickens to small cages on farms and makes it a crime to bind cattle tightly with ropes.
Pet owners and breeders no longer will be allowed to crop puppies’ ears or tails, a common practice with certain breeds such as Doberman pinschers. Sweden has banned the practice since 1989.
Invisible fences are out, too, though they’re nowhere near as ubiquitous here as they are in U.S. suburbs.
‘A first step in the right direction’
“This is a first step in the right direction,” said Andreas Sax of the Austrian animal rights organization Four Paws.
Sax said the law won’t do enough to improve conditions for cattle and pigs, who often are injured in cramped pens with slatted floors, and he criticized some sections he said were too vague.
The Austrian Farm Federation opposed the law, arguing that it will increase costs for farmers and could lead to more imports of poultry from countries with looser restrictions.
Chicken farmers will be allowed several years to phase in the new rules. Those who recently invested in new cages will have until 2020 to turn their birds loose to run free inside fences.
The law calls for creating an animal rights ombudsman to oversee the treatment of animals on farms and in zoos, circuses and pet shops. Austria has an estimated 140,000 enterprises that breed or sell animals.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Carrie Underwood — sexy vegetarian July 9, 2007
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NEW YORK – Carrie Underwood and Kevin Eubanks have been named the “world’s sexiest vegetarians” in PETA’s annual contest.
Results were released Tuesday by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Underwood, 24, a Grammy-winning country singer, won the title in 2005. Eubanks, 49, leader of NBC’s “Tonight Show” band, is a newcomer to the winner’s circle.
Eubanks leapt ahead of his competitors with help from Jay Leno, who encouraged viewers to vote for Eubanks and “bring honor” to the late-night NBC talk show.
“I’m gonna keep this campaign going,” Leno said during a recent show after sharing a photo of a shirtless Eubanks with his audience. Leno said the shot, in which Eubanks is holding a backpack and posing against a woodsy backdrop, wasn’t doctored.
Runners-up in the contest, which the animal rights group said drew more than 110,000 votes on its Web site, included Joaquin Phoenix, Milo Ventimiglia, Kristen Bell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jared Leto and Lisa Edelstein.
Last year, Prince and Bell, who starred on the “Veronica Mars” TV series, were picked as the two sexiest vegetarians. Previous winners also include Natalie Portman, Andre 3000, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Shania Twain, Tobey Maguire, Lauren Bush, Josh Hartnett and Alicia Silverstone.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Intense manhunt after two NYC cops wounded July 9, 2007
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NEW YORK – Gunmen in a stolen sport utility vehicle shot and wounded two New York City police officers during a traffic stop early Monday, gravely injuring one of the officers, police said.
A manhunt was under way for the three occupants of the SUV. Police said the shots apparently were fired by two of them.
“The suspects in this brazen shooting are still at large,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news conference at the hospital where the officers were taken.
Officer Russell Timoshenko, 23, was shot in the face and neck, and was in “extremely critical condition,” Kelly said. Officer Herman Yan, 26, was in stable condition.
The officers were shot at about 2:30 a.m. in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn when they pulled over a black BMW SUV with license plates belonging to another car. A security video captured the shooting, and another video showed three men, believed to be the suspects, ducking into a driveway after seeing a patrol car approach.
Police found the SUV abandoned near the shooting scene. Inside it were two .45-caliber shell casings, Kelly said. The SUV had been stolen from a dealership.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Heatwave July 7, 2007
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HELENA, Mont. – If a record-breaking heat wave doesn’t lift soon, cattle rancher Sharon McDonald may see her hay crop turn to dust.
Oppressive temperatures eased a bit in some parts of the West, but McDonald’s central Montana ranch baked under triple-digit heat. Forecasters reported little relief in the days ahead, saying the weather system that brought the high temperatures could last well into next week.
In Montana, where cattle outnumber residents by more than 2 to 1, livestock and people sought shade and drought-weary farmers watched for damage to grain.
“We are trying to get our hay up before it disintegrates,” said McDonald, a rancher near Melville. “It just gets crispy and just falls apart.”
Warnings of excessive heat were posted Friday for much of Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington state.
Air conditioners — and even swamp coolers — were predictably hot sellers at the hardware store.
“I’m telling you, it has been nuts,” said Dennis VanDyke, a manager at Power Townsend in Helena. “The only thing I am getting calls for is air conditioners.”
VanDyke said some people prefer swamp coolers, which use a fan and the condensation of water to cool the air, over the more power-hungry air conditioning units.
“They are being bought faster than we can put them on the shelves,” he said.
Records set:
In Montana, temperatures above 100 are usually not seen until August. The normal July high in Helena is 83 degrees — not the 105 expected Friday.
By midday, records were already set or tied in the Montana cities of Cut Bank, Great Falls, Havre, and Bozeman.
The Montana Department of Transportation said it was putting maintenance crews to work early in the morning so they could finish by midday.
In Boise, where it was headed well above 100 degrees Friday, some found it was too hot to play at a public water fountain.
“We’ll probably leave soon. Two or three o’clock is about my limit before I want to get in some air conditioning,” mother Monica Player said as children ran through jets of water.
Temperatures were expected to ease slightly in Southern California. Phoenix saw a modest drop, a relatively cooler 111 degrees compared to 115 Thursday. With the approach of Arizona’s summer rainy season, humidity levels have started climbing along with power demand.
Heat remained an issue along the border. The bodies of six suspected illegal immigrants have been found since Monday in southern Arizona deserts, all likely victims of heat illness while trying to walk into the U.S. from Mexico. The toll, while high, is not unusual during hot spells in the region.
(C) AP NewsSource
Score for animal rights in New Orleans, LA July 7, 2007
Posted by lfurnews in Local and State.1 comment so far
A woman and her teenage son were arrested and four pit bulls were rescued after authorities responded to a complaint that neighborhood children were holding dogfights in the backyard of a New Orleans Ninth Ward home.
Cynthia Brooks was booked with allowing dogfights at her home.
Kathryn Destreza, director of humane law enforcement for the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, says Brooks faces up to 10 years in prison and as much as 25-thousand dollars in fines.
Brooks’ son, whose name was not released by authorities due to his age, was charged with cruelty to animals and dogfighting.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)
