Author: Gerrick D. Kennedy

One of the oldest Asian elephants on record has died.

Mary, a 63-year-old elephant, died this week at the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens in Orlando, zoo officials said.

Shonna Green, spokeswoman for the zoo, said Mary died late Tuesday of an age-related illness.

“She was 63 — which is rather old for an elephant — but no one dies of old age, so there has to be some kind of complication,” Green said.

A necropsy will be conducted to determine the exact cause of death.

Mary was born in 1946 at the Nehru Zoological Park in India. She came to the U.S. in 1952 as part of a circus. After she was retired from the circus, she was sent to the Dallas Zoo before coming to the Central Florida Zoo in 1983, where she was the matriarch of the group of elephants, despite being smaller than the others. 

Mary was the third-oldest Asian elephant on record at a U.S. zoo accredited by the Assn. of Zoos & Aquariums.

Green said Mary touched many people over the years, and zoo guests had enjoyed the annual birthday celebrations and seeing Mary during weekend demonstrations on elephants that she headlined with another elephant, Maude.

"Mary was a favorite among Central Florida Zoo guests and staff and a great animal," Joe Montisano, chief executive of the zoo, said in a statement. He added that she was "a great ambassador and touched the lives of many people in her years on the planet.  We will miss her."

Mary held a special place in the hearts of her keepers and was known to love having her stomach rubbed and sneaking up on new keepers.

"We’re all very saddened by the loss," Green said. "She’s been here since 1983. Many of the employees of the zoo have been here that long, if not longer. Many of them have grown up with Mary."

Donations in her memory are being collected and will be sent to the Elephant Conservation Program to help endangered elephants in the wild. 

— Gerrick D. Kennedy (Follow me on Twitter @GerrickKennedy)

Photos: At top, Mary, right, and Maude are digging into an elephant birthday cake at the annual birthday celebration. At bottom, Mary. The elephant had been with the zoo since 1983. Credit: Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens

Animal abusers may soon be on same level as sex offenders by getting listed in an online registry, complete with their addresses and where they are employed, if one California senator has his way.

Friday, state Sen. Dean Florez (D) announced a bill for a statewide registry in California. If passed it would create the nation’s first criminal registry for animal abusers.

Written with the aid of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the proposed bill would require any person convicted of a felony involving animal cruelty to register with the police and provide an array of personal information along with a current photograph, much like sex offenders. The information, along with the registrants’ specific offense, would then be posted online, much like Petabuse.com, which offers limited listings.

The registry would list people convicted of a range of crimes from acts of violence (torture, mutilation, intentional killings, etc.), sexual abuse and animal fighting as well as neglect, including hoarding. Such registries would help protect animals, pet guardians and communities by preventing repeat offenses from anyone with an established history of abusing animals.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund has even launched a campaign, Expose Animal Abusers, to help states establish public animal abuser registries. The website enables the public to contact their state lawmakers and urge them to propose legislation for the creation of state registries.

They pointed to a number of instances in which a registry would be beneficial to prevent future abuse of animals. One of those was Shon Rahrig. While living in Ohio in 1999, Rahrig allegedly adopted several cats and a puppy from local shelters and tortured them sadistically. He poked out the eyes of a cat named Misty, broke her legs and jaw, cut off her paws, and left her bleeding in a laundry basket. His girlfriend turned him in, and he took a plea bargain that admitted abuse of only one animal. Rahrig was forbidden to own an animal for five years, but he was subsequently seen at an adoption event in California./p>

Florez said he is confident that he has the votes needed to move the bill forward and estimates that the registry would cost less than $1 million to produce.

“I think people think, well, if Dean is supporting it,” he said, “it can’t be that off the wall."

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

— Gerrick D. Kennedy (Follow me on Twitter @GerrickKennedy)

Photo: Ramon Muniz of the LAPD Animal Cruelty Task Force walks with fellow task force officer Kim Lormans through the North Central Animal Shelter kennels, looking for animals that may have been abused by their owners. Credit: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Cody and Stewie are great cats, with one major behavioral problem: spraying. This is the story of one cat lover’s quest to eliminate this smelly, embarrassing problem once and for all.

I can’t believe this is something I’m still dealing with.

I thought it would just take a few days for the boys to adjust to having multiple litter boxes; I actually thought they’d be excited. Another place to pee or poop, right?

Boy, was I wrong.

I was delighted when numerous suggestions from Unleashed readers poured in after the last installment in the "Bad Kitty" saga, but I think I’ve confused a few readers, which wasn’t my goal.

Reader Claire said, "You also don’t mention in any of your 3 posts — have you gotten both cats vet tested for infection, including a [urine culture] (not just a urinalysis) to check for a bacterial infection?" Another reader, Jamesincalifornia, counseled, "You need to have your cats altered. That should stop the spraying. If your cats are already altered and still continue to spray, they probably have a medical problem, for which you need to consult a veterinarian."

My apologies to Claire, James (do you mind if I shorten your name just a bit?) and any other readers I may have misled; to address your comments, both Cody and Stewie are neutered, and their veterinarian has already ruled out infection in both their cases.

The spraying issue has always been a behavioral one for both boys. I’ll admit that I waited longer than I should have to have a vet rule out a medical cause for the problem; I assumed it stemmed from the stress they experienced relating to a crosstown move, which is when the spraying began.

So here we are again. 

Some time has passed since the last installment — with good reason. Since then, I’ve decided to listen to a suggestion I received from a reader of Part II in my feline-spraying saga. It was a step I dreaded taking: medicating the boys.

But I did some thinking, made some phone calls, did some research, cleaned up more of the offending urine, etc., and came to the conclusion that the next chapter of this journey would be trying out kitty Prozac.

Before I went through with it I decided to take the boys in for a second opinion. Don’t get me wrong; it wasn’t that I didn’t trust the first vet … oh, who am I kidding, he’s not reading this! Okay — I didn’t trust him and I couldn’t understand half of what he told me. Time for Vet #2!

The boys got checked by a fresh set of eyes, at a new location, and the second vet actually suggested I try medicating because the boys are more than likely stressed. (He echoed Reader Jade’s sentiments, "It also seems like they only act up when you aren’t home, which can be a sign of separation anxiety.")

Even when I’m home, though, the boys have certainly been known to "act a fool," as my mother would say. I work nine, ten, sometimes eleven hours a day, and even the time I spend at home is largely spent sleeping: Even more time to act up without fear of being caught!

Reader Patrick said medicating his cat took "the edge off his anxiety so that he didn’t feel the need to pee on carpets, rugs, beds, etc., but otherwise had no noticeable effect on his personality." Patrick’s comment made me feel a bit better about the whole kitty-Prozac route, since, in the back of my mind, I’d never been a big supporter of the idea. (I just had these images of my cats staring at the walls, imagining they saw a big yellow smiley face vomiting a waterfall of fresh kitty litter. I didn’t want my boys to wind up with Dr. Drew on "Animal Rehab" alongside a handful of washed-up celebrity pets, you know?)

It seems as if reader Winifred Wilson felt my pain. "I too am wondering if Prozac is the last resort but I hate hate hate the thought of that. I feel absolutely desperate. I have the urine going down the side of the litter tray but I can cope with that. I can’t cope with the spraying [around] the house and also not exactly sure where they might have done it and I haven’t yet found it."

Well, Winifred, I’m pleased to inform you that Patrick was right: Cody and Stewie are now receiving regular medication, and it’s begun working like a charm. (Though Cody has shown no side effects, Stewie has become a little more rambunctious than usual, running around the house, but I couldn’t care less. He’s always been an Olympian-level sprinter, and if he wants to run himself ragged around the house all day and all night, he can go right ahead. I’ve even ceased using my kitty laser-pointer toy because he wears himself out on his own.)

Best of all, I haven’t cleaned up a marking in more than two weeks! I realize the medication, which takes some time to reach its full effect, may not have fully kicked in yet — but whatever is happening I love the results. And so does my dry kitchen.

But could it be a fluke? To be safe, I still want to track down two other reader suggestions I’ve been dying to try out: Feliway and Cat Attract.

What do you all think? Is this the end of the Bad Kitty series as we know it, or do you expect to see me here again? Share your thoughts — and, of course, your own experiences.

If this is the last time we see each other I’m beyond grateful for every single tip and ounce of encouragement that I’ve received from Unleashed readers. It’s been my pleasure to invite you into the chaotic world of my two Bad Kitties.

RELATED:

Bad kitty: Stopping feline spraying in its tracks, Part 1

Bad kitty, part 2: Cat repellent offers a quick fix

Bad kitty, Part 3: A tale of two litter boxes

— Gerrick D. Kennedy (Follow me on Twitter @GerrickKennedy)

Photo: Stewie is always up to pose for pictures, unlike Cody. Credit: Gerrick D. Kennedy / Los Angeles Times

The West Hollywood City Council is looking to put a stop to sales of dogs and cats in pet stores.

If the ordinance prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats in companion animal stores is approved in a Tuesday night vote, as is widely expected, West Hollywood would be among the first cities in the nation to prohibit most retail sales of puppies and kittens. South Lake Tahoe did just that in 2009, according to our sister blog L.A. Now.

The new ordinance, which was unanimously approved at its first reading a few weeks ago, is just the latest piece of animal welfare legislation the city has ushered in. In 2003, West Hollywood became the first city in the country to outlaw cat declawing. (Several other California cities, including Santa Monica, followed suit in 2009.)

The ordinance is aimed at curtailing puppy mills and addressing the inhumane conditions endured by animals in the puppy mill industry, which relies heavily on sales through retail pet stores for its profits, officials said in a statement.

Puppy mills are large-scale commercial breeding facilities that mass-produce puppies for sale in pet stores, online and directly to the public.

Documented problems of puppy mills include overbreeding, inbreeding, veterinary care that doesn’t meet the same standards as other breeders, relatively poor quality of food and shelter, lack of human socialization and overcrowded cages. Dogs bred in puppy mills are more likely to have behavior and/or health problems. Although kitten mills are not as common as puppy mills, similar problems are reported.

"This ordinance represents an important step toward ridding our nation of the cruelty of puppy mills and other commercial assembly-line animal breeders," West Hollywood Councilmember Jeffrey Prang said in a statement. "The ordinance not only contributes to the fight against animal cruelty, it also recognizes the enormous cost of pet overpopulation in our society, both fiscal and humanitarian impacts. I urge those seeking pet companionship to consider adoption from municipal shelters and other nonprofit rescue agencies."

If approved, West Hollywood’s ordinance would go into effect March 19. No businesses would be immediately affected, Prang told L.A. Now, since no pet stores within West Hollywood’s city limits currently sell puppies and kittens.

RELATED:

Pennsylvania’s Main Line Animal Rescue takes on puppy mills, one dog at a time

Indiana panel OKs bill to require pet stores to give buyers information on breeders

— Gerrick D. Kennedy (Follow me on Twitter @GerrickKennedy)

Photo: Patrons visit with puppies at Melrose Avenue pet store Orange Bone, which sells only rescued puppies rather than those obtained from puppy mills. Credit: Nancy Pastor / For The Times

British broadcaster Independent Television (ITV) pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and was fined by an Australian court Monday after a rat was killed and eaten on the reality TV show "I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here."

The broadcaster was taken to court by the RSPCA in Australia in December after two of the contestants caught a rat and killed it in a bid to feed their hungry teammates.

Celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo and soap star Stuart Manning were both charged with animal cruelty after the stunt in which the creature was served up with rice and beans. "I saw one of these rats running around," D’Acampo, who went on to win the show, said of the incident. "I got a knife, I got its throat, I picked it up."

The RSPCA said that killing a rat as part of a TV stunt was "not acceptable".

ITV said it had "apologized for the mistake" and was ordered to pay A$2,500 in fines.

Sky News, a British news outlet, reported on Monday that ITV admitted its production staff had given the go-ahead to a request to kill the rat.

The court was told that the rat took a minute and a half to die after being stabbed with a knife, which the magistrate said caused unnecessary pain to the animal.

"The production was unaware that killing a rat could be an offense, criminal or otherwise in New South Wales, and accepts that further inquiries should have been made," the spokesman said. "This was an oversight and we have since thoroughly reviewed our procedures and are putting in place a comprehensive training program to ensure that this does not happen in future series."

Contestants who ate the dish apparently enjoyed it; Hollywood legend George Hamilton described it as "actually quite nice."

"We all said it was like chicken but chickeny-beefy kind of stuff so it was actually very nice. If you kill it you should eat it," the actor said after leaving the show in December.

"I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here" is reminiscent of the hit "Survivor" and pits contestants against each other in a knock-out contest that involves a series of scary and stomach-churning tasks in a remote setting. The second season of the American version, which aired in 2009, featured Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt, "American Idol’s" Sanjaya Malakar and Janice Dickinson.

— Gerrick D. Kennedy (Follow me on Twitter @GerrickKennedy)

Alaska now has its own version of Groundhog Day.

Then-Gov. Sarah Palin signed a bill last year to make every Feb. 2 Marmot Day in Alaska; today marks the first celebration of the holiday. The bill was introduced by state Sen. Linda Menard, a Wasilla Republican.

Because there are no groundhogs in Alaska, Menard says it made sense for the marmot to become Alaska’s version of Punxsutawney Phil, the Pennsylvania groundhog famed for his winter weather forecasts. Menard’s bill didn’t give marmots any weather forecasting duties, but she hopes the state will create educational activities around the animal.

Marmots typically live in burrows, often within rock piles, and hibernate there during the winter months. Most marmots are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed. They primarily eat greens and many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots and flowers.

RELATED:


PETA wants to replace famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil with an animatronic replica

— Gerrick D. Kennedy

Photo: A marmot is seen alongside Moonlight Lake
in Inyo National Forest. Credit: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times

Cody and Stewie are great cats, with one major behavioral problem: Feline spraying. This is the story of one cat lover’s quest to eliminate this smelly, embarrassing problem once and for all.

Less than a half-hour after Part I on my feline-spraying saga was published, knowledgeable readers were already chiming in with advice. 

"Maybe you need to try an enzymatic cleaner (first) and then get a pheromone spray like Feliway," Sami Gowen suggested. "It’s worked well in our house (four cats, female and male). And maybe invest in a black light to see exactly where all the urine is!"

I decided to try Sami’s idea and made my way to Petco in La Cañada Flintridge in search of a spray. I was a little disappointed at the selection, but that’s not important. I found a spray — not Feliway; instead, Four Paws Keep Off! Indoor & Outdoor Cat & Kitten Repellent. Although it wasn’t the exact brand Sami recommended, I decided to go with it, thinking "What do I have to lose?"

I treated the rug (and then tossed it in the washer) and the area surrounding the cabinets with OxiClean; when that didn’t completely get rid of the smell, I followed up with another product, Urine Gone, that I had on hand. This eliminated the smell. (I haven’t gotten on board with the black light yet, so it’s possible I’m completely over-cleaning the area, or else not getting it all. I doubt the latter, though, because I can see the color difference.) Next, I cleaned the litter box and wiped it down with Fresh Step litter box wipes.  (I went out of my way to avoid using Pine-Sol, which reader David warned against in his comment. Great tip!).

Here is where I think I went wrong: I wanted to get my boys used to the fact that there is going to be a rug in there, so I put the newly washed rug back in its original place. Then I doused the entire area with the spray. I sprayed like a maniac — every inch of the rug, the cabinets, underneath the cabinet. Everything. No area was left dry. I knew if I hated the smell, so would they. And boy was the smell pungent!

Now it was time to wait.

Stewie made his way into the kitchen and it was hilarious. He walked around the entire area as if it were an electric fence. He wanted to cross the boundary, but couldn’t. Inside I burst with joy. Finally I had solved this problem. Finally!

One area of concern, though, was how often they’d have to play this little tip-toe around the area. Their litter box is on one end of my kitchen, and their food is in a little alcove on the other end. About 10 to 15 feet separate the food area from the litter-box area, and I know Stewie’s routine: He eats, he spends his alone-time in the litter box, and finally he goes for a second round of munching.

Cody, however, almost always uses the litter at night and doesn’t spend as much time as Stewie does in the kitchen. But I wanted to see if the spray worked on him, so I lured him into the kitchen with a line of treats. (Yes, I made a line of treats.) Once he got into the kitchen, he made his way to the food bowls and walked right over the rug. He didn’t stop. The scent hadn’t alarmed him one bit. The repellent had failed when it came to him.

But the next day, there were no markings. No scrunched-up rug. No yucky scent. Nothing … that is, until I returned home hours later. The spray had worn off, and the instructions (which I had forgotten) recommended spraying the affected areas every day.

I had used too much of the spray; the can only yielded two treatments.

Now what do I try next? As always, I’m open to hearing from you. Feel free to share your tips and personal experiences by leaving a comment.

RELATED:

Bad kitty: Stopping feline spraying in its tracks, Part 1

— Gerrick D. Kennedy

Photo:  Cody at home. Credit: Gerrick D. Kennedy / Los Angeles Times

Feline spraying is one behavioral problem many cat lovers know all too well. The stench, the embarrassment, the constant battle of wills – it’s a cycle that never ends. This is the story of one cat owner’s quest to eliminate the household spraying from his two boys: Cody and Stewie.

Every day is the same. I come home and both my boys are lying in bed, faces twisted with guilt. This, of course, is after I hear them scamper through the living room from the kitchen as I insert my key.

Immediately I walk into the kitchen. Twisted-up rug: check. Pungent smell: check. Glistening floor and cabinets: check again.

My boys have struck. I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to figure out why they continue to spray in the house. Cody, 5, was already neutered when I adopted him. I rescued my youngest, Stewie — now a year old — at 6 weeks of age. He was neutered at six months.

So what’s the problem? Litter box is always clean, food always stocked. I’ve logged plenty of time online reading different sites about the nature of cat spraying, and site after site tells me that it’s my cats’ way of leaving messages for each other. But the only message I’m getting is in the form of me on my hands and knees with a roll of paper towels.

After getting the same results despite the fact that I’ve tried different things — washing the rug, removing it completely, leaving all the cabinet doors open and even blocking the cabinets — I decided I needed help. I needed chemicals. The rain defeated my plan to run to a pet store, but the website I was reading had a recipe for a solution from on-hand household products: baking soda, vinegar, dishwashing detergent and hydrogen peroxide. I snatched all the products from their respective locations and got to it.

I wiped everything down with paper towels until I saw no more yellow. Then I doused my floor and rug with the mixture of vinegar and water, sprinkled it with the baking soda, and I got the peroxide and detergent mixture all over. This is such a mess on my floor! I scrubbed it in, per the directions, and then vacuumed after it had dried.

For the rest of the evening I watched, and waited. The cats went into the kitchen to eat and use the litter box. Then they went on their way. I went to bed thinking, "Aha! I finally figured it out."

This morning on my way to work, I stopped and poked my head into the kitchen. Twisted-up rug. (Oh no!) Pungent smell. (Not again!) Glistening floor and cabinets. (There’s no way!)

Sadly, I was defeated. So what am I doing wrong? I plan on trying everything I see on store shelves and documenting it here. I’ll also take reader suggestions. I’m open to anything, within reason of course. Feel free to share your tips and personal experiences by leaving a comment.

— Gerrick D. Kennedy

Photos:  Cody, left, and Stewie lounge at home. Credit: Gerrick D. Kennedy / Los Angeles Times

Live Video streaming by Ustream

This is adorable at its "aww"-inducing finest.

More than 18 million viewers have tuned in to see the live stream of these 5-day-old Shiba Inu pups.

The three boys and two girls — none of which have names yet — are the second litter for mom Kika. Some might remember when Kika had her first litter in 2008, which is when the cam was set up by a San Francisco couple who wanted to monitor their pups while they were at work.

The stream become a media sensation, being featured on NBC’s Nightly News, the "Today" show, People magazine, Entertainment Weekly and CNN.

The rain might have you stranded inside, but these adorable pups will provide a much-needed fix of adorable.

— Gerrick D. Kennedy

Don’t miss a single adorable animal: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

County animal services workers evacuated the Banning Animal Shelter today, removing more than 100 animals, including seven horses and three goats, because of anticipated flooding.

Riverside County Department of Animal Services Director Robert Miller ordered the evacuation this afternoon. "The Banning Animal Shelter’s drainage capacity is not adequate to provide a safe or healthy environment in light of the onslaught of heavy rains expected," Miller said.

Animals will be transferred to the county’s Coachella Valley Animal Campus, 72-050 Pet Land Place, Thousand Palms, said spokesman John Welsh.

A few animals were sent to the Coachella campus Tuesday when some kennel runs were flooded by rains, Welsh said.

"Everyone is reporting that these will be some of the most severe storms in quite some time," Miller said.

"It’s our job to make sure we care for our stray and homeless pets the best we can. That’s why we needed to make this unusual decision."

The Banning Shelter will be closed until further notice, Welsh said.

Related:

Complete coverage of Southland storms

— Associated Press

Photo: A Chihuahua peers out of its cage at an L.A.-area animal shelter. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times