Author: LATimes

Dog agility competitions make great TV, with pooches racing around an obstacle course, jumping through hoops and dashing through tunnels. If you’ve seen it, though, your reaction probably wasn’t, "What about cats?"

But that’s exactly the thought that Kim Everett-Hirsch of Portland, Ore., had before launching her first cat agility competition in 2005.

"I thought there was no reason cats can’t do it."

At that first competition, there were 30 cats, none of whom had ever seen the obstacle course before. And in the building next to the cat show, there was a motorcycle show.

"These people came on over," Everett-Hirsch said. "They said, you gotta be kidding. So they paid admission."

And as the cats came out and got the hang of it, she says, "They were standing up cheering them, ‘go girl go!’"

The jumps, tunnels, stairs and weave poles used for cat agility will look familiar to anyone who’s seen the dog version of the sport, but the smaller size of the obstacles isn’t the only difference. Dogs are expected to perform each obstacle on command, in an order that isn’t obvious from the course layout.

For cats, the obstacles are arranged in a circle, and the handler leads them around the course, making a game of it with a toy on a stick or a laser pointer.

"A cat’s a little different," says Everett-Hirsch. "They’re running the show. You have to make them want to do it."

Although the sport hasn’t been going very long, there’s already conventional wisdom about what breeds are best-suited.

That didn’t stop Donna Hinton of Richmond, Texas, a serious competitor who has big Maine Coons instead of a lithe, short-haired Abyssinian. For her it’s not about the breed, it’s about the individual.

"You need a cat that has a good attention span, that’s toy-driven," she says. "I’ve had some that decided ‘I tried it, it’s not my cup of tea.’ You can’t make them do it."

Success is also very much about the handler’s skill and relationship with their animal. "You have to be in tune to your cat," says Hinton. "You have to be three feet ahead and anticipate their moves."

Since that first show in 2005, the sport has been gradually growing, with 10 competitions in the past year. It’s also spreading to other countries: this year for the first time there will be a competition in Hong Kong and in mainland China. This season will also be the first in which the Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) will start granting titles to the highest scoring competitors.

Anyone can enter a show and try out agility with their cat, says Jill Archibald, CFA’s agility coordinator. It doesn’t need to be a purebred, and it doesn’t need to have trained in advance.

While experienced cats and handlers may finish a course in under 10 seconds, everyone gets three chances, for 4 1/2 minutes each try.

"Each time they come back, usually the cat has more of a clue what they’re doing and the handler figures how to place the toy to get the cat to respond," she says.

The only preparation you need is that your cat has to be comfortable in strange places. Get it used to going out, for example to pet stores that allow animals. You can also prepare it by taking it to cat shows, even those that aren’t offering agility. Any cat can participate in the "household pet" class.

One benefit of agility, like any kind of training, is how it affects your relationship with your animal.

"What ends up happening is that you and your cat start understanding each other," says Archibald.

She says of her Japanese Bobtails, "They like interacting with me that much more now. If I walk out of the room and call their names, they come. They’re very responsive to me now."

And it’s a great way to see your cat being a cat, demonstrating its natural speed, intelligence, and — what else — agility.

"When you get a cat that enjoys it, nothing’s more beautiful than putting a cat down and it hits the stairs and knows what it’s doing," says Hinton.

— Associated Press

Top photo: Starlight, an Egyptian Mau kitten owned by cat agility expert
Jill Archibald, seems to wait for the rest of his body to clear the
second hurdle in an obstacle course during a cat charity fundraiser in
New York. Credit: Associated Press

Bottom photo: Rosey, a Japanese bobtail who can run a professional cat agility
course in under 20 seconds, prepares to vault over a hurdle at a New
York cat charity fundraiser. Credit: Associated Press

Animals — from household pets to racehorses to egg-laying chickens to dairy cows — are more fully protected by the laws of California than those of any other U.S. state, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Our colleague Carol J. Williams has the details; here’s an excerpt:

In a comprehensive analysis of the laws in each of the 50 states, [the Humane Society] ranked the Golden State No. 1 for the legal protections it has enacted across the animal kingdom. New Jersey, Colorado, Maine and Massachusetts also scored high in protecting pets and livestock. Idaho and South Dakota earned the lowest scores, in part for their failure to make egregious animal abuse a felony or to outlaw cockfighting.

California scored 45 on a 65-point checklist for laws governing conditions on farms, in shelters and in laboratories and for those dealing with breeders and commercial ventures. It is one of the few states that outlaws the use of animals in product testing when an alternative exists and gives students the right to choose an alternative to animal dissection in schools.

The state prohibits all forms of animal fighting and the keeping of primates, venomous snakes, bears, wolves and big cats as pets. It also outlaws force-feeding of geese for the production of foie gras, battery cages for egg-laying hens and tail-docking of dairy cows.

Bear hunting is allowed in the state, but trade in bear parts is prohibited. In equine protection, California is one of only four states to prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption.

THERE’S MORE; READ THE REST.

Photo: A dairy cow on a farm near Merced. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

It’s one thing to get a goldfish because your daughter begs for one. It’s quite another to end up with a 100-pound rodent who has more than 2,700 Twitter followers.

Caplin Rous is a capybara. Related to the guinea pig, the capybara is the largest species of rodent. Though they’re native to South America, Caplin was born in Texas and lives in the town of Buda with Melanie Typaldos, who never expected this animal to take over her life quite the way he has.

Typaldos says it all started on a trip to Venezuela, when her daughter Coral got to hold a young capybara and "fell in love."

"After we got back, she pretty relentlessly pestered me about getting one for a pet," Typaldos says. "Since Coral lived in an apartment and was planning on spending a year in Asia, she couldn’t have a pet capybara herself so, she felt, it was up to me to fulfill her capybara vision."

Even capybaras that are bred in captivity like Caplin are not domesticated animals, so early handling and contact is critical for them to be comfortable living with people. Typaldos got Caplin when he was only 11 days old, and took him to work every day for the first three months. Then, "someone complained there was a furry, pig-like animal in the building," and she took a month of vacation and stayed home with him.

Caplin Rous is now 2 1/2. The second part of his name, which Typaldos pronounces like "rose," stands for "Rodent of Unusual Size" (a reference to the movie "The Princess Bride"). He’s also a rodent of unusual abilities. He can walk on a leash and even do some tricks, but Typaldos says it’s important not to exaggerate any similarity to a dog doing tricks.

"Dogs have thousands of years of being trained to be subservient to people," she says. "A capybara will not do a trick just to make me happy. The quality of the trick is very dependent on the quality of the treat."

Most people who keep capybaras keep them as farm animals, like a sheep or goat, but Caplin basically lives indoors with Typaldos (he eliminates in a pan of water in her bathroom). Outdoor space is necessary as well for grazing and swimming in his pool; in the wild, capybaras are semi-aquatic, diving into rivers to escape predators. Somewhat ponderous on land, capybaras are surprisingly graceful in the water.

"On land he’s not very active," she says. "When he’s in the water he’s like another animal. That’s where he’s really the happiest."

There’s no way of knowing how many private individuals own capybaras, but Justin Damesta, a breeder in Alvin, Texas, says that he sells five to 10 of them a year as pets.

Damesta recommends that a pet capybara be raised indoors for the first few months and then kept outdoors with sturdy fencing, a heated shelter and a pool. Potential buyers who contact him are usually fairly well informed, but, he says, "I have and will turn down people I don’t consider qualified or capable."

Some other pet capybaras also can be followed on the Internet, such as Dobby in Seattle. But Typaldos is probably unique in the way she has made the capybara her mission: She spends a couple of hours a day updating Caplin’s Internet presence on a blog and social networking sites.

When asked how much time it takes to care for a capybara, she says, "I spend all my time with him, but that’s a matter of choice."

Caplin’s Web activities are partly fun — such as interactive games of "Rodent Jeopardy" — with a serious educational purpose, too. "When I was thinking of getting him, there was nothing on the Web about getting a pet capybara," says Typaldos. "That was a large impetus for the blog. They’re not the right pet for most people."

Typaldos has a background in biology, and also keeps horses and reptiles. Her property is big enough that Caplin can graze and swim, and she lives in a climate appropriate for a tropical animal.

On her blog, she’s honest about the problems in caring for a capybara. When people ask her about getting one, she tells them first to read her whole blog, including the entries about when he has bitten her.

But Typaldos also sees Caplin as an ambassador of sorts.

"People don’t like rodents," she says, but many rodents make good pets. Her kids had pet rats when they were young. "If someone says something bad about rats, on the blog or Facebook, he’ll always step in and say something."

RELATED:

Bolivia plans to export capybara meat to Venezuela; famous capybara Caplin Rous is horrified

Your morning adorable: Capybaras frolic in Japanese children’s zoo

— Associated Press

Video: Caplin, inexplicably wearing antennae and a necktie, performs tricks in exchange for bites of a frozen treat. Credit: caplincapybara via YouTube

1st photo: Typaldos with Caplin, dressed festively for Halloween. Credit: Associated Press

2nd photo: Typaldos’ son-in-law, Carl Johnson III, pets Caplin while he swims in a pool. Credit: Associated Press

3rd photo: Caplin meets Neptune, the guinea pig pet of Typaldos’ daughter. Credit: Associated Press

4th photo: An older photo of Caplin shows him drinking from a bottle when he was a baby. Credit: Associated Press

Idaho is among several states watching to see if a California animal cruelty law drives flocks of big egg farms there to fly the coop.

California voters in 2008 approved Proposition 2, banning cramped cages for laying hens by 2015.

Neither Idaho nor Nevada, where officials are aggressively courting the Golden State egg industry, have restrictions on "battery cages" that leave chickens little room to spread their wings.

Idaho Sen. Tim Corder has no desire to change that in his state. Industry should decide, Corder insists.

Still, the Senate Agriculture Committee chairman does want to revamp rules governing where and how giant poultry farms are operated to skirt pitfalls that accompanied explosive growth of Idaho’s dairy industry. His state went from 180,000 cows in 1990 to 530,000 in 2009 to become the third-biggest milk producer after California and Wisconsin, but the arrival of mega-dairies caught regulators flat-footed and prompted environmentalists to call foul.

"The time when agriculture can sweep in and do whatever it wants and nobody will say anything about it until it’s too late, that time is past," said Corder, R-Mountain Home. "If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right from the start."

Corder, whose poultry plan is due for discussion in the Idaho Capitol this week, isn’t alone in thinking henpecked California egg producers may come calling.

Following Prop 2, Nevada officials want to poach their share of a possible egg exodus.

"We’ve contacted various members of poultry associations, especially in the California market," said Kathy Johnson, Pershing County’s economic development director. "We’re not trying to play predator. We’re simply offering an option."

One University of California-funded study before the 2008 ballot measure concluded costs would rise 20 percent, including equipment investments and use of more feed, and result in virtually all egg production leaving after six years. Only 5 percent of U.S. egg production comes from non-caged hens.

California is the nation’s fifth-largest egg producer, with 5 billion eggs annually. Iowa is tops, with 14.3 billion. Idaho and Nevada aren’t even close.

So far, Debbie Murdock, executive director of the Assn. of California Egg Farmers, hasn’t heard of any impending relocations to Idaho, Nevada or elsewhere.

Still, Prop 2 has her members’ feathers ruffled.

"We have 20 million hens in this state," Murdock said. "It’s a huge expense for us to have to move. It’s a huge expense for us to change our housing. A move like this, especially in this economic climate, can be very scary."

The Humane Society of the United States, which backed Prop 2, says the industry is claiming the sky is falling to frighten other states from pursuing similar measures. And similar measures are coming: Michigan’s governor signed legislation in October requiring more room for hens, while Ohio plans a vote next November.

Even without new laws, retailers like Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are independently demanding suppliers treat their chickens humanely, said Paul Shapiro, the Humane Society’s factory farm campaign director.

"You see a shift in the marketplace, not because they are compelled to do so by law, but because they don’t want to be selling a product that’s criminally cruel to produce," Shapiro said.

Pam Juker, an Idaho Department of Agriculture chief of staff, concedes Idaho regulators struggled to keep pace when big dairies began targeting cheap Idaho land to build 5,000-cow dairies two decades ago. Air and water pollution concerns emerged, as did a backlash over smells. Today, a legal stink lingers between the Idaho Dairymen’s Assn. and counties over power to regulate feedlots.

"The laws and rules had to be developed alongside the industry growth," Juker said. "With this (Corder’s) proposed legislation, it will help to have the regulatory structure in place before a new industry settles in."

The Idaho Conservation League has highlighted nitrate threats to southern Idaho groundwater from millions of tons of dairy manure. Justin Hayes, a spokesman in Boise, said poorly regulated poultry farms could make things worse. He hasn’t endorsed Corder’s bill.

"There’s not currently enough oversight of where we place dairy manure," Hayes said.

Even if California poultry operations don’t find Idaho, Corder is sure others will.

Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Line North America last year opened a new facility in Burley, in southern Idaho, that hatches million of hens to be shipped elsewhere. And last month, commissioners there approved zoning changes to allow a broiler chicken plant to house up to 4 million birds. One thousand employees would process some 13,000 birds an hour.

"They aren’t just coming," Corder said. "They’re already here."

— Associated Press

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

Photo: Dave Getzschman / for the Times

At the Czech Republic’s Liberec Zoo, the birth of an endangered golden takin is good news indeed. Imagine the excitement, then, when three of the rare goat-antelopes are born in a single month!

Golden takins are native to the Himalayan region of China, where they’re threatened not just by large carnivorous animals like bears, but also by poachers. The Liberec Zoo is home to the only herd of golden takins outside Asia.

In an interview with Radio Prague, zoo spokesperson Ivan Langr explained that golden takins are especially well-suited to life in Liberec, which is situated at the base of a mountain range and is subject to harsh, cold winters. Another reason the zoo decided to import the large, strange-looking beasts is that "the Chinese allowed us to," Langr said. "The Chinese government is very protective of this animal … they only allow them to be bred in certain places and under very strict conditions. So they had us build a special exhibit, sent specialists to make sure everything was up to par, and only then could the animals be moved."

The zoo’s first golden takins, interestingly named Adam and Eva, arrived from China in 2002, and the burgeoning family seems to be thriving. The three new additions, all males, joined the rest of the herd in its outdoor enclosure on Feb. 8. See another photo after the jump!

— Lindsay Barnett

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

Photo credits: Radek Petrasek / Associated Press

On Sunday, Paradise Valley was anything but paradise.

Residents of the La Cañada Flintridge neighborhood had been forced to evacuate Saturday after an early-morning rainstorm unexpectedly pummeled the area and sent mud flowing into their homes.

A day later, cleanup crews appeared along the dirt-soaked Ocean View Boulevard, which was littered with giant rocks, fallen mailboxes and trees. About 30 homes had been damaged in the area.

Department of Public Works employees scooped up mud with shovels and pushed back K-rails that had skated away from sidewalks.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived in the morning and surveyed the critical debris basin that had been clogged by a 10-ton boulder and aided the slurry in filling the cul-de-sacs that dot the hillside.

Schwarzenegger was later introduced to a teary-eyed Karineh Mangassarian on Manistee Drive, who had refused to leave her mud-blanketed home. She pleaded for help and the two hugged.

Building inspectors were expected to arrive later in the day to assess the damage, L.A. County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said. She also said evacuations were still in place for the neighborhood.

— Ruben Vives and Corina Knoll

FULL COVERAGE OF THE MUDSLIDES

— Times photo gallery from the scene

— Interactive map of evacuations by The Times’ Rong-Gong Lin II

— The latest rain news as it happens on L.A. Now

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to appear this morning in the La Cañada Flintridge area where more than 40 houses are awash in mud after Saturday’s powerful rainstorm.

Schwarzenegger is scheduled to be at Ocean View Boulevard and Earnslow Drive at 9 a.m. and will tour one of the damaged homes.

— Corina Knoll

Wildlife rescuers are concerned about an alarming trend: Brown pelicans, in large numbers, are being found malnourished, begging for food and, in some cases, dead along the Oregon coast. The reason for the birds’ distress remains mysterious; our colleague Kim Murphy reports on experts’ efforts to save them and discover the cause of their predicament. Here’s an excerpt:

As many as 1,000 of the gangly seabirds failed to make their annual fall migration to California, many instead winding up at Oregon’s rehabilitation centers.

Those that did head south, leaving the Pacific Northwest winter behind, were battered by California’s recent storms. Shelters in San Pedro and the San Francisco Bay Area are also full of emaciated pelicans.

Researchers, at a loss to explain the casualties, are looking at unusual ocean currents and the depletion of fish stocks — as well as warmer temperatures, toxic runoff and algae blooms — as possible causes.

Meanwhile, pelicans are sitting listlessly on beaches and scavenging outside restaurants and canneries.

"In one parking lot, there were people in cars surrounded by pelicans asking for food. We have never seen that before," said Roy Lowe, project leader for the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex. "These birds literally have lost all fear of humans."

In San Pedro, the International Bird Rescue Research Center has taken in about 130 pelicans; a similar number are at the center’s Northern California facility.

THERE’S MORE; READ THE REST.

Photo: A rescuer lifts an injured brown pelican from the cleaning station at the Wildlife Center of the North Coast in Astoria, Ore. Credit: Benjamin Reed / For the Times

The American pika isn’t heading for the endangered species list, but federal scientists say there’s no question it bears watching if the West continues to warm.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formally announced its decision Friday that Endangered Species Act protections aren’t warranted for the climate-sensitive pika, a mountain-dwelling relative of the rabbit that lives in 10 Western states.

Agency officials acknowledge, though, that there’s still plenty that’s not known about the pika, a species that can be difficult to study because of its remote mountain habitat.

A federal biologist says the decision not to list the pika is just the beginning of what’s expected to be more intensive monitoring of the secretive species in the coming years.

— Associated Press

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

Photo: Associated Press

Federal land managers have finished a major roundup of wild horses from the range north of Reno.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials said Friday that 1,922 mustangs were removed from the Calico Mountains Complex.

Agency spokeswoman JoLynn Worley said an estimated 600 horses remain in the complex, which is within the management level of 600 to 900 set for the area.

She said the agency had planned to remove about 2,500 horses but a lot of the mustangs roamed out of the complex after the roundup began Dec. 28.

Activists unsuccessfully sued to stop the roundup, saying it was unnecessary and inhumane.

The BLM said the roundup was needed because an overpopulation of horses is harming native wildlife and the range.

— Associated Press

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

Photo: An activist in costume protests the roundup outside the West L.A. office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Jan. 6. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Time

Holly Crawford, who inspired outrage in legions of animal lovers when her Pennsylvania home was raided and several pierced animals were seized in late 2008, has been convicted of animal cruelty.

Crawford, a dog groomer by trade, had been marketing so-called "gothic kittens" — with piercings in their ears and necks — for sale on the Internet auction site eBay.

She was found guilty of one misdemeanor count and one summary count of animal cruelty and acquitted on two separate counts; sentencing is scheduled for March 31. Deputy District Attorney David Pedri told the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader that he would seek a sentence of 12 to 18 months in prison, although a judge could sentence her to up to five years.

Prosecutors argued that Crawford intentionally inflicted pain on the cats to make money.

Lawyers for Crawford said she didn’t act maliciously and noted that there is no explicit law against piercing pets. (However, pets are among the items that are prohibited for sale on eBay, pierced or not.) Crawford has said that she used sterilized needles and surgical soap and made sure the kittens were healing properly.

"When I did it, it wasn’t with any cruel intentions," Crawford said during the trial. "They were definitely loved, well-fed, no fleas, clipped nails. And they were happy."

Crawford said she decided on a whim to pierce the ears and neck of a stray kitten she took in. She claimed that she docked the tail of the cat, whom she named Snarly Monster, because it was badly damaged. Snarly Monster was not intended for sale, she said.

In photos taken from Crawford’s "gothic kitten" advertisements, black kittens are seen with their ears and necks pierced with 14g (1.6 millimeter) earrings, the size usually reserved for humans’ tongue piercings. In one photo, a kitten’s ears are weighed down by jewelry manufactured for use as belly button piercings.

A concerned animal lover saw an advertisement for the kittens, called the phone number associated with the ad and later traveled to Crawford’s home outside Wilkes-Barre to see the kittens. He then alerted authorities, who raided the home and removed three kittens, all with piercings and at least one with a ring placed on its tail to stop blood circulation, as well as an adult cat. Authorities also reported finding a dog with pierced ears in the home.

In a previous interview with the Associated Press, Crawford said she didn’t think there was a difference between piercing a cat or a human.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals criticized Crawford and called the piercings "barbaric."

"There’s no excuse for inflicting such pain on an animal that’s the size of your palm," said the group’s vice president for cruelty investigations, Daphna Nachminovitch.

The kittens remain in the custody of the Luzerne County SPCA, according to the Times Leader.

RELATED:

Groomer who sold ‘gothic kittens’ online goes to trial in Pennsylvania

Rhode Island man charged with animal cruelty for performing an operation on his own dog

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

Video: WNEP.com

Photo: Screen grab showing a kitten whose tail had been banded in an effort to stop blood flow from a video by the Associated Press

We found YouTube user seli27‘s video of her Jack Russell terriers playing with a lawn sprinkler oddly hypnotic; we couldn’t look away.

"They can do this for hours," according to seli27, who notes that "I got 4 bug bites filming this, [but it was] worth it." We agree (but then again, we’re not the ones fighting off insects).

These smart, if alarmingly energetic, little dogs even dry themselves off after a pleasant afternoon of sprinkler-biting! We wouldn’t mind if they taught that trick to our own terriers, who are useless in the self-grooming department.

RELATED:

Reader photo of the day: Sprinkler + puppy + curiosity = wet puppy

— Lindsay Barnett

Video: seli27 via YouTube

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska is famous for wildlife: moose, bear, whales. Not capuchin monkeys and kinkajous.

And the Alaska Board of Game wants it to stay that way.

The board considers exotic pet requests every four years, and this year’s petitions covered everything from allowing Alaskans to own the "organ grinder" monkeys to adding exotic cats to the list of animals people can own without a permit.

At the end of a four-day meeting this week, the vote was in: capuchins out; some of the cats in.

Chimpanzees, previously allowed, are now out. Sloths, kinkajous, wallaroos and surgically de-venomized reptiles also need not apply. Ditto for domestic finches.

Game board Executive Director Kristy Tibbles said Thursday that the board increased the criteria for the "clean list" of approved animals from five to nine. Considerations now will include, among other things, whether the animals can be maintained in good health in private ownership.

Tibbles said people who already have chimpanzees in Alaska can keep them as long as they get them registered with the state.

The thumbs-down decision on capuchins came after the board heard from two veterinarians. Concerns that the monkeys — whether kept as pets or used to help quadriplegics with tasks of daily living — could spread disease to humans squashed that proposal, Tibbles said.

"I really think it was a wrong decision," said Christy Paquette of Juneau, who grew up with a capuchin and hoped to start a business helping the disabled. "I don’t think the health issue is even an issue."

The monkeys can be owned without permits in 17 states.

The board was presented with several proposals to allow Alaskans to own hybrid cats, breeds that were developed by crossing domestic and wild cats. The board approved the idea, provided a pedigree could show that the cat’s wild DNA was watered down and its wild ancestors were at least four generations removed.

The International Cat Assn., the largest registry of pedigreed cats, considers exotic hybrids to be domestic cats.

Michelle Schwoch of Buffalo, Minn., was one of six people behind Proposal 20 "to add hybrid cats to the list of animals that can be possessed in Alaska without a permit."

"They are such a neat breed of cat," said Schwoch, who breeds Savannah cats. "They will go for walks, and play fetch and love toys. Not only are they cool-looking but they are nice, sweet cats that really bond with their owners.

"To hear them called a wild animal is so not true," she said.

The exotic cat ownership issue might be getting more attention following the incident of Simon the Savannah cat in 2008, Tibbles said. The cat bolted out the door of his owner’s Anchorage home. When he was found months later and returned to owner Sharon Gratrix, she was told the cat was illegal in Alaska and would have to be sent away. Simon went to live with her daughter in Arizona.

Gratrix is not sure under the new rules whether Simon can return to Alaska given the board’s four-generation requirement.

The board should have just accepted the International Cat Assn.’s expertise on the matter and considered all hybrid cats domestic, she said.

— Associated Press

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

Top photo: A capuchin monkey looks for milk in an empty carton during a skit at a fundraising event. Credit: Los Angeles Times. Bottom photo: A two-toed sloth hangs in an exhibit at a New Jersey aquarium. Credit: Sabina Louise Pierce / Associated Press

BARRINGTON, R.I. — A Rhode Island man who says he couldn’t afford medical care for his dog has been charged with illegally operating on the pet.

Alan MacQuattie recently removed a cyst from the leg of his 14-year-old Labrador mix. The dog was operated on again by professionals to deal with an infection from the first surgery.

E.J. Finocchio, a veterinarian and president of the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, calls the surgery a "heinous crime."

Court records show MacQuattie pleaded no contest last week to misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty and unauthorized practice of veterinary medicine.

A phone listing for MacQuattie could not be found. But he told WPRI-TV, which first reported on the surgery, that he didn’t think there was anything cruel about what he had done.

— Associated Press

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

EDINBURGH, Scotland — Wildlife park employees in Scotland were celebrating Thursday the birth of a white rhinoceros — an event they would have missed without the tip of a webcam viewer.

Blair Drummond Safari Park north of Edinburgh was alerted to the impending birth by a phone call from the woman thousands of miles away in Cyprus who was watching the rhino enclosure on the Internet.

Keepers said the unidentified woman saw that Dorothy’s water had broken Dec. 21 after a 16-month gestation. The tip allowed staff to be there to witness the rare event.

"We don’t know who this woman was, but we are grateful to her. The webcam was like an extra pair of eyes," park manager Gary Gilmour said.

The female calf — called Ailsa after the park’s only female keeper — was introduced to the media Thursday weighing 330 pounds at the age of 5 weeks. She was expected to grow to about 3,520 pounds, like her mother.

Ailsa was one of eight southern white rhinoceros — which are actually gray — born in captivity in Europe last year. About 11,000 of the endangered animals roam across southern Africa, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The park set up the webcam because staff feared they would miss the birth, which for rhinos usually happen in the early morning. Staff have now installed a second outdoor webcam to allow viewers to watch Ailsa explore her new home.

— Associated Press

Keep track of all the animal news: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: Keeper Ailsa West with her rhino namesake on Feb. 4. Credit: Associated Press

What happens when you mix college students and elephants, throw in a lone turtle for good measure, and set them all loose on a racetrack? One thing’s for sure: Zaniness will ensue. Columnist Steve Harvey recounts the tale of Orange County’s long-defunct Elephant Racing Club. Although we hasten to say that we thoroughly disapprove of the idea of racing elephants — it’s just asking for trouble, are we right? — we thoroughly enjoyed reading Harvey’s column. Here’s an excerpt:

Just how an Elephant Racing Club materialized at Orange County State College, now Cal State Fullerton, in 1962 is a matter of debate.

One story credits a whimsical bureaucrat who drew up the application for forming clubs on campus. Next to the space marked "Name," he wrote "Elephant Racing Club" as a hypothetical example.

Another version credits the dean of students, who had taught in India.

He supposedly joked about a pachyderm competition when students were searching around for a spring-madness-type exercise.

Whatever the explanation, the Elephant Racing Club was formed, and challenges for a competition were sent to several schools.

Some cynics recall that the theory was that no one would respond, enabling Orange County State to declare itself the winner.

But the Coast Guard Academy signed up, mentioning that it had an elephant donated by Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka, for some good deed.

After several days of negotiations, though, the academy admitted that the elephant was nonexistent. The school’s football coach commented, "I’ve got some guys who move like elephants," but he didn’t want to enter any of them in the race.

THERE’S MORE; READ THE REST.

Photo: Remesh Mehra, on an elephant named Capt. Hook, displays a plaque from the race, which was held at a cornfield on the rural campus of what is now Cal State Fullerton. Credit: Cal State Fullerton

Climate change might be hurting some populations of the American pika, a relative of the rabbit, but not enough to warrant endangered species protection for the tiny mountain-dwelling animal, according to a decision released Thursday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service posted a copy of its decision on a federal website stating that while some pika populations in the West are declining, others are not, so it would not extend Endangered Species Act protections.

If they had been allowed, the pika would have been the first animal in the continental United States listed because of the effects of global warming.

Although potentially vulnerable to climate change in some parts of its range, pikas will have enough high-elevation habitat to survive, the agency said.

"We acknowledge there is going to be some decline at some locations, but the pika is widespread enough, across a range of habitat, that it appears it would not threaten the long-term survival and existence of the species," Larry Crist, supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Utah, said Thursday afternoon.

Greg Loarie, an Earthjustice attorney who worked on lawsuits pressing for protections for the pika, said science clearly points toward dramatic reductions in pika populations in the coming decades because of warming temperatures.

"To conclude this species is not threatened by climate change strikes me as an impossible gamble," Loarie said.

The pika lives mostly in high, rocky mountain slopes in 10 Western states.

The animals are well-suited for alpine conditions, but as temperatures warm they’re forced to move up-slope. In some places, scientists said the pika has run out of room to run and populations have disappeared. Even brief exposure to temperatures of 78 degrees or warmer can cause death.

A study in 2003 found six of 25 previously known pika populations in the Great Basin — which stretches across Nevada and into surrounding states — had disappeared, primarily because of the effects of warming temperatures. Since then, pikas have probably disappeared from more places in the basin, scientists said.

"This is a species which is a poster child of species that are targeted by global warming," said Stuart Pimm, a professor of conservation ecology at Duke University.

The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the government in 2007 to protect the pika.

Since then, the case has been closely watched by legal experts, not only for its near-term effects on the pika but also for long-term implications for other species.

"Climate change is changing everything. It’s changing the law, it’s pushing the courts to confront a problem that the legislative branch has yet to address," said Pat Parenteau, a professor at Vermont Law School who specializes in endangered species and climate change.

"But right now, in the absence of any meaningful controls on these sources of carbon dioxide, the Endangered Species Act is a potential tool."

The Bush administration listed the polar bear as a threatened species in 2008 because of the threats of global warming. Officials quickly completed regulations, though, to ensure the listing couldn’t be used to block projects that contribute to global warming. The Obama administration’s Interior secretary, Ken Salazar, has refused to rescind that rule, which is being challenged in court.

The pika lives in parts of California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

— Associated Press

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Photo: J. MacKenzie / Pikaworks

Two giant pandas born in American zoos were headed to China by special cargo jet Thursday to become part of a breeding program in their endangered species’ native land.

Three-year-old Mei Lan (pronounced MAY-lahn) of Zoo Atlanta and 4 1/2-year-old Tai Shan (TY-shawn) of the National Zoo in Washington were loaded into travel crates for their long flight to new homes in Sichuan.

Zookeepers fed Tai Shan apple and pear slices by hand through bars in his shipping crate before he left for Dulles International Airport early Thursday in a caravan escorted by U.S. Park Police. He munched calmly and looked out through clear plastic windows.

In Atlanta, Mei Lan could be seen pacing rapidly back and forth before her crate was lifted into the belly of a FedEx freighter for a flight to Washington, where she will join Tai Shan for the China trip aboard another Boeing 777 with a panda painted on the side.

It’s a day panda lovers have been dreading.

"He’s our success story," 37-year-old Deanna Williston said of Tai Shan. During a Wednesday visit to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, she recalled tracking his growth from the size of a stick of butter to nearly 200 pounds.

She knitted a panda hat based on Tai Shan’s picture and wears it for good luck when there might be another panda pregnancy.

Pandas have a long, symbolic history in Washington. The first panda couple, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, arrived in 1972 as a gift to the American people from China after President Nixon’s historic visit.

The pair lived more than 20 years at the zoo and produced five cubs — but none survived.

That’s partly why Tai Shan, the first cub to grow up in the nation’s capital, is so adored.

"All the other pandas we’ve borrowed from China, but he’s ours," said Amanda Parson, 30, of Beltsville, Md., who visited the zoo in the snow Wednesday with Williston for Tai Shan’s last day on view.

The zoo’s two remaining pandas, mother Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) and father Tian Tian (tee-YEN tee-YEN), are on a 10-year, $10-million loan until December. Veterinarians hope Mei Xiang may be pregnant after a recent artificial insemination.

Tai Shan gave his mother a few sniffs Wednesday through a fenced window between their separate yards.

Friday’s panda handover comes amid tense U.S.-China relations because of a recently announced U.S. arms sale to Taiwan and a potential meeting between President Obama and the Dalai Lama.

But pandas are goodwill ambassadors, said Robert A. Pastor, professor of international relations at American University. He said "warm and close relationships" can help counterbalance times of tension.

"So people-to-people or animal-to-animal exchanges are an essential dimension to the relationship," he said.

For animal keeper Nicole Meese, Tai Shan’s departure is personal. She first held him as a baby and spent late nights calling him when he learned to climb trees but wouldn’t come down.

"Every day, he makes me smile," said Meese, who will travel to China with the pandas aboard the FedEx jet. "I’m going to miss him terribly."

To help ease the transition from English to Chinese, Meese trained Tai Shan, whose name means "peaceful mountain," with hand signals. She spent weeks putting together a photo booklet of the signals for his new keepers in China.

Chinese zookeepers are advertising for a tutor to provide language lessons for Mei Lan to understand her handlers.

The female panda, whose name means "Atlanta beauty," was the first cub born at Zoo Atlanta. Her arrival in 2006 brought thousands more visitors to the zoo and millions of clicks to an online panda cam.

Since then, her parents, Lun Lun (LOON LOON) and Yang Yang (YAHNG YAHNG), had another cub — Xi Lan (SHE LAHN) — a male born in 2008.

— Associated Press

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First photo: Tai Shan is loaded aboard the "FedEx Panda Express" to leave the National Zoo for China. Credit: Jacquelyn Martin / AFP/Getty Images

Second photo: Amanda Parson, left, and Deanna Williston wear homemade knit hats resembling pandas while saying goodbye to Tai Shan at the National Zoo. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Third photo: Tai Shan reaches for a bamboo branch at the National Zoo. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Fourth photo: Tai Shan eats bamboo in his enclosure. Credit: Tim Sloan / AFP/Getty Images

If you were impressed by the keyboard-stepping antics of Nora the Piano Cat and Beamin the beagle, you’re sure to love Elissa, a piano-playing rabbit who lives with YouTube user stclairtr.

Elissa is a Flemish giant, a breed of domestic rabbit known — you guessed it — for its large size. Beyond their heft, however, Flemish giants are also considered an especially docile breed that tends to get along well with people.

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— Lindsay Barnett

Video: stclairtr via YouTube