Ay, Chihuahua! What's L.A. most popular dog?

There are 59,684 registered Chihuahuas in L.A. County, followed by 58,071 Labradors. This makes the little dogs the county's most popular breed. Well, at least among those who bother to register their dogs.

This bit of trivia comes from "L.A.'s Top Dogs," a new database compiled by The Times. The slightly addictive database lists popular breeds, provides maps showing where certain dogs reside and even lists popular names. Click on "Princess," for example, and you'll discover that's the name of 1,262 Chihuahuas. And to show Angelenos have a sense of humor, it's also the name of 206 Rottweilers.

One click takes you to Carla Hall's report on the dogs of L.A.

Photo credit: Julie Jacobson/Associated Press

A guide for O.C. pet owners ... and Tyson's 'life lessons'

The August issue of Orange Coast magazine includes a 2008 Pet Guide, with listings for "pet food and specialty treats for the family drooler," shopping possibilities, obedience classes and, naturally, spa services. (Our favorite name for an emporium that caters to pets is "The Spaw," which "juggles doggie day-care and nutrition services in addition to its full-service grooming salon.")

But the star (and cover boy) of the August issue is Tyson, the "world famous" skateboarding English bulldog. Tyson lists his hometown as Huntington Beach and, naturally, he has his own website and "hundreds of unofficial video clips and photos." We caught his act on "Oprah" once and, yes, he really does ride a skateboard in style.

The Orange Coast article includes "Eight Life Lessons," among them, "Fame is Fleeting." (There are other skateboarding dogs now, but Tyson seems to be taking it all in stride.) Perhaps he can take comfort in kicking back, turning on the DVD player and  watching himself in the movies "Lords of Dogtown" and "Undiscovered." The roles were small ... but unforgettable ... at least if you're Tyson.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the August issue is that Tyson somehow triumphed as cover subject while Oscar winner Kevin Costner was relegated to page 86.

-- Alice Short

Did scientists really find dinosaur soft tissue?

Scientsits were thrilled -- as were dino-lovers all over -- when researchers announced three years ago that they had found what appeared to be soft tissue inside a fossil bone from a Tyrannosaurus rex. The researchers, working in Montana, had been forced to break a femur into chunks small enough to be transported by helicopter.

But now another group of scientists suggests that the rubbery material found inside the bone is really 70-million-year-old slime made up of bacterial colonies. As often happens with science, opinion is divided on the matter. The Times' Wendy Hansen has all the details on the T. rex femur.

Photo: Chris Gardner / Associated Press

Golden retriever adopts tiger cubs

A golden retriever in the Midwest may just win the best-mother-of-the-year award. The Associated Press reports:

CANEY, Kan.  — A dog at a southeast Kansas zoo has adopted three tiger cubs abandoned by their mother. Safari Zoological Park owner Tom Harvey said the tiger cubs were born Sunday, but the mother had problems with them.

A day later, the mother stopped caring for them. Harvey said the cubs were wandering around, trying to find their birth mother, who wouldn't pay attention to them. That's when the cubs were put in the care of a golden retriever, Harvey said.

Harvey said it's unusual for dogs to care for tiger cubs, but it does happen. He said he has seen reports of pigs nursing cubs in China, and he actually got the golden retriever after his wife saw television accounts of dogs caring for tiger cubs.

Puppies take about the same amount of time as tiger cubs to develop, and Harvey said the adoptive mother just recently weaned her own puppies.

"The timing couldn't have been any better," he said.

The mother doesn't know the difference, Harvey said. He said the adopted mother licks, cleans and feeds the cubs.

The Safari Zoological Park is a licensed facility open since 1989 and specializes in endangered species.

Photo credit: Rob Morgan / Associated Press

Bob Barker lobbies for a spay/neuter law in Chicago

From the Chicago Tribune:

Former game show host Bob Barker wants the Chicago City Council to support a cause he famously ended "The Price of Right" with for decades: getting pets spayed and neutered.

Chicago is considering a proposal to require all dogs and cats to be spayed or neutered by the time they're 6 months old.

Barker told the council Tuesday the measure would reduce the number of unwanted pets. He says a similar law in Santa Cruz County, California, caused a 60 percent drop in cats and dogs placed in shelters in the following decade.

Those against the proposal say animal owners should decide whether to get their pets fixed.

You talkin' to me?

A king vulture looks crossed-eyed at the camera at the Berlin Zoo. King vultures, brightly colored scavengers known (not surprisingly) for their piercing eyes, are mainly found in Central and South America. That impressive yellow mass of flesh crowning this one's beak is called a caruncle.

Photo: Franka Bruns/Associated Press

San Francisco Zoo mourns death of a giraffe

The San Francisco Chronicle reports on the death of Gezi, a 9-year-old mother giraffe:

A previously undiagnosed disease is the likely cause of a 9-year-old giraffe's death Tuesday at the San Francisco Zoo, officials said.

Gezi, who had given birth to a male calf in February, collapsed at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, suffering from cardiac and respiratory arrest. A necropsy is scheduled for this afternoon, and its preliminary results on what led to the animal's death will be released today, according to a statement from zoo leaders.

Giraffes typically live between 15 and 20 years in the wild and several years longer in captivity. At 9, Gezi was considered a mature, "middle-aged" animal....

In addition to Barbro, the calf born Feb. 25, Gezi gave birth to Terrance in 2006. Barbro remains at the San Francisco Zoo, while Terrance (pictured at left with his mother) was given to a facility in Illinois.

The death is sure to lead to criticism from local animal welfare activists, who for years have charged that the zoo is more interested in making money and pleasing visitors than taking care of animals.

Photo: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press

Yes, it's a 44-pound cat

Meet Princess Chunk, a 44-pound cat, who is just two pounds shy of the 1987 Guinness World Record for overweight cats.

South Jersey, to be sure, has seen its fair share of the indictable variety, but never before has it seen the likes of the portly pussycat found waddling in Voorhees.

News reports, including one in the Philadelphia Inquirer, state that the Camden County Animal Shelter is trying to find the feline's owner ... and trying to develop an exercise routine for its suddenly famous resident.

"She's bigger than my Yorkie dog," said shelter volunteer and "foster mom" Deborah Wright.

According to the Inquirer report:

Dennis Green, a librarian at the central branch of the Philadelphia Free Library, researched records on the fattest cat in the world. Green said the record was held by 46 pound, 15 1/4 ounce Himmy of Australia who was entered into the 1987 Guinness Book of World Records, the last year the organization had the weight category for cats. Himmy died of respiratory failure.

Photo: John Costello / McClatchy-Tribune

Rachael Ray launches line of dog foods

Apparently, the world of cooking for people is not enough for Rachael Ray. Now she's targeting animals as well. J.M. Hirsch, the Associated Press food editor, reports:

In the latest expansion of her culinary empire, celebrity chef Rachael Ray has launched a charity-driven line of dog foods based on recipes she has created for her pit bull, Isaboo.

Ray, who came to fame with her “30 Minute Meals” Food Network show, said all of her proceeds from sales of Rachael Ray Nutrish pet foods will go to Rachael's Rescue, which she founded to help at-risk animals. The outspoken dog lover regularly features recipes for pet food in her magazine, Every Day With Rachael Ray.

“It seemed like not a lot of extra time to donate to something that could potentially raise millions of dollars for championing these little creatures that can’t speak for themselves,” Ray said. A line for cats also is planned.

Ray’s pet charity group recently selected its first beneficiary, a terrier mix named Spirit that made national news earlier this month after a man was caught on videotape savagely beating it at the U.S.-Mexico border. The dog suffered multiple fractures. Rachael’s Rescue has offered to cover all medical costs for the dog’s recovery.

Photo: PR Newswire

Traveling with pets -- what to pack, what to do

It's vacation season so it's a good time to revisit a handy story from The Times' Travel section: "Traveling with pets: how to prepare and what to pack."

Along with some whimsical illustrations, the user-friendly package addresses a number of questions, such as "What should be in your pet's suitcase?" and "Will a sedative make it easier on my pet?" (Forget the pet, what about me?)

Then there's the question many of us have asked: "How can I prepare my dog or cat for a long car trip?" The answer: "Make sure you give the animal plenty of small trips before going on your vacation. That will acclimate the animal and make it less jittery. You want your pet to see the car as a fun, safe place." Wish we'd thought of that.

Other nifty tips can be found in "Flying with Fluffy and Fido: airlines' pet policies."

-- Steve Padilla

Illustration: Marc Boutavant / For The Los Angeles Times

English police search for stolen shark

From England comes a caper worthy of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Missing Shark. The Associated Press tells the tale:

LONDON — British police were searching for a shark stolen from an aquatics shop over the weekend in southern England.

The female Australian marbled cat shark was one of a breeding pair kept in a converted garage in the back of a store owned by Peter Newman in Farnborough, about 20 miles west of London’s Heathrow Airport, police said Tuesday.

The shark, two feet long and mottled brown, is rare in Britain, police said. Newman, 68, said he realized the shark was missing Saturday morning when he found the door to the converted garage ajar and the lights on inside.

“I’m just very angry really,” he told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “Whoever came in there clearly knew what they were after. They probably would have taken the pair, but the male’s a bit harder to catch really.”

The two sharks have produced seven pups, which are kept in an adjacent tank, Newman said. None of them were taken in the theft. His wife, June Newman, said the pair might together be worth as much as $20,000 because of their rarity.

She said her husband might have left a door unlocked. She also said she was puzzled by the theft, explaining that it would have been difficult to snatch the shark because the top of the tank was around five feet off the ground. “It’s mind-boggling to me as to how this shark has been taken,” she said.

Earthquakes and animals

Across Southern California, the 5.4 earthquake rattled furry nerves and ruffled feathers--literally.

"My birds felt it first," reported one reader. "They were all fluffy and upset a few seconds before it happened."

In Chino Hills, the epicenter of the quake, Alissa Sissung's 10-year-old daughter, Delaney, was spending the day at a horse camp not far from her home. Just before the ground began to quiver, her daughter watched the horses and dogs stir nervously, Sissung told Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske.

Another reader e-mailed: "I was feeding my horse when all of a sudden, he took off running. Seconds later is when the earthquake hit."

And word filtered in to us from Garden Grove about a greyhound at a rescue shelter who  rarely gets up, but who suddenly stood up and looked around, to the surprise of the humans there. Then the earthquake hit.

Whether they really could sense the earthquake a'coming--as fabled--or were as jolted into surprise as their people, the area's animals seem to have withstood the temblor as well as humans did.

Although, like people, they did their share of freaking out. "My cats went running through the room scared to death," Michael Gelfond, an attorney working out of his Beverlywood home office, told Times reporter Tami Abdollah.

Elizabeth Gonzales suffered one of the day's few quake-related injuries--a dog bite. The veterinarian was examining a mixed-breed terrier when the walls of Chino Hills Small Animal Hospital began to rattle. The frightened dog promptly sunk its teeth into Gonzales' hand.

"They are pretty deep punctures," Gozales told L.A. Times reporter Paul Pringle. But "he's always been a good doggie."

Gonzales says that reaction is not unusual. Dogs, cats, and other animals often become terrified when the ground moves. "They don't know what's going on," she said. "They don't feel secure in their surroundings." Gonzales advises keeping dogs and cats away from windows during and immediately after a quake, lest they jump out in panic. "Their first instinct is, 'Where can I go hide?'"

The Los Angeles county shelter system reported that all its animals and buildings weathered the quake just fine.  Same report from the Los Angeles city shelters. "No damage," said L.A. Animal Services general manager Ed Boks.  "And, no, the animals did not give us any warning of the earthquake--like they're supposed to," he deadpanned.

Even in Pomona, just seven miles from the epicenter, the Inland Valley Humane Society survived undamaged, and the animals were well, according to Jim Edward, operations manager of the shelter. "You hear so many stories about how they're intuitive and seem to know it's coming,"  Edward said. "No. It was just another day for them. Maybe it's the soft music we play in the kennels."

--Carla Hall

Judge dismisses lawsuit filed over Frontier Days

From the Associated Press: CHEYENNE, Wyo. - A federal judge in Wyoming has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the booking company for Cheyenne Frontier Days against an animal rights group.

U.S. District Judge William Downes ruled Tuesday that the lawsuit by Omaha, Neb.-based Romeo Entertainment Group was not filed in the correct state.

Romeo Entertainment filed the lawsuit after the rock band Matchbox Twenty pulled out of a scheduled performance at this year's Frontier Days.

The suit names Illinois-based SHARK, which stands for Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, and its president Steve Hindi.

The lawsuit contends the group and Hindi used "false and misleading information" and "threats of negative publicity" to persuade Matchbox Twenty and singer Carrie Underwood to cancel performances at the Cheyenne rodeo.

The entertainers are not being sued in the lawsuit.

Romeo Entertainment lawyers say they're considering their next move.

Did your pet feel the earthquake?

Did your cat get anxious before the ground began to shake? (The kitten above expressed distress after China's recent earthquake.) Did your dog try to hustle you to safety? Share your animal stories with other readers of L.A. Unleashed in the comments section below.

Photo: Associated Press

PETA to Obama: wanting a purebred dog is elitist

It's no big secret that Barack and Michelle Obama have promised their daughters a dog once the presidential campaign is over. But with the family reportedly considering a hypoallergenic goldendoodle (Lizzie, at left, is one), animal groups have been offering loads of advice on what breeds they should buy--or adopt--instead.

The American Kennel Club has asked  Americans to vote on list of five "hypoallergenic" breeds, and the Best Friends Animal Society wants the Obamas to adopt that dog from an animal shelter, saying that to buy an animal from a breeder would be unethical while millions of animals face euthanasia in animal shelters.

The latest to weigh in is Ingrid E. Newkirk, President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who wrote a letter to the Obamas today, urging them to adopt a mutt and saying, "This country is proud to be a melting pot, and there is something deeply wrong and elitist about wanting only a purebred dog."

"Millions of Great American Mutts—the dog that should be our national dog—are set to die in our nation’s extremely overcrowded pounds and shelters for lack of good homes," she wrote. "Compassionate people nationwide are choosing to adopt a homeless pound puppy—a grateful refugee from a society that has not always treated the true 'underdog' kindly—rather than cater to special interests who do not have dogs’ interests at heart."

So it looks like PETA is trying to appeal to Obama's pledge to keep special interests--in this case, dog breeders--out of politics. Which is interesting, considering PETA is a special interest itself. We'll probably have to wait until after the election to find out if the group's tactic worked.

The full letter after the jump....

--Tony Barboza

Puppy kills 2-month-old boy

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Police say a puppy has attacked and killed a 2-month-old boy who was left unattended in a swing.

Officer Jason Willingham said Monday the baby was mauled by the Labrador at the boy's home and died at the scene. He says the dog will most likely be destroyed.

Authorities have not yet released the infant's name. Willingham says the baby's mother and grandmother were home, but nobody was in the room at the time.

Police are unsure why the dog attacked.

The child's body was taken to the Medical Examiner's office. Willingham says police will forward their investigation to the district attorney to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Sea otter fund makes it by a whisker

From The Times' new blog on environmental issues, Greenspace, comes this report from Kenneth R. Weiss (who also took the adorable photo):

It's not every day that people want to pay more taxes. But the tug on the heartstrings appears to be opening purse strings -- at least for another year.

California taxpayers have voluntarily donated $253,350 so far this year by checking a box on their income tax returns and making donations. The amount is important to proponents because it assures that the donation box will appear again on next year's state income tax returns, funneling more money to the California Sea Otter Fund.

The fund was established in 2006 by a pair of state lawmakers who wanted scientists to have more money to try to save the southern sea otter that has struggled for survival since it was hunted nearly to extinction by 19th century fur trappers. But the donations must keep flowing, at a rate of a quarter of a million dollars a year, for the fund to stay in operation.

"The generosity of Californians during tough economic times shows that support for our environment and emblematic animals like the sea otter runs deep in our state," said Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento).

He and John Laird, a Democratic assemblyman from Santa Cruz, fashioned the law to split the money between the state Coastal Conservancy and the California Department of Fish and Game for various research projects including those focused on diseases that kill otters and law enforcement actions against fishermen who shoot them.

Six-legged deer and Santeria: your afternoon animal news roundup

• A six-legged deer found in northern Georgia has found a home with a woman permitted to keep unique animals in captivity.
• Police officials in Miami-Dade County, Fla., said their new handbook will include a reminder to respect people's freedom to practice religion when responding to calls about ritual animal sacrifice. The decision comes a year after police in Coral Gables raided and detained people at a home where Santeria practitioners were slaughtering goats, chickens and pigeons.
• Animal services officers in the Northern California town of Boulder Creek confiscated 38 dogs and puppies from a home over the weekend after finding "more dead dogs than we could count" and dog heads hanging from trees.
• An animal activist was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for making bomb threats to disrupt animal testing at UC San Diego.
• And celebrity chef Rachael Ray has started a line of dog food based on recipes she concocted for her pit bull.

-- Tony Barboza

Photo: Associated Press

San Gabriel River becomes a deathbed for ducks

The deaths of at least 50 ducklings in the San Gabriel River that occurred because regulating the waterflow sometimes dries up the waterway, have raised questions about how to protect nature in an urban water system. The Times' Louis Sahagun reports:

What had been for the last six months a vibrant stream teeming with migrating waterfowls and shorebirds early last week became a dry San Gabriel River channel where vultures gorged themselves on ducklings that died when the flows dried up.

The discovery prompted calls for an investigation into the deaths of at least 20 cinnamon teal ducklings, 10 mallard ducklings and 20 adult mallards that had sought refuge in a shrinking pool of water in a concrete basin just south of Valley Boulevard in the city of Industry.

Civil engineers for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works -- Adam Walden, above right, and Sterling Klippel -- "expressed regret that the birds died but pointed out that their mission is to maintain a complex water system for millions of people county-wide, not to protect ducklings."

-- Tony Barboza

Photo: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

A few words about pit bulls

Few creatures in the animal kingdom seem to generate as much heated comment as pit bulls, but L.A. Unleashed would like to remind readers (and the staff of L.A. Unleashed) that the so-called bully breed has many, many, many defenders. Two cases in point:

Last week, the Orange County Register reported that an owner advocacy group was furious about a Verizon Wireless TV commercial "in which two American pit bull terriers –- commonly known as pit –- bulls are portrayed as vicious guard dogs." The group calls itself ROVERlution.

The 30-second commercial has a young man climbing over a chain-link fence into a junkyard, attempting to obtain the Verizon LG Dare phone. He awakens two pit bulls, which are tied down with metal choke collars.

The dogs bark ferociously and lunge at the intruder. The dogs get within inches of the man before being yanked to a halt because the chains don't extend far enough.

A Verizon statement says the commercial with the dogs "is no longer on the schedule."

In the meantime, the newest issue of "Bark," which bills itself as "the modern dog culture magazine," takes a thoughtful look at an organization called BAD  RAP, Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls. Last year, the magazine reports, founders Donna Reynolds and Tim Racer were "among the nine experts asked by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to help evaluate 49 of the dogs seized from Michael Vick's Bad Newz kennels and held in Virginia-area shelters."

Yes, we know that if you sign up for a "Google alert" on "animal attacks," many of the headlines involve pit bulls, but it's tough to read the article in Bark and dismiss the notion of redemption. "The personal stories of dogs -- dogs redeemed from dreadful captivity, with no interest in fighting, joyously learning to be with people -- have touched many hearts."

-- Alice Short

Photo: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

L.A. Zoo reopens after wildfire threat

The L.A. Zoo reopened this morning after firefighters knocked down a 25-acre blaze that briefly threatened the zoo and one of its California Condor breeding facilities, the Times's Stuart Pfeifer reports.

After the blaze broke out near the zoo Sunday afternoon, officials evacuated 4,000 visitors and relocated 18 California Condors and two king vultures from a breeding facility that was close to the fire.

--Tony Barboza

O.C. Zoo is a haven for all creatures broken, lost

The Orange County Zoo is not your usual menagerie of lions, tigers and bears. Times staff writer Tony Barboza reports:

There are no majestic animals from the African savanna, no awe-inspiring creatures from Arctic reaches. Rather, here on this 5-acre wooded spread at the base of the Santa Ana Mountains are 60 mostly hard-luck animals who have had run-ins, bad breaks and unfortunate entanglements with humankind.

Visitors to the hard-to-find zoo in Irvine Regional Park in Orange encounter a hobbling bald eagle (below), a lopsided vulture, a porcupine (at right), four-horned sheep, a raccoon that was the runt of his litter and a potbellied pig that outlived its owner, who died of cancer.

Specializing in animals native to the Southwest and accepting only those that cannot be released into the wild have made the Orange County Zoo a repository for creatures with unusual, harrowing stories, many rooted in California's landscape. And what this ragtag group lacks in exoticism it makes up for in traumatic tales of near death and abandonment.

Its wildcats (that's a bobcat above), birds, reptiles and rodents have been shot, hit by cars, forcibly removed from lakes, had altercations with power lines and been illegally harbored by families.

The aim of keeping them all together is to teach people about the animals they're likely to encounter in the hills, canyons and backyards of Southern California, said zoo manager Donald Zeigler.

Photo credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

 

The Heidi Chronicles, Part 2: A rescue yields a feminist hero

This is Heidi. Earlier this year, she was “discovered” in the park by a pet talent agency; since then, she has embarked on a one-dog quest to break into the business. This is her Hollywood story as chronicled by Times staff writer Diane Haithman. And this is her “head shot”: photo attached. The longing look was achieved by placing a biscuit just out of reach.

Once Heidi had been “discovered,” it still took me awhile to make an appointment at the animal talent agency. I had to believe I was not setting the dog up for a life of heartbreak, crying into her water bowl about the role that got away. It was time to realistically assess Heidi’s potential.

Her tearjerker bio was definitely worthy of a Hollywood press release: Heidi was found in a storm drain in Houston, Texas, with her litter of puppies. She was less than a year old — and, by the look of the puppies, apparently knocked up by the first black Labrador who came along.

By the time this young, unwed mother was rescued, three of her six puppies had died and mom and the remaining pups were little more than fur, bones and fleas. The pups required blood transfusions. In June 2003, my husband and I traveled to Texas to adopt Heidi, who now has 250 frequent flier miles on Continental Airlines.

Wildfire prompts evacuation of L.A. Zoo's California Condors

A hillside brush fire that broke out this afternoon in Griffith Park prompted an evacuation of the Los Angeles Zoo and came dangerously close to a California Condor breeding center.

The 15-acre blaze, which firefighters squelched in three hours, did not burn onto zoo property. But as a precaution, zoo officials evacuated more than 4,000 visitors at 1:05 p.m.,  said L.A. Zoo Spokesman Jason Jacobs.

Also evacuated were 18 California Condors and two King Vultures. Workers put the birds in crates and relocated them to an area of the zoo more distant from the fire.

The Condors West breeding center, one of two on zoo property, was of particular concern because it is in a secluded area that was closest to the wildfire, Jacobs said.

“Because of the heat, the smoke and the uncertainty of the fire, the decision was made to evacuate,” he said.

California Condors, known for their large wingspan, longevity, and population decline due to lead poisoning and habitat destruction, have been reintroduced to the wild largely through captive breeding programs like the one at the L.A. Zoo.

--Tony Barboza

Photo: Los Angeles Zoo

Beware of the "lost dog scam"

We've heard of some amazing scams before, but Times staff Writer David Colker introduces us to a new one today.

The pitch: "I found your lost dog!"

The scam: A phone call from someone who reports finding a beloved pooch is usually cause for celebration. But Western Union warns that it could be a cruel scam. The company has received reports from owners of lost dogs who say they've been called by people identifying themselves as truckers. The dog, a supposed trucker says, was found along a highway.

How it works: The driver says there was no time to get the dog home because of a tight delivery schedule. Now the truck is across the country, but the trucker offers to put the dog on a flight. All you have to do is wire money for the fare. Or sometimes the trucker will also say the dog was injured, and request additional money to cover vet bills.

The outcome: You show up at the airport to meet the flight, but your dog doesn't arrive. The con artist had gotten your number off a "lost dog" poster or advertisement and never had the pet at all. The nearly surefire way to tell this was a scam was that the money had to be wired -- that makes it easy for the fraudster to pick it up and hard for you to trace it.

Advice: Western Union suggests that anyone who is phoned long distance by a person claiming to have found a lost pet ask questions about the animal that are outside the scope of what was on a poster or in an ad. In any case, always be wary if a stranger requests funds be sent by wire.

Info: Full text of the company’s warning is at www.westernunion.

Woman surives shark attack in Hawaii

A woman on the Hawaiian island of Oahu has survived a shark attack. She was injured while snorkeling on the western side of the island. The Honolulu Advertiser has a report:

Roger Debebar and Anthony Chapman don't claim they did anything heroic yesterday when an injured and bleeding woman approached them around 8:40 a.m. near the edge of the beach at the Hawaiian Princess condominiums and spoke three words:

"Help, please," said the woman, who had been snorkeling moments earlier. "Shark."

But Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city's emergency service department, said the two men's quick actions may have made all the difference in the state's first shark attack of the year....

"Chapman, 49, said the woman was "bleeding bad and she had a chunk taken out of her arm."

Ten minutes after the woman was injured, a lifeguard on a Yamaha Waverunner and officers in the Honolulu Police Department's helicopter spotted what appeared to be "a very large shark, approximately 16 feet in length," Cheplic said....

The animal spotted was a tiger shark.

Ugly....but yearning for companionship

It's not exactly Tony serenading Maria in "West Side Story," but for all their homeliness toadfish also sing to attract mates. Randolph E. Schmid of the Associated Press reports:

OK, singing may be a stretch; it's more of a hum. But it turns out to be useful, for science as well as the fish (that's a toadfish at right). Exploring how their nervous system produces sounds is allowing scientists to trace the earliest developments of vocalization in other animals, including people.

Many animals communicate vocally -- birds chirp, frogs thrum, whales whistle -- and comparing the nerve networks in a variety of vertebrates suggests that making sounds originated in ancient fishes, researchers report in a recent edition of the journal Science.

The sounds of whales and dolphins are well known, but most people don't realize fish also make sounds, lead researcher Andrew H. Bass of Cornell University said in a telephone interview. He's a professor of neurobiology and behavior.

Photo: Associated Press/Cornell University/Science, Margaret A. Marchaterre

California farm animal rights law would require room to roam

VACAVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Kim Sturla began bringing goats, pigs, chickens and cows once slated for slaughter to the Animal Place sanctuary 20 years ago, before supermarkets offered eggs from cage-free hens and beef was advertised on menus as being hormone free.

Two decades later, the treatment of farm animals is a national issue being debated in state legislatures and put before voters who want to have a say in how their food is raised. Footage circulated on the Internet of sick farm animals being kicked and beaten has intensified calls for reform.

“People want conditions to change,” said Sturla, who co-founded the Animal Place sanctuary for abused and discarded farm animals in 1989. “On this issue, you don’t have to give propaganda. In fact, you have to downplay the conditions or people will shut down. They’ll think you’re embellishing.”

This fall, California voters will consider  the most comprehensive farm animal rights law in the country , a measure that would ban cramped metal cages for egg-laying hens, metal gestation crates for pregnant sows and veal crates for lambs — standard industry practices in which the animals are kept so confined that they can barely move.

The initiative follows more limited measures recently passed in several other states ...

Photo: Farm Sanctuary

Birds of prey declining, leaving empty nests behind

Raptors in Orange County and other parts of Southern California are declining in numbers, having difficulty hatching chicks and leaving long-inhabited nest sites abandoned, probably because of environmental pressures, the Orange County Register reports:

[Experts] say raptors in Orange and San Diego counties, and perhaps across Southern California, appear to be suffering a variety of harmful environmental changes that are happening all at once: reductions in available prey, drought, West Nile virus and continuing loss of habitat because of expanding human presence and large, destructive wildfires.

The Register talked to several raptor experts at bird sanctuaries and rehabilitation centers who said there has been a decline in adult birds of prey and occupied nests in recent years. The hardest hit species include red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks, kestrels, barn owls (shown above) and white-tailed kites, they said.

The experts also noted that more of the raptors they take in these days, rather than having visible injuries, are are simply weak or starving, signs of general "debilitation" that point to a serious scarcity of prey and habitat.

-- Tony Barboza

Photo: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Stray dogs along the Blue Line

Because of high gasoline prices, many Angelenos have abandoned their cars and have embraced public transportation. One such commuter, the Times' Lauren Williams,  has some observations on stray dogs along the Blue Line.

As I later learned, loose dogs are a pretty common sight on the Blue Line, especially between the Florence stop (just past the intersection with the Green Line) and the Del Amo station. Regular riders probably see half a dozen dogs walking the streets each week.

Some have collars, although they often don’t, and usually the dogs look happy to be free, trotting down the street. In such cases I assume another Good Samaritan will stop and call the owner or a shelter and the dog will be back to regular meals and clean water in no time.

Such was not the case last week, when, riding the Blue Line, I saw a dog curled into a ball lying dangerously close to the tracks beyond the metal gate that, to humans, distinguishes between the safe side of the sidewalk and the all-too-close side, near the Metro’s tracks

Read her full report on the the Times' Bottleneck Blog.

Taking mothering to a new level

A dog feeds two Siberian tiger cubs and her own puppy at a zoo in Hefei, China. The mother of the cubs was not able to feed them after giving birth, China Daily reported.

Photo: Reuters/China Daily

Starving Kamchatka brown bears eat two men, leave Russians in fear

Hundreds of terrified workers at an isolated mining compound in Russia are refusing to return to work after a pack of hungry bears killed and ate two guards.

A pack of up to 30 Kamchatka brown bears has been prowling the area around two mines in Russia's Pacific Kamchatka region, searching for food. Now, a team of snipers is being dispatched to hunt the bears after receiving authorization from the government.

"These predators have to be destroyed," Village leader Viktor Leushkin told the ITAR-Tass news agency. "Once they kill a human, they will do it again and again."

But experts told the (London) Times that a "mass slaugher is unnecessary" and that they could instead focus on the few bears that killed the workers and try to frighten the rest of the group back to forest areas.

Kamchatka brown bears, similar to grizzlies, can stand 10 feet tall on their hind legs and weigh up to 1,500 pounds. Bears are revered and honored in Russian culture -- the equivalent of bald eagles in the United States -- an irony that has made the attacks even more disturbing.

The bears usually feed on salmon, but environmentalists say widespread fish poaching in the scarcely populated region, home to 16,000 bears, has forced them closer to human settlements to root through garbage and, at times, attack humans.

--Tony Barboza

Photo: Vitaly Nikolayenko/For The Times

When a pit bull attacks, a boy bites back

An 11-year-old boy is in the limelight in Brazil after biting a pit bull that attacked him while he was playing, Reuters reports:

Gabriel Almeida, who lives on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais, broke a canine tooth when he bit into the dog's neck to fend off an attack. Since then, he has been pampered in the studios of several TV stations, where he has been recounting his ordeal.

"I grabbed him by the neck and bit," he told O Globo newspaper. "It's no big deal. It's better to lose a tooth than to lose your life."

He was freed when bystanders pulled the dog off him and needed four stitches in his arm.

A Sao Paolo newspaper said the dog "was taken to a pound and may be sacrificed."

--Tony Barboza

Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus' new hobby: eagle naming

Here's an an animal story with a Hollywood and a Nashville connection. Two American bald eagles named by "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus and her country singer father, Billy Ray Cyrus, are being released into the wild today in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., the home of Dolly Parton's Dollywood theme park.

The Associated Press says the eagles were named Tennessee (after the Cyrus' home state) and Hope (Miley's given middle name before she had it legally changed this year).

The American Eagle Foundation, which hatched the now 14-week-old eagles this spring, has released more than 90 eagles from Dollywood since the 1990s.

But get this: The two celebrities aren't even going to be on hand to see them released. Unleashed is also wondering how useful those names will be now that they'll be in the wild.

--Tony Barboza

Photos: American Eagle Foundation; Chris Pizzello/Associated Press

Another chance for wildlife near Mono Lake

Times staff writer Louis Sahagun returns to the Mono Lake area and discovers that wildlife is on the rebound in Rush Creek, a major tributary and "the focus of an agonizingly complex and decades-long effort to heal a vast wilderness devastated by Los Angeles' insatiable thirst."

Now, 14 years after the city was ordered to reduce the quantity of tributary water it had been diverting into the Los Angeles aqueduct since 1941, Rush Creek has among the highest concentrations of yellow warblers in California -- roughly three pairs per 2 1/2 acres.

"Restrict grazing and bring back the water and things really start hopping," said field biologist Chris McCreedy.

That's the good news. Orchestrating the restoration continues to be a challenging process for the Mono Lake Committee, a nonprofit group of environmentalists and concerned citizens organized in 1978 to save and protect a bowl-shaped ecosystem roughly half the size of Rhode Island.

Nonetheless, Geoffrey McQuilkin, executive director of the 16,000-member group, said he is often asked, "Why is the Mono Lake Committee still around? You got the water you needed years ago. Isn't Mono Lake saved?" His stock response: "We still have a long way to go."

Photo: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times