WebClawer: Original Labradoodle breeder regrets his role in 'designer dog' craze; gray whale spotted in Israel; animal rights advocates decry mouse pain study

-- The man who bred a poodle with a Labrador retriever and called the resulting puppies Labradoodles now says he regrets his role in starting today's "designer dog" craze that includes Labradoodles, goldendoodles, puggles, Cavachons and other often highly-priced hybrids. Wally Conran, now 81, bred his first Labradoodle litter in 1988, when he was employed as the manager of the Royal Institute of the Blind's puppy program. When a client expressed a desire for a leader dog but was concerned about aggravating her husband's dog allergy, Conran decided to breed puppies that retained many of the behavioral traits of a Labrador but had the shed-free coat of a poodle. The rest, of course, is history. "But now when people ask me, 'Did you breed the first one?' I have to say, 'Yes, I did, but it's not something I'm proud of,' " Conran said. "I wish I could turn the clock back." Many members of the pet-rescue community share that sentiment. (The Australian)

-- A gray whale that has recently been spotted off the coast of Israel is a long way from home, and its presence there "has been described as one of the most important whale sightings ever," according to Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center chairman Dr. Aviad Scheinin. Gray whales once occupied the region, but the population there is believed to have died out centuries ago. Scheinin suspects the whale -- a 39-foot, 20-ton adult -- probably ended up in Israeli waters through the Northwest Passage. "The question now is: are we going to see the re-colonization of the Atlantic? This is very important ecologically because of the change of habitat," Scheinin said. "It emphasizes the climate change that we are going through." Although it ended up off course, the whale seems to be none the worse for wear. (Telegraph)

WebClawer: Runaway emu captured in S.C.; three-legged dog elected mayor of Colorado town; Katherine Heigl offers reward for animal abuse information

-- A posse of concerned Rock Hill, S.C., citizens and police managed to capture a 6-foot-tall emu that ran wild through city streets after an hours-long chase Tuesday morning. The emu dodged would-be captors with makeshift lassos and even a dog that tried to bite it as it ran past before finally being caught in a net wielded by 70-year-old Rock Hill resident Bobby Mangrum. It's unclear who owns the bird, which was unhurt in the incident. After its capture, it was brought to Mangrum's farm, where he keeps two emus of his own; it'll remain there until its owner can be found. When asked how he would fill out a police report about the incident, lieutenant Joe Johnson quipped, "I am not sure yet, as far as I know the emu broke no laws ... He did run from the police." (Rock Hill Herald)

-- The small town of Divide, Colo., didn't have a mayor, so locals decided to fill that void while helping animals at the same time by hosting a mayoral "election" with 25 dogs and cats as the candidates. Human campaign managers made T-shirts and posters extolling the virtues of the pet contenders, and Divide residents were encouraged to vote as many times as they pleased (at $1 a pop, with proceeds benefiting the local Teller County Regional Animal Shelter). The winner: A three-legged rescued pit bull named Spright who's a big favorite among locals who know her well because she regularly goes on rounds with her owner Lisa Berg, a mobile veterinarian. Spright was found on a roadside last year with a wounded front leg, which was later amputated. But having three legs hasn't slowed her down; Berg reports that she's a star soccer player and an avid runner. Spright was "inaugurated" shortly after the votes were counted, and, according to Berg, "She was in a constant state of full-body-wag." Our kind of elected official! (USA Today)

WebClawer: Beluga whale learns to paint; 'sheep-pigs' take U.K. by storm; 'gay' dog denied entry to Australian restaurant; PETA billboard won't run

-- An artistic beluga whale named Xiao Qiang has been impressing spectators at China's Qingdao Polar Ocean World marine park with his watercolor painting skills. Xiao Qiang holds a paintbrush in his mouth, and his paintings have begun to fetch large prices. "His favorite color seems to be blue, and he's best of all at seascapes," trainer Zhang Yong said. "His people always look like seals." Well, Xiao Qiang wouldn't be the first artist whose representations of people didn't look all that human -- and while we're on the subject, who's to say he's not intending to paint seals? Working with a painting beluga sounds like fun, but it does have one drawback, Yong said: "Sometimes he deliberately paints [his trainers] instead of the paper." That Xiao Quang -- what a kidder. (Austrian Times)

-- A wildlife park in Essex, England, recently became home to some head-turning creatures: Mangalitsa pigs, commonly referred to as "sheep-pigs" because their curly coats resemble the wool of a sheep. Three of the animals -- a male named Buddy and two females named Porsche and Margot -- have taken up residence at the Tropical Wings park as part of a breeding program. The pigs originated in Austria and Hungary, where their thick coats help to keep them warm during the winter. (In the summertime, their coats protect them from sunburn.) "At first sight, people think they are sheep," Denise Cox, the wildlife park's education coordinator, said of the creatures. "It is not until they turn around and you see their faces and snouts you [realize] they are in fact pigs." (Daily Mail)

WebClawer: Alpaca goes surfing; would-be Totos try out for 'Wizard of Oz' musical; PETA wants mothers to breastfeed to help cows; can animals commit suicide?

-- Bizarre new trend: Surfing with animals. Okay, we will accept that some dogs seem to actually enjoy the sport -- but what of other species that are seemingly less suited to surfing? Like, say, an alpaca? Peruvian surfer Domingo Pianezzi recently made headlines when he surfed a beach near Lima with an alpaca named Pisco. (Apparently some locals reacted positively to the stunt, but others argued that Pianezzi had acted cruelly by making an alpaca -- a mountain-dwelling species related to camels and llamas -- enter the water.) But this wasn't the first time Pianezzi had surfed with an unusual animal, and he's not the first to have done so. "I've surfed with a dog, a parrot, a hamster and a cat, but when I was at a competition in Australia I saw people surfing with kangaroos and koalas," he told an interviewer. "So I thought that, as a Peruvian, it would be interesting to surf with a unique animal that represents Peru." (Reuters)

-- Musical theater composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and talk show host Graham Norton have teamed up for a BBC reality-TV show in which the pair and a panel of judges will cast the role of Dorothy for an upcoming West End production of "The Wizard of Oz." The show also aims to find a talented animal actor to play another iconic Oz role: Toto. About 400 would-be Totos arrived Tuesday for a rigorous two-day audition in the English county of Warwickshire. Among the tasks they had to complete to be considered for the part: Walking on a leash for about 15 minutes. (Doesn't sound so hard, but dogs who stopped walking, barked or jumped up were immediately eliminated from the competition.) Forty were asked back for the second day of auditions, and the top 10 will appear on the BBC show this Saturday. According to instructions provided to the animals' owners, "the Toto panel are looking for a true star. The winning doggy will have bags of personality and not be afraid to show it off." In other words, a latter-day Skippy. (Telegraph)

WebClawer: Rock 'n' roll finches bring their music to London; complaint about PETA U.K.'s Hitler-themed ad dismissed; dachshund Spork gets a reprieve

-- French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot enlisted a flock of zebra finches for his upcoming exhibition at London's Barbican concert hall and art gallery. But these aren't just any zebra finches -- they're rock 'n' roll zebra finches. Boursier-Mougenot created a walk-through aviary for the musical birds, complete with a Gibson Les Paul guitar for a perch and cymbals doubling as water and food bowls. "If you want to understand a creature then you have to interact with it," Boursier-Mougenot said of the aviary project. "Here, I am not using the birds, I am collaborating with them." The birds were obtained from a company that supplies animal actors for the entertainment industry. Not exactly what Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-honored singer-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen had in mind when he wrote "Bird on a Wire," we suppose, but the prospect of animals creating music is an intriguing one, nonetheless. The exhibition runs through late May. (The Guardian)

-- A new study shows what any owner of multiple dogs already knew: Dogs gain specific information from one another's growls, despite the fact that the sounds may be indistinguishable to human ears. Researchers first recorded the growls of 20 adult dogs in each of three unique situations: When guarding a bone, when approached by a threatening stranger and during play. They then used a computer program to analyze the sounds and discovered that the play growls tended to be shorter and more high-pitched than those the dogs made when they were guarding food or when they felt threatened. Then came the second part of the twofold study: Playing back the recorded growls to live dogs in a research setting. Forty-one adult pet dogs from Austria and Hungary were each offered a meaty bone as the researchers played the recorded growls. The team observed that the dogs jumped when they heard the recorded "guarding" growls, but didn't when the play growls or threatened growls were played. (Discovery News)

WebClawer: PETA wants to neuter Knut; owners fight to save dachshund that bit vet tech; Christian blogger defends post that advocated killing Tilikum the orca

-- Celebrity polar bear Knut is in the spotlight once again: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' German wing is calling for the young bear to be castrated over concerns that a potential mating with his current roommate would amount to inbreeding. In September, Knut was introduced to a female polar bear, Gianna, from Munich's Hellebrunn Zoo. The two are expected to live in the same enclosure until a renovation on Gianna's enclosure in Munich is complete later this year. According to PETA Germany's Frank Albrecht, a mating between Knut and Gianna could have dire consequences, since the bears have a grandparent in common. Problem: Neither Knut nor Gianna has yet reached sexual maturity, making the point a moot one, at least for another year or two. Last year, a custody dispute between two German zoos that both claimed Knut was rightfully theirs was resolved when the Berlin Zoo agreed to pay 430,000 euros to keep him. (Spiegel)

-- A miniature dachshund named Spork has become an unlikely cause célèbre after he was issued a vicious dog citation last year for biting a veterinary technician in Lafayette, Colo. Spork's owners, Kelly and Tim Walker, are fighting the citation -- which could mean a lifetime in a kennel, or worse, euthanasia -- tooth and nail (no pun intended). The Walkers say Spork, who is 10 years old and neutered, panicked at the vet's office where he was to have five teeth and a cyst removed, and bit the technician not out of viciousness but out of fear. "A fearful dog or a hurt dog is your No. 1 candidate to bite," Tim Walker said. "Most bites are out of fear and anxiety, and people who work with animals understand that. You need to be able to take a hurt, sick dog into a vet and feel confident they know how to handle that." The Walkers have spent thousands of dollars defending their beloved dog; they've also taken to Facebook and Twitter to tell their side of the story. A "Save Spork" Facebook group currently has more than 20,000 members. (Westword)

WebClawer: Agency sides with allergy sufferers over pets on planes; PETA agrees with chef on cat stew; Tim Burton hates cats; Kobe Bryant is like a beaver?

-- How is Lakers star Kobe Bryant like an animal? Let us count the ways. After missing five games due to injury, Bryant said Monday that he felt "like a gazelle" about his return to play. That got Lakers blogger Mark Medina wondering what other species Kobe, who's often described as "the black mamba" after a type of snake, might resemble. Los Angeles Zoo staffers Jason Jacobs and Dana Brown were happy to oblige Medina with their picks for other zoo dwellers with traits in common with Bryant. Among the animals they noted: beavers. "When I think about his work ethic, I think about all of these roles that he plays up to and including of masking his injuries and being there for his teammates and all the preparation he puts in practice and in games," Brown said. Jacobs and Brown also compare Bryant to a pronghorn, among other species. (Lakers Blog)

-- When Canada's largest airline, Air Canada, changed its pet policy to allow small animals to ride in airplane cabins, many pet owners were thrilled. Allergy sufferers? Not so much. Back in July, the Canadian Lung Assn. took aim at the pet policies of Air Canada and the country's next-largest airline, WestJet, which has a similar pet policy, arguing that "inside the small, confined space of an airplane passenger cabin, [dogs and cats] can pose a serious threat to the health of vulnerable people." Thursday, the Canadian Transportation Agency released a decision that seems to be in agreement with the Canadian Lung Assn.'s position. The decision stated that three people with cat allergies who complained about the airlines' policies can be considered people with disabilities -- seemingly a victory for the anti-animals-in-airplane-cabins camp. The decision doesn't overturn Air Canada's and WestJet's policies, but it does mean that the transportation agency will review the issue of pets in the cabin. It's also asked the two airlines to come up with alternate strategies for accommodating both allergy sufferers and jet-setting animals. (The Canadian Press)

WebClawer: Chimps make a movie for the BBC; scientists work to recreate extinct, giant cattle; PetSmart employee fired for bringing dog to work

-- Not an April Fool's Day joke, we swear: The BBC has announced that it will air the first-ever movie shot entirely by chimpanzees this week. Primatologist Betsy Herrelko came up with the idea to turn apes into mini-Tarantinos; she spent a year and a half teaching 11 chimps from the Edinburgh Zoo how to use a specially-constructed piece of equipment called the Chimpcam (above). They used the Chimpcam to film what they saw in their enclosure; they were also given a video touch screen, with which they could select videos to watch. (The videos, if you're wondering, included footage of the room where their food is prepared at the zoo, as well as footage of their enclosure.) Chimps making movies -- that's all well and good, but can they write "Hamlet"?  (BBC)

-- A team of Italian scientists hopes to use modern technology to recreate an extinct species called the auroch, which resembled a giant cow weighing more than 2,000 pounds and standing more than 6 feet high at the withers. "We were able to [analyze] auroch DNA from preserved bone material and create a rough map of its genome that should allow us to breed animals nearly identical to aurochs," said Donato Matassino, the group's leader, who we're just going to assume has never seen "Jurassic Park." Aurochs were declared extinct in the 1600s, although German zoologists Heinz and Lutz Heck, working with the support of the Nazi regime, managed to create a smaller version of the huge bovines in the years leading up to World War II.  (Telegraph)

WebClawer: California Chihuahuas get new homes in New York; celebrities get free pigs; parrot gets wanded by airport security officers; R.I.P. Commuter Cat

-- Fifteen homeless Chihuahuas transported from San Francisco to New York City this month seem to have great new lives in store for them in the big city.  More than 100 New Yorkers stood in line for a chance to adopt one of the little dogs from New York's ASPCA shelter last Wednesday. When all was said and done, 11 of them (Bebop, Honey, Hancock, Annie, Jeb, Colette, Tina, Orlando, Bella, Holly and Nalla, if you're keeping score) had new homes; the remaining four will be offered for adoption after receiving additional veterinary care. Chihuahuas make up an alarmingly large percentage of the animals in California animal shelters, but are rarely seen in shelters in many other parts of the country. Transporting the little dogs to other states has become an increasingly popular solution to the problem. (Agence France-Presse)

-- Old news: Swag bags for celebrity awards-show guests. New hotness: Tiny pet pigs. Fancy-gift company GBK Productions didn't just offer vacations and electronic devices to Golden Globe nominees and presenters; it also gave them a chance to take home their own bred-down potbellied pigs.  The pigs, called Royal Dandies (weighing about 29 to 39 pounds) and Royal Dandie Extremes (weighing approximately 19 to 29 pounds), typically sell for about $5,000. But in this case, they were free to stars who agreed to complete a one-hour pig-parenting course. (Hmm, think it might take longer than an hour to learn how to take care of a pig? We think so too.) Gossip queen Leslie Gornstein says she'd name her pocket pig Bacon Bits; for our part, we think we'd name ours Tofu. (Ministry of Gossip)

WebClawer: PETA members use their wedding to protest horse-drawn carriages; police investigate elephant's stone-throwing; snake with foot found

-- PETA and other animal advocacy groups have long been ardent in their opposition to the use of horse-drawn carriages.  (Actor Liam Neeson even incurred PETA's wrath earlier this year by publicly supporting the carriages, which the group maintains are decidedly less horse-friendly than they are tourist-friendly.)  Since few places are as well-known for featuring carriage horses as New York's Central Park, PETA members Kelly Respess and Paul Kercheval held their recent nuptials there to draw attention to the abuses they argue are regularly visited on the horses.  "We chose to get hitched. Those horses don't have that choice," Respess said.  The couple favor replacing the horse-drawn carriages with electric cars made to resemble vintage automobiles -- a change they and other PETA supporters say would be kinder both to horses and to the environment.  But New York's carriage drivers, who recently joined the powerful Teamsters union, staunchly oppose such a change.  (L.A. Times)

-- Any pet owner knows that having a companion animal can be therapeutic, but now the Department of Defense is catching on, too.  It's financing a $300,000 study to test the degree to which service dogs can help veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of their experiences there.  The dogs, trained to notice when their human "partners" are on the verge of a panic attack, are able to provide comfort that the Department of Defense hopes will make a big difference in the soldiers' lives.  The study, to be conducted at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in conjunction with the Psychiatric Service Dog Society, will pair 10 soldiers with psychiatric service dogs.  Those 10 soldiers will receive conventional psychiatric treatment in addition to that provided by the dogs, and they'll be compared with another group of soldiers who receive only the conventional treatment.  From there, who knows?  (Chicago Tribune)