Animal Planet's "Dogs 101: Boston Terriers"

An episode of Animal Planet's "Dogs 101: Boston Terriers" that we shot with special guest Rose McGowan.

Rhodesian Ridgeback Video (Animal Planet)

113 Facts About Animal Cruelty

1. Animals caught in traps can suffer for days before succumbing to exposure, shock, or attacks by predators.


2. Traps often kill "non-target" animals, including Dogs and endangered species.


3. To cut costs, fur farmers pack animals into small cages, preventing them from taking more than a few steps back and forth.


4. Crowding and confinement is especially distressing to minks- solitary animals who occupy up to 2,500 acres of wetland in the wild.


5. The frustration of life in a cage leads minks to self-mutilate- biting their skin, tails, feet- or frantically pace and circle endlessly.


6. "PETA investigators witnessed rampant cruelty to animals. Workers beat pigs with metal rods and jabbed pins into pigs' eyes and faces."


7. Snakes and lizards are skinned alive because of the belief that live flaying makes leather more supple.


8. Piglets are separated from their mothers when they are as young as 10 days old.


9. Once her piglets are gone, the sow is impregnated again, and the cycle continues for three or four years before she is slaughtered.


10. Approximately 3 to 4 million cats and Dogs- many of them healthy, young, and adoptable- must be euthanized in animal shelters every year.


11. Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans do- to nourish their young - but on dairy farms calves are taken away at 1 day old.


12. 1 day old calves are fed milk replacements (including cattle blood) so that their mothers' milk can be sold to humans.


13. Animals can suffer brain damage or death from heatstroke in just 15 minutes. Beating the heat is extra tough for dogs.


14. Each year, approximately 10,000 bulls die in bullfights.


15. Most cows are intensively confined, unable to fulfill their most basic desires, such as nursing their calves, even for a single day.


16. Cows are fed unnatural, high-protein diets-which include dead chickens, pigs, and other animals.


17. Overall, factory-farmed animals, including those on dairy farms, produce 1.65 billion tons of manure each year.


18. Kid goats are boiled alive to make gloves.


19. The skins of unborn calves and lambs - some aborted, others from slaughtered pregnant cows - are considered "luxurious."


20. About 285 million hens are raised for eggs in the US. In tiny spaces so small they cannot move a wing.


21. The wire mesh of the cages rubs off hens feathers, chafes their skin, and causes their feet to become crippled.


22. Before 1986, only four states had felony animal cruelty laws.


23. Glue traps cause terror and agony to any animals who touch them, leaving them to suffer for days.


24. In one study, 70% of animal abusers also had records for other crimes.


25. Sealers often hook baby seals in the eye, cheek, or mouth to avoid damaging their fur, then drag them across the ice to skin them.


26. Arsenic-laced additives are mixed into the feed of about 70 percent of the chickens raised for food.


27. Every year, nearly a million seals worldwide are subjected to painful and often lingering deaths, largely for the sake of fashion.


28. Scientists estimate that 100 species go extinct every day! That's about one species every 15 minutes.


29. Every year in the US, 50 million male piglets are castrated (usually without being given any painkillers).


30. More than 15 million warm-blooded animals are used in research every year.


31. The methods used in fur factory farms are designed to maximize profits, almost always at the expense of the animals.


32. To test cosmetics, cleaners, and other products, hundreds of thousands of animals are poisoned, blinded, and killed every year.


33. In extremely crowded conditions, piglets are prone to stress-related behavior such as cannibalism and tail-biting.


34. Farmers often chop off piglets' tails and use pliers to break off the ends of their teeth- without giving them any painkillers.


35. For identification purposes, farmers cut out chunks of young pigs ears.


36. Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages.


37. For fur, small animals may be crammed into boxes and poisoned with hot, unfiltered engine exhaust from a truck.


38. Engine exhaust is not always lethal, and some animals wake up while they are being skinned.


39. Larger animals have clamps attached to or rods forced into their mouth or anus so they can be painfully electrocuted.


40. Bird poisons attack birds' nervous systems, causing them to suffer seizures, erratic flight, and tremors for hours before dying.


41. If you drink milk, you're subsidizing the veal industry.


42. Male calves are often taken away from their mothers at 1 day old, chained in tiny stalls for 3-18 weeks, and raised for veal.


43. After they are taken from their mothers, piglets are confined to pens until they are separated to be raised for breeding or meat.


44. Although chickens can live for more than a decade, hens raised for their eggs are exhausted and killed by age 2.


45. More than 100 million "spent" hens are killed in slaughterhouses every year.


46. Forty-five states currently have felony provisions for animal cruelty. (Those without are AK, ID, MS, ND and SD.)


47. Dogs used for fighting are chained, taunted, and starved to trigger extreme survival instincts and encourage aggressiveness.


48. Dogs that lose fights (or refuse) are often abandoned, tortured, set on fire, electrocuted, shot, drowned, or beaten to death.


49. Cows on average product 16 lbs of milk per day. With hormones, antibiotics, and genetic manipulation? 54 lbs a day.


50. Humane treatment is not a priority for those who poach and hunt animals to obtain their skin.


51. Alligators on farms may be beaten with hammers and axes, sometimes remaining conscious and in pain for 2 hours after skinning.


52. Investigation of animal abuse is often the first point of social services intervention for a family in trouble.


53. A Canadian Police study found that 70 percent of people arrested for animal cruelty had past records of other violent crimes.


54. Dog fighting and cock-fighting are illegal in all 50 states.


55. Hoarding of animals exists in virtually every community. Well-intentioned people overwhelmed by animal overpopulation crisis.


56. The consequences for hoarders, their human dependents, animals, and the community are extremely serious- and often fatal for animals.


57. Declawing is a painful mutilation that involves 10 amputations - not just the nails - but the ends of toes (bone and all).


58. The long-term effects of declawing include skin and bladder problems and the gradual weakening of cats' legs, shoulders, and back.


59. Declawing is both painful and traumatic, and it has been outlawed in Germany and other parts of Europe as a form of cruelty.


60. Kangaroos are slaughtered by the millions every year; their skins are considered prime material for soccer shoes.


61. Across the US, 6 to 8 million stray and abandoned animals enter animal shelters every year, and about half must be euthanized.


62. In California, America's top milk-producing state, manure from dairy farms has poisoned hundreds of square miles of groundwater.


63. Each of the more than 1 million cows on the state's dairy farms excrete 18 gallons of manure daily.


64. Every year, the global leather industry slaughters more than a billion animals and tans their skins and hides.


65. Elephants who perform in circuses are often kept in chains for as long as 23 hours a day from the time they are babies.


66. Every year, millions of animals are killed for the clothing industry.


67. An immeasurable amount of suffering goes into every fur-trimmed jacket, leather belt, and wool sweater.


68. Neglect and abandonment are the most common forms of companion animal abuse in the United States.


69. On any given day in the U.S., there are more than 65 million pigs on factory farms, and 112 million are killed for food each year.


70. Every year, dogs suffer and die when left in a parked car- even for "just a minute" - parked cars are deathtraps for dogs.


71. Dog owners: On a 78 degree F day, the temperature in a shaded car is 90°F, in the sun it can climb to 160°F in minutes.


72. 98% of Americans consider pets to be companions or members of the family.


73. For medical experimentation animals can be burned, shocked, poisoned, isolated, starved, addicted to drugs, and brain-damaged.


74. Regardless of how trivial or painful animal experiments may be, none are prohibited by law.


75. When valid non-animal research methods are available, no law requires experimenters to use such methods instead of animals.


76. On average it takes 1,000 dogs to maintain a mid-sized racetrack operation. There are over 30 tracks in the United States.


77. Female cows are artificially inseminated shortly after their first birthdays. Happy birthday!


78. Birds don't belong in cages. Bored, lonely, denied the opportunity to fly, deprived of companionship...


79. Many birds become neurotic in cages - pulling out feathers, bobbing their heads incessantly, and repeatedly pecking.


80. According to industry reports, more than 1 million pigs die en route to slaughter each year.


81. More than 100 million animals every year suffer and die in cruel chemical, drug, food and cosmetic tests, biology lessons, etc.


82. Approximately 9 billion chickens are raised and killed for meat each year in the U.S.


83. The industry refers to chickens as "broilers" and raises them in huge, ammonia-filled, windowless sheds with artificial lighting.


84. Some chickens spend their entire lives standing on concrete floors.


85. Some chickens are confined to massive, crowded lots, where they are forced to live amid their own waste.


86. Neglect/Abandonment is the most prevalent form of animal abuse (approximately 36% of all animal abuse cases.)


87. Cows are treated like milk-producing machines and are genetically manipulated and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones.


88. Foie gras is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of ducks and geese who have been cruelly force-fed.


89. The best way to save cows from the misery of factory farms is to stop buying milk and other dairy products. Discover soy!


90. A typical slaughterhouse kills about 1,000 hogs per hour.


91. The sheer number of animals killed makes it impossible for pigs' deaths to be humane and painless.


92. Because of improper stunning, many hogs are alive when they reach the scalding hot water baths.


93. 13% of intentional animal abuse cases involve domestic violence.


94. Animal cruelty problems are people problems. When animals are abused, people are at risk.


95. Instead of improving conditions for animals, the dairy industry is exploring the use of genetically manipulated cattle.


96. More than half the fur in the US comes from China, where millions of dogs and cats are bludgeoned, hanged, and bled to death.


97. Millions of pounds of antibiotics are fed to chickens, who metabolize only about 20 percent of the drugs fed to them.


98. The 3 trillion pounds of waste produced by factory-farmed animals every year is usually used to fertilize crops.


99. Chaining dogs, while unfortunately legal in most areas, is one of the cruelest punishments imaginable for social animals.


100. Tens of thousands of horses from the United States are slaughtered every year to be used for horsemeat in Europe and Asia.


101. Since the last horse slaughter plants in the US were closed in 2007, thousands of horses have been shipped to Canada/Mexico.


102. Abusers kill, harm, or threaten children's pets to coerce them into sexual abuse or to force them to remain silent about abuse.


103. There are no federal laws to regulate the voltage or use of electric prods on pigs.


104. Forty-one of the 45 state felony animal cruelty laws were enacted in the last two decades.


105. In the United States, 1.13 million animals were used in experiments in 2009, plus an estimated 100 million mice and rats.


106. As a result of disease, pesticides, and climate changes, the honeybee population has been nearly decimated.


107. Many studies have found a link between cruelty to animals and other forms of interpersonal violence.


108. Cows have a natural lifespan of about 20 years and can produce milk for eight or nine years.


109. A fur coat is pretty cool- for an animal to wear.


110. Eighteen red foxes are killed to make one fox-fur coat, 55 minks to make a mink coat.


111. Fur farmers use the cheapest and cruelest killing methods available: suffocation, electrocution, gassing, and poisoning.


112. In addition to diarrhea, pneumonia, and lameness, calves raised for veal are terrified and desperate for their mothers.


113. During Canada's annual commercial seal slaughter, as many as 300,000 seals are shot or bludgeoned.

Thank you for equipping yourself with knowledge. Help spread the word by sharing these animal cruelty facts!

Animal Testing - The Pros and Cons

There are many people who hold strong opinions about the ethics of animal testing for drugs and cosmetics, but we wondered just how well they have considered the pros and cons of the matter. For that reason we decided to write this short article.

Fine, let us get started. On one side you have the "Pro", the positions in favor:

The number one point in support for animal testing is that animal testing, when used for drug testing, and to a lesser extent for cosmetics testing, should make it safer for humans to use these products without unacceptable risks of significant side effects occurring.

The second supporting point will be that surely society and the drug and cosmetics companies should make sure that everything that can be done to protect human health when using new products, is done before a drug or a cosmetic product is put on the market, and that would include animal testing.

For balance then let's listen to the other side, those opposed, the "Con" side:

The 1st point in contra for this type of testing will be that it is a very big leap on some occasions to say that once animal testing is completed and shows no significant negative effects on animals, a product will be safe for human consumption. Humans and animals can react quite differently to chemicals and the animal tests may be useless in protecting human health when this happens. It is possible on such occasions that animals may be made to suffer without there being any positive outcome from their suffering.

The second point in contra will be the fact that surely there will be some animal suffering, involved on many occasions, otherwise the tests would not be undertaken in the first place

The 3rd point in contra is going to be that it is hard to justify any suffering even among animals for frivolous products, which may include some cosmetics in the minds of many people.

A fourth negative point is that as human tests will be needed, and humans must in the end be subjected to trials on the products first investigated using animal tests, surely it should be possible to find a way to avoid the animal testing stage, in some way.

5th and lastly, against is that the continued use of animals for testing new products may inhibit the development of other techniques for doing the same tests, which could otherwise be devised by scientists.

So there we have all the arguments from each side.

Finally then, what is the "bottom line" here? Is animal testing ) bad or good?

The reply is apparently "Yes" to both questions! animal testing cannot, we are told by the scientists involved, be completely avoided to stop discomfort and possibly some pain to animals, as without animal testing human users would be put at greater risk when using these products (pharmaceutical drugs, cosmetics etc). Now that is a mixture of good and bad... You, our reader must pick which side, the good or the bad, outweighs the other.

Find out some ways to live in harmony with planet earth, and cease threatening its wonderful diversity of life by visiting my climate change web site.

There are great dog breed information articles, and many others about all aspects of keeping dogs as pets, at The Dog Breeds Compendium.

Animal Rights - How We Treat Animals Reflects Who We Are

From a purely biological perspective, no creature inherently has rights beyond that which it has the power to impose. What is able to survive does, what cannot does not. But our world is not just biology. It is ethics as well. "Might makes right" cannot be the operating paradigm in a world where freedom, compassion, humanity, and love are desired. Nor are we removed from consideration of the rights of other creatures just because we are paying somebody else to create drugs, scent a deodorant, or raise our food.

Humans with the ability to use their technology to affect and control the world so widely and deeply are constantly faced with ethical choices. Modern life is not a matter of mere survival as it was when we were in the wild. It is an opportunity to develop and grow as introspective, sensitive, and ethical people. For example, walking in the woods requires no rules, but driving in traffic does. Drinking from a stream is not a problem, but damming the stream and flooding thousands of acres is. Breaking down brush with our hands to make a lean-to for shelter is one thing, but denuding the planet with machines is quite another. Hunting animals in the wild for food using only ingenuity, strength, and speed is a matter totally unlike wiping out whole populations with rifles (for 'sport') or with our urban encroachment. Farming animals to feed a swelling population is necessary, but denying them any form of natural or decent life, or subjecting them to abuse or cruelty is not a right we can claim.

Living in the wild would present few ethical choices. Causes and philosophy have a way of taking a back seat when life is consumed with day-to-day survival. But an advanced society with almost limitless technological capabilities is another matter. Our ability now to practically cage and control every creature on the planet and virtually destroy the Earth's life-supporting environment on an Earth-wide scale requires choices and ethical responsibility.

The first choice to be made, it would seem, is whether we wish to survive here long term or not. Assuming the answer is yes, we must take fiduciary responsibility for the planet and its web of life. But it does not end there, as some humane and green movements would seem to argue. In order to survive we must also take the lives of the plant and animal food we consume. That is a reality we face, and, assuming we wish to survive, it is not a matter of ethics. On the other hand, our management and behavior toward other living things-including our food-do present moral choices. It also creates a mood, if you will, setting the tone for how we treat one another. If we find it easy to treat life with insensitivity, it is a small step to treat one another the same way. If we extend care, compassion, and decency out toward the rest of the world, we are far more likely to treat fellow humans similarly.

Killing animals or plants for fun or just because we have the power to do so is neither rational nor ethical. It is a form of psychopathic behavior that threatens the web of life upon which we depend and desensitizes us to the value of all life.

People who take joy in the pain, suffering, and death of other creatures, or justify it because of dollars to be made, threaten civilization itself. It is not that great a leap for those who behave in this way to extend similar insensitivity to humans. Would we rather live next door to someone who creates habitat for wild creatures in their yard and live-captures house mice to set them free outdoors, or someone who stomps on any bug they see, chains their Dog to a stake in the yard, yahoos about shooting songbirds from their window with a pellet gun, and hunts for trophies leaving carcasses to rot? It is not a coincidence that serial killers often have a history of torturing and killing animals (1).

Creatures raised for food should not be treated as nothing more than production units, confined so as to never see the light of day, and then be handled and slaughtered inhumanely. They should be raised kindly in a free and open environment where they might enjoy the life they have. Arguably hunting should be reserved for the singular purpose of obtaining food, not for the pleasure of killing. If there is opportunity to show compassion, why not take it rather than abuse and exploit just because we have the power to do so?

Scientists and much of the public justify animal experimentation as necessary in order to find disease cures, test toxins, check mascara safety, and so on. I am reminded of an experience in a toxicology class. The lesson for the day was to show how topical products could be screened for safety. For a demonstration, the professor held a rabbit by the nap and put some drops of a chemical in the rabbit's eye. The rabbit squealed and struggled in pain. It was a miserable thing to see. As days went by we were shown the progression of the caustic chemical on the rabbit's cornea. The extreme ulceration that resulted was grotesque and the pain the rabbit was enduring was gut wrenching. To this day I remember vividly and regret that I paid tuition for this needless cruelty-although to show any reaction at the time risked being viewed as unscientific and emotional, a definite no-no in medical schools.

The lesson to be learned from this pathetic display of human insensitivity was that noxious chemicals will ulcerate and dissolve eyes. How profound. There wasn't a student in the class that could not have guessed the outcome before the macabre demonstration was done. The real takeaway was that life could be treated with disregard. If we wanted to be good doctors we needed to suck it up, put aside silly compassion and bravely mutilate life for the sake of the greater good of medicine.

Torture aside, such experimentation is unnecessary and really quite embarrassingly sloppy science. Those who participate in it become desensitized to suffering, lose compassion, and learn to hone the skill of obtuse justification. Medical experimentation upon animals is unnecessary because every species reacts to toxins, drugs, and even surgery differently. For that matter, every individual is different biochemically. What might be true for one goose is not for a gander. So a scientific result from a lab in which thousands of mice, Dogs, or monkeys are tortured does not give certainty about an effect in humans or in other species. Biological differences skew all results (2).

Aspirin causes birth defects in rats but not in humans. Humans and guinea pigs require vitamin C in the diet but most other creatures manufacture it themselves. An opium dose that will kill a human is harmless in Dogs and chicks. Allylisothiocyanate will cause cancer in the male rat, but may not in the female, or in mice. Penicillin will kill a guinea pig but potentially save the life of a person. Most drugs, nutrients, and toxins have a reverse effect: a benefit at one level is a danger at another. Measuring such things is near impossible (3). Even kindness in the lab can alter results as demonstrated by atherosclerosis (the heart attack factor) being reduced by as much as 60% in rabbits that are handled, compared to those ignored (4).

The point is that nobody knows all the variables when conducting such research. They can only control for some, guess at all the others, and then make an extrapolation, a huge leap in faith timed precisely to occur before the budget runs out. This is the reason drugs go through years of FDA trials at a cost of 360 million dollars, and then can kill and maim when introduced to the population.

Nevertheless, such heartless experimentation proceeds in the name of science and the promise of cures. It's a shame. Using a little logic, or other laboratory tools such as tissue culture techniques, could as well have led to the same conclusions gained from animal experimentation. For example, researchers used 24,000 mice to prove that 2-acetylaminofluorene was carcinogenic. Based on genetic context logic, you or I could have told them the result without caging or torturing one mouse. Why would a synthetic chemical such as this not be harmful?

What is most frustrating is that the result of all the animal experimentation is not cures. Rather, there are hundreds of thousands of maimed and killed humans who bought into the faulty science of such 'proven' drugs. Animal research brings us drugs with side effects, dependencies, prescription errors, cross-reactions, and removal of symptoms while the cause of the disease continues. Animal experimentation is a bad idea at its start and a tragic disaster in practice.

The popular idea is that our environment, including all of its creatures, is a mere resource for our exploitation. That is irrational if long-term human welfare is to matter and denies that humans have a higher purpose than might makes right.

(1) Relationship between Animal Abuse and Human Violence. Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, 2007. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: http://www.oxfordanimalethics.com.
(2) Gawrylewski, Andrea, 'The Trouble with Animal Models: Trials and Error', The Scientist 21-7 (2007), 45-51.
(3) Qureshi, B. The reverse effect. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 83 (1990), 131-132.
(4) Rowland, D. The Nutritional Bypass: Reverse Atherosclerosis Without Surgery. Parry Sound: Rowland Publications, 1995.

Dr. Randy Wysong is author of Living Life as if Thinking Matters, Solving The Big Questions as if Thinking Matters, several books on health, nutrition, self improvement, philosophy, and the origin of life. He is a pioneer in the natural health and nutrition movement, and is the first to put the creation-evolution debate on rational footings. His blog, books, updates, mind-stimulating content, interactive forums, and FREE thinking matters video-rich newsletter can be found at AsIfThinkingMatters.com.

Animal Careers - Everything From Dog Walking Jobs to Zookeeper Jobs

Maybe you dream of working with wild horses. Or maybe you see yourself as the next Cesar Millan. Maybe you even have an idea that's the next best thing since the Doggy waste disposal bag. Whatever the case may be, there's one common thread - working with animals.

For people who love animals, often a career in an animal-related field is a smart choice regarding employment. After all, what better way to spend your day than working with or helping the very creatures you love?

When it comes to a career working with animals, there are many avenues to consider. In the medical realm, veterinarians and veterinary technicians are the most obvious choices. Beyond that, you might consider practicing alternative veterinary medicine, veterinary research or wildlife rehabilitation as ways to work with animals while staying grounded in the medical arena.

On the science front, both biologists and ecologists often work with animals (and vegetables, and even minerals), as well as marine mammals and people, all in order to study how animals and the environment work together (or not, as the case may be). Most biologists and ecologists work in public or private sectors, and some even teach at the elementary or college level.

Others careers closely related to veterinary and biology in the vein of working with animals include animal behaviorists, zookeepers, marine biologists, fisheries biologists, ornithologist (birds) and pet physician therapists, all of which require some degree of science background and animal comprehension.

Some people may choose to work with animals on a more commercial level, which is not to say these careers don't still require a vast knowledge of animals and particular breeds/traits. Among these careers are animal trainers, pet sitters, Dog walkers/runners, pet day care providers, groomers, boarders/kennel operators, animal handlers, breeders and show judges. In addition, careers such as city/county animal control and animal police officers require both animal and civil service skills.

Those interested in being creative while still working with animals can pursue any of the above careers (with a creative twist), as well as careers such as pet photography and pet product creator/maker. Some may even wish to head to Hollywood to take part in the growing movement of reality-based animal shows on television.

Lastly, whether volunteer, part time or full time, a career in rescue organization work/non profit work with animal associations is sure to be gratifying.

Most careers working with animals require some sort of specialized schooling, In the case of veterinary medicine, veterinary school is required. This in turn requires a bachelor's degree from a four-year college, as well as the passing of a specialize test such as the Veterinary College Admission Test, Medical College Admission Test or Graduate Record Examination. Veterinary school is very competitive, because there are only 28 veterinary schools in the U.S. and there are many more applicants than open slots for students each year. In addition, the average student should be prepared to spend 4,000 hours in the classroom, lab and studying over the course of one year of school.

The expected pay scale for those who wish to work with animals can range and varies greatly depending on schooling (or specialized schooling, as the case may be) required. Experience also comes in to play. For examples, a show judge with years of experience will earn more than a novice. Among the many careers working with animals, the higher paying choices include veterinarians, alternative medicine veterinarians, research veterinarians, show judges and breeders (with extensive experience). Biologists, ecologists, animal behaviorists and zookeepers have the potential to make a good living, depending on their employers (private generally pays more than civil service).

For those pursue careers in city/county animal control, animal police, veterinary technicians, animal-related education, wildlife rehabilitation, pet physical therapy, animal training and handling, more than likely the rewards will outweigh any pay scale deficiencies.

The remaining careers working with animals, including pet sitter, Dog walker/runner, pet day care provider, pet products maker, boarder/kennel operator, pet photographer and rescue organization worker/nonprofit worker have the potential to earn, along with the flexibility of schedule. The more time invested in these careers, often the more money can be made.

Whether you choose to invest a lot of time (and money) into a career working with animals, or whether you choose to dabble in your spare time, there are many employment options that offer unique opportunities to work with and help animals. Some careers are more lucrative than others, and some offer more hands-on experiences than others. What they all have in common, however, is that the people who do them want to work closely with animals.

Working with animals is a rewarding experience for many people. Animal jobs are readily available for anyone who's serious about pursuing this as a career and many college programs are offered that will give you the education required. Lisa Jenkins, a freelance writer for JobMonkey.com, has researched this field and offers insightful information pertaining to veterinarian jobs, zookeeper jobs, biologists jobs and even pet sitting jobs.

Animal Facts For Kids

Educating our children is one of the most important aspects of parenting. This article on animal facts for kids makes for interesting reading about little known facts about the animals that inhabit planet earth. Encourage your child to read and learn in a fun way, and share knowledge with friends and have great fun doing it. You can arrange family fun quizzes and make the learning fun!

In biology the word "Animal" comprises all species belonging to the animal kingdom; it is very interesting to read about the little known facts about these animals found in our world today.

Some of the more interesting animal facts for kids:

o A cow can produce more milk than a single human being can consume in one lifetime - approximately 200,000 glasses of milk! Apart from this staggering figure, you will never find two cows with the exact same pattern of spots!

o Horses weighing approximately 1,200 pounds eat roughly seven times their own weight each year!

o When a lion roars you can hear the sound from a distance of about 5 miles away.

o Cheetahs are swift and merciless toward their prey. Scaring the living daylights out of man and beast but the sound they emit is anything but scary - more like a Dog yelping. However you can hear them a mile away!

o Elephants are the largest land animals alive in the present age. An elephant's tusks grow all through its lifetime and can weigh as much as 200 pounds; usually tusks grow for the male species. The females are seldom found with very small tusks or no tusks at all.

o The Chimpanzee is often considered the closest of all animal species to man, with an intelligence that supersedes all other animals. Chimps as they are commonly referred to actually make tools and use them to get their food. They adopt highly refined hunting strategies to get their food. To Chimps status is important; they are also very manipulative and deceptive in their behavior patterns. They can be taught to use symbols, numbers and some aspects of the human language.

o The Giraffe is the tallest living mammal in the animal kingdom and has approximately double the blood pressure of any other animal to enable blood circulation, especially to the brain.

o Some interesting animal facts include: rats live longer without water than even the Camel does; squirrels bury their nuts and often forget where they have hidden them, inadvertently helping to plant millions of trees.

The animal facts for kids detailed above are only a tip of the iceberg; it is hoped that once a child's interest is awakened, he or she will continue to read more.

Galen spends 48 hours on the Internet every day as the Online Marketing Manager of Mediafreaks. He is currently driving the online marketing efforts of various free online adventure games and commercial projects produced by the award-winning 3d animation studio based in Singapore and China. Galen is also known fondly as 'The China Man' by his colleagues as he spent years in China running the Mediafreaks China office.

Awesome Animal Facts

Did you know that...

... the Bee Hummingbird is the world's smallest bird? Even with its bill, it measures a mere 2 inches or 5 centimeters long.

... the male African Elephant has the largest ears in the animal kingdom? More than 3 feet or 1 meter wide.

... a Chameleon's tongue can be longer than the length of its body?

... Arctic Terns make the longest migration of any animal? In the summer, they live and breed in the Arctic. Then they fly to the Antarctic for the winter, before returning to the Arctic.

... there are more chickens than people in the world?

... the Saint Bernard is one of the heaviest Dogs? It usually weighs more than 200 pounds or 91 kilograms.

... the strongest insect is the Rhinoceros Beetle? Also known as the Hercules Beetle, it can lift more than 800 times of its weight.

... an Electric Eel can produce a shock of up to 650 volts?

... the female Black Widow is one of the most poisonous animals in the world? A bite from it can cause dizziness, terrible pain and even death.

... the Sailfish is the fastest fish on Earth? With speed of up to 68 miles or 109 kilometers per hour.

... the Australian Box Jellyfish, otherwise known as the Sea Wasp, is the world's most poisonous marine animal? Its sting is excruciatingly painful, and its venom can be fatal to humans, causing death within minutes.

... Ostriches are the Earth's largest birds? They can be more than 8 feet or 2 meters tall and can weigh up to 300 pounds or 136 kilograms.

... the Humpback Whales create the loudest sound of any living creature?

Top 5 Pets
Fish, is by far, the most popular pet in the world. In the United States alone, people own more fish than any other animal. Here are the most plentiful pets.

1. Fish - 149 million owned
2. Cats - 91 million owned
3. Dogs - 74 million owned
4. Small animals (rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, etc.) - 18 million owned
5. Birds - 17 million owned

Top 10 Dog Breeds
(Source: American Kennel Club, 2008)

1. Labrador Retrievers - ranked # 1 (1998)
2. Yorkshire Terrier - ranked # 9 (1998)
3. German Shepherd - ranked # 3 (1998)
4. Golden Retriever - ranked # 2 (1998)
5. Beagle - ranked # 6 (1998)
6. Boxer - ranked # 12 (1998)
7. Dachshund - ranked # 5 (1998)
8. Bulldog - ranked # 23 (1998)
9. Poodle - ranked # 7 (1998)
10. Shih Tzu - ranked # 11 (1998)

Top 10 Cat Breeds
(Source: Cat Fancier's Association, 2008)

1. Persian
2. Maine Coon
3. Exotic
4. Abyssinian
5. Siamese
6. Ragdoll
7. Sphynx
8. Birman
9. American Shorthair
10. Oriental

Top 5 Longest Living Animals
In 2007, scientists dredging north of Iceland found a clam estimated to be at least 405 years old. Here are the animals that live the longest and oldest known age for each.

1. Quahog Clam - up to 400 years
2. Giant Tortoise - up to 200 years
3. Human - up to 122 years
4. Sturgeon Fish - up to 100 years
5. Blue Whale and Golden Eagle - up to 80 years

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Smartest Animal in the World

Scientists have done lot of research and have come to a conclusion that the smartness in animal is measured three aspects such as emotions, self recognition and language. When the first aspect, which is emotion, is considered, it has been found that chimpanzees tend react to emotions in a correct manner. It is quite obvious that chimpanzees react to emotions because they have genes that resemble human genes, and this resemblance is up to 98 percent.

When self recognition is considered, one would notice that animals are not good at it. A sparrow has been noticed quite often pecking at its own picture in a mirror for many hours. However, a study by Gordon Gallup Jr carried out in the year 1970 proved that there are animals which can pass the self recognition test. The smartest among them were chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, bottlenose dolphin, orcas, elephants, European magpies and even pigs. Among all other mammals, dolphins were the only ones which could recognize themselves.

The next aspect about smartness is the language. Almost all animals have the ability to speak, but the ability to communicate is generally missing in most of them. However, studies have shown a fact that prairie Dogs are able to communicate impending danger to one another. The language that they speak includes chirps that signify around one hundred different words. Their words also include adjectives and verbs.

After considering all these three aspects about smartness and various researches, there are ten smart animals in the planet. These are the dirty pigs, crows, rats, African grey parrot, elephants, octopus, bottlenose dolphins, pigeons and Portia Labiata jumping spider and squirrel.

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Kum Martin is an online leading expert in animal care. He also offers top quality articles like:
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What Teenagers Can Do to Stop Animal Cruelty

Teenagers can do a lot to help stop animal cruelty. More and more teens are becoming morally conscious at such a young age that they are making a difference in our society already. According to Gandhi, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." If a moral teen wants to sincerely help to make this globe a better place, then a good way to start is to help the animals on this planet.

The Humane Society of the Untied States is an organization that can give teenagers advice on helping to stop animal cruelty. Here one can learn how to take care of Dogs and cats properly if they have them, how to get involved in the community for the promotion of animal cruelty prevention, and they can learn how to stop animal abuse if they witness it first hand. Teenagers really do want to do the right thing and usually only need the guidance of caring adults to lead them in the right direction.

Another great thing that teenagers can do to help in the prevention of cruelty to animals is to start a club at their school to help fight animal abuse. By just approaching the school administration about forming this type of club, they could start a very positive trend in their district.

By working together in a club for such a worthwhile cause, these young group members would be helping not only the animals but also to increase community awareness of the problem. By organizing and executing fundraisers, the teens could give the money raised to the local animal shelters, which usually have to rely on meager donations.

With people like Hayden Panettiere and Britney Spears doing their part to stop animal cruelty, many more teens may become more motivated to help in the fight against animal abuse. So much information is available for teenagers, with regard to learning how to stop animal abuse and in helping to get their community more involved in the effort. All one has to do is let their fingers do the clicking when it comes to learning how one can get involved with this great morale effort.

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