Sea Lion Pup Tried to Cross Long Beach Freeway (VIDEO)

The little guy swam up the San Gabriel river and tried to walk his way out.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Santa Anita Workers Fear for Future (VIDEO)

At the Los Angeles Times, "For Santa Anita’s low-paid workers, horse deaths bring pain and fears about the future":

“God, we give thanks for our jobs and the love we feel for our horses. Please don’t let something bad happen to our track.” For Santa Anita’s low-paid workers, horse deaths bring pain and fears about the future. https://t.co/RIo0p3qLdo with @r_valejandra

— Hailey Branson-Potts (@haileybranson) June 21, 2019

Dagoberto Lopez begins each workday at Santa Anita Park at 4:30 a.m., checking on the five horses under his care: War Beast, Of Good Report, Carnivorous, Kissable U and Juggles.

He checks their temperature. He makes sure they’ve had enough to eat. He gives them sponge baths. On race days, he braids their hair and talks to them, hoping they’re not nervous.

“They’re like another child for us,” said Lopez, a 63-year-old groom from Cudahy who has worked at the racetrack for 35 years. “They’re like humans. They just don’t talk.”

A steady beat of horse deaths at Santa Anita — 29 since the start of the race season Dec. 26 — has animal rights activists and politicians calling for the suspension of racing at the track. Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week that he was troubled by the fatalities and “enough is enough.”

But many of the roughly 1,500 humble backstretch workers like Lopez who labor behind the scenes — grooms, trainers, exercise riders and stable cleaners — say powerful people and the media are talking over them, unconcerned about their fate.

Among the employees, mostly low-wage Latinos, there is a growing sense of being an invisible underclass in the sport of kings.

On Thursday, with a June gloom haze hugging the San Gabriel Mountains behind them, dozens of backstretch workers and their families held a news conference at Clockers’ Corner, a dining patio beside the track, in an attempt to make their voices heard.

They held handmade signs behind a podium:

“We love our horses. We love our jobs,” one read.

“Soy madre soltera. Necesito mi trabajo,” read another. I am a single mother. I need my job.

From the podium, Arnie Lopez, a deacon who hosts Bible studies at Santa Anita and helps employees apply for U.S. citizenship, sprinkled holy water on the workers and said a quick prayer: “God, we give thanks for our jobs and the love we feel for our horses. Please don’t let something bad happen to our track.”

On Thursday, backstretch workers said they feel like the track has been vilified by journalists, politicians and animal welfare groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. But few people, they said, talk to them.

Their biggest fear is that the track will be shut down permanently amid the controversy. Two other major California racetracks have been shuttered in recent years to make way for new development. Hollywood Park in Inglewood closed in 2013 after operating for 75 years, and Bay Meadows in San Mateo closed in 2008 after 74 seasons...

No Dead Horses at Santa Anita on First Day Track Reopens (VIDEO)

Horses have been getting hurt and getting put down at Santa Anita. A lot of horses. It's become an animal rights issue.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Santa Anita breathes a sigh of relief after no horses die on first day back":

Seven horses draped in brightly colored silks thunder across the shadow of the splendid San Gabriel Mountains in a breathtaking combination of beauty and speed.

The small crowd is silent.

“I’m holding my breath,’’ says race-goer B.J. Ravitz.

It’s the first race at Santa Anita Park in nearly a month, a close contest, powerful animals dueling down the stretch, dirt flying, jockeys bobbing, high drama.

There are few cheers in a sea of stares.

“Everyone is worried about the horses,’’ said Abe Ravitz, the husband of B.J. “All I’m thinking is, if anything untoward happens today …”

The race ends clean, all seven horses crossing the finish line, and only then is there audible applause from the crowd, a reaction seemingly generated by the one outcome that everyone here is betting on.

No horse died.

“OK,” said racegoer Frank Reynoso, taking a deep breath. “That’s one.’’

It was that kind of a tightrope afternoon Friday as Santa Anita opened its doors for the first time since March 5, after 22 horses died in a little more than two months of its winter/spring meet, a 214% increase from the same span the year before.

The Stronach Group, owners of the track, has since made minor modifications to a track that was badly compromised with the unseasonably rainy winter weather. They also have revised medication policies and proposed prohibiting jockeys from using the whip unless for safety reasons.

But because there was no clear reason for the deaths, there could be no clear answers. That’s why so many people showed up at the track Friday with nerves jangling and fingers crossed.

For now, there is relief. In eight races, there were no fatalities, which brought a giant collective sigh. But everyone agrees that the healing of what’s arguably Southern California’s most picturesque sporting venue is just beginning.

“This is going to take a while,’’ said horse owner Samantha Siegel, sitting in a near-empty terrace section. “The public is probably a little shell-shocked at what’s going on. We’ve gotten a lot of bad exposure from everywhere. We’re going to need to go a long time without having something horrible happen.’’

The crowd was reminded of the trouble before even entering the track, as several dozen protesters stood on a grassy area outside the front gate waving signs and chanting.

“You say the track was safe to use but nothing’s changed, you bet, they lose,’’ they sang.

One of the signs read, “Stop Killing Horses.’’ One of the protesters was dressed in a horse’s head, and the message was clear.

“Horse racing needs to be abolished’’ said Heather Hamza, leading what she called a group of concerned citizens backed by the group known as Horseracing Wrongs. ‘’The world is watching this track. Every horse that is killed here will make big headlines. We need to be part of those headlines because we’re telling them to stop it.”

Hamza and her group urged the race-goers to look beyond the beauty of the sport.

‘’When you’re watching a horse race, it’s magnificent, it’s beautiful, it’s breathtaking,’’ she said. “But that doesn’t mean there’s not a dark, dirty, gritty underbelly behind it.’’

Once inside, fans were met with the usual promising announcements — “Welcome to Santa Anita Park! The track is fast and the turf course is firm!” — and folks cheered the return of ailing trumpeter Jay Cohen. But it wasn’t the same.

While the typically loud racetrack cheering returned in later races, there was a pall over the place as everyone tried to adjust...

Heartwarming Video of When Dying Chimpanzee Recognizes Life-Long Friend

This is so wonderful.

A very special and beautiful moment!

This 59-year-old chimpanzee was refusing food and ready to die — until she received one last visit from an old friend.

📹ig: BurgersZoo/ Unilad pic.twitter.com/XjspzU55n5

— The Invisible Man (@invisibleman_17) November 24, 2018

Mama Gorilla Gives Baby Moke Tender Kisses (VIDEO)

This really is tender. It's almost like the mama gorilla is human. Imagine that.

Moms give the best kisses. The @NationalZoo announced the birth of a baby #gorilla named Moke. https://t.co/0bejzHG8lm pic.twitter.com/fimCXQJPDR

— ABC6 (@wsyx6) April 16, 2018

'The tone of the article is that it's just very funny, but bashing an animal with a shovel isn't a joke...'

Oh my, this is awful.

And Bill de Blasio's the guy that dropped a groundhog.

At Althouse, "'De Blasio’s rat-killing demonstration is a complete disaster'..."

Arizona Bobcat Battles Rattlesnake (VIDEO)

This is pretty wild.

At Fox News 10 Phoenix:

Orangutan Smokes Cigarette (VIDEO)

This is the best, really!

If you aren't entertained and delighted by monkeys smoking, the GTFO of my timelinehttps://t.co/AvMYteq7ES

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) March 9, 2018

Growing outrage after a zoo visitor tossed a lit cigarette into an orangutan enclosure, prompting the ape to pick it up and smoke it. More than 1M people signed a petition to shut down the zoo after the incident. The zoo says it regrets that it happened. https://t.co/faEjTfg6yN pic.twitter.com/IbEGoYnUWq

— ABC News (@ABC) March 8, 2018

Emotional Support Hamster Flushed Down the Toilet

Well, perhaps it's better to get a larger animal --- like a peacock --- to avoid traumatic situations like this.

At the Miami Herald, "Bad info from Spirit Air led me to flush pet hamster down airport toilet, student says" (via Memeorandum):

Bad info from Spirit Air led me to flush pet hamster down airport toilet, student says https://t.co/Qw6RF47CQR Via @DavidOvalle305 pic.twitter.com/2PQ4ZmwgHh

— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) February 8, 2018

Before Belen Aldecosea flew home from from college to South Florida, she twice called Spirit Airlines to ensure she could bring along a special guest: Pebbles, her pet dwarf hamster. No problem, the airline told her.

But when Aldecosea arrived at the Baltimore airport, Spirit refused to allow the tiny animal on the flight.

With her only friends hours away at campus, Aldecosea was stuck. She says an airline representative suggested flushing Pebbles down an airport toilet, a step that Spirit denies. Panicked and needing to return home promptly to deal with a medical issue, Aldecosea unsuccessfully tried renting a car and agonized for hours before doing the unthinkable.

She flushed Pebbles.

“She was scared. I was scared. It was horrifying trying to put her in the toilet,” Aldecosea said. “I was emotional. I was crying. I sat there for a good 10 minutes crying in the stall.”

Aldecosea, 21, of Miami Beach, is now considering filing a lawsuit against Spirit over the conflicting instructions that wound up pressuring her into making an anguished decision with a pet certified by her doctor as an emotional support animal. She shared her story with the Miami Herald weeks after the story of an emotional support peacock — denied entrance to a United Airlines flight — went viral on the Internet.

This case is much different, said her South Florida attorney, Adam Goodman. “This wasn’t a giant peacock that could pose a danger to other passengers. This was a tiny cute harmless hamster that could fit in the palm of her hand,” he said.

A spokesman for Spirit acknowledged the airline mistakenly told her that Pebbles was allowed. But he denied that a Spirit employee recommended the option of disposing of her pet in an airport restroom.

“To be clear, at no point did any of our agents suggest this guest (or any other for that matter) should flush or otherwise injure an animal,” spokesman Derek Dombrowski said...

More.

Neighbors Outraged as Man Kills Deer with Bow and Arrow in Monrovia (VIDEO)

It's not like deer are an endangered species or anything, although I can see why neighbors might be a little upset. Why not just leave the little Bambi alone?

Watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Caught on Camera: Hunter Kills Deer with Bow And Arrow to 'Put It Out of Its Misery'."

And at the Pasadena Star-News, "Video: Man shoots deer with arrow in Monrovia neighborhood."

Protecting Rhinos in South Africa

This is genuinely sad.

This piece wants to turn you into a nature-protector-enviro-radical, at LAT, "Armed only with her grandmother's shotgun, a South African woman fights to save her rhinos":

Lynne MacTavish lives in a small wooden house on her South African game reserve with a fierce pet emu, a juvenile ostrich, a flock of geese, two Jack Russell terriers and her grandma’s double-barreled shotgun to protect her rhinos.

She keeps an ugly statue at her gate: a tokoloshe, or evil spirit in the local traditional belief, installed by a witch doctor to ward off superstitious rhino poachers.

Every night MacTavish gets up after midnight, grabs her shotgun, clambers into her SUV and patrols for poachers.

She still gets flashbacks of the scene she found one windy October morning in 2014 and still cries telling the story. Poachers had killed two rhinos, including a pregnant cow she had known since the day it was born. Two more died as an indirect result of the attack and a calf, days from being born, was lost.

MacTavish, as tough as the spiky bush on her animal reserve in South Africa’s northwest, struggles to cover the cost of security guards. One local poacher has threatened to kill her.

South Africa is home to 80% of the world’s 25,000 rhinos. Hamstrung by corruption and security lapses, it loses three rhinos a day to poaching, 85% of them in state reserves. Private owners such as MacTavish have become important to the species’ survival, nurturing more than 6,500 rhinos on an estimated 330 private game reserves, spanning 5 million acres, that provide a relative degree of safety.

But security is costly — so much so that many reserves are closing their doors. To help generate revenue, private reserve operators have successfully sued to resume South Africa’s limited trade in rhino horns, which had been banned since 2009. The government is finalizing new regulations that will allow foreigners to export up to two horns apiece for personal use.

The measure has rocked the wildlife preservation world. Most wildlife advocates say opening the door even to “farmed” rhino horn sales could threaten an international effort to wipe out the trade across the globe. About 2,200 horns a year flow into the illegal trade, mostly poached, and opponents of the new trade rules argue that criminals will find ways to funnel poached horns into the new legal market.

“Reopening a domestic trade in rhino horn in South Africa would make it even harder for already overstretched law enforcement agents to tackle rhino crimes,” World Wildlife Fund policy manager Colman O’Criodain said in a statement...

More.

El Cajon Home of Reptile Lover Burglarized (VIDEO)

There are some evil people out there, and in this case, I think the suspect wasn't a stranger to this home.

Watch, at ABC News 10 San Diego, "Burglar steals lizard, poisons turtle tank":

EL CAJON, Calif. (KGTV) - A reptile lover is hoping to track down the ‘heartless’ burglar who stole one animal and killed another.

Emery Aranda, a pet owner and breeder, returned to his El Cajon home Wednesday to a devastating sight:  An unlocked back window forced open and a white powder tossed around his bedroom.

That powder, which may include ant poison he had in the house, was also tossed into Aranda's turtle tank. He saw his red-bellied turtles trying to swim to the surface, one of them dead. A few feet away, a cage was closed and his red monitor lizard missing.

While other items were taken from the home, Aranda has little doubt.

Aranda says the lizard was the most valuable animal in his collection, and that’s why he believes the intruder knew about his animals and targeted them.

Big Game Hunter Crushed to Death by Falling Elephant in Zimbabwe

The elephant was wounded. Once shot, it had apparently grabbed the hunter by its trunk, then falling dead, crushed the guy under its weight. Talk about taking 'em out with you, heh.

That was some righteous karma at the end there.

At the Telegraph U.K., via Memeorandum, "South African hunter crushed to death by elephant."

On Twitter, one woman writes, "Big game hunter crushed to death under an elephant he's just shot? Good."

Actually, I wish they weren't hunting big game myself, but it's not illegal. And I wouldn't wish the man killed. I get the karmic justice, but it's still a sad loss of human life.

South African hunter crushed to death by elephant https://t.co/MFU6lZ8rmr

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 21, 2017

Baby Hippo Fiona

A great story, but notice how all the animal keepers are like granola-crunching enviro-leftists. It's like a religion to these people. Your commitment is to the god of nature. The hippo is divine, a child of the supreme being, Gaia, in this case.

At USA Today:

Baby hippo's keepers learn to live with bruises https://t.co/54OIPyk3Dv

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) April 30, 2017

Police Chase Rogue Bull Escaping Slaughterhouse in New York (VIDEO)

Must have been a rough ordeal for the guy.

At Fox News 8 Cleveland, "Bull escapes New York slaughterhouse, but dies en route to animal sanctuary."

Forest Falls Mother of 3, Kills Bear to Protect Kids, Gets Attacked by Social Media Mob on Facebook

Tree-hugging leftists care more about animal rights that human rights, that is the human right to life.

And authorities had already given the woman a permit to kill the bear after the animal had entered her home. She literally was hopelessly trying to shoo the bear out of her own kitchen.

But the leftist social media mob don't care.

At LAT, "Woman who had bear killed says she was trying to protect her kids":

Julie Faith Strauja tried everything she could conceive of — a water hose, pepper spray, loud yells — to chase off a bear after it repeatedly barged into her home in the San Bernardino Mountains, terrifying her and her three young children.

She locked up her trash after the bear got into her garage last month and was alarmed when she arrived home with her children, ages 5, 6 and 9, on July 29 to discover the bear inside her kitchen. She called 911. And when a game warden came to her A-frame cabin in the small community of Forest Falls and found damage and fur on the windows, she issued a permit to kill the animal.

The bear returned later that night, entering through a bathroom window. The next day, Strauja called a friend who is a hunter to keep watch. When the bear charged toward the house again sometime before 2 a.m. on July 31, he shot and killed the creature.

Since then, Strauja, 34, said she has faced an intense backlash from some residents of Forest Falls, about 75 miles east of Los Angeles, as well as harsh criticism and threats on social media...

Keep reading.

Leftists posted her home address online.

Because compassion!

Spanish Bullfighter Victor Barrio Gored to Death in Teruel, Spain (VIDEO)

Oh man.

It was painful. You can see the agony of defeat in the man's face.

The bull just sinks his horn into Barrio's side, and kind of grinds it. The man is helpless, clutching his gut and screaming in pain.

Here's another video, "Le torero Victor Barrio, est mort aujourd’hui, encorné à la poitrine, dans la Plaza de Teruel."

And at the Mirror U.K., "Matador is mauled to death in horrifying footage showing first bullfighting fatality in Spain this century."

If they're going to ban bullfighting, maybe this is why: it's too fucking dangerous. Sheesh.

Pamplona Bull Run 2016 (VIDEO)

Well, the running actually looks kinda fun, and take a good look, because who knows how long this will continue? Leftists are ramping up their protests.

From the other day, "Animal Rights Activists Poured Artificial Blood Over Themselves in Pamplona, Spain (VIDEO)."

It's PETA, "RUNNING OF THE BULLS - PAMPLONA - BULL FIGHT PROTEST - PETA."

And via Euronews:

Animal Rights Activists Poured Artificial Blood Over Themselves in Pamplona, Spain (VIDEO)

You know, after posting all the bullfighting videos over the years, I'm very sympathetic to this protest.

It's not just about killing the animals, which I don't oppose in terms of food production, etc. It's should we be making a sport out of it, a full spectacle which is obviously barbaric in some respects? Frankly, I've been to bull fights in Mexico, and it feels like you're at any other sporting event. But then, you kill the animal.

In any case, something to think about.

Watch, at Euronews, "Pamplona: Topless protesters pour fake blood over themselves prior to bull run."

Many Have Blamed 4-Year-Old's Parents for Death of Gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo

Following-up, "Gorilla Shot Dead at Cincinnati Zoo After 4-Year-Old Climbs in Enclosure (VIDEO)."

Here's the boy, Isiah Dickerson, via London's Daily Mail:

This is the four-year-old boy who fell into Harambe's enclosure https://t.co/3iCslqbqSV pic.twitter.com/v1uQOt5wyn

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) May 31, 2016

And probably the best bottom line you're going to get, from USA Today:

#JusticeForHarambe is a blame game that no one wins https://t.co/YqyEufkqAL Seriously over the top.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 31, 2016

And from the Mad Jewess, I don't doubt it: "I could have given the boy a better life than his rotten parents."