--Killer squirrels on the attack! A menacing critter stomped into an open classroom in a South San Jose school and bit a first-grader on the finger and two adults in the classroom. They called 911, but when animal control arrived, the squirrel had fled -- or in their words, "He it outta there." Har! The school took pains to say that they don't usually have a problem with vicious rodents, unlike those other attack squirrels in the Mountain View park. more ›

Update as of 10 a.m. 3/2/07: new link found in our quest to collect all the entertaining Kenneth Eng links on the Internet after the jump! This one quotes Maya Angelou! more ›

A few years ago we went to the San Francisco Zoo and became entranced with the prairie dog and meerkat exhibit. We could have spent the entire day in that one section watching the prairie dogs prairie-dogging, and the meerkats doing their sit-on-hind-legs-turn head-this-way-and-that-way thing all day. ALL DAY, we tells ya! more ›

We love San Francisco and we love animals and we love seeing the bad guys get caught. Now we can see all three things at once in Animal Cops San Francisco on the Animal Planet Channel. We only hope these brave souls are not so busy enforcing the new pit bull laws that they don’t have time to crack down on bars that discriminate against dogs. more ›

This is a pretty boring week for TV. The only thing we're even halfway excited about is something Rita mentioned last week: There are some new episodes of "Animal Cops San Francisco" airing this week on Animal Planet. You can catch two episodes tomorrow at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. more ›

Nick Faibish's mauling continues to send shock waves across the city -- Gavin Newsom's announced that he's starting a panel to look into possible restrictions on pit bull ownership in San Francisco. Gavin has indicated that he may ask for advice from a certain Ms. K. Guifoyle-Hemmer, who, you may recall, was previously on the SF DA's animal law team before her move out East. The panel is not expected to recommend an all-out ban on pit bull ownership in the city, but avenues for increasing Animal Care and Control's budget, like enforcing license requirements, will be explored. (What, they're not getting any money off Animal Planet?) As for the Faibish family, they're reportedly going to ask that ACC put down Rex, the male dog that attacked Nick. You probably remember that Ella, their female dog, was shot by the SFPD on the day of the incident. Authorities are speculating that the mauling may have been caused by a number of stressors, including the fact that Ella was in heat; the family was moving and everything was getting packed up; and the dogs' primary owner (Nick's father) was away in Oregon setting up their new house. And tying up some other reports, ACC reports that they had previously held Rex not for viciousness or attacking behavior, but because he was stolen and subsequently found in an arrest (thanks to his microchip). Finally, the family of the boy in Richmond who was attacked by three pit bulls in 2001 has expressed their concern and sympathy for the Faibishes, and notes that they have started a foundation to help survivors of dog maul attacks. And C.W. Nevius recalls the 80-year-old woman who survived her attack by a pit bull (in the service of decrying pro pit-bull activists). more ›

No, it's not Wednesday, but we wanted to make sure you all knew about the return of "Animal Cops San Francisco" on Animal Planet all this week at 7 and 10 p.m. We watched last night and fell in love all over again with those animal po-lice as they chased a dog through busy streets near Van Ness, rescued a neglected pooch with the most horrible tumor ever, and caught a possum in the Katherine Michiels School. (A possum?! Who knew possums existed in San Francisco, let alone were interested in alternative education?) Yeah, we cried watching it last night, and we'll probably cry again tonight. But it's a good kind of crying. more ›

SFist made it clear last week that while we enjoy watching "animal rescue" shows, we also find them an emotionally draining experience. But that didn't stop us from watching the premiere of "Animal Cops San Francisco" last night on Animal Planet. For the rest of the week the series will be airing episodes shot in San Francisco, and if the first episode is any indication, that infamous dog-mauling case was not an isolated incident in the City. Seriously, what is up with San Franciscans and their desire to raise vicious pit bulls? We believe in the quaint-sounding notion that there are no bad dogs, just bad dog owners, but unfortunately in so many cases it seems the dogs must pay the ultimate price for their owners' seriously misguided ideas about dog training. So, needless to say, last night's viewing was not without tears. You can catch the show and join in the sobbing nightly at 7 p.m., 10 p.m., and 2 a.m. more ›

Awright! The Chronicle breaks the story that the next season of Animal Planet's Animal Cops will be filming in the great city by the Bay! The show, for those of you without Animal Planet on your cable package, follows ASPCA officers on a variety of animal care and control situations. There's complaints about noise to be handled, animal cruelty cases to be solved, emergency trips to the city vet, colorful anecdotes of clashes with owners, neighbors, and other police officers - it's like NYPD Blue, except with dogs. more ›