Results tagged “animals”

Oh, what joy. Brittney Gilbert at Eye On Blogs brings our attention to this: Green Apple Books, located at 506 Clement, will donate proceeds of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's new book Going Rogue: An American Life to the betterment of animals up in Alaska. Check it:

Sad news. Due to the state's continuing economic woes, the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, for the first time in its 141 year history, will close on Mondays. According to DogBlog, "the SPCA has suffered from reduced contributions and staff layoffs (16 employees were let go earlier this month) and its Maddie’s Adoption Center will no longer be open on Mondays in an effort to eliminate a $3.5 million deficit.

Soul Food Farm of Vacaville, who provide the Bay Area with delicious eggs and chickens via various locations and through their brand-spanking new CSA, encountered a devastating fire last month. One thousand baby chicks perished, 30+ acres were scorched, and an 1880s barn burned to the ground.

Get ready for the ninth circle of Hell, persons in charge of the Milo Foundation Shelter in San Rafael. Because you screwed up. It seems, according to CBS 5, the North Bay animal shelter was shut down due to horrible conditions after a Thursday morning surprise inspection.

An influx of sea lions at Pier 39 has resulted in the need for more docks. According to SF Examiner, around 1,500 of them "are piled on top of each other on the docks," which is "not only a record-breaking number of the massive creatures at the pier, it’s also three times more than normal." But this spurt isn't just happening in SF. The California coast, it seems, has seen a boom in sea lion growth this year. (Yay!)

Over the weekend, a man climbed into the bear enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo. Authorities still aren't sure why Kenneth Herron, 21, who is described as a "transient," made his way into the grizzly bear grotto late Sunday afternoon. It seems Herron managed to scale a wall, get himself into the enclosure, and crouch behind some bushes once inside.

Which would be the more difficult/least appealing task, handling a live or a dead chicken until the owner arrived? Flyer found in Shafter, Oakland. We wonder if it belongs to Novella Carpenter.

Thank you to the kind tipster who warmed our hearts with this story from Kron 4/Bay City News. The San Francisco Zoo is searching for a young girl named Alexis who visited the zoo on August 10 and donated $22 to baby gorilla Hasani, which she raised selling her handmade origami to friends. The zookeeper had run to get a photo of Hasani to give to Alexis as a token of the zoo's appreciation, but when the the worker returned, Alexis had left.

And here ends our coverage of adorable pets for the week.

The dainty gents at Mission Mission have word that this dog, at left, is missing. This dog, named Chirpa, is tiny and cute -- two of SFist's favorite things. And worse, he might have been stolen.

Imagine our surprise on a cold, windy summer stairway walk above Noe Valley yesterday to stumble upon a herd of goats. Provided by the fine folks at City Grazing, the goats arrived on-site last Wednesday and are scheduled to move on to, er, greener pastures after Tuesday.

      

Whether your beagle is super fond of beer, or you just like to pose your puppy (or kitty) next to empty bottles of Jack Daniels, the internet never tires of adorable pet pics. Please enjoy this collection of boozy pets which comes to us via Barstools.com. Yes, a few of these pets may not have legitimately consumed any booze (unlike that orange cat, who's obviously a fucking lush), or reside in SF, but really commenters? Are you going to gripe about authenticity here?

In a project between Sonoma State University, the Oakland Zoo, and the San Francisco Zoo, the Western Pond Turtle project released 19 Western Pond Turtles back into the wild this week at an undisclosed location.

"Start and end of work shifts" by Darwin Bell.

by Chris Jones

     

Yesterday, way down in Vallejo, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom opened up at new big-cat exhibit. It's called "Odin's Temple of the Tiger," featuring the headlining, "internationally acclaimed" Bengal tiger named Odin.

Let Ann-Margaret sooth your soul. Because after hearing this news, you're gonna need it. See, Swoops, the adorable and infamous blackbird who terrorized passersby from her perch outside City National Bank at Front and California streets, is gone. Or, so says a City National Bank employee who had a clear view of Swoops from his desk, who notices his absence this week.

Sadly, the answer could be no. SFAppeal has a phenomenal video that highlights the declining bison population of San Francisco. Although only five of them remain in the city today, "the bison recently returned to a new, $1.2 million dollar improved paddock in Golden Gate Park." Which is good news, right? But with the city budget getting slashed to bits, their maintenance could prove hazardous to their survival. Be sure to check out this heart-warming and unique look at the city that many of you, and a few furry fellas, call home.

              

San Francisco SPCA has been celebrating Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month with a few big events. They had an adoption fair on Saturday (pictured above), featuring cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, and other small mammals, and they're continuing the fun today and tomorrow. Check out their silly promotional video.

A wayward sea lion was found by Oakland police early this morning after it took a stroll onto northbound Interstate Highway 880. The rapscallion sea lion was detained in an Oakland police vehicle for being very, very bad. Eventually, someone from the Marine Mammal Center arrived to take the animal. While the creature's condition is not yet known, judging by the image at right, it looks like it got a good scare. (Adorable little sea lions shouldn't be anywhere near Nimitz Freeway, officials scolded.) According to KRON 4, when the OPD officers pulled up and opened the back door of their squad car, "the sea lion hopped right in."

"Pigeon, out" by The Inadvertent Gardener. Taken at Yerba Buena Gardens.

              

KayVee.INC made our day by snapping these shots of the adorable Dachshund Derby at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley on Saturday. Apparently, only one dog made it to the finish line, and all the others ran in the opposite direction.

Swoops caught on tape!

Eeps! Squee! Ack! Aw! Oh my! The start of summer means the start of kitten season. And right now at the SPCA is at "kitten overload." According to an appropriately all-capped and superfluously exclamation pointed post at sfspcacat.blogspot.com, "We are OVERLOADED with kittens, adult cats and to be quite blunt...WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF ROOM!!!!" As of today, the SPCA has 130 cats available for adoption. But we strongly urge you to take in an adult cat. Why? Well, for starters, you don't have to train or housebreak adult felines. Also, since kittens just barely "out-cute" their elders, older cats wait and wait and wait for a loving, safe place to call home. So, if you have a little space, a lot of love, some commonsense, and understand that felines are not accessories, adopt one of these little fellas, won't you? In turn, you will be greatly rewarded. (Seriously, this adoption page will probably make you teary eyed. You've been warned.)

Wienerschnitzel has a clever campaign going with their hilarious Wiener Nationals. Saturday's Dachshund Derby II will take place at Noon at Berkeley's Golden Gate Fields (1100 Eastshore Hwy). Admission ranges from $4-15, and general parking is $4.

On one hand, we hate the idea or horses being used as engines to carry tourists around city streets; on the other hand, these bitches are batshit. See, it seems Peta (AKA: the National Organization of Helping Pamela Anderson's Breasts Put a Stop to KFC's Savoriness) sent an "urgent letter" to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supes, asking them them to ban horse-drawn carriages throughout San Francisco. This comes on the heels of a spooked carriage horse running amok this past weekend, injuring several passersby. According to PETA director Debbie Leahy, "Forcing horses to pull heavy loads through busy city streets is cruel, and it's an accident waiting to happen ... This incident should be a wake-up call for the city, and we urge officials to ban these rides before the next accident occurs." UPDATE: SFist asked Newsom's office what they thought of PETA's request. Newsom spokesperson Nathan Ballard (brilliantly) told us, "Next they’ll be asking us to ban cobblestones, monocles, hoop skirts, top hats and gas lamps!" (Well said, Nathan.)

Debby Brown's "Chorkie" (Chihuahua/Yorkie mix) named Lexi was stolen from Brown's locked car (with the A/C running) in Concord on Friday night, while Brown and her boyfriend went into a restaurant for take-out food. After Brown posted $10,000 reward posters all over the Concord area and on Craigslist, the dog-nappers agreed to meet with Brown in a Petco parking lot (of all places) on Monday morning. Lexi was safely handed over to Brown's boyfriend, who had persuaded Brown to stay home. Brown forked over the cash and has stuck to her promise not to prosecute or give any information to the police. Police say there has been a rash of car break-ins in the area, and that Brown's information could possibly have lead to an arrest. Now that's some dedicated pet ownership.

Have you had your head pecked while lunching or lollygagging downtown? This might be the reason: A tiny, adorable, rapscallion of a blackbird has been tormenting pedestrians in San Francisco's financial district as of late. The little bird, christened Swoops, has been "guarding his nest in a behavior experts call 'mobbing.'"

Yesterday afternoon, one of the young female falcons that adorn the roof at San Jose City Hall (named Ilahay, which is "angel" in Persian) took her first flight. According to the Mercury News, the falcon "flew over the Martin Luther King Jr. library with ease, but had a little difficulty on her first landing." While reporting on the flight progress of said baby bird's siblings, the Mercury News goes on to call the Ilahay's mother a slut, saying, "Falcon siblings Kya, Tierra and Veer -- all named by San Jose school children -- have not yet been as brave as their sister yet, and have stayed on the 18th floor ledge of City Hall, where their mother and her series of boyfriends and offspring were first noted in 2007." What a tramp. Anyway, bird watchers have since swamped Falcon Cam in record numbers, eager to see the famed bird's flying.