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A missing dog has survived up to two weeks buried alive inside a human grave in country Victoria. Billy the Jack Russell had been given up for dead by his owners after they had not seen their beloved pet in a fortnight. However, a holidaying woman heard his barks for help from inside the tomb, near his home in Warrnambool, Victoria. "I heard this woof, woof, woofing," Donna Cobbin-Agatic told The Herald Sun. "Eventually I found a little crack in a grave and looked in and saw his little nose." It is believed the plucky terrier chased a rabbit down a hole at the historic Tower Hill cemetery and became stuck when concrete caved in behind him. Without food or water, the 2-year-old dog somehow managed to survive up to two weeks inside his makeshift tomb. Ms Cobbin-Agatic, who was searching for the graves of her great-great-great grandparents, dribbled water through the crack to the starving and dehydrated Billy while rescue services prised the concrete open with crowbars...

(AP) -- His back resting comfortably against her chest, Hector nestles his massive canine head into Leslie Nuccio's shoulder, high-fiving pit bull paws against human hands. The big dog -- 52 pounds -- is social, people-focused, happy now, it seems, wearing a rhinestone collar in his new home in sunny California. But as Hector sits up, deep scars stand out on his chest, and his eyes are imploring. Hector ought to be dead, Nuccio knows -- killed in a staged fight, executed for not winning or euthanized by those who see pit bulls seized in busts as "kennel trash," unsuited to any kind of normal life. Instead, Hector is learning how to be a pet. After the hell of a fighting ring, he has reached a heaven of sorts: saved by a series of unlikely breaks, transported thousands of miles, along with other dogs rescued with him, and now nurtured by Nuccio, her roommate, Danielle White, and their three other dogs. The animals barrel around the house, with 4-year-old Hector leading the...

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Pair accused of stealing, eating pet dog HONOLULU (AP) -- Two former golf club employees have been charged with theft and cruelty to animals in the death of a pet dog the owners say was cooked and eaten. An Oahu grand jury indicted Saturnino Palting, 58, and Nelson Domingo, 43, both of Kalihi, after the Moanalua Golf Club fired them as maintenance workers. They are charged with stealing a dog owned by Frank Manuma and his wife, Debbie Weil-Manuma. The 8-month-old German shepherd-Labrador mix named Caddy had been tied up near a maintenance shed on Dec. 16 while Frank Manuma played a round of golf. Manuma said police told him the two men butchered and ate his pet. The charges are both felonies punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. "We're delighted that it's moving forward," Manuma said when told of the grand jury indictments. He said the club had given him permission to bring the dog to the club. Witnesses told golf club officials they saw the wor...

I watched a great documentary last night by the PBS series Independent Lens called " MAPPING STEM CELL RESEARCH: Terra Incognita ". What I found so interesting was how the two girls profiled that both had spinal cord injuries and fathers that were doctors, each girl had accepted their injury and their deficits, but each father had not. One girl's father was the research neurologist that was on this quest to find a cure for his daughter's injury. He was passionate about his research and fully dedicated to finding a cure. His daughter, on the other hand, had fully accepted her injury and had basically moved on. She was active in college activities and fully participating in life. Perhaps if the father realized that the time he was spending in the lab looking for the elusive "cure" was taking away from the time he could be spending with his family and his daughter, he could participate more in life... just like his daughter was already doing. I think searchin...

Have you heard about the new dog cross-breeds? They crossed a Collie and a Lhasa Apso. The new breed is a Collapso, a dog that folds up for easy transport. They crossed a Spitz and a Chow-Chow. The new breed is a Spitz-Chow, a dog that throws up a lot. They crossed a Pekingese and a Lhasa Apso. The new breed is Peekasso, an abstract dog. They crossed a Labrador Retriever and a Curly Coated Retriever. The new breed is a Lab Coat Retriever, the choice of laboratory researchers. They crossed a Pointer and a Setter. The new breed is a Poinsetter, a traditional Christmas pet. They crossed a Irish Water Spaniel and a English Springer Spaniel. The new breed is a Irish Springer, a dog fresh and clean. They crossed a Newfoundland and a Basset Hound. The new breed is a Newfound Asset Hound, a dog for financial advisors They crossed a Bloodhound and a Labrador. The new breed is a Blabador, a dog that barks incessantly. They crossed a Malamute and a Pointer. The new breed is a Moot Point, owned by...

NORTON SHORES, Mich. (AP) -- It was obvious to Scott and Kelly Cornelisse that their 2-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever, Remington, wasn't feeling well. What they didn't know was that their dog, for as long as they had owned him, had been living with part of an arrow lodged in his chest. The animal is recovering after a Norton Shores veterinarian volunteered to surgically remove the 8.5-inch aluminum arrow shaft last week. "This was a unique case because of how long the arrow had been in there," Steven Harden of Clarke Animal Hospital told The Muskegon Chronicle for a story published Monday. "Animals are amazing, and this dog is proof of that." It was Jan. 7, about six months after adopting the 100-pound dog from an acquaintance, when the Cornelisses, who live in Norton Shores, noticed that Remington was acting as if he didn't want to play - or even move. When Scott Cornelisse went to pick up Remington around the chest, he felt a lump. "I thoug...

PETA Killed 97 Percent of 'Companion Animals' in 2006 Death toll up to 17,400; overdue report describes PETA's deadliest year ever WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An official report from People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), submitted nine months after a Virginia government agency's deadline, shows that the animal rights group put to death more than 97 percent of the dogs, cats, and other pets it took in for adoption in 2006. During that year, the well-known animal rights group managed to find adoptive homes for just 12 pets. The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) is calling on PETA to either end its hypocritical angel-of-death program, or stop its senseless condemnation of Americans who believe it's perfectly ethical to use animals for food, clothing, and critical medical research. Not counting animals PETA held only temporarily in its spay-neuter program, the organization took in 3,061 "companion animals" in 2006, of...

I went to a tattoo expo last weekend, specifically looking for a good tatt artist to do my next tattoo. Here was my idea: I wanted the 2 spirals of the DNA double helix to twist around my forearm, from wrist to elbow. I wanted the thingys that connect the helix's to appear to go thru my arm, as if they were tearing the skin and muscles to get thru. You'd see the inner workings of my arm, muscles, tendons, maybe even nerves. Then there would be stick-figure people climbing the DNA. They'd start at the "bottom" near my wrist and climb up to my elbow. They'd start out "disabled", broken limbs, non-working legs. As they progressed up to the "top", they would appear to be "healed" and finally whole once reaching the top. Get the symbolism? So I found this great local artist, Jon Zig , at the expo. His work is awesome and I thought he could really capture the look I wanted. He agreed to do the work when we met at the expo. All...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- If there's one place to avoid while on the lam in a zoo it's the tiger pit. One stray dog learned that lesson the hard way and was recovering Wednesday from puncture wounds to its neck and shoulders. "This is one lucky animal," Memphis Zoo spokesman Brian Carter said of the dog. The 50-pound female retriever mix darted inside a service entrance to the zoo on Tuesday and led workers on a brief chase before it bolted over a 4-foot-high visitors railing and a retaining wall at the tiger exhibit. She swam across a 12-foot-wide moat to the interior of the exhibit and was quickly attacked by a 225-pound female Sumatran tiger. The open exhibit's main walls are 18 feet high. "The exhibit is designed to keep the animals from getting out but not for keeping animals from getting in," zoo spokesman Brian Carter said. "You can jump off a cliff but you can't jump up a cliff." Zoo workers, who were close on the dog's trail, used...

PORTAGE, Ind. (AP) -- A black Labrador that bit a 13-year-old boy's foot repeatedly, waking him up, is being credited with saving the boy and two of his friends from a house fire. Christopher Peebles said he woke up Friday morning to feel his dog Laney biting his foot repeatedly in the basement of his family's home, where he and two friends had spent the night. "I thought she had to go to the bathroom, but she never bites me," Peebles said Friday. He and his friends walked upstairs with Laney and noticed smoke everywhere in the home. "We came up the stairs and thought it was a dream, but it was cold when we opened the door - then we knew it wasn't a dream," Pebbles said. Firefighters arrived about 10 a.m. and found the home's garage and eaves on fire. Assistant Fire Chief Mike Bucy said the damage was mostly in the attached one-car garage of the ranch home. Fire Chief Bill Lundy said the fire, which caused an estimated $25,000 in damage to the home, ...

DALLAS (AP) -- The holidays were sad enough for Kim Velevis and her husband after their lovable pug "Scooter" dug its way out of the backyard and disappeared on Christmas Eve. But the real blow came with the new year: A letter from an anonymous woman who had found the friendly dog and gave it to her daughter as a Christmas present. To compensate for Velevis' loss, a $20 bill was enclosed. "The puppy has a different name now, but he has plenty of food and toys. My daughter adores him. He sleeps with her every night," said the letter, which arrived Wednesday. Velevis, 28, said she feels for the guilt-ridden woman, who described herself as a nearly penniless alcoholic. But she wants the dog back. "We knew the first thing our Scooter would have done is find people," Velevis said. "He must have wandered up to this sick lady who, in desperation and in an attempt to fix her own life, ruined ours." Velevis, who is 5 1/2 months pregnant with her first...

An article by former NBC reporter John Hockenberry lays it all out. Here's the full article . Here's an excerpt: ....how NBC News was covering wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that our GE parent company stood to benefit from as a major defense contractor. I wondered aloud, in the presence of an integrity "team leader," how we were to reconcile this larger-scale conflict with the admonitions about free dinners. "You make an interesting point I had not thought of before," he told me. "But I don't know how GE being a defense contractor is really relevant to the way we do our jobs here at NBC news." Integrity, I guess, doesn't scale. Other members of the "GE family" had similar doubts about their relevance to the news division. In early 2002, our team was in Saudi Arabia covering regional reaction to September 11. We spent time on the streets and found considerable sympathy for Osama bin Laden among common citizens at the same time that t...