Two young German Shepherds, year-and-a-half old Devaki and Makita, were shot and killed on November 12. Co-owners Shannon Hautala, Gary Kuoppala and Alexis Gunderson spoke with the press.

The owners were doing chores on their farm in Clinton Township, Iron Range, Minnesota.

The dogs ducked under a fence and ran into the woods. The owners started calling for the dogs as soon as they went out of sight. Hautala said she heard gunshots shortly afterwards.

The next morning, Hautala found the dogs dead near a hunting stand on the adjoining property. Hautala said the hunters admitted to her they had shot the dogs. Kuoppala said:

All they said is they can shoot anything that comes on their land and if the dogs come on their land, they can shoot them.

When people think of the most intelligent animals other than humans, the first contenders are the dolphins and great apes. A less-obvious one may be birds of the family Corvidae, containing both crows and ravens. This was suggested when researchers at Oxford found crows are able to make specific tools, a feat never before seen in other animals.

More recently, ravens have been shown to direct other individuals' attention through gestural communication; the first time this has been seen outside of the primates. In primates, such gestures are rarely seen in the wild. Why wild ravens show this behaviour more commonly is unknown, but it is thought by some to be the foundation of language.

The Huffington Post reports on a 2012 calendar in the United Kingdom which features cats playing musical instruments. The images in the calendar, released by Maverick Arts, were created by digitally altering photographs of real pet cats.

An examination of the publisher's website reveals several other calendars along similar lines, with such titles as Maverick Meerkats, Ferrets Go Fishing, Water Skiing Westies, and Ballroom Bunnies.

Experts from Wolong National Nature Reserve believe interaction with researchers in these goofy looking costumes may increase a panda cub’s chance of survival once introduced to the wild.

"Well, it's funny looking but hey, whatever works!" said one employee when asked of the outfits.

In 2006, the research team introduced a captive-born male cub into the wild, only to have it tragically rejected and killed by its free-roaming brethren, according to the Washington Post.

Matthew Scully is an unusual proponent of animal rights, coming from the Christian-favoured, U.S. Republican party. Indeed, he speaks about people automatically assuming he is on the side of hunters and pig 'farmers' when, in fact, he has been a vegetarian for over 30 years.

While Scully does support animal rights, he makes that stand from a generally religious perspective, arguing that current treatment of animals is an abuse of god-given dominion, and disagreeing with the secular reasoning of animal rights proponents like Peter Singer.

Scully's ability is shown when coming to the main thrust of his book, where he writes about animals, how they are treated and how they should be treated. He is an excellent writer (a former speechwriter for then-president George W. Bush), and a dutiful investigator, travelling to most of the places about which he writes.

This book collects the second year of Griffin’s award-winning Monday-Wednesday-Friday full-color online comic strip, Housepets!, from June 1, 2009 to May 28, 2010. Wow!

When Book 1 containing the first year’s worth was published in July, I assumed that Griffin would be publishing these annual collections annually. Nope! And I’m glad to be wrong. This means that we won’t have to wait another year to get the third year’s worth.

Charleston, SC, CreateSpace, October 2011
Trade paperback, $12.99 (66 pages)

Terry Thompson, released from prison a few weeks ago on gun possession charges and still under house arrest, released his 56 exotic pets into the wilds of Ohio before killing himself. The irresponsible action of the owner resulted in the death of 49 animals; a monkey remains on the lam, while the other six were captured and are to be placed into local zoos.

The final count of animal life taken was six black bears, two grizzly bears, nine male lions, eight lionesses, one baboon, three mountain lions, 18 tigers and two wolves.

This is artist Rick Griffin’s collection of the first year of his Monday-Wednesday-Friday Internet comic strip, Housepets!

Griffin (b. 1986; not the underground artist of 1960s-1970s comix and psychedelic posters who died in 1991) says he and his brother have been cartooning since their childhood; he got the rough idea for Housepets! in 2006, posted his first test strips on Fur Affinity during 2007, and the strip went online June 2, 2008.

This collection is unretouched, so the reader can see its evolution from a simple black-&-white, two character strip to a complex full-color strip with over a dozen characters, and the maturing of Griffin’s art style during its first year.

CreateSpace, July 2011; Trade paperback $11.99 (43 pages)

The original Hugh T. Manatee, a regular member of the Funday PawPet Show cast, is up for auction.

Funds will be used to purchase new equipment for Poinkcast, HughTube and video archive digitization.

Update: The auction raised $102.50, just 43% of the winning bid for Poink T. Ferret in June 2007.

Puppeteer JR explained the sale [tip: BabsBunny]:

A few weeks ago, I started thinking, I'd love to have a YouTube channel focusing on stuff I've done and Hugh and Poink; [...] So, I created HughTube. [...] I decided I really wanted to build this up, film stuff with Poink and Hugh that hasn't been seen anywhere, and really build up the PoinkCast brand. I put together a list of stuff I'd need, and realized that if I did it all out of pocket it was going to take a while. So I posted it on FA and asked for donations.

I wasn’t as proactive as I thought I would be, and I’m pretty sure I missed a couple posted during the first of September, so apologies there. Otherwise, here was last month’s Newsbytes.

Yes, you read that right. An intoxicated elk found himself up a tree with no way down... a situation only cats are supposed to find themselves in. [Newser.com]

According to Sweden's edition of The Local, the elk was grazing on fermenting apples that had fallen off the tree, and became a bit drunk; a common phenomenon. What happened next is anything but: the elk decided to eat the apples located higher up in the tree, and began to climb it. The majestic, antlered creature became entangled within the tree's limbs, and required assistance from rescuers to get back onto terra firma.

A new British "invisibility cloak" infra-red system, Adaptiv, makes it possible to disguise military vehicles as large animals such as cows, even while moving. This has the potential during warfare to get a lot of animals killed, just to play safe.

For historical purposes, a collection of links and other tidbits posted to Newsbytes in August.

The "Ready Kids" web site of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency enlists a family of mountain lions to teach kids about preparing for emergencies:

Things have been getting pretty "batty" in recent weeks.  A bat decides to crash a meeting regarding road signs in Epping, New Hampshire, startling the members within. Seemingly not content with this, a second bat decides to become a stowaway on a Delta Airlines flight, causing quite a stir, and requiring the plane to turn around so the small flying mammal could be released safely. Perhaps he was trying out to be a stunt-double for Fox McCloud?