Binti Mafuta, a lone female lioness at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston was killed on November 16th in a rather gruesome turn of events when introducing a new male lion to the zoo. In only four minutes, the male lion had managed to lunge at the elderly female, pierce her windpipe, and choke the lioness to death.

To add to this, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has just cut Zoo New England's budget about 25% in order to cope with costs brought on by a slowing economy and extra funding needed for security due to September 11th expenses.

Visit the Boston Globe for more information. You can also help the park by visiting Zoo New England and supporting the park financially.

From his daughter, Lori:

Jack Carroll Haldeman, II -- December 11, 1941 - January 1, 2002.

Brother. Father. Husband. Friend.

True to form, he chose a moment when nobody was looking at him - he always did cringe at being the center of attention. He went peacefully, as the family was sitting around him, telling jokes and laughing.

More comments and remembrances can be found here.

Advertisement was seen on MTV, for Plushies and Furries

Eurofurence 8 will be held in Hilders (Germany) from August 15th - 18th 2002 .For more information about the con and the location, check out the website . If you'd like to know something about previous Eurofurences go to here. As you will see,there aren't that many furries in Europe, but the community is slowly growing.

Only one week to the closing of nominations for the first annual Anthropomorphic Literature & Arts of the Year (Ursa Major) Awards. These Awards, for the best in Furry fiction and art of 2001, will be presented at ConFurence 2002 in April 2002. The nominations are open from December 1, 2001 to January 7, 2002. Anyone may nominate up to five nominees in each of the nine categories.



For nominating instructions, including the e.mail and Post Office Box addresses to which nominations should be sent, see this website.

Two young joeys, partly hairless, pouchbound and suckling, were stolen from a special viewing enclosure at England's Dudley Zoo. The theives broke into the heavy glass enclosure late Friday night, and the curators of the exhibit worried they wouldn't survive the night without their mother. The babies were quickly found, though, when people spotted children carrying them across a road 20 minutes after the robbery. They were later found in a gypsy camp outside the town. Perhaps a late Christmas gift?

Dog meat, a long time traditional food of many cultures, has been outlawed in Korea, but legislators want to push a bill to change that. They say the lack of regulation leads to the inhumane killing and unsanitary handling of dogs in markets currently, which in turn is the primary target for the animal activists against the practice. The opposition to the bill is not only comming from Western animal rights people, but humaine groups in the country as well. Similar bills have been unsucessful.

From a wiltzworks.com press release. Anthropomorphic animals are often the material of children's books and Disney movies, but Simba Wiltz, author of the newly released novel MainFrame- Beginnings (Xlibris, $19.54, ISBN: 1-4010-2287-1), had very different intentions in the creation of his characters.

As reported in the Washington Post, a man is wanted in Poolesville, Maryland (a town northwest of Washington, D.C.) for abandoning a 10 week old kitten in traffic. The kitten is doing well after being rescued from a sewer into which it fled. A $250 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest, which could earn the perp a $5000 fine and up to three years in jail.

From a National Zoo press release: The Sumatran tiger cub born on September 18 at the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park made its public debut December 27 at 11 a.m. At the debut, the 20-pound, three- month old male cub, named Berani (Bahasa Indonesian for brave) was on view for the first time inside the large glass-fronted enclosure opposite the Bat Cave at the Zoo's Great Cats exhibit. His eight-year-old mother, Soyono, is nearby, or with Berani, as she chooses. Berani is still too young to venture out into the outside yards (particularly in cold weather).



Also, on January 10, 2002, the National Zoo will celebrate the first anniversary of the opening of the Giant Panda Exhibit with Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, followed by Panda Day on January 12.

It's that time of year for all the 'Best of 2001' lists, and the science fiction world is no exception. Locus, the sci-fi industry's major news rag, has a compilation list of the Best SFFH Books of 2001, as compiled from several different sources. Take a look at it, and check out what you'll probably see appearing on next year's Hugo ballot. The New England Science Fiction Association has some suggestions, too.

It's been said many times before, but it's well worth saying again. Do not buy or adopt animals for pets during Christmas. Several shelters are holding off adoptions due to worries of pets given as gifts. Pets are even abandoned BEFORE Christmas, to make way for the new animal presents or to to avoid the difficulties of animal care at this time of year.
And it's not just dogs and cats that can be abandoned by an unprepared owner after Christmas.Ferrets, rabbits,
and other critters are left homeless too after the holidays.
What can you do instead of buying a pet for yourself or a loved one? Why not donate to an animal charity instead?

Elbow squid! Elbow squid! Elbow squid! Now that I have your attention, scientists have discovered a neat new squid species in the dark depths of the ocean. Unlike regular squid, who have eight arms and two specially adaptive "grabbing" tenticles, this creature, dubbed "Mystery squid", has ten indistinguishable arms, which project out like bicycle spokes, bend at 'elbow' points and dangle down from the squid's body for about 20 feet. That and it's huge, winglike mantle make it unique in the cephalopod world.

Scientists point out that this new discovery shows how little we know about the ecosystem and animals of our oceans.

This article

describes a very unfortunate event on a train: In Helsinki, a train's television screens started showing a very graphic animal slaughter video, repeatedly. The article reads that the video "turned out to be the conductor's home video".

My only question... what kind of person would make a home video of "Images of a big white goose-like bird being slaughtered with an axe, including a close-up of the sliced neck" and "images of a pig split in half and hung from its feet with hooks"?

The Olive Ridley turtle is heading for land at this time of year, to make the trek up beaches to lay it's eggs. But in one of their major nesting areas, thousands have been killed before even reaching the shore. Intangling fishing nets and fatal propeller injuries from illegal fishing trawlers have been responsible for an estimated 1,300 turtle deaths in the last few days.
Officals estimate many more will die before the end of the laying season, as they suspected 50,000 died last year at the same time, but feel powerless to stop illegal fishing in the area where nesting is taking place. The high casualties may drive this turtle to extinction.