They may not be the biggest or dirtiest, but New York’s rats are no less detestable. Over the weekend I had the pleasure of watching nature do its part to control the furry rodents in Prospect Park. A Red-tailed Hawk swooped down and plucked a rat out of Long Meadow, before shredding and devouring its carcass as a small crowd of onlookers quietly applauded.
Photos by Will Sherman
With captured creatures and their cadavers, photographer Amy Stein explores the human animal relations through constructed encounters inspired by true tales. Last night at Chelsea’s Clamp Art gallery, the photographer opened “Domesticated,” an exhibition of animals, both tame and wild, dealing with the impacts of human development around small town Pennsylvania. Stein’s environmental interplay is on view through October 31st at 521-531 West 25th Street.
This week, this biggest worldwide concentration of douchebags is located on the Côte d’Azur of France at the Cannes Advertising Festival. It’s our sycophantic industry’s biggest self-fellating event. But thanks to the economic downturn, plus the discovery that some winning ads from recent festivals were fakes (tres horrible!) that never ran, this year’s show has lost a bit of lustre. Still, I’ve scrolled through scores of early winning entries to find my favorite so far. As we’ve said often here on ANIMAL, we strongly condemn the rampant Photoshop abuse of animals in ads. But we couldn’t help but chuckle at these Gold Lion winners for Fiat (the panda one is precious). Not only does this campaign unexpectedly and memorably relay the low CO2 emission selling point, it also (misleadingly?) implies that little Fiats are crash-test safe. Brilliant. |Images: coloribus|
The death toll climbs to 800 in the goose genocide going down around New York City. Inside a five mile radius of city’s airports, officials are targeting 2,000 geese for trapping and gassing, regardless of the fact that none of the resident birds had anything to do with taking out Captain Sully’s US Airways jet. |NYDN|
Nearly 100 Canada geese were slaughtered yesterday, the first in a 2,000 goose genocide to eradicate any birds that could possibly foul up planes. The geese were herded into corrals and crates before being gassed with carbon dioxide. |NYP|
Geese have been the target of much aviation animosity ever since a gaggle of the migratory birds claimd responsibility for forcing US Airways’ hero pilot Sully Sullenberger to ditch his passenger-filled plane in the Hudson River. Now comes news that a multi-agency taskforce is preparing for goose genocide, slaughtering 2,000 of the big birds within five miles of Kennedy and La Guardia Airports.
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In Malawi, nine elephants were darted, drugged and trucked off to Majete Wildlife Reserve as part of a larger effort to avoid future conflicts between the animals and villagers. |Photo Journal|
A 200-pound chimpanzee that attacked a Connecticut woman has tested positive for the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. It’s not clear whether it contributed to the attack, in which the victim lost her hands, nose, lips and eyelids, but it’s likely that feeding an animal pills meant for panicky humans isn’t very smart. |NYP|
Urban naturalist blogger James O’Brien of Yojimbot, who once rescued a Peregrine falcon and helped release some Kestrel fledglings, recently caught some photographs of a harbor seal that has been spotted lounging in Inwood Hill Park. Shockingly, it survived the pollution and was even frolicking about. |Yojimbot|
No, we’re not talking about those SEALS who shot the unruly Somali teenagers, but actual dolphins that blocked pirates from attacking Chinese shipping freights in the Gulf of Aden. The Xinhua News Agency reports that when thousands of the cetacean mammals began leaping out of the water, “the suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness before the vast number of dolphins.” Damn, defeated by probably deaf dolphins! Piracy is quickly losing its cool.
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