HOME |
RSS | 
Committing
insurance fraud is bad, but killing pets for insurance money? Now that's
surely a crime deserving the deepest circle of Hell.
The bad news is that fraudulent claims on pet insurance policies are on the rise in the UK:
First it was spurious claims for whiplash and other injuries, then it was "crash for cash". Now a new type of fraud is affecting the insurance industry - pet scams.
Dishonest claims on animal policies almost quadrupled last year, making it the fasting growing area of insurance crime.
Figures from the Association of British Insurers show there was £1,929,900 worth of pet insurance fraud detected last year – up from just £420,000 in 2009. [...]
Insurers believe frauds include owners getting rid of the animal - by selling it or even killing it - then claiming a payout for early death. The animal may never have existed in the first place.
Well, you do fondle your iPhone like it's a pet, so why not give it a tail already? Behold "Mobile Tail" by Korean designers Jangwon Park and Sangwoo Park, which won an award at the Tokyo Designers Week 2011:
As Jangwon puts it, in today's busy society, we have constantly have our phones by our side—whatever happened to spending time with pets? The concept behind Mobile Tail is to give our phones a personality, to add a tail to both personalize, and give a sense of heart to our "constant companion."
All gussied up and nowhere to go, these morbid curiosities are the product of Dutch artist Cedric Laquieze, who uses the skeletons of cats and dogs and covers them with fake flowers to create a startlingly beautiful effect. Now your deceased pet can serve as the centerpiece for your next family get together!
Link -via DesignTAXI
As a duckling, this adorable fella was shunned by his family and hasn’t wanted to go back since. He now follows duck breeder Barrie Hayman wherever he goes, waiting for him outside of supermarkets and even taking the seat beside him at pubs.
Video -via Arbroath | Previously on Neatorama Trucking Duck
A very patient and adorable hedgehog named Max gets clean. That is all. Oh, wait, that’s not all! Max’s owner also posted a video to answer questions he received about hedgehogs as pets. Link -via Arbroath
And you call yourself an "animal lover". How could you demean your "companion animals" by continuing to call them "pets". I mean really.
Domestic dogs, cats, hamsters or budgerigars should be rebranded as “companion animals” while owners should be known as “human carers”, they insist.
Even terms such as wildlife are dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned – who should instead be known as “free-living”, the academics including an Oxford professor suggest.
The call comes from the editors of then Journal of Animal Ethics, a new academic publication devoted to the issue.
The editors, Professors Andrew Linzey and Priscilla Cohn of Penn State University, added more offensive phrases of the English language that need to be stamped out:
Phrases such as “sly as a fox, “eat like a pig” or “drunk as a skunk” are all unfair to animals, they claim.
“We shall not be able to think clearly unless we discipline ourselves to use less than partial adjectives in our exploration of animals and our moral relations with them," they say.
Pet Tarantula Gummi Candy – $1.95
Are you bored with traditional Easter candy? Why not fill your Easter basket up with Pet Tarantula Gummi Candy from the NeatoShop! It’s sweet, kind of creepy, and definitely not boring. It kind of reminds me of my college physics professor.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fabulous Mints & Candies!
Comments Off
Vicki Lowing lives in Australia with her three pet crocodiles. She adopted Johnie, her first crocodile, fifteen years ago. Johnie is now 6 feet long! Lowing tells how the crocodile would get into bed with her and her then-husband, and even slept with her young son.
“Johnie would jump on Andrew’s bed nearly every night. They were like a brother and sister,” Lowing said.
Animal experts tell 20/20 there is no way to domesticate a crocodile. They are too aggressive, powerful and unpredictable. Ultimately a relationship like this may end in real tears – and not crocodile ones.
Lowing, who is now divorced, says the crocs were not responsible for the end of her marriage. But as much as she loves them, scaly reptiles who can take off a human limb with a nip are not exactly nuptial magnets.
“It’s hard, I do meet nice blokes. And then when they do eventually come home and see I’ve got the crocodiles, they just run, they all run. If I could find a man, like another Steve Irwin, sorry Terry, but like a Steve Irwin that could take me and my animals and share the same passion, that would be wonderful,” says Lowing.
Lowing is not the only one keeping crocodiles as pets. Read about more people who do in this article from ABC ‘s 20/20. Link -via Arbroath
Katja’s hamster Fred has a home to die for, for a hamster. Katja converted an Ikea Expedit bookcase into a multi-level hamster home featuring a different room for each activity. Fred has a large room for running, stairs and ladders to traverse, a room to burrow in, a room to take a dust bath in, a room to eat in, variable lighting, and plenty of places in which to explore and play. See more pictures and find out how it was done at Pawesome. Link
Do you love your pets so much that they sleep in your bed? Well, being close with your animals may feel good, but being too close may kill you:
Although they are not common, documented cases show people contracting infections by getting too cozy with their animals, according to work by researchers in California.
These so-called zoonoses include contracting plague from flea-infested pets, a MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infection, a bacterial infection resistant to multiple strains of antibiotics originating from the canine family, and various parasitic worms.
Bruno Chomel, a professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, said the research was prompted by stories he heard from his students when they described their relationships with their pets, and also from pet owners in general.
Is your cat missing? Forget Ace Ventura
The reality of this group of mostly women (who prefer the term animal communicator since they speak directly to the animals and don’t use any medium like tarot cards) is quite a bit more involved than finding animals stuck on a low rung of Buddhism’s reincarnation cycle or feeling dinner’s pain.
Most of Kohn’s work, in fact, deals with the living. After chatting with hundreds of animals, she has performed a variety of services, including locating pets that have wandered off, getting a finicky iguana to eat and counseling a horse prone to anxiety attacks.
The animal doesn’t even have to be present for Kohn to chat them up.
After "grounding" herself with a Kabbalistic prayer, getting her prayer stone (a quartz) and touching base with her animal spirit guides, she can be shown a photo or even just talk to the pet owner to make a connection.
Kohn then silently projects messages to the pet, all while taking notes on the words, pictures or feelings the pet sends back.
Instead of asking "how much is that doggy in the window," you should be asking "how many years in jail?" if you live in San Francisco. See, the Bay Area city is weighing a ban on all pet sales, with exception of fish:
Sell a guinea pig, go to jail.
That’s the law under consideration by San Francisco’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare. If the commission approves the ordinance at its meeting tonight, San Francisco could soon have what is believed to be the country’s first ban on the sale of all pets except fish.
That includes dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats, chinchillas, guinea pigs, birds, snakes, lizards and nearly every other critter, or, as the commission calls them, companion animals.
"People buy small animals all the time as an impulse buy, don’t know what they’re getting into, and the animals end up at the shelter and often are euthanized," said commission Chairwoman Sally Stephens. "That’s what we’d like to stop."
What do you think? Is it a good idea to ban pet sales?
This animation from Patrick Boivin shows what AT-ATs do when they’re not being used to battle the Rebellion. -via reddit
It’s not unusual to have a pet rodent, but Melanie Typaldos’ pet Caplin Rous is no ordinary rodent. See, Caplin is a Capybara, the world’s largest rodent:
The second part of his name, which Typaldos pronounces like "rose," stands for "Rodent of Unusual Size" (a reference to the movie "The Princess Bride"). He’s also a rodent of unusual abilities. He can walk on a leash and even do some tricks, but Typaldos says it’s important not to exaggerate any similarity to a dog doing tricks.
"Dogs have thousands of years of being trained to be subservient to people," she says. "A capybara will not do a trick just to make me happy. The quality of the trick is very dependent on the quality of the treat."
Link | More at Caplin’s blog Capybara Madness
You can debate the wisdom of making an otter into a pet, but you have to agree that Sidney is adorable. -via Buzzfeed
A tiny breed of pig is born the size of a teacup and is the hot new pet among British celebrities. The micro pig is about nine ounces and the size of a teacup when born, but can sell for up to £700. Breeder Jane Croft has given up her former career to breed the tiny pigs full-time.
At two years old they are fully grown and weigh in around 40-65lb and are about knee height at 12-16in tall.
They can live for up to 18 years, but make popular pets as they are low maintenance, quiet and surprisingly clean.
‘Micro pigs make fantastic pets as they are very low maintenance. You don’t have to take them for walks and they have very few health issues,’ said Miss Croft.
‘They don’t make much noise, they are easy to toilet train and once they have bonded with you they are very loving
The pigs are also good pets for people who are allergic to dogs or cats. Link -via the Presurfer
(image credit: Geoff Robinson Photography)
First fool the humans with the cute kind of cats, and then when they’re lulled into a false sense of security, the supercats will take over the world! Here’s a story of the rise of a new breed of predator cats as pets in Britain:
The savannah, the most popular, is bred from a serval, a cheetah-like
wildcat found in Africa. It can grow three times larger than a domestic cat and can jump 7ft vertically.Another breed to have arrived in Britain is the safari, produced by mating a domestic cat with a South American Geoffroy’s Cat. There are also plans by breeders to import the caracat, descended from a caracal, a lynx-like wildcat found in the Middle East and Africa. The savannah is banned in some US states and in Australia, where there were concerns it could kill koalas. [...]
Peter Neville, an expert in pet behaviour from the Feline Advisory Bureau (FAB), said: “Cats are predators. I wouldn’t be happy with a savannah around a small child, because of their genes and their size.
I, for one, welcome our new supercat overlords. Jasper Copping of the Telegraph bravely uncovered the supercat conspiracy: Link (Photo: BNPS)
Tamarins are considered highly endangered in the wild yet they are an increasingly popular pet amongst those who wish to purchase a NHP (Non-Human Primate).
Do you want to help save the Tamarins? Why not adopt one as a pet? Here’s the pros and cons:
Captive bred Tamarins can be hugely rewarding pets and can form a real bond with their owner that will be cherished for many years. The rewards of owning one can be manifold. The real question is not whether this is the right pet for you. The real question is whether or not you are the right owner.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.
Photo: NickIsConfused [Flickr]
Photographer Nick Drummond has a neat Flickr photoset of ATilla, his "pet" AT-AT. The best thing about having your very own Star Wars All Terrain Armored Transport Walker? It’s easily house-trained, of course! Link – via Super Punch
There is of course a serious message to this animation. According to leading vets, pet obesity is one of the biggest issues affecting pets’ health and one in three of the UK’s dogs and cats are now overweight. Fat pets can develop serious health problems – including diabetes, arthritis and even organ failure.
The RSPCA has more information, and has even created an online community to help people keep their pets slim and healthy. Link -Thanks, Jayne Carverhill!
The embedded flash is autoplay, so I put the finished product on the next page.
more …
PetFinder has posted their annual lists of the 10 most popular names for dogs and for cats. In addition, they have lists of the 10 most unusual pet names, and the 10 most unusual names for groups of pets. The most unusual individual names are:
1. Woe Izmee
2. Gwyneth Poultry (a duck)
3. SoSueMe
4. 54cent Swee’T
5. Iamaredneckwoman
6. Angry Chef Soup
7. Ms. Cornflake Especially
8. Bon Jo Flea
9. McLovin
10. Joe the Plumber
A shelter had a dog named Buck up for adoption and didn’t get any response. They changed his name to Joe the Plumber, and he had a new home in no time! Link -Thanks, Katy!
