Newsgab

We’ve reported on some strange stuff here at Newsgab. We’ve had Moose and Horse Hybrids and kittens with two faces.

This week we bring you a lamb, born in New Zealand with seven legs!

This poor freak of nature isn’t the result of scientists attempts to win over the leg of lamb or lamb chop market, its a misprint in embryo formation which has resulted in the lamb being born polydactyl, with many legs, a condition that occurs once in several million sheep!

Farmer Dave Callaghan found the lamb in his field. Two of its legs hung useless behind the forelegs. The lamb walked using its two forelegs and three healthy hind legs.

Veterinarian Steve Williams said the lamb was also hermaphrodite, and was missing a part of its bowel so was unable to pass faeces.

“So where are we going today Dad?” asks a curious 10 year old boy while visiting is father. “We’re running with the bulls today son…” Yes that’s right, a father has taken his 10 year old son to run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

Needless to say, the mother was not impressed, and sought to have the father’s visitation rights removed to protect the child’s “well being” and to teach him a lesson about raising a child. And after contacting the local authorities, a judge was more than happy to grant the mother her request. And what a surprise the father must have had when the police came around to remove the boy from his custody.

But how did the mother find out about all this??? A local paper had run a story on the annual running of the bulls, complete with photos of the event. That’s right, one of the photos contained a bull.. complete with running father and his son.

Aww, we’ve not posted anything particularly cute for some time so get a load of this.

The tiger and orangutan babies, which would never be together in the wild, have become inseparable playmates at the aman Safari zoo after they were abandoned by their mothers.

The friendship between 5-month-old female baby primates Nia and Irma, and cubs Dema and Manis, has blossomed at the Taman Safari zoo where they share a room in the nursery.

After being abandoned by their mothers shortly after birth, the four play fight, nipping and teasing each other, and cuddling up for a shared nap when they are worn out.

Although the four have lived side-by-side for a month without a single act of hostility, I’m really not sure how these ‘play fights’ might turn out later on in life as these cute babies get older.

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We’ve reported on dogs courageously saving the lives of their owners. Now an Australian family of four owe their lives to their pet cat after the animal prevented a house fire from turning into a tragedy,

After a mattress caught on fire in the night, the courageous moggie leapt to the aid of its sleeping owner by digging its claws into his face, waking him before the blaze engulfed the family home in north Queensland.

Begs the question though. We all know that cats are capable of dialling the emergency services on a telephone so is the whole claws in the face thing more of a ‘get me the hell out of here?’

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Awww, isn’t he cute. Copycat the kitten is probably one of the last cloned pets to be seen following the closure of California based Genetic Savings and Clone .

The company cited lack of interest for the closure and although they have transfered customers’ “gene bank” accounts to Texas-based ViaGen, there are no plans to replicate pets.

The closure of the first company to clone and sell pet cats was good news to the US Humane Society.

“It’s no surprise the demand for cloned pets is basically non-existent, and we’re very pleased that Genetic Savings and Clone’s attempt to run a cloning pet store was a spectacular flop,” said society president Wayne Pacelle.

“The industry has no business trying to profit from people’s bonds with their pets or from efforts to engineer a new production strategy that was unnecessary, highly experimental and inhumane.”

It’s official, not making your bed keeps you healthy. Dust mites present in everyone’s home can cause asthma, but they cannot live in the dry condition’s of an unmade bed.

The average bed is home to one and a half million mites, and they cause a number of common allergies, as they chomp away on human skin in the night; and then produce the allergens which we inhale.

Dust mites thrive in the warm humid conditions prevalent in an occupied bed, but they cannot multiply without moisture. So leaving the bed unmade during the day means that the water is not retained by the sheets, that means that the mites dehydrate and die.

Researcher Dr Stephen Pretlove who has developed a computer model to track how changes in the home can reduce numbers of dust mites said: “We know that mites can only survive by taking in water from the atmosphere using small glands on the outside of their body.

Many of the world’s famous animal rights’ protection groups are clamouring for this this year’s Chinese animal Olympics to be the last.

It has thrown up some horrific pictures including two bears boxing in a ring, and the referee was a chimpanzee. Kangaroos have also been forced to box, and one photograph saw a man dressed in a clown suit belt the kangaroo around the head.

Live animals have been thrown at tigers in the arena, an event which is supposed to amuse the crowd.

Craig Redmond, the UK-based campaigns manager of the Captive Animals’ Protection Society, said: “The things these animals are being made to do are not natural acts, and there will no doubt be cruelty involved in making them perform these tricks.”

This website has written more strange stories in the category of animal stories, than almost any other, but this one takes the biscuit or more precisely the “chip”.

It now seem the immobiliser chip in your key fob has to present to start your car, but it does not actually have to be in your key fob, whilst it does it.

Juliette Piesley, 39, changed the battery in her electronic key fob, but then she realised she could not start her car. She called the AA for a patrol man to come and sort out her dilemma.

Kevin Gorman the mechanic efficiently and quickly ascertained that the immobiliser chip was not present and correct in the key fob, the battery was in place, but could not be activated.

Distracted though she was Juliette had the impression that her dog had been foraging around and she thought her dog George may have indeed eaten the chip.

After a Summer of war the death toll in Lebanon has been appalling.

However many people did not die in the carnage, they simply fled, and in the chaos left behind their domestic pets.

Some 300 of the former pets are being flown to the United States on Monday for adoption.

“I’ve grown attached to them and I’m very, very sad that they’re leaving. But I know they’ll be in good hands and have a better life there,” said Mona Khoury.

Khoury is co-founder of Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, (BETA) which is working on the project with the American animal society Best Friends.

Many of the people that had fled were foreigners and they could not take their pets. BETA helped round these animals up and care for them, and have now arranged their removal to safety.

A 16-year-old girl was strangled by a monkey in a village in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state, a news report in the Asian Age said today.

The monkey allegedly attacked the girl called Mamta in the Gorakhpur district which is located about 300 kilometres east of state capital Lucknow on Wednesday. She was attacked after trying to deter the animal from eating corn kernels.

Mamta’s father Deep Chand said family members rushed out hearing her cries for help but found the girl lying on the floor and the monkey sitting nearby.

“There were marks around her neck which means she was strangled to death,” he told the paper.

Your first instinct when reading may be that an autopsy may well reveal that the hands of human’s is more likely. However it is not the first time that apes have been accused of attacking and or killing humans.