Animals in Trouble

A couple animal stories have been hiding in the news the past couple weeks, and I just discovered them at Ananova (UK). I wish they had pictures.

Brief-eating dog:

Ananova reported November 27, 2007, on Taffy the springer spaniel and his addiction.

A springer spaniel needed an operation after swallowing his 40th pair of underpants.

Taffy has also wolfed down 300 socks and destroyed 15 pairs of shoes belonging to his owners Eubie and Sharon Saayman and their son Liam, three.

He even once ate the keys to their Mercedes car, reports the Daily Mirror.

Normally, everything he eats come out the other end naturally - but the last pair of undies would not budge.

Lucky for Taffy his owner, Eubie, is a veteranarian who was able to operate.

"His stomach was swollen and, during the operation, just as I thought, there was a pair of my son's Bob the Builder pants that had got stuck."

Taffy is doing fine, though the Saaymans have spent over £500 replacing the stuff he's eaten.

Mean-talking Mynah bird:

Ananova reported December 3, 2007, on a zoo's response to a bad-mouthing mynah bird.

A zoo caged a cheeky mynah bird for 15 days for being abusive to tourists.

Eight-year-old Mimi was put in solitary confinement at Yuelishan Park in Changsha city, after a visitor complained.

She had to stay in a darkened cage and listen to recordings of polite conversation in a bid to improve her behaviour.

"I was playing with her, and suddenly she said: "You're a stupid man"," the tourist, Mr Du, told the Chongqing Evening News.

"She also called me an ugly man."

A park spokesman said: "When she swears, the feeder refuses to feed her. And while she's confined, we play her tapes of polite speech."

The park says the sentence has cured Mimi of her habit, and that she is now welcoming guests pleasantly.

"We hope tourists won't teach her to swear again," added the spokesman.

They don't say what punishment the tourists will get for teaching Mimi more bad words.