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Toddler Eaten by Leopard at Safari Park

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Ugandan authorities were on Monday hunting for a leopard that snatched and ate the three-year-old son of a female ranger working in the popular Queen Elizabeth National Park.

The boy had been left in the care of a nanny at the unfenced staff quarters of a safari lodge in the park, when he was taken by the leopard on Friday night.

Wildlife authority spokesman Bashir Hangi said the child had followed the nanny outdoors.

“The maid was not aware the child followed her. She heard the kid scream for help, she intervened but it was too late the leopard had vanished with it in the bush and a search was mounted until we got the skull the next day,” he said. (Read more from “Toddler Eaten by Leopard at Safari Park” HERE)

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Loyal Dog Won’t Leave Hospital Where Owner Died 5 Months Ago

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His owner died five months ago after being fatally stabbed, but a loyal dog who chased the ambulance that was transporting his owner still won’t leave the hospital.

The dog, which apparently has no name, has made a home outside the Santa Case de Novo Horizonte hospital in Brazil, and he refuses to leave, according to posts on Facebook by a woman named Cristine Sardella.

He arrived at the hospital in October after his 59-year-old homeless owner was stabbed in a street fight, Brazil’s O Globo newspaper reported . . .

Hospital staff provided food and water for the dog. A local kennel agreed to take him in.

But even though a new owner tried to adopt the dog, he escaped from the kennel and returned to his spot in front of the hospital. (Read more from “Loyal Dog Won’t Leave Hospital Where Owner Died 5 Months Ago” HERE)

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Rare Megamouth Shark Captured on Video

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When scientists first discovered the megamouth shark in 1976 off the coast of Hawaii, it struck them as so bizarre that, to classify it, they created an entirely new genus and family.

Today, little is still known about the shark save for the fact that it has a large gaping mouth, which is indeed, very mega.

While swimming off the coast of Indonesia’s Komodo Island, one diver got a lucky sighting of one of these rarely seen sharks.

The diver was exploring the northernmost string of the islands known as Gili Lawa Laut, a popular diving spot for tourists when the shark happened to swim by. Video shows a clear image of the shark gently gliding through the water. It’s characteristic head and mouth get within close proximity of the diver before it turns and swims away. (Read more from “Rare Megamouth Shark Captured on Video” HERE)

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NIH Proposes Funding Human-Animal Hybrids

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is proposing a new rule that would lift the ban on federally funding experiments on human stem cells that splice them with animal embryos to create human-animal hybrids.

The federal government put a moratorium on funding the creation of such hybrids, known as chimeras, back in September 2015. The proposed rule would lift that ban for two specific types of hybrid-creation research.

Christian journalist Rod Dreher points out that the head of NIH is (widely proclaimed) evangelical Francis Collins. Dreher’s take: “Christian-run agency embraces pig-man.”

“On his watch, the NIH is going to create living creatures that are part human, part animal,” Dreher says.

As The New York Times so gently put it, “The idea of human cells developing inside an animal embryo and forming, in effect, a human-animal chimera, has alarmed some people.”

Indeed.

Leon Kass’s bioethics council, vindicated yet again: https://t.co/sU6DXDPmqT

“Scientists would never” line is always a farce.

— Jonathan Coppage (@JonCoppage) August 4, 2016

Catholic priest and blogger Father Matthew Schneider notes that the NIH is currently soliciting feedback on the proposed rule. His view: “It’s beyond immoral not only to allow but fund human-animal hybrids.”

My #ThursdayThoughts: Making animal-human hybrids & experimenting on them raises so many ethical problems… yet the NIH wants to fund it.

— Fr Matthew Schneider (@FrMatthewLC) August 4, 2016

Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith says that our science sector does not uphold the intrinsic dignity of human life, and “we can’t trust our regulatory bodies — which can be more controlled by the sectors they are supposed to regulate than the other way around — to maintain strict boundaries.”

“Another problem is that society generally doesn’t seem to care much,” Smith said. “If you tell many people that biotechnology will cure their Uncle Charlie’s Parkinson’s disease, they won’t give much of a fig about the moral ramifications.”

According to Smith, we’re already on our way down this slippery slope.

I don’t think this work can be stopped. But identifying the lines that should not — and will not — be crossed is an urgent need so that legally enforceable standards can be delineated. I just don’t see anyone currently in power within the symbiotically connected science, government and big business sectors much interested in giving such work more than placating lip service at the moment.

The NIH is taking comments through September 4. (For more from the author of “NIH Proposes Funding Human-Animal Hybrids” please click HERE)

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Weird Animal With ‘Body of Buffalo and Head of Crocodile’ Baffles Everyone [+video]

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Images have been shared of a most unusual creature spotted in a remote village – and it’s the stuff of sci-fi movies.

The strange animal appears to have the scaly, rough head and skin of a reptile such as a crocodile.

Photo Credit: Mirror

However, on closer inspection, it’s also got the body, limbs and hooves of a mammal such as a calf . . .

The creature appears to have been born of a buffalo, but is clearly not a normal-looking creature. (Read more from “Weird Animal With ‘Body of Buffalo and Head of Crocodile’ Baffles Everyone” HERE)

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Girl, 10, Kills 800-POUND Monster Alligator With One Shot From Her Crossbow

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Armed with a loaded crossbow, 10-year-old Ella Hawk did not flinch when she faced off against an 800-pound, 13-foot alligator in Texas.

Ella, who has been hunting with her parents, Tony and Cindy Hawk, for a few years now, delivered a perfect shot above the scaly beast’s eyes, killing it on the spot . . .

In fact, the slain gator was big enough to rank No. 1 in the world in Trophy Game Records of the World’s database, according to the Victoria Advocate.

The 10-year-old had been preparing for last month’s hunting expedition by shooting her crossbow from an elevated position.

Once on location on the Guadalupe River, Ella’s training immediately kicked in and she quickly proved her mettle by felling the beast with a bolt to the head. (Read more from “Girl, 10, Kills 800-POUND Monster Alligator With One Shot From Her Crossbow” HERE)

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‘World’s Biggest’ Snake Has Been Discovered – and It Will Send Chills Down Your Spine [+video]

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A new contender for the title of world’s biggest snake has been discovered.

With a head that dwarfs any human’s and a seemingly neverending body the terrifying beast is sure to send chills down your spine.

Footage has emerged of the snake bound up in chains after it was captured in the wild, but that doesn’t make it any less fearsome.

As the camera pans along the snake its body is swollen in places as evidence of its voracious appetite. (Read more from “‘World’s Biggest’ Snake Has Been Discovered – and It Will Send Chills Down Your Spine” HERE)

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Judge’s Law Clerk Resigns After Saying Trooper’s Death Was ‘Not Sad,’ but the Dead Deer He Hit Was

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The callous New Jersey law clerk who said last week’s death of a state trooper was “not that sad” and instead mourned the deer he hit has resigned from her job.

Leslie Anderson, who worked for the Middlesex County Superior Court, came under fire last week for posting multiple Facebook comments blaming New Jersey State trooper Anthony Raspa for his own demise.

The 24-year-old trooper died on-duty last Saturday after his patrol car hit a deer and careened off Interstate 195, veering into trees.

“Not that sad, and certainly not ‘tragic.’ Troopers were probably traveling at a dangerously high speed as per usual,” Anderson wrote . . .

Anderson resigned Wednesday after initially being suspended with pay for two weeks pending an internal probe, a New Jersey Judiciary spokeswoman said. She was hired in August 2014. (Read more from “NJ Law Clerk Resigns After Saying Trooper’s Death Was ‘Not Sad,’ the Dead Deer Was” HERE)

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Elephants Help Rescue 18-Wheeler Truck Stuck in Louisiana

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elephantshelp1Forget calling for a tow truck — there’s another road rescue team in place and they probably work for peanuts. But seriously, while it might sound like a joke to have a couple of elephants helping out a stuck semi-truck on the side of the road, it’s all too delightfully true.

A pair of pachyderms was put to work assisting the 18-wheeler trailer they were traveling in when it got stuck on the side of the highway in Nachitoches Parish, LA, reports WTVR.com. They’re seen in photos of the incident leaning against the truck, guided by their handler, as the vehicle appears to be on the verge of tipping over . . .

“When deputies arrived on scene, they were astounded to find two elephants keeping the 18-wheeler from overturning,” a sheriff’s department spokesman wrote. “The truck became stuck after the driver pulled off the edge of the soft shoulder. Recent rains caused the ground off of the shoulder to be soft.” (Read more from “Elephants Help Rescue 18-Wheeler Truck Stuck in Louisiana” HERE)

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Starving Sea Lions Washing Ashore by the Hundreds in California

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By the time Wendy Leeds reached him, the sea lion pup had little hope of surviving.

Like more than 1,450 other sea lions that have washed up on California beaches this year, in what animal experts call a growing crisis for the animal, this 8-month-old pup was starving, stranded and hundreds of miles from a mother who still needed to nurse him and teach him to hunt and feed. Ribs jutted from his velveteen coat.

The pup had lain on the beach for hours, becoming the target of an aggressive dog before managing to wriggle onto the deck of a million-dollar oceanfront home, where the owner shielded him with an umbrella and called animal control. In came Ms. Leeds, an animal-care expert at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, which like other California rescue centers is being inundated with calls about lost, emaciated sea lions . . .

Experts suspect that unusually warm waters are driving fish and other food away from the coastal islands where sea lions breed and wean their young. As the mothers spend time away from the islands hunting for food, hundreds of starving pups are swimming away from home and flopping ashore from San Diego to San Francisco.

Many of the pups are leaving the Channel Islands, an eight-island chain off the Southern California coast, in a desperate search for food. But they are too young to travel far, dive deep or truly hunt on their own, scientists said. (Read more from “Starving Sea Lions Washing Ashore by the Hundreds in California” HERE)

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