Do Our Pets Experience Grief?

Research is now confirming that our dogs, cats and rabbits, not unlike humans, experience symptoms of grief when they lose a beloved human or pet companion. Grief has even been observed in wild species. Elephants have been seen caressing the body of a deceased companion.

According to an article in AARP Magazine, pets do experience grief and there are things you can do to help a beloved dog, specifically, through the grieving process:

Maintain Normalcy - routine is the key. Keep walks and feedings consistent.

Provide Extra Attention - give your pet more cuddles and pats.

Socialize - Interaction with other dogs and people can lift spirits.

 

 

 

 

The Pets of New York City

The New York Historical Society currently has a great exhibit titled, The Pets of the City running from October 25, 2024 to April 20, 2025.

Explore the visual history of New Yorkers and their animal companions over the last three centuries

Worth seeing!

As New York has evolved over the past three centuries, one thing hasn't changed. Our love for pets. In a new exhibit at The New York Historical (formerly The New-York Historical Society), Pets and the City, visitors can trace the evolution of how animals figure into life in New York from the times of the Lenape people to today. Through the exhibition of paintings, photographs, memorabilia, sculptures, video clips, and ephemera, you'll learn about domesticated squirrels, World War I messenger pigeons, NYPD K-9 units, and iconic urban animals like Flaco the Owl.

 

 

 

Social Media Star Peanut the Squirrel Meets a Sad End

Peanut the Squirrel, who boasted 534,000 followers on Instagram, was taken from his home in Pine City, New York, by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation on Wednesday morning. Peanut, also known as PNUT, was the beloved pet of content creator Mark Longo. In more than 1,400 posts shared to Instagram, Peanut can be seen munching on waffles, jumping through hula-hoops, and greeting Longo home from work.

Over the past several days, Longo has shared several statements on Peanut's Instagram account, keeping fans updated, in hopes that Peanut may return home. At the time of publication, Longo had not posted in regards to the recent news.

"It has been a terrible nightmare for me," Longo said in his most recent video, posted Friday morning.

In response to Peanut's seizure, a Change.org petition and GoFundMe campaign were created to "return him (Peanut)" to his family. As of Friday afternoon, the petition had 28,025 signatures, and the GoFundMe has raised $7,875.

Why do animals have to be euthanized to test for rabies?

According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, animals showing signs of rabies must be euthanized for the submission of specimen to a qualified rabies laboratory for testing. This is because a rabies test includes a "full cross-section of tissue from both the brain stem and cerebellum." There are no approved methods for testing rabies in animals ante-mortem.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Chemung County Department of Health advised that anyone who has been in contact with the seized squirrel or raccoon consult a physician.

Who was Peanut the Squirrel?

Peanut was a rescue squirrel who had lived under Longo's care for seven years.

Longo first connected with Peanut when he saw the squirrel's mom get hit by a car, per previous USA TODAY reporting. Unfortunately, the mother passed, leaving Peanut an orphan. Longo was unsuccessful in finding a shelter that would take him in. Longo ended up feeding baby Peanut for about eight months before attempting to release him back into the wild.

"I released him in the backyard, and a day and a half later, I found him sitting on my porch, missing half his tail. So here I am, bawling my eyes out, like, I failed you as your human," Longo told USA TODAY in 2022. "And I kind of opened the door, he ran inside and that was the last of Peanut's wildlife career."

For the first five years, Longo, Peanut, and Longo's cat, Chloe, lived together in harmony.

Last year, Longo established P'Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary in Pine City. The nonprofit serves as a "haven where neglected and homeless animals receive a second chance at life," according to its website. To date, 18 horses, one mini horse, four cows, three alpacas, one parrot, one pig and two geese call the sanctuary home, according to its website.

USA TODAY contacted Longo but was unsuccessful in connecting with him for an interview.

Is it legal for squirrels to be kept as pets in NY?

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation states that it is illegal for young wildlife to be kept as pets.

"Inappropriate care given to young wildlife often results in abnormal attachment to humans," the Department of Environmental Conservation states. "After release, some return to places where people live, only to be attacked by domestic animals or to be hit by cars. Some become nuisances getting into stored food, trash cans or dwellings. And some may be thrust as unwelcome intruders into the home range of another member of their species."

If an individual finds a young wild animal that is injured or orphaned, the department recommends making a call to a wildlife rehabilitator, who "are the only people legally allowed to receive and treat distressed wildlife." The goal of rehabilitators is to safely release the animal, when healthy, back into the wild.

 

 

 

Peanut the Squirrel euthanized: Social media users weigh in on Peanut the Squirrel being euthanized: 'This can’t be real'

Cat Lost in Yellowstone Treks 800 Miles Home

A miraculous walk home to California by Rayne Beau the cat!

 

Parrot is ‘Attention Hog’ and Smart as Human Toddler, Owners Say

Okay, I know I am not to play favorites but my favorite birds are parrots and owls. So I am tickled to read about Apollo, a parrot profiled in the Washington Post, who identifies objects, colors and some numbers. He can also distinguish among glass, metal and paper. 

Here is a short excerpt:

Apollo is an African gray parrot with a deep love of pistachios and millions of social media followers. He also has the brain power of a human toddler, according to his owners. “He’s very bubbly, he’s very outgoing, he wants to really perform for everybody,” said Dalton Mason, one of Apollo’s owners. “He’s a complete and total showoff.”

The couple have trained their pet parrot to identify objects, colors and some numbers. He can ask “What’s this?” and then correctly distinguish among glass, metal and paper. He also greets humans with “Hey, buddies” and can complete simple puzzles.

Apollo has a lot of fans. On a TikTok account run by the Masons, the bird has 2.9 million followers. He also has 1.4 million subscribers on YouTube, and 1.3 million followers on Instagram. He started making headlines back in 2022. “We attribute his social media success to his nature,” Dalton said. “He’s an attention hog.”

The Masons now dedicate their lives to training Apollo. They both do it full time, because the earnings from his social media accounts provide an income for them. “We spend a lot of time with him,” Victoria said, explaining that raising a pet parrot requires work, as they can be loud, destructive and demanding. (In one viral video, Apollo says “I want fresh water.”)

African gray parrots have become known for their innate intelligence and capacity for learning, in large part due to the research of Irene Pepperberg, a scientist specializing in animal cognition. She spent decades studying one African gray parrot, Alex, and observing his vocal behavior, including while she was a research associate at Harvard University.

“What Apollo is doing is fascinating,” Pepperberg said in an interview with The Washington Post. “It’s showing that Alex was not just some Einstein parrot, that other parrots are capable.” “I want people to understand and really appreciate the fact that these people are devoting their entire lives to this bird, and very few people in the world can do that,” Pepperberg continued. “It’s time and effort and energy that has to be put into this.”

Pepperberg used a training method for Alex called the model/rival technique, which involves two trainers. One gives the animal instructions while the other models correct and incorrect responses. The model trainer acts as the parrot’s rival student, vying for the other trainer’s attention. When Pepperberg began her research, “parrots were considered mindless mimics, because nobody figured out how to train them accordingly,” she said. “Nobody believed that this could work.”

Apollo enjoys a muffin. (Victoria Mason)

 

African gray parrots have the natural capacity to be strong students, Pepperberg said. Their vocal tract allows them to speak more clearly than other parrots, and “they have an extra bit of brain that seems to be used for learning,” she said. For Alex, “it wasn’t just a simple stimulus response or associative learning. He really understood what we were talking about,” Pepperberg said, noting that she tested Alex’s cognitive skills at the level of a 4-year-old human.

The Masons have used the same training strategy with Apollo.

Apollo caught the attention of Guinness World Records. He recently set the record for most items identified by a parrot in three minutes after naming 12 objects, including socks, a book and a bug.

 

 

 

Dr. Dolittle, meet AI: new model identifies pain in cats

Scientists use deep learning models and facial recognition analysis to detect subtle changes in ear tips, eyes and whiskers that indicate pain.

Naama Barak writes about a fascinating discovery that will help cats and their owners. Great news!

As any cat owner knows, felines can be pretty difficult to read – a problematic situation when our beloved pets are in pain. But now, a new artificial intelligence model can help us identify when our little tigers need that extra TLC. The reason it is difficult to tell when cats are in pain is their evolutionary ability to hide discomfort. This can result in house cats suffering from chronic pain without their humans ever knowing about it or taking them for treatment.

A team of researchers from the University of Haifa’s the Tech4Animals lab is developing the Dr. Dolittl-E app to detect animal feelings, using AI technology to advance and transform the world of veterinary care.

Along with researchers from São Paulo University in Brazil and Lincoln University and Nottingham University in the UK, they used deep learning models and facial recognition analysis to achieve a success rate of more than 70 percent in identifying cats in pain.

Their research, recently published in the Scientific Reports journal, is based on a study of 29 British shorthair cats. The researchers photographed female cats’ faces before and after sterilization, while they were still under the influence of painkillers and after the painkillers had worn off.

The AI models detected subtle changes in facial expressions, for example in the tips of the ears, eyes, whiskers and mustaches, that indicate pain. The areas around the mouth and eyes were found to be most significant in identifying pain.

The researchers say that their findings could change the way in which we care for cats, enabling anyone to photograph them in order to know whether they are in pain – and without the need for physical contact.