Steinbring Inc.

A hunter shot the duck, wounding it in the wing and leg. Believing the bird was dead, he left it in his fridge at his home in Tallahassee.
The hunter’s wife got a fright when she opened the fridge and the duck lifted its head, a local veterinarian said.
Staff at the Goose Creek Animal Sanctuary who are treating the bird said it has a 75% chance of survival.

This is very interesting. The Guide Horse Foundation provides “a safe, cost-effective and reliable mobility alternative for visually impaired people.” Supposedly, a really small horse is cheaper to train and lives longer than a dog.

There are many compelling reasons to use miniature horses as guide animals. Horses are natural guide animals and have been guiding humans for centuries. In nature, horses have been shown to possess a natural guide instinct. When another horse goes blind in a herd, a sighted horse accepts responsibility for the welfare of the blind horse and guides it with the herd. With humans, many blind people ride horses in equestrian competitions. Some blind people ride alone on trails for many miles, completely relying on the horse to guide them safely to their destination.

Link [ Via RGS ]

A turtle given a Christmas treat of Brussels sprouts caused a Boxing Day emergency when it set off an alarm at a sea life centre – by passing wind.

Its bubbles in the water tank were sent up a tube to the surface, where they popped and splashed water on to a sensor.

Link [ Via Russ ]

Cuban President Fidel Castro is very ill and close to death, Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte said yesterday.

“Everything we see indicates it will not be much longer . . . months, not years,” Negroponte told a meeting of Washington Post editors and reporters.

Texas State Representative Edmund Kuempel has introduced a measure that would allow blind people to hunt any game that sighted people can currently pursue.He hopes it will be passed after the legislature reconvenes in January though he does not expect it to come into affect until 2008.

“This opens up the fun of hunting to additional people, and I think that’s great,” Kuempel told Reuters.

Link