clipped from blogs.usatoday.com

House tightens restrictions on chimps as pets

The House has approved a bill to ban the transport of monkeys and apes, including chimpanzees, across state lines for the purpose of selling them as pets, the Associated Press reports.

clipped from veterinarynews.dvm360.com

California dumps vet tax proposal

Legislators finally passed a 17-month budget during after overnight session Feb. 19 after months of negotiation. The final bill, approved by state Senate and Assembly, does not include a veterinary service tax included in previous versions of the budget proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The governor’s plan was harshly criticized by veterinarians, who say the tax would have put a huge burden on pet owners and compromised public health. The California Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) also opposed the tax on the grounds that it would have made veterinary medicine the only taxed healthcare service in the state.

clipped from www.latimes.com

Hit ’send,’ then hit the door

The farewell e-mail has suddenly become commonplace, a new art form in the electronic age. Yet like so many aspects of the Internet era — how to unfriend on Facebook, how much to reveal on a personal blog — the technology has gotten ahead of the etiquette. There are, quite simply, no rules.

clipped from www.noozhawk.com

Captain’s Log: Brown Pelican Takes Flight from Endangered List

Chalk up another success for wildlife managers and researchers. At its Feb. 5 meeting, the California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to remove the California brown pelican from the state endangered species list. This is the first time the commission has ever voted to delist an endangered species as a result of its recovery.

clipped from www.latimes.com

Animal cruelty crackdown in Los Angeles has results

Furious that his girlfriend had broken up with him and stopped taking his calls, Steven Butcher decided to take his anger out on the couple’s small puppy.

“Every time you . . . don’t pick up the phone, I am beating the dog,” Butcher said in an angry voice-mail message he left for his ex-girlfriend. In a later message, as the dog yelped and cried in the background, he said: “You got some more of the dog getting beat.”

The efforts by L.A. authorities and others throughout the country have been propelled by a growing public disgust for such abuse and mounting evidence of a link between animal cruelty and other types of crime.