THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — Bob Barker has donated $2.5 million to help the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals open a new location in Los Angeles.

The retired game show host and spay and neuter champion will cut the ribbon Wednesday at the Bob Barker Building on Sunset Boulevard and Alvarado Street.

PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk says Barker could have just given the group a refrigerator but instead he paid for an entire building to be renovated. (more…)

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Charleston’s Municipal Beautification Commission says it won’t oppose a request from People for the Ethical Treatment Animals to display a statue of a shackled, weeping elephant in the city.

But there are conditions.

The animal rights group has put the 4 1/2-foot fiberglass statue in cities around the country to protest what it calls animal cruelty in circuses. (more…)

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ORLANDO, Florida — Rocky, a 700-pound grizzly considered one of the most gentle animals of all Hollywood’s performing beasts, bites down on the neck of a veteran trainer. Illusionist Roy Horn is severely mauled by a show tiger during a Las Vegas performance. An elephant at an Indonesian tourist resort tramples its longtime handler to death.

And now the latest — a 40-year-old trainer at SeaWorld Orlando is drowned by a killer whale named Tilikum, an incident that raises anew the question of whether some beasts, especially the biggest ones, have any business being tamed to entertain.

Descriptions of Tilikum, the 22-foot orca which has now killed two trainers, inevitably come around to his intimidating size. (more…)

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VANCOUVER, Wash. — Animals lovers in the Vancouver and Portland, Ore., area have brought 67 dogs from Southern California, hoping to find them new homes.

With the help of the Oregon Friends of Shelter Animals, the dogs from San Bernardino arrived Sunday at the Humane Society of Southwest Washington. Society spokeswoman Kate Goudschaal says many are small breeds made popular by celebrities, including Chihuahuas, terriers and poodles. (more…)

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RENO, Nev. — Animal rights activists are calling on U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to investigate the high number of deaths of animals in research laboratories due to negligence over the past two years, including dozens of research monkeys in Nevada.

Leaders of the Ohio-based Stop Animal Exploitation Now say at least 64 animals have been killed in at least 18 different U.S. facilities since the beginning of 2008.

That includes at 43 monkeys — 32 of which died at a Charles River Lab in Sparks in 2008 due to a heating system malfunction. (more…)

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LAS VEGAS — Federal land managers said Monday they’ll delay a roundup of most of the nearly 600 wild horses in a range in eastern Nevada, at least until after the herd’s spring foaling season.

Advocates fighting to stop mustang roundups in the West said they think their threat to file a lawsuit stopped the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from beginning a roundup next week of almost 500 wild horses in the Eagle Herd Management Area.

“We’re pleased that the BLM has postponed another ill-conceived, illegal and inhumane wild horse roundup,” said William Spriggs, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer for In Defense of Animals based in San Rafael, Calif. (more…)

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LOS ANGELES — Saving a German shepherd stuck in the rising Los Angeles River was the right thing to do, the risks were slight, rescue crews were on standby, extra taxpayer money wasn’t used and the alternatives were unacceptable, authorities said Monday.

The helicopter and swift water rescue crew members that saved the dog on Friday have been hailed as heroes, feted on television and radio and congratulated on the Web and in print. But they have also been vilified by a few in blogs, on social networks and story comment sections.

“You’re not going to please everybody. There’s always 10 percent, they either don’t like animals or think we are wasting taxpayer money,” Capt. Steve Ruda said. (more…)

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MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. — An improvised group of animal lovers for years sheltered, captured and adopted stray cats that were dumped on the Tennessee Valley Authority reservation, but TVA officials recently requested that the animals be gone for good.

The trouble is, organizers say residents will keep supplying unwanted “Rock Pile cats” on the Rock Pile section of the reservation.

On a recent day, four cats hung around a rock crevice adorned with pillows and blankets. (more…)

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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Brand inspector Mike Walck won’t soon forget one of the worst cases of animal cruelty he has seen. In mid-November, between Rulison and Parachute, someone shot a horse in the head, leaving the gray gelding in his late teens or early 20s for dead. But the horse didn’t die.

“I don’t know why they were trying to kill the horse, but they damn sure shot it in the head,” Walck said angrily. “It’s a tough deal.”

Walck said the horse has been nursed back to health and is recovering. No arrests have been made in the case. (more…)

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RENO, Nev. — Two environmental groups are joining ranchers in an unusual coalition supporting the government’s contentious removal of about 2,500 wild horses from the range north of Reno.

The Sierra Club and Friends of Nevada Wilderness, which have been at odds with ranchers on past issues, agree with the need for the ongoing roundup of mustangs in the Calico Mountain Complex.

The organizations, in a joint news release with the sportsmen groups Safari Club International and Coalition for Nevada’s Wildlife, said an over-population of mustangs is harming native wildlife and the range itself. (more…)

SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — A man in an astronaut suit stood outside the National Air and Space Museum.

Normal enough, given the contents of the building before him. But he was not promoting an exhibit Thursday, nor was he affiliated with the museum. He and other People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals activists were brandishing signs and distributing pamphlets protesting a NASA program.

NASA is planning to radiate squirrel monkeys. (more…)

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FLAGSTAFF, Arizona — Police in a small northern Arizona city are investigating the deaths of two giraffes from Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, and two others likely will have to find new homes.

Freddie and Tom Hancock of Page acquired the giraffes as part of a plan to build a wildlife preserve on city property they leased in 2008 that also would house exotic birds, reptiles and a camel. (more…)

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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Greene County lawmaker wants to make the slaughtering of horses for human consumption legal in Missouri.

But state Rep. Jim Viebrock has a lot of hurdles to clear.

Viebrock, R-Republic, is sponsoring state legislation aimed at bypassing a federal ban on meat inspectors working in horse slaughtering plants by getting processors to pay for the inspections. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CORBIN, Ky. — An animal rights group that frequently targets fast-food chain KFC says it wants to erect a statue crafted from chicken droppings to protest a proposed bronze statue of restaurant founder Colonel Harland Sanders.

The request from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, was e-mailed to Corbin Main Street Manager Sharae Myers on Monday. (more…)