Smallest Vertebrate Fossil Footprints Discovered in Canada

Tracks of a tiny four-legged animal have been found at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs in Nova Scotia, and are the smallest known fossilized tetrapod prints in the world.
The prints were made by a juvenile amphibian, believed to be similar to a salamander, about 315 million years ago during the Carboniferous period.
They were spotted by amateur paleontologist Gloria Melanson, daughter of former Keeper of the Cliffs Don Reid, and identified as ichnogenus Batrachichnus salamandroides, meaning the genus is only known from its fossilized footprints.
“When I saw the very small tail and toes I knew we had something special,” Melanson said in a press release. “I never thought it would be the world’s smallest.”
There are about 30 prints between 1.6 and 2.4 mm (0.06 and 0.09 inches) long the hind feet were bigger than the fore feet and the track is 48 mm (1.89 inches) long. The salamander is estimated to have been about 8mm (0.31 inches) long from nose to tail.
“This was one of the most exciting finds I have ever made and I am very pleased that, along with my colleagues, we are able it with the world,” Melanson said.
“Every big fossil find is by ance; it’s all about being lucky and recognizing what you’re looking at.”
The juvenile’s prints may have been some of its first steps on land following metamorphosis from a water-dwelling tadpole. It appears to have been walking and then changed direction into a run, perhaps while hunting small insects or to avoid a predator.

Ringling Bros Circus Hit With Largest Fine Ever Entertainment News

Investigation of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's elephant abuse, the USDA fined Ringling Bros. $270,000 for alleged Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations from June 2007 to August 2011. It's the largest civil penalty against an exhibitor in the AWA's four-decade history. For each violation after June 2008, the USDA can fine up to $10,000. That means the USDA is most likely charging Ringling Bros. with more than 27 violations. 

In our November/December 2011 issue, Pulitzer Prize winner Deborah Nelson uncovered the big top on the circus's potential Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations: elephants whipped with bullhooks, trapped in train cars filled with their own feces, and chained in place for a good part of their lives. Now, that could change. As part of the USDA's agreement with Feld Entertainment, Ringling Bros.' corporate parent, the company will start yearly AWA compliance trainings beginning March 31, 2012 for all new employees who work with animals. That would be a stark contrast to their past cooperation with the USDA. In Nelson's investigations, Ringling Bros. handlers were shown trying to postpone USDA investigations of their elephant training sites.

Feld Entertainment waived the opportunity for a hearing. In a press release, the company explained that "Feld Entertainment made a business decision to resolve its differences with the USDA." The company claimed it was more important to focus on the future of their animal care "instead of engaging in costly and protracted litigation." Feld still denies any wrongdoing or violation of USDA regulations, despite agreeing to pay the $270,000 USDA fine.

County fair Koochiching County Entertainment News

When photographer Susan Lambert (Miller) visited all of Minnesota's 95 county fairs (some counties have more than one) for her 2009 book, "Minnesota County Fairs: Kids, Cows, Carnies, and Chow" (Minnesota Historical Society Press), she discovered they held surprisingly varied charms, from Steele's 60-year-old human cannonball to Hubbard's Dress Up Your Horse Contest. Tough call but, forced to choose, Lambert gives Koochiching, on Minnesota's northern border, points for conquering scarce resources with creativity. Fairgoers raced lawnmowers, rode a kiddy train built from halved barrels, sculpted creatures from vegetables and played "Animal Bingo," in which "they put a chicken on the board -- you can figure out how the winning number was determined."

THE EDUCATIONAL FREAK SHOW Entertainment News

This month, author and investigative journalist William Johnson re-released his critically acclaimed expose into the animal entertainment industry on Amazon Kindle in eBook format (and out of print copies!). Spending almost five years traveling worldwide from across Europe, into the former Soviet Union and in the United States, Johnson interviewed circus owners, dolphin dealers, law makers, councilmen, former trainers and workers, to get answers behind the curtain of the circus industry, the traveling sideshows, and ever-popular marine parks and dolphinariums. Nor does he cut any slack for the exploiters and the lawmakers, unable to live up to their duties to prevent such abuse from happening.

While the original printed copy was published in 1990, and several facilities followed in the novel have closed since, it still remains as a damning - if not haunting - testament to humanity’s inclination to exploit any living creature for the sake of the almighty dollar. Additionally, the investigative piece remains relevant due to the parallels mentioned in the pages continue to run rampant in the circuses and marine parks of today.

While most animal rights-themed investigations would try to sucker punch the reader with an overflow of emotions and exploitative drama, Rose-Tinted Menagerie does not. Johnson proves his point through available reports, documentation, interviews of the proponents and opponents of the circus and dolphinarium industry, as well as logical questioning of how and why these ‘freak shows’ are considered acceptable in society. He introduces the circus and dolphinariums by illustrating their history, which began to as entertainment in Roman Colosseum, and in P.T. Barnum’s circus tent, respectfully, showing just how long this field of entertainment has been going strong, all while having hands stained with blood.

Fast-forward to circa 1985-1990, and the industry has become more sophisticated, if not more gaudier. From the account of the Swiss entrepreneurial dolphin dealer that abandoned his own dolphins at an Egyptian hotel pool, to the reports of CITES and other fauna management organizations standing idly by as the animals plucked from the wild and into the confines of captivity, Johnson leaves no stone unturned as he untangles this web of questionable morals and ethics, animal abuse, “edutainment” and corruption.

My summary above barely scratches the surface. For those who seek for the bitter truth on the other side of the performing stage curtain, look no further: this book is just for you. While occasionally overwhelming with information in some pages, it is worth your time. But be warned: the ringmaster and his staff will flippantly attempt to make you wear a pair of rose-tinted glasses before you enter.

Child Dies After Visiting Petting Zoo Entertainment News

Our sympathies go out to the family of Kalei Welch, who died in an Illinois hospital after falling ill with E. coli poisoning. Health officials believe that the 5-year-old girl contracted the deadly bacterial infection at a petting zoo at the Hendricks County Fair.
PETA has been warning parents for years about the dangers of petting zoos, which are hotbeds of E. coli. Hundreds of children have been infected after visiting petting zoos, and many have suffered kidney failure, requiring long-term dialysis and multiple blood transfusions.
Infection can spread through direct animal contact or simply by touching the surroundings near an animal exhibit. Hand sanitizer does nothing to prevent the spread of E. coli by inhalation or indirect contact. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as many state departments of health have issued warnings about the health risks of petting zoos.

Unite to Block Ringling at the Border Entertainment News

Animal advocates' voices are being heard loud and clear today, as PETA and eight other animal protection organizations have joined forces to keep Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from taking "The Cruelest Show on Earth" abroad including to Mexico, where animal protection laws are virtually never enforced. RINGLING'S RIDICULOUS REQUEST Ringling applied to export and re-import endangered Asian elephants and tigers based on an Endangered Species Act (ESA) exemption that permits transporting the animals for the purpose of enhancing the species' survival. But animal rights groups from the U.S. and Mexico are calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to deny the application because the only thing Ringling wants to enhance is its bank account. Not only does dragging endangered animals across the border and beating them in order to force them to perform not qualify for this ESA exemption, it also flies in the face of what the esa was designed to do protect animals.

Ringling just paid the highest penalty in circus history for its animal abuse $270,000 for violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). In the last few years, Ringling has racked up more than 50 violations of the AWA involving the care of big cats and Asian elephants. In fact, Ringling's own documents admit what PETA's investigation found: that its handlers beat elephants bloody with bullhooks. But in the past, when the circus has gone to Mexico where Ringling is exempt from even the minimal oversight that it receives in the U.S. animal abuse has gone unrestrained. A Ringling handler was caught on video whipping a baby elephant in the face, causing the baby to screech and recoil. Handlers forcefully jabbed elephants with bullhooks all over their bodies, including inside their tender mouths and ears, and one handler was seen shocking an elephant with an electric prod.

SHOWS CANCELLED DUE TO ISSUES WITH YESTERDAY'S HEAVY RAINFAL

Cole Bros has the widest variety of animals among all modern circuses, enslaving and abusing creatures as variant as camels, llamas, monkeys, tigers, horses, big cats and bears, as well as traditional token exploitees: our friends the elephants. One doesn't have to be an animal rights activist to comprehend the intrinsic cruelty of taking animals from their natural habitats (or breeding them in captivity), confining them in cramped, horrible cages, conditioning them through pain, fear and a calculated program of negative reinforcement, as ALL circuses that use animals do. Elephants, bears, tigers and other sentient beings enslaved by circuses suffer immensely from captivity-related diseases, and quite often die prematurely. The animals are beaten into submission as babies and perform out of fear from the pain of the bullhooks, whips, electric prods, chains - a cornucopia of insidious instruments of negative reinforcement and torture.