Cordite's stories

City Officials May Evict Miniature Horse
Tue 22 Apr 2003 - 14:38

A Cleveland woman has found herself battling local zoning ordinances after taking in a miniature horse as a service animal. Ann Willis suffers from osteoarthritis, and hopes that the miniature - Charity, by name - will help improve her mobility. The city disputes the horse's status as a "service animal" which would make her exempt from zoning laws. Such laws prohibit the stabling of an animal within 100 feet of a residence, which they claim Willis has violated by keeping the horse in a backyard shed. Willis has since moved Charity into her house and filed a complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

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Canines Help Children learn to Read
Sat 12 Apr 2003 - 22:06

They're known as Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D), and they're helping young children to improve their literacy. Founded by Intermountain Therapy Animals, the program at Dana Street Elementary in Forty Fort, PA. was recently discussed in this article. The first and second graders are assisted by two dogs - Thor and Puli.

"At Dana, the kids take turns reading to the dogs in person, then write to them - often on bone-shaped paper - while waiting for the next visit."

Mascot Miscellany
Fri 4 Apr 2003 - 11:24

Articles on mascoting seem to be more frequent these days, and this one touches on a bit of everything. From history to heat, manufacture to madness, even jumping out of planes.

"It's hard to defend yourself. I ran into a couple problems with students being so crazy I was hurt. You're not a human being inside it. People want to punch you, want to push you around. They'll beat the hell out of you."

Tigers turn on their keepers
Thu 3 Apr 2003 - 20:22

There have been two fatalities reported from tiger attacks within the past week:

William Olson, owner of a licensed sanctuary for exotic cats, was found dead in an outdoor enclosure on March 31st after police responded to a call reporting that he had been attacked. Two tigers were shot by the authorities in order to reach Olson.

More recently, at Safari Joe's Rock Creek Exotic Animal Park, animal handler Linda Bracket was pulled into a cage by tigers while watering them. She died of her injuries.

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Game by Goat, Music by Zombie
Tue 1 Apr 2003 - 11:45

Videogame developer Sotalus has decided to give their new release Ramses' Quest some backbone by bringing Rob Zombie on to do the soundtrack.
By this account the game is mediocre in all other regards, but it does give us this interesting plot synopsis:

"The title, a mind-numbing example of everything wrong with video games, stars Ramses, an anthropomorphic goat who ventures through 16 3D-rendered levels and attempts to save Princess Baa-bera from the evil Shearman."

There's not enough room for the both of you in this town...
Fri 28 Mar 2003 - 11:36

Canadian Joe Gill, who lives outside of Grande Prairie, Alberta, has been ticketed for riding his horse into town. Despite Alberta's farming and ranching heritage, Gill has been been warned previously not to ride into town, as his horse "could be startled by emergency vehicles or cause traffic jams."

"It's pretty silly they don't allow this," he told the Grande Prairie Herald-Tribune. "Alberta is the cowboy capital of Canada."

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"What's that, Fido? I'm ticking you off?"
Fri 28 Mar 2003 - 11:34

Last year Tokyo based Takara Co. Ltd. unveiled their "Bowlingual" dog translation device in Japan, where it sold about 300,000 of the units. Now, they're bringing the product to the U.S., where they hope sales will boom despite the $120 price tag. Bowlingual uses a collar-mounted microphone to pick up the dog's vocalizations and "translates" them into appropriate phrases via a palm-sized receiver.

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Animals of the U.S. Military
Tue 25 Mar 2003 - 11:06

It's well known that dogs are used by military and law-enforcement in various roles, but what about sea-lions? Or chickens?

Easter Bunny Protests, Is Arrested
Sat 22 Mar 2003 - 11:25

This time of year it is not entirely unusual to walk into a store such as K-mart and find someone bedecked with bunny ears and tail, and on March 11th that is exactly how Amy Hamilton-Thibert appeared. What wasn't typical was the cardboard sign she bore, which simply stated:

"Someone's in my Easter basket ... and it's G.I. Joe!!"

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Wildlife Protection System to continue Trials
Fri 21 Mar 2003 - 10:44

Last year Kootenay National Park in British Columbia served as the proving ground for the world's first real-time, infrared wildlife detection system.

Developed by InTranstech, the system uses state-of-the-art infrared cameras to "see" animals on or near a roadway, and is linked to highway signs which alert motorists to that fact. The cameras were originally designed to detect missiles, and provide the ability to distinguish between ordinary traffic and moose or deer. An explantion of the system can be seen here.

Initial tests were considered a success and trials will continue this Spring, with an expected conclusion in the Fall of 2003.