Cow gives birth to different breeds

You could argue about it until the cow's come home.

Others would describe it as a moo-t point.

But when these twin calves were born ten days ago, they looked so different that the farmer who owns them has declared then to be completely different breeds.

According to Vic Phillips, you can tell the breeds apart by the colour of their coats.

And when his Aberdeen Angus bull Eric mated with a Simmental cow called Jemima, he says he was blessed with two calves that each continued one of the mating lines.

Mr Phillips, who farms his cattle in Rooksbridge, Somerset, says Ernie has come out a fawn colour and is the same breed as his mother, a Simmental.

And he claims Emily, who is darker shade of black and brown, is an Aberdeen Angus.

Speaking from his 90-acre farm, Mr Phillips said: 'It happens but it is quite rare.

'I thought there must have been a mistake and another cow had given birth as well but it turned out that they were twins.

'We have only been farming for two-and-a-half years this is our first ever set of twins.'

He said he only has one bull, so it is not possible that another bull mated with Jemima.

His wife Trish added: 'Normally when you get twins they are both the same breed but we got one of each which is really rare.

'They are both doing really well and we are delighted with our unusual twins.'

Experts in the field, however, urged some caution before hailing an evoluntionary breakthrough.

Ron McHattie, chief executive of the Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society, said: 'I suppose if the heifer had mated with two different bulls of different breeds on the same day two different eggs could have been fertilised and she would have conceived twins of different breeds.'

Cattle specialist Sally Wilson from Evolution Farm Vets in Bridgwater, Somerset, said the only way it can happen is if the female mated with two different bulls, of different breeds in the same sitting.

Steam car ready to break 100 year old land speed recor

Horse that's allergic to grass

Shrouded in what looks like an ill-fitting Christmas jumper and leg warmers, she cuts a comical figure.

But the plight of Pandora the mare is no laughing matter.

The five-year-old thoroughbred has to be kept covered up because she is allergic to grass.
Even a single blade touching her coat is enough to leave her gasping for breath and covered in large, painful boils.

Her owner, Emily Pearce, has no option but to cover her up with a protective layer of high-tech polyester-based breathable fabric to avoid having to lock her away for her own safety.
She also wears a mask to protect her eyes. She is fed a special mixture of sugarbeet chaff and soya oil, along with 15 anti-histamine tablets a day.

'She does look silly but it is the only thing that helps her,' said Miss Pearce, 24, from Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

Pandora's £185 rug, imported from a specialist firm in Sweden, is usually used to protect a horse from insect bites. It is designed so that it can be buckled around her but leave her moving freely.

The mask, which costs £50, fits snugly over her ears and down to her muzzle and is held in place with Velcro. Although it covers her eyes, it is so fine she can see through it. Miss Pearce, an auxiliary veterinary nurse, bought the 15.2-hand horse for £2,600 in 2007.

Last summer Pandora began to develop a large, itchy lump on her belly at her stables in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

The lump continued to grow and when it was joined by others, Miss Pearce tried steroid injections but they did nothing to relieve Pandora's distress. In the end, a battery of tests was carried out, revealing she was allergic to every type of grass.

It is not clear what caused the condition to appear so suddenly, and there is no cure. Vet Peter Fenton said he had come across only two other cases - and neither was so acute.

Girl, 3, may never smile again after being scarred for life in 'devil dog' attack

A three-year-old girl may never be able to smile again after being scarred for life by a 'devil dog' who had savaged another child months earlier.

The owner of the powerful Japanese Akita fighting dog escaped prosecution for the first attack, which left the boy, 7, requiring 40 stitches, because the animal was on 'secured' property.

But the family of first victim Charlie Faulding were furious the dog wasn't put down and were taking legal action against its owner when another neighbour's child was seriously mauled last week.

Toddler Demi Franklyn was playing with the dog called Tyson outside her home when it suddenly turned on her - breaking her jaw and leaving her with horrific wounds to her head and neck.

The damage to her facial muscles and nerves is so severe she may not be able to smile properly again.

The girl's mother, Mary Davies, 39, said she had left her daughter playing in their back yard - which they share with Tyson's owner - unaware the dog had a violent history.

Demi has undergone one operation at Bradford Royal Infirmary and doctors may need to carry out reconstructive surgery on her jaw as well.

Mother-of-five Miss Davies of Shipley, West Yorkshire, said: 'I am in shock. I just don't understand how this could have happened. That animal had a taste for blood and nothing was done about it. It beggars belief.

'I just want to know why that dog wasn't put down after the first attack. Something wasn't done that should have been and it is my daughter who has paid the price.'

Last June Charlie was savaged when his football bounced into the dog owner's garden three doors away and he went to retrieve it.

The schoolboy suffered severe injuries to his head and legs.


His father Mark Faulding, 36, was alerted by the boy's 12-year-old sister and found him lying unconscious in a pool of blood.

He fought off the dog to rescue him from the neighbour's garden.

Charlie still bears the scars of the savaging and has been left traumatised by the experience, suffering nightmares and refusing to sleep alone. The family has since moved house.

Mr Faulding, a horse trainer, said: 'It is disgusting. To think the dog's owner left this animal unguarded and near children.

'He knew what this dog was capable of but he didn't stop this little girl playing near it. It is simply unbelievable. It didn't even have a muzzle on.

'We have been fighting to have this devil dog destroyed since Charlie was attacked and the only thing that made that happen was another attack on an even younger child. That child could have died.'

The dog's owner Mohammed Asam Bashir has now had Tyson put down. The first attack happened at his family home, where the dog was kept in a secure pen behind a wall and padlocked gate.

The second attack was at his business address at a different location.

Mr Bashir has been unavailable for comment.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman confirmed the dog had been 'destroyed' and the attack on Demi was currently under investigation.

'We can confirm this dog was previously involved in an incident which resulted in no further action being taken at the time due to the circumstances,' he said.

Police decided no offence had been committed in the first incident as the dog was kept at home and secured in the garden. The boy had previously been advised not to retrieve the football unaccompanied.

Awesome pink baby elephant has been caught on camera in Africa.

Google Earth reveals fish trap made from rocks 1,000 years ago off British coast

For centuries it has lain undisturbed beneath the waves, just a stone's throw from one of Britain's best-loved beaches.

Stretching more than 280 yards along the sea bed, this bizarre V-shaped structure is a giant fish trap, used at the time of the Norman Conquest to catch hundreds of fish without the need for a boat, rod or net.

The ancient structure - discovered by archaeologists studying aerial photographs of the West Wales coast - is so large it can now be seen on Google Earth.

Scientists believe it is one of the biggest structurse of its kind.

The fish trap is submerged at low tide and no longer catches fish. But in its day, it was designed to act as a natural rock pool - trapping fish behind its rock walls as the tide flowed out.

Dr Ziggy Otto, a diver and lecturer in the coastal environment at Pembrokeshire College, believes the trap is around 1,000 years old.

'It is an amazing structure,' he said. 'It looks well defined on the photographs, but when you are in the water it looks just like a natural reef.

'There can be little doubt that this rather impressive, and quite apparently man made, structure is an ancient fish trap. The structure is entirely underwater at all stages of the tide.'

The trap is just 12ft deep close to Poppit Sands on the Teifi Estuary in Dyfed. Dr Otto believes the walls are made of locally quarried rock or boulders brought down to the coast by glaciers during the last ice age.

The trap's walls are covered in algae, worms and sea anemones. The wall is around three feet wide, and only the top foot is exposed. The researchers are unsure how tall the original trap was - and how much is buried under the shifting sands.

The V-shaped structure has a gap at its point where fisherman would have placed nets to catch fish. They could also have blocked up the gap, and then scooped up fish trapped in the shallows.

The trap could have been used to catch migratory salmon and trout as they swam up the Teifi, said Dr Otto.

Fish traps, or fish weirs, were common and controversial in Britain 1,000 years ago. They were so effective at removing fish from rivers, the Magna Carta banned them - allowing them only on the coast.

Louise Austin, of the Dyfed Archaeological Trust, said: 'Fish traps were a widely used means of catching fish in the past which made a significant contribution to the economy of many coastal and estuarine communities. Today only a few are known to survive in Wales.'

On an exploratory dive, archaeologists discovered that the trap was acting like a natural reef and was covered in tube dwelling worms, red algae and sea anemones.

They plan to visit the trap again tomorrow.

Although it was recently spotted on aerial photographs, an armchair archaeologists could have discovered the trap for themselves on Google Earth.

Google said the V-shaped structure has been visible on its collection of satellite and aerial photos since at least December 2006.

'It's true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth - a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species, a fringing coral reef off the coast of Australia, and the remains of an Ancient Roman villa, to name just a few,' a spokesman said.

'Everyday we're impressed and inspired by what eagle-eyed armchair explorers and scientists alike discover about our world using this technology.'

Last month, a mysterious grid of lines in the Atlantic was spotted on Google Earth 600 miles off the coast of Africa. The discovery set internet bloggers buzzing with excitement and appeared to baffle Atlantis experts.

However, the grids turned out to have been created when the Google map was created - and do not exist in the real world.

Dolphins perfect bubble rings underwater

SeaWorld has revealed amazing footage of dolphins blowing bubble rings out of their blowholes.
They are captured blowing puffs of air and angling their heads so that they rise in a straight line thereby creating the perfect circles.
The underwater mammals from Sea World Orlando's Dolphin Cove are shown playing with the large bubble rings and spinning them around with their noses. They also bite into them to create smaller circles.
'It's a cool behaviour the dolphins seem to learn from one another,' one trainer said.
Another said it was the 'most incredible thing' he had ever seen.

Most of the playful mammals who display the behaviour are females. This may be because males are preoccupied with socialising with eachother.
SeaWorld has kept dolphins for more than 30 years, but one trainer said they were still surprising them.
'Just when you think you've seen it all, something new comes up,' he said.
'These animals have alot more to teach us.'
Watch the incredible video here...

The moment an awe-inspiring desert storm engulfed the Saudi capital

With terrifying majesty, a giant dust storm swept in from the desert and enveloped large parts of the Saudi capital Riyadh today.

The vast, whirling clouds cast an apocalyptic yellowish hue over the city's sprawling surburbs, choking residents with a blanket of grit and sand.

The awe-inspiring storm engulfed buildings and caused huge traffic jams as it enveloped the city of 4million people in a layer of impenetrable gloom.

Riyadh's airport was forced to halt flights as the swirling eddies of dust blacked out visibility from the control tower and on the main runways.

A civil aviation spokesman said: 'It was a very frightening spectacle as it approached the city.

'Outbound flights from Riyadh were suspended and incoming flights were diverted to other airports in the kingdom.'

Motorists said visibility on motorways was reduced a few metres as the storm blew in.

Commuter Nasser Ahmed: 'Most drivers pulled over and shut their windows, while a few ploughed slowly on with their hazard lights on.'

Riyadh, situated in the middle of the Saudi desert, is used to regular sandstorms but today's was described as a 'monster'.

Government spokesman Major General Abdul Rahman Al-Moqbel told Arab News: 'It was enormous. One of the biggest we have seen.

'Luckily there were no serious incidents because of awareness programmes carried out by the Traffic Department from time to time.'

An official from the Saudi Meteorological Department added: 'Sandstorms are due to high pressure in the northern and central parts of the Kingdom.

'This whips up the sand and then the wind can blow it for a hundred miles or more. Tuesday's storm passed in a few hours and temperatures in the north and centre of the country have now dropped, with the wind blowing the storm away to the north.'

But he said many parts of the city were now covered with tonnes of sand, adding: 'No serious damage has been done but people will find they have quite a lot of sweeping up to do.'

Scariest X-Ray Ever

An x-ray derived from a young Australian teenager who was hanging around a club when one of the people fighting chucks a metal chair into his head. The victim miraculously survived the randomed attack after a complex three hour operation. The images were taken at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. To find out more about the story check out Thought Mechanics.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Poodle and Her Other Undignified Disguises

So you’re thinking something like: “What is that lady doing with an odd-looking oversized Ninja Turtle cuddly toy?” Except that it isn’t a cuddly toy. It’s a real live poodle. Meet Cindy, also known as Leonardoodle, and her owner, Sandy Paws. The picture before you is just one of Ms Paws’ executions of “creative grooming”. We’re really not sure if it’s ethical, but here are some more jaw-dropping examples of Sandy’s canine-sprucing makeovers on Cindy.
People might claim that someone who does this sort of thing to dogs has got some answering to do. One dog-lover even wondered how she would like it if she were forced to have an all over body tattoo made up of stuff in dogs’ imaginations – bones, say, or rubber balls. A hair-brained remark if ever there was one – you see, Cindy has lots of guises, none of them permanent – though you can see what the guy was getting at.
In any case, clearly the judges don’t see things the same way as the critics. Yes, folks, this is creative grooming at it’s finest; award winning creative grooming. It seems Sandy and Cindy have been scooping prizes everywhere from Burbank in the duo’s native California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, and you can’t fault the skill of Sandy’s handiwork – or its, erm, imagination. Who would ever think of transforming a dog into a camel – or a dragon?
Now don’t get us wrong, there are heaps of good reasons for conventional dog grooming, including the fact that it cleans the dog, improves the health of its skin and coat, and lessens the chance of skin problems. “But not when you’re using dyes in every colour of the rainbow!” cried one observer in horror. “And just look at that thing, reduced to the status of a chicken, or a punk rocker – I don’t know which is worse!”
In Sandy Paws’ defence, she claims to use only semi-permanent hair colour, blo-pens, coloured artists’ chalk with a smidgen of hairspray, temporary spray colour – what else? – oh yes, and all the “special touches” – add-ons such as feathers, pompoms and plastic flowers. A veritable arsenal of colourants, props and adhesives, then, though apparently nothing Sandy wouldn’t use on herself. That’s OK then.

A space dog-essey
One other point made by those who see grooming in general as an important part of dog care is that it helps to build a relationship between the dog and owner. Well, judging from the photos, Sandy is certainly enjoying the bonding sessions. But is it us, or does Cindy look as though she’s not quite so pleased to be there?

Peacock dog

For those who are left a little queasy by the whole concept – if not by the garish colours then by its syrupy beauty queen sheen – the good news is that there’s a whole sub-culture out there. 25 years young and with a readership of 20,000, magazine Groomer to Groomer is a mouthpiece for all things groom-tastic. Scary? Needless to say, Sandy and Cindy have made the front cover.

Making the front pages

The cat's whiskers: Meet Ugly Bat Boy, the follicly-challenged feline who has become a tourist attraction

He goes by the name of Ugly Bat Boy - no prizes for guessing why.This follicly-challenged feline has become a tourist attraction because of his bizarre appearance.Eight-year-old Ugly, whose breed is not known, spends most of his time keeping warm by sitting on a computer at the Exeter Veterinary Hospital in New Hampshire.

Staff at the veterinary hospital have even been forced to put up fliers saying he's perfectly normal - just unattractive.They claim he makes up for his terrible looks by having inner beauty and a nice disposition.He's also turned into something of a tourist attraction in Exeter, New Hampshire, America.'People come in and take pictures of him on their cell phones,' staff member Christie Hartnett said.
'He's just great. The impression from clients that come in is he's not real because he just sits so still.
'When he does move, he scares them, but they still think he's mesmerizing.'
Ugly and his sister, who only survived a few weeks, were both born without fur.

And although he may not look like an ordinary cat, staff at the hospital say he behaves exactly like every other feline they've ever known.
He loves attention and is very friendly.

WATCH VIDEO OF UGLY BAT BOY BELOW

Race to save 200 whales and dolphins after mass stranding on Tasmanian beach

Rescuers used jet skis and human muscle to save dozens of whales and dolphins stranded on a beach in southern Australia on Monday, officials and news reports said.

The 194 pilot whales and half a dozen bottlenose dolphins became stranded on Naracoopa Beach on Tasmania state's King Island on Sunday evening.

Strandings happen periodically in Tasmania as whales go by during their migration to and from Antarctic waters, but scientists do not know why it happens.

It is unusual, however, for whales and dolphins to get stranded together.

Chris Arthur, of Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service, said 54 whales and seven dolphins were still alive when the rescue effort began. By late Monday, 48 animals had been returned to the sea by officials and more than 100 King Island residents who had volunteered to help.

Backhoes dug trenches in the sand that allowed water to get close to the whales, as volunteers doused them with water and draped wet fabric over them to keep them cool.

Groups of volunteers used stretchers to lug dolphins into the shallows, and other officials used small boats and a jet ski to pull whales out to sea.

Rescuers were hopeful they would stay away from the shore.

'It's too early to say yet but it's been a very, very positive day,' Shelley Davison, a Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

It was not clear why the animals had beached on the island, halfway between Tasmania and mainland Australia. The Examiner, a Tasmanian newspaper, reported that the animals were caught by a very low tide.

In January, 45 sperm whales died after becoming stranded on a remote Tasmanian sandbar, even though rescuers worked for days to keep them cool and wet as they tried to move them back to the open water.

Last November, 150 long-finned pilot whales died after beaching on a rocky coastline in Tasmania. A week earlier, rescuers saved 11 pilot whales among a pod of 60 that had beached on the island state.