Domestic Animals by Guus Van Leeuwen

http://www.dezeen.com/2008/11/14/domestic-animals-by-guus-van-leeuwen/

“Domestic Animals” is a series of radiators shaped like animals.

In earlier days people were very conscious of heating. Throughout the whole year they were busy to be able to put now and then some wood on the fire that was heating one room in the house during the winter. This one room was therefore a gathering place for the whole family. But over the last fifty years the effort that we take to heat the house is almost reduced to zero – at least in the western countries.

“Domestic Animals” is referring to the time farmers used to live with or above their livestock to take advantage of their warmth. “Domestic Animals” is giving more attention to heating. The “Domestic Animals” are covered with the skin of the animal they represent, which is giving them a attraction to get near and touch them, so you can warm yourself up on them. And if you want to be somewhere else in the house you can take the skins with you to comfort yourself.

Sales of seasonal gourmet petfood on the rise

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d66f97c-ebfa-11de-8070-00144feab49a.html

Dogs alone account for £1.1bn in food sales and cats make up £769m, while the doggy treat market – the only animal treat category recorded by the PFMA – is worth £203m annually.

Manufacturers broadly agree that behind this tendency to treat our pets lies a general anthropomorphism, whereby pet owners who believe in the virtues of a mixed diet for people project these needs on to their pets.

However, research suggests that animals do not need or benefit from a diet as varied as those enjoyed by humans.

The PFMA estimates that one in three pets in the UK – about 7m animals in total – are overweight, although this is proportionately less than the 60 per cent of humans in the UK who are classed as overweight or obese.


The best plan can turn out to be a dog’s dinner

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dc83aff6-9d30-11de-9f4a-00144feabdc0.html

four multinational heavyweights control 90 per cent of the petfood trade: Proctor & Gamble, Mars, Colgate-Palmolive and Nestlé.

Fantastic Mr Urban Fox: The reason why our so-called pests are so at home in our cities

So I see no reason why our love affair with the urban fox should not continue. They’ve certainly found a habitat niche in our cities — but they’ve also found a place in our hearts.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1235608/Fantastic-Mr-Urban-Fox-The-reason-called-pests-home-cities.html#ixzz0ZmBdMOba

Barking tops dog owners' league

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6506829.stm

More than one in 10 households in Barking, east London, has a dog, Experian's dog ownership report shows.

An Experian spokesman said working class suburban areas tend to have higher dog ownership.

"Suburbia owners have more pitbulls, Alsatians and rottweilers," he said. "While inner city residents favoured smaller dogs."

More space

Spaniels and Labradors were more prevalent in less built-up areas, the survey of London's local authorities showed.

Barking and Dagenham Council had 8,579 dog owners for 75,108 households, giving it an average of 11.42% ownership.

"It would seem that areas with high dog ownership include rural locations and also suburban areas with higher numbers of poorer and working class residents," said the spokesman.

Central London councils Westminster, Camden, and Kensington and Chelsea had the lowest levels of dog ownership.

Tibetan Mastiff is 'most expensive' dog after £352,000 sale in China

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6828862.ece


A Tibetan mastiff called Yangtze River Number Two is believed to have broken the world record as the most expensive dog, having been sold to a Chinese woman for a reported four million yuan (£350,000).

"Lavish displays of spending are not rare among China’s rich. But excesses of dog ownership have already started to become a source of tension. The authorities in Shanghai are considering banning pets from many public places. In Guangzhou, which hosts next year’s Asian Games, a “one-dog policy” has been imposed on families. "

Staffordshire Bull Terrier London's Most Popular Dog

http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/2782/pg_dtl_art_news/pg_hdr_art/pg_ftr_art

The Staffordshire Bull Terrier is the most popular dog in London with almost three times as many Londoners buying this breed than people in the rest of the UK.

BBC survives dogfight over its Kennel Club expose

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6950933.ece

The BBC and the Kennel Club both claimed victory yesterday after the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom issued its ruling on a documentary that exposed breeding techniques causing deformity and disease in dogs.

Ofcom said that the programme, screened on BBC One in August last year, was overwhelmingly accurate in its criticisms of the Kennel Club but did not give the organisation enough time to respond to some allegations, including claims about its links to the eugenics movement and the Nazis.

Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant's 1.1m sq ft delivery: Royal Mail to redevelop 118-year-old sorting office in response to new competition.(Royal Mail Group PLC)

Royal Mail 'to sell off' Mount Pleasant office.

http://postalheritage.org.uk/exhibitions/onlineexhibitions/mountpleasant

Mount Pleasant, London’s biggest sorting office, will continue to play a key role. As revealed by Property Week (news, 21.10.05), a masterplan is being drawn up by architect John McAslan & Partners, which comprises a 600,000 sq ft (55,741 sq m) sorting office, 1,500 homes, a public square and a gallery.

Property Week

Demographic of Royalmail.com user

http://www.quantcast.com/royalmail.com


Male,
Middle Aged,
Asian,
0-2 Kids in Household,
Less Affluent,
Likely to be graduate or Post-Graduate

Loneliness makes cancer 'more likely and deadly'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8398728.stm

Work in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science shows social isolation tips the odds in favour of aggressive cancer growth.

Rodents kept alone developed more tumours - and tumours of a more deadly type - than rats living as a group.

The researchers put it down to stress and say the same may well be true in humans.

Royal Mail Situation

Royal Mail predicts record £10bn pension deficit


Trustee sounds alarm on Royal Mail pensions

The 450,000 members of Royal Mail’s pension plan face “devastating consequences”, including the slashing of benefits, if the business is not part-privatised, the head of the fund’s trustees has warned.

Post office plans come under fire

Use local authority pensions for sovereign wealth fund

Hedgehog benefits

http://www.springerlink.com/content/x6vh04203r676774/

Porcupine quills possess antibiotic properties. The antibiotic activity is associated with free fatty acids (but not neutral lipids) coating the quills. Extracts of quill fatty acids strongly inhibited the growth of six grampositive bacterial strains.

Muscle extract of hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus, inhibits hemorrhagic activity of snake venoms.


The Reaction of Anoestrous Hedgehogs to Experimental Conditions -1934


Roast hedgehog and nettle pud

Mandelson says Royal Mail faces 'terminal decline'

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/latestnews/Mandelson-says-Royal-Mail-faces.5750994.jp


‘Modernise or Decline’ – Government and EU Chicanery? How the EU is destroying Britain’s Royal Mail system

Where have all our hedgehogs gone?

Quiet, discreet and dignified, the hedgehog embodies a gentle Englishness. But now it is mysteriously disappearing from our parks, hedgerows and lanes.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/jan/17/g2.ruralaffairs

Mystery condition leaves hedgehog with no spines

Night Haunts (urban foxes)

http://www.nighthaunts.org.uk/html.html

My little zebra: The secrets of domestication

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427281.500-my-little-zebra-the-secrets-of-domestication.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

"Understanding the genetic basis of tameness might make it possible to domesticate the undomesticatable and turn exotic species into farm animals or even pets. It could also help us understand what makes some people overly aggressive - and perhaps even lead to treatments for behavioural disorders."

"In 1959, Belyaev set out to test his idea. He obtained 130 relatively friendly silver foxes from a fur farm in Estonia and installed them at a farm near the small town of Kainskaya Zaimka, on the outskirts of Novosibirsk. He began to breed them, but in each generation only allowed the very tamest animals to reproduce. Within four generations, some of the foxes had started to wag their tails; after eight generations new spots and markings began to appear on some of the offspring; then ears flopped, tails shortened, skulls widened and the foxes became more relaxed about when they bred. After just 20 years, Belyaev's team had created a domestic fox."

"She hopes pharmaceutical companies will start using the silver foxes to investigate potential therapies for behavioural problems. Selling the foxes as pets could be another potential source of income for the struggling IC&G. According to Trut, they make good pets, as devoted as dogs but as independent as cats."

"Some people will object to the very notion of domesticating more wild species, whether for farms or as pets. But many tame animals, such as dogs, cats, horses, sheep, now far outnumber their wild relatives. Wouldn't it be better if some threatened animals survived as pets or farm animals rather than not at all?

There is also a certain appeal to the idea of taming exotic creatures. Take zebras. While a few individuals have managed to ride them, they have never been fully tamed. "Maybe we have not tried hard enough to find zebras that are suitable for domestication," suggests Andersson. If Pääbo's genetic quest reveals the secret to taming the zebra, Royal Ascot might never be the same again."

Crisis-hit farm welcomes its gift zorse

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/jun/27/sillyseason.media

If you cross a zebra with a shetland pony what do you get? It could be a zorse perhaps, a zony or maybe a shebra or a zetland.

Whatever its name, the arrival of the strange beast has been hailed as a godsend by the owners of the Eden Ostrich Farm near Penrith, which has been closed for three months by the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Why I'm ashamed to be a vet

Why I'm ashamed to be a vet: a shocking exposé of the profession that puts pets through 'painful and unnecessary treatments to fleece their trusting owners'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232217/Why-Im-ashamed-vet-shocking-expose-profession-puts-pets-painful-unnecessary-treatments-fleece-trusting-owners.html

For eight years Matthew Watkinson worked as a vet. But are vets really the saints they are made out to be? Here, Matthew, 32, now an author, exposes the uncuddly truth about vets that every animal lover should read. . .

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232217/Why-Im-ashamed-vet-shocking-expose-profession-puts-pets-painful-unnecessary-treatments-fleece-trusting-owners.html#ixzz0YTz4iIQS

Don't count chickens... pet a quail instead

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23777552-dont-count-chickens-pet-a-quail-instead.do


Quails are being touted as the ideal urban pet - easy to look after, requiring very little space and giving their owners a plentiful supply of eggs.

Experts say the market for them is growing in London and sales of a £340 designer quail house are booming.

The plastic quail run, called an eglu, is a smaller version of a chicken coop. It contains a sleeping area and a covered wire run. Each can hold up to six birds.

Johannes Paul of design company Omlet, which makes the quail house, said: "Quail are perfectly suited to London, because they require so little space. We've just starting selling [the eglu] and the demand is huge. The birds are very low maintenance. If you look after th

Food Banks

A food bank is a non-profit organization distributing food stuffs donated by farmers and food processing companies[1] to charitable organisations or non-profit agencies from warehouses.[2] These food items are typically non-perishable goods, meat and fresh produce passed to non-profit welfare agencies


Food banks turn to technology to efficiently feed those in need

Food Miles

A DEFRA report in 2005 undertaken by researchers at AEA Technology Environment, entitled 'The Validity of Food Miles as an Indicator of Sustainable Development', included findings that "the direct environmental, social and economic costs of food transport are over £9 billion each year, and are dominated by congestion.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/jul/15/food.greenpolitics