Archive for the ‘animals’ category

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Netflix Tiger and Bunny Commercial

May 25, 2011

 – – In a Netflix commercial spot, a grouchy live-action grandpa intrudes into an animated world where a tiger and a bunny are cutely curled up together asleep.  “I’m not going to cry, am I?,” asks grandpa of the ‘toon characters.  “Only if you don’t believe in the power of friendship!,” responds the doe-eyed bunny sprightly.  “Really?,” counters the jaded and sarcastic tiger.  “You guys are good!,” the curmudgeonly grandpa says in parting from the cartoon duo, a ‘toon critter hanging on his back.

In the next scene, grandpa is back in the living room, begrudgingly watching the classically-styled animated cartoon movie with his wife and granddaughter.  “That’s so cute, it’s stupid!,” comments grandpa of the Disneyesque movie.  As we  well know, cute and stupid sells, and so does this clever Netflix ad that works on a variety of levels…

Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, cartoons, furry, furry art, furry commercials, television
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Comments: 3 Comments

Coyote Attacks and Fear of Foxes

May 23, 2011

 – – Red foxes at times have an image problem; you know, that whole “crazy as a fox” thing and the business about leaving a fox to guard the henhouse.  In the minds of some people, foxes have also been tainted because of being incorrectly associated with coyotes, our larger canine cousins who can do some nasty things.  There were some coyote attacks in the state of New York last year.  Outweighing us handily, coyotes will also prey on foxes, and push us further into suburban subdivisions; they’re well supplied by Acme.

For the record, foxes don’t want to eat the  kids or pets of suburbanites; we do have our standards, after all!  Fox kits are born in late winter to early spring, when they come out of their dens to frolic ( lurking doesn’t come until much later with advanced training).  Because of the unpleasantness with coyotes, some people wig out when they discover fox families non grata in their yards.  Foxes adapt to suburbia quite well, and can find cover in hedges, under sheds, and in old woodchuck holes; we’ll even use more than one den.  Small rodents are a food source, although we’ll eat lots of other stuff as well. 

People needn’t panic, however; we’ll disperse if given a grace period or made uncomfortable; putting a chair or wheelbarrow near the current home might do the trick.  A State Department of Wildlife Conservation biologist suggests placing a radio near a fox den if you don’t want them about. 

Elevator music would send me packing in short order!

Categories: animal behavior, animals, environmental, furry
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Comments: 3 Comments

Wrath of the Feline…

May 21, 2011

 – – Within even your common domestic house cat there continues to reside something  feral, something so awesome that we trifle with it at our own risk…and at least one man taken to the hospital might now tend to agree with me…

…while the details of the case are not well presented, it would appear that a man in Cleveland, Texas got into an altercation with a 20-pound feral cat that he found sitting in the living room of his house upon returning to it.   Scared, police said, the man grabbed a knife to try and protect himself from the cat, who seconds later is reported to have attacked the man in the bathroom.  Things got nasty then, with the 40-year-old man admitting that he stabbed the cat multiple times and the cat apparently giving back as good as she got, perhaps exploiting the man’s ineptitude with the knife and reportedly getting his pinkie really well; a claw and chaw operation!  When medics arrived, the man was bleeding profusely, and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.  The cat was also in bad shape, but undaunted (“–Gonna mess you up bad!,” said the cat, “Bring it on,  pinkie!- -You blink, you bleed!- -Is that the best you got, suckah?- -You ain’t worth my time!”).

The feral cat was taken by animal control officers, tested for rabies, and was then euthanized…some say that as the lethal chemicals dripped into her veins, the cat seemed to be enjoying herself…she died a warrior, having fought bravely and well against another life form armed with a weapon who was about ten times her size!

“It is a far better thing that I do than I have ever done,” thought the cat as sleep took her, “it is a far better rest that I go to than I have ever known!”

“Welcome to paradise!,” roared Tatiana the tiger in greeting…

Categories: animal behavior, animal occurrences, animals, furry
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Animal Smuggling…

May 14, 2011

 – -We’ve posted previously here on Foxsylvania about the illegal trade in wild and exotic animals, including animal smuggling.  While it’s fairly common for one type of animal to be smuggled (snakes, spiders, etc.), some smugglers diversify and try to take a variety of different species out.

Take for example the case of a man arrested at Thailand’s international  airport May 13th after he was caught trying to smuggle wild animals out of the country.  The man, identified as a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, was trying to board a flight to Dubai when investigators found a baby bear, two leopards, two panthers, and at least two monkeys stuffed into his luggage!  Don’t ask me how…must have been some pretty big luggage!

The anti-animal trafficking group FREELAND said the man is believed to be part of a far-reaching animal trafficking network…

Categories: animal abuse, animal rights, animals, deplorable practices, endangered species, furry
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Advance Auto Parts Speed Training…

May 6, 2011

 – – Failure is not an option for those participating in Advance Auto Parts Speed Training, at least not if you value your backside!  Imagine sprinting briskly across the African plain while hoisting a muffler to your shoulder…no picnic that, but it gets worse when you’re wearing a meat suit of raw steaks around your waist, and being pursued by a pack of at least five lions very interested in a luncheon!  That ought to get the employees to beat feet!  The performance of the guy first depicted is apparently at least adequate; he lives to draw salary another day, and earns a “not bad” comment from his boss waiting to pick him up in a jeep.  We are not shown the fate of the girl who follows next, a garland of meat around her neck…hope she ran track and field!

In a related commercial, we are shown battery installations practiced while free-falling from a plane; it’s almost as brutal as the performance reviews I used to undergo.   One suspects that Advance has a really interesting retirement plan…


Categories: absurdities, animals, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry commercials, television
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Language Applied to Animals…

May 4, 2011

– – I most resent the word “varmint” when applied to foxes and other animals; it’s degrading and disrespectful, and dates back to a time when animals were treated unkindly as little better than things; sadly, some still hold this viewpoint.  Language is a curious and powerful thing, and the label that we apply to a living creature shapes how it is permissible to treat them.  As a tool of classification, language then also becomes a device of control.

Researchers from the Oxford Center for Animal Ethics along with the University of Illinois and Penn State University suggests that using such words as “varmints,” “critters,” and “beasts” to describe animals degrades the relationship that can exist between them and humans by contributing to a mindset of animals being trivial, unfeeling, and inconsequential.   Instead, a language should be cultivated that shows mutually respectful relationships between humans and the animals which live among them.  I’m fully on board with all of this…

…where we separate the sheep from the goats (so to speak) is in the beliefs of some animal rights academics that pets should be renamed “companions,” and that rats are just “free-living;”  pigeons are simply “free-roaming.”   While I do consider my co-habiting animals as companions, this is my personal choice, and I happen to be an animal myself (this is not necessarily a bad thing)!  When political correctness kicks in, however, it’s often time to take a holiday before things get silly and I’m expected to garb my animal companions in clothing, which they would hate anyways.

What can perhaps be taken away from all of this is the thought that words are powerful, not because an animal understands the nuances of language or cares what you call them but because words can influence how your mind works, with language choice subsequently affecting human behavior towards animals as well as countless other things.  If you doubt this, consider that psycholinguistics has been at the core of every successful political campaign for the last number of decades, with labels determining perceptions and serving as a substitute for independent critical thought for many…

Categories: animal rights, animals, controversial, furry causes, psychology, science
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New Aflac Duck…

April 30, 2011

 – – Say it ain’t so…the Aflac duck’s been canned!  Or at least the voice of comedian Gilbert Gottfried is following jokes he made on Twitter about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  Aflac, incidentally, gets 75% of its revenue from Japan, so Gilbert was history.

The new voice of the Aflac duck is Daniel McKeague, an advertising sales manager from Minnesota.  He reportedly will be getting a sum in the low six figures for a one year contract, one which is likely to be renewed…

…maybe I could sing opera for a J.G. Wentworth commercial!

Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, controversial, furry commercials, television
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Obscure Cartoon Foxes…

April 28, 2011

 – – A character called Sly Fox appeared in a Warner Bros. cartoon produced in 1957 called Fox Terror.  Also appearing in this ‘toon and featured in it was Foghorn Leghorn, who thanks to Geico has been enjoying a bit of a renaissance lately.  Now Sly Fox was after some chickens for dinner, and sought to bypass the barnyard security system of Barnyard Dog by having Foghorn Leghorn distract and annoy the dog (–Foghorn annoying?–Now that’s a stretch!).  Anyhow, the fox never does get the chickens due to the interventions of a hyper little black rooster, and at the end Foghorn and the dog get wise to the fox, and run him out of the yard.  He’s shot, which fortunately is seldom fatal in the ‘toon world; the fox does dynamite both Foghorn and the dog, which has no long-term affects, either.

I love the way that Sly Fox is drawn, and you can see hints in the treatment of the figure of Wile E. Coyote.  Voiced by the great Mel Blanc, the fox wears several disguises and at times even sounds somewhat like Bugs Bunny.  One good lookin’ fox this, Sly regrettably only appeared in a single cartoon but should have been featured in his own show… 

Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, cartoons, furry, television
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The Urban Woodsman from Honda’s “To Each Their Own”

April 26, 2011

 – – Well, actually it’s called “Date With a Woodsman,” and it concerns a bearded lumberjack picking up his date in his new Honda Civic hybrid.  As the girl is walking up to the car, he has to tell his pet fox to ride in the back seat so that the girl can ride in the front passenger seat!   We then follow the couple as they shop in a general store for hiking boots and outdoor gear before going to a river or lake.  Later, we see the fox poking his head out of the car window, apparently enjoying the ride.  Last of all, the fox is seen reposing on a rock in the background of the woods (shown) while his master(?) is making a rather impressive wood sculpture for his date.

While the woodsman appears a bit on the err, rugged side (birds nest in his beard, for cripes sake!),  anyone who has a fox for a companion is keeping good company…now I wanna see the fox driving the Civic!

(…tip o’ the pen to carycomic for alerting me to this commercial!)


Categories: animals, furry, furry commercials, television
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Comments: 2 Comments

Goldfish Racing…

April 24, 2011

 – – Not to be confused with cat juggling, dwarf bowling, or submarine races, goldfish racing is one of those strange pseudo-sports activities that bars seem to be host to, alcohol making such things just that much more amusing.

In goldfish racing, cheap “feeder”-type goldfish normally sold to be fed to other pets are guided and encouraged by bar patrons to swim down water troughs the length and general width of plastic gutters with bottles and water guns.  This practice has brought complaints from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who contend that the loud noises and bright lights used during the practice scare the bejesus out of the fish.  In addition, some fish have reportedly been impaled with soda straws or even swallowed alive by the same notorious bar patrons.

PETA’s protests have caused one Tacoma, Washington bar to cancel its weekly goldfish races, while other similar establishments are still having fish start their engines…

Categories: absurdities, animal rights, animals, deplorable practices, scalies, strange happenings, things humans do
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Comments: 3 Comments

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