How did the Manx cat lose its tail? Infographic.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

12 men capture escaped or abandoned pet caracal. Now at sanctuary.

The caracal is one of those medium-sized wild cat species that has a temperament predisposed to being tamed and become a pet of sorts which is why throughout ancient history they were pets in the countries like India and today in the US there are some caracal pets living in homes. There is a famous pet caracal in Latvia where the cat has become fat. It is very sad to see.

RELATED: Meet Pumba, the fat, pet caracal of Latvia who wants to escape.

Click this link to see why caracals care not pets at all. You end up living with a tame (to a certain extent) wild cat which alters your life totally and in many cases messes up your life to the point where you have to get rid of the animal which is why sometimes caracals and servals are literally abandoned onto the streets. This is what people think happened to the caracal in the video above.

The caracal is so unsuited to being a pet. They have to be confined to the home which means they want to escape as their natural home range will be perhaps 20 square kilometres. Being in a home will be like being in a cage for the caracal. They want out. 

There are all kinds of complications to living with a caracal such as diet. The problem is that some people are very attracted understandably to the exotic appearance of this cat.  And people unlike animals are fascinated with appearance. I want one is the mantra. And common sense tends to disappear out of the window when you feel like that and are in the mood to 'get one'.

There are a lot of legal issues too in owning a caracal which can be complicated. It depends on where you live if it is illegal or legal to own one. Or you might need a license which means inspections etc.

Living with wild cat hybrids is also problematic. And also it is bad for wildlife conservation to live with wild cats as it reduces them to human objects to possess. They need to live natural lives in the wild.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Kittens rescued after Israeli airstrike on Beirut (video)

We have no idea how many companion animals have been killed in these airstrikes and those in Gaza. A lot I suspect. The mother of these kittens was killed. They will have to be raised by these volunteers unless they can find a surrogate mum.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Research confirms a link between social media use and anxiety among teenagers

Research has confirmed the link between social media use and anxiety among teenagers. More work is ongoing. Experts at Oxford University are beginning a 10 year study into teenage mental health. It's called BrainWaves. Their initial research suggests that the more time youngsters spend on social media the more likely they are to suffer from anxiety and depression.

Currently, the study has involved information collected from 7,200 students in the UK. The study's objective is to find good evidence about this much-discuss link. There has been a lot of discussion both by politicians in the UK and I believe elsewhere about the detrimental effects of being addicted to smart phones through which social media is constantly accessed.

There was a recent report in The Time yesterday which provided evidence that the administrators of TikTok know that their platform is addictive and they desire it to be addictive. This is the objective. They deliberately target young people and hook them in. They present to the world a different picture. A picture in which they state that they are doing their best to make it less addictive but behind the scenes, in truth, they are doing the opposite it appears to me.

Some schools in the UK are banning smart phones from the school grounds in the interests of students' health and welfare and I presume to make them more productive while they attend classes.

It has been found that some teenagers spend eight hours a day on their smart phones bouncing around social media posts.

Some of the data is astonishing. NHS information shows that more than 1 million children and teenagers under 18 are in contact with NHS mental health services. Girls are more likely than boys to have problems. One in five girls aged 16 are in contact with NHS mental health services and these problems have increased significantly over the past five years.

This study by a team at Oxford and I understand Swansea University and The Day newspaper will conduct research involving 50,000 adolescents. The objective is to build evidence on a link between social media use and mental health.

The study is being led by John Gallacher, a professor of cognitive health and Oxford. He told the Financial Times that initial results "found a linear relationship between higher rates of anxiety and depression and time spent networking on social media sites. In the most extreme cases, we have young people reporting they were spending up to 8 hours a day using these sites."

In the UK, a private members bill will be introduced tomorrow in the House of Commons to tackle addictive phone use in children.. The bill proposes a legal requirement that schools are phone-free.

It is called the Safer Phones Bill. It has cross-party support. It's being tabled by Labour MP Josh McAlister. He said: "The evidence is mounting that children doom-scrolling for hours a day is causing widespread harm. We need the equivalent of the "seatbelt" legislation for social media use for children. Adults find it hard enough to manage screen time, so why are we expecting children to manage this addictive content without some shared rules?"

In Australia, last month, plans were announced for a social media ban for under 16's. In the UK, charities are calling for the UK to follow suit.

Anne Longfield founder of the Centre for Young Lives (a think tank) said: "This bill opens the door to a crucial national debate about the negative impact smart phones can have on children, and the urgent need to address those problems. Parliament now has an opportunity to reset children's relationship with smart phones, and marginalise their impact and influence on developing young minds."

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Cubans leave their pets behind as they migrate in record numbers

The video gives a good insight into what is going on in Cuba regarding pet abandonment when their owners migrate to Florida, USA. It seems that a lot of them leave their pets behind and they do this perhaps not because of carelessness but because it costs too much to take them with them. 

Transporting an animal from Havana to Miami through a specialised agency can cost up to US$1200 including medical examinations and the flight. And since September, pet owners have had to pay an additional US$1300 to comply with a legal obligation of quarantine.

The average monthly salary in the state sector in Cuba is about $21. A tiny salary by American standards. And it appears that looking after a companion animal in Cuba is pretty well untenable financially because a 20 kg bag of imported dog food can cost up to $70 and a visit to the vet about $10.

The migration exodus from Cuba to America and other countries is apparently enormous. The gross domestic product in Cuba fell by 2% in 2023 and there is rampant inflation. There are food and fuel shortages. No surprise, then, that Cubans want to get out of the country and are forced to leave their pets behind.

This leaves a very large burden upon animal rescue organisations within Cuba. They do have animal welfare laws in Cuba and a degree of animal welfare activism which took shape in 2018 it appears because the Internet was widely accessible at that time.

The animal rights activists encouraged the government to pass a long-awaited animal welfare law which is nice to see but animal welfare campaigners say that it is not enough. One of these people believe that animal abandonment is "the worst form of animal abuse". I believe that there is poor enforcement of these laws making them ineffective.

And, as you know, he says that "the increase in migration has resulted in more pets being abandoned". And there has been a "loss of values" in Cuba because of the deepening economic crisis.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.