"animal" news and stories

When school season starts up, kids and parents will find themselves dealing with a lot more cake. Even in the face of various school restrictions, there will be cakes in class when birthdays come up and sheet cakes every few weekends at various parties. This cake knife animal is exactly what it sounds like - a plastic, serrated cutter that looks like an animal - and we suspect that it would be a big hit at kids' parties. After all, it is brightly colored and silly looking, and the idea of some sort of cartoon critter biting into a cake is probably enough to put a smile on any child's face. Because it is made of plastic, it is also safe enough to kids to handle on their own, although you'll probably want to supervise the cutting just to make sure the whole sheet cake doesn't end up in only 8 pieces.

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Even though this is a story about an animal and we primarily concentrate on food for people here at Slashfood, it could be used to teach a valuable lesson to kids whose eyes are bigger than their stomachs.

An 18-ft long python was rendered unable to move after swallowing a pregnant sheep whole. Pythons do not eat more than once per week and when they do, they can unhinge their jaws to devour the first thing they come across. This particular python was captured by firefighters in Kuala Lumpur where it was blocking the road after its meal and is now being held by conservationists.

In the past, pythons have encountered some serious problems when they have employed poor judgment in food choices. Last year, for example, a surgeon (also in Kuala Lumpur ) had to operate on a python to remove a queen-sized electric blanket that it had consumed. A snake in Florida actually exploded after attempting to eat an alligator.

The lesson is to really consider your food choices. Even though you may not explode after having that triple hot fudge sundae, it might be best to stick to a single scoop just to be on the safe side.

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A bill that bans the sale of horses for human consumption passed in the House yesterday and is an important step in protecting an animal that is an icon of American culture. Though they are classified as livestock, most regard horses are companion animals due to the unique working relationships that they form with people, through work as cart and police horses and their performance in sports and recreational activities. There are three slaughterhouses in the US, all foreign-owned, that process horse meat for human consumption in places like Japan and parts of Europe. About 90,000 horses from the US are killed each year, either at those plants or after being shipped across borders to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada.

The bill still has to pass through the Senate before it becomes law, but this is generally regarded as a huge victory for those in the horse industry - except for those who profit from the horse slaughter industry, of course - across the country.

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It looks like meat ice cream isn't the only tasty treat that zoo animals are getting this summer. The giant panda Xin Xin, who resides at the Wild Animal Rescue and Breeding Center in Xi'an, China, celebrated his first birthday this month with apples, watermelon and - of course - birthday cake. We have no doubt that the cake was made with panda-friendly ingredients, but it actually looks pretty good. And Xin Xin is certainly enjoying it.

He's not the only panda to get served birthday cake, though. Click past the jump for some more pictures of pandas with their cakes.

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In truth, no studies have confirmed that all grass-fed beef is better for you than regular beef - the majority of which is "finished" on a diet of other grains, like corn, and soybeans. There are two things that make grass-fed beef appealing, though: the flavor and the idea that the cow is living a healthier, happier life in some field, not crammed onto a feed lot.

Under current regulations, any beef can be labeled "grass fed." The cattle industry says that the diet of most cows is about 75% grass, more than likely consumed as they are growing and before they are shipped to a feed lot. Farmers who raise their cattle entirely on grass and natural forage want to implement a labeling system that recognizes beef that is at least 99% grass-fed. This beef is not necessarily organic, though it can be.

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