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Interesting Animal Facts
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There are sniffer dogs, but have you ever heard of a sniffer cat?
Rusik, as he was named, had wandered into a local police station as a kitten and displayed a remarkable talent for sniffing
out fish, specifically, the endangered sturgeon from the Caspian Sea smuggled away in trucks and cars on their way to lucrative
markets in Moscow.
He was so good at his job that he eventually replaced the local sniffer dog. Sadly, he was run over by a car under suspicious
circumstances after he was celebrated by the international press.
Rusik was stationed at the check-point near Stepnovsky, in the Stavropol region near the Caspian Sea. Police planned to
train other cats for the task but are likely to keep their identities under wraps so they do not meet Rusik's fate.
More US households have pets than chilren: 63% vs. 31%
The domestric cat genome has been sequenced, using the DNA of Cinnamon, a 4 yr. old Abyssinian cat. Having the genome
sequenced is expected to lead to health benefits for the 90 million plus domestic cats owned in the United States.
California joined Nevada in 2007 in the passage of a bill that allows people to list pets in restraining orders, a very
important step in preventing abusers from using threats to their victim's pets to control them. Some domestic violence victims
do not escape their abusers for fear of what might happen to thei pets: estimates range from 25% to 45%. Other states that
have introduced similar bills include CO, CT, HI, IL, NJ, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA and WI. New York, Vermont and Maine have had
pet protection laws since 2006.
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