There are parasites that infect certain insects and turn them into self-destructive zombies (and it turns out this can happen to people too–do you own a cat?)
When a shrimp-like creature called a gammarid gets infected by a certain type of worm, it becomes a zombie and swims towards the water’s surface, where they can easily be picked off by birds, which the worms need to complete their life cycle.
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…and this time, it’s not petfood from China! On Dreamland, Linda Howe often reports on mysterious cat mutilations across the US. Now something else is killing our cats?a mysterious epidemic of thyroid disease. Researchers may have finally found the cause: exposure to dust from flame retardants in household carpeting, furniture, fabrics and pet food.
Veterinarian Janice A. Dye has evidence linking the disease to exposure to environmental contaminants called PBDEs, which she found to be elevated in blood samples of hyperthyroid cats. Her findings were based on analysis of blood samples from 23 pet cats, 11 of which had the disease, termed feline hyperthyroidism (FH). PBDE levels in the hyperthyroid cats were three times as high as those in younger, non-hyperthyroid cats.read more
When she was in the hospital, Anne Strieber was visited by a cat who was already dead. Now the New England Journal of Medicine reports about a Rhode Island nursing home cat named Oscar who comforts people who are about to die. Dr. David Dosa says, “He doesn’t make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die.”
Oscar goes to patients who are about to die and curls up next to them during their final hours. He is so accurate that the nursing home staff call family members to come to the patient?s bedside whenever Oscar does this.
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Cats and dogs are being farmed for fur in Europe and Asia. It’s thought that hundreds of thousands of cat and dog skins are traded in Europe each year, often mislabeled and sold as the furs of exotic or mythical animals. The BBC discovered a video of a Belgian furrier with a blanket he says is made from cats farmed in Belgium. Stray cats and dogs are also rounded up and skinned. So far, only Italy has banned this kind of farming.
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