As a horse, you have to be really small to be called a small pony and Koda is smaller than most dogs and only a bit bigger than a cat.

The smallest pony in Australia, Koda weighs just 35 kg and is only 59 cm tall. As an American Miniature pony, he was supposed to be small, but not this small. Diagnosed with dwarfism soon after his birth, Koda has struggled to survive as long as he has. The 13-month-old pony had serious health problems and had to go through extensive surgery.

He might look like a cute plush toy, but Koda has a pretty tough life. he’ll soon have to go through some dentistry to remove his adult teeth that simply don’t fit in his tiny mouth. His eyes look so sad, but i hope he’ll soon be able to live a normal life.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Apparently these photos were taken in Norway, where a ram was found hanging around on a steel wire. It seems the animal tried to leap over a living fence, but overshot his jump and one of his horns hooked the wire. The ram ended up being stuck 5 meters into the air, until it was rescued by tourists. They made sure they took some photos first.

I have to say this is one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen, stranger than the acrobat goat and almost as strange as the tree goats of Morocco

Not the Mexican drink, although I’ve seen pigs eat and drink anything, but a 2-year-old Rottweiler/pit-bull named Tequila, who adopted six little pigs.

It all started on a rainy Monday morning, when both farmer John Favreau’s dog and his sow gave birth. Because of the rainstorm, John had to move the piglets in his home, where his dog, Tequila, was nursing her newborns. As the farmer turned his head for just a moment, the piglets rushed to Tequila and she welcomed them like they were her own pups.

Now they’re all one big happy family, and the piglets follow Tequila everywhere she goes. She in turn cleans them when they get a little dirty (that’s going to be a tough job in the long run). Favreau says he tried reuniting the piglets with their natural mother, but they started acted strange so he took them back to the dog.

Cases of dogs adopting pigs are very rare, with just one similar case being recorded, this June, in Thailand.

via news-press

Have you ever fantasized about making-out with an animal? You have?!? That’s just twisted…

Although zoophilia and bestiality are taboo subjects in our modern society, artist Saiman Chow tackles these delicate issues in his latest artworks. It’s not my thing, but maybe someone out there appreciates this more.

via Trend Hunter

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Rats have been called many things, but… talented? That doesn’t happen very often, but these two rats aren’t ordinary either. Just like the surfing rats, they do cool tricks.

Trained by Dutch photographer Ellen van Deelen to hold different musical instruments and pose for the camera, the Roosendaal Rats are considered very talented by their owner. She confesses rats weren’t exactly her favorite creatures, but, after buying these two, she realized they are highly intelligent creatures.

They simply grab the instruments, hold them in a professional manner and aren’t camera shy at all. On the contrary, they listen to their trainer’s commands to the letter, during photo-shoots.

Now, Ellen aims even higher and wants to teach her furry pets to play the instruments  and wants to turn the duo into a larger band.

via Ellen van Deelen

via Telegraph.co.uk

And I don’t mean it’s slightly larger than your every day carrot-muncher, Benny is a regular bunny giant.

Two year-old Benny is a Flemish buck who’s about to receive the title of longest rabbit in the world. He probably also holds the record for the world’s heaviest bunny, but the Guinness Book of Records no longer certifies this title, due to problems with owners who overfed their animals.

Benny’s owners also set up a website for him on Facebook and use it to promote the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary, which faces serious financial difficulties. Benny already has 270 online friends.

The giant buck measures 85 centimeters in length and weighs over 10 kilograms. Benny is house-trained, knows how to ask for treats and spends a lot of time with the family dog. He kisses him often and the owners think Benny doesn’t know for sure if he’s a rabbit or a dog.

Photos by Caters News Agency Ltd

via Daily Mail

Well doesn’t this strange creation leave you breathless? I think Joe from bookofjoe said it best: “Amazing people bestride our planet. As do their creations”.

Designed and created by the amazing Andrew Chase, this steampunk cheetah is 24 inches tall and 50 inches long, from nose to tail. It weighs just 40 pounds and is able to move just like a real-life cheetah.

Animal rights activists gathered in the Spanish town on Las Ventas, for a very original protest against the famous bull fights held there.

Organized by Equanimal, the protest had the participants strip to their underwear, lie down and cover themselves with fake blood, and corrida spears. It took place at the end of May and hoped to convince authorities that the Spanish people no longer support such a cruel and barbaric tradition as bullfighting.

The anti-bullfighting protest took place in Las Ventas because that’s where a large number of bulffighting events take place. Most bull fights are not even profitable anymore, they are sustain themselves through public grants.
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Spanish people really have a thing for bulls, don’t they. Bullfighting, the festival of Pamplona, they’re all centered around the bull.

During the Bous a la Mar Festival, in Denia, near the city of Alicante, people get chased by bulls through the streets and into the Mediterranean Sea. The brave participants plunge into the waters just before the bulls are about to catch them. The animals often fall into the sea as well, where they are taunted some more. Eventually, the bulls are caught with a lasso and towed back to shore by a boat.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Sharing your bed with common pets like cats or dogs is so last year. Right now it’s all about big cats, and lots of them.

Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen thought she should do her part in saving cheetahs from extinction, so she bought one back in 2006. The 46-year-old South African left her job at the department of justice and found some temporary employment on a game ranch, where she could raise Fiela.

Now, Riana runs Fiela Funds Cheetah Breeding Project, a non-profit that fights to ensure the survival of cheetahs in their own ecosystem. Along the way, she also took in another 10 big cats, with which she often shares her bed.

Her four cheetahs, five white lions and two tigers are a handful, but Riana loves every one of them and puts up with all their naughtiness. Her 2 dogs have also grown quite fond of the felines and don’t mind snuggling up to them.

Photos by John Liebenberg/BARCROFT MEDIA

via Daily Mail

Some of the ugliest dogs in the world gathered at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, California to compete for the title of World’s Ugliest Pedigree Dog.

Just like last year. the contest was dominated by a pure breed Chinese crested hairless. 15-year-old Miss Ellie has only a few of her back teeth left, cataracts in both eyes and her hairless body is covered with moles and pimples. Her dream is to travel the world and prove that ‘ugly’ is just a word and says nothing about her great personality.

Having been rescued herself, Miss Ellie hopes she can be a spokesmodel for not-so-cute rescue dogs. Along with the title of World’s Ugliest Pedigree Dog, Miss Ellie also received a big trophy and $1,000.

I wonder if, Gus, World’s Ugliest Dog 2008 competed this year, he was a great deal uglier than Miss Ellie.

via Daily Mail

Dogs show-off surfing skills at the 4th Annual Loews Coronado Bay Resort Surf Dog Competion in Imperial Beach, California.

Well after seeing the surfing mice, these photos of dogs mastering the surfboard just don’t seem that impressive anymore. But, I guess they deserve some credit, after all, surfing’s certainly not an easy sport. Still…surfing mice, now that’s impressive.

via Telegraph.co.uk

BEFORE YOU SCROLL DOWN TO THE PHOTOS, BE WARNED, THEY ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED!

Welcome to the village of Salba, 610 km southeast of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. This is where 600 Siberian Marals (a subspecies of Red-Deer) lose their antlers every year. These photos, taken June 15 2009, at a private ranch, in Salba, show the marals held in special devices, in order to have their antlers removed with a hand saw.

The antlers are sold to markets in Russia and East Asia, where antler velvet is used as a holistic medicine. Some people consume the antlers themselves, grinding and consuming them in small quantities.

Marals go through this brutal process every year and, even though some say it doesn’t cause them too much pain because they have no nerves in the antlers, I still call it animal cruelty.

Photos by REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin

via Drugoi

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Another unusual animal love story shocks the world. An 18-months-old dog and an 8-weeks-old wolf cub become best friends.

Ulrok, a fully grown Rottweiler was more than happy to become the father figure in young Beldaran’s life, after the poor baby was rejected by her natural mother. Kahlani, the wolf who gave birth to this little furry treasure, was too young herself and her maternal instincts didn’t kick in.

Caretakers at the Krisma Preserve, in Mt. Desert, Maine, tried to find another surogate parent for Beldaran, but Ulrok was the only one who accepted the young cub, when she was just four days old. Now they spend all their time together, playing in the sun, howling at the full moon and even sleeping together.

It’s nice to see them getting along so well and, no matter how down you are, just one look at them will put a big smile on your face. But, once Beldaran is old enough to take care of herself, she will be introduced to a pack of wolves, to make sure she grows up to be a wolf and not something else.

Photos by Bary Bland/ BARCROFT MEDIA

via Daily Mail

While other two-year-olds are just learning to walk and talk, the children of the nomad Vadi Tribe are introduced to the centuries-old art of snake charming.

All the children of the Vadi Tribe come face to face with a poisonous cobra at age two, and go through a ten-year ritual, in which they learn all the secrets of snake charming. Both boys and girls must learn to handle snakes. While men must be able to manipulate cobras by playing the flute, the women must know how to take care of the reptiles when their husbands or brothers are away.

The Vadi treat snakes like their own children, never keeping them away from their natural habitat for more than seven months. Any longer than that would be disrespectful to the snakes, according to Babanath Mithunath Madari, the 60-year-old Vadi chief-charmer. In fact, the only time a snake actually bit his charmer, was when he kept it for more than seven months.

Vadi snake-charmers don’t cut the fangs of their snakes, instead they feed them an herbal mixture which, they say,  makes their deadly poison harmless.

Unfortunately, in 1991, the thousand-year-old tradition of snake-charming was banned in India, and the Vadi tribe are stripped of their snakes whenever they are confronted by the police. They never spend more than six months in the same place.

Photos by BARCROFT MEDIA

via Telegraph.co.uk