Links post

Policy

• Nonprofit helps pet owners cope with emergency vet bills (Seattle Times)
• It’s time to try funding spay/neuter instead of mandating it (Pet Connection)
• The Worcester pit bull ordinance passed. The Worcester Animal Rescue League has links to relevant articles. These links are on their “current news” page, so if you visit the page a while down the road, it may have changed. (I think breed specific legislation is a very bad idea.)
• In the UK: Young children are being taught to interpret dog body language in a bid to cut the number of attacks. (BBC News) Awesome.

Meta science blogging

• Of writers and activists – are science bloggers being ambitious enough? (Not Exactly Rocket Science)
• In which I set up a collaboration between a biologist, a farmer and a chimeric chicken (Not Exactly Rocket Science): This is a lovely story about the power of science bloggers to make connections between people and help advance science.

Miscellaneous

• Life is One Continuous Mistake (The Other End of the Leash): Life philosophy from Patricia McConnell. McConnell is a very well-known behaviorist who recently rehomed one of her dogs (for very good reasons) and has been writing about it.
• Stress Doesn't Cause Ulcers! Or, How To Win a Nobel Prize in One Easy Lesson: Barry Marshall on Being ... Right (The Wrong Stuff): An interview with the guy who drank a bottle of Helicobacter to prove that it causes gastric ulcers (it does). This is one of my favorite stories about a crazy scientist and the power of his convictions.