Behind a blockade through which only humanitarian and basic supplies are allowed, Gaza's Happy Land Zoo gets creative when it comes to introducing new animals to the community's children.
"The zebras are locally manufactured," Zoo Director Mahmud Barghut told AFP. "We take a donkey and draw stripes on it."
He said the process requires two days, masking tape, and French hair dye.
While some smaller things--including the zoo's ostriches--can be smuggled in through an elaborate system of tunnels, bringing a zebra through would have cost $30,000.
"Happy Land" tries to live up to its name--but with everything tightly rationed, the lion gets only half of his recommended allowance of meat, and some animals died when workers couldn't access the zoo for three weeks during a military offensive last year. No medication is available to treat animals when they become ill.
Barghut, who opened the attraction with his own money, is now trying to sell due to lack of maintenance funds.
"The zoo is meant for children. When they come here, they are happy, they run, they have fun," Barghut said. "They want to see the lion and the zebra--they believe it's real."
See a video from Reuters.
Horse owners in southern Minnesota are on the alert after several horses were attacked by a large animal. A cougar is the leading suspect.
Four horses have been attacked, reported the Shakopee Valley News. One attack occurred in Shakopee, and another three horses were attacked Oct. 10 on a farm west of Forestville State Park. Those horses broke through their fence. Two had injuries to their front legs, chests, and sides, while the third horse has not been found.
"Wolves and dogs go for the hamstrings, but our horses have wounds on their backs and on their sides," owner Curt Vreeman told The Post-Bulletin newspaper. "There's no marks on the backs of their legs."
Vreeman said his neighbor's horses also broke through their pasture fence on the same night.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has not confirmed whether a cougar is the culprit. No information was available on the whereabouts of Courtney Cox on the nights in question.
Election officials in Afghanistan are relying on a unique brigade of workers as the country's runoff vote approaches--a veritable army of donkeys, rented from local farmers, have the crucial task of carrying ballots to remote regions.
The New York Times recently covered the efforts under way to access remote regions as winter approaches in terrain that's beyond extreme--in the first election in August, some ballot boxes were lost off the side of a cliff.
Read the story and see a photo.
