'Gay' Elephant Gets Polish Pol Riled Up

(NEWSER) - A pair of homosexual male penguins is raising a chick together, the BBC reports. A zoo in Germany reports that one of its three pairs of gay males hatched the egg after it was rejected by its biological parents. "Since the chick arrived, they have been behaving just as you would expect a heterosexual couple to do," said a zoo official. "The two happy fathers spend their days attentively protecting, caring for, and feeding their adopted offspring." More»

Circus mistreated elephants and tigers, feds say

(NEWSER) - The Ringling Brothers circus—without admitting wrongdoing—has paid $270,000 to settle federal accusations that it mistreated elephants, tigers, zebras, and other exotic animals. Federal inspectors found that a sick elephant was forced to perform, elephants' faces were cut by sharp edges in transport trailers, big cats were kept in rusty cages with splintered floors, and meat was delivered to tigers in the same wheelbarrows that their waste was hauled in, MSNBC reports. More»

Trainers believe another elephant killed dominant female

(NEWSER) - A murder mystery at San Diego Zoo: Umoya, one of the zoo herd's dominant females, was found dead yesterday after apparently suffering injuries in a fight with another elephant. The elephant was on the ground when trainers found her and she died soon after—although her wounds did not appear severe enough to be fatal, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. A necropsy will be performed to determine the cause of death. More»

Marian Thompson may get them eventually, however

(NEWSER) - The widow of the Ohio man who freed exotic animals before killing himself hoped to reclaim the surviving animals today—but the state has quarantined them instead, at least for the time being. Six of the creatures remain following dozens of executions: Three leopards, two macaques, and a grizzly bear, the Columbus Dispatch reports. They’ll be quarantined indefinitely at the Columbus Zoo. More»

Despite Supreme Court ruling, anti-sodomy law remains on books

(NEWSER) - According to the Texas state penal code, "homosexual conduct" is still a criminal offense—even though the Supreme Court deemed the state's anti-sodomy law unconstitutional eight years ago. Though the state stopped enforcing the law after the Supreme Court's decision, it's still on the books—and will likely remain so, even though a pair of bills introduced in the Texas House recently would finally remove it. The problem? The legislature's Republican supermajority might never allow the bills to come to a vote, Mother Jones reports. In their party platform last year, the Republicans made it clear they wanted homosexuality to remain outlawed. More»