We know that not everyone spends as much time online as we do, but we also know you still want to be up to date on the latest veterinary and animal news. You just need to do it fast. Enter: Too Long Didn’t Read, which is a brief summary of some of the more interesting articles to cross our desks recently. In today’s bites, we get the scoop on some pretty cool scientific advances and research, find out what millennials want (what they really, really want), and give you three fascinating pieces of news so you can chat at the water cooler about something other than how many different substances you can identify on your scrubs.
The End of Terminal Surgery Training? This crowd-funded canine could seriously change vet med education. A Florida-based company has created seriously realistic model dogs — including the proper internal structure and the ability to mimic bodily fluids (awesome) and everything — which would allow veterinary students to get training in trauma, spays and more without any danger to a live animal. —Get more at Slate
Hello, Dolly. What’s new? It’s been 20 years since Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned from DNA taken from an adult sheep’s mammary gland, but we’re still nowhere near any sort of Orphan Black world. While cloning animals still isn’t common, that breakthrough has led to other significant scientific advances, most notably in stem cell research. —Get more at Scientific American
Millennials want furry friends … with benefits. In our field, we know how helpful pet insurance can be, but some employers outside the veterinary realm are catching on as well and using it as a perk to attract potential employees from the millennial crowd. —Get more at Employee Benefit Adviser
You don’t see that every day. A rare Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo was born at the Perth Zoo. Just how rare is this crazy adorable joey? It’s the first to be born at the zoo in 36 years, and he’s one of just 15 males in the global breeding program. —Get more at The Telegraph
But you might be seeing a lot of this. Backyard chickens. Their popularity is on the rise, but so, unfortunately, are outbreaks of Salmonella related to them. From January into June, there have been seven separate Salmonella outbreaks proven to originate in live chicks or ducklings kept at homes or in schools. Seven outbreaks might sound like a small number, but they’ve resulted in 324 people being sickened, hospitalized 66 people, and one person has died. The Centers for Disease Control is calling for more public education on the health risks of touching backyard flocks. —Get more at National Geographic
Maybe ear worms really are a thing. Bird’s the word when it comes to how songbirds learn to sing. Researchers from Japan recorded the brain activity of 20 male juvenile zebra finches before and during song learning and found that brain activity ramped up following exposure to a “tutor” — typically the father — tweeting a song. No word yet on how they learn to keep their Tweets to under 140 characters. We all know that’s tough. —Get more at Cosmos
Dogs are people too? Or, at least, they’re not property, according to a landmark ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court. The court granted legal significance to the sentience of the dog in this case, Juno, whose owner was suspected of beating and starving the dog. The owner was charged with second-degree animal neglect after a blood draw showed no medical reason for the dog’s emaciated condition.
The defense wasn’t about to roll over and argued against allowing the blood draw to be admitted as evidence without a warrant, but the court determined that this case was along the lines of examining a child suspected of being abused, which led to the ruling. Keep an eye on this one, as it’s potentially going to have a lot of ramifications for the profession. —Get more at BarkPost
