内容摘要：and his girlfriend, Nani Hinton, visited The Humane Society of Greater Kansas City in October to coach Parsnip, a 4-month-old mutt, to make his debut at Puppy Bowl XXI.

and his girlfriend, Nani Hinton, visited The Humane Society of Greater Kansas City in October to coach Parsnip, a 4-month-old mutt, to make his debut at Puppy Bowl XXI.

Fights occasionally break out. The veterinary bill for the center is nearly $40,000 a year, and it’s a constant process of rescue, rehabilitation, and then trying to rehome them, with more pugs arriving all the time.“The operation doesn’t stop,” said Gaw.

There is a reason why so many pugs need a new home. Their short muzzles, a mark of the breed, give rise to breathing problems and other health issues like eye and ear infections, she said. A pug’s vet costs are not to be sniffed at and Gaw warns prospective owners to do their homework and get a good pet insurance policy: “You’re going to need it.”Many of the pugs have come to the Gaws because their owners can’t afford those vet bills. Be prepared for their problems, she said, and also the hair, which she can’t stress enough.“They shed an enormous amount of hair,” she said. ”You can brush them all day long, they still shed.”

DALLAS (AP) — A fire that broke out at a shopping center in Dallas on Friday morning killed more than 500 animals, most of which were small birds, authorities said.The 579 animals in the pet shop at Plaza Latina in Northwest Dallas died from smoke inhalation, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesperson Jason Evans said in a statement.

The flames from the fire never reached the animals. Chickens, hamsters, two dogs and two cats also died, Evans said.

The two-alarm fire took about two hours and as many as 45 firefighters to extinguish around 11 a.m., Evans said.PIgs stand in pens at the Revivicor research farm near Blacksburg, Va., on May 29, 2024, where organs are retrieved for animal-to-human transplant experiments. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)

The main challenges: how to avoid rejection and whether the animals might carry some unknownThe process starts with modifying genes in pig skin cells in a lab. Revivicor initially deleted a gene that produces a sugar named

, which triggers immediate destruction from the human immune system. Next came three-gene “knockouts,” to remove other immune-triggering red flags. Now the company is focusing on 10 gene edits — deleted pig genes and added human ones that together lessen risk of rejection and blood clots plus limit organ size.They clone pigs with those alterations, similar to how Dolly the sheep was created.