Animals

Rudy Droguett has risked his life for the love of his art. The artist, who is in his 70s, has traveled to Africa twice to take pictures of wild animals, which he later uses as subjects in his scratchboard etchings. He's come close to losing his life, he said. During one trip to Kenya, the vehicle he was riding in had a flat tire. There was a lion lying under a tree nearby watching the entourage. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, Droguett got out of the vehicle to take a picture.

Why should an animal cruelty act (produce puppies from puppy mills) be grandfathered to anyone? This sends the wrong message to the public that it is OK for “preferred” store owners to be cruel to animals. I always thought Burbank City Council was one of the municipalities with integrity and high standards. To pass this grandfathering act to these two “special interest” stores shows how wrong I was. Please do not allow this to happen. Mahatma Gandhi once said “One can measure the greatness and moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals.” Are special interests crowding the judgment of Burbank City Council members?

Ryan Carter BURBANK -- The animals will be out for more than a walk in the park this weekend. The Festival of the Animals will be from noon to 8 p.m. today and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Los Angeles Equestrian Center, 480 Riverside Drive Burbank. The event will include a pet fair, horse shows, dog contests, a chariot race and Frisbee-catching dogs. Money from the event will benefit local animal rescue organizations. "The event seeks to help these organizations get the word out, get animals into good homes, let people know more about spaying and neutering and being good to your animals," event spokeswoman Joanne Asman said.

Adonna Khare is wild about her art. The 26-year-old artist uses pencil to draw murals of animals but adds human body parts, giving them a whimsical touch. Khare, of Burbank, will finish her master's of fine arts degree in illustration this winter at Cal State Long Beach. Her graduate solo show, titled "Beast," is on display at the college's Gatov Gallery through Thursday. "As an undergraduate at Cal State Long Beach, I started drawing small pencil drawings of animals and made them larger and larger as time went by," she said.

After more than 50 years as a veterinarian in Burbank, there's nothing small about Martin Small's contribution to Burbank's animal shelter. “I have never done anything more satisfying than what I've done since I've been here,” he said. After spending the last several years working full time to establish the shelter's medical program, Small, 82, is now an on-call surgeon. Before he set foot in the shelter in 2004, cats suffered from contagious respiratory diseases and dogs were prone to kennel cough and parvovirus.

Rosette Gonzales It is kitten season and the Burbank Animal Shelter is overflowing with felines, but the shelter also home to plenty of dogs, bunnies and even a rooster. This summer, volunteers at the shelter said they need more help than ever cleaning out cages and socializing animals for adoption. "There's all these mouths that need to be fed and not enough hands, said Martha Brown, a senior volunteer. The shelter has 60 volunteers but many of them go on vacation during the summer, said Cynthia Cavanaugh, volunteer director of development.

There is no doubt that Burbank has staked its claim as the entertainment capital of the world. Since the 1920s, some of the most classic films and iconic television shows ever projected or broadcast have been produced within the city’s borders. From “Casablanca,” “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Mary Poppins” to “The Mickey Mouse Club,” and the Johnny Carson and Jay Leno-hosted versions of “The Tonight Show,” Burbank has served as fertile ground for the imagination, creativity and technology that through the camera’s lens has made the world think, learn, laugh and cry. While a list of all the films and shows produced in Burbank would fill this entire paper, there is one production that has been more closely associated with the city than any other — “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

Some teens at John Burroughs High School are trying to bring a little peace and goodwill toward animals. Members of the newly minted Animal Rights Club at Burroughs High School are collecting pet products such as leashes, bowls, bags and cans of pet food, towels and old bed linens to donate to the Burbank Animal Shelter. “We wanted to do something for the animal shelter during the holiday season because there are a lot of clubs doing things for underprivileged families, so we wanted to do something that would include the animals,” said Nikki Cox, 16, co-founder and co-president of the club.

MEDIA CITY CENTER — In a cordoned-off area on Cypress Avenue, a 200-pound tiger lounged on his side in the shade on Thursday, occasionally humoring onlookers with a glance in their direction. A few of the adults and children lined up behind the barrier leaned in to try to catch the tiger's attention, drawing a sharp rebuke from one of his keepers. "We bring Mungar out to events to show why animals like this don't make good pets, only dogs and cats and birds — those types of animals," said Pat Nelson, a volunteer at the Wildlife Way Station in Little Tujunga Canyon.

Walt Disney Animation Studios is announcing its first movie inspired by a Marvel comic Thursday, an adaptation of a lesser known crime fighter series called “Big Hero 6.” Directed by Don Hall (“Winnie the Pooh”) and due in 2014, the CG-animated movie will center on a robotics prodigy named Hiro Hamada and his robot companion BayMax, who join a team of superheroes in a high-tech city called San Fransokyo. MORE: Disney is reanimated with 'Big Hero 6,' 'Frozen' (For a video showcasing a closer look at San Fransokyo, go here .)

A hand-drawn, black-and-white Mickey Mouse animated short film will debut June 11 at the Annecy Animation Festival in Annecy, France, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced Tuesday. The vintage-feeling short, which is called "Get a Horse," features the voice of Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse. The Burbank studio released a logline describing the short as "never before seen," but a studio spokeswoman, when asked if the short is newly made, refused to comment. Continue reading > > -- Rebecca Keegan, Los Angeles Times

“As an advocate of homeless animals, it is great for all of us with the Volunteers of the Burbank Animal Shelter (VBAS) to see so many people be extremely generous and willing to help us do what we do,” said Alexis Cole who serves as the organization's director of development. Along with being generous and willing to help the VBAS achieve their goals - to provide medical, social, behavioral and financial care for animals at risk and to eliminate animal homelessness in Burbank - the people referred to by Cole were also interested in enjoying an evening of comedy, cocktails and culinary delights as the VBAS staged their “Third Annual Laugh Your Tail Off” fundraiser at Flapper's Comedy Club last Thursday.

When singer-songwriter Alicia Keys wanted to create an animated children's television series about the exploration of music, she turned to Burbank animation firm Bento Box for ideas. Bento's producers suggested an alternative: Instead of a TV show, how about an interactive storytelling app? That idea became "The Journals of Mama Mae and LeeLee," which was released through the iTunes store last fall for $3.99 and expands to Android mobile devices and tablets this month.

'Tis the season of giving - pets, apparently. Local animal shelters have experienced a spike in pet adoptions in recent days in Burbank and Pasadena, and many more were expected to occur this weekend. On Dec. 15, when the Burbank Animal Shelter welcomed people to adopt animals at a 50% discount, 25 animals - mostly cats and dogs and a few rabbits - were adopted, about double the typical volume. “They're hoping to maybe get an animal for their children,” said Brenda Castaneda, superintendent of the Burbank Animal Shelter.

Why should an animal cruelty act (produce puppies from puppy mills) be grandfathered to anyone? This sends the wrong message to the public that it is OK for “preferred” store owners to be cruel to animals. I always thought Burbank City Council was one of the municipalities with integrity and high standards. To pass this grandfathering act to these two “special interest” stores shows how wrong I was. Please do not allow this to happen. Mahatma Gandhi once said “One can measure the greatness and moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals.” Are special interests crowding the judgment of Burbank City Council members?

At Moore's Deli in Burbank, Homer Simpson can be found eating a burger while Dora the Explorer dreams up her next quest, “Adventure Time's” Lumpy Space Princess raves about the deli's tuna and “Futurama's” Bender smokes a cigar. Restaurant owner Robert Moore harbors a hidden cultural gem in Media City - the four white walls of the deli's back dining room are covered with original artwork by cartoonists for powerhouse media companies with local headquarters or production offices, including Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Warner Bros.

When Missouri voted to pass proposition B to improve the conditions for dogs in puppy mills, the lobbyists went to work. Within weeks, the state Legislature in Missouri voted to overrule the vote. The proposition simply stated, “…adopting new rules for dog-breeders, including capping the number of dogs that were used for breeding purposes, requiring resting periods between breeding and establishing other requirements.” The measure required that dog-breeders only have 50 breeding dogs and required them to feed those animals daily and regularly.

On Oct. 16, the Burbank City Council is expected to vote on an ordinance to prohibit the sale of commercially bred dogs and cats in pet stores in Burbank. For those who don't know, “commercially bred” most times means animals that come from puppy and kitten mills that breed these animals under horrific conditions. Many of the “pedigree” papers are falsified and these animals have extraordinarily high incidence of disease and premature death. The profit motive for pet store owners gives little incentive for them to evaluate the conditions upon which their suppliers are raising these animals.

Acknowledging that the movie business is "not for the faint of heart," NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke said he'd like to see more animation   and more franchise films out of Universal in the years ahead. "We've had our ups and downs for the last 18 months," Burke said at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Investor Conference in Beverly Hills on Thursday. Among Universal's disappointments this year were "Battleship" and "The Five-Year Engagement. " But "Ted" was a smash and "The Lorax" and "The Bourne Legacy" delivered solid numbers.