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50 Dogs At 50 Miles Per Hour Little is as satisfying to a dog as sticking their head out of a car window and eating the breeze. Iran Pushing to Ban Dogs as Pets Dogs are unclean in the eyes of Islam, but man's best friend in Iran has until now avoided being outlawed. That could all change if a new bill recently proposed in parliament passes.

'Bark Mitzvah' for Elvis the Dog

Elvis the dog is one pampered pooch. His owner spent $10,000 to throw Elvis a "bark mitzvah." Check out this Web Extra video from the big night.

Religion can kill you!

A crocodile killed and devoured a 25-year-old man in Bangladesh who waded into a pond next to a shrine hoping to be blessed by the animal, police said on Thursday. Rubel Sheikh and his mother travelled 30 miles from their home to visit the Muslim Khan Jahan Ali shrine, where the attack happened. Hundreds of people visit the shrine every day to offer hens and goats to the five crocodiles living in the pond. Part of the ritual also involves bathing in the water. Source: Independent Online Photo credit & more detail about the Khan Jahan Ali shrine: Crocodiles in Peril

Saudi religious police ban pet cats and dogs

Saudi Arabia's religious police have announced a ban on selling cats and dogs as pets, or walking them in public in the Saudi capital, because of men using them as a means of making passes at women, an official said on Wednesday. Othman al-Othman, head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Riyadh, known as the Muttawa, told the Saudi edition of al-Hayat daily that the commission has started enforcing an old religious edict. The reason behind reinforcing the edict now was a rising fashion among some men using pets in public "to make passes on women and disturb families," he said, without giving more details. The 5,000-strong religious police oversees the adherence to Wahabism -- a strict version of Sunni Islam, which also forces women to cover from head to toe when in public, and bans them from driving. Graphic: Cartoon Stock Source: AFP

Praying for pets in Nicaragua

Hundreds of dogs, many dressed as babies or clowns, were taken to celebrate mass in Masaya Nicaragua on March 9, an annual ritual where the owners pray for their pets to be cured or avoid falling ill. A long queue of Catholics, carrying their pets or leading them on leashes, waited their turn to pass by an image of San Lazaro. The faithful thank the saint for curing their pets or ask for the dogs to be protected from illness. The town's priest always conducts a special canine mass. Source: Reuters

Karnimata - Indian Rat Temple

According to folklore, the Goddess Shri Karni-Mata once restored the dead child of her devotee back to life. The Mata announced that no one from her tribe would fall into death's hand again. Instead, when they died, all of them would temporarily inhabit the body of a rat before being reborn into the tribe. Karnimata is a temple in India devoted to rats.

Saudi cleric condemns camel beauty contests as evil

A leading authority of Saudi Arabia's hardline school of Islam has condemned camel beauty contests as evil, saying those involved should seek repentance in God. Camel pageants have become major events in the desert kingdom in recent years as tribes hold ever larger competitions, with bigger prizes and wider publicity. Delicate females or strapping males which attract the right attention during a show can sell for more than a million riyals (127,000 pounds). Sponsors spent 10 million riyals on prizes for one competition this year. (via)

The Monkey Buffet

Every year, in Lopburi province, Thailand, all of the province's approximately 600 monkeys are invited to eat fruits and vegetables during an annual feast held in honor of Rama, a hero of the Ramayana, who, it is said, rewarded his friend and ally, Hanuman the Monkey King, with the fiefdom of what is now Lopburi. (via)

Airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god

Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday. The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said. "The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," said Raju K.C., a senior airline official, without explaining what the problem had been.

Time runs out for Hindu temple's sacred bull

A sacred bull seized from a Hindu monastery in Wales because he tested positive for tuberculosis has been slaughtered. The plight of Shambo the bull had attracted international attention since his diagnosis this spring and prompted an Internet campaign by the Skanda Vale monastery to save him. Hindus revere cattle and said killing the bull would violate their religious rights. More than 100 devout Hindus and their supporters prayed and chanted outside the bull's paddock throughout Thursday, but animal health officials and police led Shambo from the monastery to a trailer about 7:30 p.m. A Webcam site, dubbed Moo Tube, which the monastery set up to show the flower-garlanded bull in his paddock, broadcast images of an empty, hay-lined shrine. Swami Suryananda, one of Shambo's caretakers, said officials had “committed the most violent and ignorant act of desecration of our temple and destroyed an innocent life. “The perpetrators of this act will suffer the consequences of their actions for generations to come."