aspca

Cat headphones: Seriously, headphones designed for cats

No, really, I'm not kidding. You can buy a set of headphones for your cat for $999. No joke. Well, it is sort of a joke, but it's still real.

Headphone maker Sol Republic may be best known these days for having its product semipermanently glued to Michael Phelps' head whenever he's not in the water. Now it can also be known as the company that created headphones for cats.

It's part marketing stunt, part viral video, and part genius. The tiny headphones were developed with the help of music producer deadmau5 and Professor Meowingtons, a black-and-white shorthair. … Read more

Puppy mill ads halted on Facebook

In a win for animal shelters and dogs in general, puppy mill ads on Facebook are being pulled.

Oodle Classifieds, the company that powers the marketplace section of Facebook, has agreed to stop allowing ads on the popular social-networking site from people who breed dogs and sell them over the Internet, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

Many puppies sold online come from breeders that keep dogs caged in unsanitary, overcrowded, and often cruel conditions without adequate veterinary care, food, water or socialization. Puppy mills that sell directly to people are exempt from … Read more

Buy an iPhone game and donate to charity

An iPhone app developer is donating to a nonprofit for each sale made, in what is believed to be a first.

Appropriately, the app is called ShiveringKittens and the charity is the ASPCA, which works to protect cruelty to animals.

For every sale of the $2.99 app during March and April the developer, GiantCrayon Games, will donate $1 to the ASPCA.

In the game, players arrange falling blocks to rescue animated kittens who are stuck in a Minnesota winter and win points. A video preview is on YouTube.

If only rescuing real kittens were that simple.