Animals

It was only a matter of time before Taiwan-based Next Media Animation took on Kobe Bryant's injury. A clip from the company loosely (and somewhat crudely) reenacts Bryant's season-ending Achilles' tendon tear, suffered Friday night in the Lakers' victory over the Golden State Warriors. On Saturday, Bryant underwent surgery to help repair the injury, which is expected to keep him out of action at six to nine months. The Next Media video shows a doctor shoving Bryant into a box that reads, "Here lies Kobe's career 1996-2013.

Chefs Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook of Animal and Son of a Gun may be teaming up with Ludo Lefebvre for the new Trois Mec, but the pair are inviting another chef into their kitchen tonight. James Beard award winner Nate Appleman (formerly at A16, SPQR in the Bay Area) will cook a charity dinner Monday evening at Animal. The Food Network "Chopped All-Stars" champion and "Next Iron Chef" contender will collaborate on an eight-course menu priced at $135 per person. Wine pairings are available for an additional cost.  Jonathan Gold quiz: Flowers A portion of the proceeds will go to The Kawasaki Foundation . Appleman's son was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease in 2009.

Anyone with pets knows animals are just like us. They enjoy sleeping on our beds, detest going out in the rain and have a hard time losing weight. Now comes a scientific report that shows animals in the wild often do something we think of as distinctly human: They self-medicate. However unlike the destructive form that self-medication takes in the human world (too much drinking, drugs, smoking), for an array of animals it takes on the constructive form of ingesting or using plants and chemical substances to treat themselves therapeutically as well as prophylactically.

It's safe to say you've never seen anything quite like the dark and kooky animated epic "Consuming Spirits," a 15-years-in-the-making labor of love for writer-director Chris Sullivan, who also produced, shot, edited, recorded sound, performed music and more. With its startling mix of 16-millimeter-shot, handmade animation styles using stop-motion, sketches, collages and models, along with uncensored characters often resembling cadaverous marionettes, this twisted look at life in a faded Appalachian town is one decidedly idiosyncratic ride.

Brenda Barnette, the general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services, ignited a firestorm of protest when she sent out an email last month explaining why she intended to eliminate animal care technicians on the midnight to 6 a.m. shifts and move them onto day and swing shifts. That would have left some 1,500 animals in six municipal shelters unattended in the wee hours of the night. The outcry was so intense that Barnette - wisely - postponed implementing the move of ACTs, as they are known, and scheduled a meeting for the public to meet with her and discuss this (and some other issues, probably)

Days after her dramatic rescue from a brush-covered ledge, Kyndall Jack -- the 18-year-old hiker who was missing for four days -- said memories of her time lost in the south Orange County hills are fleeting, with only recollections of hallucinations, fending off animals and crying when she and her parents reunited. "I honestly didn't know I was missing," she told reporters Monday outside UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, from which she said she is being released later in the day.  "I didn't know I was gone.

The idea came from something a state lawmaker noticed while cruising the wide-open roads of Montana. The highway often has carcasses - plenty of them. "There are a lot of animals and a lot of roadway in Montana," state Rep. Steve Lavin said. "I've had a ton of people ask me after striking a deer or an elk, 'Can I take it?' And I have to say no.'" But that could soon change. If a bill becomes law, Montana motorists could take home certain roadkill - and cook it up. And no, the "roadkill bill" - HB 247 - wouldn't mean open season on animals on the state's roadways.

Poison-control centers receive about 15,000 calls a year from parents of children younger than 6 who have been exposed to poison that was intended to kill rats or mice, according to a January report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A disproportionate number of those children are black and Latino, and living in poverty. The EPA's concern about exposure extends to cats, dogs and wildlife as well. The so-called second-generation rodenticides that have been developed in recent years leave high concentrations of toxins in the bodies of rodents, which renders their carcasses poisonous to pets, birds of prey and other animals that eat them.

The horses trot softly across sandy terrain and scrubby oak brush on Spain's central plateau, their riders listening for a rustle in the leaves, searching for a patch of wiry black fur betrayed by the sun. Finally, the hunters spot their prey. Ranch owner Ramiro Maura breaks the silence. "Venga! Arriba!" Maura screams -- "Come! Up here!" The riders yank their reins in unison, aim their spears and urge their horses up steep terrain laced with shriveled tree roots and boulders.

Disney's frenetic live-action/animated comedy "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was the second-highest-grossing film of 1988, earning more than $156 million. The comedy won three Academy Awards and transformed its lead, British actor Bob Hoskins, into a bona fide Hollywood star. But more importantly, the film marked the first time beloved animated characters from rival studios - such as Disney's Mickey Mouse and Warner Bros.' Bugs Bunny - appeared together. The traditionally hand-drawn animated film heralded a renewed appreciation of the Golden Age of animation and spawned the modern-era of animation, especially at Disney.